Guild Wars 2

Played for a little bit on release, but after spending a while trying to enjoy a few professions, I decided to take a little break. I was desperately trying to enjoy engineer, but it’s just not for it. It feels too lackluster.. some people like that playstyle, I do not. I want something that feels finished. I also tried Mesmer for a while, and while it wasn’t bad, I feel like it was slightly off from what I was looking for. I feel like it was too heavy on the manipulation side and not enough on the damage side. I know they’re supposed to be the 1v1 PVP kings, but I don’t really care about that.

I am avoiding guardian and necromancer because I have buddies playing those.

Thief: I tried one for a little bit (Around lv 10), I didn’t really like the initiative resource, although I think I could have dealt with the profession if it didn’t use it.

Ranger: Tried one for a little bit (Around lv 10) .. honestly, the pet bugged the crap out of me. I don’t want to watch another object’s health and position and I don’t want something to just tank stuff for me. I feel like if you weren’t required to have a pet, I might have enjoyed this profession.

Warrior: I haven’t really done much with warriors. I like the idea of big weapons, smashing faces, planting banners for support. I’ve avoided warrior so far because .. well, because of these forums. People consistently say they’re so easy/dull that it’s not fun.

Elementalist: I played one for a very little bit and was immediately turned off by the element switching, but this was when I first started playing and didn’t really understand the importance of swapping. Now, the only thing keeping me from playing it is again, these forums. Every profession forum kittens about their profession saying its the worst, but elementalist is almost completely agreed as being the worst. Kinda turns ya off to playing it.

So here I am, trying to give GW2 one last shot. I almost always play mages in MMO’s.
- In WoW I did a warlock, but I enjoyed the versatility of a druid (however I could never get the hang of PvP in melee range… so much easier to sit back and nuke). When doing dungeons, I was always jealous of the guys who got to be up front smashing stuff while I sat in back queuing up abilities.
- In Rift, I played a mage (necromancer/warlock, sometimes chloromancer).
- Lineage 2, I loved my orc destroyer,
- Aion I enjoyed a chanter (for a brief time, but that game wasn’t great). EQ2 I played a bruiser but immediately hated it in PVP.
- Guild Wars 1 I could never really find a class combo I enjoyed.
- In AoC, I played a Herald of Xotli (a 2-handed weilding mage.. very fun class).

I feel like I might enjoy elementalist .. is it REALLY as bad as people say it is? And if so, how?

Anyways, hopefully the game has been out long enough that the trolls have gotten bored of the forums and I can get some helpful responses.

Thanks,
Jeremy

Sounds like you need to get off the forums. And this is also why I never visit the profession forums anyway. Too much whine gets to your head, if you want it or not.

I recently made a new elementalist, and I really enjoy it. The 4 elements give me more skills to play with than with any other character, save maybe the engineer. You can also combine your own skills to create combo effects, if you swap efficiently.
But my ele is only level 15 now, I havent even discovered all weapon skills yet

I agree, forums are bad. Ideally, I can soak up something useful in this thread and never return. Just while I’m at work trying to avoid doing anything work-related, the forums seem appealing …

also, thanks for the reply.

Elementalist is strong. Just really hard to master.
If you wannna talk about the “worst” class, it’d probably be necromancer, cause their builds are fairly limited with even requiring exact trait builds to really do well on top of it.
I have similar problems but I enjoy rolling my Guardian. As Guardian is a big “no” for you and warrior is not much of a challenge(seriously, my friend rolls a warrior alongside my guardian. He’s better in almost every single aspect except utility/battle control(who needs these when he can outdps any class in the game anyway?) where he comes in as close second. Don’t wanna discuss healing here as there are more important things than heals.

I’d say, just give the elementalist a try. Dealing damage is rather hard at the beginning(honestly, now that I’ve played both a guardian and a thief, my ele seems rather weak) but that will change later on when you got a bunch of traits(my ele is still 16)

The biggest disadvantage of ele is the lack of a really good elite(he’s up there with engi in crappiness of elites. And engi has supply drop which pulls him ahead due to being a reliable stun.) so roll him with a fitting race(a charr ele just outright sucks. Don’t even try.)

Haha, thanks. Yeah I end up making all my characters either Norn or Human simply because I think equipment looks the best on them. Might try out a sylvari for the elementalist though, who knows. More than likely just end up making another Norn..

If the forums are the only thing holding you back from trying out a warrior, then maybe you should try it considering all the other classes you’ve actually tried and found some reason to not like them.

Also, how you initially “figure out how to play” a character can very much influence how you end up liking it. For example, my friend had all sorts of issues playing his necro and said it was really not for him (even though we both have almost identical preferences for play-style). When I made my own necro I couldn’t believe how enjoyable it was based on what my friend was saying, then I saw why… He had a totally defunct setup and was barely using the utilities available to him.

That being said… don’t discount your engineer so quickly. I would ask what are the issues you having and what your setup is. Maybe it’s a good setup, but not for lvling or PvPin or whatever you’re trying to do.

In PVE all professions do well so whichever you liked more (or disliked less?) is good. I would not dismiss Necro and Guardian because of your friends as you can play a different build/role.

Don’t dismiss Warriors either some people consider them dull because they play them with signets only or focus to much on DPS. Banners can really make a difference when used correctly same for Shouts and they have many abilities that interrupt, which makes it a rush to wait for the “right moment”.

