Guild Wars 2

Hello fellow GW2 fans.
I am a relatively “new” player in the GW2 franchise, but I am loving it more and more. The game looks and feels amazing and is pretty much what I wanted in an MMO where you are given the chance to do so much content without too much pressure (as a player coming from the RNG/GRING factory that wow has become, this is a breath of fresh air).
When I say I am a relatively “new” player what i mean is that I already have 3 professions at lvl 80, and @60 mastery points, but even with these 2 months of playtime (which i did more than half a year ago, i recently returned to GW2) I still don’t have that much of a solid impression on classes, so if you would take a minute and suggest something suitable to my needs I would be extremely appreciative.
What I tried:
1)ELE. I LOVE this spec but it’s way too complex for me, also too squishy. One missed dodge in HOT maps and i’m gone. Rotation is not “hard” but not easy either. I mean i can do the air-fire switches and a few conjure wepons includes to keep up the overloads but not well. As a conclusion, this spec is not for me because it’s too hard to play, and to punishing on mistakes.
2)GUARD. My first char actually, I like the dragonhunter GS/F+T build, but same as ele, squishy. A bit more sustain, with blocks and heal imune and quite adaptable on a long/close range fight, but I’m still feeling squishy. quite gear dependent as well.
3)NECRO. well, this one i have used to boost but did not play that much (5% map completion). Have made a gravedigger build, is a lot more durable with the reaper shroud and all, but people don’t seem that willing to take me in a fractal with them.

So taking these aspects into account, what I am actually looking for is a build that is:
1) Easy to play (well not easy as in press 2 buttons and that’s it, but not FA ele complex either). More on the lines of the thief staff rotation (which is extremely easy to do).
2) Viable in PVE (not really interested in pvp) on exploration level, fractals +dungeons level and perhapps, in a few months when i get some more gear, raids. I don’t want the most META build of them all, I don’t want people drooling over that one OP spec that will carry them, I just want a decently seen and accepted profession, that is viable to do higher level fractals at some point.
3) Resilient. I understand that power builds automatically lose toughness for the “glass cannon” approach, and that is fine up to an extent, but as i said, going to some HOT map on my ele and casting an overload air on some leaper frog, getting stunned and dying in 2 seconds… not something I enjoy. What i am trying to say is that i don’t want a class that is dead unless it dodges 100% of the incoming damage and positions perfectly. I doesn’t matter how much DPS you do if you’re dead, right?
I am considering a thief currently, but not sure how resilient it would be.

As a conclusion, I am looking for a good class, friendly to a player who does mistakes and is viable in most PVE contents (especially fractals, i like those the most. and dungeons, but they seem similar).

Last of all, thank you if you managed to read this far into my post, and sorry if i was boring with my request. Any suggestion is appreciated

Thank you for your time and have a great day.

Well, let’s break it down:

Light Classes:
1) ELEMENTALIST – requires very good awereness of the battle and lots of keyboard dancing. It is an amazing class for people that can pull that off and very rewarding. Viable in every game mode, however hard to master. As you said, maybe not for you yet. Ele’s motto is kill them before they touch you. You have to learn to dodge and mitigate damage through active defense.

2) MESMER – very difficult class to get to at first. Requires good awareness of rotations, especially on CHRONOMANCER which makes it rather difficult to play. Keep in mind, however, that it offers an amazing support role in terms fo amazing buffs like quickness and alacrity and is desired in every game mode. You will have to be able to adapt and swap skills on the fly, depending on what you need as mesmer has a lot of great utility skills. Again, rather difficult to get to but try if you like it. You have to get awareness of using clones and phantasms to your advantage through shatter skills, use portals, blinks, wells etc.

3) NECROMANCER – Rather easy to play. It’s durability through Death (Reaper) Shroud is amazing. If in pain you can always use minions. For solo play there is hardly any better easy class choice. It is however not so great anymore in raids – that is of course prone to change. It has some amazing condition capabilities.

Medium:
4)THIEF – close combat skirmisher, uses stealth to gain enemies abilities. Very damaging, very rewarding. Way easier to play at first than ele but just as hard to master.

5)RANGER – kinda non specified class. Pew pew them from afar as you pet tanks. The condi ranger deals great amount of damage currently and the elite spec, DRUID, is the to go healer in raids and fractals. Might give it a try as it is very easy to play.

