Guild Wars 2

So I’ve been playing GW2 on and off since the 3 day prepurchase. My issue was that I just couldn’t bring myself to love my warrior. As a long-term wow player and tank (I played a warrior and DK) it just didn’t FEEL right. I’ve decided to come back to GW2 while awaiting the Garrosh patch and would like a recommendation of class. I’ve tried Guardian but I just couldn’t do it. My preferred play style is melee, but as with most of GW2, I’m open to new things!

Help me forum. :L

Your preferred play style is melee, but somehow the Warrior (high DPS, heavy armour) or Guardian (medium DPS, nice healing, heavy armour) isn’t your thing? Well, those are actually the only two classes that can easily melee something, the others will have to kite way more not to get too much dmg on them..

Advice here to give: experiment.. You have 5 character slots, feel free to create a toon and head to PvP (to unlock all skills and stuff) and see if you could love their skills/playstyle/…

I’d actually recommend just trying something you don’t expect you’d enjoy.

You see, before I got into the game, I was so sure that my main would be a Norn Ranger, and I’d probably have a Human Thief too. Perhaps some Sylvari Necromancer as well?

That were the thoughts I had, and was sure I’d keep on to till launch. Back in my WoW days, I had always played Hunter and Druid (Feral).

But during the betas, the first thing I found out, was that I didn’t really like the norn very much. And ranger actually disappointed me a little bit. It was fun, but I had expected a bit more, I think. Something different.

I tried out a little bit of all of the professions within short time, save for elementalist and engineer. I did enjoy ranger and thief, but I decided, at the end of the last beta, to try elementalist. And what a joy I had just found! I was so sad there was only that day left of the beta, for I just discovered how much I enjoyed elementalist. In the mean time I had also tried the charr, (this elementalist was a norn) and as the beta finished, I knew exactly what my main would be; charr elementalist.

I’m still playing on my charr ele. today, as my main character. I have a human ranger that I don’t play a whole lot on. To my surprise, I also have a charr engineer I enjoy playing on, which is odd to me because of all the professions I thought engineer would be at the bottom of the list for me.

TL;DR; Try out some of the professions you don’t really expect much from. I can inform you that the ranger can be melee if you want it to be; sword/dagger is a pretty neat combination for it.

I agree with Cherrylin. Try some other professions, you may surprise yourself.

I swore during beta that I’d be rocking a sylvari ranger main and probably an ele too. And I’d never touch an engineer. Now, my main is an asura engineer, I’ve gotten bored with ranger, and sylvari have lost their asthetic luster. My ele is lvl 11. You just never know.

Try thief and ranger. They are very melee capable but not your typical tank-n-spank style, requiring dodging, stealth, and avoidance. Try engineer with their mid-range fighting using flamethrower, tool kit, and bombs. Heck, try mesmer with a 1h sword and become an illusionary duelist. You may find the less conventional melee fighters are more fun.

Depending on how long you’ve been away from the game give Warrior and Guardian another shot. Also what exactly didn’t you like about Warrior/Guardian? Answering that could help us out, since you can technically melee (in some capacity) as any profession in GW2.

With Warrior, I just didn’t care for how useless gearing “full tank” (power/toughness/vitality) was. I tried going Zerker, didn’t care for it one bit. I leveled a Guardian to 31 but the flames on the UI and from what seemed to be button mashing style of it didn’t sit well with me.

Currently, I’m trying Necro and liking it thus far, but I don’t like how, as melee, I’d always get wrecked, even in aforementioned gear.

Hope I’ve given some insight.

Agree with above, I tried a necro and HATED it at first. It’s now my third favourite after thief and guardian. You never know what could surprise you.

Cherrylin.5869:

In the mean time I had also tried the charr, (this elementalist was a norn) and as the beta finished, I knew exactly what my main would be; charr elementalist.

Yessssss. (To be technical, I now also main a sylvari elementalist, but my charr ele is still my go-to for soloing all the things that are not meant to be soloed and has a special place in my heart.)

Sagramor.7395:

Depending on how long you’ve been away from the game give Warrior and Guardian another shot. Also what exactly didn’t you like about Warrior/Guardian? Answering that could help us out, since you can technically melee (in some capacity) as any profession in GW2.

