Guild Wars 2

Hi, so I have returned to Guild Wars 2 after a loooong break, and I have very little idea what’s going on right now, so I wanted to start completely new and level a class from 0. However, I would very much like some advises as to what I should choose right now and what would fit me best, here are some facts about me:

I love damage. A lot. And I’m a bit egotistic, so I don’t really mind if I have little support and get buffed mostly. If there is some way to support my group without impacting my own output, great, otherwise only in emergency situations.

I prefer ranged dps. Going melee in some circumstances is OK, but I really prefer to have at least a bit of distance to my enemy and have someone else getting the crap beaten out of them in the front.

I am mostly a PvE player, something like 8o-90% pve and 10-20% pvp, and if I do pvp its WvW (never liked arena).

I don’t mind complicated mechanics. Sure press 2 to win is cool, but I have been a hardcore MMO player for 7 years now, so if I have to press more then 2 buttons I think I could manage.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

For general PvE, it really doesn’t matter what class or weapon set you run. You could easily create an effective ranged DPS character with Mesmer, Elementalist, Engineer, Necro, or Ranger. The other three professions have ranged options, but might be less than ideal as pure ranged DPS.

That said, with the things you mentioned, my recommendation is an Elementalist.

Staff Elementalist is great in dungeons, and it is good in WvW as long as you stay with a group. Staff can be very disruptive against large enemy groups, but obviously you’d need a group of your own to help you stay alive.

You’re going to have a hard time, though, if you like to solo roam in WvW. Unfortunately, for solo roaming, you’d want to switch to a mid-range or melee weapon set, as staff is not tailored for 1v1 encounters at all, and the Elementalist’s squishiness makes it unforgiving.

Even if you spec for pure DPS on your Ele, you’ll still be able to provide a bit of group support through CC, water fields, and boons. Just be aware that traiting for pure DPS easily makes an Ele the squishiest class in the game.

Trait synergy isn’t great right now, but it sounds like the devs are working on making improvements next month, so those of us who play Ele on a regular basis have our fingers crossed.

Have fun.

Well, high dps is almost exclusive to melee dps in GW2. The highest dps you have 2 options. The first is an engineer using a grenade kit. The second is a staff ele focusing on fire spells.

Currently, the warrior is one of the most accepted high dps classes since their high dps builds are so versatile to group compositions and boss fights. However, there are other classes that can do equal or greater dps with builds that are less popular/understood. Examples of this are eles that build around using a conjured lightning hammer build and rangers that use a sword/warhorn build.

If you’re unsure, roll a class, get it past the intro part (to about lvl 2), then enter the Mists (the PvP test area). In that area, you’ll have all of the skills and abilities unlocked and can test out stuff on either stationary dummies or test enemies that fight back.

There isn’t really a specific “Ranged DPS” class, everyone is capable of putting out decent numbers at range if you spec for it. Thief is the only class that lacks a specific long range weapon (but he still has medium ranged pistol for strong ranged dps).

Are there any other details you can provide about your playstyle?

I have been reading different topics throughout the night and it seems that ranges are currently in a really bad position, since you need to be melee to execute blast finishers, if you don’t execute blast finishers you don’t get fury and generate no might, ergo you are not well accepted. Staff ele is supposed to be a hybrid staying in 600 (max) range and going in now and then to execute a blast finisher with arcane blast, and Ingi (who is supposed to be a significantly weaker dd) has still be very close to the others (who will be mostly melee) to benefit from might gen while stacking vuln.

*A few more aspects about my play style: *
I prefer target centred aoe to ground based aoe (which sort of annoys me with ele) e.g. chain lightning or mind sear in wow, don’t know if there even is something like that in gw2, but i think i can manage and get used to that.

