Guild Wars 2

I am a new player to this game and choosing a profession isnt going really well.
Heart of Thorns (HoT) giving professions new spells has made this extra difficult for me.

I have made a few classes lvl 3 to test their weapons with different spells in heart of the mist. This has given me a better understanding of the game.
I have not checked out the talents yet and the stats on gear are still unclear to me too.

What I understand is that certain weapons fit better with each other due to the stats?

Basically I want to just start with a profession. I have this game for about 2 weeks already now and I still havent started yet lol. My little bro wants to start together and he will play warrior as his first character.

Main interest will be pvp.

I like a class that is skillbased. As in, being difficult but rewarding and stuff like having to time your abilities well. I like stuff like reflects, knockbacks, pulls, stun/daze and such.
Having stuff that is useful to my team is a big +. Like cleasing dangerous stuff from my teammates, having heals for them and protection spells.

I was thinking of going elementalist or maybe engineer as my first profession. Both would fit the above description the best right? Or some other class would fit more?

Which one would fit the description best?
What are the pros and cons?
Which would you recommend? Why?

p.s.

If a profession is hard to play I dont mind at all, as long as it is wanted.
I dont want to play something that no team wants, no matter how good you are because of the profession being in such a crap state.

You might like mesmer, It can do all of the things you requested except heal others effectively, which isn’t as important in this game as others anyway.

First of all, welcome to GW2! Second of all, I want you and your brother to meet you new best friend: Wiki. You can access it on top of the GW2 website, or by typing “/wiki” followed by hitting the Enter key while in game. Wiki helps with almost everything. Now judging by what you said, I’d say Ele, Engi, or Guardian might be good fits for you. Ele is my favorite and main. It takes some getting used to, but once you do, you’ll be very powerful. It does have one of the smallest health polls, but it can be tanky. In pvp, I can fight most 1v1s to a stand still since I have a lot of heals. Mesmers tare me apart though, and I have trouble fight two people on my own. It has a few CCs and a lot of party support, in fact I saved a few people from death. Well, that’s my two cents. If you ever want my build, let me and I’ll give it to you, but please know that it isn’t a meta build so people will give you trouble about that. Good luck and welcome again to this great game.

Thanks.
Yeah I have been browsing through the wiki too.

This seems like a game that i will enjoy. If I can get to the point of choosing a profession that is xD.

However a new game also brings a new world and a new language.

With that I mean some things as a new player, feel as if you are reading a foreign language, because all sorts of words are used, that you dont know the gw2 meaning from yet. Figuring out how the game plays, trying to understand how things work sorta feels like translating.

So I am in the figuring stuff out stage atm, which can help in choosing a class.
Through wiki, vids, heart of the mist trying stuff out and such

and hopefully through some info and advice from the forums.

Does it take long to lvl a character?

Maybe I should just pick one, get to know the game with it and
than see if I would prefer to play a different profession or that it is the right one for my main.

I know what you mean. I have been playing this game since the betas and I’m still getting used to it. As for the leveling question, it depends on what you do and how much you do it. You get to max level in anywhere between a few minutes to a few years. If you want to max out really fast, there are guides all over the forums and YouTube. While I do know the fastest way to level, I don’t think you will have access to it. Good luck and I hope that helps.

Uden Reavstone.3426:

As for the leveling question, it depends on what you do and how much you do it. You get to max level in anywhere between a few minutes to a few years. If you want to max out really fast, there are guides all over the forums and YouTube. While I do know the fastest way to level, I don’t think you will have access to it. Good luck and I hope that helps.

A few years or a few minutes? 0_0
How can that difference be so big?

How will it turn into a few years? How does one lvl when it turns into that long?
How does it turn into a few minutes?
Or days/weeks in between?

Hi there,

Welcome to GW2, one of the best games on the market today (in my opinion). While your focus may be pvp, I’m sure you’ll find other activities you enjoy, as there are quite a few. I know some people that love gathering. I myself fell in love with jumping puzzles. Now the reason I bring this up, is that all classes have their perks, and some stand out more in some game modes. Anyway, enough of the boring stuff.

Each class has slightly different difficulties associated to it, so while a thief has a hard time staying on a node in pvp, they have an easy time running away on a moments notice. Guardians can hold a node much easier, but will have to know when to disengage or you won’t escape. So “hard class” depends a lot on your strengths and weaknesses as a player.

I’ll give you an example. I hate to run from fights, and will often charge head in. I also can, if I’m in the right mood, easily identify when to escape, and don’t find myself putting myself out of position solo. So, the strengths of the thief don’t lend well to me, which means I will have a hard time with Thief. Sometimes, I’m in the right mood, and I can rock it as Thief, but if I’m feeling more laid back, I’ll often run in, and run out without doing much, use my mobility to decap, etc, but I won’t have an easy time being effective if I run in right away.

