Guild Wars 2

I purchased this game when it first came out but i haven’t really played it past the first part of the starting area for one character, and that was many months ago. I’m wanting to give it a try again though and would like to know which race/profession would be the most fun to get into for a beginner to Guild Wars. I used to play World of Warcraft a lot but haven’t been into it as much lately. I’m ready for a change. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Races are mostly cosmetic, but the stories have a certain flavor. IMO, Asura and Charr beginning storylines are the more interesting ones.

As for profession, it is really about how you want to play. If you’d like to be on the frontlines and in your opponents face, then Guardian, Warrior, and Necromancer are good choices. If you want to be evasive and tricky, then Thieves, Mesmers, and Elementalists are for you. If you want to sit back and shoot things, then the ranger is for you. If you want a strange bag of tricks, then the engineer is for you.

As far as “ease” goes, the classes from easiest to hardest to play are roughly

Warrior
Ranger
Guardian
Necromancer
Mesmer
Thief
Engineer
Elementalist

So far I have played Ranger, Guardian, Necromancer, Thief and Engineer. I plan to pick up the other professions eventually too. My favorites are probably Guardian and Ranger and I have enjoyed the other professions a lot but generally it is what suits you the best and is most interesting to you. I found all the lower levels tend to be hardest up until about level 20 or so (you are building skills, armor etc.) and then as you have the experience it gets a lot more fun. Since you get additional character slots you can play with those to see where you might want to go with it.

Stay in the lower areas at first, get your harvesting tools as soon as you can, harvest everything, sell what you can, get into all the cities and complete those areas (points, karma, money etc.) and then into the lower areas adjacent and you will level up quickly. If you need help completing an event or something call out in map chat, folk often respond to help out.

You can always look for guilds as well to help you out. Welcome back to GW2!

I many ways, GW2 is a lot better than WoW. You’re not competing for resources so people are a lot more helpful and friendly to each other. Plus, you won’t get ‘ganked’.

But in answer to your question – anything! It’s all good.
The Norn and Charr starter zones are a little harder than the others and the Sylvari zone is a bit overgrown but since you can use whatever zones you please with any race, it really doesn’t matter. Race generally has no effect on anything except a few little-used ‘racial elite’ skills.

What profession? Oooh now you’ve got me. What do you like. Melee? Ranged? Pain-in-the-Kitten? Sneaky-kitten? Take your pick.

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

As for profession, it is really about how you want to play. If you’d like to be on the frontlines and in your opponents face, then Guardian, Warrior, and Necromancer are good choices. If you want to be evasive and tricky, then Thieves, Mesmers, and Elementalists are for you. If you want to sit back and shoot things, then the ranger is for you. If you want a strange bag of tricks, then the engineer is for you.

Please, don’t ‘sit back and shoot things’ as a ranger… you’re not living up to your potential. Most other professions do ranged better than the ranger, so pick one of them. In open world PvE, longbows are good at max range only. In Dungeons, you will almost never be at max range, so just use melee weapons.

But as far as fun classes go, my favorites will have to be Ranger or Guardian. They just feel good. Mesemer is fun as well.

As far as race goes, just pick what looks cool to you. Racial skills are almost never used.

Thank you all for your responses, i made a Guardian last night before heading into work and am already level 3 and loving it. About to log in now before laying down to get some more things done.