Guild Wars 2

Well, I originally played a Human Guardian, and to be honest, I still like it well enough. I dig his “Sigil” skills, since I have a habbit of forgetting about any skills beyond the first 6 :P

However, I’m also really digging the Norn Warrior and Charr Engineer. Granted, I’ve not even hit level 10 with either of them yet, but they both seem like good fun thus far.

I’m curious, how do these guys really line up at high levels? Are there any differences between Armor-designs? For this matter, does this game even have Class-based armor? Without spoiling anything, is any one’s story more memorable than the others, or even less so? Also, as someone driven by the pursuit of cool-looking gear, which do you think might offer the coolest items of the bunch?

I play a Norn Guardian and a Humen Warrior

The Heavies look the best on the male classes and the light’s looks the best on the female ones.

I think if your looking for another one go Mesmer. I’m having a hart enough time gearing ( Frac Leveling, Leg weaponing ) up the two i have now let alone adding more alts

There are no classes in this game, only professions.

As to what profession you should play, go Thief.

I’d say that I prefer the Charr storyline to the Norn’s, only because I see more follow through with it (that is, without spoilers, the choices you make at the beginning seem to just impact the story more obviously and also there are nice little details in the early stages that are brought up again later which doesn’t happen with the other personal story lines).

However, I prefer the Warrior to the Engineer – at least until high level – as I find the endless “pew pew” of the Engineer very boring in the early stages. Later on, the Engineer is the more interesting profession. If customisation is your thing though, then I think the game does better with the heavy classes than it does with the medium (very broad statement, however, as there are some brilliant medium armour skins available … but you mostly need to like trench coats!), and obviously the Warrior has access to the largest number of weapon types, so getting skins for them is more fun than either pistol or rifle skins only.

Also, it’s worth bearing in mind (if this sort of thing bothers you), that the Engineer bundles like the flamethrower for instance, will replace any back item you have slotted for cosmetics while the bundle is active … for me this doesn’t impact much, but I know that a lot of Engineers find it irritating.

I will say though, that if you don’t get out of the habit of sticking to skills 1-6, then the Engineer is not the best option! I find I rely way more on remembering the different bundles I have equipped on skills 7-9 (then mashing 1-6) for the Engineer than I do for remembering which stances/shouts etc I have on the Warrior (though these really do have quite a lot of impact – more so than with the Guardian because of the virtues the Guardian has). So that’s something to think about.

I’ve stuck only to the professions you mentioned, as I’m not sure if you wanted something new or just information on professions in general.

Yeah, those three are really the only ones I’m really interested in right now. I’m sure I’ll get around to playing others later (Mesmer seems interesting), but trying to decide on sort of a “main” right now.

It’s good to know that about the Engineer, though; I didn’t realize how pivotal those other abilities would become later on. They still sound like a ton of fun, but yeah, I think I’ll focus on either the Guardian or Warrior for now, and then play the Engineer up as a second character.

On that note… What are some of the bigger differences between the Warrior and Guardian? I like the idea of Warriors being able to wield more weapon-types, although I do sort of dig the more “knightly” appearance the Guardian had on the character-creation screen. They both feel kind of similar thus far, though.

Good luck! The Engineer skills are only pivotal if you think you’ll get bored with pistols or rifle (I know I do after about 5 levels). Once you’ve switched to a bundle like the flamethrower, then you go back to mashing skills 1-6 to use it, but you have to remember you have the bundle. There are some really great options available to the Engineer, but yeah, I don’t think it becomes all that interesting as a profession until 30 or so.

Though it could be said that after level 30 the Warrior and the Guardian become less interesting … depends on your take. I enjoy both the Warrior and the Guardian – though the Guardian is much slower than the Warrior, so if movement is an issue for you, go Warrior.

The most obvious differences are the weapons – and the fact that the Guardian has “magic” available to it, and also the fact that the Guardian has Virtues. I think you could safely go so far as to say the Guardian tends to be specced more for defense and support (survivability) and the Warrior for offense and damage. So this is a preference issue. You’ll be able to manage content a good few levels above your own with both but the focus will be different – Warrior, you need to outdo the damage of the other person, and Guardian you can just outlast the damage of the other person.

Both have good access to boons – Guardian more so than the Warrior. And both offer a number of cc and condition options (I think Warrior has more conditions than the Guardian?), but generally cc and DPS are the easiest ways to go with both as opposed to, say, the Necromancer which specialises in condition damage.

