Guild Wars 2

As the title suggest, I’m a complete newb to guild wars as a whole, and I’m wondering which class to boost. I plan to make another char, possibly my main, that I level up from the start, but as far my boost goes I just really want a satisfying class.

To that end, I played WoW for ~12 years, and i LOVE to heal, even though my friend said the closest to that is combat healer, that’s okay as long as it’s fun. I also loved the amount of control mages had, teleporting, food, they could do anything utilitarian wise and that was dope. To my understanding mesmer is somewhat the same.

Supporting in any way is really my jam, and my friend said guardian was pretty close to that kind of thing. What say the forums? Any help would be immensely appreciated

Have you ever thought about Druid? It’s the ranger’s elite spec and it’s a good combination of support/heal/damage plus you can tame pets…who doesn’t like pets?

It’s great in PvP, great in PvE, Awesome at raiding.

You can pretty much support with any profession except the necromancer… Well some will argue that the necromancer have support but there is still a difference between support and debuffing.

If you “love” to heal, I’m not sure if GW2 is for you but you can aim for an elementalist, a ranger or a revenant.
- My personnal opinion is that the elementalist is the profession with which it is the easier to do so or perhaps the less tricky.
- The core ranger have some healing abilities but to really have an impact with your heal, you’ll need to achieve the druid specialization (While I personnaly have a really poor opinion of the druid avatar, I’m still forced to recognize that it’s the meta healer at the moment).
- The revenant healer use the ventari legend to dish out some impressive heal. The playstyle of this legend is difficult for players that are used to the game, however, since you are a newcomer, I guess that you have an advantage here.

It sounds like you have some ideas. Mesmer does have a great deal of utility, but is probably less of the damage dealer you may recall from the WoW mage class. Ranger (druid) might be a good option if healing support is your gig. It’s difficult to say what you’re going to like because this combat system is very different from WoW.

Don’t boost anything until you’ve leveled up at least one character normally.

Doing it that way, there’s no need to be thinking about the boost for a while… and by the time you’ve got at least one maxed character, you’ll likely have a better idea of what you’d like to use the boost on.

Hurrying to lvl 80 with the boost will at best leave you frustrated. The journey to 80 and the exploration of the world is one of the biggest strengths of GW2.

edit: Forget everything you’ve learned from WoW about how a MMO should be run, this game is different in many glorious and fundamental ways.

~EW

Great! Thanks so much for the ideas guys, I’m obviously open to everything and WoW isn’t the only mmo thats having an influence on me, I just really enjoy to hear from vets or regular players how they see the game. Very appreciated.

Dadnir.5038:

You can pretty much support with any profession except the necromancer… Well some will argue that the necromancer have support but there is still a difference between support and debuffing.

If you “love” to heal, I’m not sure if GW2 is for you but you can aim for an elementalist, a ranger or a revenant.
- My personal opinion is that the elementalist is the profession with which it is the easier to do so or perhaps the less tricky.
- The core ranger have some healing abilities but to really have an impact with your heal, you’ll need to achieve the druid specialization (While I personnaly have a really poor opinion of the druid avatar, I’m still forced to recognize that it’s the meta healer at the moment).
- The revenant healer use the ventari legend to dish out some impressive heal. The playstyle of this legend is difficult for players that are used to the game, however, since you are a newcomer, I guess that you have an advantage here.

With this in mind, there’s some considerations:
Druid (Ranger elite spec) doesn’t become available until you have all your skill points from the core class assigned (which happens at level 80 regardless of other exploration). You won’t get to see Druid healing until then. I wouldn’t recommend it for a first level 80, but instead a character that you’ve done some exploration, so you have more skill points available to access Druid. Or make it your second 80 and use the boost after you’re adjusted to the game a bit. Druid’s top-notching healing for the game, but the delay in getting it leaves you with a choice.

Revenant’s healing spec is sort of complicated, and I’m not sure the healing output is worth the effort. (Rev players, correct me if I’ve erred on that.) It can be fun and kind of hectic, but I don’t see many people using it.