I’ll put a quick run down on the strengths and weaknesses of each class, and what you want to look for are classes that play to your strengths and cover your weaknesses.

Guardian:
Pro: Tanky, hard hitting, player based teleports (teleport to other players)
Con: Lack of mobility

Warrior:
Pro: Tanky, hard hitting, great mobility
Cons: Limited sustain (outside of some builds), no teleports, and limited growth (not very skill intensive)

Ranger:
Pro: Versatile, can have excellent range, calculated, great at staying alive
Con: Limited by pet, very little you can do to ramp up your damage (so all the skill is based on cc and survival), calculated (it is required to play well)

Thief:
Pro: Highest mobility, Easy escapes, great spike damage, fluid.
Con: Squishy, MUST make good use of mobility to stand up to other proffs, lack sustain

Engineer:
Pro: VERSATILE!, Stealth access, good direct and condition damage (so if you have time to change builds, can adapt to your enemies)
Cons: Can reduce framerate with all the explosions, no teleports

Elementalist:
Pros: Always have access to many skills types. (almost 2x the buttons as some other proffs), fluid, teleports, great sustain.
Cons: Squishy, no stealth, limited build diversity

Necromancer:
Pros: Very powerful, good build diversity, great sustain, Tanky, some teleports
Cons: Does not scale sustain well in pvp to the number of enemies (death shroud is a set amount of extra hp), limited mobility, vulnerable to cc

Mesmer:
Pros: Very agile in combat, stealth, fluid, good build diversity
Cons: Squishy, low mobility, relies on clones and phantasms(this is not so much a con, as it it situationally good/bad)

For pvp, some classes are stronger than others right now, but its constantly changing, so its better for you to focus on what class you will excel at, and continue. All classes are viable in pvp, but they will function best with a team comp that plays well together. Builds that are more do-everything-ish (ele) are easy to fit into most teams, while classes with lots of diversity can adapt to the meta better than others and even change things up before a match starts.

I know you want to be “wanted” for pvp, but just based on what you’ve said so far. I think a Ranger would be a great class. It has a high skill cap, versatile, defensive by nature (meaning you will focus mostly on staying alive, with the occasional damage combo), and it gives you a good perspective on the game. The class can be very easy to start, which can be a downside, but once you start to fight better players, you’ll realize mistakes you are making all the same. Making good use of your pet and positioning is pivotal to ranger success. You have build flexibility, which means that even once HoT comes out, you will be able to find a solid build. The class also lends itself well to those that love planning, as you seem to, by coming here and doing the research you are.

Another interesting class for you would be engineer. The class has a lot of the benefits of the Ranger, but survival will be more difficult. You will however, have more fun dealing damage, as there are a lot of options to ramp up your damage on an engineer. It is probably the hardest class to master, but don’t worry, you don’t need to master it to compete. It can feel much more spammy than the Ranger (more buttons, compared to the slow methodological nature of the Ranger)

Elementalist can be fun, but without much build diversity you may get bored sooner. Also, with them being in the crossairs for nerfs, you are bound to get weaker sometime this year. Although the class does offer a few builds that have many options as you play, allowing you to learn a lot about the combat systems in gw2.

Thief is simple by nature, but has a huge skill cap. A great thief is a great asset, but it’ll take some time to get into the right mindset. (unless it just clicks for you)

Yashuoa.9527:

Uden Reavstone.3426:

As for the leveling question, it depends on what you do and how much you do it. You get to max level in anywhere between a few minutes to a few years. If you want to max out really fast, there are guides all over the forums and YouTube. While I do know the fastest way to level, I don’t think you will have access to it. Good luck and I hope that helps.

A few years or a few minutes? 0_0
How can that difference be so big?

How will it turn into a few years? How does one lvl when it turns into that long?
How does it turn into a few minutes?
Or days/weeks in between?

Only players who have collected ~79 tomes of knowledge can level to 80 in minutes. It is not something to think about for now. But after your first character, every other character will be a breeze to level. Expect to spend 3-8 weeks leveling to 80. Unless you play A LOT, then you can do it in a few days. But very few play games like that.

Going with what you’ve said, you’re after a Guardian or an Elementalist, both are highly praised in both forms of gameplay, PvP & PvE (This includes WvWvW), Guardian is more so what you’re after as they are capable of offering reflects, where-as elementalists only really offer projectile destruction as their Reflect comes with an earth ability and only affects the Elementalist, not the party unless specifically traited for it (But it’s not really worth it, better alternatives) where-as the guardian just needs to sacrifice a utility slot.

