Profession

This article is about the playable professions. For the crafting disciplines, see Crafting disciplines.

Profession determines skills, traits and equipment available to player characters for engaging in combat and is roughly equivalent to a character class in other games. There are nine professions, each with a unique style and theme to their combat approach which is emphasized by the use of an important profession-specific mechanic and access to different skill types and effects. Professions are not restricted by race or gender and each is able to contribute damage, control and support during combat. Once a profession is selected for a character, it cannot be changed.

Upon reaching level 80, the character gains the ability to train an elite specialization which often significantly changes the playstyle of the profession. Each profession has access to three elite specializations, available in the expansions Heart of Thorns, Path of Fire, and End of Dragons.

Non-player characters (NPCs) can also have professions, determining at least some of the weapons and skills they use during combat. An NPC's game-mechanical profession may have little to do with what they do in lore, and most characters' professions are never mentioned.

Overview

Professions are divided into three categories based on their armor type:

• Soldiers — front-line fighters who use heavy armor and can both deal and withstand heavy damage in direct combat.
• Adventurers — fight from the traditional mid-line. They all possess a good mix of ranged weapons, and are otherwise flexible combatants. They wear medium armor.
• Scholars — the least durable fighters in direct combat, possessing only light armor. However, they make up for lack of defense with versatility and adaptability.

In addition to their armor class, professions also receive varying amounts of bonus health.

Profession type	Base profession	HoT specialization	PoF specialization	EoD specialization
Soldier	Guardian	Dragonhunter	Firebrand	Willbender
	Revenant	Herald	Renegade	Vindicator
	Warrior	Berserker	Spellbreaker	Bladesworn
Adventurer	Engineer	Scrapper	Holosmith	Mechanist
	Ranger	Druid	Soulbeast	Untamed
	Thief	Daredevil	Deadeye	Specter
Scholar	Elementalist	Tempest	Weaver	Catalyst
	Mesmer	Chronomancer	Mirage	Virtuoso
	Necromancer	Reaper	Scourge	Harbinger

Professions

Guardian

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Complexity: ⚫⚪⚪
Favors Melee • Supports Allies • Defensive Magic
Guardians gain powerful personal enhancements from their virtues, which they can briefly expend to aid friends or damage foes. Formidable on their own, guardians shine brightest in the company of allies.

— In-game description

Guardians are the masters of protection. Their special ability is the use of three virtues; Virtue of Courage, Justice and Resolve, which enhance their attacks and defenses until they are used to aid allies. The guardian's play-style has a flexible feel and is adept at supporting their allies or damaging their foes.

Skills•Traits•Specializations• Dragonhunter• Firebrand• Willbender

Revenant

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Complexity: ⚫⚫⚪
Melee or Ranged • Invokes Legendary Heroes • Magic-Wielding Fighter
Revenants invoke the power of legendary heroes from Tyria's past, spending their own energy to channel the abilities used by those figures. They are reliable allies and dangerous enemies.

— In-game description

A profession that was introduced in the Heart of Thorns expansion, Revenants manipulate the Mists in the battlefield. Capable of channeling legendary figures in order to have access to different skills, Revenants use a special resource called Energy in order to cast their abilities. They have enough flexibility to play multiple roles during a battle, depending on their Legend of choice. It is only available to players that have purchased either the Heart of Thorns or the Path of Fire expansion.

Skills•Traits•Specializations• Herald• Renegade• Vindicator

Warrior

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Complexity: ⚫⚪⚪
Favors Melee • High Survivability • Weaponsmaster
Warriors build their adrenaline by successfully striking an enemy, then expend it to unleash devastating burst attacks. Warriors are versatile and resilient fighters.

— In-game description

Masters of martial combat, warriors have access to a wider selection of weapon types than any other profession, allowing for a multitude of play styles. Warriors' unique resource, Adrenaline, is built through sustained attacking and can be spent to unleash powerful burst attacks during combat.

Skills•Traits•Specializations• Berserker• Spellbreaker• Bladesworn

Engineer

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Complexity: ⚫⚫⚫
Melee or Ranged • Gadgets, Turrets, and Toolkits • Technomancer
Engineers are jacks-of-all-trades and, with enough time, masters of many. Able to bring dozens of abilities and toolbelt skills to a fight, their art is in choosing the right one to utilize at the perfect time.

