Guild Wars 2

Just wanted peoples thoughts on this.

It seems to me that in the MMO’s I have played the most elite and top tier players were those that almost exclusively focused their efforts on a particular class. Obviously, most have a second alt, but I am saying a very large proportion of their time would be spent on their chosen profession. These guys also seem to be very robust to patch nerfs since they compensate with skill.

So the advantages are obvious. These guys are probably spending a lot of time and effort learning about strategies, builds, tactics, skills etc which takes them from been good to been at the top.

On the other hand, I can see an argument could be made that if you play a number of classes you are going to learn different playstyles, and will know how to counteract them.

Anyway, was wondering what people thought about this.

play ever class → choose 2 you like → stick to them

Bong.6238:

play ever class -> choose 2 you like -> stick to them

I’m really wanting to open a dialogue on the subject and see what people think. I’m not really asking for advise per se as to what I should do.

I’d say it can help you practice the class and become well accustomed to it through experience, but on the flipside being elite demands way more then knowing yourself. On the other hand, playing multiple classes can hamper your progression with one class, but you’ll get a better understanding of other’s class’ strengths, weaknesses and tendancies faster by multi-classing. Another factor is teamwork, how well do you work with and communicate with others.

“Maining” a certain class doesn’t mean you don’t play other classes, or learn how they function and play.

Dual.8953:

I’d say it can help you practice the class and become well accustomed to it through experience, but on the flipside being elite demands way more then knowing yourself. On the other hand, playing multiple classes can hamper your progression with one class, but you’ll get a better understanding of other’s class’ strengths, weaknesses and tendancies faster by multi-classing. Another factor is teamwork, how well do you work with and communicate with others.

Well that is exactly my thoughts too. Maybe the best balance would be to play alts 10% of the time in order to understand their weaknesses.

Everyone should eventually make most, if not all of the classes. However, once you have learned most of the classes strengths/weaknesses, you should focus almost all (say 90% of your time) on one particular class. This will allow to become very proficient with that certain class, while still having a working idea of the other classes.

I play all classes mainly because it helps me better understand how all the abilities work and how to defend against them. If I get my kitten kicked hard by someones build after the match ill hop on that class and try to replicate the build. Play around with a bit and see what the weaknesses are. If you dont do this and your looking to improve in PvP id recommend it. It will improve your game.

Imho it’s best to focus on a few, but try every one of them for a while, mostly for two reasons:

• a lot of class skills are transferable. I mean that, for example, making up a bunker build as guardian will give you precious info on how to achieve the same results as engineer or other bunker professions.
• knowing how every profession works will give you an edge when fighting them. I find it easier to fight my own classes because I know what they’re doing, how they’re traited, what will most likely do next.

So, focusing on the 2-3 you like will make you better at them, because you’ll be more familiar with keybinds, which skill to use when and so on, but playing a bit of everything will be more beneficial in the end than playing exclusively a single class.

Play ALL of the classes first, and learn them all. Then, chose which one you like best, and you’re on your way to stardom. You will already have an edge because you know what everyone else has… Knowing your enemy is very important in this game.

To really master something you have to dedicate a great deal of time to it, and constantly practice to know all the ins and outs. The only way to do that is to focus heavily on a profession. Playing other professions does give you insight on how they work, but doing it for the aspect of general knowledge is a bit different that really getting a firm handle on it.

It’s always best to try every class and learn their gimmicks and combat animations. However, sticking to just 1 or 2 classes does help you weather patches especially ones that do not favor your class. When you can play a class that was OP and nerfed into the ground and not notice a loss in effectiveness despite having to change rotations or play style is all the difference between the average player of that class and the great players.

I plan on playing Elementalist all the way through, and as many people cry about it being weak and a bunker only class, I find it exceptionaly OP when played right. Of course, playing 4 years as a Demonologist in AoC it comes naturally.

No. Playing all the classes and learning them does.

Playing all classes makes you understand why they are how they are. If you know what build is the enemy playing, you can counter it a lot more easily. You don’t really have to go in depth, but to know what they skills do and what happens when they are doing something specific is really important to be a top player.

To give a simple example, if you know when the enemy used their high cooldown skills and/or their elite, you can go more defensively and then full offense, since you know they have no threat to oppose.

It’s absolutely important to play as many other professions as possible, maybe focusing between 20-40% of your time on an alt and rotate what your alt is. It may be that after having played an alt for a while you discover that it suits you better or that your team wins more. Maybe you want to “switch” to main that new one then.

Yes and no. Yes, because when you only spend time on one profession, you can spend more time learning the core game, instead of your profession. No, because you’ll have a harder time learning the tricks of other professions. Professional players from any other game don’t just learn one class, but plays all classes of the given game, in order to learn all the tricks of their opponents. So to be the best player, you have to be a bit of both; stick to one main profession that you know you are good at, but practice playing the other professions as well.

iv always found in other mmo’s sticking mostly to one class can lead to you playing that class quite well. but if you want to play realy well its best to know what and how every other class does what they do… and the only real way to do that is play said classes.