Guild Wars 2

Hello,some months ago i’ve bought GW2,and as soon as it started downloading i started thinking about wich profession i’d enjoy the most.
I always had a VERY hard time choosing between such kind of options…and i still have issues.
I made 12 characters,and still i couldn’t not decide.
At 1st impact,my favourite profession was the mesmer,along with the thief,however the both gave me serious issues (up to lvl 14) at pve,while being very well suited for pvp.
Then i decided to try the engineer (up to level 14)…he looked much more suited for PVE,however…i found it a bit boring: i just had to place turrets,dodge a few attacks and nothing else! The only fun thing was to use the bomb kit.
Then,i tried a Guardian,i liked it however it seemed lacking:there wouldn’t be almost any difference between an experienced guardian and a newbie guardian,just check the abilities,click the buttons in a row and kill them all…no need to dodge,no need to do timed actions.
After that,i heard the Necromancer is OP if built only with minions,because they’ll take the aggro…it didn’t even reach level 6:i just had to summon the blood fiend,then the explosive minions…and a dodge roll to bring the aggro to my minions,just boring :s
After that i tried the Warrior…i found this one a bit better than others,but still disappointed by the fact i could just turn my head and spam 1-7 keys(+f1) to kill everything in range.
I also tried the Ranged,but i excepted it to be a powerful ranged profession,while it’s melee abilities are much better,and that really disappointed me,also,all that dodging,leaps and such really felt unconfortable to me.
Lastly,i tried the elementalist: i really enjoyed it! I had to combo,the damage is very high,i can heal,stun,daze,knockdown…almost everything!
However,the problems showed up when i get hit: even level 5 mobs (with me being lvl 6) hurted me alot…almost over 1/4 of max hp! After the feeling of the guardian it isn’t that great x.x

So:
necromancer,engineer: powerful but boring
guardian,warrior: like above,but more action
mesmer,thief: not effective at pve
elementalist: i die in a breeze
ranger: awkward and uncomfortable

ATM,i’ve a lvl 13 engineer,a lvl 14 thief,a lvl 6 elementalist,a lvl 9 mesmer,a lvl 6 guardian.
I’m using the thief and the mesmer at pvp,so i don’t plan deleting them.
The engineer has tons of items,and still does well,so i’m not planning to delete him.
now,the elementalist and the guardian are left…what should i do? I’m looking for a profession durable enough to survive a few hits,with solo capabilities and no need to just press all the keys and win.
What i’m truly looking for is the profession that i will never regret later.

Nice suggestions would be:
-way(s) to make the currently chosen professions less boring/more effective
-a new profession,with a little explanation,to swap for another one.

Thank you for reading,i hope someone can help me,have a nice day and have fun.

Engineer isn’t necessarily boring at higher levels. Sure, you’re most effective as a grenade spammer, but that’s not always a cakewalk if you’re going solo.

I suggest taking it in a mob control direction (pistol/pistol or rifle can both work), where you approach an encounter with a plan for managing your enemy’s position basically at all times. Battering ram to gain separation, throw mine for tactical enemy knockbacks (could stick to only one or the other, but both gives you more time if you’re not doing quick damage).

It’s not the best use of the engie’s versatility, but IMO it’s an interesting approach especially in solo play and is totally viable even late game. Can be slow going though.

Most classes won’t start to shine until about level 30 or 40. If you want a class that is not boring, I would suggest (in purely alphabetical order) elementalist, engineer, or mesmer.

My current main is an ele, and she is a blast to play. She was the most expensive to level up to 30, for sure, because of repair/waypoint rez costs. There are usually a few active threads in the elementalist forum about getting through low levels, but the basic suggestions are:
- Find the weapon that works for you (I would suggest Scepter/Dagger or Dagger/Dagger for low level, but I personally went with Staff)
- Learn which skills have CC, which skills you can combo together
- Trait in Arcana/Water/Earth when you can
- Equip Power/Toughness/Vitality/Healing power for survivability
- Dodge often
- If you get bored, you can switch your weapon and learn a whole different play style

One guildmate has a lvl 80 Mesmer. He had less problems leveling, and you can spend a lot of effort micromanaging your phantasms and clones. He also have a guardian; it’s pretty much spin to win in PvE.

