Guild Wars 2

Just purchased this game and cancelled my WoW account as it no longer held any interest for me (to be honest i think i lost interest after WotLK). Almost a sad day since i have been playing it since initial beta testing. Now i am at an impass. I do believe i want to play Charr but i cant really decide on a profession. Im sure whatever i choose the learning curve may kick me in the pants and i was wondering if there were any pointers i could get as far as trying to lessen my learning time and get up to speed quickly. Also what profession would you guys suggest as a ranged character and why? I thank you in advance for any and all input and i look forward to seeing you all in game.

What did you like to play in WoW? That might help some people offer recommendations.

Easiest classes to pick up, in my opinion, are warrior and ranger (and probably guardian). There’s always a learning curve though, and whatever class you pick, you will learn it if you keep playing it – so I recommend just picking something that interests you, and sticking with it. When you try stuff out, don’t neglect to check the skills above your main skill bar (F1 etc.) as these are that class’s special mechanic!

As for what makes a good ranged character… rangers can use shortbows or longbows and a lot of their other weapons are mid-ranged, but you will have a pet and a lot of the ranger mechanics/skills centre on the pet. I have a warrior who switches between axes and a rifle so that she can be melee or ranged as is convenient. Thief with pistols is good fun, engineers can use guns and various ground-targeted effects, and all of the caster classes can use sceptre and staff. It really depends what kind of stuff you want to be doing!

Thanks for the suggestions. I played warlock most recently but i always did enjoy my shaman. I would love to have some gunplay be a part of my character. I am very intrigued by the necromancer and engineer professions. Anyone familiar with them? From reading forum posts i understand that necromancers and rangers are a bit underpowered ATM. Is this true at all?

I would not roll a Ranger.

Rangers are the most broken and unfinished class in the game, according to the developers. Half of their utility skills were removed in beta to be replaced/fixed but they ran out of time and put the broken and useless skills back in.

Also, the developers have outright LIED to the ranger community for over a month by promising a “big major” ranger update to fix all their utilities, and every patch it’s “we need more time for testing” or “we were worried there might be imbalances” followed by “it’ll come next patch.”

Yeah right.

I played a necromancer in GW1, so naturally I played one here. I find the class to be very easy to level up; I can farm with it in the highest level areas with no difficulty; I have built to be in melee most of the time, no minions, and the character is nearly as tough as my warrior.

That said, if you prefer ranged, I don’t think Necro is the way to go. The necro’s weapons are staff (long range), scepter (medium range), axe (short range) and dagger (melee range). Staff and scepter are largely dependent on the stat “+condition damage” to be effective. Condition damage is fine when solo or playing with a friend, but in groups with more than 1 or two using it or in large events not so good., because condition stacking is limited. In addition, staff’s auto attack is slow. It reminds me of auto-attack speeds with two handed weapons in the game you just left. That said, the staff’s other 4 skills are useful in group play.

Axe’s short range allows for kiting melee mob’s, but imo dagger does better damage. Both require a heavy investment in the Power stat to get damage comparable to what some other classes get with little to no investment. Dagger/dagger’s main issue is that you mainly use the auto-attack. 3 of the other 4 skills are situational (siphon health, used when you need a boost; immobilize for pesky kiters; and condition transfer to target), so there is no rotation.

My engineer is only level 29, so my advice there may be limited due to lack of experience. However, I find that rifle is better than pistol/pistol or pistol/shield (the only options). Rifle’s basic attack seems to do better damage. Finally, unless I really need to kite, I spend most of my time using the grenade skills anyway. Once you figure out how to maneuver while spamming the ground-targeted grenades, all other options the class has for damage seem sub-par by comparison.

At first look, the Guardian looks like it’s easy to pick up, but there’s some finer points that make playing a useful Guardian quite a bit harder. If you want a good mix of Ranged combat and Melee combat, then I’d run with a Warrior. Since there’s no ‘Holy Trinity’ there’s no true tanks or healers like you are used to coming from WoW. The deeper health and toughness pool of the Warrior will let you get used to the mechanics and give you a breadth of weapons and skills to play with.
Engineers are almost purely ranged. They’ve no melee weapons to speak of, but they can be built into powerful support and ranged damage dealers with work. I’ll defer to IndigoSundown’s summary of the Necromancer. They can be a very powerful tool in the right hands, but they have their nuances.
Also, I’d point out that you have more than one character slot. Make 3 Characters, one of each of the classes you are interested in and work them up to level 20 each. You can still accomplish your daily stuff on any of them, as they share an account wide bank, and it gives you the chance to experiment with the different classes doing a bit of compare and contrast on them as you level.

LithePanther.5027:

I would not roll a Ranger.

Rangers are the most broken and unfinished class in the game, according to the developers. Half of their utility skills were removed in beta to be replaced/fixed but they ran out of time and put the broken and useless skills back in.

