Guild Wars 2

Hey all,
I am new to Guild Wars 2.

So there is different types of classes?
What’s the best class or are they all unique?

There are 8 different classes. There is no absolute best class, but if you tell us a bit about what you like in an MMO, we should be able to help you find what suits you best.

Hey welcome to the game.

It largely depends on what you enjoy the most and what you want from a class. If you want a profession with stealth then Warrior will be of little use to you. Equally if you want to be flinging magic fireballs all over the place Thief probably won’t be your cup of tea.

Here’s a list of the classes that will give you a brief overview of what they do -

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Profession

With regards to what’s best that’s very subjective. I personally prefer Ranger and Necro but maybe I’m just a bit crazy.

Hey and welcome!

There are eight different classes (or professions, as they can also be called), subdivided in three categories depending on armor type (heavy, medium and light).

None of them is ‘best’; they each have their pros and cons, with their specific mechanics, weapons and skills. Depending on your preferred playstyle some may be more suited to you than others. New players tend to like playing warrior or ranger as those are very easy classes to play, but it’s really up to you, as some others prefer having more of a challenge right away.

I’d recommend testing them out yourself and see what works for you; maybe check out the profession-specific forums to get a better idea how each works and decide from that.

For a new player, I would recommend against playing mesmer, elementalist, or engineer for your first character. Mesmer is known to be more difficult, and I have a friend who chose ele as his first character and he was constantly dying. As for engineer, have to swap skillsets might be a little rough on a new player, so I wouldn’t recommend it either.

What I would recommend is ranger, guardian, or warrior.

In other like games I preferred playing a Tank. Does Guild War have tanks, and if yes, what Class would I choose for it (I guess Warrior and Guardian. But which does what?)

Honash.5367:

In other like games I preferred playing a Tank. Does Guild War have tanks, and if yes, what Class would I choose for it (I guess Warrior and Guardian. But which does what?)

No GW2 doesn’t have dedicated Tanks.

Warriors and Guardians are the two heavy armoured classes available. Warriors do ok damage whilst providing good offensive boons (might, fury etc.) whilst Guardians provide more defensive boons and condi cleanse (regen, Aegis etc.). Of course this can be entirely switched around with Warriors providing condi cleanse and healing and Guardians providing might.

It largely comes down to your build and what you want it to do.

I’d also add that Necromancer has one of the highest health pools and an extra health pool in the form of its class mechanic Death Shroud so that can be built to be kind of tanky but the problem is the aggro mechanics vary mob to mob.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Aggro

There is no “taunt” mechanic to lock aggro in this game, and no outside heals powerful enough for one player to take all the damage with their face.

There are ways to prevent your party from taking damage, like blocking, blinding and reflecting. There are also ways to group-heal and support through removal of damage over time effects (conditions), utility skills and cross-profession combo mechanics. These skills along with every character’s ability to dodge and self-heal take the place of old-school tank & healer. The idea is to avoid lethal damage through active positioning and skill use rather than assigned roles. “You take all the damage while someone refills your health and someone else deals damage” becomes “you try not to take damage, while dealing damage yourself, and supporting your team in a variety of ways”.

I’d suggest trying a few classes to level 10 or so, just to get the feel for their basic weapon skills. You can also test them out at full power in the PvP area (heart of the mists) to see what they will feel like at max level. The amulets in there aren’t exactly the same as PvE gear, but pretty close for a general feel.

The classes that best fit the “tank” archetype from most games are warrior and guardian (think barbarian and palladin, but not really, but sorta), they feel “heavy” from the start where most of the others get tankier options with later traits and gear stats (level 40+ after most recent patch….).