GW2 Profession Guides
Explore all Guild Wars 2 professions. Core classes, elite specializations, builds, and roles.
Guardian
A devoted fighter who calls upon virtues of courage, justice, and resolve to protect allies and smite enemies. Guardians wield blue spirit weapons and burning flames, excelling in both melee damage and group support with aegis, stability, and healing.
Warrior
A master of martial combat who can wield more weapon types than any other profession. Warriors build adrenaline through attacks to unleash powerful burst skills, offering high sustained damage, banners for group buffs, and exceptional survivability through heavy armor.
Engineer
A resourceful inventor who uses turrets, gadgets, kits, and elixirs to control the battlefield. Engineers swap between multiple weapon kits for endless versatility, deploying flamethrowers, grenade launchers, and tool kits to adapt to any combat situation.
Ranger
A wilderness survivor who fights alongside a loyal animal companion. Rangers excel at ranged combat with longbow and shortbow while their pet provides additional damage, tanking, or crowd control. They can swap between two pets mid-combat for tactical advantage.
Thief
A deadly shadow striker who uses initiative instead of cooldowns, allowing rapid skill spam. Thieves excel at single-target burst damage, stealth gameplay, and mobility. Their Steal ability teleports them to foes and grants unique stolen skills for creative plays.
Elementalist
A scholar of the elements who attunes to fire, water, air, and earth, each granting a completely different set of weapon skills. Elementalists have the highest skill ceiling in the game, rewarding players who master quick attunement swapping with devastating damage and versatile utility.
Mesmer
A magical duelist who creates clones and phantasms to confuse enemies and shatter them for devastating effects. Mesmers bring unique utility including portals, reflects, and boon manipulation, making them invaluable in both PvE group content and competitive modes.
Necromancer
A dark magic practitioner who drains life force from fallen foes to enter Death Shroud, a powerful second health bar. Necromancers command undead minions, apply devastating conditions, and corrupt enemy boons, excelling in attrition-based combat and open world survivability.
Revenant
A mist-channeling warrior who invokes legendary figures from Guild Wars history to gain unique skill sets. Revenants swap between two legends mid-combat, managing energy instead of cooldowns. They bring powerful boon support, condition damage, and crowd control depending on the legends chosen.
Dragonhunter
An elite specialization for Guardian that trades virtues for powerful traps and a longbow. Dragonhunters excel at ranged burst damage with Spear of Justice, lay down punishing trap fields, and bring excellent crowd control. A staple DPS pick for open world and fractal content.
Berserker
An elite specialization for Warrior that unlocks Berserk Mode, replacing the adrenaline bar with a timed frenzy of primal burst skills. Berserkers gain access to the torch off-hand and deal massive power or condition damage while in their rage state, rewarding aggressive play.
Scrapper
An elite specialization for Engineer that wields a massive hammer and deploys gyros for area support. Scrappers gain Barrier, a temporary health shield, and Function Gyro for quick revives and stomps. They thrive in close-range combat with excellent sustain and group utility.
Druid
An elite specialization for Ranger that transforms into a celestial avatar to heal allies. Druids wield a staff and build Astral Force through combat to enter Celestial Avatar form, providing the strongest burst healing and unique spirits that buff the entire squad.
Daredevil
An elite specialization for Thief that adds a staff melee weapon and a third dodge bar. Daredevils are the most mobile profession in the game, dealing devastating physical damage through aerial strikes and sweep attacks while evading nearly everything with superior dodge capacity.
Tempest
An elite specialization for Elementalist that adds warhorn and powerful Overload skills to each attunement. Tempests channel massive area-of-effect abilities that grow stronger the longer they are cast, dealing extreme damage or providing powerful healing auras depending on the build.
Chronomancer
An elite specialization for Mesmer that manipulates time itself. Chronomancers wield a shield and use Continuum Split to rewind time, effectively doubling their skill usage. They are the premier boon support profession, providing quickness and alacrity to their subgroup in raids and fractals.
Reaper
An elite specialization for Necromancer that replaces Death Shroud with Reaper Shroud, a melee scythe-wielding form. Reapers gain greatsword and excel at cleaving through enemies with massive spinning attacks and chilling auras, making them one of the most satisfying open world power DPS builds.
Herald
An elite specialization for Revenant that channels the Legendary Dragon Stance, Glint. Heralds wield a shield and maintain powerful facet abilities that pulse boons to nearby allies, providing permanent fury, swiftness, and protection. They excel as frontline boon support in all game modes.