My recommendation is Elementalist. Water-element is good healing overall, and its trait line supports it naturally, even without the elite spec, so you get adjusted to using healing skills fairly early. The class can be pretty squishy, but if you kite well and stick with it, it has some of the most robust utility.

Heres a quick break down of the classes, and some of their highlights. This should help hone in on what classes you might interesting as a “go to”. But before I go into that, I HIGHLY recommend you keep the lvl 80 Booster for a Follow up character, as the game’s learning curve benefits greatly from getting to at least lvl 60 normally on your first character. You also obtain writs of Exp and Tomes of knowledge from daily rewards, which will help speed the initial leveling process to get to the useful skills faster.

Scholar Classes- Light armor, caster by nature.

Elementalist: Classic mage type class, but has a significantly higher skill cap then most games due to how hyper their skill rotations work at high level play. Class mechanic is Elemental attunement, which completely changes the attack skills from their weapons “on the fly”. Each element focuses on different functions, with fire being raw damage, water for healing and condition cleansing, air being critical damage and controls, and earth being condition damage and defense. While most classes have access to 5 attack skills from their weapons (and swapping between 2 sets), Eles only carry one weapon set, but have access to a total of 20 skills (all on separate cool downs) across all the 4 attunements. They are, hands down, the most versatile class in the game; capable of switching between DD, Support, control, purging, and buffing, all in mid-combat. An obvious group favorite, they are a bit glassy when solo….. although, if you can learn to manage your defense and mobility skills, they can well enough on their own.

Mesmer: Often considered the Utility caster, they’re a somewhat difficult class to understand at first. Both loved and hated, Marjory describes it best… “Helpful if they’re on your side, annoying if they’re not.” They summon illusions that deal damage, impart effects onto a target, and are used as fuel for the Class Mechanic…. Shatters; which explodes the illusions for damage and additional effects. While capable of respectable damage and heavy bursts of control skills against single targets, they are most well known for being insanely slippery in PvP/WvW, with an unparalleled degree of mobility and misdirection, and capable of sending an enemy team into chaos. Most of this power goes to waste in PvE; but their potential can be seen on anything more robust then a trash mob. They have the highest skill cap (as a class) in the game, are very rewarding if you can get a handle on them, though utterly frustrating if you can’t.

Necros: A non-traditional mixed bag of a caster class, Necros represent a combination of buff Corruption, condition damage, and Tanking. You heard me…. this sucker can survive a ludicrous amounts of punishment. Each one of their trait lines are fairly powerful, and have fair utility. However, they’re geared more toward sustain damage (most of the game favors burst damage), and feel really sluggish and lack luster until you have a fully fleshed out build. The Reaper Elite spec is phenomenal though, and really makes the class fun to play once unlocked. You’d pick this if you’re looking for caster type class thats very survivable.

Adventurers: Med armor, emphasizing mobility and utility.

Thief: Somewhat like a typical rouge class, but not quite. Excels at selective combat, high single target burst damage, and access to a lot of evasion and mobility skills. With easy access to stealth, their power comes from being able to engage and disengage an enemy at will. Mainly used to quickly shut down targets of interest; the thief has a fairly high skill cap, and benefits from a very high paced, fast reacting play style. If you have fast reaction times, this is a very fun class to play in any game mode; even offering group stealth for speed runs of dungeons. Their class mechanic is shadow step, which teleports you to a target, and grants a single use item which has an effect that helps counter the class you’re attacking.

Engineer: A literal jack of all trades, they can, and often will, do a little bit of everything under the sun. Their play style centers on various “utility kits”, which swap their weapon skills out with that of the kit. Each kit is geared toward a different play-style/function, making them incredibly adaptable. Even without directly traiting for it, each tool kit brings something thats worth using at some point in a fight. Difficulty wise their builds range from both the easiest to hardest, but is only moderately tricky to use effectively in most situations…. most of that is just learning how and when to rotate into different kits for the best impact on the fight. Their class mechanic is Tool belt, which gives you a set of 5 extra utility skills based on your currently loaded utility skills. Made to expand (or at least compliment) the utility they’re based on, it makes them even more adaptable then they already are. This is a big reason its my favorite class, as you can easily change up your build without feeling at a disadvantage.

