Guild Wars 2

Greetings all!

Today I bought myself a copy of GW2, it’s been on my mind for a quite some time and found a really nice price for a key.

So my big question is, what class should I go for. I’ve played MMO’s for many many years and I will probably eventually play all the classes. But dont want to spend 100 hours figuring out that its weak at endgame.

What class is one of the strongest now’a days and wich one is the weakest, dps, healer or tank classes.

Thanks in advance!

First off, because it sort of bugs me, we have professions here…not classes

Secondly, we do not have a holy trinity of sorts. We have no dedicated healing profession and you are not supposed to stand there and tank damage while someone is healing. GW2 has a system in place where everyone has a healing skill and for the most part we take care of ourselves. That’s not to say that in our dungeons, we don’t use a stacking method and our Elementalist don’t use their staffs to drop down water fields for others to blast into to group heal (more on that later).

Right now the Warrior is the ‘easy’ profession and the one that has been receiving the most love from the devs. Not trying to sound bitter or anything, it’s just the current state of affairs. That being said, I have tried starting a warrior like 11 times and I always end up deleting it. I find it to be the most boring profession to play.

Nothing is weak endgame, it’s all a matter of what part of the game you enjoy the most. If you love the dungeons, don’t invest too much time into a Necromancer but if you find you enjoy the World Vs World/PvP play, the Necromancer is an awesome choice. Most of us end up getting more character slots and just end up with one of each procession.

Usually it is recommended that you level your first character on the PvE maps and getting map completion (which is basically all the hearts, the point of interests and vistas) along the way. This way you learn how to play the game and the profession and not just spamming the 1 key in a huge zerg in the WvW map.

Now about fields and blast finishers because nothing in game will tell you about this: We have weapon skills and utilities that can drop rings called Fields. There are a few different kind and the skill description will tell you what kind it is. There are Fire/Water/Poison/Dark/Light/Ethereal/Ice/Lightning/Smoke. Each one will do a different ‘combo’ when used with a finisher. Finishers we have are: Blast/Leap/Projectile/Whirl. So, when someone lays down a Fire Field and someone uses a Blast finisher inside, it will stack an area with Might. If someone lays down a Water field and someone uses a blast finisher inside, it will Area heal. A more detailed chart is here in the wiki: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Combo Please learn it and learn when to use your fields!

Sorry for the book of text

Read the stickied threads in this forum to learn more.

Gw2 is more about incoming damage avoidance rather than standing there like a bump on a log, taking damage that needs to be healed and in many situations the only one to heal you will be yourself. There is no skill to pull aggro. Aggro is determined by a complicated formula. The first to hit the mob will draw aggro first but they will switch to the player dealing the most damage and/or who is the closest.

Some professions are tankier than others but as they level up all professions can be outfitted with armor with toughness and vitality stats and can be traited to take mre damage. But in general 2 characteristics determine how tanky a profession is:

warrior – heavy armor, high HP
guardian – heavy armor, low HP
ranger – medium armor, medium HP
engineer – medium armor, medium HP
thief – medium armor, low HP
necromancer – light armor, high HP
mesmer – light armor, medium HP
elementalist – light armor, low HP

All professions can fight melee and ranged.

Thanks for the great feedback and tips! Just started my first char and can’t wait to dive into the world!!

my feelling, Guardian is easier than warrior, Ranger is easier than engineer and thief. haven’t played light armored professions

Several things of note Bytemare.

First, nearly all activities give you XP. General exploration, visiting points of interests, vistas, unlocking waypoints, rezzing npcs and players, gathering materials (ore, wood, plants and everyone has their own node of said materials). This is on top of the usual XP from bonking critters on the head and doing what passes as “quests”.

Second, the PvE game is designed around the concept of co-op play. You can’t really kill steal or loot steal. You don’t share a common pool of XP and loot from a critter but if you do some percentage of damage to a critter you get full XP and loot drop if one or five players attacked it. As I said earlier everyone has the ability to rez another player or NPC and all material nodes on the map are instanced per player, so no mad rush to get to it first.

Third, the “quest” system is area based. If you enter an area where a “renown heart” is the task will pop up on the right side of the screen. No need to see someone first and upon finishing it, no need to see someone for the reward. That said completed hearts will turn into vendors that sell items that are tied to the task just done and can include armor, weapons and crafting recipes for “karma”, a currency you get doing hearts. You can find out about hearts in the area by talking to a scout, they are marked on the map with a little spyglass icon.

There are also dynamic events that crop up somewhat randomly which are repeatable. They also pop up on the right side of the screen and also award karma as part of the loot for completing it. Most can be soloed but some are marked as group and often isn’t just a suggestion.

Fourth, there is little need to form formal parties to play in PvE, dungeons are the exception. Most of the time events are like a flash mob with swords. An event pops up and players swarm in, do the event and then scatter. It doesn’t mean you can’t run around with a group of like minded players, just that you don’t have to form a party first.

Fifth, your level will be adjusted downward to match the level of critters in the area, well level +1. It doesn’t go the other way so stay out of areas that are above your level but feel free to rampage through areas that are below your level. And since your level is adjusted you will still get XP and loot but appropriate to your actual level. This way you can always play with friends working on a new character with your level 80 Godling.

Edit: Lets try and get the OP’s name right.

Thanks for that great info Behellagh.1468 !!!

Just hit level 9 with my warrior and having a blast!!