Guild Wars 2

Hey guys,

Long time WoW raider here, stopped playing it a couple years ago, but now ive got an MMO itch that needs to be scratched, and GW2 is the answer.

Im most interested in the Warrior class, and will be using that for my main.

-Is there any advantage to picking one Race over another for this particular class? Im leaning towards Nord or Charr for cosmetic reasons.

-The colors that we pick when we make or character, is there significance to that? I have not researched it much, but is that a permanent decesion or are we free to change it as we please. Does it paint all of your armor in those colors, or is it simply what is underneath?

-From the videos ive watched, it seems like the warrior has some ranged potential. Is it something you can focus on for the class, or does it always come in second to the melee options available?

-Should i foucs on PvE or PvP for leveling, or a healthy mix of both? For instance, is it worth doing a good amount of PvP at a certain level?(like 19,29,39, etc. for WoW)

-Endgame im assuming ill be doing PvP more than anything else. How does the warrior hold up in the various PvP options? It appears that the strengths lie in burst damage with a bit of durability. Is it effective, or more of a jack of all trades master of none situation?

-Anyone have a link for endgame armor and weapons? Always helps to have a little motivation…

GW2armorgallery.com

1) There is a small advantage to some races, and that would be skills. Each race has 1 or 2 skills that are race specific, then two elites. People tend to stick with class specific skills. In general though, play what you think will look best and what storyline you want to follow.

2) You can easily change all gear colors by pressing H and picking the little dropper above your gear. The only colors that wont be changable will be skin tone, hair color, and hair accessory

3) Warriors have good ranged options. Rifle is very good with single targets and are great for sniping weak people in WvW. Longbow is good for AoE skills and setting upfire fields for combos

4) That choice is yours. You’ll want to level up in PvE till you get to around level 30 so you can get your elite skill. You will automatically be leveling to 80 when you’re in WvW (which I believe is the PvP you’re talking about. sPvP is unrelated to leveling). However you still have poor gear and less traits when you’re under level 80.

5) Warriors have some viable roles in WvW. They are a relatively easy class to master. You will probably get owned by theives, mesmers, etc that are very skilled at what they do (even some thieves that aren’t). In zerg mentality, you can run a hammer build that is meant to be in the front lines, pushing people away, knocking people down, and breaking through their defenses

Lots to answer there, I’ll avoid the PvP bits as my focus with a warrior is more on PvE.

1) Warrior Range: you get two good options. Longbow or Rifle. Rifle has good single target damage, Longbow has very good AoE. If traited, Rifle shots can pierce to hit multiple targets, and longbow can be traited to give it longer range. I was surprised, pleasantly, to see that it really holds up as a ranged combatant when needed.

Note: I say this frequently, GW2 melee combat is a Risk vs. Reward system. When you wade in close, you can deal more damage, but you are at risk to take higher single bursts of damage. True power comes from knowing how to float from melee to ranged and back again as needed.

2) Races give no true advantage. Each has specific racial skills, and those tend to be most useful while leveling, but peter out at level 80. Play what you want to look at for hundreds to thousands of hours, don’t worry about your race choice affecting your game play too much. (Though Norn and Charr are larger models, and can have some difficulty in jumping puzzles…. not a reason to avoid either in my opinion, but if you’re an avid platformer, you may want to roll an Asura.)

3) Level how you want. In PvP zones you are scaled to lvl 80, though in WvW you will not gain full access to skills or traits, and your armor will lag behind so you squish easy. Some people like leveling in WvW… some people don’t. Crafting gives you xp, 10 levels of exp per profession you max, you can have 2 active crafting professions at a time.

4) http://www.gw2armor.com/ is your best spot to go for a quick look at armor options available at level 80, though some of the screen shots don’t do it justice. You can go to Heart of the Mists and use the PvP locker to preview any armor in the game on your character. The colors you pick at character creation are part of your palette of unlocked colors (for armor) and can be changed at any time. Unlocked color options are unlocked per character but once unlocked you can freely change to any color in your palette at will (mix and match for cool effects!)

Hope all that helps, and welcome to GW!

Also bear in mind that “endgame” is not what Guild Wars 2 is all about. Yes, there is content geared for maximum level characters, but most of it is already accessible at lower levels (you will just perofrm suboptimally if you do so).

Arguably the WORST way to play this game is to race yourself to level 80 in one weekend, because most of the PvE content (which is over half of the game) is best experienced at the appropriate level (mostly because the rewards you receive will be appropriate for that level).
For the record, there are only four zones in the game that are specifically intended for level 80, and only 2 of those do not include a lower level range.

Also, be aware that when you enter a zone (or even a specific part of a zone) intended for a lower-level character than your current level, your character will be “leveled down” for as long as he/she is in that area. This is a very fluid system, and may change as you wander through a zone.

My advice is to just explore the game at your leisure. Everything gives experience (crafting, gathering, reviving defeated players or NPCs), so you will get there eventually. Try out everything (crafting, exploration/map completion, personal story, WvW, jumping puzzles) and stick with the things that you like.

But try to enjoy the game before you make level 80. There is magical “instant fun” only accessible at max level. That starts at level 1.

Thanks guys!

Yeah, im not looking to hit 80 ASAP. WoW turned into a job after a while, so I want to avoid that at all costs for this game.

As far as the crafting is concerned, are you limited to what skills you can take, or do some crafting skills mesh better with certain classes? Or is just everything up for grabs?

Roughneck.5608:

Thanks guys!

Yeah, im not looking to hit 80 ASAP. WoW turned into a job after a while, so I want to avoid that at all costs for this game.

As far as the crafting is concerned, are you limited to what skills you can take, or do some crafting skills mesh better with certain classes? Or is just everything up for grabs?

