Guild Wars 2

Hello!

I have been given the game as a suprise gift but feel a bit lost even after going through the class forums and the Guild Wars 2 wiki.

Engineers appeal to me (swapping between all those gadgets is so much fun) but it seems that these flamethrower wielding crazies are not welcome in instance groups due to their skills focusing on conditions which can not go above a certain threshold. There are also several comments about their below average open world PvE performance, hinting at the fact that as an engineer I will often die during events or even during exploration.

Warriors and guardians are receiving positive feedback but I never liked melee characters that are all about walking up to the target then pummeling it to death. On the other hand, these two classes are said to be able to solo most events and are favored by instance groups as well.

The reason I’m torn on the decision is because I have read that most low and mid level zones are deserted now and since I don’t have friends in the game, I’ll be going solo most of the time and will have to make do with random groups to see the inside of a dungeon.

Then comes the question of servers. Is there any website where I can see the average active population of a given server? I wouldn’t like to end up in a ghost town.

Please help?

Warrior is by far easiest to solo PvE with, you can solo with a Guard but since most of their skills are group support, warrior might be the better choice for you if you’re gonna solo. Tarnished Coast is the most populated server. Jade Quarry, Sea of Sorrows, and Blackgate are pretty populated too. I suggest joining a guild, make friends then you wont be alone!

Welcome to Guild Wars 2.

With regards to class my advice is if you like the look of an Engineer then make an Engineer. Try it out and see if you like it. Try out the different regular weapons get a few levels and try out some kits or turrets and see what you enjoy. If it’s not for you you can try something else.

With regards to the low level stuff find a guild that will help you and join their main server. If you look in the guild recruitment section find one that appeals to you and put yourself forward as a player interested in joining. Most of them will be willing to help and have members with alts that either need levelling or haven’t done the map you’re trying to complete.

BG is the most populated server, not TC! BG is so populated that no one will ever be able to join that server again until guilds leave!

TC is definitely the most friendly, and you will come across casual guilds that will help you, I’m sure.

OP, the great thing about GW2 is that you can try all classes. There are 5 slots, so you have more than enough room to experiment with those three classes. Of course, you won’t be able to fully experience each class until you get them to 80, but I think you should at least play around with them.

If you don’t RP, don’t go for TC. Ain’t nobody got time fo dat drama.

You should definitely just play an Engineer if that’s what you want to play. I PUG a lot and I only kick a player if they’re not even trying/listening, but never based on class. Though I am considered to be very patient, I haven’t noticed anyone in my PUGs trying to kick someone based off of class.

Don’t confuse best profession/build with good profession/build or even viable profession/build.

Pretty much everything you can do in the game concerning profession/build is viable. You will be able to go through most PvE content with pretty much any build. You won’t be quick, it even may take a long long time, but you will be able to go through a lot.

All profession are good, but not all build are good. Most people use hybrid build that give them not so bad DPS, while keeping a bit of defense so they can survive. This cover casual player, player that don’t really trust their skill, player that are learning to play a character or people that just don’t know how the game work and go for a healer or a tank (while this just don’t exist in this game). With this you will be able to go through everything in the game. Its won’t be perfect, it will take more time and some people really hate this kind of build and will kick you (but they are few, don’t worry).

Best Profession/Build is where the kitten hit the fan. This is were you see people hate Rangers, say that Warrior and Guardian are OP, that thief rules in PvP, etc. This is legitimate since we are talking about the best here. But don’t worry, even its a dark place for a lot of people (because its harder, cost more and people have usually less patience when they reach that level), you really don’t need to worry about that when you start the game.

Right now, take whatever profession you want, experiment with any build you want and learn as you play. I started with a engineer for the same reason you thinking about it right now. More than a year later i don’t really use my engineer that much except in sPvP, but i don’t regret my choice, it was really fun to play while i was learning the game.

Thank you for the answers everyone!

Just one more question, if I may?

I’m faced with a long list of servers, some of them with the European and others with the American tag. I am playing from pretty much the heart of Europe. Would it cause any issues to pick an American server?

Since someone mentioned Tarnished Coast being an unofficial RP realm, I’m interested in giving it a go.

Slowpoke.2749:

Thank you for the answers everyone!

Just one more question, if I may?

I’m faced with a long list of servers, some of them with the European and others with the American tag. I am playing from pretty much the heart of Europe. Would it cause any issues to pick an American server?

Since someone mentioned Tarnished Coast being an unofficial RP realm, I’m interested in giving it a go.

Im from England and have been on Tarnished Coast from the start and i have experienced no issues at all. I think EU does have an unofficial RP server too, i can’t remember which one it is though.

