Guild Wars 2

Hey, so I love Gw2 and have owned the game since it was in beta. But I’ve only began to truly play it now.

so my problem is that I’m having huge issues with picking a ‘main’, in WoW i had dozens of characters and most of them at max level… but i hate having multiple characters, I’d like to stick to just one.

So far I’ve leveled each profession to level 20 at least, but with Elementalist/Mesmer being 35, so i could get a feel for each profession.

But I still can’t choose !

I’d really like a profession that has good weapon choices, a lot of unique utility skills, and, well, the ability to deal a large amount of damage quickly.
I enjoyed Ele/Mesmer but their lack of weapon choices made it become fairly boring to me.

I generally prefer to be a caster of some sort, but i also enjoy being a kind of active, athletic type archer/melee. After playing Mesmer to 35, I’ve also found I love the stealth in this game, even if it’s something small like stealthing you at low health, I like it a lot.

And last of all I love being able to do combos on my own, something I hated about Mesmers was their major lack of combo fields and combo finishers without allies.

I enjoy having access to a lot of good armors too, I’m talking lots of nicearmors to transmogrify.

TL;DR: What is a profession that has burst, stealth/invisiblity, a lot of choice/customization, maybe some way to support their allies (even if it’s very small), and is self-reliant.

Thanks a lot if you help me out with some suggestions !

P.S: I really don’t care what is ‘over powered’ and what is not.

Warrior or Guardian.

Everything else is inferior.

…Is there a reason why everything else is inferior ?

Necros – Very long bug list of traits and skills not working.
Ranger – Warrior can easily out dps them at range, pet mechanic is horrible.
Mesmer – Good utility for glitching dungeons and fractals, also useful in WvW. An ok class if thats your thing.
Engineer – In order to achieve the same damage as other classes, you need to mash the keyboard till your fingers bleed.
Thief – Good if you like running away from everything.

Schnuffles.5369:

Necros – Very long bug list of traits and skills not working.
Ranger – Warrior can easily out dps them at range, pet mechanic is horrible.
Mesmer – Good utility for glitching dungeons and fractals, also useful in WvW. An ok class if thats your thing.
Engineer – In order to achieve the same damage as other classes, you need to mash the keyboard till your fingers bleed.
Thief – Good if you like running away from everything.

U missed the elementalist, but it is pretty much a good summary

…Is there a reason why everything else is inferior ?

no. Not mechanics wise at least, especially considering

P.S: I really don’t care what is ‘over powered’ and what is not

From what you’ve described, thief/mesmer seem to be the best choices. No other classes have access to stealth (Besides engineers to a lesser extent and Norn’s racial elite)

Thieves have a high amount of burst and can AOE stealth which is quite useful in dungeons. They have no weapon cooldowns, using a mana-like system instead.

Mesmers can also stealth and burst with shatter builds. They also offer a bit of support with their staff stacks boons iirc. They focus on making clones and exploding them for damage/invincibility/etc.

Elementalists don’t have stealth, however can burst, and probably has the greatest variety of skills and best comboing in the game. (Range is an issue though, since its dependent on weapon used.) They have four different skillbars for each weapon.

Engineers have an extremely limited access to stealth, and have a wide variety of weapon choice due to kits. They also have decent comboing iirc.

Just choose the profession you like playing mechanics wise, and not based on its current strength-level, atm. Hopefully in the near future, classes will be on-par.

Here’s an idea

Write each of the professions on a piece of paper.
Fold the papers
Put them in a hat
Draw one at random.

If you don’t like that one, throw the piece of paper away and draw a new one.

It may sound silly, but most people beforehand do know what they want. They just don’t know that they already know it.

Hmmm. First I should state I have played Ranger and Warrior to 80. Ele to 31 (my next lvl 80), Mesmer to late 20s, Guardian to about 16, and Thief only to about 5, so keep all that in mind.

I think you might really like the ranger.

