Guild Wars 2

Hello, Community. I’m new in the game and would like to know, what you could recommend me. I have seen all professions and decided to play a Ranger or a Necromancer. Who is more suitable for a new player? I would love to take part in all content (PVE/PVP/WvW).
Thank you very much!

I think you should make one of each and try them both.
Those are my favorite classes as well <3

Thanks, Kitty. But which class is more “balanced” for the game?

Balance never is and is always an ongoing effort. What is right for you is subjective and can only be answered by you. This can be done by playing said classes and test for yourself. Happy travels.

I suggest Necromancer. Necro is far more balanced for multiple roles. Can tank, and support and dps. Ranger is best healer tho so if you like that go Ranger.

Knighthonor.4061:

I suggest Necromancer. Necro is far more balanced for multiple roles. Can tank, and support and dps. Ranger is best healer tho so if you like that go Ranger.

Necromancers can support you say? Necromancer is probably the most selfish class to play… Don’t get me wrong though, its still my favorite

Neither, is that a choice?

I disagree with knight, ranger is balanced if you play it right. You can have a DPS ranger or a healer. Now since this is in the HoT thread instead of the normal one yes you can argue that they a healing class but that is only the Druid not the ranger in general. I’d suggest trying each out. Both classes are versatile and are great both solo and in groups. With the elite specialization they are even better, but as said before it all depends on what you like to do in game and don’t forget you can play a support role in a dungeon and flip your build when beating on NPCs in silverwaste so for any of us to suggest something we’d need more info but it might simply be easier for you to try each one out. Usually by level 20 you know if you like a class or not. But warning necro is extremely squishy in that level range.

Wasderty.7803:

Knighthonor.4061:

I suggest Necromancer. Necro is far more balanced for multiple roles. Can tank, and support and dps. Ranger is best healer tho so if you like that go Ranger.

Necromancers can support you say? Necromancer is probably the most selfish class to play… Don’t get me wrong though, its still my favorite

Yes. Wells provide protection and condition removal. And DS heals snd prevent decay. Thats major support.

Both classes are generally poor in pve, average in pvp and pretty strong/overpowered in wvw.

The HOT upgrades may change this of course.
Necro is easier to learn, and to play but has a slightly lower skill ceiling than Ranger imho.

When I first started a couple months ago, I tried everything. The Ranger eventually became my first 80. Easy-peasy to explore when you don’t know where you’re going or what you’re getting into. Bow and a pet, not much made it to melee range.

And then she sat at 80 in Lion’s Arch. Looking pretty. That was her job. That, and holding stuff.

My Necro was my second 80. She has been a lot more involved at level 80 than my Ranger ever was. She could range, melee, tank…ish and if need be, actually felt like a viable support (sorta healing) for groups. I was super excited for HoT and Reaper.

All that changed with beta this past weekend. Now my Necro is lounging around town while my Ranger is running around getting as many hero points as she can and my Guardian is leveling up to become a Dragon Hunter.

Not a very helpful answer, huh? I guess play what you like, with what’s coming in HoT in mind and what you want to do. Both, from 1-80, are good at soloing and have nice survivability. Both follow in the footsteps of other Rangers/Hunters and Necromancers/Warlocks in many other MMORPGs. Self sufficient. The Loner that graces a group with their presence.

From my limited testing this past weekend, it seems the Reaper will stay on that path just fine whereas the Ranger w/a Staff (Druid) will really shine in group dynamics.

I did not test either of them out in any type of PVP setting, nor do I PvP/WPvP, so if that is your interest, I hope someone will be able to give you an idea of them in those scenarios.

Wasderty.7803:

Knighthonor.4061:

I suggest Necromancer. Necro is far more balanced for multiple roles. Can tank, and support and dps. Ranger is best healer tho so if you like that go Ranger.