What he said- if you can give us details on what you didn’t like (and things you did like), we can help you pinpoint a class. I should mention also that there is no dedicated tank or healer in GW2, so that might have contributed to a class feeling off.

Sorry for the lack of detail, as I keep having to provide more information, but I have played my girlfriends elementalist and LOVED it. They’re fast paced and I get really into it. Though it’s just not a class I see myself maining. I see it as a treat when shes too lazy to do something herself lol. Perhaps I should suck it up and play Guardian? They have positive aspects, but the UI flames drive me up a wall.

Dedricus.3091:

With Warrior, I just didn’t care for how useless gearing “full tank” (power/toughness/vitality) was

No offense but it sounds like you allowed preconceptions to box you in and then moved on. Of course warrior may in fact not be right for you, but if you think maybe a second look is in order;

Soldier’s is not necessarily the only way to gear a “tanky” warrior. Knight’s gear swaps the vitality for precision, which adds some extra damage, and does not mean it is wasted without crit damage; it synergizes well with proc-dependent gear like sigil of blood or the elemental sigils.

There are also a few ways to run a bleed warrior, allowing you to look at condition damage, duration, and the skills include multiple roots which adds a whole new aspect that you might like.

On the other hand, while I am a warrior fan I really like the thief class in a tanky melee build (sort of tanky at least).

No offense taken at all! I’m glad to hear any feedback at all. I may try and give condi warrior a shot. Sounds weird, but heck, I’ll do it! Otherwise, Necro seems like my second choice.

Dedricus.3091:

Sorry for the lack of detail, as I keep having to provide more information, but I have played my girlfriends elementalist and LOVED it. They’re fast paced and I get really into it. Though it’s just not a class I see myself maining. I see it as a treat when shes too lazy to do something herself lol. Perhaps I should suck it up and play Guardian? They have positive aspects, but the UI flames drive me up a wall.

Dedricus.3091:

No offense taken at all! I’m glad to hear any feedback at all. I may try and give condi warrior a shot. Sounds weird, but heck, I’ll do it! Otherwise, Necro seems like my second choice.

You loved it,why wouldn’t you main it?

Hmm, if it’s all right, could you explain why you don’t see yourself maining ele? If it’s something like having trouble staying alive, or feeling like some of the skills don’t have a use, there might be advice for that. I had some trouble getting into ele at first, when I didn’t understand everything and kept dying. After sticking with it and playing it for many months, though, everything is second nature to the point that I don’t even notice myself thinking about what skill to use next. I can’t bring myself to play anything else.

On the topic of dying often, is surviving an issue for you? I’ve known people who had trouble getting into a class or the game because they had difficulty staying alive even if they geared completely defensively. Or do you survive all right, but miss the feeling of being a tank?

(Also, I should apologize myself for asking so many things, especially given that I missed your post right above mine.)

Surviving is in fact an issue for me. I know how to roll just fine, yada yada. Be it what it may, I’ve never ever liked ranged. EVER. As I said, ele feels more like a treat than something Id sit down and play.

And I welcome questions.

Dedricus.3091:

Surviving is in fact an issue for me. I know how to roll just fine, yada yada. Be it what it may, I’ve never ever liked ranged. EVER. As I said, ele feels more like a treat than something Id sit down and play.

And I welcome questions.

Ranged doesn’t necessarily mean less tanky.
Rangers,Necros,Engineers,Guardians,Warriors all have absolutely no issues surviving easily.
Eles are in-between: generally it’s not an issue anyhow,however there will be a few hard encounters.
Same applies for thief: as long as you can blind things,np,but when you can’t (such as bosses) then survivability reaches 0.

Yet I have issues surviving with a warrior.

Am I just bad?

I’d also like some more elaboration on what fell through on the Warrior. Tanking in WoW is completely different than “tanking” (and I use that term loosely) in GW2. I agree that gearing full Soldier is going to make you feel pretty ineffective, unless you’re in a zerg environment.

Sagramor.7395:

I’d also like some more elaboration on what fell through on the Warrior.

