Guild Wars 2

Hi! I’m Aureol, and I bought this game today, looking for a good MMO to get involved with. I’m eagerly waiting for the download to finish, but in the mean time I figured I would get some tips to start with.

Any newbie advice is welcome, but I particularly wanted to ask if some classes are harder than others, in what ways certain classes might be “better”, etc. For instance, I find the Mesmer most appealing, but briefly checking the internet, some said this class can be difficult, so it might not be ideal for my first character. Thoughts?

Also, what would be a good server to join? I want lots of people to be in it, but I don’t want to compound a problem with an already-full server as well.

Thanks in advance for any help whatsoever, in regards to character creation or getting started in general

You might consider posting in Players Helping Players for much good advice.

Welcome to Tyria, and happy adventuring!

Hmm. I’m a relative noobie myself, Aureol! What I can tell you is this with regards to character creation: Go nuts and have fun! I’ve got a Mesmer at 80 I’m probably going to abandon (mostly because I prefer warrior melee) and I’ve reconstituted my warrior from WoW in both name and playstyle so I feel more comfortable.

The one thing I’ve found, so far, to be awesome about this game is that getting started is easy. I would recommend once you get some money buying some bags and spending some real money on a gem card to buy extra bag slots.

As you level up and get into higher level zones, you’ll find huge groups of people running around completing events and taking down world bosses…join them! They are more welcoming than people I’ve found in my previous game and so far I’ve not found a “OMG UR GEER SUX” type player (but my understanding is that this is by design).

I hope you enjoy your time in Tyria (I sure am!) and if you’re looking for new friends to talk with and pal around with, add me up on your friend’s list @ huggywuggles.2814

Hi there and welcome to Tyria Aureol!

Any class can be useful and enjoyed in any aspect of the game. Some are of course stronger at certain things, however GW2s dungeon/team play are designed for everyone to play. Mesmer is a great class (my fav/main) It does take a bit of getting use to, timing clones and shatters, but it’s totally worth it. I would suggest starting off with what ever you find the most interesting. Alternatively if you are curious about any other classes you can “test” them all at 80 in the heart of the mists (go to Lions Arch, and use the portal there, if you can’t enter through the in game tab). Just take one of each class there and mess around, look at the attacks, and decide what really interests you!

Servers only really mater for WvWvW, the mega server system pretty much lumps all open world PVE play into mega servers, and dungeons aren’t server specific (EU/NA can’t play togather). I’d recommend Tarnished Coast, been my home since head start and it’s been great here!

Add me on your friends list and we can meet up and kill stuff in game! @miku.6297

Depends what kind of content your into in an mmo (not sure if this is your first)

There is open world pve where you explore the world, do events with others, and kill world bosses.

Dungeons. Just dungeons

Pvp

And world vs world.

Each has its good great and not so great classes. Ranger for example is very easy to pick up and learn. Many people say pets aren’t good I’ve honestly very rarely had an issue, they are deadly close up and at a distance. Great in wvw, not wanted in dungeons really. Warriors are your easiest class to learn, heavy armor, high health, very simple to dish out tons of damage and always wanted in groups as is guardian. Guardian with the low health though can be a little trickier to learn at first though.

Mesmers do great in pvp. They really don’t shine though til max level when you gear up and have your traits.

Mesmer, elementalist, and engineer in my opinion are by far the hardest class to learn, but can be rewarding once mastered which can be difficult.

Necromancer is also great but they are very selfish of a class and never wanted in dungeons. Still good though for solo play and wvw for condition spamming. Once you get into the game feel free to add me if you have any specific questions about anything I’m more then happy to assist

Ps. Unlike a lot of mmo games out there this game is casual. Which makes an overall great community. People are usually always willing to help you out with things.

