Guild Wars 2

Hi guys!

I am totally new to this game and genre “MMORPG”. I need help on choosing what is the best beginner — Races/Profession. I currently have a Thief in-game, but it seems like it is not going well…I chose thief in the beginning because I love to play sneaky/fast/assassin type character, but I need to choose something else. Please let me know what are your suggestions.

Thank you

My honest opinion is just play around with each profession. What you think you might not like, you may very well end up enjoying and vice versa.

I had an idea of which one I would love months ago, but once I actually got in, I ended up loving a class I paid little attention to before.

So, just have fun exploring each profession.

Why don’t you like the Thief? If you feel like a kitten it is not the profession you picked, it is the design of the game.

Perhaps you could try a warrior?
Or maybe a guardian?
They are both decent in pve and they should give you a good feel for the game.
Lots of weapons to try out and stuff like that.

Don’t get me wrong. Thief is like my TOP pick profession to play, but as of right now it seems like it’s not the best class for me…

try equipping dual pistols and see how that works for you. Once you get the weapon switch option, equip a melee set and a ranged set, it’ll definitely help you out a lot with encounters once you stealth out of shady situations at low health to be able to hit someone at a distance.

One of my problems with the Thief profession is HOW little the HP/Vit(Def) is. The boss would just 3 shot me, and I’m dead…

I don’t know if I am missing something…or what…

Thieves seem to be a pretty trait-dependent class, and one that’s less forgiving for mistakes starting out. My spouse has one and while he had his reservations for awhile, after just getting better at it and getting some traits under his belt, it’s a whole new ballgame.

Thief is a little more advanced, and requires alot of control.

You might want to start with Warrior.

In any case, a really good tip for anybody is to rebind A and D keys to strafe.

By default, A and D are set to rotate. Q and E are set to strafe. And you can hold r-click to strafe with the rotate buttons.

I started the game, and tried rebinding a/d buttons to strafe as that is the setup in most modern games. It was working pretty well for me. Then I found out alot of players actually recommend doing that. So I’m recommending it to new players as well.

So for beginners. Warrior is the best pick ??

I dunno, I had a very easy time solo on guardian. However if you like the thief playstyle and are just kinda bad at it (no shame there, you’re new) I’d advocate sticking with it and just practicing more.

Sneakill.4207:

So for beginners. Warrior is the best pick ??

My advice is try a Ranger (or another ranged class) – it will allow you to keep your distance and out of trouble most time while you learn the ins and outs of mmo’s.

GL.

Having tried each class through 15-20 levels so far, the easiest starting out are Warrior, Guardian, and Rangers.

Warrior is very straight forward, smash things until they die.

Guardians offer a ridiculous amount of survivability and area control (depending on how you set ‘em up, I’m partial to Mace + Shield for blocking and interrupts)

Rangers survive through their pets, so if you went that route I’d recommend tracking down a Bear or Drake, they can both take a ridiculous mount of punishment and give it back in spades. 8/10 encounters, enemies (in PvE) will focus on your pet, allowing you to sit back and fill them with arrows.

What is the difference in Warrior and a Guardian? And when playing do you guys recommend I do the main story line first then the side missions??

Sneakill.4207:

What is the difference in Warrior and a Guardian? And when playing do you guys recommend I do the main story line first then the side missions??

Try to have maybe a one level advantage over your story quests. They can be tricky if you’re solo.

I actually don’t recommend Guardian as a purely beginner class. They’re implicitly straightforward, but they have a lot of hidden nuance and complexity in the way they manage conditions, boons and virtues.

Warriors are very straightforward. Nearly all your weapon sets focus on aggressive play—dealing damage, inflicting some conditions, and maybe supporting your team. You can use rifles and bows if you want to be at range, or swords and axes if you want some aggressive melee play, or greatswords and hammers if you prefer big, slow weapons.

Plus, the Adrenaline system is very straightforward and easy to understand. I recommend Warriors for someone totally new to the game.

