Guild Wars 2

Hello all I am just starting Guild Wars 2. I work a 12 hr swing and don’t have a lot of time to play some time depends on my work schedule and what I have to do at the house when I am off.
In short I want to start a profession that is good for all endgame content but is not real had to master and solo with . with my time schedule soloing normal PVE will be what I am forced to do a lot but when I have the time I would like to add to the group the most I can.
I will do PVP too but not my favorite thing to do or at least in most MMO’s I shy ed away from it too.
I am aware there is no holy trinity for a group like there is in most MMO’s but figure there are some professions that seem to add more to a group than others and are also good to solo.

Easy to learn and always good to have:

Ele, Guard, Warrior

It would really be helpful if we had more to go on than " I would like to add to the group the most I can".

Which MMOs have you played before?
Which class/profession did you prefer?
What did/didn’t you like about any play styles you may have encountered in other MMOs?

But for now pick something you like the concept of and start playing. Get into some PvP (even just screwing around in the lobby on NPCs) and try out every profession you think you might like. In GW2 PvP everyone is level 80 and uses normalized Amulets instead of full gear sets so you should be able to get a feel for how things will play.

I have played EQ 1, WOW, ashreons call, and a lot of others I have forgotten the name of.
I like playing a healer but I see that all can heal them self and the draw back of a healer class is they didn’t solo good so i will stay away from that.
With my work schedule it is hard for me to make friends to group with. Guild wars 2 is said to be easy to get a group and and free to play or I should say no monthly fee (that I do like). I just found that in groups you could accomplish more and was fun to do something difficult as a team and succeed.
The preview of the expansion lead me to believe there may be a need for a healer IE the Druid but don’t want to get in the rut again of waiting for a group and unable to solo decent will I wait. I did enjoy the nerco in EQ 1 but they din’t bring a lot to the group unless it was a raid.

You should play what feels comfortable, don’t let people who auto-kick you for not playing meta get to you.

Staff Elementalist is pretty easy (Not great at kiting though) but anything else on Elementalist can get pretty hard, especially dagger.

Elementalist can also get a trait called “Aquatic Benevolence” I believe, which increases your healing a bunch. Staff is usually what you want to use if you plan to stay in the back, due to its ridiculous range and burst. keep in mind though, there are no real ways to draw aggro save for damage, so keep that in mind.

Warrior Greatsword/Hammer is also a good one. Since you’ll be rushing in anyway (Unless building rifle warrior.) here’s an example build if you want it for Warrior: http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQJARSjEdQZI2GC2dAnIG+BKtw7+uwWgAoBwb/wrBA-e

This is what I use for staff ele, basically: http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQFAWnMIC9MgtMA2NAsSgBBAheutaEowj6d7zA-TBhFgAAKBpV+Zq+zlGCA-e

Feel free to tweak them, and make sure to read skills / traits.

There’s also Minion Master necromancer, which is pretty easy to utilize, hard to level until you get at least two minions and 2-3 specializations: http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vRUQNBIhZakhGarxuawpGYvxx0QMfuqkDFB0z7UA-e

You can use staff necro only if you prefer as well, dagger/warhorn is just there in case you need quick attacks really. (You won’t be using Death Shroud on this MM Build because you’ll mainly be DPS’ing alongside your minions. Death Shroud is only used for mitigation for the most part in an MM Build.)

Also don’t worry about the specializations provided by Heart of Thorns TOO much, I suggest first learning the base game’s specializations.

I would suggest guardian. They do well solo and are always welcome in dungeon and WvW groups.

Grimed.8356:

… I like playing a healer but I see that all can heal them self and the draw back of a healer class is they didn’t solo good so i will stay away from that. … The preview of the expansion lead me to believe there may be a need for a healer IE the Druid but don’t want to get in the rut again of waiting for a group and unable to solo decent will I wait. I did enjoy the nerco in EQ 1 but they din’t bring a lot to the group unless it was a raid.

Simplest to learn: warrior.

It does seem as though druid/healers will be useful in raids. However, you can’t play druid until you’ve hit L80 as a ranger and rangers don’t offer much support for group play. Now, if you plan to solo your way to L80 and then play ‘for real’, go for it.

Elementalist has a strong learning curve. It’s a glass cannon. It also has a lot of combo fields to learn. If you go staff (for example), with 4 elemental aspects that’s 20 weapon skills to learn— plus combos and utilities. It’s fun, but you should know what you’re in for. They do have water/heal supports, but are not really sustainable as pure healers.

Guardian may be a good one to try. They wear heavy, are strong in melee, can go mid-range, and have heal supports mixed with damage.

Necro is a lot of fun here, but they are often not welcome in dungeons as their dps is at the bottom of the pile. They are good in zergs and the newer maps, though, throwing out tons of condi damage and they can also be very supportive with a well build.

Whichever you choose, I hope you enjoy your time here. Good luck!

Grimed, you can add me in-game and I can show you the classes on my account and give a run down for you if you would like. the only classes I would advise away from are Mesmer, Elementalist , Thief as those are the hardest to level and play at 80 in my personal opinion. whatever you decide on though, hit me up in game^^

k thanks all, I am sorry for not responding sooner. I had to reformat and find out what was wrong with my PC ( self built with two radiators ) I thought that windows 10 was the problem i kept crashing found out after a lot of troubleshooting that the PCI slot for my audio card was fried. must of happen after the last storm. so i am using the on board audio and it seems to be doing OK so far. I have 3 very old toons that got birthday gifts and are all lv 30 from that so i will work with one of them they are a warrior, guardian and a elemetalist. I had othere ones but i deleted them be fore I found out they had birthday gifts lol. these are from when the game first came out. they wear like lv 10-12

More likely than not, your first character will not be your favorite. Explore them all. Take the time. You’ll find your niche and slide right into this game. Good luck.