Guild Wars 2

I’d like to begin by saying, if you come here with the intensions of flaming me, don’t expect me to rise to it.

Anyways. I’ve played several MMO’s in the past and I’m a keen to PvP all the time. I am by no means big headed, though I like to think of myself being average or maybe even above average in my previous MMO’s. Though, Gw2 I’ve only played a Warrior to level 80 and been PvPing for several days straight now. I cannot find a class/build that I can work with. I don’t know if I’m terrible (seems likely at this stage) or everyone else is just good.

It feels like the only time I’m getting kills is against people who are newer than me, or when I’m in a group. 1v1 the only class I’ve came close to winning with is Mesmer.

I believe if I stick to one class and learn it properly I’d eventually get better, but I just can’t find one to start off with that I can be somewhat good with.

Could anyone point me in the right direction as to what class is easiest to learn SPvP with and when I can actually start to see some results.

Thanks in advance(?)

Spirit Ranger and/or Necro

spirit ranger or beastmaster is pretty easy.

Necro/Spirit ranger Ezmode right now
Warrior/Thief/Engi is Mid tier
Guardian is Strong but not easiest to play
Elementalist/Mesmer if you hate yourself.

Choose one and stick with it and you’ll elevate. You’re starting out, tpvp isn’t really your concern at the moment I would presume so throwing crap like Spirit ranger and Necro at you that could quite likely lose favor in the post Pax balance patch feels like I’d be scamming you.

If I had to generalize.
Ranger is a solid pick it’s had a good track record since January if not before that (but thats when I took note of them).
Guardian, solid pick, best track record of all.
Mesmer, this goes contrary to current perceptions but in reality if you’re just joining pvp, you popping in some hotjoins maybe some low level solo-que? I certainly recommend the Mesmer then. Actually I really recommend it now, because it’s quite likely that the things that haunt it now are either going to take a fall or they’ll go crazy and make it stronger. At which point if you’ve taken a Mesmer now, this is one of the best times you’ll get as the prof to push yourself.

Yea for sure if you’re doing hotjoins mesmer is where it’s at
no one knows how to play there and you’ll have no problem juking players.

Ranger has been OP since forever,
Spirit ranger Nerfed: Beast master ranger/trap ranger Op
Trap Ranger Nerfed :Beast Master ranger OP
Beastmaster ranger Nerfed: Spirit ranger Rebuffed

Same thing with thief
Backstab thief Op, Pistolwhip thief Op Swordteleport thief Op
Backstab thief nerfed Pistolwhip thief Op Swordteleport thief Op
Pistol whip nerfed; Class wide thief nerfs; Sword teleport thief Op

Anet thinks they’re being really clever with their balancing but I think it’s quaint.

Guardian always gets buffed in patches but it’s usually things that are just seem random for me..

Elementalist on the other hand was super OP for like a short period of time and now they only have a 100-0 burst combo..

Necromancer/ranger is going to be toned down again I think, but who knows they might buff em instead remember when mesmers were OP and they gave em 3 times the might?

Mesmer has been consistently nerfed throughout, with some mediocre buffs/Bug fixes along the way and of course buffs to unusable weapons….
But is still a strong class, just not in this meta.

I’d say play whatever you’re fond to most. No class will be easy at start unless you’re gonna go for the popular broken stupid stuff mentioned above (ranger and necro atm). I’d suggest yo don’t go for that. Pick a class, study it, there are many useful builds even on this forum if you search a bit.

I never go into a new game’s pvp with attitude of “which is the easiest class to start”, but rather “what class am I going to enjoy the most”.
If you enjoy the game play, the learning is easier and it seems faster. And enjoying the game is after all the reason we play them. Or so it should be…

P.S. Anyhow there’s another side to this coin. If you know what conquest is and if you think you understand how to play it, I would avoid Hot-Join all together. Which leaves you with SoloQ. Now what you might want to do after all is maybe forget what I said above about ranger. Roll one, join soloque and just try to defend your home (close) point or roam a bit between your home point and center point… Just to get the feeling for the game. After you get the feeling avoid rolling FOTM builds and keep your dignity

I wouldn’t recommend starting just by jumping into soloq. If you are picking a class you dont know how to play and you dont know/understand the maps then you are only going to damage your rating. Find a class and a build. Learn how to play it in hotjoins: 10v10 is a total zergfest so find a room for 5v5 if you want. After you feel you’ve got the hang of it and you’ve seen all the maps atleast once go ahead and do soloq, but to just jump into with without knowing what to do/how to play would hurt you and your team.

