Guild Wars 2

Hello,

I just purchased GW2. I played GW1 for a long time, so I have a few questions about this game and maybe you can help me clarify some of the confusion.

1) Which character should I play? I am deciding between Necro and Warrior. I really liked Necro in GW1 for the lots of ways to play it, but it seems to me that it’s a little bit different in GW2? I am not looking for the easiest profession. The fact that there are too many warriors (at least I heard) puts me off of playing warrior a little bit.

2) As I said, in GW1, there were tons of builds and specific combinations for farming, running, speed clears, different arenas, etc. Does this exist in GW2 too?

3) What’s the situation with population? Are there a lot of people playing? The thing that confuses me is that there are almost no videos on YouTube and when there are, they have very low view count. Again, there were tons of videos how to do something in GW1.

Thank you

1) I play warrior. It’s fun…but also easy mode in some ways. You may enjoy necro more for the variety. Yes warriors are very common for this very reason.

2) Not to the same extent. This is an entirely different type of game. Leave any expectation of similarities to GW1 to one side. I’m not saying it is a bad thing, but it does come as a shock to some.

3) Population is massive in game. That is ofc anecdotal. There is a lull between content atm so population is fluctuating. The new megaserver should mean more people gathered in otherwise low pop zones, but dont be dishearetned if you dont see ppl – they are likely in world vs world or pvp or doing any number of things. It’s a big old world!

Have fun!

1. Professions are vastly different from their GW1 counterparts. Warrior is one of the easier professions to play, though I didn’t find Necro too difficult either.

2. There’s less build variety, but that’s sort of to be expected, given that there’s a) less skills and b) Traits sort of restrict choice as well. First 5 skills are tied to weapon choice (in addition to Attunement for Elementalist, Transformation abilities and Kits for Engineer), Slot 6 is tied to a heal, Slots 7, 8 and 9 are tied to Utilities and Slot 10 is your Elite.

3. They’ve just implemented a mega server, meaning that you’re more likely to run into people.

As a fellow GW1 vet, I need to inform you that GW2 is completely different than GW1 and nothing feels similar. No class plays like it did in GW1. No class has the defined roles they had in GW1. So throw everything you liked about GW1 out the window, it does not apply in GW2.

Warrior is all around better than Necro. Necro is a very selfish class that does a lot to buff itself but not much to buff its allies. Warrior is superior in group play.

Build variety is virtually non-existent in GW2. There really isn’t much you can play around with at all. Compared to GW1, might as well say it just isn’t even there.

Population is good. You’ll have plenty of people to play with. Only thing you need to worry about is WvW server population. Do some research, pick one based off things you think you’ll like.

Necro isn’t that selfish if you trait for it, you can trait to give protection in wells,
and if you cycle it right and have boon duration (either with equips or/and trait line), almost constant protection
You can also give protection and swiftness with the well heal ability, if you have the runes to give swiftness to allies when using heal

You can also give regeneration with marks and when you dodge, with traits

You can also remove conditions on allies with a well, or drawing them to yourself with a skill

There are many options to be group-friendly with a necro, you just have to look for them.

Burnham.2613:

As a fellow GW1 vet, I need to inform you that GW2 is completely different than GW1 and nothing feels similar. No class plays like it did in GW1. No class has the defined roles they had in GW1. So throw everything you liked about GW1 out the window, it does not apply in GW2.

Warrior is all around better than Necro. Necro is a very selfish class that does a lot to buff itself but not much to buff its allies. Warrior is superior in group play.

Build variety is virtually non-existent in GW2. There really isn’t much you can play around with at all. Compared to GW1, might as well say it just isn’t even there.

Population is good. You’ll have plenty of people to play with. Only thing you need to worry about is WvW server population. Do some research, pick one based off things you think you’ll like.

You’re right on with everything: honest, sincere and truthful.

Well Done!

(Op, “if you want the truth: here it is, if you don’t want the truth: you will be left with disappointment” )

Nice job completely ignoring valid points.

For the op,
warrior is one of the easiest beginner characters always welcomed in groups,
necromancer is not as easy to learn but can be more fun if you like one of the different playstyles

And any class can be selfish or selfless depending on how you build them.

re: “best” class, this class is better than that class – You’re going to have to mess around with your options, and see what suits you best. Look at the wiki and consider class and race, also. Different races have different racial skills, that will be unavailable to characters of other races. There are no class/race restrictions, but some racial skills seem to work really well with certain classes, while not being as useful for others.(IMO)

re: lack of build variety – This must be coming from people who haven’t messed with traits much. Yes, there are less skills in GW2, but builds are a blend of skills, traits, and gear. When you factor traits in, you get much more variety. The unfortunate thing is, due to the recent update, you won’t get to even start experimenting with traits until you’re level 30, and progression from there is slow. So it will be hard to tell how a given class will turn out, experimenting at low levels. Also, you can’t save/load/share builds like you can in GW1. There are numerous sites relating to sharing builds, though. One of them is:
http://en.gw2skills.net/
But you’ll be “saving” the build by making the changes to your character, manually though.

