Guild Wars 2

Hey all, I just started this game (fresh off the boat from Azeroth :P) and I don’t really know too much about the classes in this game and I was hoping that I could get a little help (I heard the GW2 was great)
In WoW I played a frost mage, for those of you that don’t know I really like to kite people, have survivability, and not a ton of damage but at least some quick burst and good CC
Thanks in advance!

bump for replies

hmmm, first of all pls dont bump after less then an hour. Secondly I wanr you I’ve never played WoW.

Having said that understand this is a totally different game build around very different principles. So best advise I can give is to jump in and try it.

But to give you a solid answer, if you look for the mechanic I think the engineer is your thing.
a: nice cc specially on single targets (my engineer with shotgun can keep a melee enemy at distance for the whole fight).
b: due to being medium armor they can take a good punch
c: they are the special ops. Its hard to explain to a newbe, but an engineer can do a lot of things that are specialisations. this comes with kits. e.g. there is a healing kit, basicly transforming you in a medic. There is also a granade kit, letting you throw granades to the enemy.

So maybe take my advise to try different things on your own, but start on the engineer

Definitely try on your own. You have five slots, so you can try out five of the eight professions, and keep one(s) you like, try out the others just to make sure. I think ele could fit you alright, but your stipulation about ‘not doing much damage’ is gonna bite you sooner or later. GW2 is a lot about being able to take care of yourself, so being able to kill relatively quickly will become important.

Mystic Starfish.2586:

Definitely try on your own. You have five slots, so you can try out five of the eight professions, and keep one(s) you like, try out the others just to make sure. I think ele could fit you alright, but your stipulation about ‘not doing much damage’ is gonna bite you sooner or later. GW2 is a lot about being able to take care of yourself, so being able to kill relatively quickly will become important.

Ye, Thats what was holding me back in naming ele (my engineer is my only lvl 80, followed by my lvl 64 ele).

Ele has a great punch but really needs to kill quick. the positive side is that you can do that as an ele. the negative side is that some enemy’s only have to look at you or you are dead (ok, figure of speech but still). Ele has weak armor and a low healthpool.

It’s not so much that I don’t like to do damage its just that I don’t need to see big numbers to have fun. I like CC and control but I do want to be able to hold my own 1v1. Mainly I like to feel like I’m in control of the battlefield, or at least an engagement.

In that case, 1v1 king is mesmer imo
pve wise they don’t have the aoes (from what i’ve seen), but they dominate in a 1v1 situation

here is the thing. The way the professions are setup in this game yo really have to do a trial and error of what makes you the most happy. You can modify through trates how survivable or how much damage you can do. True there are some classes that are more support then front line but you can over come all of this through how you setup your character through different weapon sets and how you set your trates.

example a necro can have

2 daggers and a staff
1 dagger and a horn with a staff
and axe with a horn and 2 daggers.

so forth and so on… each with a different result in how you handle events

I’d start out with Engineer, Elementalist, Necro or Guardian. All of those are more focused on strategy and kiting, etc, than straight damage.

You can make a character, then go straight to the PvP zone and it automatically gets upscaled to 80, so you can try out the max-level combos there. Each class plays differently at 80 than at 1, as you unlock skills and traits that has a big impact.

Mesmer sounds like what you are looking for.
great control, your damage depends on your build and you can kite all day.
It is a very interesting class to play.
You do have limited AOE but chaos storm on your staff is an awesome skill for both defense and offense.

i played a mage in wow and i love the ele in gw2, d/d is sweet

Nothing kites like a Ranger. And unlike Mesmers, they are quite durable, so you can take a punch and not wilt like a dying flower. I’ve played every profession and I haven’t been able to match some of the insane stuff I’ve pulled off as a Ranger, by any of the others. Not even close. In fact, I’m so impressed by them that I have two of them at 80 because I wanted to re-experience leveling with one again, from the very beginning.

The big drawback on Rangers though (for most people anyway), is your pet. Unless you learn to use them properly, treat them as an extension of your skill bar, rather than a fire-and-forget DPS missile, you will fail with them. They need to be heavily micromanaged and they are NOT optional. If that part of the profession isn’t to your liking, Mesmer might be a better option.

Pick up Frost Trap, Spike Trap, Signet of the Hunt and a shortbow, and you’ll be nearly untouchable be most melee mobs. Even groups of them. There’s a certain Troll Champion in Caledon Forest with his dozen adds, that would agree.

You’ll want to play Mesmer.

Personally I think mesmer would fit you pretty well. They are excellent at kiting and are more durable than the ele. They can do quite a bit of cc and you can still get some good aoe with shattering clones. I personally find the mesmer more fun to play than the ele just because I love the tricky nature of the mesmer where as eles feel a little more straight up, though they also have some excellent cc.

I agree with Blacklight. Ranger has lot of good crowd control. In my build I have two back to back knockdowns, a knockback, a daze, and an aoe fear available to me.

Engineers can have 5 immobilizes and 5 cripples in one build and do solid damage in that build. Had an entire set of utility skills (gadgets) dedicated to crowd control. They have the most combo fields (all but dark) and every finisher available.

Apparently the fact that it is the least played profession shows in what the general population knows of its capabilities. (this is coming from a player with all 8 classes at 80)

evanmcgrath.7326:

It’s not so much that I don’t like to do damage its just that I don’t need to see big numbers to have fun. I like CC and control but I do want to be able to hold my own 1v1. Mainly I like to feel like I’m in control of the battlefield, or at least an engagement.

Best PvE CC is probably hammer warrior.

Best PvP CC is certainly mesmer