Both classes are pretty easy to play however, the Elementalist more so as it is a very forgiving class right now with it’s meta build offering a crazy amount of damage through Burns as well as having great survivability via the celestial amulet and large amount of active defences the class has.

The guardian is a more “High Risk-High Reward” Class, given that if you play the general go-to meta build for a guardian (Medi zerker) your running a glass cannon build who’s offensive abilities also double as his or her defensive. This means if you want to be offensive, you’re giving up the option to be defensive in the near future until your abilities are back off cooldown.

The guardian also offers an insanely strong supportive role if you choose to build as a bunker, don’t expect to tank 3+ players at a time, this simply won’t happen, this isn’t the game for that, but the guardian if built supportively can offer a crazy amount of healing and support via boons and condition removing/converting into boons. The elementalist doesn’t have anything quite like this yet, however this may change with them receiving shouts in their future specialization (Due to the use of Soldier runes).

Do note however that you stated you enjoy CC (Knockdowns etc), neither class really has a large amount of access to these abilities, the Elementalist more so than the Guardian, but if you’re strictly after CC, the Engineer is definitely the go-to class here, but i personally feel that the Elementalist or Guardian are more so what you’re after.

In regards to leveling taking minutes or years, this is very very exagerated, I’m not entirely sure where years has come from.

For a new player, leveling to 80 in minutes isn’t going to happen, as this is done via stockpiling tomes of knowledge which are gained quite often in SPvP, but leveling via PVE for a first toon is still faster.

If you play for roughly 3-4 hours a day, you can expect to get to level 80 in roughly 2 to 3 weeks. If you’re in a guild that would be happy to guide you through level appropriate dungeons, you could probably shave some days off, as doing the early dungeons (Ascalonian Catacombs (AC) and Caedacus’s Manor (CM)), you can, at the lower levels, gain at least 1 level per path, meaning an easy 6 levels a day at least until the level 50-60 range.

Or, if you have the cash to burn, you can purchase gems, convert them to gold, and purchase crafting materials to craft your way to 80, i wouldn’t recommend this though as leveling in this game is already so easy as it is, and to craft your way to 80 from a fresh toon with no gold or mats at all would probably cost you roughly £40

The hardest part about understanding the game is that none of it makes sense until you have access to multiple traits. They are largely interdependent on weapon, gear stats and traits. Traits are the easiest to modify on a whim, but changing gear for different builds can get expensive. Fortunately, Power based builds are universally efficient in PvE; so Berserker and Soldiers stats end up being used in most of those builds.

For you I’d recommend taking Guardian to compliment your brother’s Warrior. Both classes high survivability independently, both are capable of good damage output without sacrificing survivability, and they can synergize well, with him giving offensive buff stacking, while the guardians can provide strong group defensive buffs and in-line group support with only trait shuffling.

For solo play I would recommend the Engineer, as it offers the highest build diversity of any class in the game, has a moderately high skill cap, is inherently hybrid, and offers a wide range of group support in most coherent builds. Build difficulty also ranges from “potato” to “I don’t have enough fingers” to suit your mood and activity. My only gripe with the engineer since the trait revamp is wanting to take all 5 trait lines; because its really easy to incorporate kits and utilities with the way the class is set up.

Loboling.5293:

Yashuoa.9527:

Uden Reavstone.3426:

As for the leveling question, it depends on what you do and how much you do it. You get to max level in anywhere between a few minutes to a few years. If you want to max out really fast, there are guides all over the forums and YouTube. While I do know the fastest way to level, I don’t think you will have access to it. Good luck and I hope that helps.

A few years or a few minutes? 0_0
How can that difference be so big?

How will it turn into a few years? How does one lvl when it turns into that long?
How does it turn into a few minutes?
Or days/weeks in between?

Only players who have collected ~79 tomes of knowledge can level to 80 in minutes. It is not something to think about for now. But after your first character, every other character will be a breeze to level. Expect to spend 3-8 weeks leveling to 80. Unless you play A LOT, then you can do it in a few days. But very few play games like that.

What he/she said. As for the years part, 79 levels can forever if you don’t play often. That’s all I ment. Plus if you just fight enemies, it will seem like years. I’m speaking from experience here. Do events if you see them, and do map completion. When you do both, you will rack up the exp fast. Just to give you an idea, I’m leveling up two characters now. I had them at a point where they have done the same amount of map completion but since I did more events on the first than the second, the first was 3-5 levels farther than the second. I hope that helps.

Since I did not notice anyone addressing stats on gear, allow me to try:

Power: Power increases all direct damage inflicted by the character.

Precision: Precision increases critical hit chance.

