Guild Wars 2

Hey there guys!

It seems that many people have different experiences on a vast scale in this game to the point where they feel different about the classes and of course their difficulty. I’m actually interested to see what classes people find the most difficult to play and in what game modes so I started a thread about it.

Basically my request is that you list 3 things:

- What game mode you currently play the most. Select 1 – (pve,pvp,wvw)
- How difficult do you find each class to play. – Hardest to easiest (also if you havent played a class enough to decide, specify)
- What do you main as a class? Or what 2, 3, etc classes would you consider mains?

I’ll go first:

1. WvW
2. -Thief (Hardest for me)
-Warrior/Mesmer
-Guardian
-Elementalist (Easiest for me)

Classes I don’t play enough: Necromancer, Ranger, Engineer.

3. Currently Guardian but playing warrior a lot lately.

Your turns! Thanks for reading

There are no classes in GW2, the word you want is profession.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Profession

What do I play the most?
PvE with WvW edging on it.

Hardest to Easiest? It’s not so much “hard” as “learning inside out”.
Elementalist (the APM aren’t relaxing to me), Engy, Necro, Thief (it’s hard to master, I feel), Mesmer, Ranger, Warrior, Guardian.

What do I main?
I consider my Thief my main, but I haven’t played her since October, really. I keep putting the effort into my Ranger, but I get distracted by Elementalist and Engineer. I like the Thief and Ranger best, from concept to playstyle to style factor.

Karizee.8076:

There are no classes in GW2, the word you want is profession.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Profession

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIr8u0j08gU

So you’re saying GW2 has no class?

PVE: from easy to hard
warrior
guardian
mesmer
ranger/necro
elementalist
thief /engineer

WWW from easy to hard
thief
mesmer
elementalist (d/d)
necro
guardian
warrior
ranger
engineer

Lalangamena.3694:

PVE: from easy to hard
warrior
guardian
mesmer
ranger/necro
elementalist
thief /engineer

WWW from easy to hard
thief
mesmer
elementalist (d/d)
necro
guardian
warrior
ranger
engineer

Heh … I would move the guardian all the way down for PvE but there are some things I need to fix up with mine.

As a guy with an 80 of every class, from a dungeon perspective, easy to hard:
Warrior
Guardian
Ranger
Necro
Mesmer
Thief
Engineer
Elementalist

This is purely based on ease of use and not necessarily effectiveness. I wouldn’t consider any of my characters to be my main, though my guardian gets priority on ascended items since he’s the only one with a decent personal fractal level. I don’t play necro/engineer/ranger much though, because they’re pretty bad. I also try not to play my mesmer unless necessary because it’s the only class I don’t enjoy.

Observation: there are classes like the Ele which are very easy to play suboptimally in the open world, where a naive player can get to 80 never realizing how non ready they are for WvW or explorables/fractals. I never mastered my ele for endgame and finally rolled a wells necro. Although I have ele / necro / warrior / guardian / mesmer at 80, won’t post a list here because I only play the necro well enough to even put on a list

I do PvE and WvW, sometimes s/tPvP, but waiting more on the improvements on the last one.

I have one of each class, but not all are lvl 80.

On PvE my guardian and warrior are just faceroll across the world and quite easy in dungeons. I usually get as many mobs on me as I can see and kill it all without problems.
Ele is quite easy to play also, when you get used to the rotations (d/d).
Ranger is easy if you have the right pets to tank for you or if you use a regen/evade build to tank while your pet does massive dmg.
Thief and mesmer I have to take care a bit more, the thief have perma blindness and it makes trash-cleaning very easy, but doesnt work agains boss/champions/vets.
All in All, open world pve is quite easy with all classes, massive events are easy but if you want to be effective you need good and constant AoE.

