Guild Wars 2

could some 1 help me plz I cant pick what Profession to play I have got the engineer thief and the ranger to level 25 and I cant seem to pick what 1 I want to level as my main.

I want to do dungeons, fotm, map comp and wvw can some 1 tell me what 1s are good/fun at doing what
if some one could help me plz

Avoid ranger at all costs. It’s the only profession with a broken class mechanic non-PvP. They’ll help a bit with the upcoming HP increase to pets, but that won’t solve all of the OTHER problems.
Engineers are great and versatile, if you don’t mind the buggy, malfunctioning skills here and there. And carpal tunnels.
I haven’t played a thief, so I don’t know what to say, other than the fact it has a high skill floor (one of the squishiest professions).

This is the engie forum, we’re all gonna say engie. My original toon was going to be a ranger. That’s what I played in Beta, that’s what I played at launch. Then I started playing an engie and for 11 months it was my only 80 (I just got a warrior to 80). I’ve created a ranger and deleted it twice. Thiefs are fun but I’m less a sneaky guy and more a gadget geek. All my toons in WoW were gnomish engineers and when forced to play alliance, I always rolled a gnome. So an Asura Engineer is right up my alley.

My ranger was originally my main. However now I played all other classes, including an engineer, I can tell you this, I was addicted to engineer for quite awhile.

While I’d say ranger is on easy-mode in PvE situation, engineer is far more enjoyable to play. You can get bored of playing ranger from time to time, but would hardly get bored when you’re using an engineer.

When build it right, engineer can destroy a large group of enemies fairly easy.
It is a very useful and tactical class in WvW and PvP too because grenades can give lots of pressure to a group of foes in range, while bombs can blow away enemies.

However, engineer tend to be those classes that’re fairly weak during lower levels because its strength relies on its trait mostly, and you cant allocate traits freely until you’re at least level 60.

If you want to do everything (dungeons, fotm, wvw, pvp) I would most certainly avoid ranger. Particularly for the pve aspects.

Not because they are necessarily bad for pve, its just that they are definitely looked down upon by other players in that respect, if you care about that sort of thing.

I agree with the others, avoid Ranger; while not necessarily weaker than the other professions the pet is a major headache.

In dungeons and fractals you want to have a Warrior, a Guardian and a Mesmer (sometimes you ditch the Guardian or the Mesmer), what profession you take for the remaining slots hardly makes a difference, expect for the Necro who lacks a good power build all professions deal somewhat equal damage.

For map completion Thief is properly the best profession due to mobility and stealth, Engineer isn’t too bad for it either, thought.

In WvW the Thief makes a good roamer but isn’t that great in big fights and sieges, the Engineer is decent at both.

Regarding leveling:
The Bomb Kit is pretty strong at lower levels.

I recommend Thief.

Snack.9315:

Avoid ranger at all costs. It’s the only profession with a broken class mechanic non-PvP.

They aint the only class – Ele comes to mind, The attunements are a joke :/

I’d have to agree with Aomine.

I too rolled a ranger first, found it easy-mode in PvE, then got bored of its limited utilities and frustrated by constantly dying pets.

Now I main an engi and found it way more fun and fulfilling. It does take traits to really strengthen it, so don’t worry if you find your grenades and FT hitting like a limp noodle at low levels.

Recenetly rolled a thief and am loving it for many of the same reasons I love engi. Dynamic, reliant on movement, build variety. Opposite the engi tho, thief hits hard from the start, but becomes easier to stay alive as you gain traits. Engi I feel has a lot of survival already built into its skills, but needs those traits for more zip.

All 3 can maintain speed for exploration. Thief & Ranger have 25% movement signets and Engi has access to perma-swiftness at lvl 20 thru traits.

I’d love to compare the answers you would get posting this in each of the respective profession forums… These were my first three characters and I selected them because they were different from each other.

