Guild Wars 2

Izaya.2906:

Starbird.4029:

KngGilgamesh.3481:

Guardian can probably have more dps with the unscathed contender but that trait is not operational all the time (only when you have aegis up). Rangers probably have more dps and offensive support but Guardian has lots of nice support too (reflection, aegis, protection, blinds etc.). Rangers are more of a luxury in terms of support comparable to warriors.

So…rangers aren’t important to a group?

There are 5 members in a party.

Warrior gives the highest stat buff for all professions so it’s given that you take one. They can also provide alot of might effortlessly.

Staff ele is top tier DPS and has the almighty Frost Bow.

Thief is also top tier DPS with lots of blinds and the bonus of enabling easier skips that will save you alot of time.

Ranger has good burst damage and second to warriors for stat buffing.

Guardians gives aegis, projectile block/reflects, blinds, cleanses, stability and some might. These might not directly affect stats like a Ranger does but these enable other party members to not dodge and allow them to build more offensively(traits+utilities) and keep attacking or possibly channeling a hard hitting skill. Reflect can also be significant in damage(like in Arah).

It’s not just simply which one does more damage, you have to look at the bigger picture and ask yourself which one allows the whole party to do more damage in the long run.

Hmm, this isn’t making me want to play a ranger unfortunately. Sigh, back to guard?

Arkinos.7245:

Rangers are a somewhat selfish class.
You also wont be using your longbow in any half decent group unless you are trolling.

Rangers basically offer 2 things to groups: Spotter and Frost Spirit.
Both of these increase dps.

Guardians mostly offer defensive utility, but have a lot more things from reflections to buffs and ridiculous amounts of aoe aegis blocks.
Guardian dps are mediocre, but especially GS has absurdly large aoe.

Guardian ranged weapons (its basically only the scepter) suck a bit, while Rangers shouldnt be using ranged weapons most of the time, but if they do Longbow is actually a very nice weapon.

I prefer melee actually, and would likely only use a bow when I wasn’t able to get in close.

I am the same. Melee ranger is about the most fun I’ve had, closely followed by Guardian.

KngGilgamesh.3481:

Guardian can probably have more dps with the unscathed contender but that trait is not operational all the time (only when you have aegis up). Rangers probably have more dps and offensive support but Guardian has lots of nice support too (reflection, aegis, protection, blinds etc.). Rangers are more of a luxury in terms of support comparable to warriors.

So…rangers aren’t important to a group?

rapthorne.7345:

Ranger has the highest dps if we’re talking flat damage in full berserker set ups.

Having said that, if I was given a choice between having a guardian in my party or having a ranger, I’d pick the guardian every time, due to the sheer amount of party support they offer.

Every class can dish out a hell of a lot of damage if built for it, and guardian can offer far more to a party than ranger can.

I also actively play both guardian and ranger, and can vouch that guardians are far more useful in parties

Fortunately I’ve lucked into a really active PvE guild so I’m not too worried about finding paries. Oh, and basically 1/2 of the guild is a gard for some reason.

Astralporing.1957:

If you are choosing based on dps capability, pick neither.

I’m not. I’m trying to choose between the two and dps capability is the decider.

Can rangers compete with Guardians dps wise?

Both are fun to play for me and both apparently have some utility in groups.

Which one has the higher damage capability?

smhtjoa.7159:

Starbird, I see what you mean about being indecisive.

Glad to hear you’re enjoying levelling with your GS Ranger, having fun is a very important aspect of this game, and something many people seem to lose along the way, unfortunately.

Just be aware of a couple of things with your current chosen profession. As you face higher level enemies and participate in larger (boss) events, your pesky medium armour can become your downfall. GS requires you to be right up close, but your medium armour will often not give you adequate protection. Until you’ve mastered the game mechanics enough to keep moving and dodging while dealing damage, you’ll be dead before you can blink twice.

Remember also that your pet is a significant part of your dps capability and if it dies in combat, your dps tanks with it. This means keeping your pet alive in combat becomes a major priority and will divide your focus while fighting – not a good thing while you’re levelling.

