New to the game: What do classes "do"?
Warrior.
Liaison for [Teef]
“Please stop complaining about stuff you don’t even know about.” ~Nocta
“Please stop complaining about stuff you don’t even know about.” ~Nocta
For you its simple.
Ele.
Ele is top of dps along with thief however ele can aoe alot better to boot with the bonus of better group support.
Ele has one of the best 1v1 1vX pvp builds in the game.
Ele is required for the wvw zerg meta atm. Static field is a great stun.
Im also thinking of lvling one as an alt, they seem pretty fun.
Warrior if you want easy-mode, ele if you want semi-hard-mode.
Based on the information given — I’d suggest Elementalist.
Checking in; wanted to thank everyone for their input.
Looks like I’ll be giving elementalist a go!
Now here’s hoping I’m not too terrible at it.
New to the game: What do classes “do”?
Warriors complain they’re weak despite being ArenaNet’s favourite profession.
Guardians get the best defense in the game but take forever to kill something.
Engineers alternate between being overpowered and useless.
Rangers use longbow and brow bears.
Thieves exploit stealth.
Mesmers look beautiful.
Necromancers get kicked from groups.
Eles do a little of everything, including failing.
Based on what you said I’d have said Necromancer originally, like it appears you were thinking they have some of the strongest DoT in the game (it’s just that DoT is limited in usefulness in PvE in GW2), and three-quarter of their main-hand weapons are ranged (albeit only mid-range), they are casters, they are highly sustainable, perhaps being the hardest to kill class in-the-game discounting dedicated bunker set-ups, and as a result being tied with Warrior as having the easiest no-brain survivability potential, and they aren’t heard to learn. However, there’s that mobility thing, which for sure, is an issue with Necromancers, they do get a passive 25% move buff signet, but that’s about it (every non-heavy gets one of those, excepting Engineer), other than that they have no leaps and only one accessible teleport which needs a target.
When it comes to the other casters, Elemenatalists can be hard to play for new players due to them being made of paper on their natural-assets alone (low health pool, low armour), and while they can be incredibly resilient and hard-to-kill, you’ll need to know the class and be able to play well to be able to do this, making them a poor choice for a first-time player. As for Mesmers, as you said, they didn’t click with you and certainly have a more unusual playstyle than your regular MMO classes.
So dropping the caster requirement, I would then say Ranger or Warrior.
Ranger fits most of the criteria you mentioned rather well; They have a large amount of ranged combat options, have some strong and easily accessible group support via Healing Spring, Spirits and Spotter, are deceptively resilient due to pet-support and a large number of built-in evades (and even a stealth) on their weapons giving them solid sustain when coupled with their medium armor and health pool, and have a few good viable DoT options (though these elements aren’t used much these days ever since the Longbow buff, overshadowing them, they work no-less effectively than they did back then).
To top it off they have some of the best mobility in the game, with a 25% speed passive signet, and easy access to stability and swiftness, and frequent possible leap skills.
As for Warrior they are the idiots’ class. Not saying you are an idiot, not at all, but it does make them a solid choice for new players. They have a high natural health pool and heavy armour, along with strong passive health-regen, making them pretty hard to screw up on for newbies, and giving you a respectable level of sustain in almost any set-up (probably one of the factors that contributes to their popularity for PuGs, where you don’t always know the calibre of player you are getting). They also are heavy on front-loaded easily-accessible damage, making many people falsely believe they are the strongest DPS class in the game (in actuality, they are in the bottom half of classes for DPS potential, but that’s a different story), though once again, the benefit of this, is that even with a bad set-up, you are likely to do more damage on a Warrior than you are on any other class with a bad set-up.
They have some limited DoT potential via Swords and Bows, so you’d still have that option if that’s what you like. One of the areas they are very strong in, for any standard of play, is group support, albeit this is once again, in the Warriors case, mostly done via brainless passive stat-number boosts via traits, banners, and passive Might and Vulnerability proc’ing, though they do have alot of potential here.
As for your final concern on mobility, Warrior’s isn’t the greatest but it’s not weak either. They have no passive 25% speed signet for roaming simplicity, but they do have access to round-the-clock Swiftness at the cost of an Elite and Weapon slot, and they have a number of leaps, rushes and dashes on their bladed weapons that help them get around efficiently; They’ve got potential here but they aren’t quite as flexible at it as some other classes are. They are a good choice thought, especially for new players, as they are rather well-rounded as a class and, once again, are hard to screw-up on.
Finally, Engineer would also be a good fit for your criteria, but, similiar to Elementalist, there’s a steeper learning curve with them, and they take a good deal of understanding to use well, so you’ll probably want to skip over them as a first class too.
(edited by KotCR.6024)