Guild Wars 2

Hi there,

I started playing this game at launch and rolled a warrior. I got to level 71 and got busy with school/bored of the class. Recently I’ve decided to give the game another chance because I really do enjoy the combat system among other aspects.

The two main classes that look interesting to me are the Thief and Engineer. I’m having a tough time deciding what class to use because I’m afraid of burning out like I did with my warrior.

I’m looking for a class that has a good amount of variety in terms of play styles, I also enjoy being very mobile, self-sustaining, and most of all being able to have fun.

I should also mention that I like to focus more on PvP, but I would also like to try out PvE on the side.

So what do you guys think?

Thief.

They are in a good place right now. Pretty good class with good dps, utility and mobility.

They are also very good in PvE. Engineers are not so hot right now. Can’t speak for Engi PvP though.

I’d disagree tbh. Engi has always been a very variable class, since it effectively has 4 or 5 extra move sets outside of weapons. You can also specialize in those specific weapon kits (there are some good traits for grenadier/bomber engi and flamethrower engi). In PvP, i’m struggling to find a good fit for engi, but they’re fairly common and play well in pvp.
Thief are a fine class to play as well, but I just think they’re a bit more one note than engi. As far as pvp is concerned, they’re really focused on burst damage, whereas engi can be burst or bunker.

Variety – Engi
Mobile – Thief
Sustainable – Engi
Fun – YMMV
PvP – Engi
WvW – Thief
PvE – Either, both are easy. Probably thief because superlong stealth.

I know you’re primarily interested in PvP and I don’t really touch that, but for PvE, I’d go with Thief. There’s almost NOWHERE you can’t get to running as a Thief due to your stealth abilities and almost no situation that you can’t get out of when it goes south. Engineers are great fun, Very versatile, very tough and very powerful. But they can’t loot the contents of a chest from underneath the nose of a Champion mob, by themselves. Thieves can. Also, Engineers don’t have an “oh s**t!” handle to punch out of a bad situation. When they eventually get overwhelmed (which can take some doing), you basically dig in and wait for them to bust your bunker. Thieves are greasy little kittens and good ones will always have an escape route available to them. Always.

Finally, if you like mobility, nothing tops the Thief. With the right build, you’ll be dancing all over the battlefield faster than your enemies can track you. It’s an exciting way to play (for me at least) since it can feel a bit like you’re dodging cars on a freeway. Any hit will likely do significant damage, so continually not being there when the hammer falls is very satisfying.

Again, this is just with PvE in mind. The few times of gone into WvW with my Thief, I’ve performed pretty well and found that I was nearly unkillable, even with my PvE build. I contrast that with EVERY other profession I’ve tried in WvW and ended up being a floor mat for the enemy to wipe their boots on. But these are just a handful of experiences and not nearly enough to make a recommendation on. I’m absolutely NO expert in PvP.

You know Engineer has stealth too, right? And that Rocket Boots is like the longest leap you can get in the game currently?

I have an engie and a thief at 80 and I personally find engineer a lot more fun and flexible. The variety of kits and other utilities means you can do a lot of different things, and I think it fits your criteria of mobile/versatile.

Now I might be biased, since my engie is my main character for pvp, but it really is capable of doing a lot of things in a way that thieves aren’t exactly – wanna go bunker? Pretty easy as an engie. Decap? Hell yeah. Roaming/damage? Just gotta fiddle a bit with utilities and traits and basically you can pretty much do everything. I’m especially fond of how they have a loooot of different combo fields available so you can access stealth/might/heal/cleanse easily, as well as potentially share them with your team. It can take a while to get used to juggling kits, but it’s a really worthwhile effort IMO.

Mobility is always an interesting thing to talk about. Thief has lots of options for shadowstepping/teleporting obviously, but Engineer can maintain 100% swiftness uptime with lots of vigor for extra dodges in addition to some of the skills that have movement involved (slick shoes, rocket boots launch forward, rifle, elixir gun).

I have a level 80 for each class, all exotic geared and build tuned to a specific task. The thief was the last to 80 because I struggled to emulate what I saw others doing with their thieves. Before that? Engineer. Struggled with that one, too. In hindsight, trying to play a class, in a style that doesn’t suit your own natural play style, or goals, is a lesson in frustration.

I agree that the engineer seems more flexible. You can mow down people with the flamethrower and bomb/grenade condition combo, you can focus just on grenades for both condition or crit builds, you can try to make the turret thing work and maybe be more of a support build. Tons of options with the engineer. A lot, actually…maybe why it was difficult for me to zero in on exactly what I wanted to accomplish with it. Too many options!

With the thief…you are there to make a person’s life hell. It’s burst damage and stealth. If that’s your calling, then you have your class. haha.