Toughness: Toughness decreases the amount of incoming damage suffered by the character.

Vitality: Vitality increases maximum health.

Condition Damage: Condition Damage improves the damage done by the conditions bleeding, burning, confusion, poison, and torment.

Condition Duration: Condition Duration improves the duration of all conditions inflicted by the character.

Ferocity: Ferocity improves the damage multiplier on critical strikes.

Healing Power: Healing Power improves all outgoing heals that your character does, including self heals.

Hopefully I’m not oversimplifying this, if so I’m sure someone will correct me.

CD673141-975B-42E9-8500-F0FEFF861A7D:

Since I did not notice anyone addressing stats on gear, allow me to try:

Power: Power increases all direct damage inflicted by the character.

Precision: Precision increases critical hit chance.

Toughness: Toughness decreases the amount of incoming damage suffered by the character.

Vitality: Vitality increases maximum health.

Condition Damage: Condition Damage improves the damage done by the conditions bleeding, burning, confusion, poison, and torment.

Condition Duration: Condition Duration improves the duration of all conditions inflicted by the character.

Ferocity: Ferocity improves the damage multiplier on critical strikes.

Healing Power: Healing Power improves all outgoing heals that your character does, including self heals.

Hopefully I’m not oversimplifying this, if so I’m sure someone will correct me.

Just a few oddities to mention about toughness:
Toughness increases your “Armor” stat.
Your head, shoulder, chest, hand, leg, foot, and shield gear pieces have a “Defense” value on them, which also increases your “Armor” stat.

Armor decreases damage taken by a percent based on this formula:
Damage done = (Weapon strength) * Power * (skill-specific coefficient) / (target’s Armor)
However damage inflicted by conditions DOES NOT get reduced by armor (nor by damage reducing effects such as Protection).
In other words, condition damage ignores armor.

Arewn.2368:

CD673141-975B-42E9-8500-F0FEFF861A7D:

Since I did not notice anyone addressing stats on gear, allow me to try:

Power: Power increases all direct damage inflicted by the character.

Precision: Precision increases critical hit chance.

Toughness: Toughness decreases the amount of incoming damage suffered by the character.

Vitality: Vitality increases maximum health.

Condition Damage: Condition Damage improves the damage done by the conditions bleeding, burning, confusion, poison, and torment.

Condition Duration: Condition Duration improves the duration of all conditions inflicted by the character.

Ferocity: Ferocity improves the damage multiplier on critical strikes.

Healing Power: Healing Power improves all outgoing heals that your character does, including self heals.

Hopefully I’m not oversimplifying this, if so I’m sure someone will correct me.

Just a few oddities to mention about toughness:
Toughness increases your “Armor” stat.
Your head, shoulder, chest, hand, leg, foot, and shield gear pieces have a “Defense” value on them, which also increases your “Armor” stat.

Armor decreases damage taken by a percent based on this formula:
Damage done = (Weapon strength) * Power * (skill-specific coefficient) / (target’s Armor)
However damage inflicted by conditions DOES NOT get reduced by armor (nor by damage reducing effects such as Protection).
In other words, condition damage ignores armor.

Thanks.

So even stuff like ~-30% dmg reduction protection buffs get ignored by bleeds, burns and such? They just go through it?
So the ~-30% dmg reduction protection buffs only help vs direct dmg??

Yes. Armor does not help against conditions.
But: Conditions can be countered by builds easier. So if the oponent is set up against it, you get a hard time, if not you often melt them.

Yashuoa.9527:

Arewn.2368:

CD673141-975B-42E9-8500-F0FEFF861A7D:

Since I did not notice anyone addressing stats on gear, allow me to try:

Power: Power increases all direct damage inflicted by the character.

Precision: Precision increases critical hit chance.

Toughness: Toughness decreases the amount of incoming damage suffered by the character.

Vitality: Vitality increases maximum health.

Condition Damage: Condition Damage improves the damage done by the conditions bleeding, burning, confusion, poison, and torment.

Condition Duration: Condition Duration improves the duration of all conditions inflicted by the character.

Ferocity: Ferocity improves the damage multiplier on critical strikes.

Healing Power: Healing Power improves all outgoing heals that your character does, including self heals.

Hopefully I’m not oversimplifying this, if so I’m sure someone will correct me.

Just a few oddities to mention about toughness:
Toughness increases your “Armor” stat.
Your head, shoulder, chest, hand, leg, foot, and shield gear pieces have a “Defense” value on them, which also increases your “Armor” stat.

Armor decreases damage taken by a percent based on this formula:
Damage done = (Weapon strength) * Power * (skill-specific coefficient) / (target’s Armor)
However damage inflicted by conditions DOES NOT get reduced by armor (nor by damage reducing effects such as Protection).
In other words, condition damage ignores armor.