6)ENGINEER – IMO hardest class to play in game. Requires lots of rotations to be competitive but that pays off. Unlike ele which requires more situational keyboard dancing, engi needs some specified rotations. Not as complex as on mesmer but still. Anyway, it is a very fun class to play.

Heavy:
7) WARRIOR – the most sturdy class in game in terms of every game mode. It is good everywhere. Very easy to play, can fullfil damage and support roles. Not much to say exept that from what you need I guess this might be the class for you.

8)GUARDIAN – strong class but relies more on boons to stay alive. Not really much to say on my part.

9)REVENANT – very fun class to play, very sturdy and has that bit of ele’s dancing flavor. Unfortunately not wanted anymore in raids and group content altough it is an amazing open Pve and pvp class. Might give it a try.

Sounds like you’re looking for warrior. Simple class, desired in every mode, good damage, good mobility, good survivability.
For second I’d pick mesmer in case you find warrior too simple or boring. Desired in any mode, great survivability, good mobility (with perma 25% speed for chrono), great support, fun to play, but lacks a bit in damage department, but not as much that you wouldn’t be able to easily do anything in open world.

Thank you very much for taking an interest in my “problem” and the time to answer. Basically I narrowed it down to either warrior or ranger.
The benefit of a pet seems obvious enough and a big boost to survivability. Pet tanks, i pew pew. ez pz, so i am inclined to go with a ranger as I also noticed it is quite desired in harder content because it can heal better than other specs. Now i am not sure how complex this is, and how hard the “rotation” for either the dps /healer builds are, but I assume since you mentioned they are easy to play, should not be a big issue.

The warrior I assume suits my needs better since the build itself is not that complex and the warrior is inherently more sturdy than other classes (which boggles the mind sine there is another heavy armored class called “guardian” but meh).

I do have another free boost available so I will try them out before committing to one.

Thank you again for your response and all the best to you fellas

THE most easy to play and friendly-to-new-players class is DEFINITELY:

Warrior

For a rather new player like you it`s always best to gear for Berserker stats and run Greatsword + Mace/Shield (= CC and survivability) or Longbow (= ranged dps uptime) or Greatsword + Sword/Warhorn for map completion due to enhanced movement.

Here comes the problem, though:

Power PS Warrior has received a dps-nerf recently for NO good reason at all which is why people in fractals recently only look for Condi PS Warrios which require not-so-easy to obtain Viper`s Stats but do significantly more DPS.
The thing is: due to having Mace/Shield as a second weapon set a Power PS Warrior has A LOT MORE control over pug groups. Let`s say you are playing 99 CM and your group cant get the breakbar done for any kind of reason: Power PS gives you a lot more CC than Condi PS in this scenario which can CARRY pug groups without them realizing it. In a perfect world you would want to run Condi PS and give your group much higher DPS whilst your team manages the CC so that breakbars can be broken. This is doable and happens quite often still in pugs BUT we are not living in a perfect world and players who dont know their class in and out willl happen to be on your team and mess it up. For solo pugging I still think Power PS Warrior gives you much more reliablity.

In raids however there are certain encounters where Power PS Warrior still is more viable even without the CC aspect than the Condi PS Warrior. And there are encounters that favor Condi PS over Power PS.

This is the reason I have both sets in my inventory to switch between the builds (which is quite easy actually on the Warrior).

TL;DR

Power PS: easy to play, friendly to new players, much sustain, many CC possibilities, many movement abilities, quite versatile with weapon usage, viable but off-meta.
It is an ALL-ROUNDER

Condi PS/ Condi DPS Warrior: Better DPS, a bit more difficult DPS rotation but still easy. Less CC. Needed for raids. Mediocre movement compared to Power. Less versatile (only Sword/Torch + Longbow), THE meta-build for warriors.

To sum it up

You can start with Berserker gear but you will have to gear for Vipers stats in the end. The future also isnt quite clear as the new expansion brings new elite specs with it and the meta can shift quite rapidly towards a new build. But Warrior will let you take a hit or two unlike the elementalist and you will survive a lot more. It is definitely the best class to learn the game with as you progress and learn the encounters by heart. Once you have mastered the mechanics with the warrior it should feel fairly easy to survive with Ele, too.