I’ve levelled both Ranger and Guardian to 80 and my Guardian beats all my other alts hands-down. But – this is because he suits my natural play style : defensive + supportive. I’m not one of those ‘rush in and kill before i"m killed’ players, I prefer to hang back a bit and swoop in at the opportune moment.

Course, once I do, it’ll be with my Greatsword which allows met to hit hard enough to take down the necessary nasties. For me, the additional support capablities (read: virtues) of the Guardian are what wins it over Warrior for me. Warriors are actually way less tanky than new players expect, because they don’t have the extra heal+support skills the Guardian carries with the F1-3 skills.

Keep at it, though. As you play, you learn what does and doesn’t work for you – no one else can tell you that.

Thanks! Yeah, torn between Guard and Ranger now. Probably going to end up leveling both.

Actually I’ve found myself a class I think. GS ranger. Insanely healy and fun thus far. Plus I have a little bird following that wrecks stuff.

I may regret this once everyone starts telling me I can’t join their dungeons or whatever…

LucosTheDutch.4819:

Starbird.4029:

Thanks! Great advice here (although confusing).

Going with Warrior for now and unless I hate it, will likely be my first 80.
Goal – get Nightmare Court set. After that, if I have some disposable gold, will level thief a bit via crafting to make the process a bit easier.

What do you find confusing? Maybe I can explain it again in a better way.

The reason why I suggest to go to the Heart of the Mist is because when you enter that location, you’ll automatically become lvl 80 and unlock all your skills (but you’ll be back to your original level once you leave again). That’s why going to Heart of the Mists can be a good way to see what a class truly has to offer.

To get to Heart of the Mists, you have to go to Lion’s Arch and from there walk to the Fort Mariner Waypoint. Over there you’ll find a bunch of portals. One of the will take you to Heart of the Mists.

If you really need help and you play on the North-American servers, add me to your friendlist and whisper me in-game. I can help you out in-game if you want.

Ah, the confusion is that I’ve got about equal recommendations for all classes in this thread

Biggest concern about warrior is that everyone seems to be be one :|

Thanks! Great advice here (although confusing).

Going with Warrior for now and unless I hate it, will likely be my first 80.
Goal – get Nightmare Court set. After that, if I have some disposable gold, will level thief a bit via crafting to make the process a bit easier.

Okay well as long as I can use a GS I’m okay.

Well, going to give a warrior a go until level 10.

Fermi.2409:

Starbird.4029:

Fermi.2409:

Starbird.4029:

But since this game doesn’t have a Finder I’m either going to have to pug it or find a guild or something.

Man I miss finders.

What do you mean by finders? GW2 has an LFG.

It…does? Like not a channel but an actual automated group finder tool?

Go to the friend channel and hit the second tab down. Just make sure to read the descriptions before you join a group.

Ooh thanks!

On the subject of warriors, is GS decent? I’m a big fan of dual swords but apparently it’s as bad as thief’s dual pistols :|

Warrior…hmm. I sort of like my clouds of blue fire and the flashyness of a Guard but that is an interesting thought.

How sought after are they in high level PvE? If I’m going plate, my first priory is that Nightmare Court set.

Fermi.2409:

Starbird.4029:

But since this game doesn’t have a Finder I’m either going to have to pug it or find a guild or something.

Man I miss finders.

What do you mean by finders? GW2 has an LFG.

It…does? Like not a channel but an actual automated group finder tool?

Now I’m leaning towards Thief. Grrr… internet!

D/D. Is D/D decent for leveling? As in I won’t constantly be dying to anything more than 1-2 regular mobs?

rapthorne.7345:

honestly your preferences contradict one another. you want to be tanky but don’t enjoy heavy armour… don’t get that, tanky classes use heavy armour.

As for overall preferences, I’d strongly recommend thief or ranger. it takes a while to get used to thief play style, but once you do you will have a very hard time dying. not sure if you’re using underleveled gear or just a weird weapon combo, but there’s no reason at all as a thief to be dying to same level mobs.

