Guild Wars 2

I’m new to Guild Wars 2, I’m downloading right now.
I just want to know what’s the best choice of class for PvE and the best race that supports this?
I’ve been suggested:
Guardian or Warrior/Norn or Human

I just want the wisest setup for PvE, not much of a PvPer.

There’s a thread with some really good newbie tips here.

Race choice doesn’t effect much at all in mechanics terms, you should make that choice based on appearance and flavour – what looks cool to you (maybe take a look at armour appearances on the wiki) and what kind of story you think you’d enjoy.

I think any profession is viable in PvE, it all depends on how you play it. No doubt some will suit you more than others, but the only way to find out which is to play them. I’d recommend experimenting with a few professions when you start out, if you want to settle on a ‘main’ to invest in. Mostly, you can get away with picking something you think is cool and learning to be good with it as you go

Welcome to the game!

Two choices here for me:

1) You are very influenced by what other players think and want the most loved class in other people’s mind => Warrior, Guardian, Mesmer to some extent.

2) You don’t care and want to have fun => Play whatever you like, every class brings something interesting to the party when well played.

Also, race really doesn’t influence your build. The only real differences are some racial skills and most of them aren’t that good.

What they said.

At the moment warrior and guardian are the most popular and a lot of people like mesmer for dungeons. But personally I find warrior and guardian boring and much prefer playing an elementalist or ranger which are probably among the least popular right now.

But one thing you’ve got to bear in mind is this game gets regular updates, which includes changes to skills and mechanics and when that happens popular opinion can shift dramatically. So what’s “best” now might be “ruined forever” next month and “good, as long as you use this exact build” the month after. Long term I think it’s far better to play what you enjoy and find fun than force yourself to play what other people enjoy and feel like you’re hating it all the time.

None of them are genuinely bad enough that they’re unusable, and as long as you’re not looking to speed clear dungeons you shouldn’t have a problem finding a group either so there isn’t really a wrong choice.

As for race it makes barely any difference to how they play, just pick the one you like the look or lore of best.

Youll find warrior and guardian to be significantly stronger than the other classes in a PvE setting. Human is probably the best race to start if for no other reason then more people play human than the other races so youll have more people to play with.

Peetee.9406:

Youll find warrior and guardian to be significantly stronger than the other classes in a PvE setting. Human is probably the best race to start if for no other reason then more people play human than the other races so youll have more people to play with.

However, you don’t have to stay in one race’s starter zone. At level 2 you can go to Lions Arch and then to any one of the other race’s noob zones. So unless you are one of the people who won’t go another race’s zone, I wouldn’t pick a race for that reason.

Hello and welcome!
As the others have said, just play whatever sounds cool to you. All classes do fine in PvE. If you don’t like one, try another. You have 5 slots for free after all.

Welcome!

what i would add to what other people have said is this;

This game is not like other MMOs you may have played the biggest difference that springs to mind is that if you pick a thief you will be playing a thief, based on dodging and reaction times and preparing for fights before they have stated you will be playing this from level 1, likewise with a mesmer you will be learning to play with clones from level 1, warrior/guard you smash things, ele you switch attunements etc.

basically your ele/mes/thief won’t be able to auto-attack stuff and win you will have to utilize abilities and most other mmos i have played have only really gotten the class feel from half way through the levelling process not before, i.e. rogue/mage can just stand face to face and smash buttons, this wont work in GW2.

as for levelling do NOT rush enjoy the ride, you can do fractals (increasing difficulty dungeon everytime your successful in one) from level 1, explore maps and crafting and gathering net a lot of experience so be sure to gather EVERYTHING you can, right click and press ‘’deposit collectable’’ to put them into a storage facility in the bank linked to your whole account.

i have no idea what classes you like to play but guardians and warriors while very popular are extremely boring to me personally, if you want to solo PvE then a ranger with its pet is a solid choice, for groups they are not really sought after though as they don’t bring anything unique to the table.