Far as starter class goes, if you have a main you use in PvE then start with that, it’s what you’ll be best at. As you, like I said above, learn about the maps and about other classes/builds by seeing them you’ll be able to branch into a different class if you want. And if you got nothin’ then just pick whatever.

Well. Currently Mesmer is my most played class in SPvP. The damage output is nice, though when I’m focused I’m pretty much a sitting duck. Health pool is pretty low, armour is low and the heals seem very poor. Though if I can find a good vantage point I can do pretty well.

I also played MM Necro for a bit which I found to be quite good. I’m assuming that was just down to people finding it hard to target me in large fights with all the minions around though.

EDIT: My only 80 in PvE at the moment is a Warrior. I’ve tried it in SPvP but it just doesn’t seem to be very good (most likely just me though). I’m constantly kited by ranged classes, and even melee classes most of the time.

I guess I’ll just try spending a bit more time with each.

Spirit ranger is a good one. Something like this is a good place to start:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQRAnf8YjEVV1dVmVg2Bi2jMZeM9KEL3jSRqTVxH3A-TgAg2CrIaS1krJTTymsNB

Recast spirits and spam weapon abilities to lay down conditions (just be close when you use splitblade to stack up a lot of bleeds). If you get targetted, switch to the sword/dagger to use the evades.

I wouldn’t recommend thief though. You can get good burst against the occasional squishy if they’re relatively new to PvP, but to really play it well, you have to know the class pretty well and they’re very squishy themselves, which makes for an unforgiving learning curve.

I am glad everyone told him what class he should to start learning the game with, oh wait, no one did, they just whined about what was overpowered/easy to play.

As far as learning to play a class, I would suggest telling us a general play style that you might have had in past MMOs. If you do like being an aggressive, in your face player then warrior would be the way to go. Also guardians, can be a good in your face play style. There are some fun DPS guardian builds, that are pure fun. Most of them are not competitively viable.

If you like to be more passive, and attrition based play style, spirit rangers, or necromancers are the way to go currently.

Honestly with GW2 PvP, it just comes down to the way you like to play, because it has something for almost everyone.

EDIT 1: This DPS Guardian build is by Arken Elric.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-7Z-Bx;0RFk40J3NG-90;9;54TT4;446A19A;1X-V0b;1F-03F-035Bo

He makes it work wonders, and he has some great fun with it. You can also give a lot of support to a team, with damage, and shouts, and a decent amount of healing.

Ranger or Thief. Probably thief

It doesnt matter what class you will chose now, since you will have to change it when you start a Team tpvp.
I will disagree with most ppl here about ranger(spirit), because it is passive play (mostly).
To play necro (terror build) you need knowledge of other classes, otherwise you will have bad times.

I assume you play’d PvE, so take class with mechanics which fits you better.

Well that depends on what you want.
If you want to start at low dificulty to begin learning the game you should try a ranged class or a class that uses AI. After that you can switch to mellee but it will be a lot harder.

When you start your mellee adventure you can start with stealth classes. If you want to play even more harder try the rest of mellee classes.

If you want to start hard mode just go directly to mellee without stealth.

Thief I found to be very straight forward for pvp with lots of room to grow. This was my first character but found it got boring in pve.

Warrior is straight forward, but less so than thief in pvp. (You can’t just 100blades a player without setting it up) I’d say they are harder to pick up, but once you get a good understanding it’s pretty simple.

Mesmer has some great burst, but it can be hard to pull off, they are a tricky class, but again, once you get comfortable with the flow of the class it gets easier.

Elementalist is a very rigid class unfortunately (my opinion), so it takes a good while to get the rotations down, and without them, you will hit like a wet noodle. You need to know how to combo into combo. A very fun class to play when mastered, but getting there may prove to be a struggle.

Ranger is a lot like warrior in terms of skill (besides spirit ranger). It seems straight forward in pve, but once players don’t start battling your pet, you need to learn to adapt. (If you want to faceroll as a spirit ranger or have a similar challenge as your war, here it is)

Necromancer is a pretty versatile class in what it does. While it doesn’t have good direct damage, it has builds that vary in difficulty and playstyle. I’d say if you love minions and fear, this along with thief are my top two easy to get into hard to master classes for pvp. (As skill matters a lot, yet you can spec for overpoweredness if you want, like a spirit ranger)

Guardian is a fun class, great for starting pvp as you can feel near indestructible, but you’ll probably need to get more into the class to start applying any kind of reliable pressure (aka you won’t kill, but won’t get killed, as a newer player) Probably my third recommendation if you a comfortable playing a bunker while you learn the ropes)

