Guild Wars 2

I just bought Guild Wars 2, however im unable to decide on a class iv made a few and played them in the low levels (around level 5ish) but i cant deicde

I want to do alot of dps but also have good utility, i mainly solo but have some friends who play so i will be grouping with them aswell

The ones i have enjoyed the most so far are Guardian (feel the dps is a bit low though), Elementalist, Thief (i also feel like im doing something wrong since my dps feels low lol)

I am interested in the idea of Engineer (Turrets and flamethrower and stuff) but when i googled them if they are good there was alot of posts about how they are weak in dps and take a really long time to kill things. Is this true? could anyone shine some light on the Engineer for me?

How are Warriors vs Guardian DPS/Utility/Tankyness wise?

Thanks in advance

warrior has more dps than guardian, guardian can have useful utility at times though
ele has great dps but is also very squishy, if you’re worried about that, go warrior

Also thief is very useful, I would try a war, ele, or thief.
Engi isn’t very useful in endgame at all right now.

Warrior is the most overpowered class, but it’s also great for beginners. You can range or melee, you can wear heavy armor yet have incredibly high base vitality (unlike a guardian which has one of the lowest base vitalities to make up for innate defense/healing skills). You can basically wear full berserker (power/precision/crit-based) armor and still tank.

Guardians are great but they’re support. You heal. You don’t die easily. You can solo incredibly hard bosses and win without dying… in like an hour plus. You’re best if you’re working with a few classes that focus on DPS, like ele or thief.

Personally, I would always recommend a ranger for a newbie. They’re not hard to solo and that lets you learn the basics of the game. And they’re very versatile, whether you want a tank, a healer, or a powerhouse, they’re not limited. They are a fantastic class, but especially good for someone learning how to play. Warrior a close second.

Are Engineers really that bad?

Evoked.2670:

Are Engineers really that bad?

Engineers require a higher skill threshold than most of the other classes. If you look through the forums and ask in game you will find that players think a well played engineer is op.

I’m new aswell, just patching the game, Can’t wait! BTW is a Necromancer good for newbies?

Evoked.2670:

Are Engineers really that bad?

No. Do not google them, play one. Mind that high dps in GW2 nowadays usually refers to might stacking and full Berserker gear (Power, Precision, Ferocity) and playing in a party.

If you solo a lot you will probably notice that professions like Engineer, Mesmer, Ranger or Necromancer are far more forgiving and durable compaired to professions that are mostly alone or only have high cd minions like Guardian or Elementalist. Especially during the leveling process in Open PvE survivability > dps, because eg. respawn is a much more important issue to deal with, facing veterans and champions or groups of mobs alone will be an issue. Dps when you’re soloing in general always is lower because of the lack of combo synergies a party offers, so survivability, mobility, to be able to spread aggro, keeping the mobs busy/in a distance and self healing capacity will make the difference between defeat or triumph in far more situations, than dps ever would.

kimnoa.4329:

I’m new aswell, just patching the game, Can’t wait! BTW is a Necromancer good for newbies?

I have all 8 classes at 80th lvl and for someone new to the game I would highly recommend a Necro currently. A minion mancer build is excellent for both PvE and PvP, use Staff/Scepter/Horn. The build won’t work in WvW thou…you will after use something else for WvW.

One important part of playing a Necro is get used to using your F1 ability. Effectively you have a 2nd health pool, which makes you tanky, especially compared to the other 2 light armour classes Ele & Mesmer.

darksilklips.3165:

Warrior is the most overpowered class, but it’s also great for beginners. You can range or melee, you can wear heavy armor yet have incredibly high base vitality (unlike a guardian which has one of the lowest base vitalities to make up for innate defense/healing skills). You can basically wear full berserker (power/precision/crit-based) armor and still tank.

Guardians are great but they’re support. You heal. You don’t die easily. You can solo incredibly hard bosses and win without dying… in like an hour plus. You’re best if you’re working with a few classes that focus on DPS, like ele or thief.

Personally, I would always recommend a ranger for a newbie. They’re not hard to solo and that lets you learn the basics of the game. And they’re very versatile, whether you want a tank, a healer, or a powerhouse, they’re not limited. They are a fantastic class, but especially good for someone learning how to play. Warrior a close second.

Ya, not really lol. That’s old information from like a year ago.

Warrior are not overpowered and only have average damage. The difference, is that warrior damage come mainly from pure stats, meaning that its easy to get a good damage, while on other profession you need to have a good build to reach high level of DPS. Like I said, Warrior have average DPS, but bring a lot of Offensive Support like (Banners, FGJ, EA, etc) These are the strenght of the Warrior. The guardian have about the same dmg than the Warrior. Usually it have a bit less, but can even have higher dps than a warrior if build and play right. If the warrior bring offensive support, the guardian bring defensive support. If you are thinking oh ya heal, you are wrong. Guardian healing is pretty selfish (and healing is pretty bad in PvE anyway). No when we are talking about defensive support its aegis, blind, protection, stability, reflect, condi removal, etc. That’s where the guardian is the best.

