Guild Wars 2

Hello, forums. I’m a returning player after a long period of absence (the last Living Story I played was…. Four Winds Bazaar, I think.) I’m sure a million changes have been made since then, and I’m looking to roll up a new character with these changes in mind. Before I left (for no real reason other than real life) I played a boring and rather standard plink-plink bleed-bleed Ranger. Admittedly, I’m an explorer, so I liked being able to wander around alone and I have no real sense of twitch-reflex, so plink-plinking with muh pet bear worked fine for me.

What I’m looking for is a new class to reroll and enjoy the personal story with (again).

Things I’m Looking For:
- The ability to solo easily from level 1, preferably through level 80.
- Perma-speed boost would be nice. (Is there more than one class with this now?)
- Something that can help me through those hellish jumping puzzles?!
- A class that doesn’t need StarCraft reflexes to utilize to decent efficency. I do not want to have to only press 1, and I understand that dodging is a vital part of the game.

Things I don’t Give A Skritt’s Rear End About:
- Dungeons, zerk/speed or otherwise.
- WvW/PvP
- Big exploding numbers. Obviously killing things faster means I get back to map completion faster, but I don’t want to be a glass cannon, and would like a class/build that is moderately forgiving.

Yes, I am a casual player. I plan on doing a lot of RPing, crafting, and vista-getting. I am mildly (read: hugely) disappointed that Traits don’t start until level 30 now, but I suppose I can deal with that. I’ve done some research on Mesmers, as they sound amazingly fun, and some of their builds (Phantasm?) are slightly less prone to being glass-cannon-y, but I’m not sure.

And yes, I understand all classes can do this to some extent or other, but I’m wondering what the community’s opinion is on this. Can non-twitch players solo effectively with a class like Mesmer? Or should I stick to something ever so slightly more face-tanky, like Warrior or Guardian?

Thanks much for your help in advance! Any links to guides would be super helpful, too, as I can’t seem to find any made after 2013.

Thief gets a utility signet slot skill that passively gives them a speed boost, Signet of Shadows, cost 6 skill points. But it is a tier 3 skill so you have to unlock of few prereqs first.

Mesmers are fun as well. My first was a mesmer, my second a thief. I pretty much soloed both of these, other than flash mob DEs. I strongly believe in “discretion is the better part of valor” so when leveling I do try to avoid confrontations which may be a problem for my character. I know for instance that at time vets can be a problem soloing if they have minions while I’m leveling up and forget about taking on champs solo until I’m 80 with exotic items. I have no problem running away.

And what do you mean, traits still start at level 11. That’s not changing until mid April and only to newly rolled characters.

Yes, it’s a toss-up between speed and portal.

Mesmers definitely have no problem soloing any content (and if you end up mastering the profession and the game, you could even end up soloing Arah).