Guild Wars 2

Hi guys,

(couldn’t think of a proper place for this, so in the general discussion it goes)
I recently returned from a month or two absence from gw2 that was out of my control and I find myself having trouble getting that same addictive buzz out of it that I got when I was playing earlier.

So I’ve decided that since my friend has just bought the game as well (played a thief with him to level 10) that I want to reroll a character, only thing is I’m having trouble deciding (thief wasn’t as much fun as I thought) what profession to play, and since my friend is already at level 10 I don’t want to keep him waiting while I try out different professions until one sticks… So I come to you people who I’m sure have a wide variety of experience to share.

At the moment I have
-level 40 Ranger (Main)
-Level 10 Thief
-Level 2 Guardian
-Level 2 Elementalist

The last 2 I have not played a lot of but I played enough to feel like I had a vague idea of how the class works (will go and play more later, but right now I need to decide on a char to play with)

So in you guys’ opinions what is the most interesting/fun class to play and why?

Thanks a lot for the help!
Rochendil

Of those I’ve only played Elementalist, which is my main.
Ele’s are probably the most challenging profession – they have the most skills with the 4 attunements and quite squishy.

Dagger/Dagger and Scepter/Dagger are really fun to play, very active and situational. You can play off your own combo fields and finishers and stack boons and conditions like mad.

But if you are still liking your Ranger you can play with your friend on that since you would be downscaled to w/e content you are doing. Some of the rewards will be downscaled also though.

Karizee.8076:

Of those I’ve only played Elementalist, which is my main.
Ele’s are probably the most challenging profession – they have the most skills with the 4 attunements and quite squishy.

Dagger/Dagger and Scepter/Dagger are really fun to play, very active and situational. You can play off your own combo fields and finishers and stack boons and conditions like mad.

But if you are still liking your Ranger you can play with your friend on that since you would be downscaled to w/e content you are doing. Some of the rewards will be downscaled also though.

that’s a good point… but I want to try something new so I can get that buzz I only seem to get when I learn new things about a class.

If you want to play with your friend, pick a class that compliments his.
since I don’t know what class your friend is playing, I can’t really say anything

I have found that certain combinations of classes play fun with me and my husband,
we play thief and engineer, elementalist and guardian, and our mains are mesmer and ranger
actually I think you should just play what you want and then spec for how you play with your friend

My personal recommendation for you would maybe be the engineer class. It has many combinations for you to try out, with the weapon kits, and I believe it is a very fun class to play. However, engies don’t really pick up in the ‘fun’ factor until you hit higher levels, due to the lack of skills that can be unlocked early on. Out of the other classes you seem to not have played yet, I would also recommend the mesmer. I only have a lv 25 mesmer myself, but it is a very interesting class to me.

Morrigan.2809:

If you want to play with your friend, pick a class that compliments his.
since I don’t know what class your friend is playing, I can’t really say anything

I have found that certain combinations of classes play fun with me and my husband,
we play thief and engineer, elementalist and guardian, and our mains are mesmer and ranger
actually I think you should just play what you want and then spec for how you play with your friend

He’s an mesmer ^^

The ranger is pretty easy and slow-paced play with the self-healing pets serving as tanks, but is the lowest performing class in the game. Save it for easy no-brain farming while you watch a show or something.

Nothing matches a warrior for kill speed, and they have great survivability, too.

It’s handy if you duo to arrange it in a way that complements, but really all profession combinations are viable.

Combo-fields are a fun and beneficial way to play with others.
My son’s thief has a lot of combo finishers, but not always a lot of combo fields. So he works pretty well with my guardian and elementalist, both of whom put up fields.

Another think I notice on my guardian is that profession does best when allies are stay pretty close. In contrast a longbow ranger or greatsword mesmer is encouraged to be further away.

One final concern is that some professions don’t really come into their own until higher levels. The ranger plays pretty much the same at level 7 as it does at level 80. The engineer doesn’t blossom until you get your utility bar filled up. Mesmer seems to need utilities and some trait points to feel capable.

One thing I probably should have mentioned, I’m playing with my mesmer friend, but we have trouble syncing up, I’ll be doing my thing for a few minutes and suddenly realize he’s gone the complete other way and I have to run and catch up… So while I say we’re playing together, we’re playing pretty independently, but we’re on at the same time and we’re trying to keep together when we can, so I kind of don’t want to play a char that forces me to hug other people otherwise I won’t be useful. :P

I don’t think you can have any idea what a class is about at 2nd level. Many of them don’t really kick into gear until you have skills and traits.

TabMorte.5297:

I don’t think you can have any idea what a class is about at 2nd level. Many of them don’t really kick into gear until you have skills and traits.