Baseraver.7241:

THE most easy to play and friendly-to-new-players class is DEFINITELY:

Warrior

For a rather new player like you it`s always best to gear for Berserker stats and run Greatsword + Mace/Shield (= CC and survivability) or Longbow (= ranged dps uptime) or Greatsword + Sword/Warhorn for map completion due to enhanced movement.

Here comes the problem, though:

Power PS Warrior has received a dps-nerf recently for NO good reason at all which is why people in fractals recently only look for Condi PS Warrios which require not-so-easy to obtain Viper`s Stats but do significantly more DPS.
The thing is: due to having Mace/Shield as a second weapon set a Power PS Warrior has A LOT MORE control over pug groups. Let`s say you are playing 99 CM and your group cant get the breakbar done for any kind of reason: Power PS gives you a lot more CC than Condi PS in this scenario which can CARRY pug groups without them realizing it. In a perfect world you would want to run Condi PS and give your group much higher DPS whilst your team manages the CC so that breakbars can be broken. This is doable and happens quite often still in pugs BUT we are not living in a perfect world and players who dont know their class in and out willl happen to be on your team and mess it up. For solo pugging I still think Power PS Warrior gives you much more reliablity.

In raids however there are certain encounters where Power PS Warrior still is more viable even without the CC aspect than the Condi PS Warrior. And there are encounters that favor Condi PS over Power PS.

This is the reason I have both sets in my inventory to switch between the builds (which is quite easy actually on the Warrior).

TL;DR

Power PS: easy to play, friendly to new players, much sustain, many CC possibilities, many movement abilities, quite versatile with weapon usage, viable but off-meta.
It is an ALL-ROUNDER

Condi PS/ Condi DPS Warrior: Better DPS, a bit more difficult DPS rotation but still easy. Less CC. Needed for raids. Mediocre movement compared to Power. Less versatile (only Sword/Torch + Longbow), THE meta-build for warriors.

To sum it up

You can start with Berserker gear but you will have to gear for Vipers stats in the end. The future also isnt quite clear as the new expansion brings new elite specs with it and the meta can shift quite rapidly towards a new build. But Warrior will let you take a hit or two unlike the elementalist and you will survive a lot more. It is definitely the best class to learn the game with as you progress and learn the encounters by heart. Once you have mastered the mechanics with the warrior it should feel fairly easy to survive with Ele, too.

This is what i am actually looking for. As I mentioned I do not expect one of the META builds as a suggestion for a newbie since the META is META because it’s outperforming other builds, and for a build to outperform, it has to be learnt and used propperly, and more often than not, that build is definetly harder to play.
I currently lack knowledge in the class mechanic department, and also in the encounters/scripts mechanics department. Having an easy to learn class will help me get through content faster and adapt on other classes at a later point, when I know the encounter, I can at least make better use of what needs to be dodged etc, and at that point glass cannon classes like ele become easier to play.

Thank you very much. best regards

for casual PvE go with Shout Power Reaper…..

seriously EASIEST class ever with crazy self sustain and reeeeeealy good dmg….

you can literaly solo the entire HoT Map outside of bosses with it….

and its realy simple to use….

On WoW as an RNG factory, the other day a guildie swore he picked one character on the loading screen and the game loaded a different one. I thought (and said), well, RNG has finally hit the loading screen—I knew it would happen eventually.

But, as others have mentioned, Warrior might be the class you are looking for. And, power would be the way to go initially. Metabattle.com has lots of different builds and ideas that are helpful. As you are leveling you might want to work towards something like:

https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Warrior_-_Phalanx_Strength

This is before you get Berserker. But, just use it for ideas. Warrior will be relatively easy to level and you just want to make trait choices that make general sense.

Either go warrior (berserker) or range (druid).

Warriors are basically Anet’s favorite child, their little pet class who never gets hit too hard with the nerf stick and is often not only desirable but pretty much required in all game modes.

Rangers are doing really amazingly lately as well. Either you want to spec into a condi ranger or condi druid setup where you do massive damage through applying conditions. Or try out a magi druid setup, where you basically become the healer of the group who also boosts the other players’ DPS. You’ll be an insane heal bot and buff bot, and you’ll have an easy time keeping yourself and your friends alive.