Best class for a beginner?
I believe warriors or a thief would be a good choice. Typical playstyle from other games, if you’ve played others before.
Warrior and ranger were very straightforward for me. Using the rangers pet bear as a tank and only worrying about doing damage was very simple. An all damage GS warrior can cut through PvE with ease also.
Aussie here I play on Kaineng, though its numbers seem to be dropping, I’ll never change though unless the whole guild goes too.
Skye Eterna ~ Mesmer | Arya Slade ~ Charrdian | Kiera Thine ~ Ranger
Oceanic ~ [LOD] [Noob]
I think it depends on your playstile:
If you want to learn game mechanics fast and don’t mind the difficulty then go with Elementalist, you will have to use combos, boons and conditions to be effective.
If you want an easy toon then go warrior or ranger, they are almost mind numbing easy to play.
If you want something in the middle ground play a guardian, they are easy to learn and can combo quite well.
Whatever your choice be sure to read these wiki pages: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Combo
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Boon
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Condition
Those three pages will teach you more about GW2 than anything else, but a lot of gameplay experience.
Elementalist.
Remember that old game Guitar Hero? When it came out, my friends got it a week before I could. They started on easy mode, worked their way up. Easy used only 3/5 buttons. Medium added the fourth. When I got the game, I started on medium. I failed every song, but I kept at it. I ended up advancing to hard mode before my friends, because since they had gotten used to using less buttons at first, it was harder for them to catch up. Where they had to add 2 more, I only had to add one.
I look at the ele the same way. Look at their forum- a large portion of the complaints about the class can be summed up to “it’s too hard”. It’s fragile, required lots more dodging than any other class because of that, and to do comparable damage to any other class you have to do complex rotations. But I guarantee you that as a result, any average elementalist will be a better player than even some of the best guardians, thieves or warriors.
Start on hard mode, and work your way down, IMO.
I think it depends on your playstile:
If you want to learn game mechanics fast and don’t mind the difficulty then go with Elementalist, you will have to use combos, boons and conditions to be effective.
If you want an easy toon then go warrior or ranger, they are almost mind numbing easy to play.
If you want something in the middle ground play a guardian, they are easy to learn and can combo quite well.
Whatever your choice be sure to read these wiki pages: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Combo
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Boon
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Condition
Those three pages will teach you more about GW2 than anything else, but a lot of game play experience.
I couldn’t have stated it any better.
This game really is different than others, so it would depend on what you like whether it’s melee or spell-casting or a combo of both.
I’d recommend starting out with two toons, that way you can trade off and get a feel for melee/spell-casting, plus not get burned out just playing on one all the time.
Elementalist.
Remember that old game Guitar Hero? When it came out, my friends got it a week before I could. They started on easy mode, worked their way up. Easy used only 3/5 buttons. Medium added the fourth. When I got the game, I started on medium. I failed every song, but I kept at it. I ended up advancing to hard mode before my friends, because since they had gotten used to using less buttons at first, it was harder for them to catch up. Where they had to add 2 more, I only had to add one.
I look at the ele the same way. Look at their forum- a large portion of the complaints about the class can be summed up to “it’s too hard”. It’s fragile, required lots more dodging than any other class because of that, and to do comparable damage to any other class you have to do complex rotations. But I guarantee you that as a result, any average elementalist will be a better player than even some of the best guardians, thieves or warriors.
Start on hard mode, and work your way down, IMO.
Worst advice ever. I never would have gotten into the game in the first place as I didn’t find Elementalist a fun or rewarding profession, and would have judged the rest of the game as so.
Skye Eterna ~ Mesmer | Arya Slade ~ Charrdian | Kiera Thine ~ Ranger
Oceanic ~ [LOD] [Noob]
If you like (mostly) melee, heavy armor, lotsa buffs: Warrior
If you like (mostly) range, medium armor, using pets: Ranger
Both are straight-forward and easy to level in PvE.
Warrior variety comes with lotsa available weapons.
Ranger variety comes from all the pets you can shoose from.
I said ‘mostly’ because warriors do have ranged weapons & rangers do have melee weapons, both of which are actually quite viable in PvE too.
[TTBH] [HATE], Yak’s Bend(NA)
I’ve tried them all, although some only briefly, and IMO the warrior is the simplest to get the hang of. Their unique mechanic is very simple to use and, at least on the surface, all their skills are fairly straight forward.
But if you’re just new to GW and not new to MMOs/RPGs in general I’d say go with whatever you want to play so you can get used to it. I’ve been playing 4 characters about equally since launch and recently added a 5th (ranger, elementalist, engineer, thief and guardian) and the only time I really struggle is when I switch from one to the other and have to get into a different mindset and playstyle.
IMO it will be easier to start with the profession you think you want to stick with and tackle the others later than to start with what someone else recommends and then switch to what you want once you’re used to the first one.
“Life’s a journey, not a destination.”
I would play what you feel most attached to as a first character. I am an engineer in real life so I picked the engineer class as my starting class just because of that reason. If once of the classes do not stand out to you then read the descriptions and pick the one that you feel suits your play style the best. Or do what I do when I go to the horse track and close your eyes and point to one. If you do not like that class you can always create a new character. And if you pick a different race then you will have a different starting place and missions.