Guild Wars 2

So, I’ve been playing Guild Wars 2 maybe about a year and half now and have leveled all classes to 80 but I still haven’t decided on a main. I’ve decided to have three, one of each armor type but I cannot figure out which class to fill the medium armor slot.

I spent a large amount of time as thief but always wondered what it would be like to be an engineer, so I re-made my asura thief as an engineer (I don’t play my other engi because it’s not an asura). After hitting level 80 I can say it honestly doesn’t feel any better than thief does. Maybe that’s because medium armor classes get hate in all areas of the game, so I feel like I’m screwed no matter which one I choose. Now I’m trying to decide between trying again as a ranger, going back to thief or just staying an engi.

So I would like to know the experiences of people who have either a ranger, thief or engineer as main.

What things do you enjoy about your class? What things do you hate?

How do people respond to you in PvE, WvW and PvP?

Do you feel useful or useless in most situations?

Answers to any of these questions would be very helpful and much appreciated. Also, feel free to mention things I haven’t listed here because it all helps! I haven’t been able to enjoy the game for quite some time because I don’t want to get into end-game content without a main. I know I could always just use my ele or my guard, but it would be nice to have the trio complete.

Unfortunately I wasn’t a massive fan of Thief or Engi so I’ll be a little biased towards Ranger as it’s the only class I can really talk about -

1) I enjoy the mobility and aesthetics of Ranger. The skills look good and because I use main hand sword, offhand dagger I’m constantly rolling and leaping all over the battlefield. My biggest complaint would be that Sword skill1 roots you but there are work arounds (turning off auto attack was a godsend for me). I like how the axe hit’s multiple targets and offhand axe is pretty awesome. It’s just a shame the damage from main hand axe is a little lack lustre.

I’d also add to this that the pet can be a big turn off as you do need to micromanage it. You will need to put it on passive/stow it at times, recall it before it get’s AoE’d into oblivion, tell it to attack etc. I quite enjoy it but you do need to pay attention to it. Also swap before it dies. Otherwise you’ll be losing a lot.

2) Because I largely run with my guild I can’t really comment, but no one seems to complain about me (to my face) when I use the LFG tool for dungeons and such.

3) Gotta say I feel mainly useful. I do enough damage to help the team, offer out some buffs, can help to blast fields for extra buffs as needed and have a good heal skill which is helpful to my party/allies.

I main an engineer, though I’ve played every class, just keep coming back to my beloved bomb dropper.

1. I just adore the versatility of engies, the way I get to do fire/stealth/water fields + blasts whenever required, get perma-swiftness if I need mobility, have really high damage with bombs+nades as well as ridiculously nice vulnerability stacking, can play around with kits and tools a lot if I want to change up my playstyle for a while. Don’t think there’s anything I really hate about them; possibly the fact it takes quite some practice to get to a point where you can get good damage rotations, but then I enjoy the challenge so it’s not even really a con.

2.
PvE: I run mostly with my guild, who enjoys my vuln + reflect a lot, but I don’t recall getting any negative receptions when pugging. Engineers are fairly rare to find so I think they’re not as negatively seen as rangers, who get a bad rep from the proliferation of bearbows, so most of the time people will just shrug and go along with you.
PvP: haven’t gotten any bad reactions except from one dude once who went “lol decap/bunker engies suck” but also, he was a jerk so I’m not sure it counts. Engineers are great for PvP, thanks again to that versatility, and you shouldn’t get any trouble there. I love it when I run into a good engie in PvP, they’re so nice to play with/frustrating to fight against.
WvW: I’m rarely in WvW so I’m no expert, but from what I’ve seen and what friends have told me engies are also very viable in Wvw and so don’t get a bad reception there either. They can be built nicely as bunkers while having the range to wham into an enemy group, can sustain themselves against thief roamers if you do it right, etc etc.

3. Engies are awesome party members and I like it so much. I definitely feel useful – I can tack on a projectile block if no guardian’s in the party, I can stack might if we’re missing an ele or the ele is busy with conjured weapons, I can stealth us if we don’t have a thief, I have a bunch of area condi cleanses, I get the bosses to near-constant 25 vuln to make them go down faster…. what’s not to like, man.

I have all three above 70 these days so I think I can give some opinion.

First off, I main the Thief. Honestly, I chose this in the start for the pure fact that the thief uses the shortbow far more often than my ranger did and I am going for Dreamer for my legendary. I am completely in love with the initiative system for the profession, it lets me play on the fly and not rely on cooldowns (also, chill…like seriously what’s that?) And Shadow Refuge…omg that skill; it lets me get skill points and vistas without having to battle things guarding them or get to chests. Stealth is a fun ability and once you find the right way to use it, it will save your skin especially if you go with Shadow Arts.

Engineer is a unique profession for sure. The one downside I have for constant play with the class is the need to spam the 1 with ’nades as I have previous thumb injuries and it bugs that. Bombs are really fun to use with PVE, running around a mob and just dropping them all over the place. It has access to an awesome healing turret skill and a lot of fields/finishers. I loved the swiftness access, just pressing a button and I went faster everywhere.

Rangers…rangers, rangers, rangers…how I want you to be the class for me as you are the other shortbow user. I love pet classes in games and I hoped this one would let me have the Mr. Whiskers pet that I could pair up with and slaughter everything in sight. However, it’s not that at all. You are relying on a borked AI system and honestly, the whole profession feels like it was just thrown together at the last minute and now the creators just wish the frankenprofession would go away quietly. That’s not to say I don’t play it, I just don’t think it is a well implemented one and one I’d spend a lot of time and effort into playing until they work on it. I can’t say too much good other than you will never be alone while you roam but man that partner can be kitten stupid.