Another guildmate has a lvl 80 Engineer. He doesn’t use a lot of turrets; he prefers grenades and the flamethrower. But like the elementalist, you can completely change how you play (by selecting different utilities).

Yes…i’m alreading using a rifle with him: i shoot the bleeding attack,then i spam my regular attack,if the mob gets near i’ll push it backward.

However…if you encounter more than 3 mobs…that becomes a problem…

Oh yeah,i hate long cooldowns
(so please,avoid to mention such abilities that last like 1 second and have 120 seconds cooldown :X i’d rather get slained than using them)

Thieves get a lot better at PvE with levels, particularly when you hit 30 and get your elite skill. Both Thieves guild and Dagger storm absolutely wreck anything they come across.

DEKeyzToChaos.7381:

Most classes won’t start to shine until about level 30 or 40. If you want a class that is not boring, I would suggest (in purely alphabetical order) elementalist, engineer, or mesmer.

My current main is an ele, and she is a blast to play. She was the most expensive to level up to 30, for sure, because of repair/waypoint rez costs. There are usually a few active threads in the elementalist forum about getting through low levels, but the basic suggestions are:
- Find the weapon that works for you (I would suggest Scepter/Dagger or Dagger/Dagger for low level, but I personally went with Staff)
- Learn which skills have CC, which skills you can combo together
- Trait in Arcana/Water/Earth when you can
- Equip Power/Toughness/Vitality/Healing power for survivability
- Dodge often
- If you get bored, you can switch your weapon and learn a whole different play style

One guildmate has a lvl 80 Mesmer. He had less problems leveling, and you can spend a lot of effort micromanaging your phantasms and clones. He also have a guardian; it’s pretty much spin to win in PvE.

Another guildmate has a lvl 80 Engineer. He doesn’t use a lot of turrets; he prefers grenades and the flamethrower. But like the elementalist, you can completely change how you play (by selecting different utilities).

(sorry for the double post,still new to these forums)
What i dislike of the Elementalist are its long cooldowns,the unability to swap weapons,the cooldown you have to wait to change attunement and the fact that whenever i like a spell,it’s always in another weapon set!

Example: i HATE the scepter,specially the fire attunement…however i love the rock attunement it provides!
While i like some abilities of Dagger’s set,like the fire’s basic attack or the 2nd spell of the air attunement…while i hate the dagger’s earth set.
Or…i love the healing rain,the eruption and the meteor shower,however i don’t like other abilities because of their “crippling” cast times.
Another issue with the elementalist is that i am afraid to have issues if i’ll build vitality/thoughness instead of raw power and condition damage,because i think it’d then become a glass cannon,without cannon and not very glass :s

I heard some abilities of the mesmer are almost useless,mostly for the reaction time mobs have compared to players,is that true?
Also,it really lacks AoE,and when i faced up more than 3 mobs i just had to run.

I agree on the guardian.

About the engineer: Ok,you can change sets,the issue is that you can’t do everything at once:you must choose between your weapons or the kits;switching doesn’t take time,but it’s like playing a game of cards,with 5 times the number of required cards,but having them flipped so you can see them all…Of course it would allow to much wider options but it would lack effectiveness,am i right?

edit
I see you also use a Warrior (by looking at your signature)…what i really love of it are the banners,yeah…banners,everywhere!
Having a full build of banners would give infinite swiftness…that’s soo yummy!
Also,what about the conjured weapons the Elementalist can create? They feel powerful but idk about that “max 15 spell uses” it feels very temporary.

MasterGeese.4756:

Thieves get a lot better at PvE with levels, particularly when you hit 30 and get your elite skill. Both Thieves guild and Dagger storm absolutely wreck anything they come across.

How about the cooldowns of those spells? :x

ButterOfDeath.2873:

What i dislike of the Elementalist are its long cooldowns,the unability to swap weapons,the cooldown you have to wait to change attunement and the fact that whenever i like a spell,it’s always in another weapon set!

Yeah, most of us ele’s hate the long attunement cooldowns, too, so we put 30 trait points in Arcane to get that CD down to 9 seconds. Other lvl 80 builds focus on the synergies between some utilities and stay with the long attunement CD. I guess the main thing is that effective builds use all attunements and stay in an attunement for only 2-4 seconds.