Warrior survive because of pure defensive stats (high amor and hp pools), but the Guardian survive because he have a lot of active defense.

I wouldn’t recommend a Ranger for a newbie. Usually, ppl see the ranger as the Hunter with a bow and pet. Why woudn’t they, that’s how anet present them in marketing. But that’s the worst way possible to play that profession in PvE. That’s sad but that,s the reality. Ranger can be a real beast in PvE with Sword, Frost Spirit and Spotter, but that’s hard way to play the profession and sadly the only really good build for the profession and it can be really hard to go into it. For that reason, ranger have a bad reputation in PvE (good player usually change profession, good build is hard to master, this leave the profession with a high number of bad player with bad build to represent the profession) and are usually discriminated against in dungeon.

darksilklips.3165:

……
Personally, I would always recommend a ranger for a newbie. …..
Warrior a close second.

I think that’s bad advice as Ranger teaches REALLY bad game-play habits right off the bat. No need to dodge or move (due to ranged attacks) and a built in tank so you rarely have to deal with immediate direct aggro. This assumption is based on the standard BearBow infest…errr build. If you go Melee only Ranger, it’s not that bad (tho the pet is still a crutch that will colapse on you at the worst possible time). Note that I play a ranger and usually hybrid a Longbow/Greatsword setup (tho I don’t play my Ranger much any longer).

Warrior is a solid choice to learn the game as long as you actively try to NOT get hit (and learn to avoid BIG damage).

My ranger is SB/A+T and I focus on condition in addition to power. Would NOT recommend that for a low-level build, though. GS/LB is what I used while leveling.

Ranger can teach bad habits, but so can necro. And like I said, it’s good to solo. Yes, you have a built in tank. So if you are alone, it takes the place of another player who would do that. And those bad habits definitely won’t hold if you’re soloing champs or facing harder bosses later on. You’ll have to learn to dodge and move.

You have 5 slots to play with and level 5 is not enough time to develop any real idea of how any of the proffs play.
My preference after getting all 8 proffs to 80 are ele, mesmer, ranger and necro not in any order. Less favourite is guard, warrior, theif and engie but that is just me. Engie is what I play in WvW and it works well for me there, don’t find the joy in warrior and while guard can survive just about anything it is not a lot of fun. Theif I had the least fun leveling but once to 80 it can be ok, just not my top pick to play during a session.

Evoked.2670:

Are Engineers really that bad?

Engineers aren’t bad at all. They have the greatest build diversity of any class and are the hardest to play well.

They do suffer from the fact that their complexity is too much for the average noob playing this game so you might hear negative things because of this.

I’m a new player as well. And after reading this discussion I’m getting excited about jumping right in and teaming up with all these other classes.

Every class in this game is balanced and can produce high damage output, but understand Guild wars is very different from other MMO’s in that there are no dedicated roles or healers, so you are responsible for mitigating you own damage.

Follow the 101 guide at the top to get an idea of how to build and maybe choose a class. I would recommend finding a class with some weapon skills you find enjoyable and go from there.

For a new player, I’d recommend ranger or warrior to learn the game. Don’t worry about people saying rangers are horrible or whatever. They are more focused on level 80 play. To level up and learn the basics of the game, either are perfect for that. In open world pve, not dodging doesn’t hurt you too much. And, it’s not like learning to dodge is some super difficult tactic. When you need it, you’ll learn it.

I don’t recall anyone saying Rangers are “horrible”, but they tend to reinforce “horrible” game play tactics for a new player. If you are not learning how (and HOW important it is) to dodge from the start, survival in the later game will be much more difficult (and near impossible in Dungeons and PvP/WvW)…..and not just for the new player, but every player they are around.

It’s much easier to say “you’ll learn it”, than to actually unlearn bad habits and train yourself to try and avoid damage.

People say engineers are weak, I have mained one since the start of GW2 and I currently command for Piken square. The problem for many is the high skill floor and ceiling, this means it take skill to be mediocre but if you play well you can excel other classes through combos and utility. People complain because they are basing everything on numeric comparisons without consideration of the pricelessness of the utility which can not be directly converted to a number.

In my opinion, guardians are good defender tanks, they are good at protecting the squishies and supporting the whole party. I also believe warriors to be the best proper tanks due to the consistent channelled blocks and shutdown CC they have available, they can also support nicely with strong shout heal/buffs.
Every class can tank, they just do it in different ways, my favourite ‘survivor’ is the engineer due to the utility and high skill ceiling they can bring to the table through combos, it is this skill ceiling that allows you to be full tank and still pressure kill players that would otherwise be stalemates.
Warriors can go full tank and still do high burst damage with their rifle sniper shot, which can often still near 1 shot squishies, however, at is a low skill ceiling way to kill, it is easy to counter and very predictable.

If the play style of class interests you, go with it.