WvW
thief is hard. The playstyle demands constant awareness of your resources, the enemy buffs and strategies and the surroundings. Its a lot of fun to sneak behind the zerg and take a few people trying to return to the main fight, but you really need to drag them away or if some others show up you get roflstomped/CCed/AoEed. Great to solo camps fast and run away…
Warrior I love to play when the zerg is EVERYWHERE (EU T1, and sometimes you just want bags) I set him with a riffle and buffs/banner and just need to take care with reflection walls. Sometimes I change to double axe and jump into the enemy zerg with massive aoe for 4 secs (balanced+frenzy+endure pain) and try to run back inside… its fun!
Ele (d/d) is just roflstomp-buffs-immortal looong fights… Was my first 80 and I got a bit bored of it a long time ago…
Guardian is great. Its quite a balanced class… I can buff and give support in zergs, I can survive and get kills on small fights and need to take care with certain necros and things like that…

My main used to be the thief, and I still play it a lot on wvw, but have been playing the guardian more. The playstyle translates well from PvP-PvE-WvW and its a class always welcome to groups. Thief I need to do a lot of changes from one scenario to the other (traits, gear, and above all the playstyle) and that was annoying.

I play all professions. (Eight 80’s and working on more).

None of them have been difficult to learn.

I play mesmer, warrior, wells necro as my “mains”.

I prefer some over others. Depending on PvE outdoors, Fractals, Explorables or WvW.

I enjoy some over others. Depending on PvE outdoors, Fractals, Explorables or WvW.

“Playing”, “Playing well”, and “Mastery” are all points on a sliding scale based on a combination of many factors (all of which I believe are highly individualized.) And probably affects the perception of “difficulty” and enjoyment. I sound like I know what I’m talking about, right? <rolleyes>

People have 7 different intelligences. Not everyone has the same mix of intelligences, any of them not necessarily at the same level as another person, nor necessarily all of them at any level.

Some professions might be “intuitive” for some players to pick up, others may be a stuggle.

Not sure a “poll” will result in useful information regarding professions themselves.

The discussion will more likely reflect how people think.

goldenwing.8473:

I play all professions. (Eight 80’s and working on more).

None of them have been difficult to learn.

I play mesmer, warrior, wells necro as my “mains”.

I prefer some over others. Depending on PvE outdoors, Fractals, Explorables or WvW.

I enjoy some over others. Depending on PvE outdoors, Fractals, Explorables or WvW.

“Playing”, “Playing well”, and “Mastery” are all points on a sliding scale based on a combination of many factors (all of which I believe are highly individualized.) And probably affects the perception of “difficulty” and enjoyment. I sound like I know what I’m talking about, right? <rolleyes>

People have 7 different intelligences. Not everyone has the same mix of intelligences, any of them not necessarily at the same level as another person, nor necessarily all of them at any level.

Some professions might be “intuitive” for some players to pick up, others may be a stuggle.

Not sure a “poll” will result in useful information regarding professions themselves.

The discussion will more likely reflect how people think.

Indeed! And that’s why I was curious, see, I often see people talking about some classes being harder to play, or having a really high skill cap (no doubt to make themselves look good most of the time) so I wanted to see if this was all individual. Though there are patterns like, in PvE Warriors and Guardians often seem to have an easy place in this thread, the individual small changes are very interesting to see, so to all you say I full heartedly agree and thank you for your contribution to this thread.

Thanks for the info guys! Keep em coming!

You can in some sense measure ease of play by the number of different buttons that needs to be pressed during a fight to maintain DPS.

Warriors speced for critical damage (zerker) is very easy in that regard as you’re more or less bouncing between 2-3 buttons.

Elementalists however end up jumping all over the keyboard because of the need to mix attunements, fields and finishers to get the DPS.

All the classes are easy, all is about dps, there is nothing hard about it.

Game Mode:
Heavily PvE. I’ve started dabbling in dungeons recently, but it’s mainly been a Solo Map Exploration flavor of PvE. I have 16 characters, two of every class, and I wouldn’t be surprised to have the full PvE map explored on all of them eventually. Lots of RP too, leading to sub-optimal gameplay decisions in the name of Character Concept.