Rangers – Pets aren’t broken. Too many people think the pet should have an AI equivalent to its owner. You could argue some already do. The downside is you will need to keep your pet on passive for most dungeon, WvW zerg, and World Boss fights. This means using your pet to buff, rather deal direct damage. Some people just can’t live with a theoretical loss of DPS. On the bright side, your pet is what makes PvE relatively easy. You can go 1-80 and not die and without playing it safe. If your pet dies a lot in PvE (outside of the first 15 levels), you need to change your strategy, or your traits. Your skill bar won’t change much. The same 3 utilities you use at lvl 20 will still be there at Lvl 80. Whether that is a plus or a minus depends on the user. Condition removal is a serious issue, far more than the pets. But you do have a good healing skills, so all is not lost (at least in PvE). Ranger is a nice first character. If you like exploring and collecting pets, give it a go. It also helps if you like killing things with a bow.

Engineer – The opposite of a ranger. 3 weapon choices. Very limited range. 8,000,000 ways to kill your target. I brought my engi along very slowly. I knew I was going to love it, but wanted to make sure I really could play it before diving in to WvW, PvP, etc. SO many useful utilities, so many tricks. Lots of combo fields, might stacking, party buffs, throwing things, turrets. It really is fun, but I think it is a tough first character unless you study up. Nevertheless, if you love versatility, gadgets, and permanent swiftness, this is the place.

I have a level 80 thief. She is retired and lives in Lion’s Arch making over-priced jewelry. There are a lot of thieves out there, most of whom rush through PvE so they can start terrorizing people in WvW. I had much more difficulty in PvE with my thief than the two above. I am not sure that would be the case now, but stealth isn’t the over-powered menace in PvE that it is in other parts of the game. When an enemy wants to hit you, especially veterans on up, it doesn’t matter if you are stealthed or not. So you wind up playing the bulk of PvE in some sort of D/D, Sw/P. Shortbow combination, spamming 1-2-3. Then you get to lvl 80, decide you want to play WvW/PvP, and you need to learn how to play an entirely different kind of character. This is why you hear so many people complaining about all the “bad thieves” of there. It’s a whole new game. I’m too old to enjoy running around ganking people, and then running away again, all the while singing “nah-nah, you can’t see me!”. It’s not the reason I play this game. And so my girl retired to her kiosk. My guess is that if you really wanted to be a thief, you would have been instantly drawn to the stealth and backstabbing, love it, and not be asking the question above.

I’d say pick a engi, it’s waay to fun to play and level it up. As crossoverArt said, the ranger can be very boring in PvE, and the pet can be a hidrance at times (getting you into combat, mob agro, etc; not always but it still happens). The ranger was my first toon and played quite extensively with it, but it gets boring at times.

The engineer sems like a fun class (just rolled one, under level 30), harder than the ranger to play, but definetly more rewarding. If you have the time, give it a go with each class up to lvl 40-50 and then pick.

Snack.9315:

Avoid ranger at all costs. It’s the only profession with a broken class mechanic non-PvP. They’ll help a bit with the upcoming HP increase to pets, but that won’t solve all of the OTHER problems.
Engineers are great and versatile, if you don’t mind the buggy, malfunctioning skills here and there. And carpal tunnels.
I haven’t played a thief, so I don’t know what to say, other than the fact it has a high skill floor (one of the squishiest professions).

I agree that the ranger pet is broken, but other than that ranger can be extremely usefull.

warriorjrd.8695:

Snack.9315:

Avoid ranger at all costs. It’s the only profession with a broken class mechanic non-PvP. They’ll help a bit with the upcoming HP increase to pets, but that won’t solve all of the OTHER problems.
Engineers are great and versatile, if you don’t mind the buggy, malfunctioning skills here and there. And carpal tunnels.
I haven’t played a thief, so I don’t know what to say, other than the fact it has a high skill floor (one of the squishiest professions).

I agree that the ranger pet is broken, but other than that ranger can be extremely usefull.

How? Explofinisher? Kombo fields? Support? Vulnerability? Condition remove? Just how?

Forestnator.6298:

warriorjrd.8695:

Snack.9315:

Avoid ranger at all costs. It’s the only profession with a broken class mechanic non-PvP. They’ll help a bit with the upcoming HP increase to pets, but that won’t solve all of the OTHER problems.
Engineers are great and versatile, if you don’t mind the buggy, malfunctioning skills here and there. And carpal tunnels.
I haven’t played a thief, so I don’t know what to say, other than the fact it has a high skill floor (one of the squishiest professions).