Thanks.

So even stuff like ~-30% dmg reduction protection buffs get ignored by bleeds, burns and such? They just go through it?
So the ~-30% dmg reduction protection buffs only help vs direct dmg??

Yes, damage=/=condition damage, nothing that is stated to affect damage affects condition damage, and nothing that affects conditions specifically affects straight damage. Unless, of course, the effect specifically affects both.

Wolfric.9380:

Yes. Armor does not help against conditions.
But: Conditions can be countered by builds easier. So if the oponent is set up against it, you get a hard time, if not you often melt them.

What do you mean with this last line?

You mean if you do not have a build to fight conditions, well, than you get melted by one that uses them?

However there are probably builds who are good against condition builds, making it difficult for the condition build right?

Yashuoa.9527:

Wolfric.9380:

Yes. Armor does not help against conditions.
But: Conditions can be countered by builds easier. So if the oponent is set up against it, you get a hard time, if not you often melt them.

What do you mean with this last line?

You mean if you do not have a build to fight conditions, well, than you get melted by one that uses them?

However there are probably builds who are good against condition builds, making it difficult for the condition build right?

for example, an enemy with a lot of toughness but little health will be melted by conditions if they can’t cleanse them, but some builds can cleanse them, some quite well. for example, Guardians running Contemplation of Purity can take all your conditions, erase them, and replace them with relevant boons (poison becomes regen. cripple becomes swiftness, etc) on burst-application condi builds, this effectively takes all your damage and turns it into megabuffs on the guard. there’s more or less nothing you can do against it.

First, decide through a process of elimination, in other words decide which profession you DON’T WANT first.

This will make it easier deciding.

Everything you described is basically either Elementalist or Guardian.

“I like a class that is skillbased. As in, being difficult but rewarding and stuff like having to time your abilities well. I like stuff like reflects, knockbacks, pulls, stun/daze and such.
Having stuff that is useful to my team is a big +. Like cleasing dangerous stuff from my teammates, having heals for them and protection spells.”

Elementalist seems to have more of what you are describing, Guardians have more protection spells, and many useful buffs for allies but less knockbacks, stuns, and pulls.

I suggest try both and out of the two decide what you like.

Tzozef.9841:

First, decide through a process of elimination, in other words decide which profession you DON’T WANT first.

This will make it easier deciding.

Everything you described is basically either Elementalist or Guardian.

“I like a class that is skillbased. As in, being difficult but rewarding and stuff like having to time your abilities well. I like stuff like reflects, knockbacks, pulls, stun/daze and such.
Having stuff that is useful to my team is a big +. Like cleasing dangerous stuff from my teammates, having heals for them and protection spells.”

Elementalist seems to have more of what you are describing, Guardians have more protection spells, and many useful buffs for allies but less knockbacks, stuns, and pulls.

I suggest try both and out of the two decide what you like.

Yeah the past few days I have been doing the eliminating part and I have both professions in Heart of the Mist to try out.

Its probably gonna be a toss up between elementalist and guardian as my first character. Where I lean a bit more towards elementalist atm (also because I like their gear looks more).

May I ask you why you didnt mention Engineer?
Isnt that profession similar to Elementalist?

Yashuoa.9527:

Main interest will be pvp.

I like a class that is skillbased. As in, being difficult but rewarding and stuff like having to time your abilities well. I like stuff like reflects, knockbacks, pulls, stun/daze and such.
Having stuff that is useful to my team is a big +. Like cleasing dangerous stuff from my teammates, having heals for them and protection spells.

I was thinking of going elementalist or maybe engineer as my first profession. Both would fit the above description the best right? Or some other class would fit more?

Which one would fit the description best?
What are the pros and cons?
Which would you recommend? Why?

p.s.

If a profession is hard to play I dont mind at all, as long as it is wanted.
I dont want to play something that no team wants, no matter how good you are because of the profession being in such a crap state.

Ok, realize everyone has different takes, but I want to make a few comments here.

First, I wouldn’t say any class is in a crap state. I believe they are all good, and they all offer different strengths and weaknesses. Now with that in mind, since there isn’t a holy trinity in this game, each class can fill roles such as group support, dps, etc, but each does it in different ways: so it really comes down to your play style.

Ideally, if the developers meet the goals they are trying to get to, and if you want a class that relies a lot on skill but is rewarding, then once HoT is released the mesmer using the Chronomancer elite specialization is supposed to be the high skill required class of the game.

Whether the developers actually hit that mark or not is another story.

