Guild Wars 2

I’m new to GW2 and im busy waiting for the game to install so I can play it. However I can’t decide what profession to start first… A Air/Fire Elementalist or a Ranger (Archer)

Who is better PvP and/or PvE and please say why?

in both pvp and pve an ele can be better, but it is also the hardest profession to play, So success depends on your own skill. Best is to try them both till level 20. Someone who cant handle the ele will be useless.

I’d say go elementalist. If you can master the profession, every group will want you to join them.

Before you decide add me in game, we can run around on WvW a bit and I’ll show you what a ranger is like.

The class gets hated on quite a bit but they are an extremely fun class to play and if you play smart you can rack up kills quickly.

Just remember for WvW its as much about staying alive as it is killing your enemy. It takes a lot longer to rez and run back than it does to escape and reheal.

Would go for Elem, lot’s of people hate rangers, dunno why but thats the way it is. I’ve got a ranger lvl 72, and the playstyle is to run around in huge circels and let the pet do all the work wich gets kinda boring, for those reasons i would got elem.

and try to stay away from staff >.< D/D is so much better in my opinion

Rangers are fine in the open world (and no you don’t need to run around in circles, melee rangers are actually quite strong). Their problem is just that in dungeons or pvp, basically half your damage can die very easily. That doesn’t make it impossible, but rangers don’t bring anything particularly strong that people would remember them for, so they hate on them instead.

Elementalists are well rounded, they have a very strong tanky build for PvP, and they can add some great support to a party, but they are harder to play in open world PvE – which doesnn’t mean anything because 99% of open world PvE is really easy. However, your plan of playing an air/fire elementalist is not going to work. The most efficient way to play an elementalist currently involves switching between attunements often. Also, you might find that a staff is not actually the most used weapon on elementalists and many prefer dual daggers instead.

(Note: There are rumours about an upcoming AoE nerf that might hit elementalists. If you’re worried about this sort of thing, wait for today’s patch before you finalize your decision, that way you have at least one month without another major update.)

Alternatively, if you want to try the play style of both classes before putting work into a character, you can go to the Heart of the Mists (PvP lobby) and check out their traits and skills at level 80.

I naturally vote for Elementalist just because my main is one. xD But you should not stick to just 1 or 2 elements when playing Ele, because you’ll be severly gimping yourself since if you pick 2 elements 50% of your skills are not used (in your case, Water, which is great for healing and Earth, which offers protection).

mercury ranique.2170:

in both pvp and pve an ele can be better, but it is also the hardest profession to play, So success depends on your own skill. Best is to try them both till level 20. Someone who cant handle the ele will be useless.

Ranger is useless outright unless you play a certain way. If you seek a well-designed class and viability for all playstyles and choices such as what you would find on a warrior or elementalist, OP, you will be sorely disappointed.

Having both leveled up a ranger and an elementalist to lvl 80, I would say the following.

If you go ranger, you’ll have more survivability but it will be a lot hard to be efficient at endgame (you need to learn to micro manage your pet efficiently and you need to be creative with your builds to end up being effective in groups).

If you go elementalist, you’ll have more power and will have an easier time doing large amounts of damage. You’ll also have an easier time finding worthy builds at lvl 80.

The best thing you could do in my opinion is to try and level up both to 20-30 and go with the one you’re having the most fun with.