Guild Wars 2

Hello all,

I recently came back to GW2 about a month ago after over a year off. Some friends and I started up towards the end of beta but everyone’s interest died out fairly quickly so I never even really experienced end game.

I am back on my own now (still hunting for a small to medium size guild as well to be a part of and grow with, and open to just about any server with good WvW and PvE if anyone is interested in a very experienced MMO player that is wanting to learn and be awesome at whatever class I settle on). I am loving the game itself thus far. Though I have yet to get beyond about level 40 – 50 on several different characters because I just can’t seem to decide what to play as a main.

So I’d like to toss out some of my opinions on what I have played thus far and get some feedback from the experienced folks here. One note, all of this is just based on my own experience and opinions. I am by no means an authority on any of these classes so no one get their feelings hurt please. =P

Also, please save the L2P comments.

First off I don’t really want to play a class that brings very little to a group in PvE or PvP (most likely WvW). I would like to play a class that is a welcome addition in both PvE and PvP.

Thief – played to about level 40. Overall I like the class. Seems very fun and fast paced. Not overly complicated. But are they overplayed, and if so does that diminish their desirability? Is the supply out pacing the demand?

Guardian – played to about level 50. Had fun, but I don’t know if it’s my playstyle. I do gather they are quite desired in groups though which earns it points for me.

Warrior – played to level 55. Had fun, but maybe too simplistic? Seemed to be the most straight forward class I played with.

Ranger – played to level 40. Enjoyed this class quite a bit. Seems like it would be fun end game but I keep reading mixed opinions on their usefulness.

Mesmer – Played to level 25. Not really my playstyle. The phantasm mechanic is just not my thing.

Engineer – Played to level 30. Seems like an overly “busy” class maybe? I like the depth in theory but just in those first 30 levels I felt as if it may be a bit too “jack of all trades, master of none” for me. Also, I am not the type that will have fun if I don’t feel I am playing a class very effectively and I am not sure I’d be a “good” engineer.

Elementalist – Played to level 35. Enjoyed the class a lot. But similar to engineer in that I don’t know that I would make a good Elementalist in the end. I mean, I “get it”. It’s just that the more complicated a class the more I have to really love it to play to a higher level and I don’t know if Elementalist can deliver enough fun in the end.

Necro – Haven’t tried. From what I have read I don’t think it would suit me.

So, I would love to hear any feedback on classes in the end game and their usefulness / desirability in groups. Right now I am leaning towards Thief / Ranger perhaps but still very open.

Thanks everyone.

I’m a brand new GW2 player and I understand your dilemma I started a guardian, elementalist and engineer just to see which I like best.

To comment on your thoughts about engineer: It is my favourite profession of the 3 so far. The reason is that they have really interesting tactical options. I am a rifle engineer and my rotation is to crowd control (rooting and throwing mobs) and heal while doing range and bleed damage. But if you look into it further, you’ll notice that their possibilities are pretty broad. It’s a class that you have to play with your brains, you got to work on a good skill rotation.

Thief : They are a strong profession in both PvE and PvP, but mostly for spvp and roaming, not really that good of a profession for WvW zerg.

Guardian : They are loved by pugs both in PvE and PvP, but are about in the middle in term of overall usefulness. They are rarely in top profession, but still really usefull. In WvW zerg, they are one of the four main profession, maybe the most important one.

Warrior : All party in PvE should have 1 of those, but not more. In WvW they are part of the zerg meta. They are easy so they are popular amount pugs both in WvW and PvE. For spvp they on the top half best profession right now, but this may change on the january 29th with the incoming might nerf, we’ll see.

Ranger : They have a bad reputation because of how anet marketed them and they were lacking a year ago. Now they are in good shape both in PvP and PvE, but still have stigma from last year in some pugs group that don’t keep up as the game change. For WvW zerg, they are not part of the meta but can do ok in pugs group.

Mesmer : In pve they have great utilities, but they are more of an organized group profession. You can still do decent with pugs. Its a good profession in sPvP, but not at the top anymore, again its at his best with a organized group. In WvW zerg its the same thing again but worst. Not that useful unless you are in organized group. Don’t get me wrong, its a good profession, but unless you are organized, there is better option.

Engineer : About in the same place as ranger in PvE and WvW. In sPvP and roaming its one of the two top profession right now.

Elementalist : Its the profession in the best situation right now. Queen of pve, part of the meta WvW zerg and the other top two profession in spvp. It can be hard to master, but its one of the best profession all around these days.

Necro : In a ordinary place in pve, its a correct profession in spvp and its part of the meta for WvW zerg (maybe the second most important profession after guardian).

Easy don’t main.
Looks like you tried them to a degree, take one of the ones you enjoyed to 80, then take another that you enjoyed less to 80, then see which at 80 you enjoy more. Or take them all to 80 and mix up your day playing various characters.

I’ve played and leveled all classes to 80( except engy) and some of them i leveled to 80 twice or even 3 times. I enjoyed all the classes (except for engy) for what they brought to the table. I used to be in organized wvw grps but I personally stayed more of a PVx player (player vs x).