You mention pulls, stuns, knockbacks, etc, almost every class has access to different kinds of control effects. What matters is what kind.

For example, warriors and engineers have lots of knockbacks and launches. Necromancers have fear. Mesmers have lots of stuns and dazes. Etc etc.

As for reflects, that is mostly the province of mesmers and guardians if I recall correctly.

for healing support and condi cleansing, probably guardian and water elementalists are the best. I am curious about the engineer med kit, but I get the impression its not that great for group support.

Mesmers do not provide much in terms of healing, but instead their group support is along the lines of granting alacrity, quickness, slowing the foes, null field, area effect cloaks, etc. Necromancer has wells that can do such things as convert condis on friends to boons, for example. Warriors have shouts, rogues have venom share, etc.

The problem is pretty much every class has dps, group support, tankiness, crowd control, and other options. The question is how each one is implemented. Some are better than others, but they can all do it.

This also doesn’t take into account the other 4 unannounced elite specializations, and revenant is still so new that its hard to give a real honest evaluation.

So really your better question is, “What is your playstyle?”

If your biggest thing you want is a class that requires a lot of skill to play, then I’d probably say Mesmer, especially with the upcoming chronomancer specialization; maybe thief? If you want something wonky but with lots of varied options, engineer. The best of group support, probably a toss up between water elementalist and guardian. Want to faceroll someone in their face while still giving support? The aforementioned guardian, or perhaps a shout or banner warrior.

The list goes on and on. What might be better is, if you’ve played other mmos, what classes did you find most satisfying in those other games?

Yashuoa.9527:

Tzozef.9841:

First, decide through a process of elimination, in other words decide which profession you DON’T WANT first.

This will make it easier deciding.

Everything you described is basically either Elementalist or Guardian.

“I like a class that is skillbased. As in, being difficult but rewarding and stuff like having to time your abilities well. I like stuff like reflects, knockbacks, pulls, stun/daze and such.
Having stuff that is useful to my team is a big +. Like cleasing dangerous stuff from my teammates, having heals for them and protection spells.”

Elementalist seems to have more of what you are describing, Guardians have more protection spells, and many useful buffs for allies but less knockbacks, stuns, and pulls.

I suggest try both and out of the two decide what you like.

Yeah the past few days I have been doing the eliminating part and I have both professions in Heart of the Mist to try out.

Its probably gonna be a toss up between elementalist and guardian as my first character. Where I lean a bit more towards elementalist atm (also because I like their gear looks more).

May I ask you why you didnt mention Engineer?
Isnt that profession similar to Elementalist?

I really didnt think that guardian or elementalist are the highest skilled classes in the game… but admittedly I don’t like either class a lot. My main is mesmer, with secondary being a tie between engineer and necromancer. Revenant may make it up there too.

I guess the thing with engineer is… well, he’s probably the biggest oddball out of the group. In general I don’t think hes the highest skill to play, but I’ll admit he has a lot of diversity and is a lot of fun to play, lots of options.

I’m not sure how good his group support is though. Certainly not as good as ele or guardian. Id say you would take the engineer to have a giant… dare I say it, toolkit of options? But not for high skill or group support.

Guardian and ele are better group support.

Elementalist I decried my last post and just above as not having the highest skill requirements, but there is one caveat to that: the ele’s abilities can change based on his attunements, and eles often develop an attunement cycle they are constantly changing back and forth. Especially, from what I’ve been told, a dagger/dagger ele.

Yashuoa.9527:

I am a new player to this game and choosing a profession isnt going really well.
Heart of Thorns (HoT) giving professions new spells has made this extra difficult for me.

I have made a few classes lvl 3 to test their weapons with different spells in heart of the mist. This has given me a better understanding of the game.
I have not checked out the talents yet and the stats on gear are still unclear to me too.

What I understand is that certain weapons fit better with each other due to the stats?

Basically I want to just start with a profession. I have this game for about 2 weeks already now and I still havent started yet lol. My little bro wants to start together and he will play warrior as his first character.

Main interest will be pvp.

I like a class that is skillbased. As in, being difficult but rewarding and stuff like having to time your abilities well. I like stuff like reflects, knockbacks, pulls, stun/daze and such.
Having stuff that is useful to my team is a big +. Like cleasing dangerous stuff from my teammates, having heals for them and protection spells.

I was thinking of going elementalist or maybe engineer as my first profession. Both would fit the above description the best right? Or some other class would fit more?

Which one would fit the description best?
What are the pros and cons?
Which would you recommend? Why?

p.s.

If a profession is hard to play I dont mind at all, as long as it is wanted.
I dont want to play something that no team wants, no matter how good you are because of the profession being in such a crap state.

