Guild Wars 2

So, I’m about two days into the game now and I thought I had a nice warm fuzzy about my shiny new Necro that I chose to boost until I made the mistake or reading through most of the top threads on each class. Now, I’m not so sure what to think or believe but to be honest, I’m seriously worried if I might have made a mistake.

After reading today’s threads, I would think that the Necro is all about worthless in WvW, well sub-par in PvP, and only slightly tolerated in end-game PvE. The (power) Ranger, a class/build I played around with a good bit and almost selected before the Necro, is decent in WvW if people carry you, has no place in PvP, and auto-removed from all PvE groups. Oh, and that crazy-fun D/D Ele I played back after beta is about as threatening as a sleeping two-year-old.

So, as you can tell, I’m really confused if I should continue working on my Necro, put some work into the Ranger alt I made, or just say screw-it and roll the meta Warrior/Guard. I love this game but I want to focus on mainly one class and be be best I can be.

I’m afraid of spending my time working one main character only to find out it’s not really that viable or needed.

And advice please? Sorry for the wall of text…

-Sidil

Just so we’re clear by reviews do you mean topics on this forum (or a similar site like reddit)? Or actual articles on a blog or other website?

If it’s the first one then ignore them. People tend to come to forums to complain and if you’re lucky stick around to post some comments on other peoples complaints. If you believe the topics in the profession sections of this forum then every single profession has been hopelessly broken and useless since day 1 (although the ways in which they’re broken vary from time to time). But every other profession is massively over-powered and clearly the developers favourite that is always given all of the best updates to ensure it’s what everyone plays in every mode.

(At the risk of being confusing this doesn’t mean all these topics are completely wrong. Sometimes they are making a valid point, but they’re making it from the perspective of someone who is frustrated, maybe angry and prone to hyperbole. It’s the difference between me at home saying trains in my area have been especially unreliable lately and me texting my husband from the train that may or may not be leaving sometime soon to say the entire company should be fired because they’re kitten incompetent and couldn’t organise getting drunk in a brewery if someone handed them the opened bottles.)

If it’s an actual review of the profession written out in full then it should be more comprehensive and balanced. But check that it’s actually current because balance updates come out all the time and can make a big difference, and take it with a grain of salt because it is just one persons opinion.

Ultimately go with your own experience and preferences.

I’ve been playing a ranger since day-1 and there was a period when many dungeon groups genuinely would kick you the instant they saw you were playing a ranger. But I still entered, and completed, dungeons playing her. I just either formed groups with my guild or other like-minded players who didn’t care if we finished in the best time possible or if we followed the exact route someone else had dictated via youtube.

Honestly the elitists who only want what they (or rather the person they get their information from) considers to be the best professions and builds are not people I’d want to play with anyway, so it’s not a problem for me if they don’t want to play with me. If anything it may be more of a problem if they do.

I can’t speak for Pvp, but Necro is still a highly valued class.
In WvW necros are meta, their staff and wells being highly sought after for zerg fights, Well of corruption being the #1 skill for aoe boon stripping the enemy melee train.
In Pve (high end fractals and raids – the only 2 areas that matter what you bring) they are still used. For t4 fractals you still get “condi necro only” parties very often in lfg. For raids they are still used in VG, possibly Sab (I don’t run it anymore), Sloth (a must here), bandit trio, Matthias, escort and possibly Xera.

Pretty much what Danikat said. Play and enjoy your class and ignore those subforums entirely. There are some great things in there, but they usually get buried by a lot of hyperbole. Necros are not useless in any game mode, but that doesnt mean any necro build will work. That I am sure you are prob aware of anyway and is true of any profession.

It also tends to flare up a lot around the time of balance patches and the next is Tuesday, with the changes already published, so reactions are a bit more lopsided than usual

As it is already been said people tend to come to forums only to complain, if you check the other profession forum threads there are complains about something for every profession…

PvE, exploring the giant world from 0-100%, doing personal and living world stories and dungeons to an extent is the majority of the content you will be doing most of the time with any profession. But nobody is complaining about their profession in those areas now isnt it?

People follow the meta and want to play to win in PvP and in WvW so they are very picky of their builds and roles inside such instances. Sure some work better than the others but that doesnt mean you are useless.

SeranusGaming.7362:

So, as you can tell, I’m really confused if I should continue working on my Necro, put some work into the Ranger alt I made, or just say screw-it and roll the meta Warrior/Guard. I love this game but I want to focus on mainly one class and be be best I can be.

