Guild Wars 2

I’m trying to cut down on my tendency to spam alts in MMO’s, so I’ve decided to go with only one profession per armor class (for now). I’m playing a thief for medium and a warrior for heavy and I’m enjoying them thus far. So I was hoping that I could get a few opinions on which light armor profession I should choose.

I guess I’d want a character that levels fairly quickly and can stand well on its own. As far as end game considerations go, I don’t like PvP that much, so it doesn’t really matter to me how well the Mesmer, Elementalist, or Necromancer do in that arena. I would like to play a character that deals solid damage and brings good utility to dungeons.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions and advice. I’m still new to this game and I’m loving it thus far, so I’m hoping to play a caster that can be as enjoyable as my melee characters.

PS: I guess it isn’t as important, but which race would you suggest? My thief’s a Human and my warrior’s a Charr. Would you guys go with Norn, Asura, or Sylvarri?

Starting off my post with a disclaimer, first and foremost you should try out all the classes and decide for yourself which one you like the most. Pretty much everyone here has their own playstyle and opinion. Very rarely will you find posts 100% in line with your own impressions, so always read up and try out classes for yourself.

I won’t say which is better, but I’ll try to post a small description of what I’ve experienced with each class.

Mesmer: Going to start off with the best first. I’ve yet to really play any class that has been as diverse with my playstyle as Mesmer. You can use clones for damage and distractions when fighting monsters, or go with a condition based build. Long story short here, I’ve found Mesmer one of the most balanced classes in the game (I’m sure other people would disagree ;P).

Elementalist: There weren’t many builds with this class that I liked. A lot of people are using D/D build at the moment, but rumors are going around this build will soon be nerfed. Who knows other than ANet though. The only build I half-way enjoyed was a staff AoE build, but soon discovered I quickly became bored. Still, the support and fun utilities offer a modest amount of entertainment.

Necromancer: Ok… so I’m positive there are players out there that can make this class (as well as other classes) sing. I just couldn’t get the hang of it. There are a few viable builds with Necro (D/D, Wells, Deathshroud), but I couldn’t get the hang of many of them. Either I was too close to the mob and took too much damage, or I had to wait on super long cooldowns for utility skills. The only one I found viable was staff / minion master, which wasn’t too viable at all. There’s a lot of fun to be had with this class, but it is probably the least balanced between the other two since condition builds are currently underwhelming.

Again, I’m not the best player, and could be pretty inexperienced with these classes to highlight their shining moments. Definitely do some research in the class forums, gw2 wiki, and look at some builds on gw2 codex to try them out in heart of the mists before dedicating yourself to just one.

I hope the best for you

Personally, Elementalist is my favorite class in the game, but which caster class you’ll like best would depend a lot on your play style. All three of these classes deal good damage, bring good utility to dungeons and are generally useful to groups as well as standing well on their own. I have characters of all three classes and haven’t noticed much difference in the speed of leveling.

So, given that all these things are pretty much the same, let me share with you some of the prominent characteristics of each class:

Elementalist: Extremely versatile due to the attunement system, meaning that each weapon has four entirely different skill sets depending on your element. To be an effective ele, though, you’ll need to learn all of these — you don’t have to do it right away, but by 80 you’ll want to know how to use your skills in all four elements and be able to rapid-fire cast them to maximize your combos, boons, and general damage. It’s really fun and fast-paced but may be too complicated for some.

The most popular play style for ele by far is dagger/dagger, which is melee range. D/d eles are very agile and mobile, kiting is often a must, and I’m told that in some ways it plays similarly to thief. Personally I play staff support ele, which is long range. Even as a support build I do good damage; I enjoy keeping boons and healing stacked on my party while applying burn, bleed, and other conditions on the enemy. Other weapons the ele can use are mid-range scepter and focus; I don’t know much about these, but focus is popular in WvW for its projectile-blocking abilities.

Necromancer: The highlight of this class is that of the casters it’s probably the most durable — Necro not only has the highest base HP of all three, but it comes with a second health pool in the form of the Death Shroud, which also possesses some powerful attacks. There are several viable ways to play necro — they have lots of skills and traits that can apply conditions, heal conditions, turn conditions into boons and vice versa, etc., so condition damage builds are very popular; personally I favor a dagger/dagger power and lifesteal-based build which can mow through enemies fairly fast. Staff is also a very popular necro weapon which supplies a number of AoE effects, fear, and bleed. One unique mechanic of the class is the undead minions; they’re buggy at times but can effectively tank and some do decent damage, so if you’re attracted to the idea of a caster with pets they might be worth a try.

Mesmer: Less familiar with this class so I can’t speak in detail but… here the class mechanic of course is the clones — these are mostly used as a distraction and an offensive weapon and can’t tank for you for very long, so again being mobile and avoiding the enemy is a must because you are quite squishy. Your character will be teleported to and fro over the battlefield by many of the clone-producing skills; personally I find this really disorienting, but if you play and enjoy thief you may be more used to the rapid-fire movement. In any prolonged battle you will be trying to up your number of clones as much as possible so you can shatter them to damage or debuff the enemy. Staff and Greatsword, both long range weapons, are popular choices; in my personal experience staff offers more defensive options and will help keep you alive better.

I hope this helps at least a little in making your decision!

Edit: also as far as races, personally I think they’re all great! It really doesn’t matter which ones you pick, so just go with whatever you personally like the best. My main is a human, but I found the sylvari most fun in the character creator because they have so much color and variety. (And heck, they glow in the dark!)