ButterOfDeath.2873:

Example: i HATE the scepter,specially the fire attunement…however i love the rock attunement it provides!
While i like some abilities of Dagger’s set,like the fire’s basic attack or the 2nd spell of the air attunement…while i hate the dagger’s earth set.
Or…i love the healing rain,the eruption and the meteor shower,however i don’t like other abilities because of their “crippling” cast times.
Another issue with the elementalist is that i am afraid to have issues if i’ll build vitality/thoughness instead of raw power and condition damage,because i think it’d then become a glass cannon,without cannon and not very glass :s

Sure, you get only 1 weapon for quickswap, but you have 4 attunements to make up for it. I’m very twitchy with my ele, but even I can’t manage to put everything on cooldown as long as I’m not just quick-attuning and not using any skills in an attunement. Scepter Fire is bugged… it would be better if it worked correctly. Dagger Earth works best when you have a locked target, untargeted things will miss (and hence stink), but Earth 4 is good CC and Earth 5 good damage in a group around you. Main thing about D/D is that you’re always moving around. Staff leaves you vulnerable often, so use the CC of quicker Air/Earth skills before casting slow skills.

Yes, ele’s are glassy, and you will have to work a lot harder to get the same damage as other classes, and you probably won’t tear through enemies quite as fast. The consensus is that adding more vit/tough is much more useful to us than adding crit damage and condition damage, especially at low levels. Being able to take a hit means less time dodging/running, more time attacking. You can sneak the power in on your high lvl gear though.

ButterOfDeath.2873:

I heard some abilities of the mesmer are almost useless,mostly for the reaction time mobs have compared to players,is that true?
Also,it really lacks AoE,and when i faced up more than 3 mobs i just had to run.

Mobs don’t get as confused by the clones as humans do, unfortunately. Maybe check the mesmer forums for more suggestions on builds, but my guildy never seemed to have a problem. Mesmers are very effective in WvW, so maybe try leveling there instead?

ButterOfDeath.2873:

About the engineer: Ok,you can change sets,the issue is that you can’t do everything at once:you must choose between your weapons or the kits;switching doesn’t take time,but it’s like playing a game of cards,with 5 times the number of required cards,but having them flipped so you can see them all…Of course it would allow to much wider options but it would lack effectiveness,am i right?

Not really. Engis and Eles are kind of similar like that. Lots and lots of skills to use, so you’re never stuck auto-attacking while waiting for 2-0 to be up! Pick the family of kits you like the most, and build around those. For example, if you like turrets, overload them! Or throw down a healing turret next to a flame turret, regen mist, and then detonate your flame turret for even more AoE regen. Think about in-battle skill synergy when creating a build, not in-battle versatility.

ButterOfDeath.2873:

I see you also use a Warrior (by looking at your signature)…what i really love of it are the banners,yeah…banners,everywhere!
Having a full build of banners would give infinite swiftness…that’s soo yummy!
Also,what about the conjured weapons the Elementalist can create? They feel powerful but idk about that “max 15 spell uses” it feels very temporary.

Meh, ele’s can do perma-swiftness too, so it’s not that big of a deal. Sometimes I just like easy mode where I don’t have to think and be aware of my surroundings, hence the warrior (it’s fun, just a different type of fun from ele).

The Lightning Hammer is a very popular conjure to build around once an ele hits level 40 and has access to a very specific master-level trait. There are several builds on the ele forums for it right now, but I don’t spec that way.

Well,the idea of the Elementalist that i have right now is of a very hard class,with medium reward compared to other classes,that have issues surviving but very fun to play with a very wide versatility…doesn’t sound too much good,but not too much bad too.

I just noticed,looking on the wiki,that the guardian has some interesting staff/scepter spells…do you know anything about those?

Also,atm i’m taking in account the Elementalist,Guardian and Engineer,i am however unsure about the warrior.
It’s sword abilities look cool with short cooldowns(more precisely i like the adrenaline’s burst move)…and the bow could be nice to deal at long range,without being too boring,what’s your opinion?

ButterOfDeath.2873:

Yes…i’m alreading using a rifle with him: i shoot the bleeding attack,then i spam my regular attack,if the mob gets near i’ll push it backward.