Also, the developers have outright LIED to the ranger community for over a month by promising a “big major” ranger update to fix all their utilities, and every patch it’s “we need more time for testing” or “we were worried there might be imbalances” followed by “it’ll come next patch.”

Yeah right.

Eh, it’s not that bad. There are a good bit of bugs that are frustrating and only a few really viable builds, but it’s still the class I enjoy the most.

LithePanther.5027:

I would not roll a Ranger.

Rangers are the most broken and unfinished class in the game, according to the developers. Half of their utility skills were removed in beta to be replaced/fixed but they ran out of time and put the broken and useless skills back in.

Also, the developers have outright LIED to the ranger community for over a month by promising a “big major” ranger update to fix all their utilities, and every patch it’s “we need more time for testing” or “we were worried there might be imbalances” followed by “it’ll come next patch.”

Yeah right.

Oh, get over it.

Ranger is still a good class, Op. My level 80 ranger could solo well above his level all the way through and is darn effective in WvW.

Engineer…..is a fun, clunky, frustrating class. Tons of different builds and my current favorite alt. Not an easy class to solo…at least until you start getting some trait points built up. IMO…most fun class so far…(I have one of each class)

Raf.1078:

LithePanther.5027:

I would not roll a Ranger.

Rangers are the most broken and unfinished class in the game, according to the developers. Half of their utility skills were removed in beta to be replaced/fixed but they ran out of time and put the broken and useless skills back in.

Also, the developers have outright LIED to the ranger community for over a month by promising a “big major” ranger update to fix all their utilities, and every patch it’s “we need more time for testing” or “we were worried there might be imbalances” followed by “it’ll come next patch.”

Yeah right.

Oh, get over it.

Ranger is still a good class, Op. My level 80 ranger could solo well above his level all the way through and is darn effective in WvW.

I’d have to agree, Rangers are a fun class, especially as an Asura with a sword and dagger for melee… little guy looks like Yoda … lol! But they can be danged effective tbh. Yes they have their bugs, but at this point, what class doesn’t have some bugs?

I cant thank you all enough for the ideas and info. Last night played an ele to around lvl 15 and had a ball and got used to using the new mechanics. i think that playing a squishy first def helped me to learn to dodge or pay the price. Then after I felt i had a pretty good feel I started a charr warrior. man what a difference, its a buttload of fun for sure and i do love the fact that I do not have to rely on anyone but myself to heal and stay alive plus the rifle skills are great! Not sure if the rifle is viable at higher lvls but for now its seriously fun. I think tonight I may try out guardian and engineer before settling on one class to lvl to the top.

DimDonut.1074:

I cant thank you all enough for the ideas and info. Last night played an ele to around lvl 15 and had a ball and got used to using the new mechanics. i think that playing a squishy first def helped me to learn to dodge or pay the price. Then after I felt i had a pretty good feel I started a charr warrior. man what a difference, its a buttload of fun for sure and i do love the fact that I do not have to rely on anyone but myself to heal and stay alive plus the rifle skills are great! Not sure if the rifle is viable at higher lvls but for now its seriously fun. I think tonight I may try out guardian and engineer before settling on one class to lvl to the top.

Rifle works fine at 80. It’s dps is to some degree dependent on the +Condition Damage stat, since it’s auto-attack constantly applies bleeds. As I said above, condition does not work all that well in large groups. However, even with a modest investment in +Condition, the final tick of Volley, and Kill Shot, the adrenal skill, hit for anywhere from 3 to 5k, and that is with no trait points spent in Strength.

Dim, rifle will be viable at all levels, as long as you keep upgrading to better rifles (I suggest taking huntsman as one of your crafting professions and make your own as you level every 5 levels).

I play an engineer as my main, and have not had any issues with our choices. As someone above said, yes our choices are limited, but they are invaluable in the right hands. Pistol / Shield in particular should not be sold short, since it has that wicked little AOE knockback.

It sounds like you have set on warrior, which I know you will enjoy. It really comes down to personal preference, but I have to say that engi and ranger have made me the happiest since I started playing in headstart.

If you do go engi, definitely learn your utilities. Elixir gun comes in handy for many many things (for example condition removal for your party mid fight); and of course grenades were mentioned earlier as a serious DPS based AOE attack. Bombs and the Tool kit are great if you want pseudo melee options. (Bombs can only be dropped where your character is, not tossed like grenades, so they are a great surprise for someone in your face).

And of course flamethrower… mmmmmmm flamethrower…

Whichever path you choose, welcome to Tyria, and I hope you enjoy it here!

As a sidenote i wanted to sincerely thank everyone here on the forums for being more than helpful and i hope to see more of this wonderful and helpful community in game and in the future somewhere along the line. Cheers folks.

Rifles work wonders at 80 with a power/crit 10/30/0/0/30 build. Some serious damage. But you’d definitely be squishy. Might be able to do a rifle/shout build. Or just do whatever you’d like xD