Guild Wars 2

Hi everyone!

So I bought GW2 years ago and everytime I play it, I struggle to stick to it for more than a few days. This time I really want to give it my all and try to ‘cure’ my MMO itch. I’ve played different roles in past MMOs so I’m open to being tank, healer, dps, as long as I can handle solo PVE well. I’ve never been too interested in PVP. I love the social aspect of MMOs so would be great if anyone would be able to help me/point me in the right direction. I live in England but I’m fine playing either EU or NA. I know this is kind of a vague post, but was just interested in people’s opinions on fun classes and any information that could be helpful to me.

Thanks!

Ok, first thing to know is that there are no dedicated tanks, healers or DPS in GW2. All professions can fulfill any of those roles but apart from DPS they can’t do it to the same extent as in other games.

In other words even if you design your character to be a pure healer they won’t be able to keep a whole group alive through whatever the game can throw at them. They can make a big difference but each player is still responsible for using their own healing skill (which they all have to have at all times) and using dodging or simply moving around to avoid damage.

Likewise you can build an extremely tanky character and keep them in melee range right in front of the boss but they won’t be able to hold all the aggro all of the time (especially since there are no taunt skills) and even with a dedicated healer backing them up couldn’t simply absorb all the damage that would come their way if they tried.

The upshot of this is that combat is quite different to a lot of traditional RPGs. Movement is very important (you can move while attacking, even while casting most long spells) and ‘active’ defense – moving out of danger or dodging attacks – is very important. All professions will be a hybrid to some extent and players will expect that (everyone contributes to dealing damage).

Oh, there’s also no dedicated ranged or melee professions, they all have a choice of both ranged and melee weapons and will be expected to move closer or further away as needed.

The good news is this means all professions are perfectly capable of solo roaming in PvE. You won’t always be on your own because there’s almost always other people around. There’s also no kill stealing or anything like that so don’t worry about interfering with other people, join in if you want to and if they come and join your fight don’t worry – you’ll still get all the XP you would have otherwise and any items you see are for you alone, everyone else will get theirs separately.

Danikat.8537:

Ok, first thing to know is that there are no dedicated tanks, healers or DPS in GW2. All professions can fulfill any of those roles but apart from DPS they can’t do it to the same extent as in other games.

In other words even if you design your character to be a pure healer they won’t be able to keep a whole group alive through whatever the game can throw at them. They can make a big difference but each player is still responsible for using their own healing skill (which they all have to have at all times) and using dodging or simply moving around to avoid damage.

Likewise you can build an extremely tanky character and keep them in melee range right in front of the boss but they won’t be able to hold all the aggro all of the time (especially since there are no taunt skills) and even with a dedicated healer backing them up couldn’t simply absorb all the damage that would come their way if they tried.

The upshot of this is that combat is quite different to a lot of traditional RPGs. Movement is very important (you can move while attacking, even while casting most long spells) and ‘active’ defense – moving out of danger or dodging attacks – is very important. All professions will be a hybrid to some extent and players will expect that (everyone contributes to dealing damage).

Oh, there’s also no dedicated ranged or melee professions, they all have a choice of both ranged and melee weapons and will be expected to move closer or further away as needed.

The good news is this means all professions are perfectly capable of solo roaming in PvE. You won’t always be on your own because there’s almost always other people around. There’s also no kill stealing or anything like that so don’t worry about interfering with other people, join in if you want to and if they come and join your fight don’t worry – you’ll still get all the XP you would have otherwise and any items you see are for you alone, everyone else will get theirs separately.

Wow thanks for the in-depth response! I didn’t realise that. I love the versatility! Really appreciate the explanation.

The next thing to know is that until you are used to the fundamental combat mechanics of the game (especially dodging), unless you are far more talented than me you are going to get downed a lot. Especially on the two squishiest professions, Elementalist and Thief. “Downed” here means struggling on the ground but not yet dead. Your hot bar changes, you get 3 unique profession downed skills and a 4th heal-in-place one. If nothing is hitting you, tap 4 to slowly recover health. If something is hitting you, use the 2 and 3 skills as appropriate. The 1 skill is an attack — If nothing is hitting you but something nearby is almost dead, use 1 on that something until it dies, that will bounce you back to life faster than 4 will get you up.

If someone else is around they can stop next to you and tap F to raise you faster (even if you’re dead, they can rez you in place, but won’t if they’re fighting for their own life). You can do that for them as well.