1. Not sure what you mean by “utility” but my first thought were those that added something to the act of fighting besides targeting a mob and clicking “11111” or whatever. A ranger has traps and spirits which both benefit from being used appropriately, not to mention certain weapon builds too (more below)…

1. You want to be athletic. #1 combines into this, you take traps and mix it with a axe/warhorn and sword/torch, you are constantly on the move, and using the sword requires skill otherwise you’ll be another person complaining that it “binds them” despite its amazing athletic implements. I LOVED playing a trapper/condition ranger. You cannot be lazy, you must constantly be watching where people are at, or anticipating where they will be, and to get the most out of condition, you have to anticipate how and when they will react with a likely condition removal. Fully committing to condition damage does serious damage, but it is more of a more steady and consistent damage, great great great on 1vX, but it is NOT “BAM BAM BAM DEAD”. Which leads me into…

1. Large Damage quickly > More of a Berserker Longbow build, which I now run in WvW because I tend to get more badges. Talking full on berserker for Power, Prec, Crit Damage. Light armor builds are down in 3-4 hits auto attack hits. Heavier builds are down after you unleash your spectrum of moves that increase might, vulernability, burst, but all in rapid succession…still fast. Additionally, to be GOOD at staying alive AND doing this much damage, you still need to be on the move and agile…athletic.

1. Combos on your own! Fire trap, frost trap off the top of my head are Fields, and of course you have your finishers in there. So far, I did the most complete combos on my Trapper ranger using the fire trap and monarch’s leap. BTW, Warrior does not get any of their own combo fields, but has lots of combo finishers.

1. Weapon options…lots of them. Shortbow, Longbow, Axe, Sword, Torch, Warhorn, Greatsword, Dagger.

Of all the things you said that rangers are really missing out on is stealth. Nothing great there.

Just a couple of post notes about Condition/Trapper vs Berserker. I tend to prefer to swap to my Trapper build in a dungeon as I get about 5k more health and am a lot tougher…I’m often one of those players that stays up longer than others if I go down at all. When I first switched to Berserker it was at request of a guild member who was wanting to “test an idea” and I fell in love, but first started with the shortbow, but ended up falling in love with the long bow…I mean I love crits on auto-attack, and I am traited for longer range so I hit them when they can’t hit me XD. Anyways, in the field it is important to know what to do to keep distance between yourself and enemy as you are kinda squishy as a glass tank berserker!

Anyways, hopefully I provided some great info to anyone who wanted to read!

(edit: I don’t…know…what i did to not only indent it but cause it to say .1 .1 .1 .1 because I swear they are listed 1-4.)

Finally, to add to the comment that Warriors easily get a ranger. I have never been down by a solo Warrior on my ranger, in fact, I am almost never downed on a 1v1. Longbow with increased ranger can put warrior to shame. Think in this order. Warhorn #5(might x3), Elite skill Rampage as one (crit chanc 20%), Longbow #4 Pushback, Longbow #2 Invulnerability 10% more damage, Longbow #2 rapid burst, #5 Barrage in their path. If not using Warhorn, Shortbow #3 for a jump back and some rapid auto-attack until LB is up again.

Seriously, I know it sounds kitteny, but most guys run from me once I start to unload on them, and unless they are especially skilled for a getaway or have allies right there, they do not get away. I cannot recall a time when one of them ran at me and survived it and they WEREN’T a thief..thief has been the only class to catch me kitten thieves…… Put me in a mob swarm and yea I am dead meat, but that’s why I avoid that situation :P. (in WvW, I haven’t really done PvE so I know this can change)

Try taking what profession you have leveled up and changes how you play them if you have ele all in dmg try to go tankly if your mesm is all in dmg try to go for more of a steal set up. I am not sure how your set up is but try things out most rare gear is good enofe to try something or even run some spvp and see how that feels. I just tried to make a support condition dmg gurad its not working well but i am still trying to make it work!

I main thief, I usually hang back and pick off targets one by one when I run solo. It’s real fun, especially when you target a commander

Hmm these suggestions have helped a lot. I think maybe I am leaning towards a Thief or Ranger, i leveled a ranger to 30 in beta and had a blast with it, and I’ve been trying out Thief the past week or so and those are a lot of fun too.

@Mandar I liked your post, and i love the idea of a high damage long bow build… But is there any other high-direct damage builds for rangers? Things that aren’t based around condition… Like Greatsword?

Also, is it possible to build so your pet is capable of being an actual threat?
My experience with pet classes in MMORPG games is the pets are just there to run around and slap things like a wet noodle, without being very useful at all. I’d really like a pet that can put some hurt down, and isn’t there just ‘because’.

Sounds mostly like you want to play a Thief. Shortbow gives you that archer feel, and even contains its own combo factory in skills 4 and 2 if I’m not mistaken. You also have access to smoke combo fields through utilities, and have at least leap and projectile finishers on pistol and dagger (and maybe sword? I’m too lazy to verify my info). As a Theif, you’d need to be fairly mobile to stay alive/effective, and can be built to be self-reliant.

My full recommendation is to Main a Thief, with main Alt as a Mesmer (or vice-versa).