You won’t have any issue if you go in NA server. The only things is that you may have less people playing at the same hour as you do because of different time zone. Most player in the same time zones will be in EU server, not NA server. Anyways, some NA server have good EU population, especially for WvW Coverage, these server are usually higher in WvW ranking and have higher population : BG, TC, JQ, etc. Another good thing about NA is the TTS guild, i don’t think that EU server have something similar, but i could be wrong. Otherwise, keep in mind that if you have friend that play in EU server you won’t be able to play with them if you are in a NA server.

piken square is the unoffocial RP server for EU

but you can pick NA or EU, however if you pick an EU server you can only guest to other EU servers. (temporarily log into them..) And NA can only guest to other NA servers.

You might want consider that, as you may end up wanting to play with someone you know and what not.
I’d look at RP guilds and pick the guild, THEN choose the server based on that guild. //

As to PvE, most classes are fine in PvE. Elementalists can be squishy til lv40 or so/you have the hang of them.
Engineer is considered pretty decent for PvE.
Most of them are fine.

Warrior is the easiest class to play. but can become boring if you learn quickly/want a challenge.

Just pick a class you like most.

If you are adept at playing X profession you will probably outperform most of the dummies playing whatever profession people consider to be the “best” anyway. As someone else said, every profession is viable everywhere, and running a 5x Warrior group or whatever is considered the “meta” right now is only going to be marginally faster (note: not neccesarily better) than running a random group composition. I also wouldn’t worry about not getting into groups in the first place either, especially on NA servers, and even more so on Tarnished Coast if you choose it. I could mention that I have been playing on both NA and European servers and I can tell you the lag is slightly noticeable, but it definitely won’t matter for PvE.

Hey Slowpoke, welcome to the game and I hope you enjoy it! My advice is pick the race/class that you just “feel” like you are most connected to. Any class can be amazing if played right (except ranger lol).

I think the reason everyone regards warrior/guardian as the best is because a well-played warrior or guardian is just as good as any other well-played class, but a poorly played warrior/guardian still performs better than some other classes. Basically every class has a skill floor and a skill ceiling. The skill floor for a warrior is often higher than the skill ceiling of say a ranger. Unfortunately a poorly played warrior will definitely outperform a mediocre engineer.

However, if you think engineer is cool, then go for it. Do research and play with other skilled engineers to learn from them. You will find that engineers are amazing when played correctly. They can do things like stack 25 might and spam conditions and boons. They come with lots of combo fields and finishers which make them great for groups. You might have to try harder than warrior players, but doesn’t the effort make it more fun?

By the way, what you hear about conditions being bad in PvE is only true for massive zerg content. The way conditions work, the game detects whoever has the highest condition damage stats and applies it to all the conditions even if some of those stacks came from a different player with no condition damage stats. The trouble is that the person with the high condition stats has to have at least 1 stack on the mob, and stacks get reapplied too fast in a 50-man zerg. In a dungeon, spvp, or solo you will be just fine. And even then, engineers have a pretty nice split between power damage and conditions on their skills.

Edit: By the way here is proof that warrior isn’t necessarily the only thing that can speed run and whatnot.

If you are EU and you play on a NA server, keep in mind that you will be playing during off-peak NA times.

Unless you pick JQ, since JQ has lots of EU/oceanic and a moderate NA playerbase.

I can’t say for Guardian since I haven’t played one yet, but Warriors are not strictly confined to melee combat. They can carry a longbow or rifle as well as your choice of melee weapons, and that’s a popular combination in certain metas (e.g., arena PvP).

They also can go fully ranged with just rifle and bow if you want. That’s not a real popular setup that you will see around, but anything works in the open world game, and it does allow for decent single target and AOE both at range.

It’s not what most would consider a “real” ranged classes though, since it doesn’t have any fully ranged AOE nuke spec.

Welcome to Guild Wars 2

TC Tarnished Coast is by far the most friendly- although RP is a common occurrence it is not a requirement and is not expected of you.

If you like Engineers then play one!!

I enjoy mine when I do get the chance to play her.
I recently transferred myself from DR Devona’s Rest, a very low populated server that can barely ever complete world events dealing with Living Story and has a hard time keeping up in WvW, but I have a few really good friends there and often find myself visiting back.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to answer!

I took people’s advice and spent time creating one of each class and experimenting with them. To my utter suprise, I fell in love with the one class I never imagined that I would like as I have avoided paladin archetypes my whole life. I tip my hat to you, Arenanet. You made me main a Guardian.

In the end I did roll on Tarnished Coast and after visiting the city for the first time I looked around chat and found the greatest guild ever. I’m only level 6 but a bunch of them came to the starter area to get downscaled and do events together with me and then we did costume brawling with quaggan potions and jumping puzzles.

Here is a picture of us at the end of Morgan’s Spiral.