I do agree, but at the same time I really haven’t got time so play all the classes just to pick one to stick with… What I mean is, I can guess the kind of playstyle I would be using if I chose that class, for example if I were the elementalist I will probably find myself following people around for protection (I hate that) and the guardian I will probably find myself running in to fights where I probably shouldn’t (I do that anyway, but it’s nice to have a class that can back it up with their melee skill) I get that this’ll change later on (I didn’t REALLY start liking ranger until about level 10), but I can’t play all the professions at once, so I’m asking for people’s opinion/experience…

This is really personal. I dunno how can you chose a class for other people.

I can only advice you not to choose engi. It’s a decent profession but it only “ticks” at high-level so you probably won’t enjoy it much at start.

Warriors are kinda op currently with great damage and built-in survivability and with powerful ranged and close combat options.

Isslair.4908:

This is really personal. I dunno how can you chose a class for other people.

I can only advice you not to choose engi. It’s a decent profession but it only “ticks” at high-level so you probably won’t enjoy it much at start.

Warriors are kinda op currently with great damage and built-in survivability and with powerful ranged and close combat options.

hmm, yeah, I realize it seems kind of silly, I suppose I’m asking the wrong questions… I should ask why do you like the class you play?

either way, thanks to all of you for your replies, I’ll continue my research/experiments until I find something and carry on with my thief with my friend until I sort it.

Rochendil.3768:

TabMorte.5297:

I don’t think you can have any idea what a class is about at 2nd level. Many of them don’t really kick into gear until you have skills and traits.

I do agree, but at the same time I really haven’t got time so play all the classes just to pick one to stick with… What I mean is, I can guess the kind of playstyle I would be using if I chose that class, for example if I were the elementalist I will probably find myself following people around for protection (I hate that) and the guardian I will probably find myself running in to fights where I probably shouldn’t (I do that anyway, but it’s nice to have a class that can back it up with their melee skill) I get that this’ll change later on (I didn’t REALLY start liking ranger until about level 10), but I can’t play all the professions at once, so I’m asking for people’s opinion/experience…

You should take a few classes then and go to PVP where you’ll have access to all the skills and be up leveled to 80. Then you’ll have an opportunity to see what the future of the character is.

TabMorte.5297:

You should take a few classes then and go to PVP where you’ll have access to all the skills and be up leveled to 80. Then you’ll have an opportunity to see what the future of the character is.

This is actually a really great suggestion.

You can go to The Heart of the Mists where your character will be upleveled to 80. You can try out all the traits, skill sets, weapons, builds, runes, sigils and gear at no cost. Practice on the dummies or jump in a hot join PvP match to see how you like it.

Karizee.8076:

TabMorte.5297:

You should take a few classes then and go to PVP where you’ll have access to all the skills and be up leveled to 80. Then you’ll have an opportunity to see what the future of the character is.

This is actually a really great suggestion.

You can go to The Heart of the Mists where your character will be upleveled to 80. You can try out all the traits, skill sets, weapons, builds, runes, sigils and gear at no cost. Practice on the dummies or jump in a hot join PvP match to see how you like it.

That IS a really good idea, thank you both, I will do that once I get back on tonight.
Thanks!

I’d really recommend the engineer, given what you’ve played already. My main is a warrior but I’ve made an engineer alt that I recently got to 80 with exotic gear, and have had a huge amount of fun with this class, especially using flamethrower and elixir gun builds (maybe not as much damage as grenade builds but more fun IMHO).

The engineer has great versatility with the ability to swap toolkits on the fly, and works particularly well with group play, and I suspect would go well with a thief or other melee companion.

I agree that the lower levels can feel more limited – the engineer really shines when the toolkits are acquired and the trait points open up some of the higher level options, but levelling is not exactly slow in this game. You could kickstart this by doing some crafting early on (10 levels per crafting skill to 400) together with running the storyline and mapping all the starter areas quickly for extra skillpoints, which are crucial for an engineer to unlock the toolkits.

generally I’d suggest take a class/weapon set which works at the same distance. makes your life easier (though its not necessary ofc).
if you both stay together your boon/heal aoes will cover both of you, if one is ranged and the other melee, one often misses a lot of beneficial stuff.

additionally the aggro works a bit strange. IE the champ karka on lost shores near the rich ori is funny. if my brother steps up to the plateau with his ranger (full knights), the karka will instantly tag him, even if I’ve been fighting with him for the past minute with my ele. once there were around 10 people fighting the champion and as soon as my brother logged in (parked near the ori, on the other side of the plateau) the champ immediately ran up to him, completely ignoring all the other players wanting to play with it =)

if you play with different attack ranges, it’ll be easier if your melee player takes aggro (which means having higher toughness/vitality most of the time) – the other way around leads to lot of kiting for the ranged playerand misses for the melee one.