Guild Wars 2

Hello. I’m brand new to GW2, and not exactly a veteran MMO player. Usually I hate MMO’s, but GW2 was on sale, and I decided to risk the money and try it.

Anyway, I wanted to ask for a little advice (hope this is in the right sub-forum). I’m having a hard time figuring out where to get started. There are quite a few races and classes to choose from, and although I’ve done some research, I’m still not sure.

I know the races that interest me to begin with are the Humans, the Asura, and the Sylvari. The other three races are also interesting, but I intend to save them for later.

I know the three classes that don’t interest me are the Warrior, Guardian, and Ranger.

I know that I want to focus almost solely, if not solely, on PvE content, and given that I’m usually a loner in these types of things, I will probably be soloing most of that content.

I don’t particularly care at all about being the “best” or most optimal character; all I want is a level of power enough to not make the game actively frustrating.

I suppose the two classes I’ve spent the most time thinking about are a Necromancer focused on Minions or a Mesmer focused on Illusions. I have no idea if either of those would be effective.

Anyway, I don’t exactly have enough time to try out them all in depth, so descriptions of how you found them to play, from a gameplay and personal affection standpoint, I would greatly appreciate. Just to get a sense of the things people like and dislike.

Thank you all very much, to the extent you want to contribute.

A minion necro is one of the best classes for leveling, and when you get to a high enough level a condition necro is equally as good

Oh good – no one had responded, so I had just about decided to pursue that anyway.

All professions and races are viable in GW2, so that’s good news! Let me go dig up something I just posted about this. Mostly, race choice is about what sort of character you want to play… There isn’t a “best” race in GW2. There also isn’t a best profession, either.

Here’s what I have to say about races:

The sylvari are the newest, most naive race. They revere the wisdom of a friendly centaur named Ventari, and the Pale Tree which gives them life and creates or is responsible for the Dream from which all sylvari wake fully grown, and what the sylvari see in the Dream influences their path in life. Their adversaries are the Nightmare Court, who think the Pale Tree and the Dream are bogus and try to convert sylvari to “nightmare”. Their racial skills involve creation of plant turrets or binding roots.

Humans are pretty normal, at war with the centaurs. They believe in Six gods and goddesses, and their racial skills are prayers to those gods.

Asura are super smart, and usually super arrogant. They can be adorable or creepy – it kind of depends on personal preference. Hopefully Kit won’t kill me for that. xD The Asura nemesis is the Inquest, which is a group of researchers whose experiments defy ethics. Asura racial skills are in the realm of condition fields and golem-summoning.

Mesmers and Elementalists can be a little tricky to level, especially solo. That isn’t to say it can’t be done, though, and both classes are fun. I have heard that Mesmer illusions can go a little haywire, but that’s supposed to be fixed fairly soon, I think. Necromancers are pretty solid, but I haven’t played one.

What sort of role do you like to play in MMOs/other games? That will help us. If you go to the respective forums for each class, all you’ll find is whining… But no class is “completely broken” as people will try to tell you it is. All classes can be versatile, as well – it depends on how you build and what weapons you use.

Hopefully that helps a bit! :]

As far as race, I love the animations the asura have. But then the sylvari with their seed turrets (racial skills) are very attractive too. Even so, the bulk of my characters are human.

My experience has been solo PVE for the most part.

My first level 80 was a condition based necro. I love it. I found a minion based necro to be somewhat weak simply because of the minions. Conditions have area of effect damage, while minions are single target.

I’ve found the elementalists to be easy to play. This was my second level 80. Learn all weapons skills for all attunements and you have a very versatile character capable of some massive aoe damage and protection. Just keep swapping attunements based on your needs in combat.

The mesmer has been a difficult class for me. The illusions and clones aren’t all that strong, aoe is limited, and damage on single targets is mediocre. But some people excel with the mesmer, so give it a try if you think you are interested in it.

Give all three of the caster classes a try up to level 20 and see which one you like best.

Feel free to add “ancient highway” to your contact list in game and send me a whisper or mail if you have any questions in game.

ancient highway.4256:

The mesmer has been a difficult class for me. The illusions and clones aren’t all that strong, aoe is limited, and damage on single targets is mediocre. But some people excel with the mesmer, so give it a try if you think you are interested in it.

Well, a Mesmer’s Illusions (Clones and Phantasms) aren’t really meant to be dealing tons of damage as they’re really more utility than anything. Illusions are ammo for Shatters, they can apply different effects (conditions, boons, etc..) with attacks as well as (when traited) on death, and used for taking/keeping aggro away from oneself.

• Clones do minor to no damage, but are bulkier and tend to be more readily available than Phantasms.
• Phantasms are the ones that can actually do damage, but often only live for one full attack combo (due to dying or being shattered) as they’re a bit squishier than Clones.