I’m not entirely sure what you mean, but crafting is pretty different in GW2. The main two points of crafting are to be able to eventually get a legendary and to gain XP. Almost anything you can craft, you can buy the finished good on the TP cheaper than the seperate materials (almost).

You can have 2 of the 8 crafting professions at a time, and switch whenever you want. However, it cost money to switch BACK to a craft you already have leveled up a little bit.

Picking the crafting profession is completely up to you. If you’re heavy you’ll probably want armorsmithing or a weapon one, medium would be leatherworker etc. Just keep in mind you can use multiple weapons, so my thief is a weaponsmith and I can make her daggers, but I can’t make her shortbow.

Also, think of the professions in two categories. Six of them use fine crafting materials (armorsmithing, weaponsmithing, leatherworking, huntsmen, tailoring, and artificing), while the other two do not (jewel crafting and cook). Since fine crafting materials are usually the limiting item, I would recommend going with 1 of the first 6 I mentioned, and 1 of the last 2.

If you need me to explain more let me know. It’s a little lengthy to type out =)

Edit: Also, jewelcrafting shares some metals on some tiers. So if you become armorsmithing and jewel crafting, tier 1 you will be using copper for both. Tier 2 I believe armorsmithing uses iron and jewelcrafting uses silver. So, if you pick a craft that uses metal, I would suggest going with cook. Cooking is also the cheapest to level up material wise, as you can use lots of different foods that are really cheap to buy. But if you do it here and there, you will use a lot of bank and inventory space keeping intermediate supplies.

Sounds like armorsmithing and cooking then. Or weaponsmith.

Any recommendation which is better for the warrior? Im sure they both work well, but one may be able to make things better suited for leveling purposes?

They both give approximately the same amount of exp when you level the craft from 1-400. You’ll gain 10 levels from start to finish. Though some ingredients can be hard to get because it can only be farmed in certain zones or sold only certain karma vendors. Of course also bought off TP but that can become expensive.

Cooking you can make foods that you can eat to gain buffs. Most foods have a +10% exp from kills and an extra buff like constant regen or +10 vit or something, so it would help with leveling.

Weaponsmith/Armorsmith you could try to keep it level appropriate to your toon but then you would have to farm mats in zones around your level or higher, or buy mats off TP which can get expensive if money isn’t that large.

Truly though I wouldn’t worry about crafting until lvl 60 or 70. Hopefully by then you have collected alot of materials and it’ll be less you have to buy. All crafted items can be found on the TP. If you discover something you want that would be cheaper crafted than bought you can always ask a friend you trust to craft it for you.

I leveled Weaponsmith + Armorsmith in tandem on my guardian…. not something I will repeat.

For my Warrior, I did Armorsmith + Huntsman, and the balance of competing mats wasn’t nearly so unfavorable.

Sure, you could buy your gear off the TP instead of crafting it, and you can use karma and drops as well….

But if you keep your crafting on track, you get the gear to use as a bonus, you get the Achievement for maxing the craft, you get the achievement points for salvaging things along the way that you craft but don’t need, you get the XP from crafting itself, and you have the ability to create your own rare / exotic weapons which in general, you can create at a savings.

Sure, you can get most blues / greens cheaper off the TP than you can make them, but you won’t be in blues / greens forever

SanctumSyte.5019:

Truly though I wouldn’t worry about crafting until lvl 60 or 70. Hopefully by then you have collected alot of materials and it’ll be less you have to buy. All crafted items can be found on the TP. If you discover something you want that would be cheaper crafted than bought you can always ask a friend you trust to craft it for you.

I usually prefer to level the professions as I level my character, to give myself some different goals every once in a while.

What kind of benefits does the huntsman crafting give?

Roughneck.5608:

SanctumSyte.5019:

Truly though I wouldn’t worry about crafting until lvl 60 or 70. Hopefully by then you have collected alot of materials and it’ll be less you have to buy. All crafted items can be found on the TP. If you discover something you want that would be cheaper crafted than bought you can always ask a friend you trust to craft it for you.

I usually prefer to level the professions as I level my character, to give myself some different goals every once in a while.

What kind of benefits does the huntsman crafting give?

Huntsman is just another profession to level certain weapons like harpoons, shortbows, longbows, rifles, pistols, and warhorns I believe.

To your question earlier about armorsmithing vs weapon smithing. Each one has a benefit. Weapon smithing you need for certain legendary weapons. If you plan to invest the time into a legendary, definitely go with weapon smithing. You can also craft sigils for your weapons.

(Edit: Look up what legendary you want before hand, then do the appropriate crafting profession. I believe bows would require huntsman, staff artificing, etc.)

As for armorsmithing, you will be able to craft 6 total items for your character to wear (helm, shoulder, top, bottom, guantles, and boots). As opposed to weaponsmithing, you can really only craft 4 items max that you can use, if you dual wield say axe/axe or sword/shield.

Does the armorsmithing have quality legendaries as well?

Roughneck.5608:

Thanks guys!

Yeah, im not looking to hit 80 ASAP. WoW turned into a job after a while, so I want to avoid that at all costs for this game.

I would strongly recommend taking your time leveling and not just powering through content. A large part of the game is leveling and you’ll take much more enjoyment by not rushing through it.

Roughneck.5608:

Does the armorsmithing have quality legendaries as well?

Different legendary weapons require crafted gifts from different professions. Here is a guide for creating legendary items.

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/64363-legendary-weapons-guide/page__hl__legendary

You can make some good XP in WvW if the conditions are right, and it’s a nice break from the PvE if you need it.

Crafting at low levels is a drain of money. You waste so much money leveling the craft so it’s level appropriate that you could have saved by buying blues every 5 levels from the TP and then re-TPing them for only a 15% loss.

Then at 80 you can power-farm low level mats really easy to save some money