Cancer.9065:

In PVE all professions do well so whichever you liked more (or disliked less?) is good. I would not dismiss Necro and Guardian because of your friends as you can play a different build/role.

Don’t dismiss Warriors either some people consider them dull because they play them with signets only. Banners can really make a difference when used correctly same for Shouts and they have many abilities that interrupt, which makes it a rush to wait for the “right moment”.

Banners are the single most broken skills of the warrior!
Just played WvW the other day, we were greatly outmanned but kept Piken shut down in the ogre camp where they camped with a treb and some arrowcarts. They always tried to push us back and claim Ogre Watch but one warrior with a bunch of friggin banners and shouts held them back for almost half an hour…
Until the point, they managed to burst him down. Our defense crumbled like 10 seconds later.

I played engineer to almost 30 (27 I believe). Overall, I did not like how the kits fit together. No kit felt like it could stand alone like a weapon (rifle, pistol/shield, pistol/pistol) could. It was very disappointing. Profession felt like it had a lot of potential, but absolutely fell short. It’s not an area I want to re-visit.

Necro and guardian are out because I simply don’t want to play in a group with others of the same profession on a regular basis. I understand it will happen with random groups, but it’s just a personal preference.

The only reason I’m putting elementalist above warrior is because I feel like they’re almost inverses of each other. Warrior is primarily melee who can do some range, elementalist is primarily ranged who can do some “melee” (moreso just mod-close range). I think I prefer the latter.

may i suggest you a DualDagger elementalist?
its lot of fun, expecially since they gave us a little needed buff.

Its not the strongest profession, but its viable i think >.> and you can switch to staff if needed (out of combat) with the same build, but as i said its probably one of the most fun…..

Thanks, LordByron. I’ll give it a shot. I’m not looking to top leaderboards for damage, just want something fun that I can actually enjoy playing the game with.

Honestly elementalist is hands down the best class. There’s a guy in the WvWvW forums bragging about how he takes 8 guys out solo. I’ll just put it this way: with several abilities that activate on a % of your hp with no CD and the ability to heal to full in an instant there is something a biiiiiiiiiiit overpowered.

Haha, good to know they can excel in specific builds, but like I said I’m not looking for the “best” profession, just one I can enjoy. I enjoy being good in PvP because of personal skill, not because the profession is inherently better.

I’d second the opinion about trying warrior. It seems to be you’re only not playing it because of the opinions of the vocal minority on the forums.
I enjoy it so much, I’ve recently started a second one.
There’s a lot of heft to the warrior, the hammer in particular feeling incredibly physical.
It has great utility with shouts and banners and fantastic mobility.
It also has plenty of variation, allowing you to really make a build that feels like your own. Sure, while you’ll see a lot of glass canon, 5-signet build warriors around, that doesn’t mean you have to follow the herd.
My personal favourite build uses healing shouts with a hammer main and either an axe/warhorn combo offhand for increased mobility or rifle for ranged.
But there are all sorts of builds out there, each feeling distinct from the other.

Well, while the forums are primarily are what’s keeping me from the warrior, the other reason (as mentioned above) is the warrior seemed restricted mostly to melee combat. It makes sense for a warrior to be restricted in that way, but I don’t know how I feel about that.

Hell, maybe I’ll try both an ele and a warrior. Not like I’m paying per month for the game, I can take as much time as I want.

Elementalist isn’t as bad as people say it is. It has some areas that need improvement but it’s not some kitten class where you feel like a wimp, not at all.

I’ve played all 8 classes, (3 to 80, necro, engineer, warrior) and honestly elementalist is the only one I have fun playing. The other 7 classes (including engineer) are quite honestly terminally easy to play.

Eles take work and nimble fingers, but it’s fun. You definitely won’t feel like you’re doing the same thing over and over. Just about to wrap up the leveling on the ele, and it’s going to be my main now. The gameplay is actually…wait for it…REWARDING! Something that just isn’t present for me on the other 7 classes.

I also played ele early on and was like “eh, not feeling it”. Give it another try now that you know what you’re looking for in a character.

I really appreciate the responses from everyone. I’m going to close out of the forums now before some turkey comes in and says “aw dood ele sucks”.

Seriously – appreciate it. First time in a while I’ve been excited to get back to playing this game.

Mongo OUT!

Someone discouraged you from playing Necromancer and I’m not sure that’s fair. There are plenty of builds that can be fun to play. There are a lot of bugs, and some traits which have next to no use, but the class isn’t as broken as people make it out to be. If you want to join a paid tournament team you might need to conform to a specific build, but you can find success with any profession if you enjoy it and like crafting your own custom builds.

That’s not meant to discourage you from playing an Elementalist. My friend loves his, but you mentioned Warlock in WoW. I played a Warlock in WoW, and a Necromancer in EQ before that, as well as a Necromancer in Rift. The Necromancer in this game is a fun class, especially if you stay out of the forums.

I would just play ‘em all…provided you don’t mind using Gems to open up some additional character slots.

But I seriously hate Elementalists….that Meteor Shower is freaking bullcrap. Strictly because it doesn’t have an ‘AoE Radius Indicator’ (red ring on ground), so you can clearly see that the missiles are not hitting you, yet you still take damage.
…that being said, the next Class to level is my Elementalist :P

Lol I like this post.

What class should I play?

This is why I hate all the classes…