Guild Wars 2

Hello! just bought the game it was on sale! and thought sure why not!? for 24.99! what a steal! i’ve heard lots of really great things about this game, and I LOVE THE ARTWORK! the whole paintbrush style! as the game downloads… I need to decide….. which server/class/race to pick! Please tell me your thoughts?

Any server will do unless you want to be competitive (WvW), in which case the server you chose is very important (some are zergy, others ghost towns).

The server you chose does not matter for PvE for the most part, due to guesting.

Race:
Asura supremacy! But Charr are awesome too. Please, no more Humans or Norns, they game is heavily overpopulated with them as it is. xD

Class:
Well… the character creation screen gives you a pretty big primer on it, but good starting classes are the heavies (Warrior & Guardian).

Every class can be melee or ranged and there is no Holy Trinity.

1. JQ server has lots of friendly players on it.

2. As far as class and race you can always try it out and if u dont like it delete and try another.

You are welcome to send me a PM in game if you have any questions or need help.

Hannelore.8153:

Any server will do unless you want to be competitive (WvW), in which case the server you chose is very important (some are zergy, others ghost towns).

The server you chose does not matter for PvE for the most part, due to guesting.

Race:
Asura supremacy! But Charr are awesome too. Please, no more Humans or Norns, they game is heavily overpopulated with them as it is. xD

Class:
Well… the character creation screen gives you a pretty big primer on it, but good starting classes are the heavies (Warrior & Guardian).

Every class can be melee or ranged and there is no Holy Trinity.

The charr look amazing and the asura are so cute!? i need to read up on the lore on them the slyvari look amazing! also

Server: Blackgate
Race: Human
Class: Warrior

Go full berserker gear with greatsword. Spam the ’2’ key.

I’ve been creeping the forums and it seems everyone is very nice and helpful!

As you’re just starting out, let’s get one thing straight. This is not WoW. There are no Classes, they are called Professions in GW2.

Now that that’s out of the way: Welcome!!!

I personally love Sylvari, and the other Race I’m fond of is Asura. I would recommend those. I enjoy Ranged combat, and enjoy my Rifle Warrior, and Ranger the most, but your mileage may vary.

The game’s a blast. Have fun.

First, choose whether you want to play on EU or NA region. You can choose either regardless where you live though most people pick the one closest to home. Then choosing the server depends a bit on your interests. For example the servers I chose are the unofficial RP servers.

Race is entirely up to you. Pick the one that appeals to you most. As far as playing the game they are equal. All have their own storylines for the first 20 levels.

I know there are lots of people who will say: Play Warrior. Nothing wrong with that if you like it. It is reputed being easiest class, but frankly no class is so hard you could not play it if you want. Some may die a bit more at the start than others, but so what?

Ravenspirit.4638:

Hello! just bought the game it was on sale! and thought sure why not!? for 24.99! what a steal! i’ve heard lots of really great things about this game, and I LOVE THE ARTWORK! the whole paintbrush style! as the game downloads… I need to decide….. which server/class/race to pick! Please tell me your thoughts?

Server:
Pick anything in
https://leaderboards.guildwars2.com/en/na/wvw
which is ranked 1-12. All are fun. Forget the rest, they are deserted, outnumbered and their players are always complaining about how their server is deserted and outnumbered.

Race:
Pick Humans. The rest have serious clipping issues(and a lot of them, specially Charr and Asura) with their armors that will never get fixed.

Class:
Pick Warrior. Due to the fact that the majority of people play Warrior, that class keeps getting buffed every patch. Any bug which disadvantages the Warrior gets fixed within the week it starts happening. Any bug which advantages the Warrior either never gets fixed, or gets fixed over a year later.

Edit: Whatever you do, do not pick Ranger. At least not as your first character. We do not need more people with Bows and Bears. Many people will kick you from their party if you are a Ranger with a Bow and Bear pet. It has reached that point.

Omg i can’t wait to jump into the fray! my down-loader is still at 19% T.T

Seems warrior is very popular! i will take this into consideration when picking.

