Guild Wars 2

Hello, I’ve had this game since December, I played with a friend on a Charr Thief until 17 in January, unfortunately he disappeared, and I also abandoned the game until recently. Currently, I can’t seem to find a class to fit my play style. In most MMO’s, I play either a burst mage-type, or a burst agile class. The thief in GW2 doesn’t seem to cut it for me at the moment, and I’ve made two other classes, a ranger and an Engineer. None of the adventurer categories are cutting it, and I’d like to hear your opinions on your main class, and/or what you see each class is best for. I feel like I’d enjoy a mesmer, as they can be both a melee and mage-ish character, but I want some opinions.

Warrior! warrior strong! grrrrr

Personally I love to play counter and control or support. I really enjoy just shutting down foes or being a keystones of a team and none of the classes in game really offer that at all…

Elementalist. It does everything well and is fun to play. It keeps my attention.

I’ve leveled one of each profession to 80 and I keep coming back to my engineer. I find the playstyle fun and challenging enough to not get boring even after almost 1k hours, and the versatility I’m able to have with a good kit setup is amazing. I like that despite being technically a ranged class, as an engineer you’ll most of the time do your max damage at close/melee range, and that I have really high damage once I get my rotations down. Also – works really well in party content, which is nice when I run dungeons/fracts with my friends.

Class choice is obviously very dependent on personal taste, and sometimes one that doesn’t click at first might at some later date, on using a different build. I hope you find something you enjoy.

(As a note: I found mesmer really annoying to level, and the damage really wasn’t stellar unless all cooldowns were ready and reflects could be used, which sounds easy but isn’t always in PvE. Also the mobility is mediocre, so keep that in mind. They’re really handy to have in your party in a lot of content, but it’ll take a while to get to full potential, is what I mean, so if you think that might be a good class for you do perservere.)

Engineer for fun, Warrior for group events, Ranger just because I kinda like them.

Will probably never log into my Necro, Guardian, Elementalist or Mesmer again. Don’t know why I made them at all, to be honest.

It sounds like the elementalist is exactly the class you want. As a staff ele, you’re a high-powered, long-range support character. As a D/D or S/D ele, you’re a close range quick mover.

For me nothing beats an engineer. Tons O’ Damage, has options to deal with anything that comes your way, lots of combo potential.

What didn’t you like about engineer? Lots of gtfo skills and the Tons O’ Damage thing make it seem like a good fit for you.

I actually found that the Ranger fills the role I thought the Thief would fill based on my experiences in other games.

I wanted an agile character with lots of evade and burst dmg. With Sword/Dagger and Greatsword, you have Evade on Sword 3 and Dagger 4, as well as a block on Greatsword.

Just for variety I switch it up sometimes, to Sword/Dagger + Sword/Warhorn (Warhorn 4 is awesome) and I’ll slot Call Owl with this setup if I am playing a Norn.

People should keep in mind that the OP has a L17 thief, and L (unspecified) ranger and engineer, I suspect also low level. Engineer plays dramatically differently at low levels. If there’s another profession that was more of a pain to level, it was Mesmer. Mesmer did not become interesting for me until Master traits, and those now unlock at L60. Makes me very happy I rolled my Mesmer before trait changes. Ditto the engineer.

OP, GW2 is not really a traditional MMO in which leveling content is one thing and endgame content is something different. The exception to this is dungeons. If you’re aiming for dungeon play, you’d be better served to ask in the dungeon forums, because serious dungeon parties will want specific professions and builds.

If you’re intending to just do world events, and living story, that’s another matter. Other than some of the recently added armies, the content you’ll face stuff like you face during level-up. If you don’t like the way Thief plays at 17, you probably won’t like the way it plays at 80. The exception would be if you have not yet tried all weapons, because, well, how would you know if a weapon or weapon combo works for your tastes.

As far as agile + burst… Thief would seem to be the main profession for that. Ranger can be made to work, but the burst damage potential is limited because some of ranger damage is tied up in the darned pets. Engineer damage is inferior to Thief, Warrior, Guardian, Elementalist, Mesmer and to some extent Ranger. In some circumstances, especially PvP, it is behind Necro. Warriors have mobility in some builds, and can generate a lot of burst in some builds. They’re also less squishy.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Engineer damage is inferior to Thief, Warrior, Guardian, Elementalist, Mesmer and to some extent Ranger. In some circumstances, especially PvP, it is behind Necro.

