Guild Wars 2

So my friend purchased this game for me recently (He’s awesome <3)

I used to play on his alt account every once in awhile so I knew some things. I played melee elementalist & warrior alot.

I toyed with a few professions from 1 to about 3-4 today. I liked alot of their mechanics, but I need to settle on just one.

Normally in most MMO’s I start with something similar to a ranger. I am a micro manager person at heart (shadow priest/resto druid in wow, mage/cleric rift), so this seemed like a good start.

I love to do just about everything in guild wars 2. Mostly I’ve spent my time doing the little golden heart things, exploring, and occasionally WvW. Although I’m not sure how the meta works in WvW or even in dungeons yet I’m sure I’ll learn. Normally I’m a healer in other MMO’s as its something I’ve been doing for almost 8 years now (still currently in rift). I was saddened to find out guild wars 2 doesn’t have such thing. I think the closest I’ve gotten was engineer & water elementalist.

But my first 2 questions

1) I hear ranger is pretty weak overall, but then theres few that are true to it saying they’re strong if played right. Is this not true for every profession? As in every mmo? Although there is always going to be that one bit of extra strength another class has.

2) Is it possible for someone to make a brief outline of what classes have what kind of playstyles (kudos to anyone who can relate it as close as possible to rift/wow specs/classes). This would help me get an understanding of where to start & go from there.

I may have more so if your a person who likes to answer these feel free to watch this thread

Thanks in advance =)

Hello and welcome to GW2, I’ll try to answer using some WoW references for playstyles (haven’t gone too far on RIFT).

Believeinsteve.9354:

1) I hear ranger is pretty weak overall, but then theres few that are true to it saying they’re strong if played right. Is this not true for every profession? As in every mmo? Although there is always going to be that one bit of extra strength another class has.

Yes this happens for every profession, it’s true there are some that DPS way faster than others (warrior slizzzzing hehe) but in the end if you are playing right it’s what matters.

One thing that I always try to remember is that there is no DPS meter here, there are no DPS races to show off how much damage you can deal or how well you can do a skill rotation.

Just play the way that you want, Rangers can pop some good damage if built for that purpose (as everyone), so stick with what you like.

Believeinsteve.9354:

2) Is it possible for someone to make a brief outline of what classes have what kind of playstyles (kudos to anyone who can relate it as close as possible to rift/wow specs/classes). This would help me get an understanding of where to start & go from there.

- Elementalist: Mage (Has a bit of every spec), resto shaman for water heals?.
- Guardian: Paladin (Has a bit of every spec), maybe also a bit of discipline priest since we have a lot of blocks/damage mitigation.
- Necromancer: Affliction warlock (conditions), demonology (minion master), destruction (power builds).
- Ranger: Huntard.
- Warrior: Probably a more DPS focused warrior of WoW, something like Arms (I don’t really see that many… “tanky” warriors in here).
- Thief: Rogue.
- Engineer and Mesmer: Now this 2 are tough ones, honestly I can’t see a relation to this classes since they are just very unique in their playstyles.

Believeinsteve.9354:

I may have more so if your a person who likes to answer these feel free to watch this thread

Thanks in advance =)

You’re welcome, there’s a lot of people in here eager to help.

Edit: Forgot thief.

^Everything they just said. Every classes’ forum says their class is weak and needs buffs, even thieves. While many try to equate best/viable builds=highest DPS, this game is all about survivability.

Honestly, I’m one of the people that will say Ranger can be pretty good if played right… but there’s one caveat that I’ve run into: Arah path 4. A ranger was rather detrimental to that fight when I tried it, through no fault of her own.

As for a general outline to classes…

Warriors: Head on attack. Pretty much the whole class is based around charging in and doing a bunch of damage with good base armor and health to keep you alive longer than your enemy.

Guardian: Support and Bunker. Guardians don’t have the raw damage potential but they make up for it in sustainability. Generally you play this if you don’t want to die or want to help out your friends. Also recommended if you don’t plan on using range much as they have very little options there.

Ranger: Pets! You’ve got a plethora of pets to choose from to help you out. If you want to be a decent ranger you need to micromanage your pet at least a little, keeping it alive and out of trouble. You can also trait to have the highest range of any class. Nowhere near as agile as the thief, but still with some emphasis on movement.

Engineer: Utility. You have twice the utility of any other class with the toolbelt skills and faster weapon switching than any other class with kits (eles might come close but they still have an actual cooldown). You can fill a lot of different roles depending on build.

Thief: Agile damage. Get in, deal damage, get out of the way. You have access to a lot of stealth which can come in handy. Also pretty handy at condition damage.

Necromancer: Not quite sure how to explain this one. You can focus on dots with a condition build, Minions, or just straight power. You’ve got deathshroud to absorb damage for you and provide some utility as well. I personally find it pretty fun but it feels like it lacks some of the utility of other classes (stability, projectile control, quickness)

Mesmer: Deception. Again, not really sure how to explain this one, mostly because I haven’t played it very much and can’t get into it.

Elementalist: Versatility, I guess. With attunements you can swap between a few different roles. No secondary weapon set locks you into a range though so you don’t get the flexibility of having a melee and a range.

Can’t really connect them to any other mmo since I haven’t played any for more than a few hours, but I hope this helps.