Guild Wars 2

Hi, I’ve decided that I like the caster classes in guildwars 2 Mesmer looks really interesting, necromancer is fun to play and I like the whole disease aspect of the class but they don’t seem to be very good looking at posts in the necro forums, I have elemental a go and it was great fun but it was really difficult to play and I dont know if I have the skill :P

I’m a complete noob to the game, I bought it on release but am only beginning to play now really.- which of the 3 faster classes would be best to somebody who’s new. I’m not looking for a fast class to level, I’m looking forwards to seeing story etc of the game, but I do want to be going at a reasonable pace so I feel like I’m making progress.

Based on this, which of the 3 caster classes would be best for me? And what race should I pick, I want a race with an interesting storyline and nice zones. I enjoyed the human starting zone but haven’t really taken the time to look into the others.
Oh, and sorry if I’ve posted this in the wrong forum. I couldn’t find a newcomer type forum..
Thanks!

Edit: also, how’d do you level up in gw2? I don’t see quests anywhere, or anything similar.. Is doing your characters main storyline quests faster than doing quests out in the wild?

Races are statistically identical.

So it all comes down to their story / lore, and the looks of the models.
Go here to preview some armor and see which looks “best” to your tastes:
http://argos-soft.net/GW2ArmorGallery/index.php?sex=1&race=2&color=10&weight=1
- But that only shows sets, so the best way is the trading post on each race in turn.
(I find the best armors are usually a mix of assorted leveling sets. To my tastes.)

For story, this is hard to say without trying each.

Norn: Self centered and personal glory.
Charr: Duty and honor.
Human: Family history.
Asura: kitten over inventions and fighting against people who steal credit for your kitten.
Sylvarri: Lets all talk in British Accents and marvel at romance.

Professions… even harder to say. There is so much variety in the list, that you really need to try a few out and see what clicks. An ideal reason to have 8 character slots is the freedom to do this and then come back to one.

- By level 10 you can get a sort of feel for them, but each class seems to really ‘get its grove’ somewhere between 30 to 40… and that’s kind of a long path just to check. But by that point your choice of weapons, skills, and traits starts to matter enough that two people of the same class will have very different impressions of what they’re like…

So… really hard to give advice there.

Do you like melee? Well then your choices are ANYTHING but engineer.
Do you like ranged? Well then your choices are anything.
Do you like being able to totally change up your experience on the fly at any time, even in combat? Elementalist and Engineer.
Like Pets? Necromancer and Ranger?
Like ‘tanking’? Warrior Guardian Thief are 3 choices, but the other 5 might do as well.
Like ‘healing’? Thief, Guardian, Elementalist, Ranger, Engineer… and probably the others also…

- You can really change it up a lot by choice of weapon and skill…

At the end of the day it kinds of comes down to ‘which one “looks” funnest in terms of the animations you’re watching?’ Which one feels ‘epic’ as you define it while playing it?

Elementals are pretty hard going at low levels, mesmers too don’t level up so fast until they unlock a few skills. Both however become very good if you stick with them. Necro is pretty easy and fast enough to level, so you could start with him then come back to the other classes with a bit more experience.

Most people tend to level up in the human and norn areas, so either pick one of those races or pick whichever race you like and travel to those zones.

It’s all up to you though!

Edit: for leveling up, most everything gives exp. It’s best to run around zones completing hearts (should have a heart icon on the map). These are kind of side quests but you don’t need to talk to npcs, just enter a place that has one to do. They are one time only, once you do one that’s it done.
Dynamic events are the other great way to lvl up. Look for orange circles or icons on your map. Any interesting information about the place you are in should be on the top right hand side of your screen.

You should change your title to “profession” instead of “race” since you talk about that much more…and race is not so much of a big difference. Just starting locations and a specific cultural skill (which, IMO isn’t worth the hassle)

And yes, like Big Boss said…it’s all up to you. Try them all out.