This is so wrong it hurts.

Also for leveling, equip the bomb kit. Hooray you win.

I’ve leveled all classes to 80 now and I spend most of my time in open world pve. My warrior is the most fun but anytime I have something challenging I keep going to back to my ranger. I just enjoy that play style the most.

Elementalist seems to fit your play style, so definitely give it a shot. Mesmer, for me, was fun for a while but the lack of mobility, overall dps and build variety made the class tedious to play.

Elementalist is the way to go. I switch between Ele, Warrior, Ranger and Engi. While I like the other classes (mesmer was my main for awhile, as was thief) I find the above 4 to be the most fun and versatile. Guardian is great but its def not what youre looking for. Thief is great for burst damage, but if you find you dont like it ele is the other side of the coin. Thief is also much more deadly at lvl once you have more traits, and low level its kinda like a warrior stealth and low hp.

I’d have to say engi…though necro is my favorite.

Engi works good in dungeons and can do a lot of things in WvW. He’s mobile, has tons of CC, decent group condition clear, pretty much, you know how to play him, he can do a lot of things and compliment a lot of other classes.

Necro though….I love it so much because of WHAT he is supposed to and still could be. I like the concept of siphons, I love the fact he is a master of conditions, I like the concept of turning my enemy’s own strength’s (boons) into weaknesses (conditions.). I also love the concept of using other people’s life force against them, that the more enemies that are around, the more life I can draw on to fuel myself, not to mention having my own minion army to do my bidding….or at least a squad. I would love to see them do more things involving soul magic. But the minion ai is horrible right now, necro’s don’t bring really any group utility, are very weak to CC, and can only use life force to just enter into a state that cuts them off from utilities and doesn’t help allies much and blocks all healing so there go siphons, and the amount of health you get from the siphons is just pitiful, and necros are not too difficult to get away from if you just bring a couple of movement abilities like a teleport or dash.

In short! Engi fulfills my needs, but necro is the class I truly want to play.

Thanks all for replying. I’m going to make an Ele, try it. I may play it to 80 before I make a decision. After the Ele is 80, I’m going to try Guardian, for two reasons. Reason one, I do enjoy beefy paladin/cleric type characters, although not my favorite, I do enjoy them. Reason two, I’ve seen tanky Guardians that also deal some damage with what I believe to be a greatsword as main weapon and staff as an off weapon. The only flaw with the damage guardian, is that they’re only really swell against solo targets, otherwise they are not dealing enough damage to the group, and aren’t tanky enough to serve as a wall. I may give my thief a go until 80 to see his play style again, and I’m hoping to accumulate enough gold to buy extra character slots with currency exchange, to try each class. I think that will be the only way I’ll truly know what character I enjoy the most. As I’ve seen stated above, one of my issues is that I haven’t stuck with any character long enough to see what style I like the most. I don’t believe I can go into this game with the default mmo mindset, as these classes are not classic mmo styles. I’ve recently tried the Elementalist (last night) in PvP, and was slightly disappointed, not with damage, but with being squishier than a slab of jello. I believe I expect too much of the classes, so I’m let down with the results, because the feeling of these classes don’t meet par with my standards. I’m not saying they’re bad, I just have extremely high standards, especially for rogue-type characters as they are my favorite. In WoW, I was happy with the rogue for a while, and grew tired of the repetitiveness of dungeon after dungeon and then PvPing with new gear. With this game, I get tired with the aesthetics of early armor (I’m really big on aesthetics, and from level 1-40, the armor really makes me want to cry), and the thief is extremely squishy without stealthing or evading every two seconds, which I haven’t mastered. The necromancer, I like the idea, I just haven’t put too much time into any Condition class yet. Warrior, I see them dominating PvP, WvW, PvE, just everything, but I don’t feel too interested because they are everywhere. Mesmer, as stated above, I learned quickly that bursting was hard, and they were mainly just battlefield distractors, to soon be joined quickly by their team to finish you off. Ranger, I enjoy, but being so statically reliant on the pet is a small flaw, and then I noticed that PvP is not that great as them, because you have to be more of a hit and run kinda guy, I want to be more of a hit, then hit harder afterwards kinda guy. Engineer, I like their potential, but I know very well I’ve got no idea what I’m doing as them. One thing that makes it hard for me to get into Guild Wars, is that I no longer have a group of people I can play it with, and joining local guilds aren’t my favorite, as they tend to be large. I play on Borlis Pass, and people in my level ranges don’t tend to group with randoms, and I don’t either, I just would like a companion to level with.

