Guild Wars 2

Hi!
I got this game a couple of months ago, but never really played it. I did try a number of races and classes, but could never find something that would keep me interested for long.

Now I want to give it another try,a nd this time I thought I should ask opinions on what charater would fit my playing style.

When I played WoW I used a hunter mostly because I liked its survivability, seeing battle from a distance and having lots of different pets. However that was the only game in which a hunter type character was interesting to me. In any other mmo or rpg I tend to play a class that has flashy spells and good looking armor sets.

I’m also not sure what race to choose. From first look Norn, Asura and Charr seem to be the most interesting, but I was told that Norn quests get boring very quickly and I find Charr and Asura zones hard to navigate in. I know I could just go to the human zone, but I really want to see those other zones. Which of thse races has the best lore in their zones and which if the most newb friendly( not the easiest in gameplay but in navigation) Also what race should I play to find out most about guild wars lore, becouse that stuff interests me.

Thats all the questions I can think of right now, I’m veery thankful to who ever find the time to help me

Welcome to the GW2 community!

I’m 3 weeks in so I can only share my experience so far. I don’t care for the ranger because they seem soft and I found the pet to often be more of a liability than a positive. I have read in the other forum that many players don’t like to roll with rangers.

The good thing about GW2 is professions all have some form of range attack depending on the weapon set you are using. However some are better than others for obvious reasons.

You may like mesmer because there is some rangability and the illusions act someone like temporary pets.

As for the opening zones I find their difficulty to be about the same with the exception of navigation difficulty that you pointed out. I took my human to the Asura map and had a hard time finding things, especially getting to some of the vistas and a few POIs that have kind of a trick to get to. One you have to find a tunnel on the opposite end of the map to get to the other one. If you don’t know this beforehand and are stupid like me you will be running around the map forever lol.

I hope you enjoy the game!

I’ve only found navigating hard in some of the cities, due to their size and layered maps. However once you unlock all the waypoints, or at least the waypoints near the gates, the TP, Bank and crafting areas, then cities are hard to navigate in any longer.

Well, jungles can be a problem as well, it’s a lot tougher to see the obvious path than in plains or snow laden zones.

I’ve done all the zones but only have played a Norn. There stories are based on being nature lovers and smiting those or are corrupting it. Most of the areas are snow and ice. It’s very stark and can be boring after a while.

Charr are all about the smiting and lingering hostilities to Humans. Most of their zones are arid, brown, but they do have one of most interesting landmark in the game, the Brand. Plus one of the big kitten dragons are always flying about, blotting out the sun. Nothing scares you like a shadow passing over you from something huge in the sky.

Asura are about mad science vs madder science. They can be funny since they seem to have no compulsion against experimenting on anyone. Listening to the various conversations can be like listening to the dialog in Fringe. Only problem is their zones are jungle which can be a pain when looking for a path to get you to your goal (and see critters at a distance, use the Ctrl key to highlight everything nearby).

Humans stories are about eking out an existence after the Charr war and their current enemy Centaurs. Their areas range from grassy plain to arid.

The Sylvari are a mellow bunch but their enemy are a faction that has strayed from their group connection. Needless to say, plant people areas are jungle too.

There is a lot of lore between Human’s and Charr. The Sylvari are fairly new to the world, the Asura new to the surface world, while Norns are all about drinking and fighting. And more drinking. As someone who hadn’t played GW1, I would say I got more lore from Charr and humans than the other races.

Hope that helps some, I’m sure others will chime in to say how wrong I am.

If you like flashy spells Elementalist and Mesmer may work for you. I’m like you fan of flashy spells and when I was new I was trying a few characters first. I got so jaleous of the Elementalists around who who would let meteorites fall from the sky I made one myself. It has been my main ever since. XD Engineers have flashy skills too, you can set everything on fire with your flamethrower and blow stuff up with grenades and bombs. I haven’t tried all classes yet though (like Guardian and Thief).

