Guild Wars 2

Hi,

from reading about the game and watching youtube stuff I felt this would be a game worth checking out for me.
I recently bought the game and its installing installing and downloading right now.

Now it will be time to pick a profession. I think that I will play pvp mainly with some pve next to it, but I am not sure yet.

I read that in this game there is no holy trinity of tank, dps and healer.
This means that you can complete dungeons with only dps professions in the team, working together well with cc and such?

Do you have some advice on how to pick a profession?
Like do you know links from recommendable guides, video footage for example that can help with that? Or other ways for advice?

I am usually playing type of professions that are about magic, cc, support and who fight at range. Also healers in games which features those.
However I am open to something else as well.
I like professions that take effort to get the maximum out of them.

At least as long as its rewarding, as in, as long as your profession is not shunned upon.
In some games, certain professions or talents from those, are not wanted and groups prefer to play without those professions in the team, even if the player is good.
That I do not want. Any professions like those around atm?

Does the ranger/archer/hunter in this game, counters other professions hard in pvp? I would prefer to not be the professsion who gets countered by them hard. No good memories from other games regarding that xD. Any profession in this game who counters them?
Or there is no extreme in this game where one profession counters another?

I am looking forward to play the game. A new world to explore.

Thanks for reading and thanks in advance for answering my questions.
Feel free to throw in any additional tips that you find worthwhile for a new player.

You can complete dungeons with any combination of professions. Some are easier than others, but it can be done. But it’s not so much that you can do it with 5 DPS profession as that there are no DPS professions, just like there are no healers or tanks. Everyone can do a bit of everything and every profession can be customised to be primarily a support role or primarily a DPS role or whatever.

However support and DPS are pretty broad terms and there’s still considerable differences between professions. A support warrior is completely different from a support elementalist, or even a guardian. A warrior can’t really act as a group healer, but they can add a lot of boons which reduce or prevent incoming damage and allow their allies to recover faster and deal more damage. Whereas an elementalist could be almost a pure healer. Although not to the point where they can keep their party alive no matter what they do, even with a healer in the group you still need to dodge attacks, stay out of AoE and generally make an effort to keep yourself alive.

I think other people than me could give you much better advice than me on what profession to play, but I’d definitely recommend you check out the elementalist. They check every box on your list: magic, crowd control, support, can fight at range although they have melee options too and they’re sometimes considered one of the more complicated professions to get really good at.

Yashuoa.9527:

I am usually playing type of professions that are about magic, cc, support and who fight at range. Also healers in games which features those.
However I am open to something else as well.
I like professions that take effort to get the maximum out of them.

At least as long as its rewarding, as in, as long as your profession is not shunned upon.
In some games, certain professions or talents from those, are not wanted and groups prefer to play without those professions in the team, even if the player is good.
That I do not want. Any professions like those around atm?

the elementalist fit perfectly with what you want.
Actually one build shine in PvP, but require some experienced to be mastered.
And most dungeon run ask for 1 to 3 ele.
They got lot of power compared to other classes (20 skills, 5 * 4 attunement)
So it can use all sort of spell, CC, support, heal, damage.
You’ll need some time to master it, as when and how to use your skill to be the more effective, to what attunement you should switch. And to master combos, that is a mecanic of the game.

Ranger arn’t really strong actually, in fact they can snipe you and do tons of damage if you stand there and wait for them to kill you. But with ele it’s not hard to conter them. You got projectiles reflect and some block depending of the weapon you choose.
You also have great mobility to easily close the gap between you and the ranger, and when you are near him you’ll be the one hunting him.

I read that in this game there is no holy trinity of tank, dps and healer.
This means that you can complete dungeons with only dps professions in the team, working together well with cc and such?

That’s more or less correct. In traditional MMO’s you slot in the Holy Trinity because that’s what’s needed to complete a dungeon. In GW2, the same mindset applies ‘slot what’s needed’, but that takes a new form: utilities. Is stealth needed? Is the instance heavy on projectiles? Are conditions in abundance? Do mobs tend to cc your team a lot? Etc. Beyond that it’s a matter of getting a good feeling of what your team’s skill and comfort level is with the content and going from there. In short, yes, you can bring in a full team of DPS and steam-roll through the content. Though, remember, dead DPS is 0 DPS so make sure you know what you’re doing otherwise you won’t be contributing to the team.

Do you have some advice on how to pick a profession?
Like do you know links from recommendable guides, video footage for example that can help with that? Or other ways for advice?

Profession selection is really up to the player. Some classes are better at doing one thing than another to an extent, but classes in this game are fairly versatile. A redditer put together this summary of each class so you can get a high level preview of each class. Personally, I run Elementalist, Guardian, and Mesmer

In some games, certain professions or talents from those, are not wanted and groups prefer to play without those professions in the team, even if the player is good.
That I do not want. Any professions like those around atm?

If I’m being blunt I’d have to admit that the only class I can see that is ‘shunned’ would be the Necromancer in context of dungeons. It’s not that they’re a bad class, but they have been labelled as a selfish class. The recent Specialization patch (June 23rd) helped to give them better team utility, but they are still overshadowed in that other classes some of the same utility a Necro can at a better version at times too. Rangers have a little of this problem a well, but groups are at least open to letting them stay in the group since Rangers offer unique buffs that stack with other buffs.

Or there is no extreme in this game where one profession counters another?

It’s not so much of a rock paper scissors with classes but rather builds. E.G. An Earth Ele (with DS) has the potential to hard counter a class with a condition build as the Ele’s opponent literally cannot stick any conditions (the main source of damage) beyond a certain HP threshold. That’s a highly generalized example, but all builds will have a rock to their scissor so to say.

A word to the wise and wary.

If you want to run dungeons with any regularity and you don’t get into a guild specializing in this, making an Ele will get you kicked far less than making a Ranger will. Beware of elitist meta runners.

Rangers can be devastating in PVP. They are also very good at soloing content, but not good at breaking any records.

(shameless plug) if you are looking for a pvx, social guild look me up in game or check out our site. (sig) Several of our members have been playing guild wars since beta and since the early days of GW1. We don’t mind helping new players.

Check www.metabattle.com for builds on both pve and pvp.

roachsrealm.9284:

Rangers can be devastating in PVP.

Oh really? Name one top PvP team that runs with a ranger.