Guild Wars 2

Greetings helpful people of the forum.
Just to warn you: Old man here asking for advice. Please leave the thread if you aren’t a fan of corduroy. Or Elvis.

Firstly, The question:
Which profession in WvW is the least punishing for someone who has limited skill with the keyboard/mouse?

I enjoy running with the zerg in Wvw. My aim is to get a char to 80 and feel like i’m helping out in WvW.. plus I am addicted to loot bags!

Before you tell me, I AM trying to “L2P”!!

I’m playing PvE/WvW but I am having difficulty pushing one class on to 80! I usually get a class to around 20-25 before reanalysing and trying another. I need your help to guide me.

Alas, my poorly specced computer, coupled with my age (If anyone can beat 65 i’ll be impressed!) do not equate to efficient GW2 play.
I have tried a mouse, even a trackball but I still struggle.

The most success I have had seems to be with the ranged professions- they seem to have more margin for error. With Melee, i’ve noticed other players move out of the way of my attacks (kitten their dextrous fingers!), and my attempts to re-aim and lock back on to them is pathetic.
Just to give you an idea of the type of player I am, Here are my views on some of the professions (All between level 20-25 at the moment):
Guardian: A dream in PvE because the mobs don’t move, but in battle against other players I am embarrassingly bad!
Mesmer: Real fun in WVW, but i like loot bags and struggled to get any – also levelling seemed very slow.
Thief: I tend to be super squishy, and struggle to get out of the way of attacks, but I have had real success with p/p in spvp.
Ranger: Everytime i have played, the zerg i ran with seemed to steam-roller everything- thus i felt like I gained lots of loot! I am aware this is not always going to be the case.
Elementalist/Engineer: Just too many key strokes for me. Ironically, when i stick with just the Engineer flamethrower kit in spvp i get a fair amount of points. I don’t think I would last long with this approach in WvW.

So, I am all ears – Which profession do you advise for WvW that is the least punishing for an old man who can’t use a keyboard/mouse too well?

I think sticking with ranger could suit the kind of play you’re asking for, particularly in defending. Though rangers get a lot of stick, it really is quite satisfying to rain arrows down from the top of a tower You also can be a little more relaxed sending your pet out for you as this doesn’t carry quite the same level of risk as going in yourself.

If you want to feel like you’re getting loot bags at range make sure you have some decent are of effect stuff on whatever you’re using. It isn’t necessarily the most effective method, but when an enemy zerg shows up it is very fun to watch all those numbers start flashing up

That said, I am far from an expert in WvW, but I’ve enjoyed playing in a similar style and I found that it worked well enough.

For everything I’ve played in wvw, my elementalist is the easiest because I can be quick and I can give a lot of ranged support (aoe with staff) without getting close to people, and without accidentally losing the zerg. I know you say too many keystrokes, but have you tried staff? If so, nevermind, but it seems to work for me! Standing on a wall raining fire on enemies is so, so satisfying.

I haven’t tried ranger though so if you like it, I’d say stick with it, like CrashTestAuto says.

First of all, eve tried a mouse with 12+ buttons? I use the Razer Naga .. and I would never want to miss it. My left hand is only used for w,a,s,d, space bar and F1-F4 (though I could swap these, too). And I can reach all other skills with the thumb of my right hand. It can save an extra second and prevents hitting wrong keys etc.

Apart from that WvW/PvP is a matter of practice, as it naturally is faster than PvE.

Your real problem seems to be you seek everything in one char/class, which isn’t really going to happen. Also PvP and WvW aren’t comparable.

I for example run Necro with 0/30/20/20/0 and wells and am mostly one of the last standing and get a nice amount of bags. I don’t even need skill for it, just "7,8,9,2,3,4,5,Plague … move back and forth .. get out of the mass before plague ends and use ‘consume conditions’.

On the downside though, with that build and low mobility I die pretty fast on my own.
+
I’m slowly getting bored of zerging and want to “smallscale” and I think my money is spent wiser on a Mesmer or Ingi (I’m bad at thief).

And on another note, the chars become more fun when your 80, equipped exotic. You’ll die less (fast).

@CrashTestAuto – Great answer! Ranger does seem to give me some leeway with my inability to always hit the right buttons. However…
@Sitkaz – You have inspired me. The ele I created was a while ago- after reading what you have written I will create another. I never used my original Ele in WvW so have to try it. Granted the extra keystrokes fill me with dread, but i’ll have to try again. If it doesn’t work out I can return to my Ranger.
@Mike – I have just googled some Razer Nagas, and they look like an impressive piece of kit. A cheaper alternative could be an option.

So, my plan is to try out an ele – If I could figure out some nice combinations/cycles of keys that’d really help. After all, I can just stand there on a keep (or in the middle of a zerg) and concentrate on the key presses!
If it doesn’t work out by level 20 or so then I have no problem switching back to my Ranger!

Hey Ferg, a couple of guys in my guild are pretty close to your extensive years of wisdom.. they find the thumb buttons on gaming mice to be lifesavers! although the 12 thumb button mouse does seem a little complicated to me (I just run a two thumb button mouse)

Have you tried warrior? they can be great with rifle for single target damage and if you steamroll through people in wvw spamming random skills with a greatsword always helps