Best All-Around Builds In Guild Wars 2 (GW2) In 2026

I have over 5k hours in GW2 and have played since a year before it came out (yeah I was a secret QA tester, shhhh don't tell anyone). 

Credit: guildwars2.com

The one thing I love about this game is the ability to solo any content because the game allows you to build your character in any way you wish (dps, support, or hybrid). This is something I rarely get in other MMOs because they really love their trinity system. Lately GW2 has fallen into a similar community pushed trap where certain roles are required for end game content. However, I do not subscribe to that thinking!

The one question I get the most from friends and I see often online is "what build should I play" and generally I also see "what's the best build/spec that can do any content solo" which is a loaded question. 

These days I'm the type of player who likes to casually jump into GW2 every now and then. Gone are the days of chasing the S-tier meta because it usually changes in-between logins for me. Now I embrace the all-arounder casual approach to builds because it allows me to jump into whatever I want to complete dailies, weeklies, and any seasonal activities that are happening. 

These are the builds that I take into just about any content and can verifiably say they're safe to play for anyone whether solo or in a group. 

• Elementalist 
• Dagger/Warhorn Celestial Tempest: Support High, DPS Low, Survivability High
• Fire: 1/2/2, Earth: 3/1/1, Tempest: 3/2/2. 
• You can also use Water over Earth if you prefer healing over defense.
• This is my go-to support/open world elementalist. There's tons of utility, boon support, and healing in this build, but you can also change things slightly to specialize in doing more dps or more heals, which makes it a decent all-arounder. It's also a very easy play style. Spam skills, use attunement overload skill, move to next attunement.
• Spear or Dagger/Dagger or Scepter/Focus Celestial Toad Evoker: Support Medium, DPS Medium, Survivability High
• Fire: 1/1/1, Earth: 1/2/3, Evoker: 2/1/1
• Scepter/Focus Power Fire Evoker is very good DPS, but survivability and mobility suck. I only recommend it for instanced boss fights.
• Support tempest is still better than support evoker so don't waste time on it.
• This is my new favorite elementalist build. I prefer Spear for open world and easy instanced content. I swap to dagger/dagger for pvp and wvw.

• Warrior
• Hammer & Longbow (Hambow) Power Berserker: DPS Medium, Support Low, Survivability Medium
• Defense: 3/3/2, Discipline: 2/3/3, Berserker: 3/2/3.
• This is a fun action playstyle. Keeping your zerk going basically requires you to constantly spam skills in combat, and using your Burst every time it's full. You will be jumping around spamming aoe skills. Bow burst puts down a fire build, hammer burst does an aoe slam in that field giving you might. You just basically repeat this as using burst skills protect you and does AoE damage.
• Dagger/Mace or Shield & Hammer Power Spellbreaker: DPS High, Support Low, Survivability High
• Strength: 2/1/1, Defense: 1/3/2, Spellbreak: 1/3/3
• This build has good burst dps and insane survivability. It's great for pvp and dueling and decent in open world. I won a 2v2 tourney with this build. Instanced content isn't as great for this build.
• Spear & Dagger or Axe/Mace Power Paragon: DPS High, Support Low, Survivability Medium
• Strength: 3/3/1, Arms: 2/2/1, Paragon: 1/2/1
• This is my new favorite warrior build. It's super easy, high dps, and plenty of utility. This is basically a signet and spear spam build. 

• Guardian
• Mace/Shield & Pistol or Sword/Torch Celestial Firebrand: DPS Low, Support High, Survivability High
• Radiance: 1/2/1, Zeal: 2/3/3, Firebrand: 1/2/2
• This is a great all around build and has a ton of utility so you can go into more of a support/heal role or a dps role. There's also many weapon combos that work with it. The downside is you have to have deep knowledge of all of this to customize it and it's a very high apm build. You're constantly managing your Tome skills and Mantras but you get nearly infinite stability, quickness, and burn up time.
• Sword/Sword or Torch or Pistol & Pistol/Pistol or Torch Power/Condi/Celestial Willbender: DPS High, Support Low, Survivability Medium
• Radiance: 2/3/3, Virtues: 1/2/3, Willbender: 3/3/2.
• This is a high mobility, high damage, high action build. It has lots of mobility and is good in open world, wvw, and pvp. It's not as great for instanced content.
• Greatsword & Longbow or Spear Power or Celestial Dragonhunter: DPS High, Support Low, Survivability: Medium
• Zeal: 2/2/3, Virtues: 1/1/3, Dragonhunter: 3/2/2.
• This is a super easy high DPS build that's good for all content. The DH skills are good at single target and traps are great for AoE and boss DPS. One of the easiest and strongest all-around builds in the game.