However…if you encounter more than 3 mobs…that becomes a problem…

Oh yeah,i hate long cooldowns
(so please,avoid to mention such abilities that last like 1 second and have 120 seconds cooldown :X i’d rather get slained than using them)

Pistol/pistol works better on multiple mobs than the rifle, but part of the strategy with a weapon-based engineer is in setting up your attack so that you don’t have to take on more than 2 or so at a time – as much as you can of course.

With big groups, grenades (or bombs? don’t have much experience there) are probably the way to go.

Cooldowns are obviously an issue, but the more you get into traiting them down the better you can deal with them.

But what happens if suddently 5 mobs appear at once?
Having to CC them to fight them 2by2 is soooooo annoying :s

Depends what the situation is. If they’re weak, glue shot/static shot/blowtorch (pistol 5/3/4) is enough to control them without much trouble. If they’re stronger, switching to a kit (grenade spam!) or just plain running away (hopefully kiting only one or two of them) tend to be better options.

ButterOfDeath.2873:

Well,the idea of the Elementalist that i have right now is of a very hard class,with medium reward compared to other classes,that have issues surviving but very fun to play with a very wide versatility…doesn’t sound too much good,but not too much bad too.

Yep, pretty much. But in Orr, I have no problems tagging stuff in DE’s before the zerg hits it, and I can stay at a safe distance. So in the end, you can get plenty of rewards. The grind to level 40 is pretty awful and expensive, though.

ButterOfDeath.2873:

I just noticed,looking on the wiki,that the guardian has some interesting staff/scepter spells…do you know anything about those?

Nope, my friend’s guardian is pretty much greatsword/mace&shield and is effective in all PvE settings. Guardian Staff reminds me a lot of Lux from LOL. Theorycrafting, I don’t think it would be very viable solo since it’s so support heavy. Scepter/torch may give you enough damage. Leveling your guardian would also give you a better feel for how skills interact to improve your PvP.

ButterOfDeath.2873:

Also,atm i’m taking in account the Elementalist,Guardian and Engineer,i am however unsure about the warrior.
It’s sword abilities look cool with short cooldowns(more precisely i like the adrenaline’s burst move)…and the bow could be nice to deal at long range,without being too boring,what’s your opinion?

Since I tend to do crazy things like following up an engineer’s Jump Shot with a Blunderbuss and then Charged Shot, or turning my ele around and use Burning Retreat to roll into an enemy, the longbow is a little boring but is my choice for a long-ranged instrument. I’d much rather just run up and smack the mob in melee if I can. Mace (main hand) also has an adrenaline rush. Right now I’m running Axe & warhorn as I’m not doing anything too challenging, but I could see myself going Axe&Axe or Axe&Sword later. On the other hand, the greatsword has great mobility and pretty low CD, too.

I see you mentioned LoL,a game i really enjoy to play!
Taking that in account,i’m the kind of player that either takes someone like Veigar,very bursty…or anyone capable of crazy stuff,think at lee sin/ezreal and what their kit can do.
Considering that,my class should be the thief! However,the thief is the only one with a kind of “mana” that resembles LoL’s energy,wich is a very bad thing IMO.

Unluckily,i’ve found no bursty classes at gw2,at least in the way i mean them (press all the keyboard and do all at once)…so this is blocking me choosing my profession.
Having a point to refer to,in this case LoL,may make the decision much simplier to me,wich is a great thing

What i was initially looking,was for a mobile class with burst damage,but after removing the thief (and spells like quickness[if i’m right] of the ranger) from the list,the decision is much harder.
The burst damage i can imagine on GW2,with the experience i have,is either a fast combo done with a high crit chance,like warrior’s GS 1st spell,or a combo of delayed/DoT spells that discharge a lot of damage in a low amount of time.
“Crazy stuff” and nice burst damage could be also done by the mesmer,but it has very serious issues in PVE (clones do no damage? O.o)…so it’s not my best choose atm.

For burst damage i can imagine a axe/dagger necromancer,building damage and using the channeled ability,it may work pretty well,however the necro has no mobility,and that build would be too much single-targeted.

The elementalist has everything i like,however has those kitten cast times…like 3/4 seconds to cast,wich block me to “unleash my fury” on the keyboard.

So…these are my issues i have with every class,that are blocking me from enjoying the game from over 4 months!
If i had a friend,i could use a profession that synergizes well with my friend’s (like warrior+ele) and no problem…instead i’m alone,and who is alone,imo,should be able to cover decently all the situations…and in a profession/class based game it makes me hard to choose.

