Guild Wars 2

Hello everyone.

I know there is no correct answer to this question and that it all depends on personal preferences so I thought I give you a little more information about my situation.

I started playing GW2 shortly after release and brought a mesmer and a guardian to lvl80 but since I had a pretty bad PC back then I stopped playing after that. Now I just got a new one, downloaded GW2 and now it’s really fun again and I enjoy playing the game.
The problem though is that a lot has changed in the last 3 years and I have no idea which classes are good and which are not.

So since the game is again really new to me I wanted to start a new character but can’t really decide which one.
I remember when I started for the first time I really enjoyed playing elementalist, thief and warrior so it’s probably gonna be one of those three classes. My question now is which of those classes is the best for solo play and which one is the best for dungens and fractals and stuff like that later in the game. I don’t play any pvp so pvp is not important for me.

I’d also like to know how strong guardian and mesmer are right now. Someone told me that especially guardian has turned into a rather bad class in pve.

So I hope someone can give me answers to my questions and thanks in advance for any help.

Guardian has always been a ‘noob’ class to me for many reasons, mostly because it’s almost impossible to die as one, especially on lower level maps. It may be just me though, and I’m not sure how it is at the moment.
As far as I know, Thieves are fairly popular in dungeons and elementalists are welcome everywhere. I don’t do dungeons nor fractals that much so I can’t be sure. I personally recommend you a Warrior. It’s a pretty straightforward class without any fancy combos or anything like that. If you think that might be boring, pick Elementalist as they have the most skills in the game. I don’t think you’d enjoy Thief too much if you aim for PvE though. They have a tendency to die from little bruises and they’re not that useful to teammates in my opinion.
I wish you lots of fun.

In PVE Warrior is strong to solo with, and Ele can sometimes be a steep learning curve. Thief can also be tough to tame properly.

Guardian/Dragonhunter is still excellent in all regards, and Chronomancer’s shine when used properly.

Questions for you, do you prefer to play melee or attack from range? And, would you prefer to dress in metal/leather/or cloth?

Regarding end game content:

Dungeons got their rewards nerfed and people don’t run them regularly for gold anymore.

Fractals – with the release of raids, no one really cares what class you play in fractals.

Raids – There’s not really a solid meta for them yet, since they just came out. Most classes are welcomed but herald/chronomancer/druid/condi engineer are the most popular right now I think.

Open world – All classes are totally fine. If you want to faceroll through the somewhat harder HoT zones, ranger / reaper / warrior are nice choices.

I enjoy soloing PVE stuff on my full zerk reaper necro. Warriors and revenants seem to be valuable in raids.

As you say it’s indeed personal preference. Ranger or perhaps necro but you didn’t mention them specifically. I’d say consider making a new guardian or the elementalist. Think a bit about what theme you feel fits you the most, what armor types you like etc.

To help you along. Close your eyes, imagine you are facing countless enemies. It’s the calm before the storm, all your friends are in peril, hope is lost. The hour of men is taking it’s last breath. This is the last stand of all that was and all that will ever be. You hear rattling weapons, death and destruction is on your doorstep. People around you are starting to scream and panic. Soldiers are abandoning their post just to see their families one last time. As you hear the dragons roar in the skies above the black army of doom heading toward you, you open your eyes. They are burning in rage. All you are, all you have ever done has led you to this point. This is your story, this is your fight. Who are you? Do you rush in with your sword, are you like Conan the great warrior (CROM COUNT THE DEAD). Do you ready your bow, say a prayer and shoot an arrow between the eyes of the closest enemy (think Legolas meet the sniper in saving private ryan) or are you like Gandalf, opening the skies and rain down meteors and thunderstorms over the closing armies?

I might have gotten carried a way a bit.

Warrior: Great for soloing and every group will want at least one. Has great standard damage and condi damage builds for variety. Heavy armor and healing signet gives you nice lazy survivability. Elite spec makes you feel kitten.

Elementalist: The general king of DPS. Quite squishy. Surviving open world in HOT can be difficult for new players on a standard staff build. Many options and advanced tricks for things like blast finishers (swapping weapons in the middle of rotations) give you lots of room to improve. Elite spec adds an extra DPS button that wrecks older content and is good in new stuff as well. Many groups want multiple Tempests.

Thief: Very good DPS. Quite squishy. Niche roles in current content but still certainly viable. Most of their old roles have been replaced by the true master class…

ENGINEER: Best class. Can do everything. King and Queen of being awesome. Make one today.

As a new player that started with Elementalist i would not recommend it unless you like being dead watching the rest of your party kill a boss. It is very unforgiving as a class in my opinion. HoT maps are twice as bad i tend to survive around 2 hits from an average mob one that drops me to downed and one that finishes.

Despite what Crysto says i have never seen anyone request for an Elementalist. PvP is just as bad your a glass cannon with no cannon it feels like.