Guild Wars 2

I bought this game at release and since then I’ve not been able to level a character above 30, I’ve currently deleted them all. I can’t stick to a class choice. I very much like the game and I see all of these players in amazing looking armor but, I just can’t stick with a class long enough to progress anywhere. It’s a real problem.

I’m asking for your help. I need some inspiration and some reasons behind your class choices and how you enjoy them. I don’t give a kitten about what’s currently the strongest, I just want your opinions about the class you play. I hoping this will drive me to making a choice and sticking with it.

Thanks in advanced,

A troubled mind…

Are you the big norn/char type, the human male pretending you are your avatar type, or the scant clad female type, or asuran?

Sorry to hear you having such problems.

My favourite at the moment is the Guardian. I also like the Warrior but he started to get a tiny bit boring, maybe in the future he will be played more often.

I find with my playstyle he has the highest survivability, having to return to a waypoint after death can be a bit demoralising at times but not as much with this guy. Much easier to solo something big and scary with this guy, I can even do a tiny bit of damage while running away without having to hit with a weapon, not much but it does help, nice kiting something big knowing as I run I am gaining health without using skills, healing my self of being seriously poisoned and dishing out that tiny bit of damage.

I like the feeling when I am in a group, whether a Dungeon or Event, I can give some bonuses to those closeby, pull a mob off someone having problems (it is skill that pulls up to 5 mobs to me if they aren’t too far away). Maybe I should add that I don’t have to trait away from damage to give a boost to ther players so I don’t suffer from losing the damage I dish out it just means my boosts are a bit weaker but they do help. I tried supportish with a Warrior using an Axe and Horn, damage was lower than I liked. Although critical hits do a lot less damage than my Warrior it is good to see that there is plenty of damage over time happening too thanks to my skills.

You mentioned cool looking armour. Maybe it would be a good idea to make a character and walk around Lions Arch for a short time seeing which race looks best for what you eventually decide to have a go with. There can be big differences in the way they look, even a Norn and a Human, despite the fact that they are wearing exactly the same gear.

By the way, took me ages to find my favourite class. I was Warrior then Elementalist then Thief then back to Warrior until level 80 only to find myself having more fun with the Guardian. I know how it feels.

Lastly I will add that I like this guide to the Guardian which includes a build with quite a lot of explanation. I still more or less use that build now despite having been at level 80 for maybe a month or more http://guildwars.incgamers.com/blog/comments/greatsword-guardian-leveling-build/

For me I always enjoyed Ranged play, so I played a Ranger to 80 now. The engineer is a lot of fun because he has a interesting array of gadgets and skills, such as flame thrower, gernade and bombs, not to mention typical weapons like Rifle and Pistols. I also enjoy the thief and the Elementalist. I want to open a few more chracter slots to give the Necro a chance I tried one earlier on and did not like the mechnanics, but now I would like to give it a go. When I can afford to drop some real money I will get some gems and open another character slot.

With so many choices sometimes it does make it harder to choose.
What I did was tried out all the races 1st, I’d play them up to around 10th level, I ended up playing all Arura, some male some female.
Next was trying out all the professions.
So for the 2 professions that I’m enjoying are the ranger & guardian.
Also it helped me to buy more character spaces, I created a character for all professions.
Should I get a little burned out, I can hop on another and try something different.

It really boils down to what you want to do. There are some very different play styles with almost every profession, and that is such a good thing being an 8 year WoW veteran and watching every class being forced into a single build to be optimum.

To me, my favorite class is the Necro, specifically a minion master. Having my own personal little army to lay waste to the hoards of mobs is just very satisfying to me. It reminds me of my glory days of D2 with a Skelly-mancer build. (and PoE summoner build).

I can survive some of the most unfavorable situations in the game that would send any of my other characters to the way point to res. lol which is all the time BTW because the minion AI has the IQ of a doorknob, it keeps me on my toes. Luckily it’s a non issue just an annoyance because like I said, I can overcome the situation 90% of the time.