As someone pointed out there is no holy trinity. Every class excels at different things but all classes can do nearly everything. So play what looks the most fun cause you aren’t stuck to a specific play style. If you want something more traditional I would recommend warrior, guardian, or ranger. If you are looking for something a little different from traditional mmo classes I would recommend the mesmer or engineer.

Server: http://northernshiverpeaks.org

Race: Asura are my favorite, quirky and interesting

Profession: If you go heavy, i’d go guardian

I really recommend going with what you like for race and profession and not let yourself get dictated by others.

Yes there are issues with armor clipping and just generally finding something really nice for races other than human, but it is possible and imo sylvari, charr and asura are the most intresting and fun. Especially in love with sylvari, both lorewise and just the variety in looks you can get with them in creation.

Yes some people will refuse to party with you if you play ranger, but as long as you learn to play something other than bearbow and do well, you should still be able to get groups with nice people… even less of a problem if you get good friends and a guild to do things with rather than some randoms. Warrior is getting favorticed a lot… by players and the devs… apparently, but don’t play it if you don’t like it, the game is meant to be fun afterall. I have 5 characters and not a single heavy yet.

Server depends if you wanna/are EU or US. I cannot help with US as I am in EU. All I can say about EU is that Far Shiverpeaks is fairly decent, at least I like being there. Heard good things about Gandara.

try out all the professions first then choose the one you like

Warrior’s getting another buff on 15 April. 30/30/0/10/0 will overtake the current 30/25/0/0/15 meta and provide not only even higher damage, but the option to take a ranged weapon (preferably longbow) as well.

Even though critdmg% is getting nerfed to Ferocity, the new +10% damage trait is likely to leave the Warrior’s DPS untouched.

All other classes with direct damage will take a direct hit, though condition damage builds will receive slight buffs with the new Grandmaster traits.

Warrior might be the way to go again. >.>

If you are interested in the appearance of your character then I highly recommend taking a look through each species’/gender’s armor gallery to get an idea of what your character can look like. All armors of the same weight class (light, medium, heavy) can be mixed so no need to think in full-set appearance as you can make your own outfits.

Armor Gallery: http://argos-soft.net/GW2/ArmorGallery
Weapon Gallery: http://argos-soft.net/GW2/WeaponGallery
You can copy and paste the [chat code links] for individual items from there and paste them into your chat box in-game. Doing this will place that item into the chat box so you can right-click it and select ‘Preview’ so you can look at all the armor you want mixed with other armor you want directly on your character.

Also take a look at the various player screenshot galleries to get some ideas for what looks you want to put together.
Player screenshots of mix-n-match armor only
Player screenshots of Asura only
Player screenshots of Charr only
Player screenshots of Humans only
Player screenshots of Norn only
Player screenshots of Sylvari only

Also, the Guild Wars 2 Wiki is a great place for information on absolutely everything related to GW2. If you want to load the wiki from in-game, just type this into your chat box:
/wiki thing I want to learn about
Examples:
/wiki dye
/wiki traits
/wiki transmuting armor
It will take you directly to the page you want info on or give search results on the closest matches. That last example will give you search results, the first one being “Transmutation” where it describes what transmutation is and how to do it.

In addition to the GW2 Wiki, Dulfy.net is also a really great resource for anything new going on in the game. Also plenty of guides and helpful tips available on there.

A lot of changes are coming on April 15th with the feature patch so expect several things to update on the wiki shortly afterward regarding the subjects outlined in these feature pack blogs

I have no suggestion when it comes to server. I’ll let the others try covering that.

As for race.. By default you have 5 character slots available to you. Try them all. Use 1 slot per race. They all have different starter stories.

In regards to class… I guess it depends on your play style. Personally, I prefer the light armor classes (ele, necro, mes). Oddly even in melee range I survive better on my ele than I do on a warrior. But that’s just me. I have a guildie that is very melee oriented, she prefers warrior, thief, and guard. She couldn’t survive on a light armor class if they made it invincible (her words paraphrased, not mine).

My best suggestion would be to try each one out. Just keep rerolling until you find a class/race combo that fits.

Welcome to GW2. I love the artwork too and the music.