As far as what class to main i recomendations not to worry about it. Try them all. Hell play them all. I tend to enjoy doing pve on my guardian (mainly due to 100 % world completion) so any of the new events I do on that guy. I tried pvp but I just couldn’t do pvp on it for the life of me.

For wvw I tend to play either as an ele or warrior. They have very different styles so I like to mix it up to prevent getting bored. Both being the core of WvW for different reasons.

For Spvp I play as a ranger or ele. I’ve loved playing those 2 classes for over a year now. They used to be the big underdogs and everyone underestimated you for playing that class. I’d hear " you can’t bunker as a ranger" rants from my teams all the time. But that’s a part of the flavor that turned me on towards the classes.

You don’t really have to have a main. I’f it’s hard picking one pick a few. See what you like more for what modes.

Yargesh.4965:

Easy don’t main.

CountzuCrytus.7256:

As far as what class to main i recomendations not to worry about it. Try them all. Hell play them all.

CountzuCrytus.7256:

You don’t really have to have a main.

This, always this. Anyway huge wall of text incoming to back up the following: Pick Elementalist, Warrior or Guardian depending on your own preference and then level the rest.

I’m also the player that has every single class, certain classes double. GW2 is an MMO that very easily allows alts. As an experienced MMO player I guess you assume having multiple mains can be a difficult task (that’s what my experience has been atleast, gw1-titles, WoW-geargrind, SWTOR-geargrind) but it’s not in GW2;
- Good gear is extremely cheap. The difference between full exotic and full ascended is hardly noticeable. (I have 3 accounts, one most toons are full Ascended, one full Exotic and the last a mix-match. My group nor I notice the difference except for very rare occasions.)
- High Account-Bound focus; drops are mostly unbound/accountbound, Fractal reward level / Dungeon rewards are shared. Ascended gear is even accountbound, allowing you to atleast share Trinkets (and thus do Fractals up to level 39 easily on any toon) between toons if their unique Agony Resistance is needed. (Fractals.)
- Living Story is per Chapter, no need to dedicate one toon to it, just play what you feel like playing.
- sPvP most unlocks are account-wide (except of class-specific traits?) and almost every set-up is available from the start.
Exception: Map Exploration. Trait-unlock, in the new system you’ll need a lot of skillpoints, but not before long you’ll be drowing in them!

On top of that most semi-organized groups will be something along the lines of: 1-2 Defensive Support (Guardian or Mesmer) 1-4 Offensive Support (One Warrior / One Ranger / Multiple Elementalists) 0-1 Thief (Group Stealth, unmatched dps if fully buffed by a group.) Having the ability to fulfill what a group needs is extremely helpful.

How-ever if you insist on one class, I’d recommend Elementalist, Warrior or Guardian. They are meta-classes and can fulfill a vital role to any team. Elementalist and Warrior are offensive support, providing the team with Might/Fury/Conjure weapons or Banners respectively. Every optimized group will want atleast one Elementalist and exactly one Warrior. Ranger and Engineer also provide some offensive support, but it’s often just as (if not more) efficient to bring a second Elementalist and Engineer is a bit ‘overkill’ stacking ~20 vul solo is great and some Might, but there is a 25 cap that normal groups easily reach for a majority of the fight, where-as an Elementalist can easily stack more Might.

Guardians fullfill the defensive support role and are by far the easiest to do this efficiently on and have more options available than the other option; the Mesmer. They also are more optimized for pug-groups because they have blinds (great for Trash) Aegis (great to help people who struggle at dodging or just cba to dodge) and longer Stability uptime. Mesmer also fulfills a defensive support role, offering permanent reflects and plenty condition cleanses, but lacking in the other aspects and their permanent reflects can often be killed easily by bosses. Their personal dps is also very lack-luster, but is made up by Portal/Conjure weapons in highly organized groups/speedruns.

Lastly there’s the Thief, they have unique support through stealth, making skips easy and in organized groups speed up a run by a lot, how-ever most pugs don’t quite know how to work with this and it often doesn’t see much use. They make trash very easy with blinds, in bossfights they can help out the Guardian with an anti-projectile here and there. I wouldn’t recommend it how-ever because they’re not very beloved in non-organized groups and if you end up in a bad group, you’ll be rather useless because you don’t do a lot of self-buffing damage-wise, considerably lowering your high dps-potentional and your support skills won’t be the difference between life and death. Thief is by far the class I enjoy the most and in organized groups it’s amazing, but for pugging I’d take my Elementalist over her any day because she can adjust to a teams need much better. Warrior can also greatly buff a group with the right traits to do a lot more damage and Guardian can just keep them alive so long any boss will die, even if it’s from boredom.

I didn’t mention Necromancer, they have no teamsupport and are average DPS. I wouldn’t ever recommend anyone playing them unless they love the class-mechanics to bits.

Thank you everyone for your recommendations.

I decided on Elementalist to push to 80. I am determined to be effective! I am level 30 so far and loving it. D/D is tons of fun. There are tons of things to juggle but I feel like I will get the hang of it.

Thanks again everyone.

Already 80-ed a Mesmer. I didn’t like it.

But hey I’m going for Engi/Ele and probably Guard.

Same opinion as TS. Phantasm mechanic is too “meh” for my tastes.