Then you should just ignore all those things and just try the classes out on your own. Things shift around with patches or as people discover new ways to do things. If you are going to stick to a single class then you are going to be playing the full spectrum of good to bad through the life of the game. Probably going back and forth a few times and also depending on the game mode.

Folks,

First, I wanted to thank you all, especially Danikat for the great advice and wisdom that I really needed to hear. Last time I really focused on a MMO I was so obsessed with the FotM that I never really committed to anything and just burned myself out. Reading the subforums for each class started to make me feel the same way again.

I think the point that Vukorep makes about people not complaining in the normal aspects of the game is something really to think about. While exploring the new expansion area, I’ve found my Necro to be really simple, easy and fun to play. I’ve solo’d some pretty difficult boss mobs without really having to worry so much. Of course, when playing that Ranger, they were dead in a matter of seconds but if I made a mistake, I was dead too. lol… it was fun either way.

Again, thanks for all the help! This is such a great community.

It really depends on what you want to do, and how serious you are at wanting to be the best at doing it.

If you’re truly concerned with playing at the very pinnacle of performance at the absolute top-tier, you should probably heed some of the current warnings, although things change over time so it’s up to you, really.

I doubt you’d be ready to be in the top tier anytime soon, anyways, though, so I recommend just doing what you enjoy.

SeranusGaming.7362:

So, I’m about two days into the game now and I thought I had a nice warm fuzzy about my shiny new Necro that I chose to boost until I made the mistake or reading through most of the top threads on each class. Now, I’m not so sure what to think or believe but to be honest, I’m seriously worried if I might have made a mistake.

After reading today’s threads, I would think that the Necro is all about worthless in WvW, well sub-par in PvP, and only slightly tolerated in end-game PvE. The (power) Ranger, a class/build I played around with a good bit and almost selected before the Necro, is decent in WvW if people carry you, has no place in PvP, and auto-removed from all PvE groups. Oh, and that crazy-fun D/D Ele I played back after beta is about as threatening as a sleeping two-year-old.

So, as you can tell, I’m really confused if I should continue working on my Necro, put some work into the Ranger alt I made, or just say screw-it and roll the meta Warrior/Guard. I love this game but I want to focus on mainly one class and be be best I can be.

I’m afraid of spending my time working one main character only to find out it’s not really that viable or needed.

And advice please? Sorry for the wall of text…

-Sidil

It very much depends on what type of player you are and what sort of guild you’re in. If you’re more on the “hardcore” end of the spectrum, this sort of thing may impact you a great deal. However, if you’re mostly playing by yourself or with a few friends, exploring the open world, messing around in WvW and not so much bleeding edge PvP and serious raiding, this won’t matter at all.

So, my recommendation unless you’re the hardcore type is to enjoy exploring the world on your necromancer. It’s easily one of the strongest solo PvE classes, able to handle pretty much anything the game throws at you. And although this is just my opinion, I find it’s a pretty fun class to play as well.

Hello again folks!

Sorry to come back to this thread again but I think I’m pretty close in figuring out what I want to play and focus 100% of my time on. After checking out several guides, I’m down to either the Necro (probably a GS/Reaper) or the Ranger (LB Druid). Both of these classes look extremely fun to play, can use almost the same gear/build setup for WvW, PvP, and general PvE, and don’t appear to be the “meta.” Yeah… I like changing things up a bit where viable. Below is pretty much everything I’ve come up with and was wondering if again, you all would give me your thoughts on these to help me make the final choice.

The Necro:

Personal Pros – Lots of build diversity, completely unexpected build, can have fun trolling in EotM with fear bombs and cliffs! LOL….

Personal Cons – Mobility sucks, really need a condi set for raiding, too easy to get kited by someone with a brain.

GS Necro/Reaper – Burst Build Video Guide Below, The Build: Burst Necro Build Link

The Ranger:

Personal Pros – One build to rule them all (kudos if you get the reference), +33% movement speed, crazy amounts of mobility/cc, insane single-target burst damage (saw a guy do over 38K in EotM), can play as a healer with the right gear.

Personal Cons – Kinda squisy, easy targets for a thief, can get repetitive due to lack of build diversity.

LB Ranger/Druid – The Sniper Build Guide Below, The Build: Sniper Ranger Build Link

Druid main…necro backup…both fully ascended and daily played in pve/wvw/spvp.
Both fun classes for different reasons…you won’t be bored or disappointed—enjoy the ride.

Mouse.7382:

Druid main…necro backup…both fully ascended and daily played in pve/wvw/spvp.
Both fun classes for different reasons…you won’t be bored or disappointed—enjoy the ride.

