Guild Wars 2

ello, I recently started playing this game and I am at a loss to pick my class. I tried most of the classes in PvP, and played a little PvE (but not enough of that to decide). I will most likely be playing by self, and having a pet companion seems really cool. It just seems like a lot of fun to have someone by your side since I imagine I would be playing by myself. I love the longbow and think that could be pretty fun, and generally like greatswords. On the other hand, the engineer seems really cool too. Love the rifle and the pistol and shield setup, and just the general explosives. Also really enjoyed the turrets, though people seem to praise the elixirs. I haven’t played any PvE of the engineer so I don’t know much how that goes. (I really enjoyed calling in a supply crate on a capture point filled with lots people, using my other turrets, and then running around with my wrench healing everything. I don’t know if my opponents were bad or not, but it was VERY effective and fun.)
P.S. This is basically my first mmo ever as note.
Thanks for the help everyone!

Engineers are pretty OP at the moment in PvE and WvWvW with all their AoEs, can easily produce more damage in an area then Ranger can single target.

At the moment GS and Longbow are probably the Rangers weakest weapons, which is a shame because they are fun to use but at the same time not because they are so weak (which kind of describes the Ranger all over really). Some buffs are supposed to be coming next patch but from the sounds of it it will mostly be to our utilities at first.

They are very different, pick the one who you think has the playstyle it suits you.

For PvE leveling ranger hands down to be the best at it, in dungeons i can’t tell because i don’t have an engi, try to get an answer from engineer forum aswell.

You can’t go wrong with a ranger in PvE. I tend to solo for the most part in PvE as well, and the addition of a second body to use for absorbing and dealing damage really shines in that environment. Plus rangers are just generally all around good at surviving in this game.

PvP wise, you will get a variety of opinions, but mine is that rangers are tough to play, but fun because of it.

Engineer is awkward in PvE at very low levels, but if you stick with it, they get powerful in a hurry. They are solid in PvP – arguably easier than rangers to play, but I also haven’t really run into any that have blown me away yet.

Honestly, you are doing it the right way. Just mess with different classes in PvP. Play with traits and gear to get an idea of what sort of play style fits you, then dive into PvE when you’ve decided. You can always switch if you end up not liking your choice.

Hmm, kinda disappointing that those too are the worst, but setups currently are effective? And thank you everyone who has replied so far, I thought that having that companion would be pretty sweet and you guys are confirming that, still undecided though.

Ranger kinda sucks atm and engineer doesnt but go with playstyle. Do you like blowing stuff up with nades and bombs? Do you like pewpewing with a bow or stabby rip stab stab with a sword while pet chews on them? There you have it.

A Dawg.7602:

Hmm, kinda disappointing that those too are the worst, but setups currently are effective? And thank you everyone who has replied so far, I thought that having that companion would be pretty sweet and you guys are confirming that, still undecided though.

I would take comments indicating that any particular weapon is “bad” with a grain of salt. People have opinions. ’Nuff said on that.

You will not have any trouble in PvE with any weapon set. However, I would recommend not choosing your weapon solely on aesthetics since your skills are tied to the weapon. Try all of the weapon combos to see what works for you, and swap it up a lot until you can’t imagine playing without whatever you settle on.

A Dawg.7602:

Hmm, kinda disappointing that those too are the worst, but setups currently are effective? And thank you everyone who has replied so far, I thought that having that companion would be pretty sweet and you guys are confirming that, still undecided though.

With Sword+Torch/Shortbow and traps in your utility skills you’ll rip through pretty much everything in PvE. The Ranger in general is easier to level than the Engineer, all classes in this game are perfectly playable in PvE though. Engineer like the Elementalist just needs a little more effort than most.

Okay, so what’s some diversity in the ranger class to keep things interesting? Like the engineer has a bunch of different kits that seem like a lot of fun, what does the ranger have to keep things interesting as I level up? Also, how is respeccing because I love how it is in PvP, but I assume PvE is different?

It’s like 3 silver to respec in PvE, quite cheap (pretty much what it costs to travel somewhere at level 80). You do this through a class trainer.

A Dawg.7602:

Okay, so what’s some diversity in the ranger class to keep things interesting? Like the engineer has a bunch of different kits that seem like a lot of fun, what does the ranger have to keep things interesting as I level up? Also, how is respeccing because I love how it is in PvP, but I assume PvE is different?

That’s really where the class needs work. Build diversity is one of the things that was mentioned as being addressed with the November 15th patch. You can swap out weapons and pets, but about half of the utilities are either undesirable or kind of boring.

As was mentioned, respec in PvE costs coin, but you can always figure out what you want in PvP first then build toward that in PvE.

Got an 80 engi myself that I enjoy but I’m currently leveling a ranger.

Engis have a ton of options. Both grenade and bomb kits are popular aswell as rifle+toolbelt burst specs. They all deal massive damage.

I run a rifle+toolbelt (lightning discharge trait) spec myself. Nice range, very high damage. Its quite the glasscannon, but I only have a hard time vs mesmers and thieves really. Anything else gets destroyed very fast unless its really tanky, and if its tanky you can kite it all day long with immob, roots, knockbacks, cripples and all that.

I’ve played ranger in sPvP since beta aswell but didnt start to level it until recently. Many people say the longbow is bad, but I do well with it. I run with longbow and axe+warhorn. Now I’m leveling him to get another WvW toon and will be sticking to my LB/Axe+WH.

My opinion is admittedly Ranger-centric at the moment since I’ve played my Ranger to 80 and my Engineer is only just started at level 3. That being said, I’m also mostly a solo player and found the Ranger to be great fun in PvE. I like being able to call the pet out to grab aggro first while I follow up with ranged attacks then switch to melee (sword+torch is fun) to clean up.

I have both an 80 engy and 80 ranger. I can easily say that the ranger is by far the easier class to play well. Also consider they’re getting a bit of an update at some point this month.

I had initially tried the engineer as my first alt and rerolled. I find the class goes down a lot easier once you have a better understanding of general game mechanics (especially combos).

For the OP, if this is your first MMO, go ranger.