Guild Wars 2

Hello everyone,

Just as the title says, I’m considering coming back to play GW2. I stopped playing maybe a month or two after the game was released mostly because I didn’t have a machine that could run it efficiently. Finally I have a machine that can run the game well, and now I see things about an expansion. I was leveling a Thief and I stopped around lv 70; but now I hear thief is kinda “meh”. Is this true? Anyway, please answer any of the following if you can:

How’s the game now?
Just how much have I missed out on?
Would jumping straight into the expansion be shooting myself in the foot?
Where would be the best place to start?
How’s the expansion?

I realize some of these questions are very vague/subjective but still I’d be grateful if you could provide your best answer based on your experiences and a generalization as well.
Thanks!

TooBz.3065:

I’ve been thinking more about your question, and I got to level 15 on my new mesmer last night. I apologize if this comes off a little odd, I’m trying to work out how to describe the difference.

Generally, a thief, guardian, and warrior spend all of their time on a target. An elementalist and a necro spend their time kiting the target. A ranger can do either, but generally does one or the other based on the build.

Edit: I know other classes can switch between one and the other with different weapon sets, a warrior with a greatsword / long bow for example, but in general they are all doing one or the other.

When I play a mesmer, I go through phases. Set up, close, burst, escape, kite & set up, repeat.

So, for example, one rotation I have used with S/P and Staff is
Set Up
Mirror Images (2 illusions up)
Close
Sword 3 (3 illusions up)
Sword 3 (swap)
Burst
Sword 2 (blurred frenzy)
Shatter 1 (Mind wrack)
Escape
Pistol 5 (stun)
Pistol 4 (generate phantasm, 1 illusions up)
Swap to staff
Staff Number 5 (why is this a censored word without the number in there?) (chaos storm)
Staff 2 (get out of there, 2 illusions up)
Set up
Staff 3 (generate phantasm, 3 illusions up)
Kite until I’m ready to close again.

Does that make any sense?

I know these are different weapons than I recommended, but I think my scepter / pistol, sword, sword recommendation pre level 7 are great ways to get a feel of different ranges. scepter / pistol is the ranged set, sword / sword is the close set. Scepter and sword off hand both have a block. etc…

Once you are use to those weapons you should definitely just find what works for you.

Edit 2: Note, I’m still dealing damage during each phase, phantasms do great damage, chaos storm adds conditions, etc..

This is a great answer and explanation of what I was trying to convey. I chose to go with s/f and Staff. the only time I ever really get up close is when I use swrd2. other than that, I find myself constantly kiting.

Jarattellis pretty much hit it right on the head with his #2. I didn’t understand or know about fields and anything like that at all.

serialkicker.5274:

Droughboi.2945:

Title^

It just feels like something is missing. I used to play a thief for a while, so I thought this would be a good second character for me; but it just feels “off” when i’m using it. I feel like i’m doing it wrong or something. Granted I only got to like lv 5, but just the weapon skills alone feel so different that it’s almost hard for me to grasp. I like the concept of the class, but I don’t understand how to play this properly. How are they at PvE, WvW, and PvP at higher levels?

Ofc it’s different. Or do you want all classes to be the same? And you can’t possibly get the right idea about any of the classes by just leveling to 5.

sigh, you people -_-
I was merely saying I didn’t understand how to play the class as wanted someone to elaborate in it at different phases. again I was only addressing the weapon skills not the entire class. let’s not be “that” guy, if you have nothing nice to say, then just hush. I had a solid grasp on every other class as soon as I picked it up. I’d be able to understand what kind of things I’d be doing with it. I couldn’t grasp it with with mesmer. I only stated my level because someone would obviously ask, not because I level up 5 times and judged the entire class(which I’m not). Only weapon skills, all of which I have. You could’vevsaid something about the various combo fields with the weapon skills or something and that would’ve been great. but no, you want to be “that” guy.

I’m asking early so I don’t waste time leveling something I might not like.

cool cool. makes sense now. they aren’t so straight forward like thieves or warriors would be. which is why it felt “off” to me

Thanks a bunch. I’m at work right now, but I’ll be sure to do it when I get off.

