Guild Wars 2

Got a Thief up to level 30.

Interesting, but a bit more skill-based than I can handle at times. Keeping him since he’s not a low level and it would take me time to catch up on him.

What class would be a good way to get me back in to the game? Something fun, not too difficult to get a good grasp on.

These are the characters I have, which can be deleted (not too attached to them). I don’t remember how to play half of them, so if their class is suggested, I’d probably just delete and re-create.

Norn Guardian 18
Human Necromancer 5
Charr Engineer 5
Sylvari Ranger 5

Back at launch, I was told Guardians and Warriors were “easy mode”. I must have been playing the game wrong, because my Guardian used to get stomped pretty easily if I wasn’t careful.

I’m going to suggest something blind, then come back to an important question before I can give you a better answer.

The blind suggestion is: Guardian. The reason for the blind suggestion is that they are inherantly durrable while learning. Now, they do take active play, and they have a great deal of depth that will allow you to continue to love the character for a long time, but you’ll need to learn the ropes like anything else.

That being the blind toss, here’s the question: What style of game play do you like?

If you like to stand off at long range and break things down while keeping yourself out of danger, Ranger can be good for this. That’s not all Ranger is good at, but it is something they excel at with a minimum of skill investment.

If you like to play fast hit and run, Thief is your platform.

If you want to wade into melee….. sooo many classes are good at melee…. Mesmer is awesome in melee, so is warrior, so is guardian, D/D eles (while not technically melee) work in the short range envelope very well.

It comes down to what you like to play with.

I will say that several classes don’t really ‘come into their own’ until later levels with all of your skills unlocked and your traits unlocked, and the way a character plays at max level can be very different from how it plays with leveling. But, the big question is: What kind of game play do you like? From there, we can deduce your best class.

Well, I know that gameplay in GW2 is radically different from other MMO’s out there, so it may be hard to draw any parallels, but we’ll see if these former MMO experiences help with suggestions…

First MMO was Final Fantasy 11. I was strictly a White Mage (healer class). Never even knew combat. Stood back and healed.

Then came World of Warcraft. Elemental Shaman (tankier, slightly durable spellcaster). I love the spell-slinging archetype, but hate being a glass cannon. To this end, I’ve read that Necromancer may be a good choice.

I’m flexible in trying classes, I just want to get into one that will keep me hooked on this game. Trying to drop WoW to save the $15 a month, but I need something I can really sink my teeth in to.

There are 2 classes that excell at support that stand out to me for you: Guardian, and Elementalist.

Guardian is the tankier of the two, allowing you to wade in deep with your party, and keep boons / heals flowing. At higher levels of proficiency, you come to learn that you can combine 2 attacks to lay down a combo field (light) and use that combo field to cleanse conditions for your party (whirl finisher), or, lay down the same combo field, and grant your party Retilation (damage reflection) with a different finisher (leap.) And that’s just 3 skills on 1 weapon.

It’s not support like you think of support in most games where a healer hangs in the back, and casts party buffs and drops heals…. but it is a very satisfying support class that can also wade into the thick of it and hit things with a really big sword!

Option #2, I don’t know as well, because my ele is only in the mid 30s, but, the class has HUGE support potential, while offering more stand off / range posibility. Elementalist does most of their support in the Water and Earth elements, but don’t thnk you’re limited. An ele can swap ‘attunements’ between all 4 elements on the fly, changing from Fire for damage to Water for healing, and back again as needed (there is a cool down on swapping.)

As you get more proficient with Ele, you will span all 4 elements for combos, and the rich, deep game play that can be found in ele. Some have said that it’s one of the hardest classes to master, but if you like both support, and staying back out of the fray, it’s a good place to go.

One thing I will mention on guardian, since you like the spell slinging arch type, is that they’re not a pure melee character…. I carry a Staff on my guardian, and other guardians in my guild use a Scepter + Shield or Scepter + Focus for their non-melee weapon.

Likewise, the elementalist at point blank range uses 2 daggers, and the best support ele I know is a D/D ele who works hard to make sure he’s spreading boons party wide. The boons are generally more offense oriented, but he can stack Regeneration and Protection as well.

Does that help?

Indeed that does help. I think what I’ll do is a combination of the two…

I’ll probably re-roll my Guardian and learn from the ground up again, and maybe reroll my Sylvari as an Elementalist and try that out too.

PapaSprague.5817:

Got a Thief up to level 30.

Interesting, but a bit more skill-based than I can handle at times. Keeping him since he’s not a low level and it would take me time to catch up on him.

What class would be a good way to get me back in to the game? Something fun, not too difficult to get a good grasp on.

These are the characters I have, which can be deleted (not too attached to them). I don’t remember how to play half of them, so if their class is suggested, I’d probably just delete and re-create.

Norn Guardian 18
Human Necromancer 5
Charr Engineer 5
Sylvari Ranger 5

Back at launch, I was told Guardians and Warriors were “easy mode”. I must have been playing the game wrong, because my Guardian used to get stomped pretty easily if I wasn’t careful.

Guardian. Fun and easy. If you couple power/toughness/healing gear while toughness and vitality is mixed you can go to lvl 40-50 and never even dodge except the strongest attacks. It has quite fun skills too and is not as twitchy and fragile as thief.

PapaSprague.5817:

Indeed that does help. I think what I’ll do is a combination of the two…

I’ll probably re-roll my Guardian and learn from the ground up again, and maybe reroll my Sylvari as an Elementalist and try that out too.

Stay away from thief, engineer and ele and mesmer if you think game requires sometimes more skill than you can handle. These classes are punished really hard if you can’t dodge/use your skills decently.

I would like to quote a developer on this:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/news/Game-Update-Notes-December-14-2012/first#post999247

The key to any and all classes is dodge. Doesn’t matter if you are a Guardian with Toughness and Vit traited, geared, and runed out the wazoo. No class can just soak up damage and expect to not get downed quickly. Constantly move and time your dodges. I’m not talking about regular mobs you find on the map that are your level or slightly higher but groups of vets, champions, or other player in wvw and s/tpvp.

Play what you have fun with, any class has good survivability as long you know how to not take damage as you’re dealing it.

Warrior.. I did the same thing.. I quit 3 days in and hated the game.. I came back and played a warrior and learned all the skills like dodge and all the abilities and I loved it..

I would suggest necro, it falls under pretty much what you said you played in the past, but it has a VERY steep learning curve. It’s arguably the hardest class to play successfully. So if you’re not down for that, you prob would like guardian. Yes at lower levels they are surprisingly squishy for what is supposed to be a tankier class, but just make sure your gear always has toughness and vitality (while leveling) and throw on a greatsword for mind-numbing easy mode.

I would second the nomination of Guardian, they seem to be liked by groups in pretty much any situation….although I am not sure about spvp.

I am in the same boat as you, I have a level 53 thief and have abandoned that character. The feel was just not their for me, I then went with a ranger and while I have had fun with the ranger the class is by no means close to being on par with any of the other class’s.

I have friends who also play an elementalist and a mesmer they like both of those class’s alot. The elementalist has great survivability and killing power. The mesmer loves their class other than people constantly wanting portals.

Guardian
Warrior
Elementalist

All three of those seem like they could be a good choice. Although the ranger is easy to level with the end game is not as fun as we are not on par.