Classes Hardest to Easiest:
- Thief (comparatively poor AoE, very active lag-sensitive defenses, and efficient use of Initiative just not “clicking” in my head)
- Engineer (Buggy utilities, and an “ideal” playstyle that doesn’t sync well with how I roll, even though I love the idea of this class so much)
- Necromancer (I really really want to play a Minion Master, and haven’t talked myself into trying a more effective build)
- Ranger (Can faceroll most content, but chokes against anything that requires a more complex strategy due to limitations of Pet AI and uninspiring Utility Skills. Middle of the road because it’s kind of boring.)
- Elementalist (I’m hung up on making S/D work. Maybe I’d be less frustrated with D/D? Maybe. But it doesn’t fit my RP concept. When I get around to seriously leveling Elementalist #2, for whom dual daggers make more sense, we’ll find out. I feel that I have to put a ton more work into this class to match mediocre performance from some others, but when I’m really in the groove my versatility is unparalleled.)
- Warrior (Similar to Ranger, very strong, but kind of boring. I can feel that my Warriors could easily be my strongest characters, but I just don’t care to pursue it.)
- Mesmer (Hard, but rewarding. I have to pay a lot more attention to what I’m doing, but get results by doing so. Now that I’ve learned these tricks, my Mesmers are absurdly strong.)
- Guardian (My Guardians casually solo stuff that terrifies even my strongest other characters, except my Mesmers who can also do the same, but much slower.)

What do you main as a class?
The idea of “main” is a tricky one for me. I have 16 characters, two of each class, and go through phases of being super passionate about each one at unpredictable intervals. The Human Male Elementalist hits more “possible main” checkmarks than anyone else, including sharing his name with my Global Handle, so I guess I’ll go with him. He’s my first 80, has the highest Map Completion, has the most Time Played, most money spent on his gear, most time spent contemplating his build, and he’s the guy I pull out for Dungeons… but I almost never RP him, and that almost overwhelms all of the above. Far more people know me by my Charr Male Guardian, for example, even though he’s only 60 and has only ever done AC Story once, because I RP as him all the time. Or my Human Female Mesmer, who is 80, who is based on my main from City of Heroes (RIP) and thus gets a ton more recognition from fellow Paragon City Refugees.

1. PVE

2. a) Mesmer (can’t relate to her).
b) Warrior (easy in principle, but so squishy compared with guardians)
c) Elementalist (quite easy when you have grasped the concept of combo fields and ever-changing attunements…)
d) Guardian (Stand and deliver)

3. Guardian, with a healthy dose of warrior. Elementalist in fractals.

digiowl.9620:

You can in some sense measure ease of play by the number of different buttons that needs to be pressed during a fight to maintain DPS.

Warriors speced for critical damage (zerker) is very easy in that regard as you’re more or less bouncing between 2-3 buttons.

Elementalists however end up jumping all over the keyboard because of the need to mix attunements, fields and finishers to get the DPS.

I’d have to disagree there my friend! More buttons I feel doesn’t always mean more difficulty. Some classes have a different kind of difficulty, based on positioning, timing, movement, etc. I’d argue warriors are one of the hardest classes to play in certain parts of the game, especially glassy, as they have literally no way to sustain themselves or recover aside from their heal skill. Ele’s however do, as you can see, I found Elementalist to be the easiest class myself, where as you may of found it different. That’s why I started this thread, such differences in experience.

pvp/wvw

1.Mesmer (easy against melee or direct dps)(moderate/hard against condi builds) lots of room for creativity in how you want to attack someone and the in combat mobility is to die for.

2.Engi Very fun playstyle can be very challenging. SO MUCH (potential) BUILD DIVERSITY. Alot are useless but still funny quirky builds (I made a perma cripple build once) Like the mesmer their are a lot of creative ways to combo and play.

3.Ele Main can be easy or hard depending on how you spec. If i feel like going dante must die/yolo mode than 30/30/0/0/10 it is.

4.Thief Same with ele easy or hard depends on spec. The glassier and less stealth focused you go the harder it gets imo.

5. Asura OP

PvE
1) Guardian – no need to decide here. You can never have enough Guardians.
2) Mesmer – High damage and useful skills like portal and feedback.
3) Elementalist/Thief – They aren’t bad, just not as useful as the first two

WvW
1) Thief – Why pick any other class? Damage mobility and strong 1v1 + decent group fight presence means they are the clear winner.
2) Mesmer – Portals are good, and the class is powerful in small fights. Moves really slowly though.
3) Elementalist/Guardian – Strong in massive zerg fights, but outside of zergs, the Thief is better in every single way. If you love zergs pick one of these two.

Edit: I don’t play the 4 remaining classes so no comment on them.