Engineer is the class I finally choose when I had this same dilemma (although I wanted 1 class for both pvp and pve) It is very versatile (most in the game), but understanding that versatility can get complicated, you’ll always be learning new things. It has some builds to ease you into pvp, but they are hidden behind a mist. (pm me if you want one of two very fun bunker builds I made) I’d say if you want something straight forward, it won’t be here, but it is very fun and unique. And as I said, can be built to play very easily (I was getting owned, until I spent a couple hours designing an unkillable build, which allowed me to observe my opponents longer, which gave me a chance to learn the ropes of pvp, of course I killed no one until I changed the build)

All in all, I’d say that you want a class that can be built tanky to learn pvp (thief can stealth, which is similar, but not as useful to the team) So either Thief, Guardian, Necro, or if you are willing to have fun theory crafting a lot, Engi can also be good.
Every other class (minus spirit ranger) will get you owned before you learn to play them, although by now you could probably work on your playstyle with your warrior and master it in the same time it would take you to learn a new class.

Good luck, and I hope this helped, all this came from me being an altoholic and trying to settle on a main. Now I play a huge burst Engi, who lets that one guy chase me off the node, only to blow them up, and now its 1v1 on the node XD. Even had my first “Loboling is on a Rampage”.

Warrior is good enough.
0/10/30/0/30
hammer/longbow
unsuspecting foe,
dogged march, cleansing ire, merciless hammer,
signet mastery, destruction of the empowered, burst mastery
- healing signet – berserker stance – balanced stance – utility of choice – signet of rage (or banner if you want more support)
zerker or valk amulet, lyssa runes, sigils of choice (fire/para/bloodlust w/e)

With this build you should have no trouble being effective. If you do, I sincerely doubt you would do well with anything else, maybe except for staff necro.

ill tell you which class have been good forever, even some of them not in meta right now but still can be important if well played

Ranger, Engi, Guard, Mesmer, Thief

as of the meta right now
Necro

Zach.3264:

I’d like to begin by saying, if you come here with the intensions of flaming me, don’t expect me to rise to it.

Anyways. I’ve played several MMO’s in the past and I’m a keen to PvP all the time. I am by no means big headed, though I like to think of myself being average or maybe even above average in my previous MMO’s. Though, Gw2 I’ve only played a Warrior to level 80 and been PvPing for several days straight now. I cannot find a class/build that I can work with. I don’t know if I’m terrible (seems likely at this stage) or everyone else is just good.

It feels like the only time I’m getting kills is against people who are newer than me, or when I’m in a group. 1v1 the only class I’ve came close to winning with is Mesmer.

I believe if I stick to one class and learn it properly I’d eventually get better, but I just can’t find one to start off with that I can be somewhat good with.

Could anyone point me in the right direction as to what class is easiest to learn SPvP with and when I can actually start to see some results.

Thanks in advance(?)

I also started with warrior many months ago and every other
player seemed way better than me, which was mainly due to the fact that
this class was quite underpowered for a long time.

You will however learn to adapt. Choose whichever class you feel comfortable with
and visit the respective subforums.
There you will find a wide array of well working builds
with included fighting tactics.
Should you chose to stick with warrior i can assure you it is way harder to be
effective in pvp than many other classes but the warrior forums are very helpful for beginners. Although many seemto point out that ele and mesmer are not quite as over the top as they once were -and in top level tpvp that may be the case- they are still a solid pick if you are willing to learn their mechanics.

I still play my now almost one year old warrior and after many many hours in WvW
and sPvP i am now able to win almost every 1v1 situation and no, i’m not rolling mace-shield/gs.

Imho the key is to at least have tried every class and their weaponsets to have a basic
understanding of how they work and how to counter them. This is especially true for warrior as it is not possible to roll your face across the keyboard and still win.
(which i am pretty sure, is the case with necro now from what i have witnessed)

Spirit Ranger – easy mode
Power based ranger – worse then mesmer

necro or permastealth thief

selan.8354:

…permastealth thief

We are talking about spvp so stealth doesn’t help you capturing and holding points.
Also what good is stealth if you are fighting on a point that is clustered with
aoe?

I’ve taken to playing my Warrior in PvP. Just running Hammer with Mace and Shield. I’ve still got a long way to becoming somewhat decent, but for now I can get some kills and if not provide some CC for my team. Thanks for all the responses guys.

both the default Necromancer and Ranger are easy to grasp under the current meta

if you like it up close, definitely Guardian. It has been a solid pick since Beta