I like magic. Playing a viscous brute with a huge sword who just cuts everything to ribbons would not be my preferred play style, but I love damage and efficiency even more so I think I could manage, especially if i can get my hands on some magic sword

I already have a lvl 80 necro , 40 guard, 20 warry and ele, the necro unfortunately being an immense disappointment to me. Right now I am pending between warrior and ele, though i am open for suggestions.

then you can got for longbow warrior, providing group (and ofc yourself) with fire field and banners. but group will still want you somewhere close, so that they get benefits from your buffs too

longbow is a bit lacking versus single targets, but kitten aoe and integrated aoe fire combo makes up for it

if you are not confident in melee range, then gs is perfect escape mechanism (free evade – ‘whirlwind’ and with auto target off – ‘rush’), and if you have 5s weapon swap trait, you can go back to longbow in no time

Have you considered Mesmer? They are incredibly powerful at range, and have a lot of magic and illusions going on that make for extremely interesting tactical choices. However, they do not have much AoE going on, but the summoned Illusions generally hit more than one thing. The utilities are pretty interesting and allow for viable tactics such as veil, portal bombing, time warp and whatever else you can come up with. They are appreciated in PvE, hold their own in PvP and can influence a battle significantly in WvW. If something does manage to catch you, slip out with a quick teleport or stealth – or die. Sounds like something you’d appreciate?

I would say elementist, its not a very good pvp-er but its got AOE which can lead to high DPS if you play it correctly. Some of the AOE support your team-mates, and the weoppons are both ranged and meelae, and I felt an emphasis on the ranged attacks.

I’ve got level 80 ranger, elementalist, mesmer and warrior.

I’ve also got a level 73 thief, level 41 guardian, level 23 engineer and a level 19 necro.

Mesmer is my favorite. Only problem is I wish I could carry 3 weapon sets – love the GS, staff and the sword/*.

I have a lvl 80 everything, but instead of recommending something specific I’ll give you food for thought to help you make a decision:

General concepts:
I’ve found that picking a character in GW2 isn’t as much about what role you wish to play on the field as what “feel” you like to have in a character. For example, imagine two characters in a random different MMO, one drops nukes every minute and the other fires a tank shell every second. Suppose that when the math is worked out that over time these two characters have the same damage output. The difference is one has a fast tempo and one has a slow tempo. They are both effective, but they have a different feel. This is the primary difference between GW2 classes. On that note, I’ll describe some of the attributes of the classes.

About the ele:
The ele with a staff is a slower tempo point AOE damage from long range, while the dual daggers ele is a fast tempo from short range. An effective ele player can run through sequences of skills and attribute changes rapidly, requiring memorizing skill chains and a bit of keyboard crunching skills to execute effectively. Due to attunements, they have the second highest number of actual skills available to them in a single combat session (meaning no manual weapon swaps) in the game, first being an engineer loaded with 3 weapon kits. This means a single engagement can have a lot of tactical variety. They have some of the best mobility options in the game if you like a character that jumps around. Support is possible with the many fields they generate and while control options may be a bit limited, they are definitely available.

Engineer:
The king of variety, this class usually reaches its peak performace through its control options rather than raw damage, though raw damage is possible at the expense of survivability (google engineer SD build). The engineer is usually a reactive class with a high tempo, watching what its opponent needs then acting against it through snaring knockbacks and blocking. It is also fairly keyboard intense with toolbelt skills and weapon kits playing critical rolls in most builds. As mentioned, the grenade kit with the lvl 30 grenade trait is about as much AOE damage as can be done at the very long range of 1500 which is longer than any class except possibly the ranger. All grenade skills are ground target, again adding to the keyboard intensity. The bomb kit actually does more damage, but is a melee range PbAOE kit, and engineers that spec damage usually don’t survive close encounters where the damage outputs of all classes increase generally speaking.

Ranger:
Rangers can do damage but are usually the most effective when they are built for survivability. They can be the most difficult class to kill in the game. When built for damage however, they do put out a decent punch. The longbow is a slow tempo weapon where the shortbow is a faster tempo weapon. The ranger is fairly easy to play in terms of keyboard intensity but you have to take care of your pet for some of the master/pet skills to work which can be hard in tough areas. When built for damage, team support is fairly minimal, though there are control options available.

You already mentioned you didn’t like the necro, so I’m assuming you don’t like to play high condition damage builds which is how the necro tends to do its damage.

Mesmers can be built for ranged damage as well, but rely on phantoms remaining alive for some pve fights. The pistol phantom was strong enough to get nerfed in terms of recharge time, so you know its good Mesmers can be difficult to kill if you can’t figure out which one is the real one (look for the one strafing, rolling, or walking backwards as illusions cant do this). It is generally a high tempo class with lots of moving around. In PVE, opponents tend to figure out the real Mesmer fairly quickly however, so the class relies on other control techniques to stay alive, of which there are several. It is also a good support class.

Hope this helps, and good hunting