Downside to thief is that in higher end pve content (fractals, some dungeons) you will get the snot kicked out of you if you don’t pay attention.

Ranger is a brilliant jack of all trades class that does everything very well, it’s an easy to use class, deals a lot of damage in range or melee (greatsword or sword/horn are great dps) and is pretty tanky on top of having the option to let their pet tank for them and uses the medium armour set which, at a higher level, features a lot of the coats you seem to prefer.

Honestly it feels to me like you’ve spent not even an hour on each of the classes to come to the conclusions that you have. Since the npe, most of the classes require getting to the 30’s or higher (having unlocked most/all utility skills and elite skills) to experience their true potential

Thief is also a visual thing in that I don’t really dig the appearance of the S/P combo everyone tells me is a must for leveling.

Would love to be P/P but ugh…no aoe and squish tastic. Not a fan of kiting.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Starbird.4029:

Haha. I just saw a Guardian wizz by me using a …staff maybe? Interesting.

Ranger is okay and I do love the coat, but if I go a medium armor class it’s probably going to be a thief. Later. After I get enough gold to powerlevel her to 30 or so.

Sort of settling on a Guard for now, and probably going to have to figure out exactly how to get that Nightmare Court armor…

Sigh.

Yes, staff 3 is a speed boost. Plus you have retreat which is a much longer speed boost.

If this is the armor you’re talking about (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Nightmare_Court_armor_(heavy)_human_female_front.jpg) then you need to do the Twilight Arbor dungeon for it.

/drool. That may be the sexiest thing I’ve seen in an MMO that wasn’t DCUO. But since this game doesn’t have a Finder I’m either going to have to pug it or find a guild or something.

Man I miss finders.

Well, thanks for the advice all! Going Guard for now and possibly a thief later. Much later.

Haha. I just saw a Guardian whizz by me using a …staff maybe? Interesting.

Ranger is okay and I do love the coat, but if I go a medium armor class it’s probably going to be a thief. Later. After I get enough gold to powerlevel her to 30 or so.

Sort of settling on a Guard for now, and probably going to have to figure out exactly how to get that Nightmare Court armor…

Sigh.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Starbird.4029:

Beldin.5498:

My favourite guardian outfit need even 2 different sets from the shop, but there are
also other options for the chest. The main problem are leggings without skirts,
very much the same as there are not much coats without skirts for medium armor :/

For speed you can use retreat and save yourself .. however i prefer also to use
traveller runes.

That looks nifty but unfortunately I can’t use the shop (welcome to being in a Asian country where credit cards are barely used and never issued to foreigners).

Nightmare Court looks great though.

You can still use the shop. Convert gold to gems. It might take more time, but it’s still doable. (Either that or maybe you could sweet talk a friend into gifting you the items you want)

Haha Everyone here has the same issue sadly.

By the time I saved up that much gold I may actually have a crack at that Nightmare Court armor lol.

Right now I’m sort of leaning towards guardian nonetheless (and maybe a thief if I can powerlevel her somehow via crafting once I’ve saved up some gold). The major hurdle right now is definitely the speed issue.

Beldin.5498:

My favourite guardian outfit need even 2 different sets from the shop, but there are
also other options for the chest. The main problem are leggings without skirts,
very much the same as there are not much coats without skirts for medium armor :/

For speed you can use retreat and save yourself .. however i prefer also to use
traveller runes.

That looks nifty but unfortunately I can’t use the shop (welcome to being in a Asian country where credit cards are barely used and never issued to foreigners).

Nightmare Court looks great though.

Yes. Extreme newbie So right now I’m trying a few classes. Looking for something tanky that doesn’t look like it’s wearing half a fridge. Which doesn’t seem to exist in this game :|.

winterchillz.2564:

No.

Sword main hand and pistol off-hand will let you deal with 99% of the mobs in GW though. Just spam 5 every couple of seconds you have permanent blind on the enemy.

Blah. S/P is effective but just looks so…silly. P/P looks fantastic but yeah, apparently is horrible.