This is what it took to really settle in to my main character:

1. Remake constantly until finding a face/hair that I like.
2. Play until 10, repeat step 1 to make another character (or three).
3. Return to original character. Remake a few times to find a face/hair that I like.
4. Play until 15, repeat step 3 with another alt (or three).
5. Return to original character, generally happy with face. Take her into sPvP.
6. Take all alts into sPvP for brief trials, discard those I did poorly with.
7. Return to original character, level to 30. Run AC story mode.
8. Take all surviving alts to level 30, run AC. Discard least enjoyable.
9. Take all surviving alts to WvW and sPvP, discard those I did poorly with.
10. Get a talk from a friend about how long I’m taking; he wants to run dungeons together.
11. Play Sylvari Engineer.

It’s important to note that “discard” does not mean “delete”. I just stopped leveling those alts.

It’s a convoluted system, and I’m well behind the curve in terms of levels and gear (not that I really care). But on the plus side, I now have a couple level 30’s that I’m decently familiar with, and I can return to playing them if I get bored without having to agonize through the 1-15 stretch. But the nice thing is that I don’t get that urge very often any more. I really, truly love my Sylvengie. Gave her a back story and everything.

So the simple answer is: Play a lot, don’t delete your characters, eventually just pick one and deal with it. You’ll feel happier with the decision than you realize.

It’s always about the RP for me. If my character’s engaged in plots and has an ongoing story, I’ll happily level him or her and invest in dyes and RP clothes and exploration for adventures.

Game wise, I’ve found my Guardian simply wonderful to take to dungeons. AC explorable just melts with a lot of Guardian support. I still take my Thief for my monthly 50 WvW kills because running away matters a lot to me in PvP -grins-. My Warrior’s pretty sturdy as well. They all have a lot of RP going right now.

Mostly find a way to join in with others. You’ll enjoy any of the professions more as part of a team.

Thanks for all of the great replies guys. I have a lot of reading to do it seems.

I love different things about each of my characters.

I love my Sylvari Guardian for running dungeons, I like being able to tune up the support role and make sure my group gets through alive. I wound up in Draconic Armor (lvl 80 crafted exotic) because most of the ‘skimpier’ armors just didn’t look right on her (showing a bit too much wood for my taste.)

I like my Thief for open world PvE amd WvW. I like the fast responsiveness and evasion based play. I like not having to worry about cool downs as much, and I really, really like the mobility.

I have to say, I wonder if low level armor is getting you down, because my thief made me realize just how much the right armor makes me want to play a character. When I got my karma set (from Orr), I loved how much more effectively my character played… and hated the way she looked. Now that I have her in some nice t2 human armor (transmuted, kept the stats I wanted,) I find that my joy in playing her has returned.

Characters really tend to evolve at higher level when you all of your traits and things really start to have synergy. I’ll also be honest, after playing a warrior for thousands of hours in GW1, when I came to GW2 and started a warrior, I stalled at lvl 12…. for months. Couldn’t get into the mechanics, the character felt slow and cumbersome compared to my thief, and didn’t lend to the roles I was wanting to play as well as guardian seemed to… Now, I’ve come back to my warrior, motivated by some nice looking Norn armor and the realization that trying to play a GW2 warrior like a GW1 warrior was just a mistake, but now I can appreciate it for what it is.

Hope you find your niche, the game has lots to offer, but some times, the wait feels long till you get to where you can do what you want. I promise you though, it’s worth it. Have fun in game!

I really like the engineer and the elementalist for the variety. I honestly expected to experiment and bit and then lock into a build I liked and stick with it (ie. a particular weapon and element) as I did in GW1 – I always made my own builds but when I did I’d use them for everything and only make occasional tweaks. But with both of these I really like the versatility that comes from switching around, using different kits and elements depending on what I’m doing. Sometimes I’ll even swap just for the sake of using skills I haven’t used for a while.

I also have a lot of fun on my ranger. I like using conditions and dodging/evading or using a pet to tank rather than standing there and taking damage. A lot of their skills are fairly situational, but it’s usually things you can engineer yourself rather than waiting for the right kind of fight, like bow skills that do more damage or apply conditions depending on where you stand and I like working with that.

I love playing an elementalist. Ele has a very active and engaging playstyle. Harder to learn, but once you have it down you rock in ways other classes simply can’t. Battles are more like dances, only the dance floor is the skulls of your enemies. I’m still learning, but I can already see how I can be really deadly once I get it down.

My thief is simply more boring to play. I love her anyway, but ele is my main and I have a blast. The biggest drawback is that eles are fairly squishy at the moment. I have to embrace the “Dying is fun!” motto and learn how to work around repair costs.