Guild Wars 2

Wondering what Profession to begin playing with, I bought the game at release but left quickly for various reasons and am looking to come back. Did some research on classes and was thinking I’d play a Warrior or Thief but I’ve had another look and there seems to be a lot of conflicting opinions over the latest balance patch and I was hoping to get some clarity. Lots of people seem to think that Thief is no longer viable and Warrior got nerfed a bunch, is that true? I realise all I’ll be getting is more opinions but I figured it’s worth a shot anyway! Any general advice on all the Professions and their interplay would be great too but that’s probably a tougher ask so I thought I would try to constrain myself to 2 classes. Thanks!

Edit: Forgot to mention my main focus would be PvP but want to PvE almost as much.

All of the professions are fine for leveling, and all of them have something competitive in PvP (I think). Which profession works for you is going to depend on how you like to play. I mostly do PvE but here’s my take:

People like elementalists for their constant motion and strategy – you always have to be on your toes and thinking a few steps ahead, but elementalists played right can do everything (played badly, all they can do is die).

People like warriors for their straightforward nature – you can survive hits and take foes down quickly.

People like thiefs for their control of the battlefield and high DPS – you can be in and out before people know it.

People like guardians for survivability and group synergy – guardians can stand up to foes well and are welcome everywhere.

Rangers are great at distance with a longbow…and otherwise get to practice carefully controlling the battlefield.

Class preference is more about what fits with your habits and how you think. Any class can do almost anything in PvE. The key is how they can do it, and if you’re comfortable playing that way. With PvP and WvW, that’s even more important – you have to be very centered in your classes’ skin.

Everyone always complains about nerfs. Every single patch. I haven’t heard anything major except for the ranger change. If warriors and thiefs did get a nerf, then it’s about time. I’m sure they’re still fine to play, just not as dominant as they once were.

My only comment to this question is to NOT learn to play the game with a Ranger. While there is nothing overly wrong with the Ranger in general, that profession can have the tendency to NOT teach proper combat movement AND rely on your PET to tank enemies (gain and keep agro). In higher level content and with other professions, any bad habits you learn will not serve you well…..

Automatix.2947:

Wondering what Profession to begin playing with, I bought the game at release but left quickly for various reasons and am looking to come back. Did some research on classes and was thinking I’d play a Warrior or Thief but I’ve had another look and there seems to be a lot of conflicting opinions over the latest balance patch and I was hoping to get some clarity. Lots of people seem to think that Thief is no longer viable and Warrior got nerfed a bunch, is that true? I realise all I’ll be getting is more opinions but I figured it’s worth a shot anyway! Any general advice on all the Professions and their interplay would be great too but that’s probably a tougher ask so I thought I would try to constrain myself to 2 classes. Thanks!

Edit: Forgot to mention my main focus would be PvP but want to PvE almost as much.

Warrior did not get nerfed that much, and thief is still extremely deadly in WvW from what I’ve seen. However, I would advise against thief for a new player just because it might be a little more difficult. If you’re up for the challenge, go for it, but otherwise I’d suggest playing Warrior for your first character.

Resubian.5823:

Warrior did not get nerfed that much

I used to think so too, but the adren nerf was also much bigger than was expected. I understand why they made you lose adren if you miss on hit, but now you start losing adren barely a second after leaving combat… so basically you start every new fight with zero adren. Combine this with GS nerf and it’s close to 20% dps loss at worst case, which is huge…

Every class has a special mechanic. People complain about the recent Warrior nerf because the update wrecked such mechanic.

I’ll explain. A Warrior gains Adrenaline in combat, and the higher the Adrenaline the better (several traits rely on having a full Adrenaline bar). The game puts you in combat only if you are hitting an enemy, or if you receive a hit.

If you are running around in the middle of a horde, but you haven’t been hit in x seconds, the game will put you out of combat (even though you are clearly in a combat situation), and Adrenaline will start to decay. The update made the Adrenaline decay so fast that if you disengage (by mistake, or because the next enemy is a few pixels away and you have to run to reach them, or because you are fighting against human players that know about this huge weakness) you are done, Adrenaline is gone and you are now more vulnerable.

So if your first character is a Warrior there is a chance it’ll get longer for you to get accustomed to class mechanics, just because you won’t have as many chances to use them as people had before.

With that said, Warrior is fun to play. You need to be mobile and fast (you are not a tank, and our passive heal is extremely low compared to some other classes), and the learning curve in PvE is newbie-fiendly.

Whether you would like playing as a Warrior or not depends on what kind of experience you are looking for.

[Personal rant] If you pick a Warrior, be prepared: whatever happens people will keep opening threads on the forum about the Warrior being super OP, so you’ll end up dreading every game update.
I’m really sorry to say it, but that’s how it is. I am worried about the next balance update, because we just got a major nerf and people are already asking for more warrior nerfs.