Guild Wars 2

Hey guys,

My buddy and I have decided to play as a duo (might be a trio of the other one joins in). We were wondering if the community could suggest a good character/class team that we could roll with to make us more effective playing with each other.

I personally want to roll as a tank but I’m not quite sure if a tank is needed for this game ( haven’t started reading the rest of the forums). My friend will surely roll a dps character so our plan was to have a tank and a dps. Will we have to be on the same race to meet each other immediately from the start? Can you guys suggest a good class duo for us (tank + dps)?

We’re hoping to have a good time with GW2.
It was nice meeting y’all.

Welcome aboard!

I duo/trio most content with my friends so there are a few things to think about.

The roles here are a LOT looser than in many other games. Every class has access to both healing, dps and some measure of tanking. That being said, the concept of tank really doesn’t exist in this game. You don’t handle aggro that way, you use other active skills (like knockdowns or stuns) to control the enemy. So in theory, you could pick any profession. But that being said, there are some professions that fits more easily into one role.

For the ‘tankier’ heavy armor role I would recommend either Warrior, Guardian or Ranger.

The warrior is very sturdy, and can be built both for tanky/control/party support, or for high dps. It is a very versatile class with many different weapons. In this game you can switch builds and traits whenever you’re not in combat, so you will never lock yourself into a role you can’t change later.

The Guardian is more support oriented than the warrior, and I personally find them slightly boring to play, but they are one of the more useful classes in the game.

The Ranger is medium armor, but it can be a very good tank since you also have access to various pets to work together with you. I used to play a Ranger tank, but these days the changes to the longbow has made me go back to pure range dps. If you like the idea of having a pet, this is not a bad choice.

All three of these are easy, solid, useful first level characters.

The DPS role can be a lot more varied.

The warrior has some of the best dps in the game, and is very forgiving.
The thief has really good single target dps, and is fun if you like stealth, positioning and various tricks.
The elementalist can play both long range fire blasting staff, and close range dagger dps monster. It is a very fragile class though, and depends a lot on fast skill rotations.

The mesmer, engineer and necro rely on various class specific tricks, and can play very differently depending on how you choose to do it. Mesmers have illusions that are running around, engineers use tons of different bombs, grenades and turrents, and necros of course have minions. They are more hybrids between tanks/dps.

Two teams I know work really well in synergy (because I play the all the time) are:

Guardian/Warrior and Ranger/Thief

They have a lot of synergy between them, but really, you can get that with any of the classes. There are just so many different builds.

Two things you should know: If you pick the same race, make sure you also pick the same background choices, because then you can follow each other through the personal story easier. You can still do it even if you have different backgrounds, you just have to move back and forth between the plotlines until lvl 20 or so when it all merges into one.

Another thing you should know about (which makes duo/trioning awesome) is “combo fields”.

All the area effects that you use that persist leaves a ‘field’ of some sort on the ground. If you use a fire trap, it will be a fire field, if you throw a smoke bomb, it will be a smoke field and so on. Performing various attacks (finishers) in these fields add special effects.

For example, if you perform a ‘blast’ finisher in a fire field, you give might to people around you which makes them hit harder. if you perform a ‘whirl’ finisher, tons of fiery arrows shoot out in every direction and so on. A lot of advanced play is finding all these combinations and how the classes/builds work together.

Go out there and experiment and have fun!

Starting as different races

You don’t need to be the same race to play together. If you pick different races you will start in different locations, but you can join up as soon as you finish the introduction.

Once you’ve defeated the boss in the intro, hit level 2 and been told to go and speak to a scout to find out what to do next (which all happens at the same time) look for a blue portal into your race’s home city. For charr, norn, asura and sylvari it will be right behind you, for humans it’s outside the inn and up the hill.

Go through it and then look for a pink swirl symbol on the map. If you’re an asura there will be several, but you want the one at the northern most point of the triangle. For all the other races there will be only 1. Go there and through the pink portal (asura gate).

This will take you to Lion’s Arch, the central hub city. Around you you’ll see 4 other gates. Go through the one whose guards are the same race as your friends character and you’ll be in their home city.

From there you can head out to their starting area, or back to yours or to any of the others.

The catch: This will allow you to play together in the open world (you can also do PvP together and WvW if you’re on the same server) but for the first 3 chapters (levels 10-30) your personal story is specific to your race and the choices you made at character creation. Your friend can play it with you but they’ll have to do their story separately to make progress. After level 30 your story is defined by the choices you make (mainly which Order you join) so you could do them together or separately, that’s up to you.

Professions choice

This game doesn’t have the typical RPG ‘holy trinity’ of tank, DPS and healer classes. All professions have access to skills and stats that suit all 3 roles and although you can make a character that focuses more on one aspect you can’t play it like a trinity game.

For example you can make a very tanky, defensive character that can endure a lot of damage and defend your allies. But you can’t draw and manage all the aggro, the rest of your party will get attacked no matter what you do.

Likewise you can make a healing focused character who can do a lot to keep the rest of your party alive. But they can’t rely on you completely. If they don’t use their own healing skill, dodge attacks, move out of AoE etc. they will die no matter what you do.

Even “pure DPS” builds, which are the most popular in PvE still have and use healing skills and other defensive abilities, even if it’s just learning to position themselves and time their dodges for best effect.