Ah well, no thief for me I guess.

mXz.4512:

There are more interesting builds to play with than just a GS guardian, I specc’d my first guard to use one of the torch builds and it works nicely. Then I’m building another for GS for other options.

But don’t only look at one build or only the meta, play around with the builds. I’ve ended up making 2 guards, 1 ranger, 1 thief. The thief was the harder of the 3 for me to level up.

Haha. I’m weird in that I’m very fussy. How a class looks/feels to me is just as important as how powerful it is (although that is important too).

GS and maybe Hammer look nifty. If I’m dual wielding the weapons have to match (yeah, I’m a bit OCD).

Thief was a misery to level up thus far. Damage was okay but clunky to do via cluster bombs. I’m honestly just after a class that can jump into a fight and tank some hits while not looking like it’s wearing half a fridge.

Pandaman.4758:

Starbird.4029:

Guardian:
- I feel slow hoofing it around.
- Apparently in higher end PvE I’m not going to be using a greatsword.
- Armor is icky, aside from two sets I’ve seen (one being a gem purchase, one being a cool silvery thing that has a feather motif…that nobody seems willing to tell me about).

Guardians and Mesmers are two of the classes that have no innate speed buff options (traits or signets), you can get around that with superior traveler runes, but they’re pricey and weaken your stats slightly.

Where in the world did you get the impression that Guardians don’t use greatswords in higher level PvE?

Are you talking about the Ceremonial Plated Armor by any chance? That’s actually an Outfit that goes in the outfit slot, any class can wear it but it has limited color channels and no mix-n-match options.

Nah it wasn’t that one. I think it was a mix of Protectors and Draconic or something.

…That Nightmare Court armor is about the only really sexy plate thing I’ve seen and without some sort of group finder I doubt I’ll be getting in there any time this year :|. Sigh, so new to this game and everyone seems so kitten geared already.

I am trying to decide whether I want to play a guard or not. I dig the mechanics and visuals but the armor…blagh. All big chunky plate.

I saw some armor today that I kind of liked, but it was Gem. I also saw another decent looking armor (like sleek plate with a sort of avian/feather motif) but could not work out where it came from.

Oh and that nightmare court armor is sexy but I doubt I’m ever going to get into that place :|.

Any cool sets of plate that don’t look ‘chunky’?

Right now me being a thief or not being a thief sort of depends on this. I tried it at low levels and hated having to tab target just to tag and having to run away from anything that looked remotely threatening.

Some people have told me it gets better later and that it gets some sort of AOE. Others have told me to stay clear and just go SB (which is okay…but clunky as hell).

Any thoughts?

So I’ve tried to get into GW2 a few times and generally fail. Why? Well, because I am extremely indecisive and end up trying to play several classes simultaneously, burn out and quit.

And…the pattern is repeating itself already. I’ve narrowed it down to these three and would love some input on which one to take to max. Currently have all at level 10ish.

I like:
- Being tanky and having an easy time leveling.
- Cool armor sets (especially coats and flowing things, not so much plate).
- Being good at soloing things.
- ‘Lazy’ classes (in that they require a bit of engagement but I don’t need to concentrate all the time. I don’t mind a small challenge, but I’m not trying to play Dark Souls here).

I don’t like:
- PvP.
- Big clunky armor.
- Pets and pet management.
- Dying often.

Ranger:
+ Easy to level with by the looks of it.
+ Snazzy looking armor sets.
- Longbow has crappy AOE, shortbow feels crappy overall.
- Very squishy in melee.
- I seem to take ages to kill anything.

Thief:
+ Best visuals and ‘feel’ by a long way.
+ Ditto armor for ranger.
- I die if a similarly leveled mob sneezes on me.
- Feels like I’m going to hate leveling the thing.
- Feels like I’m going to die constantly later (I’m okay at dodging things but don’t want to have to pay 100% attention at all times).