Unless I was geared full soldier, I found myself constantly dying.

Dedricus.3091:

Yet I have issues surviving with a warrior.

Am I just bad?

Consider what I said about tanking being completely different in GW2 than WoW. In GW2 you have to actively Dodge/Parry/Block, where in WoW that was all passive. You can’t just stand there in Soldier gear an expect everything to be okay.

And I’d like to think I’m a decent Dodger. I suppose I was half expecting to be ok by sitting there. At the same time, I know that’s not the case in GW2. I also feel like other classes can synergize with defensive stats better than Warriors can.

Dedricus.3091:

And I’d like to think I’m a decent Dodger. I suppose I was half expecting to be ok by sitting there. At the same time, I know that’s not the case in GW2. I also feel like other classes can synergize with defensive stats better than Warriors can.

Early on,warriors don’t really tank that much you’d except (level 1-5) but then the tanking is there.
Mace+Shield/Hammer,for example,give you complete single target dominance.
After getting your first utility slot,the first banner will provide you almost endelessy swiftness,tanking potential and a few cool skills to use.

Also,it’s not all about dodging,it’s all about what to dodge.
Dodging simple crappy attacks will actually hurt you more as you won’t be able to dodge the painful ones.

Would you mind linking the build you were last using on your Warrior when you felt useless?

Sagramor.7395:

Would you mind linking the build you were last using on your Warrior when you felt useless?

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mmRVcM9cmRwgmmRwFma0xx0cMRqMVq

10/0/30/30/0

Try this build in sPvP: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNApeSncOk8YzDSBBFZAB94KqCBUVAOSPEjBMNA
Go to any capture point,and hold it off.
Conditions? use adrenaline or shouts.
Damage? shouts will passively grant you it.
Tanking? hammer’s disables,shield’s blocks and stuns,along with mace’s dazes you’ll have very little issues.
Also,healing shouts here does the difference.

Equip healing/thoughness thingies.

Tribio.8531:

Your preferred play style is melee, but somehow the Warrior (high DPS, heavy armour) or Guardian (medium DPS, nice healing, heavy armour) isn’t your thing? Well, those are actually the only two classes that can easily melee something, the others will have to kite way more not to get too much dmg on them..

Advice here to give: experiment.. You have 5 character slots, feel free to create a toon and head to PvP (to unlock all skills and stuff) and see if you could love their skills/playstyle/…

I take offense to that. I melee just fine on my mesmer. Really though the base warrior sucks, what matters is your traits, both skills and points. You can build any class to be tanklike (some are better than others) or really strong. You just have to experiment with traits and find a build you like. Though you might try stepping out of your comfort zone, you might find you enjoy a class.

One thing to keep in mind is that no profession will ever play like a typical MMO tank. Kiting is important for every GW2 profession to learn and no character can just stand there and constantly hold mob agrro, esp. by the vets and champs, no matter how you are specc-ed.

Even with tough, melee characters you should be running in and out of the mob’s melee range and you should be trading off the aggro with others. If you are holding all the aggro all the time, you are going to die (and your fellow players aren’t doing their jobs either).

To envision this, I like to bring up the cave troll fight in the Fellowship of the Ring movie. In that fight you don’t just see Gimli (arguably the most “tank-like” of the Fellowship) just standing in front of the troll holding all of its attention and letting himself get repeatedly hit. Gimli outright retreats when he catches a load of troll ‘aggro’ and many of the group take a turn (or several) at getting the troll’s attention including Legolas and even the hobbits.

GW2 comes much closer to emulating this kind of theatrical (and far more interesting) combat than the typical MMO where one tank stands in front of the mob and is expected to keep its attention the entire fight.

If you don’t want to play a ranged elementalist, try a double dagger ele. It’s very fun and you’re right in the middle of the front of the fight. But even moreso than with other profession you have to be ready to tactically pull back and let someone else fill the line to give you a respite.

DoctorOverlord.8620:

One thing to keep in mind is that no profession will ever play like a typical MMO tank. Kiting is important for every GW2 profession to learn and no character can just stand there and constantly hold mob agrro, esp. by the vets and champs, no matter how you are specc-ed.