Ranged options is, for me, one of the most distinguishing factors. The Guardian has very limited range compared to the Warrior. The Guardian’s scepter and staff are ranged weapons, but really only function at medium ranges. While the Warrior has access to the longbow and the rifle (both of which are excellent weapons for the Warrior to use).

And, as I said briefly above, speed. Warriors have several options to keep their speed going, whereas Guardians have very limited options available (mostly for me running becomes a case of swapping to staff for skill 3 then back to greatsword for skill 2 and vice versa).

After that, without going very deeply into the trait lines of either, those are most of the surface differences (though, to be honest, I favour shout builds on both professions). Both can do just fine solo or in groups (I do think that if you play Guardian you’ll really shine in groups, though by no means are you missing out if you mostly play solo).

The “look” of either is really not important. Both have access to either armor look that you see on the character creation screen – since both are heavy armor professions, the customisations from that perspective are completely interchangeable.

Hopefully that helps! Really though, the best thing you can do is play both up to level 30 (or at least 20, which shouldn’t take too long) and see how you find them, as it’s all personal taste. I love both, so I hope this has been an unbiased (if brief) overview of the two professions.

Guardian is a good class to play, always need those. Honestly, if you want to be useful without too much skill or thought put into it, play Guardian, Warrior, or Elemental. Avoid Thief, Ranger, and Engineer. The Thief has been hit hard by the nerf hammer, and is only good if you are super good, and it only has a handful of viable builds. The Ranger is better than people say, but also only has a few good builds and you have to be on top of your pet… because holy kitten they are dumb. Engineer is a hotkey clicking monster of a class. You have to know which kit to have, when to deploy turrets or elixers, when to swap out, memorize cool down times… ugh haha. Fun though, but a single slip up in WvW and you drop. I only played Engi to lvl 52 though, so eh.

Terin.2657:

Well, I originally played a Human Guardian, and to be honest, I still like it well enough. I dig his “Sigil” skills, since I have a habbit of forgetting about any skills beyond the first 6 :P

This is something that gets better with practice- admittedly, I have a similar issue in that most of the time, I use my elementalist’s utility skills only to escape when I screw up, and forget about them otherwise unless I make myself think about a skill I slot and say, “Okay, I’m going to use this skill to lock down the enemy when this happens.” On my guardian, I had a habit of thinking only for myself and used my utilities only when I got into a sticky situation. It’s something I’m still working on.

I do recommend highly that you practice switching out utilities to match the situation, and take time to read them over and think about ways you would use them. You will be a much more effective player that way.

However, I’m also really digging the Norn Warrior and Charr Engineer. Granted, I’ve not even hit level 10 with either of them yet, but they both seem like good fun thus far.

I’m curious, how do these guys really line up at high levels? Are there any differences between Armor-designs? For this matter, does this game even have Class-based armor? Without spoiling anything, is any one’s story more memorable than the others, or even less so? Also, as someone driven by the pursuit of cool-looking gear, which do you think might offer the coolest items of the bunch?

There are three categories of armor worn by the classes:
-Heavy armor: Warriors and Guardians
-Medium armor: Rangers, Engineers, and Thieves
-Light armor: Mesmers, Elementalists, and Necromancers

It’s overall a matter of taste as to which armor looks coolest, but you can take a look at the sets here at http://argos-soft.net/GW2ArmorGallery/ or at the lockers in the sPvP lobby.

Both warriors and guardians are welcomed in groups, warriors for their damage, guardians for their support. Engineers aren’t so sought after, but many people don’t care in the end as long as you’re a good player.

On that note… What are some of the bigger differences between the Warrior and Guardian? I like the idea of Warriors being able to wield more weapon-types, although I do sort of dig the more “knightly” appearance the Guardian had on the character-creation screen. They both feel kind of similar thus far, though.

The warrior is more offensive, while the guardian is more support/defensive. Warriors have the highest damage of all the classes and has some offensive support. Guardians have lower damage, but access to more types of support than warriors- stronger heals, more boons, group projectile reflects, etc.

Warriors have the highest base health pool of the classes, while guardians have the lowest (or second lowest, can’t remember if ele was lower). However, guardians can survive just as well as warriors, if not better- they have many active defenses (shields, protective boons, blinds, many projectile shields) and stronger recovery abilities. Warriors have less defensive tricks and weaker heals- in harder content, a warrior must be especially good at dodging and knowing when to retreat to survive.

Both classes are relatively easy to level and forgiving to newer players.