Guild Wars 2

Hey there. First time here and just now downloading the client. Can’t wait to log in later and finally get to try out the game. I’ve been a 7 year vet of the “other” MMO, and was really looking for a change. That game just isn’t what it used to be.

So, as a first timer in GW2, I’m kinda curious where to start. I should mention that I love tanking, so heavy gear is a must. As for which race, I am a bit torn between Norn and Asura. I know… polar opposites. I was looking to get some input on some other’s favorite Race/Class combos for Tanking.

Tanking as in controlling who the mobs hit or tanking as in being close to indestructible?
For the first (crowd control), I liked Guardian and Mesmer because they both have knockback and pull as part of their weapon skills. My favourite crowd control is the guardian’s greatsword – press 5,5 and any mob that isn’t immune or resistant to control is in your face.
For the second, as mentioned you’ll want to look at bunker builds, or otherwise tough-to-kill support builds. The current meta has a lot of love for DPS in PvE, but I definitely appreciate the slow heal or boons from a support character if I’m trying to do high DPS in an encounter. This game is pretty heavy on the dodge-or-die elements and gives “blocking” a pretty long recharge, so you will be moving around to avoid dying no matter what build.

For races, I actually recommend Sylvari or Human (slightly boring I know) for the CAMERA. The 3rd person camera for Norn or Charr is a mess for jumping puzzles because the zoom gets all crazy when the character “hits its head”. The Asura camera is closer to the ground compared to the others, but it’s not that much of a detriment when you figure out how high/far you can jump or dodge.

Stats-wise, there is no difference as people don’t use racial skills – most of them have intentionally bad recharge rates or effectiveness.

For heavy armor, you will either need a Guardian or a Warrior.

A warrior is a heavy DPS class and is very effective in PvE, but is less effective in PvP content.

A guardian is more support / boon oriented. Does decent DPS (but not like a warrior) and is generally unkillable in PvE and useful in PvP.

Personally, I recommend a Guardian.

Race is mostly cosmetic; however, I personally would avoid Norn and Charr’s as they are very large and make jumping puzzles more difficult.

Edit: I forgot, Guardians have very little ranged ability. So if you like Rifles / Longbows it must be a warrior.

Tanking, while possible, is more difficult in GW2 than other mmo’s in part from wonky aggro mechanics, but mostly that bosses hit so hard no matter how durable you build. that said, warriors and guardians can be very tanky, holding aggro and taking punishment and giving it right back out. personally, i like asura a lot, especially heavy armor ones. it’s so cute and fun to watch a tiny guy wallop something over the head with a weapon twice his size, plus, they get neat little tricks few other races can match.

Race is mostly irrelevant. And while there’s really no “tanking” in the game, you should look for bunker builds that are the ones that soak up damage, but that will come in time with the game. You can make bunker builds out of almost any profession(class) in the game (if not all).

BTW, personally I have both a norn and an asura (though my main is a rather tanky sylvari guardian, which I really like) and like them both, but be sure to try them out first. One disadvantage of the norn is that they feel to some people like they’re running in slow motion, while in reality all races run at exactly the same speed (some classes have permanent speef buff, though) the difference in size between the smallest asura and the largest norn is so big that one looks like going too slow while the other like it’s running. I love the animations of the asura, since they’re smaller and look like run faster, they do a small tumble everytime they jump or stop running, like they’re about to fall over, I really like how it looks and feel it adds to their personality, but other people hate exactly that, so your mileage may vary.

My recomendation, create two chars of each and take a quick spin at them and see how it feels.

Regarding race, play whichever you think looks cool, or whichever you like the ‘flavour’ of more since it determines your first few levels of story – the rugged and shamanic norn or the mad scientist asura? In the long run, race won’t effect your character’s ability, although you might want to check out what armour looks like on each race (asura and charr, having quite different body shapes, tend to look different to others).

