Guild Wars 2

Played in the last beta weekend and found WvWvW to be very addictive, first time I’ve blown 8 hours non stop into a game in a long long while. Anyway, waited until now to pick the game up as I simply didn’t have the time. I’d like to be doing a lot of WvWvW while leveling and was wondering if some knowledgeable people could recommend a good class that would be useful at low levels? Obviously it will probably be a completely different experience to the beta weekend as everyone pretty much was low level however I at least want to feel useful as a low level.

Whichever class can man a ballista, arrow cart, or cannon (all of them).

As a lowbie you are on siege and staking duty!

As a start i can recommend Elementalist.

In WvW, Staff Elementalists can have a safe gameplay. Good class to learn the WvW Mechanics. You can advance to more “demanding” classes later on, preferable one you really enjoy playing.

If you go any light class, prepare for pain, especially elementalist

Guardian:
Hard to burst down
Can bring lots of heal and boons on the field
Easy access to loads of instant(non-projectile) immobilisation

Warrior:
Banners are AWESOME.
Nice ranged support and huge combo field with longbow
Banners are AWESOME.
Can use shouts to buff allies.
Did I already say, that banners are awesome?

Thief:
Great chasing potential, needs some brain tho.
Can chain immobilises and stuns on escaping opponents(I highly recommend Sword/pistol for low lev play)
GET OVER HERE!
Can escape from almost anything with infiltrators arrow, invisibility, blinding powder and a bunch of other blinds and cripples.
Weak against walls!

Elementalist:
Can pin down opponents for the zerg
Can rain doom on the opponents
Can cover huge parts of walls with AoE
Requires you only to react to what happens around you, if you play with a staff, very intuitive playstyle.
Squishy!
Squishy!
Very squishy!
Very dependant on gear, especially in PvE.

Engineer:
Can’t say much about this one. It’s hard. Engineers just don’t seem to offer much until they got high levels.

Necromancer:
Marks are awesome. No matter your level. Obviously, they pack more punch the further you go.
High survivability.
Can grab, pull and chill unsuspecting victims – all in one move!
Can cover walls with AoE.

Mesmer:
Temporal curtain, chaos storm, null field, Time Warp, Mass invisibility, […], this, that and this too… It’d be easier to list the skills which are NOT useful in WvWvW.

Ranger:
Seriously, don’t play them.

Whatever you do, have a ranged option. Underleveled/undergeared and melee do not mix, you will simply die instantly. As a low level, follow a relatively large group and stay at the back. Always bring supply and volunteer to man siege (although refrain from manning rams because rammers tend to take damage and it’s detrimental to the siege if the rammer keeps downing) because you will contribute alot more that way compared to actual combat. There is a significant gap between geared 80s and non-80s, even though they scale you up.

I also recommend to at least pve to…say 20 or so before stepping into WvW so you at least have some if not all of your utility slots. Fill them with whatever helps you stay alive as long as possible. Take note that leveling in WvW is erratic and unreliable – on a good day it’s close to the fastest leveling in the game but if the map you are on is at a stalemate or if you are stuck on permanent defense there can be little to no exp income.

As for actual class recs, probably something like thief. A million ways to escape, and shortbow has decent range and not too shabby damage + aoe support skills even at lower levels. Also helps that they are generally OP in wvw so when you hit 80 you can enjoy beating up other people by pressing a few buttons >_>

for me, running a sword/pistol thief lev 20(started WvWvW from 16 or so) worked just fine, dunno your problem with melee. Just need to contribute with blinding powder and scorp wire, dazing anyone trying to fire off something big. When the lines break down, you do the killing. infiltrators strike -> pistol whip, let him for the follow up, steal to the next, haste-pistol whip from behind etc.
You just apply some stopping power, tag them while you are at it and then move on to the next as there’s a group, clearing up anyway and your damage does kitten.
Of course, I used short bow from time to time but that was just to tag to get some xp.
“A ranged option” is a ranged option. You still need some stopping power if you wanna be of any use.

I have no problem. What makes you think I have a problem?

Naphack gave some very good info in that post. I would say you need to decide what type player you want to be.

I found Engi to be a breeze in WvW with a group. Grenades give you AOE that is great taking towers, defending them, and holding back a zerg. You also tag a lot of people with them so the xp comes quickly. Permanent swiftness from switching kits is a godsend on those long runs as well! Their weakness at least for me was 1v1 or single target damage.

I now am leveling a mesmer and in 9 days I am a 63. 90% has been in WvW. Much less chance for AOE, but I can single out targets and sometimes take them down, even though I am low level and undergeared. I feel like I can do much more single target damage.

Whatever you choose, have fun!

Id say that most class would be good one way or the other as a low lvl. Depends on your preference. What i feel what differentiates between a good low lvl or a bad low lvl though is WvW awareness.

Which could be summed up as not doing stupid stuff.

Some simple pointers to follow and low lvls can help too

1. Always have 10 supply
2. Do supply runs to repair doors, walls
3. Do NOT take supplies from towers/keeps
4. Dont hit on doors without siege
5. Develop the habit to scout for enemies behind you instead of autoattacking doors
6. Stay with the zerg
7. Stay in middle of the zerg (half of my WvW kills are from low lvls who walked too far out)
8. Roll/dodge/heal when arrow cart/ballista is firing at u (9/10 who gets killed by arrow carts are low lvls)
9. If by chance i die to an arrow cart. DONT try to rez me. You will die too.
10. Rez people if u can.

hmm something like this

like to add elemetalists can be one of the hardest thing to kill in wvw.

Mogar.9216:

like to add elemetalists can be one of the hardest thing to kill in wvw.

Depends on your build.
Just grab a bunch of immobilizes and he will curse you.
Also corrupt boon :>
There’s so many stuff which can kitten over an elementalist. People just tend to run stupid glass canon builds and that’s their own kitten fault :>
ALSO:
We are talking underleveled characters here. The point ele becomes hard to kill is level 80 with decent gear.