Playing my own Mesmer, I was able to create my own combos fairly easily, be it with staff’s 5 and 2, or a glamor utility and Sword 2, or pistol 4 etc. Mesmers also gain a smidgen of stealth using torch, which may be underused as far as I can tell, and so you could find something interesting utilizing that aspect of things.

Maining a Guardian myself, nothing seems even close as far as self-reliance goes, but that’s just ‘cause I’m spoiled.

Also, on armor, many people seem to think Medium armor isn’t too, different and exciting per se, while Light armor definitely has some decent stuff. I personally have no qualms with any armor (at least, as a category), but if you want to see how they’d look, you can check the pvp lockers in the Heart of the Mists, or google a database. I don’t know any off the top of my head.

Mystic Beaver.4795:

Hmm these suggestions have helped a lot. I think maybe I am leaning towards a Thief or Ranger, i leveled a ranger to 30 in beta and had a blast with it, and I’ve been trying out Thief the past week or so and those are a lot of fun too.

@Mandar I liked your post, and i love the idea of a high damage long bow build… But is there any other high-direct damage builds for rangers? Things that aren’t based around condition… Like Greatsword?

Also, is it possible to build so your pet is capable of being an actual threat?
My experience with pet classes in MMORPG games is the pets are just there to run around and slap things like a wet noodle, without being very useful at all. I’d really like a pet that can put some hurt down, and isn’t there just ‘because’.

SB and LB best for big damage, but keep in mind that is just a build TYPE. You gotta keep in mind that with every profession, there are going to be your condition builds, damage, tanky, CC, etc. For ranger, this happens to be longbow on berserker (IMO). The good news is that there are many ways to do damage, and if you are thinking Ranger and burst damage, you’d want a longbow.

As far as pets, I tend to choose tanky pets just because they stay alive longer and server at least as a distraction (brown bear, blue moa are my favs because they also have condition removal and 33% defense). Honestly, I am probably not the best person to speak on how to best use pets as anything more than a distraction or a quick buff, as I am often too busy focusing on my target than my pet.

Mandar.9813:

Mystic Beaver.4795:

Hmm these suggestions have helped a lot. I think maybe I am leaning towards a Thief or Ranger, i leveled a ranger to 30 in beta and had a blast with it, and I’ve been trying out Thief the past week or so and those are a lot of fun too.

@Mandar I liked your post, and i love the idea of a high damage long bow build… But is there any other high-direct damage builds for rangers? Things that aren’t based around condition… Like Greatsword?

Also, is it possible to build so your pet is capable of being an actual threat?
My experience with pet classes in MMORPG games is the pets are just there to run around and slap things like a wet noodle, without being very useful at all. I’d really like a pet that can put some hurt down, and isn’t there just ‘because’.

Maybe you missed the part about Berserker and Longbow and the details (I did edit and add a lot maybe since you first read, so maybe reread and sorry in advance for the novel). Put it this way….on a good night WvW, in say 2-3 hours, I will get 30-50 badges and 150-200 kills. Granted, on those nights, I always try to party up because that always increases badges. Bottom line, a berserker ranger with a shortbow/longbow and a warhorn toggled in/out real fast when you can spare the time…does INSANE damage. Best part is you get to do it at a comfortable distance…most of the time. Thieves are the tough spot, and I usually like to move around a lot and randomly dodge when I suspect one is stealthed nearby.

As far as pets, I tend to choose tanky pets just because they stay alive longer and server at least as a distraction (brown bear, blue moa are my favs because they also have condition removal and 33% defense). Honestly, I am probably not the best person to speak on how to best use pets as anything more than a distraction or a quick buff, as I am often too busy focusing on my target than my pet.

I think you misread mine, but i guess i phrased it poorly.

I meant to ask, is there anything other than short bow/longbow that is actually capable of “insane” damage?

The oldest profession on earth is a good choice….you already have the name for it.

I play a thief most of the time (currently level 57) and it’s by far my favorite class. The best thing about it is I can get out of combat at will, which makes snagging those POIs placed in the middle of a mob’s camp very nice.

Mystic Beaver.4795:

I think you misread mine, but i guess i phrased it poorly.

I meant to ask, is there anything other than short bow/longbow that is actually capable of “insane” damage?

Yea you’re totally right that I misread… funny cuz I realized that and I had totally reedited and submitted my post between the time of you reading it and and posting a reply :P. Read up hahaha.

And now we have both versions for view!

But yea…like I said…I really think that most classes only have 1-2 options of high DPS, and some of them obviously more insane for others. LB is the insane option for rangers.