Guild Wars 2

Hey guys,

Noticed there’s a lot of these threads so I was hesitant to make one but I’m having issues picking a class. I don’t want to start maxing out all the maps on a character I’ll probably quit later.

I’ll draw parallels to other games- hope that helps

I’m looking for:
Mobility and/or Trickiness
In League of Legends, I love mobile champions such as Quinn, Ezreal, Kha’Zix, Yi, etc. I like either in the moment mobility, or long range mobility (such as Quinn’s bird form)
However, if somebody is not mobile, I tend to like champions who are tricky in the same area- not just straight damage, but somebody who has a lot of tools. Heimerdinger (reworked) is a great example of this- tons of DoT damage and mobility within your own area. You’ll be hard pressed to kill a Heimerdinger if he has control over the area.
Cool mobility movements are always a plus. So far I’ve liked the Ranger’s GS Swoop and the Ele’s Ride the Lightening

Smooth Feel
I like to feel absolutely in control all the time. If I have to channel and stay put often I’m not going to enjoy myself.

Damage over time and/or giant numbers
I love damage over time stuff, I just do. Applying a bunch of different dots and having them go down because of that is great. Makes you feel in control.
On the reverse side, I also like giant blasts. Not much into whittling away, but DoTs or huge explosions or both is always great. Even if a pet or something else is doing the DoT.

Preparation
I like buffing or otherwise preparing myself with pets, turrets, DoT stuff, etc before going into battle. Feeling absolutely ready to take on something is great.

Visuals
I love visuals- I like flashy stuff. I like to be able to wear cool looking things (which apparently isn’t an issue in this game)

Solo/AoE
I like to solo things and I like to handle big crowds.

Less switching
I don’t mind the two weapon swap thing, but the reason I’m not playing Ele is because of the attunements- I don’t like having more than 1-2 different sets of abilities. I like to master my tools and then use them well instead of just having 13957081395 different tools to use.

On an unrelated note, I played during the free weekend however many months back and got the starter item mailed to me the one time you get it during that time. After buying the game and switching servers to join my friend (deleting my level 5 character) I lost the stuff- not remembering it existed. There’s probably not a way to recover it, but I’m asking if there is anyway.

Thanks in advance! Reading through the forums, you guys seem pretty awesome. I’m excited to join your ranks.

“Less switching
I don’t mind the two weapon swap thing, but the reason I’m not playing Ele is because of the attunements- I don’t like having more than 1-2 different sets of abilities. I like to master my tools and then use them well instead of just having 13957081395 different tools to use.”

May I suggest maybe not an engineer either then? Switching ability sets is sort of the engineer’s thing, as well. :P

Thief / Necromancer.

Your call.

Tried out Necro, seems to be absolutely perfect for me. Thank you Syrpharon.

You like burst AND sustain? You want both single target AND AoE?
You want “somebody who has a lot of tools” but at the same time you hate " having 13957081395 different tools to use"?

Engineer and elementalist fit all your criteria except the switching thing. If switching is a serious issue for you then I guess ranger or warrior are acceptable substitutes.

Necromancer is like the opposite of mobile and they hit like wet noodles, don’t roll one.

Thief is one of the most mobile characters, mesmers will remind you of leblanc in League, they just screw with your mind, i’ve seen mesmers kite 10 players for a good 5 minutes or longer in WvW before(at which point people were just AOE bombing the place to get to them)

Engineers have a lot of tools and playstyles, however, i do think their not too flashy they have nice visuals though they have some mobility, but that depends if you want to use the utility slots for that mobility.

Keep in mind, warriors and Guardians can still leap as well, about every class can be fairly mobile, thiefs and mesmers seem to excell in it, teleporting around, or screwing with your mind, your call.

Do thief P/D condi. Tons of DoT, extremely mobile with spammable damaging teleports, tricky, tools for any situation

Hi, as I was reading your post I kept thinking of Ranger. It’s the only class I have played as I’m fairly new to the game, and it seems to encompass most of what you want in a class. I was surprised no one mentioned this, so maybe that means they aren’t a good choice in the longrun?

Mobility
Warrior, Ele and Thief are the best at that. But most profession have good mobility depending on the build you use. Mesmer on the other have a really bad mobility with only 1 skill that give swiftness and 1 teleport.