Good luck.

Sephrye.1628:

Nice job completely ignoring valid points.

For the op,
warrior is one of the easiest beginner characters always welcomed in groups,
necromancer is not as easy to learn but can be more fun if you like one of the different playstyles

And any class can be selfish or selfless depending on how you build them.

Not only how you build, but how you play them.

A Necromancer has access to the condition fear. Just yesterday I three-manned SE story on my Necromancer with a Warrior and a Ranger. My build was 6/2/6/0/0 for this one fight because we needed it to be that.

My wells gave out protection at key points during one of the boss fights to help keep everyone alive. My amount of toughness was a magnet for the boss and kept it off my team so they could output the DPS. My Flesh Golem helped me out by being the meat-shield in the start of the fight. My staff-fear lasted long enough at a key point in the end of the fight to keep the enemy boss running into a wall while the warrior, who was about to die, and ranger was able to put out the required damage to finish it off.

Before switching to that build, I was using 6/6/2/0/0 and we wiped two or three times on the fight. One can play a Necromancer selfishly or selflessly, but it doesn’t depend on the build, but rather their play-style.

OP, the difference between a necromancer and a warrior is not who is more friendly with a party, it’s their damage output. Warriors have astronomically high damage output in comparison to a Necromancer, but a Power-Necromancer can deal some pretty good damage. Not only that, but combine Necromancer using an Axe with vulnerability well and you’re bringing a roughly 20% extra damage boost for the entire party by yourself. If that’s not party friendly, then Idk what is. Sure, Necromancers can’t might stack the entire party overly well(too my knowledge), but from one GW1 vet to another, don’t just a book by everyone’s opinion on it. Read that book and form your own opinion.

You have 5 character slots, why not make both?

Just don’t use a Norn yet until you’ve gotten a feel for the classes. The Norn racial Skills are useless.

After that, just don’t make a Norn Mesmer. Trust me, I have one.

Ravion Hawk.4736:

Just don’t use a Norn yet until you’ve gotten a feel for the classes. The Norn racial Skills are useless.

After that, just don’t make a Norn Mesmer. Trust me, I have one.

So have I and think he’s great.

OP, take the advice given but still keep an open mind. What works for others may not work for you, and vice versa.

And as someone who has just started playing GW1 I have to say that this is definitely a completely different game. Try not to forget that.

1) Warrior

2) Nope

3) Kinda

Kept it short and simple. Hope this helps.

Hexi.9148:

…

run. run as fast as you can.

So.. I’ve done some more research… it seems that necro is quite repleceable in almost everything. Does necro has its place in dungeons or are people rather taking warriors/eles/guardians?

Also I read that neither of these professions are quite good in PvP, is that true? How is necro doing 1v1 and large groups?

Hexi.9148:

So.. I’ve done some more research… it seems that necro is quite repleceable in almost everything. Does necro has its place in dungeons or are people rather taking warriors/eles/guardians?

Also I read that neither of these professions are quite good in PvP, is that true? How is necro doing 1v1 and large groups?

Necro minion master and/or terrormancer builds do incredibly well in PvP, Well Necros are a vital part of WvW zergs. When it comes to dungeons, all classes and any build are completely fine, but most people will prefer you go zerker so you can complete a dungeon in 6 minutes instead of 7 minutes. Necro has some odd design quirks, but it is an extremely fun class to play.

One thing to note:

There’s no real end-game or challanging content in the game currently, comparable to DoA, FoW or such. There are fractals, but it’s mostly about dps and dodging, since mobs hit too hard and don’t have many mechanics. Oh, there are no important “interrupts” also.

Hexi.9148:

So.. I’ve done some more research… it seems that necro is quite repleceable in almost everything. Does necro has its place in dungeons or are people rather taking warriors/eles/guardians?

Also I read that neither of these professions are quite good in PvP, is that true? How is necro doing 1v1 and large groups?

Are you thinking of speed running dungeons? If so then yes there are better professions than Necro. If you’re not thinking about speed running dungeons then Necro’s are just fine. Just don’t fear stuff away from people trying to melee things. It’s annoying as hell.