I’m going to go through with my own pros/cons list. Its important to note, though, that people will often disagree, based on their own personal experiences with a class.

Warrior: very tough, and has some builds nicknamed nike builds that allow them to move very fast. Has some very impressive crowd control effects. Can do some great burst damage. Banners and shouts are used for group support, though I cannot attest to how good they are.

Guardians: many people consider this class the best at group support. Can set things on fire a lot, wears heavy armor like the warrior does and has lots of boons for supporting both themselves and groups, including some very good group heals

Engineer: tied for second place favorite for me, the engineer has some very good crowd control (I think a hammer warrior is better, but not by much); the engineer has a lot of great versatility and can do a lot of things (although of course, not all at once). I think its group support is somewhat weak in comparison to the two above classes, but has lots of area control ability (IE control an area) via turrets, explosives, and the like. Can reveal stealthed characters and some modest stealth abilities.

Ranger: I’ve been told the ranger has some impressive melee ability, but its real signature weapon is the long bow with the equally impressive range of 1500 (very few classes can match that, although notably the engineer when using Mortar can). They can also have some great pets that can add on some cc abilities, giving the ranger very decent cc if it wants. Pets can be awesome, but also contribute about 33% of his DPS and if not managed well can neuter you. Its group support is mostly based on spirits (I’m not sure how good they are with the patch), and can also use traps to help hold points; I watched a trap ranger once take on several people with a capture point heavily trapped. Has an ability that can reveal stealthed characters, and has some very modest stealth abilities.

Thief: Some people consider thieves THE class for solo work. Thieves can stealth a LOT, and unlike other games, there arent many counters to stealth. Also their attacks from stealth. Having been the recipient of one shot death blows from a stealthed thief doing a 16k backstab on me three times in a row one match, I can attest to it; many players find it very frustrating to fight against thieves. Thieves can perform venomshares, but doesnt have a lot of group support options. Playing as a thief in pvp and wvw will help you learn how to counter them. Most mobile class in the game.

(continued)

Elementalist: this one has a lot going on. Condis, power, damage, etc. They can only have one weapon set, and thisn will determine a lot about the ele’s capabilities; that being the case, however, they can provide excellent support with water, for instance, some good CC options, good dps…. they are also very mobile. I take it back what I said about high skill, as there is a lot to juggle with them.

Necromancer: The tankiest of the spellcasters. Has a secondary form that has an additional set of hit points. Can do some impressive conditions, group support mostly consists of things such as converting conditions to boons. Can steal health, generate fear effects. Fear is a great cc, and few classes have any real access to it – unfortunately I’d say even the necro doesn’t get enough access to fear effects, lol. Can use minions to complicate the battlefield. this is tied for second place with engineer for most fun for me

Mesmer: my favorite and, especially after the xpac comes out, is supposed to be the most skill-based of the classes. Time will tell; has impressive access to CC effects; of the spellcasters has the least direct defense abilities, but has lots of indirect defenses; the class has the second best stealth, and has clones as well, making it more difficult to fight until you can identify the caster from the clones (note, a veteran player who knows what to look for can do so easily… in a non crowded battlefield. Newbies struggle a lot more, so play a mesmer to learn how to fight them. Also, when the battlefield is mroe crowded, its harder to locate the mesmer. Imagine fighting a necro with minions AND the mesmer at the same time, makes it hard to find any good targets lol); mesmer has some great access to conditions as well; will have a unique effect called Alacrity and can “rewind time” a few seconds if planned right. DPS and such usually comes from either phantasms or shatters, both of which take some planning and set up to go right – great in small groups, but vulnerable against very large groups.

Revenant: too new, imho, so I’ll reserve comment for now.

Honestly, if you like CC, group support, and reflects, I’d say either guardian, elementalist, or mesmer. The way you are leaning and the stuff you like… I’d suggest… elementalist I think.

Morfedel.4165:

What might be better is, if you’ve played other mmos, what classes did you find most satisfying in those other games?

To answer your question.
I havent played much MMOs.

One that people probably know is World of Warcraft (WoW). I did play that for a while.

In that game I started as a mage and I liked destructionwarlock too (and a bit affliction). Did a little bit of hunter as well.
I took a break from that game and when I came back I moved to shaman and druid (mostly their heal and caster specs),
because of wanting to play more supportive roles (never tryed feral).
I did mostly pvp in that game.

From my diving into GW2 so far this game seems more fitting for me than WoW (both pvp and pve). Love the dodge mechanic.

I can see myself liking ele, engi, guardian, mesmer and thief.
Maybe more later on, but so far (from testing in heart of the mist), these seem to have my main starting interest.