I agree that the ranger pet is broken, but other than that ranger can be extremely usefull.

How? Explofinisher? Kombo fields? Support? Vulnerability? Condition remove? Just how?

You clearly haven’t played a ranger.

I started a Ranger alt and they’re pretty good. I’ve never liked the archer arch type in games for some reason, but I do enjoy the longbow on Ranger in addition to all the melee options. They can do great group support, and pretty good combo fields also just from my limited experience. Massive damage potential also.

Jackums.3496:

The Engineer is the most consistent across the aforementioned game modes, from the professions you mentioned. I’d go Engi, of those, for sure.

The Ranger is objectively one of the bottom classes in the game across all game types other than PvP. People exaggerate everything, good or bad, Ranger or not, but that doesn’t invalidate the complaints. Any class can be useful when in the hands of a good player, but that, again, doesn’t invalidate its issues. The Ranger has minimal utility and poor damage in comparison to other professions. It’ll perform better in small groups (ie. dungeons) than in larger groups (ie. WvW zerging), but is still not going to match the damage of something like a Warrior, or the utility of something like a Mesmer. It’s a jack of all trades, master of none sort of profession. The pet is also useless anywhere that you’ll be facing heavy AoE (dungeons, WvW, large events, etc), and the buffs they give don’t make up for the loss in DPS when you have to keep them out of the fight.

If we’re talking single target DPS, the ranger can match a theif’s and is far superior to an engi. Of course a ranger doesn’t beat a warrior for max dps, but then again, no class does… The main thing wrong with the ranger class is the pet. It makes up a portion of our damage and the majority of the time that damage from the pet is wasted. I can still out damage people without my pet, so saying we rangers lack dps is ignorant.
For solo roaming I would go with ranger, engi has nice conditions, but power/crit build wise, the ranger wins out. Of course if you really want a solo build just go with a perma stealth theif, that should get the job done..

warriorjrd.8695:

Forestnator.6298:

warriorjrd.8695:

Snack.9315:

Avoid ranger at all costs. It’s the only profession with a broken class mechanic non-PvP. They’ll help a bit with the upcoming HP increase to pets, but that won’t solve all of the OTHER problems.
Engineers are great and versatile, if you don’t mind the buggy, malfunctioning skills here and there. And carpal tunnels.
I haven’t played a thief, so I don’t know what to say, other than the fact it has a high skill floor (one of the squishiest professions).

I agree that the ranger pet is broken, but other than that ranger can be extremely usefull.

How? Explofinisher? Kombo fields? Support? Vulnerability? Condition remove? Just how?

You clearly haven’t played a ranger.

I do but I am not happy with my ranger.

warriorjrd.8695:

Jackums.3496:

The Engineer is the most consistent across the aforementioned game modes, from the professions you mentioned. I’d go Engi, of those, for sure.

The Ranger is objectively one of the bottom classes in the game across all game types other than PvP. People exaggerate everything, good or bad, Ranger or not, but that doesn’t invalidate the complaints. Any class can be useful when in the hands of a good player, but that, again, doesn’t invalidate its issues. The Ranger has minimal utility and poor damage in comparison to other professions. It’ll perform better in small groups (ie. dungeons) than in larger groups (ie. WvW zerging), but is still not going to match the damage of something like a Warrior, or the utility of something like a Mesmer. It’s a jack of all trades, master of none sort of profession. The pet is also useless anywhere that you’ll be facing heavy AoE (dungeons, WvW, large events, etc), and the buffs they give don’t make up for the loss in DPS when you have to keep them out of the fight.

If we’re talking single target DPS, the ranger can match a theif’s and is far superior to an engi. Of course a ranger doesn’t beat a warrior for max dps, but then again, no class does… The main thing wrong with the ranger class is the pet. It makes up a portion of our damage and the majority of the time that damage from the pet is wasted. I can still out damage people without my pet, so saying we rangers lack dps is ignorant.
For solo roaming I would go with ranger, engi has nice conditions, but power/crit build wise, the ranger wins out. Of course if you really want a solo build just go with a perma stealth theif, that should get the job done..