That said, I rather like the idea of asura encased in plate, haha. But norn heavies look very appropriate too, so either choice works!

Of the two heavy-armoured professions, I’d say that warrior is much more versatile but guardian is pretty indestructible. Pick whichever sounds like your style and have fun!

Well, technically there is no tank in this game. But since you mention heavy plate, that leaves you with guardian or warrior.

I would prob go with guardian. Their buffs and heals really make you durable. But your main hinderance will prob be range.

As for race. Well, norn get to turn in anthro animals giving you different abilities (i believe bear is more tankish).
Also, mr. Moderator will be moving this thread soon.

Be a asura, u can make urself a extra suit of armor

Having both an 80 guardian and warrior, I prefer the guardian as it does good enough dps and can take some serious damage. The warrior can run into trouble with 3 or more mobs on it. (Least it does for me). As for race I think the Asura is the funnest of the two, they have some cool animations, were the Norn just seems slow and clunky.

When I first hit level 80 with my warrior, I made him really tanky. As tanky as I could possibly go with him. I sacrificed as much damage as I could for toughness and survivability traits, etc. What I found out was that being the last one alive and almost impossible to kill on fights was less than useless for my team. It doesn’t help that it took a trash pack an hour to kill me if my team is dead twiddling their thumbs and bored out of their minds waiting for me to die so we could try again. If you want a tanky character that’ll feel more like home for a vet of that other MMO try to go the middle ground, don’t completely give up your ability to dps in favor of living forever. A warrior has insane innate damage. If you want to build a tanky warrior that is useful, go something like Knight’s and build around shouts or banners. You have high offensive support to your team with buffs from shouts/banners, and stacking vulnerability on the enemy, and you’re also not giving up too much dps to have decent survivability. I warrior tanked in that other MMO you speak of for quite a many years, and if you want something similar to that just stacking toughness and vitality will actually feel sort of weak and wrong. If you want to contribute to the party in the same ways (think sunder armor, the slow heal warriors get, forgot it’s name, cleave, thunderclap, etc.) then build around a banner build so banners give regen, or a shout heal build where your shouts not only buff but they also heal. You can even rune so each shout removes a condition. You can build out a warrior to feel a lot like a WoW warrior tank with very similar tools, just not in the ways that seem obvious at first. If you tanked with another class, then nevermind, I can’t really help, lol. Guardian has some interesting tools up it’s sleeve for survivability but also has some of the lowest base HP, so it relies more on it’s blocks, protections, and heals to survive. I never went to 80 with a Guardian so I can’t give advice on that one.

I would like to thank everyone for their input. Since Race / Class is not a factor (like some other MMO I won’t mention), and Tanking isn’t necessarily the same as I am used to, it would seem that a Guardian Asura is my first step, but rather than building it for soak, maybe I can manipulate more damage output. I don’t have to tank, but I do like being hard to kill and easy to kill others. As an example, my favorite class from the “other guys” was Paladin. Had I been able to make a very small Paladin (you know the race), I think I might have enjoyed it more since aesthetically, I prefer the shortest of races. Not sure why

SupermanAZ,

You can pay a few silver coins to respec your Trait choices, which are one of the main determining factors between a tanky build and a dps build. While you would have to potentially spend more Skill Points to permanently access skills which you hadn’t considered useful in a previous character build, that’s not really a big deal. The only real drawback is needing multiple sets of gear with different +stats, but that’s something to worry about in the upper levels if you find yourself constantly ping ponging back and forth between different Guardian styles.

The story lines for the asura area are really a treat. For a new player, they should be very entertaining. However their tone is a bit different from all of the other races, so you should know that going in.

From a game mechanics note, the Dodge animation for asura is unique to that race. While I love the jumping flip (like some kind of Yoda ninja) that they do, some people have issues with it and dislike asura for that reason. However I find that the flip makes it very easy to see where you’re exactly going to land, which is an advantage in PvE (in addition to looking cool).