I take my Necro into PvP. It’s ok. Although this could be more down to player error than anything. Necro does have a good place in WvW.

If you like Necro then play Necro.

1. Play what you want… but Necros are quite different from GW1. You can play powermancer or terrormancer (in PvP/WvW/PvE open world solo only — condition cap means in PvE if there is more than 1 condition player, you get very low damage), that’s about it.
2. You can faceroll any open world PvE content in this game with any build. There are very few builds in this game compared to GW1 (just look at the skill system). There’s really no farming to speak of, certainly not in the style of GW1. The best moneymaker is speed running dungeons: the Warrior has a couple meta builds, necros need not apply (they have by far the worst support in this game).
3. We just had a server merge (called “megaserver” by Anet) so you’ll see lots of people around. New content is pretty much all temporary (2 weeks to a month generally) and who wants to watch videos of content that’s gone… perhaps that’s why videos don’t get high view counts.

I didn’t like the warrior because I found it too easy to play. It trivializes content and make the game more boring.

Putting it another way a mediocre warrior can pretty much do anything in the game. You have to play harder with other professions to attain the same results.

The ‘forum mindset’ is a terrible way to judge anything since most of the answers will be about pushing whatever the agenda is today. Best to experience stuff for yourself.

Warrior is more straight forward, and probably the easiest class to get the most dps out of. This makes them pretty good for pug dungeons as you’ll literally get a GS, press 2 near a boss, and do 14-22k dmg. If you’re going to dungeon pug, its honestly easier to have an 80-zerk warrior to swap to. Hammer warriors are pretty good in wvw, and blowing up hotjoin spvp right now.

Necro is more involved. Bit more crazy stuff you can do. Minions aren’t anywhere near as good as GW1. Conditions are lackluster in PvE, but amazing in WvW/sPvP right now. Necro, even zerk’ed, generally isn’t going to as well received as a warrior in a pug, but most of the time nobody will care so long as you don’t die much.

PvE population is loaded now with the mega server system. WvW population varies. If you want giant battles around the clock, pick a gold league, silver for zerg/roam, bronze for ???.

I’d roll necro, play the game, see if you enjoy it. Then if so, level up a warrior to earn gold/pug with later.

Hexi.9148:

Hello,

I just purchased GW2. I played GW1 for a long time, so I have a few questions about this game and maybe you can help me clarify some of the confusion.

1) Which character should I play? I am deciding between Necro and Warrior. I really liked Necro in GW1 for the lots of ways to play it, but it seems to me that it’s a little bit different in GW2? I am not looking for the easiest profession. The fact that there are too many warriors (at least I heard) puts me off of playing warrior a little bit.

2) As I said, in GW1, there were tons of builds and specific combinations for farming, running, speed clears, different arenas, etc. Does this exist in GW2 too?

3) What’s the situation with population? Are there a lot of people playing? The thing that confuses me is that there are almost no videos on YouTube and when there are, they have very low view count. Again, there were tons of videos how to do something in GW1.

Thank you

Best advise: The sooner you forget about GW1, the more fun you will have. If you play the game as a comparison to the former, you will be very unhappy, it is very, very different (not insinuating any of the two is superior, that comes down to your personal taste).

This isn’t a Guild Wars game, really. They took the name, added a “2” to the end of it, and kept some of the lore. The similarities end there. I think I’d have been happier if they’d just named it something else and didn’t try to pretend it had anything to do with Guild Wars. My expectations were way too high.

Hexi.9148:

Hello,

I just purchased GW2. I played GW1 for a long time, so I have a few questions about this game and maybe you can help me clarify some of the confusion.

1) Which character should I play? I am deciding between Necro and Warrior. I really liked Necro in GW1 for the lots of ways to play it, but it seems to me that it’s a little bit different in GW2? I am not looking for the easiest profession. The fact that there are too many warriors (at least I heard) puts me off of playing warrior a little bit.

GW2 is very different from GW1 to the point where the similarities (the same music for one) constantly remind you f what is different.

GW1 has just a lot more stuff to do. OFC it had 3 expansions. GW2 has had zero. But there’s still plenty of stuff to do.

Just going to add that the Mesmer plays a lot more similarly to the GW1 necromancer. Than the GW2 necromancer does.

You could Consider it. Both the warrior and the Necromancer are really easy to play.

The necro is a lot of fun to play. It is totally different from gw1 though. Warrior is powerful but to me not as much fun to play.

Thank you, everyone, I must say I am bit more inclined towards Necromancer