Charr is a good race to play. They have a solid and pretty cool storyline. I also endorse them because there isn’t enough Charr. Nearly everyone is a Human or Norn.

As for class, that’s up to you. You could just make all three.

The caster classes all demand a higher skill level than, like, the heavy classes. As you have low base armour, you take more damage. Just something to keep in mind.

The Elementalist kinda takes some time to get started with, since you’ll need to unlock skills for all 4 elements. It took me some time getting used to the element swapping thing, but once you learn how to do it it’s pretty easy, and fun to play.

Currently levelling a Mesmer (at 47). The class does require some knowledge of your skills to stay alive in situations with multiple mobs, because you can’t just stand there and take hits to the face. But they’re also fun to play, could easily recommend them.

Have only played Necromancer up to level 10, but didn’t really interest me too much. I get that they rely a lot on condition damage, and placing marks if you play with staff.

For story, I’ve only played human and sylvari stories. Human story was ok, but I think sylvari had a better one. Heard charr and asura have pretty interesting stories too. Haven’t heard much good from norn storyline.
To level up you just go out in the world and look for events that pop up. Completing daily tasks (shows in upper corner of screen) gives good EXP too, and some other rewards. Gather materials and doing crafting is good for EXP. And story mode missions give good EXP, but you can only do one every 2-3 levels.

Out of the 3 I’d have to say necro. It’s very easy to level and they are tough as hell. Largest healthpool ingame along with warriors. Tons of conditions in forms of damage, debuffs, slows and so on.

I’m not sure how the non condition necros are, I’ve been condition spec on mine since beta and love it. People find it weak, but its infact strong when you learn the class. Really fun in both WvW and PvE. The pets are very buggy though, but there are many other great utilities to use, so it’s not a big issue.

With toughness, condition and precision gear they will be able to take a massive beating and deal a very nice amount of damage through their conditions.

It’s probably the fastest class that I have leveled.

Thanks for all the responses everybody, I’ve decided I’m going to go Human, I like the look of those and from what I’ve played of them – the storyline is quite good. I think I’m going to have a play of elementalist again though just to see if I enjoy that because looking online, dagger elementalist looks super fun!
Thanks again for all your help, the GW2 community really is great

imattacus.3915:

Thanks for all the responses everybody, I’ve decided I’m going to go Human, I like the look of those and from what I’ve played of them – the storyline is quite good. I think I’m going to have a play of elementalist again though just to see if I enjoy that because looking online, dagger elementalist looks super fun!
Thanks again for all your help, the GW2 community really is great

Np, and dual dagger Elementalist totally rocks. My favourite profession and setup.=P

Kichwas.7152:

Do you like melee? Well then your choices are ANYTHING but engineer.

Not true. I run around with the Tool kit stacking confussion on people and laying down bombs with the bomb kit (i see bomb kit as a sort of melee as you at all times have to actually stay in melee range to hit anything)

I can run into enemy zergs in Wvw, stack up all the confussion on 1 enemy that i wanted to, and get out with 15k hp easy.

I honestly prefer everything in the maguuma jungle, maybe kryta next. I absolute hate ascalon and shiverpeaks area.

imattacus.3915:

Thanks for all the responses everybody, I’ve decided I’m going to go Human, I like the look of those and from what I’ve played of them – the storyline is quite good. I think I’m going to have a play of elementalist again though just to see if I enjoy that because looking online, dagger elementalist looks super fun!
Thanks again for all your help, the GW2 community really is great

I would be wary of basing your choice on dagger/dagger ele. They are going to be nerfed hard in the patch in a few days since they are leagues ahead of all the other classes and specs. Of course I could be wrong, they do keep buffing warrior after all.

It’s important to keep in mind that unlike other MMO’s there isn’t a strict ranged/melee or tank/healer/dps distinction. All classes are expected to be able to do ranged and melee, and all classes are expected to be able to dps. The roles in GW2 are more defined by dps/utility/control. Any class can fill any of those roles but it depends on how you assign your traits and which weapons you use.