Smooth Feel
Again it depend on which build and weapon you use. Warrior have some infamous channeling skill that can get you kill, but are powerful.

Damage over time and/or giant numbers
Giant numbers = Warriors, Elemenlist and thief can give you that. For DOT you’re better with necromancer or engineers. But DOT in this game is broken. You can still enjoy it, but its not the best way to go.

Preparation
I only get that on my might stacking Elementalist or my Warrior (banner, FGJ, etc).

Visuals
Any Heavy or Light are really good. Medium have a harder time with that, but you can still pull off something nice. For the skills looks i find Ele and Guardian the best. Necromancer is also really nice and dark. Engineer can make a lot of explosion, while a Mesmer will paint your screen in pink, which can be either really cool or not depending on your opinion.

Less switching
That exclude Elementalist or Engineer. Except if you want to play a Staff Elementalist (usually you stay in fire).

Solo/AoE
Any cleaving weapon will do AoE in melee : Warrior, Guardian are really good at that. Elementalist, Necro and Engineer also have great range AoE.

Overall don’t take Mesmer or Rangers. One won’t fit your needs and the other is just bad.
Warrior would be a good choice, but check if 100 Blades is good with you since its a channeling skill.
Elementalist would also fit your need but as you said the attunement don’t do it for you. If you use a Staff and camp fire this solve the problem, but don’t really give you anything to do for preparation.
Thief seem to fit most of your criteria. But for the big number you will need a squishy melee thief. if you can live with that and find a nice medium skin then maybe its the perfect profession for you.
Guardian don’t shine but don’t anything negative to any of your criteria. If you think that thief is too squishy or don’t like the medium armors skins, this could be an options.
Necromancers will give you the best Condition for you. If you want to go that way, then Necromancer should be your choice.

Thank you for your responses everybody. When I inevitably make more classes to mix it up, I’ll have a good idea of what to try out.

I would say thief or engineer – although engineers can be quite ‘switch-happy’ in gameplay.

Most thief builds focus on burst damage instead of DoT, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t DoT available.

Just roll an ele. It’s not that hard to swap attunements anyway, and you can rebind your keys. It fulfills every requirement you listed bar the last one, why not compromise a little?

Gabe.6810:

Mobility and/or Trickiness

- Any class if specced or wielding certain weapons. Best to worst likely being something like; Warrior > Thief / Elementalist / Engineer > Ranger / Mesmer > Necromancer
Here I looked at a combination for perma-swiftness and leaps/teleports.

Gabe.6810:

Smooth Feel

- Almost any class has this, though be wary of; Warrior – Hundered Blades, Ranger – Sword 1 chain and Mesmers Blurred Frenzy (might have missed a few.)

Gabe.6810:

Damage over time and/or giant numbers

- Any class specced and played correctly will do amazing numbers, Engineer is the only class I can really think of having an impressive combination of high numbers and DoT due to Grenades and Elementalist elite Fiercy Greatsword used correctly makes some people kitten their pants.

Gabe.6810:

Preparation

- Mightstacking (or swiftness in WvW whilst moving around in a zerg,) done by any class with blast finishers/fire-field (so, anyone but mesmer could provide a little) but Engineer and Elementalist definitly stand out in this aspect.

Gabe.6810:

Visuals

- Depends on your taste, looks are per armor-class (Light, Medium, Heavy) and animations are once again taste dependant.

Gabe.6810:

Solo/AoE

- Most classes have a healthy mix of single target and AoE damage. Though Mesmer and Thief have their strongpoint in single target (but with a cleave with certain weapons) damage. Mesmer can stack mobs easily when using Focus 4 correctly.

Gabe.6810:

Less switching

- Any class except Elementalist and Engineer. How-ever almost any class, if you want to get the most out of it, will do a healthy mix of weapon-swapping and utility changing depending on the situations. Exceptions to this rule are; Warrior, often stuck to the same utilities since they’re just that good or your build is dependant on it. Necromancer, often specced for certain utilities, how-ever they often do a mix between 2 weapons and death shroud (which has it’s own skill-bar) This doesn’t mean you can’t do things in the game by sticking to the same weaponset and same 3 utilities, it’s just not recommended in most cases.

Just my 2 cents.