(Image: ArenaNet via HGG)
Penned by Tyler Locke
Tyler is a psych graduate turned freelance writer and one of the newest additions to the HGG team. They currently write guides for a variety of gam... Read more
Reviewed by Jeffrey Hsu
Guild Wars 2 is an MMORPG that has been around for quite a while. In that time, the developers over at ArenaNet have created thousands of hours’ worth of content. From story quests, dungeons, and world events, you’ll never find yourself without something to do. While Guild Wars 2 has one of the best communities out there, you might find yourself wanting to go it alone and experience everything at your own pace. Luckily, there are some great classes that naturally excel at solo play. To find out which, continue reading for our guide to the best solo class in Guild Wars 2!
One quick note before we get into it. Each class will be separated into their base form and elite specializations. Most of the time elite specializations are better than the base class, but I didn’t want to leave out any new or free to play players!
Necromancer
Armed with undead minions and plenty of survivability, Necromancers are the easiest solo class in Guild Wars 2.
Base Necromancer
What makes Necromancers so great is their signature ability, Shroud. Powered by stolen Life Force, Shroud transforms the Necromancer into a shadow, granting them new attacks. During Shroud, damage is instead taken from your gathered Life Force rather than your own health, effectively giving you two health bars.
Additionally, Necromancers have access to minions, which can make you invincible in more ways than one. First, each minion can tank enemies for you, so you’ll rarely be hit. Second, minions can provide buffs like life steal and reduced damage taken, making it very hard to have low health.
Lastly, the Necromancer’s weapons provide plenty of damage and utility. Most of the weapons revolve around stealing buffs for yourself or applying stacking conditions that leave enemies to quickly die to bleed or poison. Plus, they are all ranged, so by the time anyone gets near you, they should be dead.
With the base Necromancer, you can easily solo your way to max level and beyond.
Elite Specializations — Reaper
Once you’ve gotten to Level 80, there is one elite specialization for soloing that I recommend over the others. If you’ve purchased the Heart of Thorns expansion, then you’ll have access to the Reaper elite specialization. Reaper completely changes how you play the Necromancer by granting access to the greatsword, turning the Necromancer from a ranged fighter into a melee bruiser.
Reaper is a great spec for soloing due to its innate lifesteal and the greatsword’s ability to hit multiple enemies. Along with that combo, Reaper has access to multiple buffs and conditions that increase their damage output immensely.
The best part of soloing with Reaper is the changes made to Shroud. You still keep the second health bar, but you gain a scythe to mow down your enemies. All of its abilities deal huge damage or provide defensive buffs that keep you alive and help you stay in Shroud form. With the right build, you could stay in Shroud form for entire fights, attacking the boss without a care in the world.
With the Reaper spec and some skill, you should be able to solo most non-group endgame content. And if you decide to join group content, it will be just as easy to play as solo content with the Reaper.
Guardian
If you prefer holy rather than unholy, Guardian is never a bad choice.
Base Guardian
If you’ve ever played a Paladin in World of Warcraft, the Guardian is very similar. The Guardian class has access to “Virtues,” which give passive buffs like health regeneration and extra damage. These Virtues can also be activated to grant instant buffs to yourself and allies.
Much of the Guardians’ power revolves around these Virtues, and many specialization passives will focus on increasing their power. This makes Guardian incredibly easy to play, as you don’t have many buttons to press or cooldowns to worry about.
Weapon-wise, the Guardian is very versatile with what they can choose from. They can equip multiple different weapons for damage, like the Greatsword or Axe. They can also equip weapons like Staves or Hammers for tanking or supporting. With the weapon switching system in Guild Wars 2, you can easily dish out damage, then switch to a support weapon whenever you need it.
Elite Specializations — Dragonhunter & Firebrand
There are two elite specializations I recommend for soloing as a Guardian: Dragonhunter and Firebrand.
