Guild Wars 2

For the TL;DR, its kind of a 6 way tie

The short:

What I’m looking for: Class that supports using buffs/debuffs, DPSs great, tanks (kind of in that order? DPS/Tank is tied but if I really had to pick I would dps over it in my experience but its really close)

Classes that look dps/supporty:
Guardian
Elementalist
Engineer
Warrior

Classes that look really interesting to play
Mesmer
Thief

Elementalist looks like a squishy glass cannon, can they tank? I think I’m really tied between Guardian and Elementalist, but Engineer looks really interesting too (reminds me of tactian in rift which I enjoyed). Warrior seems like standard dps+bit of support with the banners and the builder – > finisher combo reminds me of rift and I would probably put it at the bottom of the 6 because its what I’m most familar with and would probably get bored.

Mes and thief look really interesting to try out and play but I don’t know if I would stick with them/enjoy another class more. What utility/support do Mes/Thieves bring? Mes is definitely the more interesting of the 2, but thief looks like an interesting variation on the classic rogue with its weapon stealing.

The long:

So, I’m coming from Rift where I played a Rogue and Mage (I also had low level warrior and cleric characters, warrior in rift was “meh”, but the cleric seemed fun with heal tanking being an option, and cleric support was much the same as rogue support, but had more healing options as rogue only had 1 buff/debuff soul and 1 healing soul, while cleric had 1 buff/debuff soul, and 2? or 3? healing souls to choose from, same with the healing, I liked how cleric had had st healing and aoe healing options for dungeons/raids. I would have changed cleric to my main if Trion didn’t ruin dungeons by removing gear reward chests from random queue and just taking away motivation to play).

I leveled up the rogue as an aoe dps/support and then mained as a full Support in raids (buffs/debuffs, some heals), but I also had a mobile melee tank role and any dps role you wanted set up for that rogue (Melee, range, st, aoe, you name it I had a spec set up for it, it only took me till end game to go “I should be more varied” and create multiple specs I could swap through mid dungeon (you could change spec any time, it was just a 1-2 second cast and you had to not be in combat) (hence all the variations on dps; aoe for trash, st for bosses) (Favourite memory is playing as a melee dps, and the tank dies, so I quickly pop stealth to get out of combat and change to tank spec and leap back in taking all the aggro and saving party from a wipe on the last boss)).

I played tank often in dungeons, primarly because of how the lfg queue was set up and how no one ever selected tank so I was shunted into that 80% of the time and I was fine main tanking if needed but it wasn’t my “go to” preference role (I did learn to enjoy tanking a lot though, where if we needed it I would volunteer), the rest of the time I played aoe dps in open world, and if I was put in “support” role in regular dungeons I played as a 3rd dpser (for faster clear, support didn’t have much of an impact in normal dungeons compared to raid support, I would swap to proper support if we needed buffs/debuffs, an off healer, or it was a decent boss fight and I was initially selected as the role, hell I played support in dungeons the majority of the time until someone pointed out the clear time difference with 3 dps instead of 2dps+1support).

Mage was set up as a range st dps with some aoe where I just rolled pyro and topped dps, I also had a healer spec. I enjoyed healing and if the main healer in a dungeon was struggling and we wiped a few times on a boss I would ask if the support or the main healer them selves wanted to swap roles from support/healer to dps so I could play 2nd healer/main healer, but I played primarly as dps on mage.

For pvp I played souly as dps on my mage (only swapping to healer to refill my hp between fights/when it was a “hold the flag and don’t die” map), because range, and could kill people so quickly.

For rogue pvp I tried my hand at melee dps every so often, but chasing people if I didn’t kill them quickly enough was an annoyance, (reason for not going range, is because it had lower dps than melee, and it took a bit to build up), where I really shined as rogue in pvp was as range dps support where I could just sustain myself and others for days with my buffs/heals and kill decently with my debuffs+burst.

I also played SWTOR as a Sniper (pure range st dps), and Mercenary (Healer spec) and really enjoyed both.

So yeah, what class in guild wars 2 would fit me decently?

I would recommend starting as a guardian. Guardian can provide excellent support in the form of party wide active defenses while maintaining high dps. The trinity that you’re used to isn’t present in Guild Wars 2. Most people are their own healers (we actually have our own dedicated healing skill slot). Though some friendly healing can help a party survive.

Elementalist is also capable of support, but it is mostly in ensuring the party’s damage stays high (as far as a dungeon environment goes). They can also spec for healing/debuffing, but they tend to sacrifice DPS when they do this.

I agree completely with Barna, except the Guardian bit.

I read your whole wall of text and from what I see,
You will appreciate:

• flexibility in professional utility
• the capability to multi-task

So I wouldn’t recommend a Guardian. A Guardian is by no means flexible – you do not have access to many of the mechanics other classes have access to. Guardians are a bit straightforward. Not as much as Warriors, but still – the only level of skill you need is to know when to cleanse yourself, when to block, and when to dodge.

That said, from your tale, I believe a Thief or an Engineer would be the best for you.
A Thief is an utility knife. An Engineer is an utility… shovel/pick/flashbang.

First, I wouldn’t pick a Mesmer because the playstyle is very advanced. Mesmers have some easily accessible utility, like Invisibility, and Quickness. But the real, real playstyle and utility are neither straightforward, nor easily reachable.

Second, a Thief is a master tactician, as you thought. Initiative allows you to prioritize your weapon skills to their maximum effect. If you need to, you can stun someone 5 times in a row, dodge 4 extra times in a row, teleport away 4 times in a row (huge distance), and keep a bunch of mobs blinded. In short: it’s intelligent. It allows for your skill to build gradually, while the bigger part of Mesmer potential is unlocked more when you know what everyone else can do and you kind of dig into the obscure skills you have. The utilities you bring are: maximum Stealth, maximum Stunning, good Blinding, maximum Single-Target DPS, maximum Evading (for survival).

Third, an Engineer is one huge awesome multi-purpose Shovel. In many aspects, you are a Jack of All Trades. You have access to a baffling amount of skills, so you might get lost like a hamster in a haystack, if you insist on set rotations. They name it, you got it. If you apply yourself properly, you can also win the field. Any field. Utilities: medium Stealth, high CC (but spread out, so you can’t use it all at the same time), medium Boons, maximum Survival, low-medium Confusion, and… a bag of treats, really! A Personal Battering Ram. A Mobile Mortar. Access to both Reflection and Stealth. You can turn into both an Elementalist Tornado -and- a Warrior’s “Avatar” state. Don’t forget you can also opt to be immune to movement-impeding conditions.

Have great fun!

If you like to challenge yourself, I would recommend the elementalist, too.
They are in fact a bit squishy at the start – your first map explorations can get a bit hairy at some points (mostly at some skill points guarded by a bigger mob), but once you grow out of this, you are really awesome (high flexibility).

I started with an ele and my first exotic armor was more defensive (with dolyak runes and so on), so that I had enough time to learn the class mechanics and so on. I was able to switch to a full glasscannon style (scholar runes etc) after a few weeks and I absolutely love my damage. I prefer the staff, because it’s the only ranged weapon in the entire game that does really good damage (in fact, its often better than melee weapons on other classes) and there are plenty of ways to survive, too, through the utility skills (like mist form, cleansing fire, armor of earth, arcane shield…) so it’s no problem that the health is kinda low.

I got 7 classes on 80 and did the Living Story Season 2 on 6 of them, and the ele had the best outcome.