Lol, warrior is not the hardest hitting class in the game in terms of actual dps. I find it funny people still think this, then again many people use the term dps (damage per second) when what they are actually referring to is dpa (damage per activation). The real reason warriors are so sought after in pve is because they are easy to achieve results with which makes them very pug friendly.

warriorjrd.8695:

If we’re talking single target DPS, the ranger can match a theif’s and is far superior to an engi.

Hahahahahahaha. Ranger? DPS? Are you sure? My ranger is full zerker and I still need 40+ seconds for veteran undead giant in orr while my celestial engineer needs below 30 seconds. Yes, my celestial engi beats my zerker ranger in dps by far.

Forestnator.6298:

warriorjrd.8695:

If we’re talking single target DPS, the ranger can match a theif’s and is far superior to an engi.

Hahahahahahaha. Ranger? DPS? Are you sure? My ranger is full zerker and I still need 40+ seconds for veteran undead giant in orr while my celestial engineer needs below 30 seconds. Yes, my celestial engi beats my zerker ranger in dps by far.

You should stop putting people down on these forums, contrary to what you might think you don’t actually know everything.

Forestnator.6298:

warriorjrd.8695:

If we’re talking single target DPS, the ranger can match a theif’s and is far superior to an engi.

Hahahahahahaha. Ranger? DPS? Are you sure? My ranger is full zerker and I still need 40+ seconds for veteran undead giant in orr while my celestial engineer needs below 30 seconds. Yes, my celestial engi beats my zerker ranger in dps by far.

You should stop putting people down, you don’t actually know everything.

Very impressive. I just wonder how long it takes without elite. But never the less: impressive. How vialbe is it in dungons/fractals?

Forestnator.6298:

warriorjrd.8695:

If we’re talking single target DPS, the ranger can match a theif’s and is far superior to an engi.

Hahahahahahaha. Ranger? DPS? Are you sure? My ranger is full zerker and I still need 40+ seconds for veteran undead giant in orr while my celestial engineer needs below 30 seconds. Yes, my celestial engi beats my zerker ranger in dps by far.

If it takes you that long to kill a veteran on zerker anything, you need to un-install the game, maybe tetris suits you?

Forestnator.6298:

Very impressive. I just wonder how long it takes without elite. But never the less: impressive. How vialbe is it in dungons/fractals?

All the elite gives is fury,swiftness, stabilty, and 1 stack of might/pet attack, it wouldnt have made that much of a difference if he used it or not =p

warriorjrd.8695:

Forestnator.6298:

warriorjrd.8695:

If we’re talking single target DPS, the ranger can match a theif’s and is far superior to an engi.

Hahahahahahaha. Ranger? DPS? Are you sure? My ranger is full zerker and I still need 40+ seconds for veteran undead giant in orr while my celestial engineer needs below 30 seconds. Yes, my celestial engi beats my zerker ranger in dps by far.

If it takes you that long to kill a veteran on zerker anything, you need to un-install the game, maybe tetris suits you?

a) I never use buff food for dps test
b) if you show me up below 30 sec with celestial gear we can talk again, if not then c)
c) I don’t talk with noobs

Forestnator.6298:

warriorjrd.8695:

Forestnator.6298:

warriorjrd.8695:

If we’re talking single target DPS, the ranger can match a theif’s and is far superior to an engi.

Hahahahahahaha. Ranger? DPS? Are you sure? My ranger is full zerker and I still need 40+ seconds for veteran undead giant in orr while my celestial engineer needs below 30 seconds. Yes, my celestial engi beats my zerker ranger in dps by far.

If it takes you that long to kill a veteran on zerker anything, you need to un-install the game, maybe tetris suits you?

a) I never use buff food for dps test
b) if you show me up below 30 sec with celestial gear we can talk again, if not then c)
c) I don’t talk with noobs

Full Celestial isn’t a DPS build, it’s got less than 3k attack kitten . If you want max DPS you run a build like in the video, not full celestial rubbish.

