Guild Wars 2

Hey all. New to Guild Wars. I played WoW for a few years and SWtoR for a few months more recently. I like GW2 better than both of them so far. I’ve leveled up a Warrior, Thief, and Guardian to 15, 14, and 10 respectively, and other classes just to 3 or 4. Thief is fun but now I’m dying in nearly every fight unless I kill the mob in like 2 seconds. I’m used to the Rogue stealth mechanic so this is strange to me but I asked about that on the Thief forum. Warrior seems to steamroll everything I face unless I get overwhelmed by a large group. Guardian seems to be able to kill anything I face so far without getting a scratch on me. Rangers and Engineers seem like they could be fun from the little bit I’ve played so far. Just looking for some opinions on what my first class to level all the way up should be. I’m leaning towards Warrior, maybe Thief if I get better at it. I want something that deals a ton of damage and can solo and level decently. I’d prefer physical damage but if Mesmer or Ele are good and fun I wouldn’t rule them out. Not sure what I’ll spend more time on end game, PvP or PvE, probably both leaning slightly more towards PvP though I haven’t done any yet. I know I need to make my own decision I’m just looking for some other peoples opinions on what a first good main would be, what you enjoy and why. Thanks all!

Thief pros:
-Great in pvp
-Is one of the classes with a high skill level (can be a con too)
-Great at solo roaming or in small groups
-Stealth

Thief cons:
-You will get kicked out of dungeon groups (not all ofcourse but quite a lot)
-One of the most squishy classes ever
-Can be quite hard to level
-It is unforgiving when you make mistakes (more pvp wise)

Warrior pros:
-Has a lot of variety, build wise
-Arguably the strongest class in the game at the moment
-Easy leveling
-Good in small group pvp and great in large groups
-Easy to play
-Very forgiving class
-Most dungeon groups want warriors so you will be welcomed there
-Very few cons

Warrior cons:
-Can be pretty boring due to the fact it needs minimal skill to achieve a lot.

Just some of the pros and cons there are to both classes, ofcourse everthing is my opinion and I’m not trying to attack either of the classes.
Mentioning these two since you were talking about them the most
Hope it helps you out, after all it comes down on what you enjoy the most ^^
Have fun with the game and welcome to the community

Thank you Peixe for the quick response and welcome

I’ll definitely take your info into consideration and so far it pretty much is between those two. Glad to be here

Guardians have been relevant, but never OP, in all game modes pretty much since launch. They’re a very balanced class and have different builds, and you can’t go wrong with them.

You’re welcome

Oh one more piece of advice! If you want to see the pvp action try going into spvp, basically everyone is level 80 there. You can see how classes function pvp wise and also how they play at max level. Might change your whole view on the thief and warrior ^^

Warrior. Doesn’t require much skill to be effective, and you can make quite a few mistakes and still live (highest base armor and HP). As for thieves, yeah, if you start with one you will get kicked from dungeons, but a highly skilled thief has the highest single target DPS in the game (aside from FGS and certain reflect instances, but you’ll learn about those later.) On a side note, thief is actually the best class to pick up the FGS with..

I’ve had a LOT of fun leveling my Guardian to 80 – it was rough at times, but Guards are pretty much tanks. The hardest thing for me is to not use the Guard play style for my other toons, as it gets me killed more often than not.

I really appreciate all of your responses. Right now I’m playing:

1)Warrior (15) I stomp out most everything and love the huge weapon selection
2)Thief (14) and just got full map completion for the human starting zone, having a ton of fun with Thief but it’s hard and I die. A lot.
3)Guardian (10) is fun but it seems like it could get stale after awhile and (for now at least) doesn’t have much mobility
4)Engineer (3) too early to tell but seems like it could be fun
5)Mesmer (2) really strange mechanics, too early to tell if I like that or not

Feel free to keep your opinions of your favorite classes coming as I enjoy reading every response

Still not positive on what I should main that’s why I’m switching a lot.

1: Warrior is currently in an amazing class. Good DPS, unique buffs (banners, making you desireable in dungeons) and has a place in almost any place (PvP, WvW, PvE) which makes it, in my opinion, a good class to start with. That and heavies are always welcome.
2: Thief is fun, especially in sPvP and WvW roaming, in my opinion, but aren’t too beloved in every aspect of the game, which could form an issue if you fall in love with a certain game-aspect they’re not as desired (Dungeons/Fractal PuGs, amazing addition to an orginized group though) For leveling survivability I’d recommend you look at off-hand pistol 5, it will increase your survivability a lot assuming you’re in melee range of your foe.
3. Guardian is one of the classes that uses multiple weaponsets for different situations, making them in my opinion less stale than some other classes that tend to be stuck with a few options that outperform the others by too much and offer a lot of different utilities depending on the situation (unlike say warrior which is often expected to run For Great Justice with a banner, Greatsword and Axe/? combination) As for their mobility, yes it stinks, I’d recommend Retreat and Save Yourselves as utilities in Open World. Once again, quite beloved in groups, making it a good choice for a first level 80.
4. Just try it, you either love it or hate it.
5. I love Mesmer personally, how-ever it’s once again a hit or miss, so I recommend trying it out a bit more, slight warning, a lot of people hate leveling Mesmers mainly since their mobility is limited (blink + focus is more or less a must) and they’re relatively squishy and their AoE is more complicated to use than simple pressing 1 button. Mesmers once again have a place anywhere in the game, good at Roaming (WvW) nice utilities (Portal/Veil) for Zerks (WvW) decent DPS/support/utility for PvE. Quite desireable in groups aswell, though you’d generally see groups only wanting 1-2 non-warrior/guardians.