As far as race they all have the same hit points and the same power so fighting with one over the other gives no advantage. I will say that when your hero moves up close to an overhang or an obstruction at the side it is hard to see them ‘cause the screen graphics goes wonky. This occurs in jumping puzzles, reaching some vistas and combat in closed in places. For this reason if you choose one of the larger races (char and norn) I would go with the smallest female size. I like the looks of humans. I like the norn and the sylvari zones the best (but any race can go and play in any zones). Sylvari and Asura are the smallest and Asura is fun to play. I don’t like the way the char hop along.

Each race has their own dance. This video showing them may help you decide:
“Guild Wars 2 – All Dance Movesi”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk0xZqUuNNk!

Human

All armors are honestly tailored to them and look the best on them

Warrior for best damage, but somewhat boring gameplay

Mesmer for fun gameplay or Elementalist

Don’t use the mystic forge

I feel like this is becoming a voting debate where one class is like “Pick me” then the other is “No, no you want to pick me”

Since you’re new to the game you will probably want to try out a bit of everything, I recommend to try them all out, see what you like or don’t like you can always delete the old character and make a new one.

Also while you wait for your DL you can look up youtube videos of gameplay from each class or race to help you get an idea for what the classes would be like.

Race/Profession is really a case of what you like looks/actions. That said to learn the game one of the heavies is probably best, as they are a bit more survivable while you learn. Once you have the basics of the game down I would really advise that you just shuffle through different race/prof combos and find what fits you. Don’t invest i equipment upgrades for these characters, just stay in the starting area for the race and play around a bit.
If you end up on an NA server get with me in game and I will be happy to help you out, I keep a slot free to make new characters to run around with new players so that I am not doing all the work/keeping them from really participating. I am on Jade Quarry, JQ, and it is an active server with many players.
Just as general information you can copy user names from the forum and past them into your friends list in game, although you have to use crtl+v as there is no paste option directly, which will make it easier to find those of use who have/are/will say find me in game.

Race/professions – pick some combo you like the look of and go with it.
Aurora Glade is a pretty good EU server if you’re looking at EU servers.

Ravenspirit what server did you choose, I’ll join you I just bought the game myself last night! I am going to play Jade Quarry, hope to see you there!

Drizzte.5642:

Ravenspirit what server did you choose, I’ll join you I just bought the game myself last night! I am going to play Jade Quarry, hope to see you there!

Welcome to JQ then, you’ll probably see me around at world events. If you need any help feel free to send me a whisper, although I am often AFK.

By the way, the capital city of the game (Lion’s Arch) was recently destroyed so for now you will need to either memorize your racial city to have access to common services such as the Trading Post, Bank, etc. or go to Vigil Keep in Gendarren Fields, which is the temporary replacement for Lion’s Arch.

There is an Asura Gate to Vigil Keep in your racial city. From there you can reach other parts of the world including other starting zones.

Ravenspirit.4638:

Seems warrior is very popular! i will take this into consideration when picking.

Don’t, they are ok but not really great. They are very good to make mistakes on but not really great to learn the game on.

Ravenspirit.4638:

Seems warrior is very popular! i will take this into consideration when picking.

For this very reason, I prefer playing non-warrior (favorite is mesmer). when I encounter other players in pvp / wvw, they have no idea how to fight you if you’re not a warrior.
Asura are also good in pvp / wvw as they are smaller. Anet says the target box is the same size, but good luck convincing anyone of that. little people always seem harder to click.
as for server: any near the top (top 6-10 or so) wvw ranks is good. If you’re not wanting to play wvw, then any high+ population server would do.

Yargesh.4965:

Ravenspirit.4638:

Seems warrior is very popular! i will take this into consideration when picking.

Don’t, they are ok but not really great. They are very good to make mistakes on but not really great to learn the game on.

I disagree. Warrior is a fine class to learn the game with. I’d rather see a player learn with this than a Bowbear Ranger that teaches horrible game play habits. It’s not all bad that Warriors are forgiving of small mistakes.

