Guild Wars 2

I’m looking forward to playing the game, it looks sweet and I’ve been reading for what seems like hours. I have not played a PVP game since Warhammer Online (loved it, until… yeah…), and before that, the game I played was Everquest (yeah…).

My question mainly revolves around this: I love hybrid-melees. In Everquest I loved my Shadowknight. In Warhammer I played a Disciple of Khaine. I’m trying to find out if there’s actually any “hybrid” type classes in Guild Wars 2 before I character create, or if there’s ways to do it. Don’t be afraid to link me stuff, since I’ll actually read it ’cause I like to L2P.

Thanks for the help.

GW2 is chock full of hybrid-melee. It’s the fun thing about the way weapons work: a dagger doesn’t necessarily mean “stab”. Lots of casters use daggers as an implement for short range spells. And likewise, the ranger takes axes, normally a melee weapon, and uses them as a throwing implement. So if you play any class that doesn’t entirely revolve around physical actions (ie: anything but warrior, thief, and to some extent, ranger) you’re going to feel like a not-entirely-melee profession with at least one weapon set.

Hmm, may I ask what you mean exactly by hybrid classes? Hybrid damage/healing, or magic/physical, or midranged attackers? Sorry, I’m not very familiar with Everquest and Warhammer.

And welcome to Tyria!

Thanks for the reply, Pinder.

Falunel:

Generally speaking, in EQ, Shadowknights were a cross between a Necromancer and a Warrior. It could cast, life tap, but wore plate armor and used a weapon or weapon/shield. In Warhammer, DoK were basically melee/healers (a bit overpowered at first, to say the least).

I’m a big fan of stabbing stuff, having more than 2 hitpoints, but I also like casting spells in the process, even if they’re weaker than “pure” classes.

Ah, thanks. That sounds like a guardian, to me. They have one of the lowest health pools in the game, but also wear heavy armor and have a lot of active defense abilities- healing, projectile reflection, and protective buffs alongside the universal dodge. They’re a strong support class, but a frontline one that can be built to do a decent amount of damage. Finally, they combine physical melee attacks with magical effects and spells, especially blue fire. Lots of blue fire.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guardian

Yep, I’d agree that you might be interested in guardian. There’s only two heavy armour classes and while warrior is a fairly straightforward, non-magical and weapon-focused (but very flexible!) class, guardian is your paladin type. Lots of melee, heavy armour, and heal/support magic.

I hear necromancers can be pretty tough for casters, so you might like to try that (necros here may disagree, I don’t know). My short-range elementalist is fun but drops like a fly when hit, so maybe not for you.

Agriope, welcome to the game!

As for hybrid, i would indeed suggest a guardian. You can go fully head on and smash things with 2handed hammers, 2handed swords, sword/shield,…. there so many options.
Not that much possible in range weapons though, but we do have a few nice skills that bring us in the middle off the fight from a distance. I would suggest to try it for a level or 10-15 and see what you think about the play style.
Also keep in mind that with all those different weapons you can use, your playstyle will differ with each weapon you use.

Compared to most RPGs all GW2 professions are hybrids.

All of the casters can use at least some martial weapons and all martial professions can use magic to some extent (I’m not 100% sure about warriors, but I think they have some spell-like abilities at least).

I’d recommend looking up the professions on the Wiki (link at the top of the page) and see which one sounds most like what you want to do. All their skills are listed on there, as well as the weapons they can use, so you should be able to get a pretty good idea.

Thanks for the responses guys. I’ll be checking out a Guardian on the Yak’s Bend server.

I’d defiantly try out the Guardian. They got a little of everything it seems.

Also I’m really enjoying my ranger with a melee offset. It’s something I always wanted in WoW. xD