For sPvP all your toons start from scratch, no matter what level/gear you have in PvE, so I wouldn’t weight that too much in your choice since you can always make any class, enter sPvP at level 2 and be the same as your fully kitted 80. Lastly, you can always level another toon, so I’d pick one, if you later regret it, just level another one. Once you’ve got 1 level 80, leveling alts can go quite a bit quicker. (Crafting = Levels, it’s just pricy.)

Sorry for the wall of text

Esmee.1067:

Sorry for the wall of text

Are you serious lol? No need to apologize for being in depth! I’m learning a ton and sincerely appreciate all of your input

For me, it’s got to that point where I have started and re-started so many characters that levelling an alt really comes down to a) how quickly do I kill things and b) is it still fun to kill things like this?

So Warriors, for me, become rather boring. Nothing, except large groups of mobs, is too difficult, but things die too quickly. However, Guardians and Mesmers, no matter how interesting I think the classes are in abstract, spend far too long killing things that I get tired of them quickly (though this changes at later levels so if you can bear to be patient for a few levels, they can be fun classes).

I loved levelling my Necro, though people sometimes struggle with the mobility of this class. It can be slightly harder to disengage from a fight that’s not going so well with this class. But you have great survivability, access to so many conditions you literally melt your way through stuff and good animations.

I have started and re-started Thieves so many times. Yes, they’re squishy. But they are fun and they’re especially great for one on one fights. Groups can be a problem, but single target damage is just incredible.

Rangers really aren’t as kittenome people make out. They kill things nice and quickly but not too quickly, you have good range and melee skills (though sword #1 roots you in place, which is really annoying). A lot of people don’t play Rangers very well, however, and don’t understand that pet management entails more than simply collecting pets, so that is partly why they get a lot of hate. Also, if you must use a Longbow, in groups, stay away from skill #4 unless it’s really, really needed (ie, if EVERYONE is dying in melee and you all need a breather to heal or something – it’s rare, but it happens; or if you are asked to push a boss into a particular corner or something). I am in the middle of levelling a Ranger right now, and I’m really enjoying it.

Elementalists and Engineers – LOTS of fun, but to play well you are required to play more actively with these two classes than any other class. Engineers are perhaps a bit more forgiving than Elementalists, due to the fact that the way kits work, you aren’t waiting around for cooldowns so much and also the grenade kit is a nice ranged attack that can deal good damage. Also, despite what being attuned to the elements might lead you to surmise, Elementalists don’t spec very well for condition (much better at great DPS bursts). Engineers can do either pretty well.

Kaddy.4706:

HI’d prefer physical damage but if Mesmer or Ele are good and fun I wouldn’t rule them out.

On a note, there’s no ‘physical’ or ‘magical’ damage in GW2. It’s either direct damage or condition damage. The wiki explains it in more detail: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Damage

If you really like the thief class, don’t give up on it so quickly. I remember when I started my thief, I had a hard time getting the mechanics down.

I tend to look at characters as simple or complex.
simple would be warrior, guardian, ranger, thief. these are the ones that just auto-attack. They tend to be stronger (warrior has the highest sustained dps), but very straight-forward. general battle strategy of ‘cast all the skills’.
complex would be mesmer, engineer, elementalist, necromancer. These guys deal more of indirect damage. summon things that deal damage, distract the enemy, conditions. they tend to spend a battle picking the right skill to cast moment-by-moment.
I would say that what you enjoy playing depends on how you prefer to play. Do you like just charging in there and wiping them out (simple) or strategically surrounding them and picking them off (complex).
Simple will tend to be easy to level, complex is a bit harder as their best skills are gained later in the levels. All are evenly matched after level 40 or so.
I would almost place thief between the two categories, but not every thief build uses pure stealth, and even pure stealth thieves have the strategy of ‘sneak up on stuff and kill in 1 hit’, which fits the straight-forward approach more.

Well it’s definitely between my Thief and Warrior now. Both 15. Both fun. Little more fun w/ Thief, little easier w/ Warrior. Still torn but going with Thief now because I enjoy it more even though from what I gather Thieves are pretty much kicked from every dungeon which sucks but is okay with me so long as they’re good at PvP. And thanks again all.

The fastest two levelers for me were the ranger & necromancer. Both have pets so to speak, which distract enemy enabling the players to deal a nice amount of damage – depending on level & skills available. Solely PvE. Got through 99% map completion with the ranger soloing with the exception of one spot in Orr which is yet to be obtained.

I predominately play as an Engineer.

Pros:

- A very versatile class
- Fun to play with
- More of a challenge to play with
- A decent set of builds

Cons:

- limited skill set
- limited weapon set (pistol / rifle / shield)
- Has a low level of survivability when on it’s own
- Not a stand out class

It’s easiest to perform well as a warrior. I’d focus on learning how the game works first, and then challenging yourself once you’ve got the hang of it.