Guild Wars 2

Hey everyone,

Just got the game and have played as a Asura Mesmer up until level 8 but I don’t know if this is the class for me.

What’s a good starting class to learn the basics and is something that’s good in a group?

Any advise is welcome.

Mesmer is not something you want to start with unless you want to get frustrated… Warrior or Guardian is pretty standard, easy on the noobs and the two strongest/most usefull classes when mastered. After that, Thief, Elementalist or Necromancer. Then Engineer and Mesmer.

I didnt miss any class.

No I didnt.

I found Ranger the easiest to level up and explore the game with. But, you have to be willing to be the ‘frowned upon’ profession to play a Ranger.

Just try them all!

once you go warrior you never go back

Dawdler.8521:

Mesmer is not something you want to start with unless you want to get frustrated… Warrior or Guardian is pretty standard, easy on the noobs and the two strongest/most usefull classes when mastered. After that, Thief, Elementalist or Necromancer. Then Engineer and Mesmer.

I didnt miss any class.

No I didnt.

Mesmer is an awesome choice to start with! Grab a greatsword and your leveling is quick and easy-peasy. — Every profession (they are not classes here) is strong and useful, when played properly. Your above statement is purely your opinion.

To the OP: Try them all. No one can tell you what you will like. I hated Elementalist at first, but after almost 2 years of playing every other profession, I went back to the Ele and I loved it! So much diversity! I don’t know why I didn’t stick with it at the beginning.

As far as mesmer, like I said above, get yourself a greatsword and your playtime will be greatly more enjoyable. Also, once you get the skill ‘Portal Entre’ you will be digging the Mez even more. (Yes, I even use it during combat!)

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I found Ranger the easiest to level up and explore the game with. But, you have to be willing to be the ‘frowned upon’ profession to play a Ranger.

Just try them all!

I think that if you’re going to make a statement like that (“…be willing to be the ‘frowned upon’ profession to play a Ranger.”), you should include your reason(s) behind saying so. Such as that you were most likely referring to the role of a Ranger in a Dungeon setting and the ‘frowned upon’ AI of the Ranger’s pet.

No, I meant the general notion that Rangers are a poor Profession as evidenced in the second post.

But, I’m sure the OP will see that if he continues to visit the forums. /shrug

If you want to continue playing your mesmer, a little advice: The class has been nerfed since release in nearly any patch that contained any form of balancing.

PvE can probably still be easy if you just grab a greatsword and start pewpew’ing away, but once you start doing PvP (either sPvP or WvW) you are in to some frustration.

I would start off as a guardian or warrior as described above. Even if you end up maining another class, you still have a solid alternative for doing dungeons or other stuff.

/edit: I actually started off as a guardian and switched to mesmer later. I got 100% map completion on the guard, so it’s still the char to go for me if i want to do some PvE content and don’t to go there all the way on my mesmer (another tip: Mesmers are slow).

I’ll break up my advice as best I can, I’m listing these from top to bottom as easiest to hardest (my opinion, obviously, but I have played all classes):

Warrior: Smooth and easy to play, tanky yet dishes out a lot of damage, brings a lot of utility in the form of banners. Fantastic starter class, almost always useful in dungeons (it’s hard to mess up playing a warrior, their skill floor is at the bottom of the ocean).

Guardians: Also smooth and easy to play, is more support driven than the warrior. Also a great starter class, pretty hard to not be useful as a Guardian.

Ranger: Rangers are the kings of the early levels, pets tank for you and you level smoothly. They are annoying to use later on though since pets die when even tickled by a level 80 monster. Certain trait lines are a must, and you will not find yourself “ranging” on your ranger that much. I put them here on the list for their early game simplicity.

Necromancer: This, surprisingly, is the one class in the game that just straight up wont die if you play them right. They are a condition dmg class (that also can build power for on par damage with the other classes of its tier) and have two life bars to juggle. However, condition builds tend to not be favored in this game for dungeons or anything because of the condition cap, they also are the most selfish class when it comes to support. So only go for this class if you have a love for it (This was the first class I ever leveled, I still consider it my main next to my engineer).

Thief: Jumpiest class in the game, they’re gods if the person playing them has a good reaction time. They have the highest single target dps in the game, they are however, extremely fragile. So you need to use a lot of evades and weave out of stealth effectively.

Mesmer: Have good ranged and melee options, fantastic utility in the form of feedback, mass stealth, blink, and portal. They’re damage is also pretty good. However, they are very fragile, they rely on their utility heavily to stay alive. They are also extremely slow moving.

Elementalist and Engineer: I’m putting these two together because of how similar they are as far as mechanical difficulty is concerned. Ele’s have four elements to switch between with 5 different skills each that they need to learn how to combo together. Much the same, engineers have up to three kits with 5 skills each + a normal main weapon + a toolbelt that they need to learn how to juggle for max effectiveness. They are similar, but ele’s are more favored for their fire fields and lack of bugs.

All in all, just pick something that sounds fun to you.

Eight O Eight.8257:

Mesmer is an awesome choice to start with! Grab a greatsword and your leveling is quick and easy-peasy. — Every profession (they are not classes here) is strong and useful, when played properly. Your above statement is purely your opinion*.

*the opinion of someone that only have some 1400 hours on the Mesmer, ~550 WvW ranks and 2 Legendaries.

No, I do not think the Mesmer is an awesome choice to start with. And no, every class is not strong and useful. Some are by design much, much easier to play with. That’s not to say the Mesmer is weak, there’s just so many things broken while other classes get some incredible crutches (Guardian staff auto-attack comes to mind). When you have all the other classes at 80, then the bringing a Mesmer to 80 is a decent diversion. If you like it at 80, then by all means keep playing and getting better with it. If you do it the opposite way, you’re just setting yourself up for one heck of a disappointment.

