Guild Wars 2

Hey everyone. Sorry for another thread devoted to helping someone pick a character, but I’m really stuck at the moment….

I enjoy alts, and variety of play style – always have. But, I’m having a very difficult time finding a class that doesn’t disappoint me in some way. This has never really happened to me in other games; I like playing different toons, but because they all were fun in their own way. In GW2 I find myself switching to alts because each class gets annoying and feels very limited. This is obviously a problem, so I’m asking for some advice (other than “stop playing the game.”)

I’ve played everything except for Engineer (I hate the concept of steampunk/mechanical in a fantasy setting, so I don’t think I can go there) up to level 15 or so, and here is what I’m finding:

GENERAL: There don’t seem to be enough skills to use, and everything feels too similar. For example, each weapon set gives you the same 5 types of abilities. You switch weapons and…. oh look my (3) is just ANOTHER bleed/create vulnerability/etc. and my number (5) is ANOTHER AoE or whatever. It doesn’t feel like switching weapons necessarily offers anything NEW for some professions. I feel like I’m switching just for the sake of variety, not for strategy or utility.

I find pretty much for every profession that I like certain skills on one weapon, but hate the rest of the abilities it offers. I end up playing weapon combos that I’m not entirely happy with, and can never get a build that feels exactly the way I want. For example, I don’t like the scepter abilities on my Guardian, but it’s the only way to get any ranged attacks. Or, I would love to have a swiftness buff (Focus) on my Mesmer, but I can’t give up the extra stealth from the Torch. In order to have both, it means I have to use a 1-hander for both sets and can’t use a Greatsword at all, which I find the most fun overall. Same thing for Ranger – I just can’t get all the abilities I want in any weapon combo.

I know, I know, it’s about decisions and you can’t have EVERYTHING, but I can’t find a combo of weapons that doesn’t feel very limiting. I won’t even talk about the ridiculous limits of necro weapon choices. Is anyone else having this problem?

I’m looking for a decent damage dealer with good utility. I don’t need to be the highest DPS, or the tankiest, but basically a jack-of-all-trades. I prefer to fight at range, and the stealth/escape options of the mesmer/thief appeal to me. But I don’t want to use PISTOLS (ewww) on a thief and my mesmer seems to have crappy damage output and I don’t like the weapon combo choices so I find myself searching for something else.

This post is long enough already, but maybe someone can give me some words of wisdom? Thanks in advance!

I’m fairly new to GW2 (but I played quite a bit of GW) and it sounds to me like you’re maybe too focused on finding a single class or build to consider your primary one. I too feel a little disappointed, so far, with the classes in GW2, but I’d suggest thinking of your characters in terms of specific builds, each with particular strengths and weaknesses, rather than thinking about a single character fulfilling all your desires. I split time fairly evenly between all my characters in GW because each one (and in turn, each particular build/secondary class combo) offered radically different experiences when played, and I anticipate the same thing happening in GW2; after playing a single character to 28, I’m now splitting time between 3.

Thanks Schweinehund.

I guess something just feels “off” about the classes in this game. They feel incomplete. I am not saying that every class should have every type of skill available to them; that would be awful. I just don’t feel like ANY class has enough…. well… variety to them.

I dunno, it’s hard to put into words, I guess. For example, in an unmentionable MMO that we are all familiar with, I felt like I had a lot more skill options at any one time. I could hit any number of abilities on my action bar (as long as it wasn’t on cooldown), and I had to really plan out my use of them. GW2 feels spammy and limited, and I don’t know if that impression will change for me over time.

In general, I think the weapon swapping is a bad design choice. Instead of having 2×5 abilities, why not just give us 10 abilities that you don’t annoyingly have to swap out weapons for? I understand they want to be different, but I don’t think being different for difference’s sake is necessarily better, ya know? I would love to play a healer, because I thoroughly enjoy that, but of course the holy trinity has already been obliterated, because that’s a great design choice, too, right?

Perhaps my frustrations with the game can’t be overcome. What I’m hoping for is someone to tell me that they felt the same way and then once they progressed with a certain class, things opened up and got better. I just honestly don’t see it happening for me, although I’m still holding out hope. :-(

Thanks for the input.

well at lvl 15 you only got 2 utility slots unlocked and likely barely got into tier 2 utility skills (those that cost 3 skill points each), help a lot getting more utility skill choices as well as opening up elites (at lvl 30)).

Also you aware of combo fields and finishers? where some skills in its decription says “Combo field: XXX”, and some say “Combo Finisher: XXX”, where you can use a skill from within or through a combo field getting and extra effect, depending on both the field and finisher, and this can be with both your own and allied players fields.

So no you want have one million skills on your bar, but the ones you have can be usually be used in a variety of ways, some more obvious than others.

And later on switching weapons and utilising combo’s properly, can be the difference between victory or defeat. Also as you get highest up stuff like positioning and keep moving will be more and more important (more so for some classes than other)

Guild Wars (both games) has always rejected the option of giving us heaps of different skills available at once (which offers greater versatility) in favour of making us pick a set under certain restrictions, having limited versatility but having to be clever with it. Maybe one of the things you’re having issues with is that some skills are very situational, but they take up a precious slot? In games where you have all your options available at once, it’s ok to have those situational/occasional ones just sitting there, but in GW2 it’s a more difficult choice as to whether you want to keep that option.

I’ve played everything except for Engineer (I hate the concept of steampunk/mechanical in a fantasy setting, so I don’t think I can go there)

I understand! You should have seen the lore-rage I had when engineer was first announced. However, I must say it has grown on me over time, and pistol thief is fun. My warrior even ended up using a rifle, despite my initially thinking I would avoid guns! Still, I respect your dislike of them and I see no reason why you should have to compromise on it.

It may not be useful to hear this now, but things do seem to open up as you progress. Traits can actually define a playstyle and role for you in time, even though a lot of them seem like minor changes at first. The trait lines I went down started to shape my utility skill choices. You really have to decide what you want to focus on and build for that – and be aware that maybe two or three of your ten skills will only come up in certain situations, but if they help your objectives there it can be worth it.

Oh, and think outside the box a little – e.g. guardian single-hand sword has a short ranged attack skill, and greatsword has the leap which closes distance instead. I tend to go one ranged/one melee for my weapon sets, but my guardian currently uses greatsword/sword+torch, and the latter is like pseudo-ranged.