Mesmers are more about indirectly destroying the opponent (Illusions, Conditions, Shatters) with plenty of ways to dance around and avoid their attacks (Blink, Illusions, Stuns, Stealth, Distortion) as an onslaught of Illusions continue to shatter the opponent’s mind and body.
Plus, they use a Greatsword as a ranged weapon that shoots lasers. Because that only makes complete sense (by which I mean none at all, and therefore fitting with Mesmer’s whole illusionary theme [and it’s probably their strongest damage-based weapon {though I’m really more of a Staff fan}]).

Their AoE is fairly minor, but they actually excel in single target combat, to the point that a person can become perfectly capable of soloing Champion-level foes.

Can’t say they’re one of the simpler professions, but they’re quite efficient once a person gets the hang of playing one.

For starters, I’d say a necro works better than a mesmer or ele, if simply because of the fact that the latter two are rather squishy. Having a more durable character is much more forgiving in the beginning, when you are still learning your way around the game.

sffrrrom:

Some important notes: anything that’s not in heavy armor will feel squishy (especially clothies) until lvl 30 to lvl 35, after that every profession can be a tank (i’ve seen necro tanks and elementalist tanks, and play a mesmer tank)

Frotee.2634:

For starters, I’d say a necro works better than a mesmer or ele, if simply because of the fact that the latter two are rather squishy. Having a more durable character is much more forgiving in the beginning, when you are still learning your way around the game.

Mesmer is like a combination of a necro and a thief.

They have reasonably high hp and can be made personally tough through their builds, but when played and traited for maximum clone generation and projectile reflect, they can avoid being hit 90% of the time.

I had a build that was 10/20/0/30/5 (with sword/focus, greatsword) on my mesmer and was able to kite melee (or crowds of melee) and make them hit my clones all the time instead of me, AND shut down 75% of all incoming ranged attacks. I could set up that reflective wall in ORR DE’s and watch crowds of ranged shoot at me but kill themselves, then loot.

Mesmers can solo any group boss that does not summon zergs of adds without getting hit once when played properly; if you slip up it’s very easy to recover and buy yourself LOTS of time, and at the end of the day, if things go very wrong, you have about 7-8 ways to escape, depending on what cooldowns are available and traits you have.

Finally, for soloists, mesmer’s downed state is VERY strong. it produces clones, moves you out of aoe circles, and stealths you.

In pvp mesmers are not as “bunker-ey” as guardians, but in pve they are the most “bunker-ey” class out there. If you like this idea and choose a mesmer, I strongly recommend ditching the scepter for either a staff, a greatsword, or a sword/focus combo asap, as scepter is the starting weapon, and is also the worst weapon in the mesmer arsenal.

Go to bed, and wake up to all sorts of good input. Thank you!

Aeleniel, that was why I didn’t post in one of the class forums, although I did read through some stuff there.

I usually play magick-y characters, although since those roles tend to be more fluid in MMO’s I’d say I like playing characters that require some thought, as well as characters that allow for some tinkering and experimentation – i.e. I don’t just want to bash face ASAP, I want to have fun doing it.

It sounds like from what you all have been saying that I was right, and that necromancer and mesmer are the two classes for me. I will admit I sort of shied away from Elementalists because I couldn’t quite figure them out – maybe when I understand the game a little better they’ll have more intuitive appeal.

I had been planning on a sylvari necromancer, but I hesitated because I couldn’t quite figure out how that would work from a lore perspective (which does matter to me if I’m going to spend so much time with one character; I want their identity in my head to make sense). It seemed to me like the character I was envisioning would have fit in more with the Nightmare guys, who seemed like the Opposition.

So now I’m thinking maybe human Necromancer, and Sylvari Mesmer after. Or both off and on, to give me some perspective. I think I’ll still go Minions with the Necromancer – I don’t mind if my first character winds up a little underwhelming, and I just like the idea better. But maybe I’ll get in game and conditions will really wow me.

Anyway, thank you for the conversation. I’ll be finally starting tomorrow – today is football day.

If you go minion necro be warned, the pet AI can be frustrating until they fix it.

Regardless of that, its my favorite profession and my highest level. I am simply a force to recon with while leveling and can survive almost every situation given. I can take on the biggest and baddest mobs including some group event bosses solo. I love it.

I also historically have played ranged casters. Before the BWE’s I -knew- I’d never play a guardian. Boring paladin crap, not for me. Then some time in the beta process I rolled one just to try it out.

Now my guardian is my second 80 and is perhaps the least squishy character I’ve ever played. Sure, she can be defeated, but she lasts an immensely long time in situations that would drop my main (Thief) in seconds. I’ve found a weapon combo that allows for fast zippy fighting.

Otoh I thought I’d have an Engineer as one of my top characters and after trying it a bit I don’t even have one in my 6 characters. So you really need to try them all for yourself to see how they feel in this game. You just might fall in love with something that you dismissed based on preliminary information.