Asura size has nothing to do with “clicking” on them (that’s what targeting keys are for). The smaller visual size can actually HIDE better from sight and IS an advantage no matter what Anet says about hitboxes (that ARE the same size as a Norn).

I just rerolled on Jade Quarry. Glad I did! Crystal Desert was awful in WvW, and felt really dead a lot of the time.
Jade Quarry is very competetive in WvW, and so far, is nowhere near as dead as CD was.
As for race: I love the Charr. I also am quite fond of Asura. I’m playing an Asura Elementalist at the moment.
All the classes are really fun, just depends on your play style!
I love Thief, Elementalist, Necro, and Engineer.

Welcome!!

Most impotant things first:
Have fun!

Pick a profession you think you’ll have fun playing, and as you level up and learn about specific traits and gear, pick one or a mix, of what works best for YOU.

The races are nearly the same, with the expecption of various racial abilities. Do some research and find one that appeals to you.

And finally. Join a guild or 3. It’s not hard to find a guild in game, generally someone will find you because you have no guild tag. Ask questions and join as YOU decide. Guilds are a great way to seek help in game, meet new people and generally cater to almost every play style.

Good luck!! Look forward to seeing you in game!!

thank you everyone for the well wishes in game! ive decided on a ranger on JQ slyvari

Hi new, im dad!

Lankybrit.4598:

As you’re just starting out, let’s get one thing straight. This is not WoW. There are no Classes, they are called Professions in GW2.
….

I wonder if this was something done due to Legal reasons? They even call “Buffs”, “Boons” and many other things that seems like they could use the exact same name (‘fantasy names’) but they chose to make it quite different. Interesting.

Also: NO MOUNTS, EVAR

Get used to running around 24/7 because it keeps you in shape! Notice your toon never gains a pound? Now you know why

WELCOME!!

TheTechnician.1078:

Lankybrit.4598:

As you’re just starting out, let’s get one thing straight. This is not WoW. There are no Classes, they are called Professions in GW2.
….

I wonder if this was something done due to Legal reasons? They even call “Buffs”, “Boons” and many other things that seems like they could use the exact same name (‘fantasy names’) but they chose to make it quite different. Interesting.

Also: NO MOUNTS, EVAR

Get used to running around 24/7 because it keeps you in shape! Notice your toon never gains a pound? Now you know why

WELCOME!!

I’ve seen several ANet employees refer to “professions” as “classes”. Here is one such post that refers to them as “class” and not “profession”. I don’t think it is a big deal and is mostly down to personal preference as to which is used. Calling them “classes” is not ‘wrong’ as it is stated by some.

Regarding mounts, I wouldn’t mind some mounts unique to the GW2 style as long as they do not provide a speed boost or benefit of any kind and are for cosmetic and immersion/lore reasons only.

As far as I’m concerned there are 8 gameplay classes and 8 crafting professions.

Hayashi.3416:

As far as I’m concerned there are 8 gameplay classes and 8 crafting professions.

That would be another game.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Profession
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Crafting#Crafting_disciplines

pro·fes·sion
noun
1. a paid occupation, esp. one that involves prolonged training and a formal qualification.

class
noun
1. a set or category of things having some property or attribute in common and differentiated from others by kind, type, or quality.

I think that ‘profession’ works better for crafting and ‘class’ works better for character skill set. I just see crafting as a paid job, while your skill set is just who you are. Like, IRL you aren’t an american profession.
unless, of course: SPARTANS, WHAT IS YOUR PROFESSION?!

Mystic.5934:

pro·fes·sion
noun
1. a paid occupation, esp. one that involves prolonged training and a formal qualification.

class
noun
1. a set or category of things having some property or attribute in common and differentiated from others by kind, type, or quality.

I think that ‘profession’ works better for crafting and ‘class’ works better for character skill set. I just see crafting as a paid job, while your skill set is just who you are. Like, IRL you aren’t an american profession.
unless, of course: SPARTANS, WHAT IS YOUR PROFESSION?!

“My profession?! You know, now that I think of it, I’ve always wanted to be a baker.”

Sorry Couldnt resist

(Pantheon reference for those that dont know)