Rangers: This class is fairly straight forward on the surface, but its build meta is difficult to explain unless you’ve played the game for awhile. Their class mechanic is an Animal Companion, which autoattacks for damage, and has access to some utility abilities. However, where they really start to shine is the Druid Elite specialization. This spec majorly changes up the class to be a powerful support healer thats largely been avoided in the game thus far. I haven’t had time to fully play with it, so I can’t comment it on it in depth…. but Druid is often considered a big choice, as it majorly changes the class role from Damage dealer to a Support Healer. The reason this is really weird, is that most classes have a core strategy that you build up on…. but the Druid actively replaces that core strategy. This has caused it to bounce in and out of Raid meta, because the game was never really made to accommodate a dedicated healer.

Soldiers: Warriors of the martial disciplines, uses heavy armor, and built for Survivability.

Warrior: While tanky, Warriors are better described as Brawlers and Scrappers. Built from the ground up to jump directly into the front line, and beat down everything within arms reach…. not invincible, though you sometimes feel you could be. Their class ability is Adrenaline, which builds up as they fight, powering some of their traits, and can be unleashed in a powerful burst attack for heavy damage. With plethora of weapons at their disposal, as well as supportive shouts and war banners, they’re a strong, but uncomplicated class to play.

Revnant: The first (and last) “new” class to be added to the game, the Revnants channel the spirits of legendary figures of Tyrian History against their enemies. Each legend has a specific build theme, and a set of abilities that work off of it. The class itself was built for Raids, so they rely on being part of a group to reach their full potential. Solo in open world they can get a little frustrating, since they’re made to resonate with other classes rather then buff themselves. But even being around one other player, the Rev as a class really starts to shine. Their class ability to swap between 2 legends, which completely changes their utility skills based on which one is active.

Guardians: About as close to a traditional tank as the game gets, they’re not meant to soak damage, but actively neutralize it. Relying heavily on Boons to boost both defensive and offensive capability, the class excels at staying upright while sharing its defensive capabilities with the whole group. Because their skills include themselves when applying boons, and have access to multiple condition purging, they are the most forgiving class to play for new players. So while they have the lowest tier HP pool, their respectable damage, inline group support, and powerful active defenses makes them one of the most common classes in the game. Their class mechanic is Virtues, which passively applies offensive and defenses buffs on themselves (which can be traited to be shared with the group), or can be activated for a burst of extra damage or extra defensive abilities.

Guardians tends to be most people’s fall back class (for achievements or troublesome content), because it can survive in most places while still maintaining a high power average.

(kitten you 5000 letter limit)

If you are a freak for support/utility i’d recommend mesmer. I’ve been maining the class since beginning and it never gets boring. As for healer/buffer/support….probaly druid.
Other classes can also fill these roles depending on gear/traits/weapons but these 2 classes are pretty much ideal for it.

I, too, would recommend leveling at least one, if not two, characters before using the L80 Boost.

You will learn so much more about the game, and will be able to choose wisely at that time. There is no real rush, and the journey is well worth it.

You can, however, if boosting is paramount, try out each profession at L80 in The Silverwastes before making a permanent decision.

Welcome to Tyria, and good luck.

As everyone else said, definitely level one character to 80 normally and then I’d say level each character after that to at least 20 before you boost so you can get a feel for the class mechanics. Core classes Guardian is probably your best bet for group support. If you count elite specs I’d say Tempest (elementalist) or Druid (ranger)

OP, fair warning.

The vast majority of the game is glass cannon zerkers. You need to do x damage y enemies to get loot.

Pure support roles are mostly viable for raids.