Guild Wars 2

• I had this on another forum but was told it was probably the wrong forum.

Hi all,

I’m pretty new to the game and have been trying to find the class i want to make my main. The reason i focused on these 3 was because i like light armoured, tricky, elusive, stealthy type classes in these kind of games. High risk/reward is my kind of thing and high skill-cap is a must for me, also a good dueling class is a must.

I also want a class that is good in group PvE, so end game content PvE is of interest to me. Mainly though i’ll be WvW and sPvP. Roaming style in WvW is of most interest to me. I’d I’ve leveled the 3 of them to around 40 ish so far and experimented a bit in sPvP. I don’t want a class who people don’t want in end game dungeons or kick them simply because they are that particular class.

Mesmer seemed a bit clunky to me. I was leveling as GS and S/S as power. Does it improve as you level? Seems very slow currently.

Thief is much faster for killing but seem a bit one-dimensional. Not sure if they get boring fast? I’m D/D currently but have tried P/D also.

Ranger i liked as i’m into bow and arrow classes in general. I know they’ve gotten some buff last patch but i was playing as Longbow/GS before this. I’d stick with ranger immediately if it wasn’t for the pet, i hate depending on AI for some of your dps. I can live with this if it isn’t much of a dependancy.

Anyway guys i’d really like your feedback as i don’t have enough playing time to be able to level all, i can only do class and don’t want to waste time on something i won’t like. So i thought it better to ask people who have been there; done that.

Thanks in advance

theif is probably your best bet.

mesmer is tricky, but its not strictly speaking fast, you can make some quick movements, but its more about set up.

ranger is really good all around, but playing with the pet is required, if you want to be strong.

theif and mesmer play depend more on traits than ranger, so you will probably need to be 80 to get a real feel for the classes.

Perhaps you should play them all in SPVP to figure out what you like best.

Thanks for the advice. I’ve tried them out in sPvP but it would take a lot of games to work out builds etc before i could tell.

I’m relatively new myself, and I have tried all classes.

For me personally, thief and mesmer require way, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much kittening about to play effectively and to stay alive with, but ranger is very simple to use, incredibly strong (for pve at least, not done any pvp yet), and has the added bonus if a high damage perma-pet on top.

Ranger is most definitely my favourite of the three you listed, the plays you can pull off through using your pet and the sheer damage output you can achieve through longbow and greatsword is fantastic, on top of the option of a perma 25% speed boost and very high boon up-time if you pick sword/warhorn as your melee option.

I genuinely can’t think of anything about the ranger class I dislike, other than perhaps it’s rather simple skillset for ranged weapons (but that’s what getting up close and personal is for!)

Ranger was my first 80 (got it there a few days ago), and I’m still loving the class

Have you done much PvP or WvW since reaching 80 RapThorne?

Mesmer is by far the worst leveling experience i’ve had in this game. Even before the update, they seemed extremely crippled and slow to level. They do end up being an extremely fun class to play at 80 though and are in pretty high demand in PvE.

Ranger to me is far to typical and unless you really want to focus on pets and setting up for each encounter, it’s depth of gameplay is pretty shallow. But. if you master the class and it’s depth of combat (through setup and pet control), it’s a pretty strong one post update.

Thief is another class that post update is pretty kitten. I personally don’t like the class in general, but it takes far to long to get it up to snuff now. I made one to level 10 for the achievement and then deleted it.

I’d say overall, the Ele is my favorite in both leveling and WvW roaming. It’s a fast paced class with a ton of survivability, movement and utility (outside of staff anyway). Which is surprising since the class is typically opposite of all that.

UfoCoffee.4602:

Thanks for the advice. I’ve tried them out in sPvP but it would take a lot of games to work out builds etc before i could tell.

I’ve played a few arenas and ran with my guild zerg in wvw a few times, nd I can’t say it’s been a bad experience. The damage output from my longbow in pvp is pretty insane, though I am in full “berserker” exotic items, so I’m geared towards a lot of damage

Mesmer becomes fun when it has lots of tools, traits and utilities at his disposal to use as it seems fit.
Thus, at lower levels, it won’t be too enjoyable. Virtually every class 1-70 performs better than the Mesmer. At 80 though, once you unlock your traits, things take a drastic turn and it’s super fun to play one.

Thief is a class with a rather high skill cap. A lot depends on how you manage your initiative and cooldowns.

Can’t speak anything about Ranger, because i generally don’t like the Hunter/Archer type of classes, so i never played one past lvl 10.

I’m really stuck between Ranger and thief now. Which is best at end-game dungeons? Which is best at taking camps on their own in WvW? I like to do some late night WvW annoying solo roaming.

To help you decide:

ranger – medium armor, medium HP
thief – medium armor, low HP
mesmer – light armor, medium HP

weapons:

ranger – 2-handed: LongB, ShortB, GreatS
MainHand: axe, sword
OffHand: axe, dagger, torch, warhorn
Underwater: harpoon gun, spear
Total – 11

thief – 2 handed: ShortBow
MainHand: dagger, pistol, sword
OddHand: dagger, pistol
Underwater: harpoon gun, spear
Total – 8

mesmer – 2 handed: GreatSword, Staff
MainHand: scepter, sword
OffHand: focus, pistol, sword, torch
Underwater: spear, trident
total – 10

Special abilities:

ranger – pets
mesmer – shatter of illusions
thief – steal

Combo fields

Ranger can create 6 different kinds of fields but mainly works with fire, poison and water.
Thief can create 4 different kinds of fields but mainly works with poison and smoke.
Mesmer can create 2 different kinds of fields but mainly works with ethereal.

Good luck deciding which fits you best.

UfoCoffee.4602:

I’m really stuck between Ranger and thief now. Which is best at end-game dungeons? Which is best at taking camps on their own in WvW? I like to do some late night WvW annoying solo roaming.

Thieves are good for skipping through content due to stealth.

Rangers didn’t used to be wanted for most part prior to the update, don’t know about now.

If you are gonna be doing a lot of open world end game content (world bosses, temples, event grinding, etc.) one class will win hands down out of the 3 you mention.

Ranger. /thread

Seriously, however, a few notes.

1. You can do spvp with a level 2, so keep 1 open character slot and enjoy the benefit of being able to do spvp with any class at any time. Super note: XIII skills cost 3g and it isn’t advised to buy them with an alt you may delete.

2. Ranger is not a cake walk to solo/roam in WvW. Certain builds work, the one’s that work best are not the most popular (BM Condi/Regen over flat out Power Bow).

3. Some players (Elitists) will hate on rangers for Dungeon groups, but they hate on rangers in all content so .. yeah.

4. Ranger can also do WvW Zerg. So can the other 2 classes you mention.

5. Thief is the godling of WvW solo roaming.

6. Mesmer has serious mobility issues for WvW solo roaming.

Many more just these off the top of my head. However, let me say no matter which you choose they are all good classes for similar and very different reasons.