Even with tough, melee characters you should be running in and out of the mob’s melee range and you should be trading off the aggro with others. If you are holding all the aggro all the time, you are going to die (and your fellow players aren’t doing their jobs either).

To envision this, I like to bring up the cave troll fight in the Fellowship of the Ring movie. In that fight you don’t just see Gimli (arguably the most “tank-like” of the Fellowship) just standing in front of the troll holding all of its attention and letting himself get repeatedly hit. Gimli outright retreats when he catches a load of troll ‘aggro’ and many of the group take a turn (or several) at getting the troll’s attention including Legolas and even the hobbits.

GW2 comes much closer to emulating this kind of theatrical (and far more interesting) combat than the typical MMO where one tank stands in front of the mob and is expected to keep its attention the entire fight.

If you don’t want to play a ranged elementalist, try a double dagger ele. It’s very fun and you’re right in the middle of the front of the fight. But even moreso than with other profession you have to be ready to tactically pull back and let someone else fill the line to give you a respite.

Wow, that couldn’t have been explained any better! Thank you very much. That really opened my eyes to some new stuff. Who knows what may happen.

If you can’t decide, I’d recommend running as a very versatile class until you get enough feel for it and seeing certain classes to be able to decide yourself…

Or you can be like me and play the game since launch and still have no idea what class to pick lol…

Versatile Classes btw: Guardian, Guardian and Guardian :P

The Baws.5164:

Versatile Classes btw: Guardian, Guardian and Guardian :P

I figured as much lol.

DoctorOverlord.8620:

One thing to keep in mind is that no profession will ever play like a typical MMO tank. Kiting is important for every GW2 profession to learn and no character can just stand there and constantly hold mob agrro, esp. by the vets and champs, no matter how you are specc-ed.

Even with tough, melee characters you should be running in and out of the mob’s melee range and you should be trading off the aggro with others. If you are holding all the aggro all the time, you are going to die (and your fellow players aren’t doing their jobs either).

To envision this, I like to bring up the cave troll fight in the Fellowship of the Ring movie. In that fight you don’t just see Gimli (arguably the most “tank-like” of the Fellowship) just standing in front of the troll holding all of its attention and letting himself get repeatedly hit. Gimli outright retreats when he catches a load of troll ‘aggro’ and many of the group take a turn (or several) at getting the troll’s attention including Legolas and even the hobbits.

GW2 comes much closer to emulating this kind of theatrical (and far more interesting) combat than the typical MMO where one tank stands in front of the mob and is expected to keep its attention the entire fight.

If you don’t want to play a ranged elementalist, try a double dagger ele. It’s very fun and you’re right in the middle of the front of the fight. But even moreso than with other profession you have to be ready to tactically pull back and let someone else fill the line to give you a respite.

This post puts things perfectly. I will also second the recommendation regarding a dagger ele (which I main myself). It’s actually an extremely strong melee-range class when you trait it right- it has lots of recovery and damage mitigation.

If you want an example of how the class plays, here’s a video I made to help demonstrate movement in combat to my old guildmates: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMec3mSGPzg

And two other videos to go with it:
-The same fight, but I stand absolutely still instead of moving around and fighting actively. (Spoiler: it doesn’t end well.)
-Avoiding every single attack from a champion simply by running around

They’re all kind of old and I make a lot of mistakes in them, but hopefully it sheds some light on how you would fight, not just as a dagger ele, but as any class. If you’ll be playing later today, I can demonstrate some techniques and explain other mechanics (movement control, combos, boons, etc) in-game if you’d like.

Dedricus.3091:

DoctorOverlord.8620:

One thing to keep in mind is that no profession will ever play like a typical MMO tank. Kiting is important for every GW2 profession to learn and no character can just stand there and constantly hold mob agrro, esp. by the vets and champs, no matter how you are specc-ed.

Even with tough, melee characters you should be running in and out of the mob’s melee range and you should be trading off the aggro with others. If you are holding all the aggro all the time, you are going to die (and your fellow players aren’t doing their jobs either).