Necromancers can support you say? Necromancer is probably the most selfish class to play… Don’t get me wrong though, its still my favorite

Once you get to Reaper you can do awesome support with RS 4 + Blood traits
Full Clerics gives you an excellent AoE heal, and Reaper makes an awesome battlefield medic.
I can hardly wait for 10-23 so I can properly kit out my Necro for Reaper. Really nice thing, also, is that, unlike Druid, I don’t have to completely ditch damage for support, and my spec build only needs slight tweaking, so switching back and forth isn’t a royal PITA.

I like Druid too, but would need to take the time to properly learn it. It really seems more of a whole new sub-class, as opposed to just an Elite spec, so I want to level a second Ranger to dedicate to Druid. Necro, I can just switch back and forth easily, if I want to.

Tobias Steele.2071:

Both classes are generally poor in pve***, average in pvp and pretty strong/overpowered in wvw.

The HOT upgrades may change this of course.
Necro is easier to learn, and to play but has a slightly lower skill ceiling than Ranger imho.

*Then you’re not doing it right, or you just don’t care for the classes.
I PvE almost exclusively, and I am ok with, and really like Ranger, but I LOVE my Necro/Reaper.

Necro is, by far, the most fun to play, for me.
It certainly is easy to learn, I’ll give you that, but getting the most out of the class certainly does take some skill. There are so many different ways to play Necro, and that keeps it interesting

I have at least one of each class, but I also have three rangers and two necros if that helps any. Overall Ranger is my favorite class to play – but that’s partly because I love collecting pets.

Really depends on what you want

Necro, is probably the more popular of the two. Once HoT is released it should take care of the Necro issues they had prior such as being a poor choice for PvE.

Ranger is looking better with the option to be a Druid come the release of HoT but if you don’t want to go Druid and just want to go Ranger, you will be average at best and will be passed up in parties for other classes.

Play any of them honestly, they’re both good in all parts of the game, though I see rangers far stronger in pvp/wvw/pve.(from what I saw during beta with my own testings)
Necro is alright, but if they’re up against a non glass cannon build, they will struggle.

Both of these are awesome classes! I main a necro and second main a ranger. In my opinion, Necro is amazing for PVE content and WvW in zerg groups while ranger is OP in PvP.

Op, the answers of both are awesome classes is not entirely true, they are fun yes but that doesn’t mean they are desired in all areas. It’s really important to figure out what you want to do.

Do you want to run in Zergs or Small Groups for WvW
Do you want to play higher end PvP or just some Hot Joins for some quick fun
What kind of PvE do you want to focus on ?
Do you want to play a class that is desired by other players ?
What do you want to focus on more WvW, PvP, or PvE ?

Answering those will let us give you a better answer.

You don’t want to sink a bunch of time into a class that you find out later is “the red headed step child” of GW2 classes.

Basically, GW2, for me, entices the opposite play styles of pretty much every other MMO out there. That is why, like everyone else, I have to agree to recommend you play them all and decide for yourself. I have one of each class… always will… and just play with what I feel like for any given time/day/encounter/dungeon/boss/etc. Sure, this means I am struggling to gear up all my characters at once… so mats and gold are limited… but that’s just me.

I mainly play my necro, ranger, and engineer these days. After HoT, I will replace my ranger play-time with Revnant because I do not want to get sucked into a healer role for anything I do (raids, dungeons, WvW). If I want to play a healer (I do love them) I will do so in a trinity game like Rift where I have all healers. >.>

The real question is do you like melee or ranged more? Then adjust for that. Also, condi or power (support seems silly for soloing)? Both classes do both to varying degrees of success. I find I like melee in GW2 better and ranged in every other game I play… not sure how that happened! However, I love DoT’s so I go condi. I can survive quite well in the open world, solo, with any class (elementalist, thief, and mesmer took a while but now I can on them too).

You really do have to play with what you feel. The second character I made was an elementalist because I play sorcerers/wizards/casters in all my other games and D&D… she has yet to pass lvl 55 in the year I have played. My first, the necromancer, became my main and I go melee, in their face, and sit in death-shroud. Guardian just kinda snuck in because of the great-sword and a theme I was doing… but she’s melee too.