Having said that… there are some professions which IMO are more suited to making a support/tank character than others. Guardians are the obvious choice, they use heavy armor and many of their attacks have defensive effects too, or restrict/control an enemies movement. Warriors, rangers and elementalists can also be built to take a lot of damage and heal it faster than most enemies can cause it, so they can make pretty good tanks too.

But the main thing I’d say (and this goes for any game you’re new to) is don’t tie yourself down to one profession too early on. Experiment with a few different ones and don’t be afraid to change your mind if you prefer something over your first choice.

For dungeons duo, warrior/ele, warrior/guard or guard/ele are my favorite choices. Everything works as said earlier, but those 3 classes are the fastest. Warrior has great selfbuffing, making pugs under the impression it has the best dps ( it’s not true in group contents, but in solo where they stack 25 might on themselves, it is). Elementalist is an offensive support class, with lots of fire fields, blasts, might, fury, and everything you want to bring at some point. Guardian is a defensive support class, having one in a duo helps a lot as you don’t have to focus as much. If you want to play a tank, pick guardian. Tanks don’t exist, and if you want to be optimal/useful you need offensive gear, but you give party wide blocks and projectile defense, condi cleanses, etc. The guardian is the most supportive class for defense, so it probably suits you.

Thanks you guys. I think we’ll both pick the same race so that we can progress everything together without having to side track.

As far as classes go, I guess the guardian here seems like a templar/paladin such that it is defensive, can heal and can be built for damage? I’m leaning towards guardian and warrior more, but I would like to go with the one that wields a shield. Or are shields not that useful as a defensive character here? I’ve seen in the guardian forums where they post pics of their chars that a lot were wearing a big 2h sword.

Thanks for everything guys!

Shields aren’t used for both. Warrior’s shield has nich uses, mainly trash skips and some bosses where sword block isn’t enough, and guardian’s shield is a joke. Guardian is indeed built for damage and defensive support at the same time. Not so much heal, but lots of mitigation and cleanses. Race really doesn’t matter, you can portal to any other capital city and do quests there without penalty. Asuras are the rulers of the world, remember that.

Kritterz.7458:

Thanks you guys. I think we’ll both pick the same race so that we can progress everything together without having to side track.

As far as classes go, I guess the guardian here seems like a templar/paladin such that it is defensive, can heal and can be built for damage? I’m leaning towards guardian and warrior more, but I would like to go with the one that wields a shield. Or are shields not that useful as a defensive character here? I’ve seen in the guardian forums where they post pics of their chars that a lot were wearing a big 2h sword.

Thanks for everything guys!

From my thread I have been told shields are no good. Useless. Guardians seem to like Greatsword, but I’ve been told Sword + Focus is really good.

Edit: Just so you know, Humans are making a comeback to capture their stolen property.

NaotsuguLH.8915:

Kritterz.7458:

Thanks you guys. I think we’ll both pick the same race so that we can progress everything together without having to side track.

As far as classes go, I guess the guardian here seems like a templar/paladin such that it is defensive, can heal and can be built for damage? I’m leaning towards guardian and warrior more, but I would like to go with the one that wields a shield. Or are shields not that useful as a defensive character here? I’ve seen in the guardian forums where they post pics of their chars that a lot were wearing a big 2h sword.

Thanks for everything guys!

From my thread I have been told shields are no good. Useless. Guardians seem to like Greatsword, but I’ve been told Sword + Focus is really good.

Edit: Just so you know, Humans are making a comeback to capture their stolen property.

Now that sucks. I really love the concept of a shield wielder. So does this mean that their defensive skills are not limited to having a shield equipped? But looking at the pictures, the greatsword looks kitten. I guess I’m gonna have to experiment myself. S

Kritterz.7458:

Now that sucks. I really love the concept of a shield wielder. So does this mean that their defensive skills are not limited to having a shield equipped? But looking at the pictures, the greatsword looks kitten. I guess I’m gonna have to experiment myself. S

Well, yes. TRUST me, playing yourself will help to determine if you like it. I thought I’d love Sword+shield. I didn’t. Also, the offhand weapon Focus has defensive capabilies.

We’ve found that classes with higher tier pets give a smaller group more dynamics for switching things up. Ranger, Necro, or any old privateer build couples well with either a frontline tanky brute type or another pet class.

Really it is easier to decide what you don’t want your duo to look like. We had some difficulty with two theives, i think because we were both exploring the class at the time.

Also it might be good to point out that while shield might be less than optimal for most people NOW it might not be so in the future. Ranger longbow went from being a joke to being our best weapon with one patch. So just because things are one way now, is no guarantee they will remain that way.

A lot of the weapons depend on how you like to play as well, I know some of my favorites in the past has been things that nobody would being into a dungeon for example, but for the way I used them they were good.

So play with what you feel like, but do try everything! Your favorite might turn out to be something different from what you thought at the start.

Malin.2490:

Also it might be good to point out that while shield might be less than optimal for most people NOW it might not be so in the future. Ranger longbow went from being a joke to being our best weapon with one patch. So just because things are one way now, is no guarantee they will remain that way.

A lot of the weapons depend on how you like to play as well, I know some of my favorites in the past has been things that nobody would being into a dungeon for example, but for the way I used them they were good.

So play with what you feel like, but do try everything! Your favorite might turn out to be something different from what you thought at the start.

Agreed.

Before the game came out I read a lot about my favourite classes, their skills and how their different weapons would work and I thought I knew exactly which weapons I’d pick. I ended up being wrong about at least 1 weapon on each profession. I only found that through experimenting with the different weapons.