— In-game description

Masters of mechanical mayhem, engineers deploy engineering kits and turrets to mix up the battlefield. The engineer's profession mechanic is the tool belt - each healing, utility or elite skill adds a skill to this belt, providing them with added utility when it is needed most.

Skills•Traits•Specializations• Scrapper• Holosmith• Mechanist

Ranger

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Complexity: ⚫⚪⚪
Favors Ranged • Pet Companion • Naturalist
Rangers tame a variety of pet companions to complement their fighting style. Rounding out their arsenal with traps, nature spirits, and survival skills, they have the tools to take on any type of foe.

— In-game description

Rangers are masters of their natural surroundings, and use a versatile set of skills to hunt their enemies. The rangers are also accompanied by their trusted pets, fighting in unison with their own set of pet skills to pick off their enemies one by one.

Skills•Traits•Specializations• Druid• Soulbeast• Untamed

Thief

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Complexity: ⚫⚫⚪
Favors Melee • Stealth and Evasion • Acrobatic Combat
Thieves manage their initiative during combat, expending it to unleash carefully timed attacks. What they lack in defense, they make up for with skills to debilitate, teleport, or vanish from sight.

— In-game description

Thieves use their initiative to fuel their weapon skills, dishing out quick chains of damage before slipping away into the shadows with stealth. The other part of their specialty is stealing - each enemy has a number of items which provide stolen skills to the thief to turn the fight.

Skills•Traits•Specializations• Daredevil• Deadeye• Specter

Elementalist

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Complexity: ⚫⚫⚫
Favors Ranged • Elemental Magic • Versatile Caster
Elementalists harness the power of the four elements—water, earth, fire, and air—to cast powerful spells. Their ability to change their elemental attunement midcombat is versatile but difficult to master.

— In-game description

Elementalists can adapt to any situation by attuning to one of the four elements: Fire, Water, Air or Earth. Each attunement changes the five weapon skills on the skill bar, depending on the elementalist's equipped weapon set, and essentially gives the elementalist more skills to use than any other profession.

Skills•Traits•Specializations• Tempest• Weaver• Catalyst

Mesmer

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Complexity: ⚫⚫⚪
Favors Ranged • Creates Illusions • Finesse and Misdirection
Masters of magical misdirection, mesmers create and shatter clones and illusions of themselves in battle. Mesmers rely on evasion and subterfuge requiring finesse and practice to perfect.

— In-game description

Mesmers can create illusions to fight by their side, which they use to harass enemies with phantasms or mislead them with clones. Clones can also be shattered, destroying them and causing secondary effects, such as confusion, a powerful condition which damages foes as they continue their assault in vain.

Skills•Traits•Specializations• Chronomancer• Mirage• Virtuoso

Necromancer

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Complexity: ⚫⚪⚪
Favors Ranged • Summons Minions • Dark Magic
Necromancers of Tyria are monsters on the battlefield, draining life force from their enemies and entering a death shroud that temporarily grants them powerful abilities and protects them from harm.

— In-game description

Necromancers use a special resource called life force which is gathered each time a creature near them dies, or additionally by using certain skills. Its main function is to fuel necromancer's Death Shroud. While in Death Shroud, the character's health is temporarily replaced by accumulated life force, and has access to new skills and traits, such as using fear as a weapon.

Skills•Traits•Specializations• Reaper• Scourge• Harbinger

Trivia

The Guild Wars Wiki has an article on Profession.

• On April Fool's Day 2011, ArenaNet jokingly revealed the commando as the seventh profession (at that moment the engineer had yet to be introduced), complete with skill videos and wallpapers on the official site and a special quest in Guild Wars.
• During development, the developers discussed many different iterations of the profession system and the final set of professions they included. The number of professions varied between six and twelve during development and included ideas such as warden, marksman and juggernaut which were discarded. A developer interview with Tap-Repeatedly discusses profession development in more detail.
• The early development stages of Guild Wars 2 included secondary professions, a game mechanic available in the original Guild Wars. This feature was removed to allow for more unique customization of each profession and eliminate the associated balancing issues with multiple professions using the same skills.
  • Heart of Thorns came with profession elite specializations which provide access to new weapons and skills almost like a secondary profession.
• See the professions reveal page for an overview of how each of the professions were announced to the public during game development.