Hmm yes I am level 11 Thief at the moment, and I DIE way too much…maybe its just too early in the game or what?

I am actually getting annoyed of the game…LOL is the thief supposed to be this weak?? HOLY crap I died way too many times just fighting the first Main BOSS…

Just takes practice.

At first I thought thieves were weak as well. However, once you get used to their mechanics, they’re really fun to play.

Which boss are you fighting? Storymode boss? World boss?

I chose human and died a lot trying to kill Doc before getting to two-blade pete. I leveled up a bit, and got a few trait skills and it helped. Thieves require a lot of movement and situational awareness.

As for a good newb-friendly class, I believe in the Brady games GW2 manual, the easiest class to start with is the guardian. Tons of survivability.

As for questing- You can do either/or. Story mode has nice rewards, but you can only do them up to a certain point as you don’t get enough exp to keep up with the levels. Sometimes the storymode out levels your current level, so you need to do other quests/activities to meet the requirements.

I also suggest exploration. Uncovering a whole map, doing every heart quest, finding every skill points, point of interest, and vista will unlock further rewards.

Yah its that Doc and Pete that killed me a lot LOL…Yeah I have to agree Thief is really fun to play as they have crazy moves. But for now I think I will be making a warrior and see where that comes.

Since you are brand new: Warrior and then Ranger. The skills, and skill interactions are very straight forward with these classes and work just how one would expect them to. The other classes require a slightly more advanced knowledge of how certain MMO concepts – such as healing, support and stealth- work.

Yeah I made a warrior like 2 hours ago. So far its like a tank and aggressive approach is like the main thing to do. I think I will keep playing with this character.

you’re new to mmos, you’re going to die A LOT with any class you play.. just stick at it, get used to kiting and dodging and dieing

Lol is that normal specially with the thief class?

Yeah, as a thief, i’ve died probably 15 times or better.

I’ve tried all weapon combos and so far, my favorites are dagger/dagger, pistol/pistol and shortbow. Each have their uses.

Shortbow is GREAT for kiting as a thief. Damage isn’t over the top, but you can can stay out of range pretty nice.

Dagger/dagger is GREAT for melee. High damage output with survivability skills.

An example of an opener for me on melee..

I come in and use skill #5 with dagger/dagger. I hit the creature, get auto-stealthed, then circle around and hit it from behind with a backstab. (while still in stealth). it’s a big damage boost. After that, I use skill #1 for repeated damage. I occasionally throw in skill #3. it’s a skill that does damage, AND evades. it’s like an extra evade button. Once the creature’s health gets low, Spam #2 to finish it off.

If you get out numbered, a nice skill to use is blinding powder. blinds enemies for 5 seconds, and then you can circle around one enemy while stealthed and open with a backstab. Huge damage boost.

Say you’re up against a tough enemy. With dagger dagger if you hit skill #4, you throw your knife at him. This will cripple him, impaairing his movement for so many seconds. you can quickly switch to shortbow and begin kiting. My usual method is Spam skill 1. Use skill 4 to use choking gas, and then skill 2 for a little damage. Skill #3 is the awesome one though. It propells you backward while shooting so you can gain range.

For utility skills, you can use traps here as range. Tripwire is nice because it knocks an enemy down and cripples them. Caltrops is even better because it causes bleeds and cripples the enemy. You can kite things around all day, laughing your butt off.

it’s once you learn to use these sorts of tactics (or even some that you invent) that you will die significantly less.

Those are really nice combos…Hmm yes I have no idea how to use those skills properly, which is probably why I die a lot. But as of right now I am definitely enjoying my Warrior. I think I will stick to this guy for a while then maybe go back to my thief.

I find that you die a lot if you just stand there. I was having trouble with the story bosses before i learned how to dodge and strafe. So now i do it with every fight and I’m a Ranger. Now i ever take on higher lvl mobs. With melee characters you really have to move around. When mobs get close i switch to my Sword and dagger set. That’s if they get close.