Guild Wars 2

Hi guys I have just joined your ranks few days ago, so I would like to start with saying Hello to all of you So far, I just love the game and the community very much. But here is the deal:
As many starting players before me, I have problem to choose right profession for me. I don’t have that much time to try and experiment with every one of them, so I want to main one, and give it everything. I have done my research – I checked sub-forum for every class, checked videos for every class, but I simply can’t choose. I have played many MMOs, WoW mostly (for about 8 years). Have tried every class there to some form of success and I don’t have any preferred playstyle and can pretty much adapt to anything I love. My opinion on professions of this game (coming from many topics on this forum):

Warrior – very strong, adaptable, OP?…but boring.
Guardian – too much tanky for me…I don’t know how it is with damage.
Elementalist – people say, they are very squishy and the bottom of the food chain…from videos it seems to me, it is doing thousands of things for a very little reward.
Mesmer – the only class I dislike. It looks like an ilusionist, which I don’t like.
Necromancer – I can’t say anything about them. Don’t want to have boring playstyle with minions doing all the work. Is it any good?
Ranger- I loved hunter in WoW. But here it looks like a completely different class, so no.
Engineer – This is the only class I don’t understand pretty well. Seems fun but some people said, it is not strong by himself. I don’t want to be dependant on group.

Lastly… Thief. My first char here (level 10 lol). I started it straight of the bat. I have always loved that stealthy playstyle, choosing your fights and vanish if it seems you could loose. But from what I have read, they are made from paper. I lean towards this profession the most, but I am worried, if it is good enough at 80. And I would like to be competetive in any PvP enviroment, because this whole post is from PvP perspective. I couldn’t care less about PvE. I know, in GW2 it is divided between WvW and sPvP. But I would like to be good at both, not only in sPvP or duels or etc. You got my point right?That is what keeps me from playing thief – If it is competetive enough and if I wouldn’t be rolled over by most classes?

The opinions stated above could be very wrong – like I said, it is only from what I have read on forum. Feel free to correct me in anything. And the last thing – skill floor/cap is out of question. I’m pretty determind if it comes to losing because I made mistakes and I like to learn from it. So if a class has a long learning curve, it doesn’t matter – it is at least entertaining.

I thank everyone that have read this post to the end and I would appreciate any help you can provide me. Sorry for the wall of text Have a nice day guys

Hey, welcome to the game! Also, thanks for doing a bit of research as well

Warrior- I wouldn’t call them OP, they’re in a very good place now, they are very versatile and there are lots of different effective builds for them. They tend to do very well in all game modes. Warrior can be fun if played in the right setting.

Guardian- The 1st class I made in GW2 and I have somewhere around 700 hours or so on mine… I don’t play it much anymore as I’ve moved on to other classes. Guardian is a very party play oriented class. Guardian also has I would say the highest survivability in the game compared to others. Fights often tend to be battles of attrition and there arnt many builds that can outlast a good guardian.

Elementalist- Probably my favorite class currently, they are a lot of fun to play. They tend to be towards the bottom of the food chain as you call it, and people don’t play them as much anymore in pvp but it’s beautiful watching a skilled elementalist play.

Necromancers- Minion Masters as we call them, are only one build for them and is not the only build or way to play a necromancer. There are other much more fun ways as well. MM tends to be the meta at this time sadly.

As far as Engy’s go, I don’t play one… but from personal experience they can be VERY GOOD at 1v1s. There’s nothing more I hate fighting than a bunker (someone that holds down a point ) Engy in sPVP.

As far as thieves go, they are a class that is fairly easy to pick up but is hard to master and get good with. They are definitely viable in both sPVP and WvW. In wvw its hard to play a thief in a Zerg( Blob of people running around together killing stuff), so they are much better suited to play as a roamer or part of a small squad. Thief is a lot of fun to play at higher levels too, but can be somewhat of a pain to level in PVE, especially if it’s your 1st class.