However I need to reduce those 5 to 1 for now
and HEART of THORNS giving new spells (spells that I dont know exactly yet and which are not finished yet), makes the choice harder.

I am the strategic careful profession type. I often play something that doesnt have good passive defences (squishy passively), but that can survive well through positioning, timing your abilities well, mobility, cc, utility and such.
I like to have some team support as well and I like spells that require good timing (skillful).

I loved stuff like grounding totem (absorb/reflect with glyph) and windshear (interrupt) for example from the shaman.
Iceblocking a deathcoil as mage. Deathcoiling a deathcoil as lock. Shadowword deathing a sheep or blind as priest. This required good timing. Some more than others.
Cleansing dangerous stuff from teammates (freedom effects, dispel and such) and removing important stuff from enemies (purge/dispel) was fun too.

Hmm you might prefer mesmer then

Morfedel.4165:

Hmm you might prefer mesmer then

Could you please share your reasoning behind saying Mesmer?

A few things…

The best way to learn the game, is to play it. People can give you all sorts of advice, but in the end you just have to play it and find what works for you. Try different professions, different weapons. Swap out utility skills and test them. Eventually you’ll find the ones you like best.

Also – don’t judge a profession till you’ve leveled up a bit and some time to get to know the profession. In PvE I would say most don’t really start to come into their own till around level 20, and most don’t shine till 40 or so. PvP dumps you into things already at 80, so things are a little different. But PvP is very much a game of skill, and you’ll need a little time to build those skills. If you’re having fun with a profession, stick with it. If you’re not sure, play some more and see how it works after you’ve gotten better at it. If you just flat out do not like a profession, find another.

Don’t be too concerned with the exact stats on your gear till you’re up in levels. You can gain levels in GW2 pretty quickly, and it’s not worth worrying over something that you’ll be getting rid of soon. Especially, don’t waste money on buying high stat gear till you’re 80 for the same reasons. And don’t feel you have to have specific stats to be competitive, you can be quite effective following an unconventional path if you know what you’re doing.

Yashuoa.9527:

Morfedel.4165:

Hmm you might prefer mesmer then

Could you please share your reasoning behind saying Mesmer?

You have said several times you like high skill classes, and now you talked about careful reasoned strategies. To me that is the mesmer.

I am going Mesmer.

Please correct me if I say something that isnt true.

Here is my reasoning why Mesmer:

The last few days I have done alot of investigating in the game (google, youtube, advice/help from forums etc.) and at some point you just gotta say now I know enough, lets start and find what works for me by actually playing.

I read that Mesmer has to be more thoughtful about the encounters in pve than most other classes. Which is a + to me.

It is a unique style, not seen in other MMOs (this can be a + as well as a -, but so far I see it as a +). Original gameplay. Highskill strategic class I read, which is what I want.

I prefer the looks of light armor over heavy armoir and looks are important as well.
Light armor wizard + shield (Chronomancer) looks great.

Elementalist. No weaponswap=less build options?
I will be missing out on weapon swap by going ele and I think its cool for my first char to not miss out on that, seeing as this weapon swap feature isnt in other games that I know. Unsure what to think of tempest ele elite spec. It increases attunement cooldown when you overload and that doesnt seem like the right risk/reward to me.

I read that pve is staff ele and that doesnt seem much fun to me pve wise by looking at the spells combined with pve. http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Elementalist_-_Staff
Standing in a bit in the back, shooting some dmg, healing and fields out+ elementals and conjured weapons (my impression).
Ele pvp seems lot more fun, but I can make a lvl 2 ele and start right away in pvp anyway, so pvp, requires less of a need to be careful in my choice

I love what I read about Chronomancer so far, the Mesmer elite spec.
Looks like some sort of Time and Space Bending Ilussion Wizard.

Mesmer has good group utility too. I read both guardian and Mesmer can fill the pve group utility role in their own way. Mesmer is less pug friendly I heard in that regard, but I dont mind about that.

Guardian has low mobility. I like mobility and I think this will become a problem at some point. Not a problem for an alt, but it probably will be troublesome for me as a main.

Love portals for the group. Reflects (I love reflect and Mesmers have a good amount of them. Reflect is also useful in pve right?). Even distortion for teammates if you trait this. Good mobility. Mass condi/boon cleanse is cool too. Aesthetic pleasing looking spells.

Thanks for all the info and advice.
Gonna dive in the GW2 world as Mesmer. Looking forward to it. GW2 looks like a great game. If Mesmer wont work out for me than it isnt the end of the world. I can always swap to Elementalist for example if that turns out to be better for me.

Good luck! Remember Mesmer is a tough leveling experience, but once you get more spec points things will start to come together quickly. Stick with it for good times later.