That looks more like a sales pitch than a review.

My apologize. Sitting in jury room waiting to be called. Will give a ‘review’ later.
Why post now? ..cause I’m bored as hell and read all the news on MSN and trying to look busy so this weird guy next to me will stop talking.

Mouse.7382:

My apologize. Sitting in jury room waiting to be called. Will give a ‘review’ later.
Why post now? ..cause I’m bored as hell and read all the news on MSN and trying to look busy so this weird guy next to me will stop talking.

This is the best response I have ever seen on any forum! I laughed so hard when I read this that my sides now ache. Can I quote you for my signature block? LOL!

Lol sure thing.
My favorite sig quote is from Chris Rock “A man is only as faithful as his options.”

Mouse.7382:

Lol sure thing.
My favorite sig quote is from Chris Rock “A man is only as faithful as his options.”

Lame… looks like I can’t quote you for a signature. Oh well…

Necro is great, specially Reaper.

You can trust my words here. Those two professions are very strong in current meta game.
Necro:
WvW One of the most important meta class in zerg. Condition and power both viable
PvP Condition build is a strong meta choice. Strongest damage dealer and boon remover in teamfight.
PvE Condition build is the meta for high level fractal pugging due to its high tolerance to error. Very useful in several encounters in raid.

Ranger:
WvW One of the strongest roamer. A decent healer for zerg as well.
PvP Very strong supporter and roamer. Shine in both 1vX and skirmishes.
PvE Most popular healer for raid. Can also play condition damage builds for several encounters.

“Class Reviews – Should I Trust Them?”

.. only if they are written by Harvey Dent

I assume you are new to a lot of this so I’m going to share with you an ancient secret passed down through generations of secret gaming societies:

People whine a lot.

I can tell you that in wvw and spvp druid will be much more confortable overall. You cannot even compare the 2. only advantage in wvw is that necros in zergging are top. But in roaming or small scale you will feel uneasy and frustrated so much more because you will be more dependent on your team than anyone else. in pve wich really doesnt matter just play whatever man. You will be beating npcs not players.

If you read every profession subforum, you’d think there’s no decent class in GW2. ALL classes think they are the worst in some area.

I wouldn’t say play whatever in PvE, depends WHAT in PvE. Only high level fractals and hardcore raiding require meta builds/strict stuff. Otherwise yeah, all classes can be relevant w/ thought into gear/build I mean, it’s not quite anything goes in terms of “any gear stat/build/quality will be fine” no. But you don’t need to be restrictive to ONLY meta builds or etc.

WvW – I love Druid roamer/small group play. I cannot comment on necro not having one. What someone said above, is true. Though, both raid and WvW ppl have expectations/misnomer ideas of Druid.

There’s also much to be said of the ability to multi class. Less impact in a wvw zerg, but invaluable in pvp and raids. Plus nerfs to a specific class has less impact

Personally, I’ve chose to never care about others opinions about classes in either guild wars 1 or 2. I’ve had people say this class, this skill, this trait is useless. Turn around and make that class more useful than the class they called the better.
Kinda like that guy back in ‘05 said gw1 was more pvp based and I wouldn’t like it.
So i bought the game and i still play pve side 11 years later.

Opinions are bias on view point, the person giving them don’t know what you yourself enjoy the most or how well or bad you play the game or class.
Also, I don’t think alot of people adjust to game changes very well or class changes, if they are old school guild wars 1 player they or we already expect it.
Every time gw1 got an update so did every class in the game, still anet continues the custom of that.
Probably always will. It keeps things interesting, there always seems to be an alpha class it kinda rotates through them Not sure if they do it intentionally or by accident, might be a little of both.

TEKnowledgy.1760:

Opinions are bias on view point, the person giving them don’t know what you yourself enjoy the most or how well or bad you play the game or class.
Also, I don’t think alot of people adjust to game changes very well or class changes, if they are old school guild wars 1 player they or we already expect it.
Every time gw1 got an update so did every class in the game, still anet continues the custom of that.
Probably always will. It keeps things interesting, there always seems to be an alpha class it kinda rotates through them Not sure if they do it intentionally or by accident, might be a little of both.

The difference between a good review and a bad review is that a good one would provide you with reasons for both the pros and the cons of whatever it is being reviewed. That way the reader can determine if that is relevant. This comes up very frequently for product reviews on sites like Amazon. There are all too many low reviews for the product that is just complaining about the shipping or the packaging. There are also ones with good rating that just says the product arrived very quickly.

