Guild Wars 2

Hi all!

I’ve really recently bought GW2 and, after playing a bit with every class, can’t seem to find one to stick to. I usually planned to go with an Elementalist, but the whole “Miss a single skill and die to even-leveled mobs” is really starting to ruin it for me.

So, after trying every class today, I’m stuck with these 3 “final” options :

Thief : While it seems to have good potential overall, the actual weapon combo feels rather lackluster and boring to execute. Not sure whether I like it or not, but it’s still there.

Ranger : I’ve totally fallen in love with the Sword/Dagger AA animation, but I’m rather skeptical about how viable the snare effect makes this class. Forums seems to believe the class is underpowered too. And the pets are really boring compared to ranger pets in other games.

Engineer : Like the thief, seems to have good overall potential and much more utility, though overall I haven’t been impressed much when trying it (seeing some good guides and such might shed some light on this though)

As you can see, no Warrior/Guardian, for the simple reason that I do not like the look of heavy armor. Hopefully you guys can provide me some insight on all this!

Well what do you plan to do with your class? Ranger would be easiest to level with, while engi takes probably the longest in the game. You seem to like ranger better than the other two, so I would pick that. It really doesn’t matter all that much what other people think of the class.

I’m planning on doing mostly solo PvE to level, with some WvWvW on the side. Would want a char with decent group utility and roaming power I guess (which is one of the reason I considered Thief when I do not like how it plays).

But you’re mostly right about the Ranger, my only real concern with him is whether or nor that Sword Animation will get me killed or not, though I can always look that up in the ranger section.

Why not necro? You’ll be way tougher than ele but still a ranged caster class.

I tried Necro out, my main issue with it is that it seems to be rather lacking in the burst/heavy damage department and I’m not much of a condition kind of guy.

That and a human necro ,who embraces the God of Death, that goes around saving people from centaurs and helping doing farm work kinda irks me for some reason

Elementalist is a very powerful class, has some of the highest damage with the staff build or LH build. Fun too, but challenging to level.

Necro does like in the damage department. Good at stacking vulnerability and stuff though.

Ranger Sword is their highest damage weapon. They’ve actually become a little bit more wanted in dungeons with Frost Spirit and the Spotter trait. Can do pretty good damage with Sword/Warhorn or /Axe. The only thing you’ll have ot learn with that is when and how to dodge, but if you can it’s a very strong weapon

If you dislike the fragility of the Ele when missing a single skill, then you may want to avoid Thief. While not as squishy, it does rely on evasion. Imo though, it’s got evasion by the truck-full. So you get used to throwing out blinds and evades and you’re golden. Thieves also have a nice repertoire of utilities that make gameplay even more fun.

Engineer is wonderful. I can understand your skepticism at low levels because they require traits to really shine. While Thieves can burn down foes fast even at level 10, Engis require traits to push their weapons/kits into that level. So don’t lose hope. By 60-80 you’ll be able to fill any role in the game.

Ranger is the easiest to play, no doubt. It’s also the most boring imo. Your pet will either be a huge weapon (PvP, open world PvE) or a giant hinderance (dungeons, WvW zergs). But that’s a subject for debate. As to your sword rooting you, don’t forge that it has evades built into all of its attacks and that it keeps you kitten near perma-locked onto your target. You won’t have to burn endurance dodges as often by using #2 & #3 strategically. And most forum-goers agree that melee Ranger is stronger than bows.