The Asuran story line was really fun for me to do. The main character Zojja is one of my favourites in the game. I haven’t finished any of the other story lines yet (I’m working on Sylvari, Charr and I just started Norn). The Sylvari and Charr ones are also pretty cool, turns out Charrs have a good sense of humor every now and then. XP

I wouldn’t base the choice of race on what zones you like and what not, as you can play in any you want. I have a Charr and I dislike the Charr zones, so I usually take her to zones of other races to play.

Norn zone is the easiest to navigate. Human is the most boring, Asura most interesting but confusing and annoying, Sylvari too drawn-out. Char, 2nd easiest.

Race quibbles. Char and Norn due to their size can be a challange in some jumping puzzles. Asura get the /bow there with Human and Sylvari just fine.

Asura: Really wanna see your weapons? Too bad, they have the tiniest weapon models in the game. But they have the best animations and dialoge sooo..err..yea.

Classes: Rangers aren’t bad, have a Beastmaster spec at 80 and it solos fine. It’s my solo farmer and WvW goto (rarely WvW though).

Messer at 80 and really should have made it an Asura with all the dodging around it does. Solos fine but..can be a complex class. Ranger cat kills faster then the messer even shattering all 3 clones and self in a mobs face, but messer with create clone on dodge can solo (PvE) 1v5 easier then the Ranger. (Dodged clone attacks closest aggressive mob, not targeted, which is awesome. Dodge, decoy and lose that annoying aggro chasing you in circles.) Can blink away, time warp, transfeer/cure conditions, pull mobs, speed buff, mirror image, group invis, tons of escape options and then more stuff..basically slow to kill things but a blast to play (after lvl40 that is, dull till then). Really have to make another, Asura this time..

Guard is low 40s and Greatsword face stomping fun. Being hard to kill creates overconfidence and, well, maybe that Vet and 4 mobs 5 levels higher wasn’t such a good group to attack.. Basically Guard will make you say, “Hey, watch this!” too often. But as a Guard sometimes you actually pull off some stupid stuff.

Story-wise I’m trying out all the branches and they do differ some. The Norn creation choice of ‘partied hard and lost something’ seemed to last alot longer and was more interesting then the Sylvari whatever it was, green unkillable knight or whatever (boooring! and short). Asura stories are just fun do to the dialog.

Voice-overs: Sylvari are the most dull. My plant Guards voice is an accountant that occasionally sounds like someone else all together.

Again, Asura get the /bow to voice overs. Char didn’t pay much attention to, female human was alright.

Lore-wise, my plant Guard that just joined the Priory is going through some interesting lore about Ancient Dwarves and the dragons. And the side-kick mentor is fun, her boss is an Asura so the dialoge is great and there’s tomb plundering with traps and intersting stuff. Vigil and Whispers just wasn’t as entertaining but maybe picked the wrong choices during those lines.

Okay, I’m off the rails, time for someone else to chime in.

You should probably read this (Guide):

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/GW2-Combat-system-101-Guide/first

Good luck =)

MeanPi.6025:

Guard is low 40s and Greatsword face stomping fun. Being hard to kill creates overconfidence and, well, maybe that Vet and 4 mobs 5 levels higher wasn’t such a good group to attack.. Basically Guard will make you say, “Hey, watch this!” too often. But as a Guard sometimes you actually pull off some stupid stuff.

LOL so true. My main is a Guardian only level 26 because according to a thread in the other forum I’m a low life casual player waisting my time LOL.

Anyway I have been playing him for a little over a week PvE only and 9/10 times when I have died, which has not been often, I went flying into a bees nest with Leap of Faith, Symbol of Wrath, Whirling Wrath. That’s gotten me a few time in group events too trying to look cool with Whirling Wrath, I call it my mob blender. Most time 3 mobs same level or 1 or two higher you can pull it off. Getting too bold and you are paying for a waypoint if no one else is around