Guild Wars 2

I’m new to the game (yet to make my character) and it’s been some time since I played an MMO, so I offer my apologies in advance for my complete “noobness” (or “noobiness”?).

I’m unsure which profession to choose. I’m certainly set on Sylvari for my race, and am currently feeling drawn to either Ranger or Thief, but I’m definitely open to suggestions. I read through a few topics/general guides to professions, watched a few videos and so forth, but I still cannot make up my mind.

I’m far more interested in PvE than PvP (or any of the other available forms of this), though PvP may be given some casual play on occasion in the future. In most RPGs I favour mage classes and occasionally warriors; so I’m hoping for a new experience.

I will be playing the game with a friend (just the one), who is mostly leaning toward playing as a Mesmer.

My reason for interest in the Thief profession is probably (quite obviously) the stealth, I think it would be interesting to move around a lot, be evasive, be attentive for the correct opportunity to attack; I guess I like the idea of being cautious, patient, and skillfull more than relying on auto-attacks and so on. Although I have had no experience with thieves/rogues in the past, and I’m sure it’s one of the more complicated (and harder to master [,though that does attract me]) classes, I also feel confident that I will grow accustomed to playing as such over time. The doubts I have are from uncertainty over the profession’s viability in PvE.

My interest in the ranger is not just from it being a new class to me, but the nice “matching” of a nature-oriented race and a nature-oriented Profession, as well as a slight admiration for archery/shooting from afar (though I have more of an interest in the quick movements/stealth of a thief). I have fewer doubts about the PvE viability of the profession, but am slightly discouraged by the use of pets; although I like the combination of melee (from the pet, which would also distract the enemy), and range (from myself of course), I would not want to become reliant upon the pet, nor engage in any kind of monotonous combat of simply shooting arrows while my pet strikes up close.

I guess to summarise, I would like to play a class with variable and active combat, that is enjoyable to play in terms of PvE (though hopefully would not be completely “done for” in PvP).

Any other classes that you would like to recommend (and reasons for doing so) would be greatly appreciated; as would further comments on these two professions in relation to my preferences. If you feel a guide would be necessary to enjoy PvE with either of these classes, then please do say so.

Thank you very much for reading!

I think your reason to pick ranger are off reasons. Silvari are plant people with a deep religious feeling in nature, but in a very different way then the ranger. See the ranger as a canadian mounty and a silvari as tarzan and you’ll recognise the difference. A ranger lives in the woods, and uses it while for tarzan it is its home.

Thief is definitly more challenging to play then the ranger so looking at what you are saying bout what your looking for, I would say thief. Specially cause with the pistols, you can be very well ranged.

Mercury is right that Thief is a more difficult profession to get used to. It’s a high risk, high reward profession. You have to learn the dodge mechanic quickly on Thief, which some players have trouble doing. That being said, Thieves can do some massive damage and their steal mechanic is interesting.

If you’re up for the challenge, go with Thief. You’ll make fast friends with Caithe (a famous Sylvari thief) that way. Rangers aren’t bad, either…but they are a little hindered sometimes by the pet AI. A ton of Sylvari rangers are in my guild, and they are very nice allies to have in parties (I have been “search and rescued” by a pet more often than I care to count!).

Thank you both for the replies! I think I’ll go with Thief for my first character, perhaps Ranger for the next.

mercury ranique.2170:

A ranger lives in the woods, and uses it while for tarzan it is its home.

It’s probably better said, ranger spends all his time at the pet hospital, watching his pets twitch and shake…
Rangers would do a lot better… at least catch up to other classes if they could just turn pet off. But they cant.

In a lot of ways, thief is a ranger here, probably more ranger than rangers. Did Legolas (or Aragorn) tow around a wild and hopeless pig? No, he used a bow, melee weapons and moved around swift and unnoticed. In GW2 that’s thief.

If you are having a hard time figuring out which Professions you might be interested in, check out this video for some nice Combat examples on all 8 professions:

You may also check this (Guide) out on the Link Below:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/GW2-Combat-system-101-Guide/first

Have fun! =)