Ranger is easiest to play (in some builds). If you’re new, you might want to consider that. However, for excellent depth and complexity, pick Engi.

well i read a lot of the replies to this question and I decided to state the obvious in case it wasnt clear to you from the posts above avoid ranger for pvp, pve, wvw and any magical events to come in the near future. U will hear people saying theives are bad at pve, which is entirely false, theives are just as much as viable as other classes in pve and definitely prefferable to a ranger. If a theif goes full berserker then wonders why they get their kitten kicked to strong mobs in pve then thats the reason they added no toughness and probably expected to 22222 spam their way with heartseeker. If you are willing to consider sword/dagger sword/pistol even pistol pistol you wil find theives very enjoyable for pve. My main is a engineer and mesmer and considering retiring engineer for mesmer , but no doubt probably what u will love most about engineer is their versatility they can do a bit of everything when I run pve, wvw i tend to have a set group composition for example warrior for dps, ele for combofields/waterfield especially, mesmer for just that utility options such as mass invisibility. U will notice that an engineer can easily fill any of these roles in that group composition. I definitely recommend engineer for pve, wvw, pvp over the other two. But if there is one thing you should take away from this post is that avoid ranger!!! incase u didnt see it the first 2 times AVOID RANGER!

You guys need to really stop knocking on the Ranger.
I have both a level 80 Ranger and a level 80 Engineer.

Here are pros and cons of both classes, starting with the Ranger since you all hate it so much.

Pros

- Essential in the meta-speed run dungeon comp which is three warriors, ranger, mesmer. The reason behind this is because you bring Spotter and Frost Spirit, two buffs which no other profession can really mimic, especially Frost Spirit, which when traited gives the entire party a 70 percent chance to do 10 percent more damage.

- Great mobility (Swoop, easy access to swiftness, if your lazy you can just slot Signet of the Hunt)

- Highly effective regen/condi builds that are in the top 3 for WvW roaming.

- Can easily farm lots of bags if you want by just going zerk gear and spamming piercing shot and rapid fire from the back line.

Cons

- Pet AI and pet in general is still something to be desired.

Now for the engineer.

Pros

- Lot’s of build diversity.

- Condi/Perplexity engineer is probably the top roamer in WvW right now.

- Easy access to perma-swiftness.

Cons

- You are locked into your build. Everyone here says, “oh engineer can do this, this, this, this and this” but what they fail to mention is the gear and trait requirements to do so.

- Clunky playstyle that will take a lot of practice to get used to. There’s a reason I, and many others in WvW relentlessly target engineers. It’s like a litmus test for most people. If you can kill them, then they are a free bag any time you see that person again. If they are not, and they kill you, then they are the .01 percent of the GW2 population that mastered the engineer and should be avoided at ALL COSTS.

- You have perma-swiftness but little else in terms of extra mobility unless you slot in rocket boots and elixir gun which is TWO utility slots.

So yeah, take it as you will. Yes I listed more cons then the ranger, but that is because OTHER THAN THE PET, the Ranger is a great profession. If you can learn to just think of your pet as a little bit of extra damage during a fight, you’ll be fine. If you expect your pet to be this mega-dps killing tanking machine you will be disappointed.

Basically, you have to ask yourself “Do I plan on mastering this class to it’s full potential or is it just going to be another alt?” If the answer is another alt, then just roll something else. The engineer punishes mistakes more than any other profession in the game, so much so, that if you are mediocre at the class you might as well just be a free bag in WvW or dead weight in a dungeon. In fact, I would rather take a ranger PET into a dungeon than an average engineer.

Remember the original poster still needs to complete PvE and is at Lvl 25. Arguing over 40+ Fractal abilities is unnecessary. And unless the poster is part of the 1% who obsess over DPS, arguing minutia in that category won’t help him decide either. Besides, we all know skill trumps DPS and all classes can be a serious menace when played well. Unless of course you’re invisible all the time, but that discussion belongs in another thread.

On the first go through, I would hope they have fun with their character. Otherwise there won’t be Fractals and WvW. If you want a DPS min/max character, make it your second, and choose which one of your three you enjoy playing now.