TooBz.3065:

I guess I don’t know what you are looking for.

Are you looking for weapon combination, rotations, an indication of when to use what?

Your answer was great actually.

Hickeroar.9734:

Level the thief to 80 before you consider another toon. The last 10 levels are the easiest, imho, and you’re already almost there. Don’t abandon a lvl 67 character.

WvW is full of endless entertainment possibilities. You can have fun on any class in there, so just go with what you enjoy playing.

Mesmer is a lot of fun, but one of the harder classes to truly master. Thieves can be effective by spamming #2 on your skill bar…or you can become super deadly by really mastering your class.

What kind of things do you see yourself doing in WvW? Zerging? Defense? Roaming? Havok Squads?

Man I don’t even know what any of that is. when I tried wvw, all I did was run into a crowd, stealth, shank and kill a couple guys n that’s it. never really tried wvw again. sooo…. Yeah I’m ignorant when it comes to anything wvw.

Pyroatheist.9031:

You only got to level 5. If you think that you can fully experience the nature and feel of a class in the first 5 levels, you’ve got another thing coming. Get it to level 40, then take another look at it.

…. at level 40, I’m still going to hav the same weapon skills. I was specifically addressing the weapon skills. Not the entire class as a whole. obviously there will be more damage etc, but the basis of my question wouldn’t change. coming from a straight forward class like theif, mesmer feels very different with it’s wep skills. It’s not as straight forward, so I was hoping for some elaboration on the weapon skills and personal thoughts. You telling me what is quite obvious will still leave me with the same question.

I used D/D and P/P as a theif. So I guess melee and Range. Im new like I said, so right now I’m only using a greatsword. Probably going to keep using it. Not sure on anything else though.

Jrunyon.3012:

Honestly, I say stick to the thief, at least until 80. I’m approaching 1k hours on my thief and I’m still finding new ways to play the class.

It’s actually made me almost unable to play other classes due to the cooldown system feeling too clunky, not to mention the awesome mobility of the thief. What weapons were you using if I may ask?

Main reason I want to try a different class is simply because I want different weapons. I agree, the Initiative thing is addicting; you just don’t realize it until you switch lol. when you go to a different class. Everything feels so slow in comparison. I mostly used D/D and P/P. I tried all the other weapon sets and didn’t like them too much. I would’ve used more S/D if it wasn’t as bad as it was..(unless they buffed it?). I’d occasionally switch to a bow every now n then.

Aeonblade.8709:

Pick a Mesmer if you want to WvW, they are effective both in zergs and in roaming situations and have several viable PvP builds to choose from. Mesmer is a rocky road in PvE until about level 30-40, then things really start opening up for them as a class.

Warrior can do some heavy damage, but is a lot harder to play in PvP and usually melts in the zerg before they can do enough damage.

My personal advice would be to play a Mesmer and level some in WvW. Yes you will be upleveled, yes you will get run over sometimes, but you learn a lot about your class that you don’t have to in a crash course at level 80.

The least played class is probably Engineer, because while they have their strong points, overall the class feels broken.

Thanks for that reply. Whenever I used a Mesmer, it did feel a little off. Almost like I was Mesmer-ing wrong. I’ll just try to stick with it and see how I like it.

Title^

It just feels like something is missing. I used to play a thief for a while, so I thought this would be a good second character for me; but it just feels “off” when i’m using it. I feel like i’m doing it wrong or something. Granted I only got to like lv 5, but just the weapon skills alone feel so different that it’s almost hard for me to grasp. I like the concept of the class, but I don’t understand how to play this properly. How are they at PvE, WvW, and PvP at higher levels?

Title^

-I used to play a lot back when the game was first released (Obviously). I made a thief and only got it to 67, but shortly after that I stopped playing for a while. I wanted to make a new character, but I just can’t stick with it enough y’know? I do like playing, the game is fun; its just whenever I try to start something new, its…. “Ugh”. If that makes any sense…

-I love my thief, but I want to try something new. I’m kind of stuck between Mesmer and Warrior. I don’t really know too much about these. How is their WvW potential? I don’t do much of that other PvP.

-What’s the least played class? Why?

Thanks guys!