I play a variety of characters – although the three that always stand out to me are ranger, warrior and guardian.

As for the whole “wall” thing with tankiness…the meta in this game usually involves everyone getting up close. It’s not like WoW where some of your best DPS is ranged, the elitists will tend to shun longbow rangers or staff eles when it is relevant. And while these people are few and you shouldn’t let them influence how you enjoy the game, there is the truth that you’ll usually be accompanied with DPS who are also “tanking” – so it’s not like your primary role as a guardian will be tank.

However you’ll still have access to some of the best supportive skills in the game – guardian consecrations and shouts are pure gold.

Perhaps I’m a bit of a broken record here, but I don’t post much so it’s likely no one remembers…

Ele is the only fun class for me. If it wasn’t for the Ele I would have left this game a long time ago. It tests you to play it and it’s rewarding to play it well. People always say the risk vs reward with Ele’s is awful but to me the reward comes from playing it well.
I find it difficult getting other classes to 80 because I find then so tediously dull, although I do have a Warrior which I play when I want some casual hack n slash action.

tomlin.8204:

Perhaps I’m a bit of a broken record here, but I don’t post much so it’s likely no one remembers…

Ele is the only fun class for me. If it wasn’t for the Ele I would have left this game a long time ago. It tests you to play it and it’s rewarding to play it well. People always say the risk vs reward with Ele’s is awful but to me the reward comes from playing it well.
I find it difficult getting other classes to 80 because I find then so tediously dull, although I do have a Warrior which I play when I want some casual hack n slash action.

I’ve given the elementalist another go, and I’m beginning to like it more and more. I think I didn’t originally like the class because I decided to just test PvP off the bat. I’ve never before done WvW, so I don’t know how it’ll be when I decide to try that, but for now, I’m just going to level it. The people who above stated the Ele was what I was looking for were correct. D/F Is a great combination for PvE, but haven’t tried D/D. I think I’m going to focus on either Fire and Earth attunement for survivability, or Fire and Lightning for pure damage.

The Necromancer seems to fulfill my needs more than the other classes so far. It’s not the best when compared to the other classes, but I just feel comfortable playing one. But then again, I am comfortable playing summoner classes in RPGs, be it single-player or multiplayer.

An Engineer for me. I can do everything I want with this profession with a complete change of playstyle whenever I feel bored my the current one.

Mesmer is the most fun for me (I have 3). I enjoyed leveling them although my last one not so much since she was leveled after the April trait change even though her traits were grandfathered in. With the changes since April a mesmer would be a lot less fun to level.

Next I like elementalist. Then ranger. I have a special fondness for my ranger since she was my first character created. My fourth favorite is guardian. Then comes engineer, then warrior. Then necromanacer and last is thief. Even though all are at level 80 some I haven’t really explored their full potential mainly because their style just didn’t appeal to me.

Ele by far being able to both start and end combo is what i live for in these types of games. By adding more then one field type just makes it all the better. Only an eng can do more but not as well as in there combos fields are a few more steps to make work and in any real combat imposable to get the full use out of where ele needs to and can use full combos in combat.

Only if they made forces act like the staff with it comes to having 4 different fields that would go a long way to making ele more then staff only if they want to max combos.

I also think ele would be what you are looking for. I would seriously suggest you do not use staff if you are just running in PvE without a group. Go daggers or scepter/dagger.

WvW Current Burst DPS (Ranged) Meta Award goes to: Ranger

You need to decide your end game and choose based on that decision. For me Ranger fills all the niches, but I still have one of everything.

Thief for me. I played Sin in GW after factions came out and that kind of “Rogue” class is always my fav in any RPGish game.

As far as your “burst agile” comment try out a D/D elementalist. Would fit like a glove me thinks.