Every class has builds that range from easy to difficult to play so that doesn’t really matter that much. Finding/creating a build you like is a slightly different issue. It took me a couple of months to settle on a build I like on my engineer but it was much simpler on my warrior, thief, elementalist and necromancer. Still working on mesmer …

I wouldn’t say Mesmer is harder, so much as that it really relies on knowing how GW2 works and plays. They can be tough to level the first time, but when you get them all the way up there and all traited out, you’ll wonder why it was hard. Even if you make a new one, you’ll find that it’s a lot easier than you remember. So, they’re a good class for really learning the game, but it can be a harsh teacher. Ditto that for Engineers to a lesser extent.

Warriors, on the other hand, are the Cup Ramen of the classes. Easy to use, but you’ll learn the game much slower. I’d ditto that with Rangers, too.

Now, some advice:

When you get introduced to harvesting, harvest everything you can. Use it for crafting if you wish, if you don’t sell it. Both are good, and harvesting gives you Exp. Plus, everyone shares the nodes, it doesn’t go to the first person to find it. (If there’s a copper node and I mine it, I see it as used up. Someone else will still see it as good until they mine it.)

Each race has a starting zone. I’d strongly suggest that, once you’ve cleared your own race’s zone, you check out the zones for the other races.

Killing random monsters gives low Exp. Completing hearts and doing local events is where you’ll get your real Exp from.

A bunch of story missions will show up every 10 levels. Do them. You’ll get some rewards and some good Exp for them.

Finally, you’ll notice that you occasionally loot a “Black Lion Treasure Chest”. You can only open this with a special key, and they sell them in the gem store. Do NOT buy them there. Yes, there’s a very rare chance of getting something awesome, but it’s VERY rare. Just play the game, and you’ll get one at three points in the personal story as you level. People that spend gems (often gotten with actual money) hoping to get something good are usually disappointed, and it can sour you on the whole game.

The OMG sticky thread on the Players Helping Players board has a lot of useful stuff.

The wiki is your friend, and the help system in the game.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Main_Page

Server makes no difference except in WvW. In PvE and PvP, we all play together across dynamically spawned copies of maps.

My first character was a mesmer. It’s not that it’s difficult to play in PvE, it’s just not as quick, or seems as quick, at killing things. My 2nd was a thief and the feeling I get from it is more … visceral. Maybe that’s because I played my mesmer as a range attacker and my thief as melee but even with my double pistol range attack, the thief seems faster.

I slightly disagree with Palador’s comments about the Black Lion Treasure Chests. They are primarily a Gem Shop sampler of small items. And as long as you think of them that way then you won’t fall into the trap.

The trap is they occasionally drop tickets or ticket scraps which you can use toward a variety of themed weapon skins unattainable (added to the game world) by any other means. If you acquire one you can sell it for a fair bit of coin. Problem is it’ll likely cost you more coin to get the tickets/scraps to get the skin than what you can sell the skin for, assuming you are selling gold for gems to buy keys to get tickets. Even buying gems with cash you would be better off selling the gems for gold and buying the skin you want from the TP. I’ve tried to compare the BLTC to a Whitman Sampler of chocolates with a “Chance to Win a Car” sticker on the box. Any who buys the box for the chance of getting a car isn’t buying them for their intended purpose.

For PvE, go with a staff elementalist and you won’t regret it…

you can already start to play.
Just add the option “streaming client” to play immediately and download only the contents that you need.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/coming-soon-beta-version-of-streaming-client/

When I started the game I made several characters with classes I liked and tried each for a short while. Of course you wont get to know all possibilities of your tested class but you might get an overview which one suits you for the beginning. The rest of my toons I leveled to 80 over time. Why should one limit him/herself to only one. I myself found mesmer somehow annoying, but that’s a matter of personal preference.

I suggest warrior at first time. Easy to play, good skills, good in pve, pvp, wvw.

I suggest to play warrior as your second choice.
Ranger is a good place to start and explore the world, it cover nicely both melee and ranged play.

Thanks everyone for the advice I will be starting today, and what I’ve read has been quite helpful!

As others have said; ranger or warrior. Once you’ve gotton the feel for this game venture out with other professions. Or you can play with 5 different proffessions to see which one suits you first. But generally speaking, war or ranger are more friendlier and more forgiving.