Said that,who has the best combination of survivability,AoE,burst,mobility of those professions?
Burst could be replaced with a very fast stacking of bleeding/poison/fire,so we shouldn’t exclude the necromancer and the ele.

What makes me a bit sad is that what initially made my eyes shine turned out to be something i don’t like,that makes me a bit sad tbh :x

ButterOfDeath.2873:

Said that,who has the best combination of survivability,AoE,burst,mobility of those professions?

I read all your post, but if I quoted the whole thing, I wouldn’t have room to respond!

My gut reaction, honestly, is try a Dagger/Dagger Thief with a Death Blossom build, with your secondary as Pistol/Pistol or Pistol/Dagger. DB does some crazy damage in PvE that will let you take on multiple melee mobs at once (with some invulnerability thrown in). Open with Heart Seeker or stealth/Back Stab from slightly out of aggro range, and close with either HS or BS. I’m sure someone’s gonna shout “l2p n00b” about that recommendation, but I found it kind of fun in PvE. Again, at low levels you’re going to run out of initiative too fast and won’t have options to replenish it fast enough, but at level 40 it will start to shine and you’ll be able to spam skills. You’ll have to re-spec if you play WvW or PvP because that build is not good against people. Lower AoE, but great burst, okay survivability, and great mobility.

Another idea would be a greatsword warrior or guardian. Make your secondary weapon something more support-y. Lower AoE, good burst, great survivability, and moderate mobility.

Then there’s elementalist and engineer. Depending on weapon set and utilities, you’ll get moderate to great AoE, moderate to good burst, low to okay survivability, and good to great mobility.

The most painful thing about learning any class is that you really won’t know how it plays until you hit level 30-40, so maybe try toughing out a few toons until you hit those levels? If you’re not afraid of map chat, try asking what events are going on to see where people are.

Hope this helps… or at least I hope I didn’t confuse you more!

TBH that consufed me…
The thief i have ATM (level 14) is already with dagger/dagger and pistol/dagger…and i find that really bad against multiple enemies :x
For example,in a mission i had to fight the boss while other enemies kept attacking me…and i had to revive 5 times to clear it!
While,when i’ve done the same one with the engineer,using grenade kit and rifle turret (lvl 13)…however it took me almost no effort! :x
So i’m not really sure that the thief is my best choose for PvE,at least for now!

ATM,the professions i’m thinking about are warrior,guardian and engineer.
My engineer,luckily found 2 keys,and opening a chest i got an extra key (wtf O.o i had to purchase a crate for 2 bronze coins XD),then the previous experiences with the other ones made me a better start,so i’m taking the engineer in serious consideration.

I think i’ll prefer the Warrior than the Guardian,because GW2 is the only game where warriors aren’t just spamming all the keys blindly if played in a certain way,while Guardians look very weird with the staff and the scepter,and i thought the smite ability would have been much better,instead of those crappy fists flying around :x

So,the decision is about Engineer and Warrior.
With the Engineer i wouldn’t start from scratch,while i’d have to do with the Warrior.

In your opinion,is it true that Engineers are a “rare” class?
Wich one is better pvp?

Everyone has a unique play style, and what may fit me may not work for you. Just was giving suggestions off my own experience. But what does it matter if Engineers are “rare” or not? I think most people care about your ability to stay alive and deal damage, not exactly what class you are. In fact, seeing anyone in a mid-level area is rare on my server, lol!

Can’t help you with sPvP or tPvP, since I don’t play. In WvW, Warriors are kind of stuck with either bashing stuff in, buffing allies, or shooting from the ramparts with a longbow or rifle, and while I haven’t tried taking my warrior to WvW yet, I would guess that it would be hard to survive without being high level and having good gear. Engineers have all sorts of stuff they can do, between bombs and grenades (ranged), turrets, flamethrower, and healing. Since it is a more tactical role, you can sit a little behind the front lines and help out. Plus you could probably start contributing once you hit level 30 or so.

So start with your Engineer (since you already have one), and if you don’t enjoy the profession when you get to the 30’s, then you know you should try maybe a Warrior, Necro (I’ve never played one), or Elementalist (if you can stand the attunement system).

Yes,i think i’ll probably choose the engineer