Besides the lack of kill stealing, there is also almost no node stealing (some events will have items that only one person can pick up at a time). Gather at your own pace, call out to others about good nodes, everyone on the map can get their whacks in on the same plant/tree/ore.

For social stuff check down in the Looking For forums below this one, guilds recruit there. If you RP, you can check both there and gw2roleplayers.com for RP guilds.

If you choose NA, please feel free to put me on your friends list so that if I’m in game I can answer your questions on the fly or lead you places or help you with fights as you desire, though I do recommend attempting things on your own a bit so you can stop and think about what you are learning. I know one reason I didn’t get excited by GW1 (which I got after being well into GW2) was that I had friends who knew it inside out just running along without giving me time to consider the quest info. Instead of learning the story and figuring out the fighting, I scrambled after them with no idea of the path we were taking and shot mesmer skills at stuff when we fought. It’s too easy for a veteran to forget that a new player can be confused by what the vet finds basic, eh?

So call on me for aid when you need specific things clarified or achieved (in PvE), but do your darndest to learn what things are most fun for you. Eg profession — each one of the 9 has someone who thinks it’s the absolute best and someone who considers it the most horrible to play. Only you can decide what clicks for you.

Donari.5237:

The next thing to know is that until you are used to the fundamental combat mechanics of the game (especially dodging), unless you are far more talented than me you are going to get downed a lot. Especially on the two squishiest professions, Elementalist and Thief. “Downed” here means struggling on the ground but not yet dead. Your hot bar changes, you get 3 unique profession downed skills and a 4th heal-in-place one. If nothing is hitting you, tap 4 to slowly recover health. If something is hitting you, use the 2 and 3 skills as appropriate. The 1 skill is an attack — If nothing is hitting you but something nearby is almost dead, use 1 on that something until it dies, that will bounce you back to life faster than 4 will get you up.

If someone else is around they can stop next to you and tap F to raise you faster (even if you’re dead, they can rez you in place, but won’t if they’re fighting for their own life). You can do that for them as well.

Besides the lack of kill stealing, there is also almost no node stealing (some events will have items that only one person can pick up at a time). Gather at your own pace, call out to others about good nodes, everyone on the map can get their whacks in on the same plant/tree/ore.

For social stuff check down in the Looking For forums below this one, guilds recruit there. If you RP, you can check both there and gw2roleplayers.com for RP guilds.

If you choose NA, please feel free to put me on your friends list so that if I’m in game I can answer your questions on the fly or lead you places or help you with fights as you desire, though I do recommend attempting things on your own a bit so you can stop and think about what you are learning. I know one reason I didn’t get excited by GW1 (which I got after being well into GW2) was that I had friends who knew it inside out just running along without giving me time to consider the quest info. Instead of learning the story and figuring out the fighting, I scrambled after them with no idea of the path we were taking and shot mesmer skills at stuff when we fought. It’s too easy for a veteran to forget that a new player can be confused by what the vet finds basic, eh?

So call on me for aid when you need specific things clarified or achieved (in PvE), but do your darndest to learn what things are most fun for you. Eg profession — each one of the 9 has someone who thinks it’s the absolute best and someone who considers it the most horrible to play. Only you can decide what clicks for you.

Thanks for the tip Donari! Now deciding if I should go EU or NA. I’ve read that you can ‘guest’ a different region and that there are no real ‘servers’.

EDIT: Looks like last time I tried GW2, I set my home to Gate of Madness (NA). May just stick to that for now.

You can’t actually guest between NA and EU, though a guild with members from both shares the guild hall (they just get different instances of it). You can transfer between them for a price and with a time delay while all your data is copied and moved over.

What you’re thinking of is that within a region server only matters for WvW as you can only join WvW on your home server’s team, and maybe a tiny bit for RP since if you’re on Tarnished Coast (NA) or Piken Square (EU) and the megaserver manages to get you in maps mostly holding your home server people you’re more likely to spot random open world RP.

Donari.5237:

You can’t actually guest between NA and EU, though a guild with members from both shares the guild hall (they just get different instances of it). You can transfer between them for a price and with a time delay while all your data is copied and moved over.

What you’re thinking of is that within a region server only matters for WvW as you can only join WvW on your home server’s team, and maybe a tiny bit for RP since if you’re on Tarnished Coast (NA) or Piken Square (EU) and the megaserver manages to get you in maps mostly holding your home server people you’re more likely to spot random open world RP.

Ah gotcha! Sorry if I seem dumb. I’m on NA so I’ve added you as a friend. Decided to be a Nord Engineer

You might want to roll a ranger later as well. They are a fun class to play in many ways.