• Engineer
• Pistol & Shield or Pistol Condi Mechanist OR Rifle Power Mechanist: DPS High, Support Low, Survivability Medium
• Condi - Explosives: 3/1/2, Firearms: 1/2/3, Mechanist: 1/1/3
• Power - Exposives: 3/1/3, Firearms: 3/3/1, Mechanist: 3/3/1
• Mechanist is the easiest GW2 build to play. No weapon swap, low apm, and a tanky companion who holds aggro. There's even a support version of mechanist (2/2/2). Overall condi is best for survivability and longer fights. Power is better for burst DPS. All are incredibly viable in any content.
• Shortbow or Hammer Celestial or Harrier/Wanderer Scrapper: DPS Medium, Support High, Survivability High
• Inventions: 2/2/3, Alchemy: 3/1/2, Scrapper: 3/2/2
• This is a very easy build. Toss out gyros, spam weapon and toolbelt skills. You can use mortar or supply crate elite for more dps or support. The boon up time is basically unlimited but the DPS is slower.

• Mesmer
• Staff or Spear & Scepter/Focus Celestial Chronomancer: DPS Medium, Support High, Survivability High
• Inspiration: 1/2/2, Chaos: 2/3/3, Chronomancer: 3/3/1
• This is my favorite mesmer build and I call it the condi chronobunker. You throw down wells, spam weapon skills, keep your clones up and use your shatter skills. If your continuum split right, it will allow you to double your skill usage. This is a strong support build, a strong pvp point holder, and works fine in the open world. There's a power variant with sword and greatsword that has insane burst dps but it's squishy and has long cooldowns so I don't recommend it.
• Dagger & Pistol or Sword Condition Virtuoso: DPS High, Support Low, Survivability Medium
• Dueling: 1/2/1, Illusions: 1/3/2, Virtuoso: 3/1/1.
• This is a different playstyle for mesmer. You produce blades above your head and use your shatter skills to shoot them at enemies. This can provide insane burst DPS but the playstyle takes some getting used to.

• Ranger
• Longbow & Axe or Mace/Warhorn Power Soulbeast: DPS High, Support Low, Survivability Medium
• Beastmastery: 3/3/3, Skirmishing: 2/2/1, Soulbeast: 2/2/1.
• This is a fun DPS build and my go-to for wvw roaming. I call it the walking arrow cart because your longbow can be used for long range engagements in pvp/wvw but you can swap to your backbar and smokie companion to absolutely reck someone in melee range with a very high burst DPS. This is a great dueling spec in pvp/wvw but also has viability in pve. You can get dps over 20k in instanced fights.
• Axe/Axe or Axe/Warhorn or Greatsword or Hammer & Mace/Mace Power Untamed: DPS Medium, Support Low, Survivability High
• Skirmishing: 2/2/3, Wilderness: 3/2/1, Untamed: 3/2/1.
• This is a decent option for any content. It has a mix of survival utility and dps. Players can use just about any utility skill and primary weapon they want with it. However, it's a jack of all trades master of none type situation. It doesn't excel at anything that I could find.

• Necromancer
• Pistol or Dagger or Scepter/Warhorn or Dagger or Torch & Staff Celestial or Plague Doctor Scourge: DPS Medium, Support Medium, Survivability Medium
• Blood: 1/2/3, Soul: 2/2/1, Scourge: 1/3/3.
• This is a master of all for necro. It provides a little of everything and can do any content at a medium level (B tier). However, it's just not quite good enough at everything right now to be used much for me.
• Pistol or Scepter/Warhorn & Staff Celestial Harbinger: DPS Medium, Support Medium, Survivability Medium
• Soul: 1/2/3, Curses: 2/2/1, Harb: 2/2/2.
• This is another jack of all trades necromancer build. Scourge specializes in barrier defense while harbinger specializes in boons. 
• Greatsword Condi or Power Reaper: DPS High, Support Low, Survivability Medium
• I'm not giving a specific build here because I don't recommend this build for anyone who isn't an expert. I will say the damage on reaper is S-tier but the survivability sucks if you don't know what you're doing.

• Thief
• Scepter/Dagger Celestial or Plague Doctor Specter: DPS Medium, Support High, Survivability Medium
• Deadly Arts: 3/2/1, Trickery: 3/2/3, Specter: 3/1/1.
• This is a fun build that can do just about anything in the game. You only need 2 weapons too because you equip one in main hand front bar and one in offhand backbar. Reason being is you use initiative instead of cooldowns to use skills but can still take advantage of weapon swap sigils. This is a great support/dps build.
• Spear or Shortbow & Pistol/Dagger Condi Deadeye: DPS High, Support Low, Survivability Low.
• Deadly Arts: 3/2/1, Trickery: 3/1/3, Deadeye: 3/3/3.
• This is a more DPS focused version of a condition thief compared to specter which is a better all-arounder. Deadeye is better for condi damage and boon uptime but worse at surviving or supporting others. Surviving is your traditional thief stealth gameplay which I don't care for.
• Revenant
• Don't bother. Every revenant spec requires a very complex rotation of managing a resource that literally every weapon, attunement, and utility skill uses. If you mess up your rotation or timing once, you're basically bricked for a bit.