Guild Wars 2

I already play a mesmer and I mostly enjoy the utility and mix of playstyles I can use I am still undecided if I enjoy the shatter mechanics, I guess I prefer my illusions to stay out a little longer.

Do keep in mind I prefer look and feel over maxing dps numbers, but I do want to help my groups and be effective. And I usually enjoy all game modes pve, pvp, groups, raids, never tried wvw so I cannot say if I would enjoy that or not.

I have also tried elementalist but I hear the melee conjurations are useless later on and this does not appeal to me because I like to actually melee not just be in melee range with daggers, plus all these skills just sitting there would feel like I am missing part of my class I will wait until they do something with conjuration.

Anyways I am trying to find a fun and versatile class for a good mix of range and melee, I have been playing a ranger but I am disappointed in the bland projectiles of the arrows, they all look the same except on shortbow and even that feels kind of bland, I love the melee animations though and the pets, I was hoping there would be some form of lightning nature magic instead of just heals and roots.

Any help would be appreciated thanks everyone.

Well, I’m a pretty casual player and no expert on class subtleties, but oddly started in about the same spot. I leveled a mesmer first, then tried ranger and got bored fast. I’ve switched around a lot since, but right now I’m mostly on my thief.

Thief animations are pretty cool, though more acrobatic than magic-based. Skill 3 on double dagger is basically a back-flip over your enemy! Both melee and ranged are strong, and like mesmer you have a few teleports that can allow you to switch quickly. Thieves also have a good mix of fields and finishers for making combos. The disadvantage, for me, is that I can’t punch buttons fast enough to really survive on pvp – thieves have high damage but low health, and rely on stealth, evades, and speed to stay alive. If you know what you’re doing, though, they are one of the more deadly pvp classes.

Guardian has lots of blue fire magic, but doesn’t seem that versatile to me. Necro might fit what you are looking for, but I’ve not played one past lvl 20, so I can’t tell you much.

And…If you’re planning on doing HoT:
BWE1 I was playing around with Chronomancer traits and found a shatter build in which illusions don’t disappear the first time you shatter, and shattering creates a clone – really enjoyed shatter mechanics for the first time.
Revanent will be amazing. The coolest visuals I have yet seen on this game, and a lot of variety depending on which legends you slot.

Hope this helps!

Teaniel.9052:

Well, I’m a pretty casual player and no expert on class subtleties, but oddly started in about the same spot. I leveled a mesmer first, then tried ranger and got bored fast. I’ve switched around a lot since, but right now I’m mostly on my thief.

Thief animations are pretty cool, though more acrobatic than magic-based. Skill 3 on double dagger is basically a back-flip over your enemy! Both melee and ranged are strong, and like mesmer you have a few teleports that can allow you to switch quickly. Thieves also have a good mix of fields and finishers for making combos. The disadvantage, for me, is that I can’t punch buttons fast enough to really survive on pvp – thieves have high damage but low health, and rely on stealth, evades, and speed to stay alive. If you know what you’re doing, though, they are one of the more deadly pvp classes.

Guardian has lots of blue fire magic, but doesn’t seem that versatile to me. Necro might fit what you are looking for, but I’ve not played one past lvl 20, so I can’t tell you much.

And…If you’re planning on doing HoT:
BWE1 I was playing around with Chronomancer traits and found a shatter build in which illusions don’t disappear the first time you shatter, and shattering creates a clone – really enjoyed shatter mechanics for the first time.
Revanent will be amazing. The coolest visuals I have yet seen on this game, and a lot of variety depending on which legends you slot.

Hope this helps!

Wow this does help thanks for the awesome reply, but just a few things, I was told thief have allot of issues and are at the bottom right now and shortbow is not very good.

Guardians have blue flames? Thats cool hmmm it might be interesting do they have slow and fast melee types? Are they boring to you? Any burst dps?

I love this news on the mesmer now I am more excited to play it.

Have you looked at/considered the engineer?
I have 4 rangers each geared and specced differently. Quite good in what they do, but fun is not the word I would apply to them.
I tried a power enginner before and set that aside, but with the June 23rd update, I tried a pistol/pistol condi engineer running almost full Sinister. I am hooked! So fun, so risky, so rewarding. So much bust damage, nice sustain damage. Loving it in SIlverwastes.

I am leveling another engineer to become my SW farmer. My current lvl 80 (asura) will become a Scrapper with his melee hammer.

Anyway, Guild Wars 2 is such an amazing game. Look and you will find whatever you are looking for.

Good luck and enjoy.

Ryou.2398:

… Anyways I am trying to find a fun and versatile class for a good mix of range and melee…

First, I think you’re going to love chronomancer elite for mesmer.

Second, ele ice bow is still pretty useful, but the other conjurations are ‘eh’. Eles really shine at ranged, IMO. Even though Tempest elite is designed with more support via warhorn, it’s not for melee either.

Third, ranger’s elite druid spec may give you what you’re looking for. We’ll find out this coming week!

Finally, I recommend you give engineer a try. Engineer kits are quite varied, giving you options of range and melee. Flamethrower kit is especially fun. Bomb kit allows some good melee damage and grenades give you ranged. Engi has some good supportive combos, can stand some toe to toe action or stand back and fire. It’s a lot to learn the weapons, the kits, and the toolbelt skills, plus combos but it’s very engaging. Additionally, the Scrapper elite will have floating drone ‘pets’ which you may find fun.

Ok one more question do any races look better for using a long bow? I am using the male sylvari and it just looks so static and bland animations wise, I am trying to stay away from asura because well I cannot get into the stories and dislike the personality, I also cannot say I like the smaller weapon scaling, I have the feeling the animations would be different.

Thanks all for the answers I do want to play an engineer some day but not as of right now due to wanting something more magical or nature looking like the druid.

Charr has the best looking longbow stance and animations imo. I like the animations of all the weapons actually.
Finding a good looking armor for Charr, especially if ‘nature’ is your thing, can be a challenge though. But it’s worth a try!

Man those are awesome its just a big race they move so slow! Maybe I will try it.