Thank you for your reply, I really appreciate your insight. This is why I like the community in this game
If anyone has some other constructive opinion, I would love to hear it aswell

I’ve only gotten to know my thief for 8 levels, but it have 4-nearly 5- level 80s. My first character was a ranger, but I disliked the pet mechanic and most weapons, so dropped it early on (level 3 lol). I then got really into

elementalist. It is my favorite class because of it’s spell aesthetics and is actually really powerful in pve (my main game mode). I then leveled a

warrior to 80, which I like but agree, it’s sort of boring to me. I do like certain weapon sets, though. I then moved onto

Mesmer, disliking it, dropped it at level 20.

Guardian was my next full level character, I love the class, but it wasn’t as mobile or as interesting to me, because of my experience as an elementalist. So she remains as my “I want to have an easy dungeon run with randoms” class. Next, I finished my

ranger, because I fell in love with the sword/axe, sword/war horn, sword/torch weapon sets and she’s a hot ticket now, surprisingly high damage, but I have to pay a lot of attention to what my stupid pet is doing. Next,

Mesmer is nearly 80, and I really loved the sword on her as well, with offhand weapons, focus, pistol, torch , combat becomes nicely varied on Mesmer.

Thief is next on my list. I gave her my legendary I made for funnzies on my birthday this year, but she’s still a baby. I really love the stealth mechanic but also the necessity for close attention. Landing a backstab on the wrong side of an enemy stinks, and knowing when to use your skills is really fun. I also adore the mobility of the thief, and is likely the only class I’ll consider taking to wvw. Daggers and swords are very fun on thieves, and despite it being lower damage, I do adore double pistols. Just because I am an RPer and I have my own idea of what my character is. Note that certain weapons become important when you get to the advanced bits of the class, such as understanding combo fields and finishers. Some weapons have utility (like thief short bow) that are specifically good in those situations.

Thieves are squishy, sure. But I do think that for the most part, their utility and mechanics even themselves out with warriors, and are fairly balanced, because of that. They are generally sought after in high level fractals and dungeons, because it isn’t all about warriors in high end pve “anymore”.

Things I really care about: aesthetics. Medium armors have some really fabulous options, but sometimes there is a lack of non trench coat styles available. But here’s my thief, looking cute,

Mesmer was my first character, because it was similar to a class from a different MMO I played. Basically it’s illusions are part aggro management and part additional damage while you are blasting away at range. Basically “go after the guys next to you and ignore the guy at a distance blasting you with a beam weapon that gets stronger the further away they are”. May not be the most practical tactic but it does work well soloing. And in a game where there are few organized parties but flash mob events, you can find yourself soloing frequently unless you would rather mindlessly hook up with a champ or event train. I’m more of an explorer than that.

My other character is a thief. Yes they are brittle. But they do have a nice mix of melee and range attacks that allow me to take on some critters with ease that my Mesmer can’t as easily.

While guardians can be tanky they don’t have to be, they really are versatile class that can be tanky, but can also be traited for damage and have a good ranged option as well. (my guardian’s only in the 60s so others may be able to give more information on it)

Rangers are fairly similar to hunters in WoW (I have a ranger and a hunter at max level) but here they have the option of going melee as well and the pet does require a bit more controlling to keep it alive. As with the hunter I find the ranger good for solo play as it has a high survivability.

Necro is my other max level character in GW2 and the only minion I use is the elite flesh golem to hold agro for me. Most of my utilities are the wells and I have traited those for ground targeting so i can place them where I want. This may not be the optimised build but I play for fun and its a build i enjoy and isn’t too squishy.

Partly your choice will depend what style of play you enjoy. I tend to go for solo exploring a lot of the time with only the occasional dungeon or zerg event, and very rarely in to wvw, never pvp. Rangers particularly don’t seem welcome in dungeon pugs as they are easy to play but hard to play well.