Dragonhunter
If you’ve purchased the Heart of Thorns expansion, then you’ll be able to unlock the Dragonhunter elite specialization at Level 80. The Dragonhunter gains access to the longbow and becomes a long ranged DPS. With long range at your disposal, you can kill most enemies before they even touch you. If at any point they do get near you, the Dragonhunter still retains Virtues, whose passives should keep you alive to reposition or finish the job.
Additionally, Dragonhunters have access to traps they can place down. Each trap ability deals damage, provides buffs, or hinders any enemy that comes close. If you haven’t killed your target by the time they get close, your traps surely will.
With long range, high DPS, and supportive Virtues, Dragonhunter is one of the best solo class specializations in Guild Wars 2 and one of the best DPS classes for PVE content.
Firebrand
On the opposite side end of the spectrum lies the Firebrand. With the Path of Fire expansion, you can play the Firebrand, who wields an Axe in one hand and a Tome in the other. Unlike Dragonhunter, the Firebrand is more of a supportive class.
With the Firebrand, Virtues become Tomes that Guardians can pull out to gain new abilities. Each Tome has its own purpose from DPS to party buffs and heals. Additionally, Firebrands have Mantras, which are AOE abilities that can damage or buff everything around you. As a solo player, you can solely focus on DPS, switching to heals and buffs when need be.
Unfortunately, the Firebrand’s DPS is not as good as the Dragonhunter’s. However, if you stick with it until endgame group content, you’ll never find yourself waiting for a group. After all, everyone wants a good support.
Ranger
Ranger is, without a doubt, the best solo class in Guild Wars 2.
Base Ranger
Even with all the powerful elite specializations, the base Ranger still holds some of the best damage and solo capabilities in the game.
Damage-wise, the Ranger’s highest DPS options are the long bow or the short bow (depending on if you want to do pure damage or condition damage). With range on your side, you can do damage while never having to worry about being hit.
What actually puts Rangers on this list is the wide selection of pets they can choose from. Ranger pets are great tools for soloing any type of content. As they take enemy attention, you can focus on dealing damage without a care in the world. Rangers even have abilities and passives that can support their pet during combat.
What’s more, there are fifty pets to find and tame each with their own abilities. Some are great tanks while others can buff the party as they fight. The best part? You can name them whatever you want.
As someone who chose Ranger as their first class, I fully recommend Ranger to anyone first starting out. Finding new pets is a unique experience and they deal insane damage at every point of the game.
Elite Specializations — Soulbeast
Soulbeast turns the already great Ranger into a DPS monster. Instead of being ranged, the Soulbeast turns to melee with a dagger in hand and a greatsword on their back. However, most of their power doesn’t come from the new weapon type. The Soulbeast’s unique class mechanic, Beastmode, is what makes them special.
Beastmode (yes, it is called that) merges the Ranger with their pets to grant bonus stats and new abilities. There are five different archetypes that grant bonuses based on what pet was merged with. For instance, merging with your eagle will grant damage stats and merging with your bear will grant defense stats. So, instead of having your pet tank, you can become the tank.
Soulbeast is great for solo players since you become a one-person army with all the defense, damage, or support you need. Additionally, if you do decide to do group content, Soulbeasts are one of the best DPS classes to play, so you’ll have an easy time.
Honorable Mention
Mechanist Engineer
While base Engineer falls a bit short from the other classes on this list, the Mechanist elite specialization is insanely good for solo play. Mechanist replaces their toolbelt for their very own mech. The mech has high amounts of health and is constantly being healed, so it can tank most enemies.
Additionally, Mechanist receives new utility abilities called Signets. These Signets act just like Guardian Virtues and grant passive buffs like heals over time and reduced damage taken. The Mechanist is basically a Ranger and Guardian mixed into one, making it the ultimate solo class.
With these new abilities combined, you can just about clear any content solo. Just check out this video showcasing its solo capabilities. It might take a while to get there, but that much power is worth it.
Join the High Ground!
That wraps up the best solo classes in Guild Wars 2— thanks for reading! There are tons of other builds that can just as easily solo content, so leave your favorite down below and subscribe to our newsletter for more Guild Wars 2 content.
Happy gaming!
