Guild Wars 2

I’ve been playing GW2 for a year and a half now with a GW/LB human Warrior and still having a blast with it. I’d like to take advantage of the Halloween lab to farm and get XP for my first alt, but am undecided on race and profession.

For a bit of background, i’m on the ‘older’ side of the player base, only raided to unlock the mastery thing, only dungeon for daily and have yet to go into a fractal. Basically no WvW. I do my dailies, and on weekends maybe I go for metas in SW, AB, etc… I guess i’m a ‘casual’ player, and n00b at heart

Things I’d like to try are Guardian, Ranger & maybe Engi later (I understand it is a more difficult profession, but may be wrong).

As for race, I’m thinking human again or maybe Sylvari or Norn (I hear the Sylvari personal story is interesting, but not sure if it makes any difference).

So, any insights, recommendations, ideas?

Thanks in advance!

There isn’t a real reason to choose one race of another if not for asthaetics.
That said, Engi’s look cooler on Asura’s and Charr, Rangers on Norn and Sylvari, and Guardians look good on any race, even Asura.

Alas, for what you describe the warrior is the best. Maybe you can consider the necromancer, too. It’s a lot of fun to play

You’re probably aware of this already but your race makes no different to game mechanics. They all have the same stats, same professions available and the unique skills are not really useful. (Some are fun, but not things you’d ever put in a serious build and therefore not worth basing your decision on.)

Race does however make a number of differences. The most obvious being what your character looks like, what their voice sounds like and what cultural armour they can wear.

It does also affect the story. The level 10, 20 and 30 storylines are completely different depending on your race, and also different depending on the choices you make at character creation. For example all the human level 10 stories involve fighting bandits but what they’re doing and how you stop them are completely different. Meanwhile the sylvari level 10 story is about your character stopping a Nightmare Court plot and which one it is depends on one of your character creation choices.

After level 30 the story starts to blend, but there are still things you can do to get a different one. Most importantly if you pick a different Order (Whispers, Vigil or Priory) for your 2nd character the level 40-60 stories will be different. There are other choices you can make after that which will alter the level 70 and 80 stories, but not as much.

Your race won’t change the actual story of the Living Story or HoT but it does make little differences. For example at some points Taimi will have more in-depth conversations with an asura (other characters will be told they won’t understand) and sylvari get a lot of extra or altered dialogue during HoT.

Personally I’d definitely recommend choosing a different race for your 2nd character. But then I find the different and interconnected personal stories kind of fascinating. I’ve got 9 permanent characters (3 sylvari, 2 asura, 2 norn, 1 human and 1 charr) and with the help of a lot of alts I’ve played nearly every version of the story. That’s excessive by most peoples standards but I’d definitely recommend making your 2nd character a different race to see a different storyline.

(Also I’m kind of curious about how old you are. I think you might be surprised at where you are compared to the ‘average’ GW2 player. The oldest player I know of is 87 and plays with her grandsons, and there are many in their 50’s and 60’s.)

Like Danikat, I too have played through almost every version of the different storylines, with the exception of a couple low level options for human and asura. Definitely agree changing race and order is a good idea, just for fun.

As for class, Ranger is a good choice for soloing. Guardian is also a good choice. Engi CAN be complicated to play, but that’s entirely dependent on your build. Most meta builds for engi make heavy use of kits, which are utility skills that, when active, replace your 1-5 skills with a new set from that kit. With the negligible cooldown on kits, you end up switching in and out of them frequently.

Thanks for the replies, guys!

Yes, I was definitely planning on switching orders and although I knew the race was basically irrelevant, thought maybe a personal story was particularly more interesting. I love all the lore in GW that makes the world ‘real’.

Leaning towards a Sylvari Guardian, and may leave the Ranger for Norn and the Engi for Charr or Asura, just to keep it sort of lore-friendly

Also, Danikat, I’m 52, closer to 53 really. As I put in my Twitch tag: “Gaming since King’s Quest I”