Khisanth.2948:

The difference between a good review and a bad review is that a good one would provide you with reasons for both the pros and the cons of whatever it is being reviewed.

And that’s the problem I have most of the time. There is a very specific play style I’m trying to find as I just know that no matter how amazing a certain class/build might be, if it’s not fun in my perspective, I won’t play it. Honestly, if I play a game and after an hour I’m not laughing or at least, walking away with a huge smile, then what’s the point? This is the reason why I left several other MMOs as they just weren’t fun to play and felt more like a second job. GW2 has such versatility in their classes that there isn’t just one option out there for people to pick from – there’s usually several. I’ve actually tested out every class so far and find things in each that I enjoy. Kinda strange for an MMO…

Anyways, I’m an adrenaline junkie that loves a class/build that is quick and has a lot going on, or at least, has many options available. Mobility is a key as if I get into a mess, I want the ability to disengage and run away screaming like a child. This was probably why I liked the D/D Ele so much when I first played around with it.

Also, I can’t stand a class where I push two buttons, go make a sandwich, take a nap, then come back to find everything devastated. This is partially why I didn’t continue with the warrior as it just felt too simple and predictable.

Lastly, being able to have a long duel where you wear down your opponent is something that’s been growing on me more. The Ranger’s ability to 100%-0% in 3 seconds is fun but all that power comes at the cost of if you screw up, and the enemy player is smart, you’re probably going to die. A Necro “appears” to be a bit more forgiving in that area but again, I’m still a huge noob so what do I know.

The only other consideration I was playing around with was a P/D condi/survival thief. I’ve toyed around with this before in WvW and PvP and while it was really fun in WvW, it was much harder to adapt to PvP. It was unique and something that I didn’t see anyone else playing.

Khisanth.2948:

TEKnowledgy.1760:

Opinions are bias on view point, the person giving them don’t know what you yourself enjoy the most or how well or bad you play the game or class.
Also, I don’t think alot of people adjust to game changes very well or class changes, if they are old school guild wars 1 player they or we already expect it.
Every time gw1 got an update so did every class in the game, still anet continues the custom of that.
Probably always will. It keeps things interesting, there always seems to be an alpha class it kinda rotates through them Not sure if they do it intentionally or by accident, might be a little of both.

The difference between a good review and a bad review is that a good one would provide you with reasons for both the pros and the cons of whatever it is being reviewed. That way the reader can determine if that is relevant. This comes up very frequently for product reviews on sites like Amazon. There are all too many low reviews for the product that is just complaining about the shipping or the packaging. There are also ones with good rating that just says the product arrived very quickly.

It would still be biased, what if a guy buys him new gun and puts a scope on it thinks it’s worthless with a scope and inaccurate. Is it the scopes fault or the man that didn’t know how to true in the scope?

Don’t truly matter how or what you want to opinionate or review. It has got alot to do with the person reviewing it what ever it is. Does the person reviewing or giving his or her opinion even know what to do or how to play the class they are using?
Things like this you don’t know about, unless they state how much time they have spent playing with said class.

Personally, I just stay away from opinions about video games or content within it. I’ve had many times heard this or that was no good or in some cases was good and just wasn’t true.
Most likely because some one didn’t have patients to learn what works best and what does not work before they gave a review or opinion.
In the case it was good which maybe it was, it just wasn’t good for me.
Take steam reviews for a good example, with people only having 0.1 to 0.9 hrs of play time and saying the game sucks.

In the case of a class within a game, it is best to hands on it, try it yourself. Try every possible build, not some crap you read from someone making build guides. Because you are not truly learning from it, you are taking someones elses experience and basing your own apon it and then giving an opinion about something you didn’t even experience from the start.

What I’m trying to say is for example, johnny says lets try this engineer build for scrapper. johnny never played as a melee class before, the guide tells him to deck out in full set of berserker armor. Johnny hits up HoT and struggles. Johnny doing some great raw damage, but dying every 30 secs. Is it the engineer classes fault or is it johnny’s fault for not learning the class and the build on his own? Then blaming the class for his own faults and mistakes.
Then goes to some site, writes a review or gives an opinion, that either HoT is to difficult and or scrapper sucks and you should never play it.

Anyways, this what i was trying to point out with my previous post opinions are like rumps everyone has one. When it comes to gaming and or classes within a mmo it’s just best to hands on it yourself, if you enjoy it then you do. Don’t matter what others think. Who you playing this game for yourself or strangers you’ll probably never meet in the real world? A little like living life. People might not like how you living it, but as long as you are happy who cares what they think?