To envision this, I like to bring up the cave troll fight in the Fellowship of the Ring movie. In that fight you don’t just see Gimli (arguably the most “tank-like” of the Fellowship) just standing in front of the troll holding all of its attention and letting himself get repeatedly hit. Gimli outright retreats when he catches a load of troll ‘aggro’ and many of the group take a turn (or several) at getting the troll’s attention including Legolas and even the hobbits.

GW2 comes much closer to emulating this kind of theatrical (and far more interesting) combat than the typical MMO where one tank stands in front of the mob and is expected to keep its attention the entire fight.

If you don’t want to play a ranged elementalist, try a double dagger ele. It’s very fun and you’re right in the middle of the front of the fight. But even moreso than with other profession you have to be ready to tactically pull back and let someone else fill the line to give you a respite.

Wow, that couldn’t have been explained any better! Thank you very much. That really opened my eyes to some new stuff. Who knows what may happen.

If you ever want to put that into practice there is a Troll who do live in a cave in Queensdale. Just try and wow/tank him and see what happen, no need for dungeon.

Falun, I added you. Perhaps I’m not doing something right. However, in response to your videos, you’re a ranged. I couldn’t pull anything like that off on my warrior.

Dedricus.3091:

Sagramor.7395:

Would you mind linking the build you were last using on your Warrior when you felt useless?

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mmRVcM9cmRwgmmRwFma0xx0cMRqMVq

10/0/30/30/0

I’m gonna assume this is an old link because the traits don’t jive with your utilities. Traited for banners, but no banners?

Sagramor.7395:

Dedricus.3091:

Sagramor.7395:

Would you mind linking the build you were last using on your Warrior when you felt useless?

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mmRVcM9cmRwgmmRwFma0xx0cMRqMVq

10/0/30/30/0

I’m gonna assume this is an old link because the traits don’t jive with your utilities. Traited for banners, but no banners?

Odd. Yeah it is. I bookmark everything. XD

They shuffled some traits around not too long ago. Use intothemists.com I’m pretty sure that’s the most up to date one. If you could show the complete build including gear and everything that would be great.

Bah. It was just power/toughness/vitality gear. I was nothing more than a useless dps capable of taking 1 more hit.

It was useless and I think I’ve decided on Necro.

Rainbow Sprint.3215:

I take offense to that. I melee just fine on my mesmer. Really though the base warrior sucks, what matters is your traits, both skills and points. You can build any class to be tanklike (some are better than others) or really strong. You just have to experiment with traits and find a build you like. Though you might try stepping out of your comfort zone, you might find you enjoy a class.

No offense was meant here, but since it’s a new player, it’s better to don’t start giving hard-to-master builds.. How many D/D ele’s did you see in WvW when they were still so OP? And how many of those had no clue whatsoever how to play it? :-)

So I agree that you can indeed tank with a light/medium armour (if you trait), but safe to assume is that the lower your armor rating, the bigger the distance to your enemy is?

We should probably step away from the term ‘tanking’. In GW2, this is replaced by control. For a warrior, fiddle around with Hammer, Mace, and shield. You can achieve a constant uptime of weakness, and interrupt enemies with knocks, dazes and stuns.

If you’re looking for some fast paced melee, I’d suggest trying out the D/D Elementalist making use of the new Fresh Air trait. You won’t be constrained to putting 30 points in Arcane, which will give you a lot of flexibility in exactly what kind of build you want to make. I’m in no way an expert on Elementalists, but I think my Ele is pretty tanky. You have to be fast, and you have to kite constantly, but the damage is nice, you’re close range, you have a ton of mobility, and about a kagillion skills and combinations to cycle through.

If you don’t like being that squishy, however, I’m also playing a shout-build warrior that uses sword/axe and is focused on condition damage. I do a heck of a ton of bleeding damage constantly, plus decent base damage throughout. Warrior is by far the easiest class to tank in, in my opinion – you do high damage, you aren’t squishy, you can hit a lot of enemies at once, etc. etc. My warrior is my go to for solo’ing anything and everything.

I think the Ele is more “fun”, and can be super powerful, but the warrior is less complicated and far more lenient.