Khyber.2693:

Ranger: They are annoying to use later on though since pets die when even tickled by a level 80 monster.

I have to say you are wrong here. When i fully went into BM my cat could tank lvl80 mobs. With there attributes up and using natural healing trait with Signet of the wild they would never die. Also with compassion training or Master bond it was too easy.

The class that interest you is the best class. It does not matter what others thing is the greates of them all if you find it boring. The best class is the one that is fun.

Every single class can be played by anyone. Some just take a little bit more of learning.

I leveled up mesmer first. And I really do like the class, but it honestly just needs a complete overhaul to make it even close to on par to anet’s favored heavy armor classes, or eles.

Anyway yeah, leveling mesmer first was such an incredibly hard thing to do. I played glkittenter to level up with a staff and sword focus (for run speed) because I worshipped osicat (a vet/retired roaming mesmer theorycrafter) at the time. It was so hard. I remeber when I was level 55 or so my PvX guild at the time brought me to AC path 2. I thought it was the hardest thing in the world and it scared me from getting into PvE in this game for a long time. As soon as my mesmer hit 80 in Orr, I started levling my necromancer (my current main with the legendary warhorn) and it was so much easier. At the time, I had been using said staff shatter mesmer in dungeons because I was a noob and didn’t know any better, and got to like fractal level 15 with it to get rings, then I stopped using it in PvE. A few months after that I leveled ele by crafting and used it for dungeons for the longest time because its DPS and burst are so good there.

Now I’ve benched my ele now that my legendary grind is over, and I primarily play Necromancer in WvW as its an AoE death machine there and has the naturally tankiness to get away with using mostly zerker gear with some cavalier pieces. I’m getting back into my mesmer in spvp with staff/GS shatter and I might start using it in WvW more often on days when we have a real gank squad since the shatter build is still good there, and a guild group always needs a mesmer or two for veils. I’m not too concerned with loot bags in WvW, but with having fun, so mesmer is a nice diversion even if it is the most overnerfed broken class in the game. When SAB comes back out I plan on getting the next color of trip mode skins to match its asuran techno theme! As the green ones are getting old, and I’m getting sick of my precious fractal GS lewl.

Border.9463:

Hey everyone,

Just got the game and have played as a Asura Mesmer up until level 8 but I don’t know if this is the class for me.

What’s a good starting class to learn the basics and is something that’s good in a group?

Any advise is welcome.

Guardian sounds like the class you want.

Border.9463:

Hey everyone,

Just got the game and have played as a Asura Mesmer up until level 8 but I don’t know if this is the class for me.

What’s a good starting class to learn the basics and is something that’s good in a group?

Any advise is welcome.

warrior. do not play or invest any money (cash or gold) on anything else until anet starts doing something substantial to improve professions and combat.

*preemptive response for those will swoop in to defend fair maiden anet’s honor… no, promises, talking a lot, making meaningless ready up videos, emails about combat, cdi threads, trait number shuffling and reshuffling and reshuffling and continuous tool tip edits are not substantial improvements to professions and combat.

Every class has their play style.
Heavy

• Warrior for high survivability and dps mixed together, very effective in melee combat. Can die quick when their defenses drop.
• Guardian for better support play style with alot of boons. Low health and limited condition removal options makes them vulnerable against attrition combat.

Medium

• Ranger for variety of combat styles, and even highly mobile support. Jack of all trades and part dps reliant on pet, most skills also more selfish.
• Engineer for jack of all trades, alot of options, also possess a good condition burst. Doesn’t possess strong skills, some skills are also unpredictable.
• Thief for fast, stealth and high single target DPS. Low health and medium defenses limits them to hit and run style gameplay only.

Light

• Elementalist for jack of all trades and alot of AoE potential. Low health and defense leaves them mostly glass cannons.
• Necromancer for attrition style combat, conditions and boon/condition manipulation skills. Doesn’t possess good spike options, only attrition style most viable.
• Mesmer for deception, manipulation and with support options. Should their illusions fail to deceive foes, becomes easy prey.

warrior and necro are the noob-classes, which should suit newbies too.

For your very first character Warrior, Guardian, and Ranger are good options. All three are very sturdy and fairly forgiving of mistakes.

The problem however with Ranger and Warrior, is the gameplay that will get you to max level easiest is probably the WORST way to play the game at max level in group situations (bearbow for Ranger and the five-signet build for Warriors). So you may expect to hit ANOTHER learning curve once you hit 80.

Necro is another decent option for a first character… but be ready to be shunned at max level, as the survivability, minions, and condition damage that make them so unstoppable leveling up are near worthless at 80, and they really don’t have much of an alternative outside of support that doesn’t get much love either.

Zackie.8923:

once you go warrior you never go back

That was true in my case in pve i cant play anything else than warrior anymore because it feels like im dead weight on my team if i play something else at the time when i made my warrior third character. It was the be all end all. Now a dozen nerfs later, In a optimal group you would only want one but compared to skill involved its way better than anything else. The damage you can do is enough to kill elite mobs in just a couple of seconds while still be able to sustain a lot of damage.

Based on only the four I’ve played a good amount of time (Guardian, Elementalist, Mesmer and Engineer) and your question for a good “starting class to learn basics” and is also good in a group: Guardian

They are great survivalists. They seem to have a set of skills/counters/weapons for almost everything in PVE. Groups like guardians as they can provide a wide array of buffs and counters.

Learning how those buffs and counters work as you level is a great way to learn the game.

That said, they are NOT just a support class. They can do crazy burst damage where needed, farm easily and can solo things others can’t. When I can’t get something done on one of my other classes , I usually just swap to my guardian and finish it.