Guardian:
+ Feels great to wade into melee and not immediately die.
+ Greatsword looks spectacular.
- I feel slow hoofing it around.
- Apparently in higher end PvE I’m not going to be using a greatsword.
- Armor is icky, aside from two sets I’ve seen (one being a gem purchase, one being a cool silvery thing that has a feather motif…that nobody seems willing to tell me about).

Any help would be appreciated.

Nah it was the arcanist thing.

Thanks. Le sigh….it’s a buy only. And a bloody pricey one :|.

Ah well, no Guardian for me :|.

So I just came back to the game, with the intention of picking a class and sticking with it this time.

I’ve always loved the guardian class but despise the whole ‘massive chunky plate’ look. However today while running around a lowbie zone I saw a guardian wearing what looked like a split coat and breeches. It looked amazing…but looking at gallery sites I have no idea what it was.

Any help would be welcome. If this can be easily accessed, I may give the class a shot.

Profanity filter is fine. I don’t want Timmy the emotionally unstable 12 year old widdling in my ear all evening.

It is a tad broken though and often ‘kittens’ things that had no possible profane implication whatsoever.

This seems to get trotted out more and more these days, generally in response to people asking for more PvE content, complaining about PvP balance change splashover and feeling that some PvE is too gated behind PvP.

So…is this true? Is GW2 a PvP game with some PvE fluff, or does it cater to both?

Should it?

Raphael Williams.3671:

ToT.7018:

i am also on Desolation and had to wait 9 weeks for map rotation and my final poi. Why should players now get an easy shortcut to world completion when everyone else has had to work for it.
I spend most of my time in PVE but i actually enjoyed my time in WvW when i was getting my maps there. I even go back now and then with my guild as it can actually be fun.
Oh and we have a few members in our guild waiting for map rotation to complete their 100% map.

yeah hate to say it , and its probably against the code of conduct, but some people just have to L2P its that simple.

They could have made map completion a dolyak-ton harder by making you do guild bounties for it or something, but they didn’t .

Anet just asks that people go play WvW for a while because someone(s) there worked hard on making it.

People like yourself make me sad about this game.

If you want to force people to play a certain way in a game that advertises ‘play the way you want’…yeah. ’nuff said.

Periscopes are highly annoying when they chain their abilities with other mobs. The mobs they spawn are awful for newer players. Saw a lot of people dying to them

Honestly, if you want to do PvE, stay away from P/P. It’s probably the worst thief spec, and among the worst in the game.

- No AoE.
- No mobility.
- Your only source of real dps and defensive tool share a resource.
- Primary attack is bugged and doing much less damage than it should. Has not and will not ever be fixed.
- Spec uses a condition based main attack and a pure dps ‘special’ attack, making it impossible to specialize.

If you want a ranged thief, just save yourself a lot of drama and go SB.

Tulisin.6945:

Gamblit.5041:

P/P is fine in PvE – It has massive single target damage with a lot of mobility( acrobatic tree for dodge + Black Powder for Blind).

1. You probably think P/P has “massive” single target damage because Unload puts out big shiny numbers. Unfortunately, Unload (even if you can chain it forever) also does less DPS than dagger or sword auto attack, and less damage than SB auto attack against multiple targets. Why? Because Unload takes approximately forever to actually channel, so those big numbers don’t mean anything. P/P is, easily, the weakest DPS set available to thieves, surpassable with every other weapon combination at almost every timeframe (P/P beats out SB against a single target over time, but SB has actual burst).

2. Neither traiting Acrobatics nor using Black Powder constitute P/P having a mobility asset. The simple fact is that P/P is the only set without a weapon skill that provides some kind of mobility advantage. It can’t move you, it doesn’t provide an evade, it doesn’t even provide a speed advantage via cripple or swiftness. So, again, P/P is worse than every other set thieves get in the mobility realm.

The only really good things about P/P are the stealth attack and the support available on #4/5. The problem is, again, that these skills work so much better in pretty much any weapon set except P/P. Sneak Attack is much more accessible with P/D, and the #4/5 support-based weapon skills mesh much better with D/P or S/P since those weapon sets can actually do damage without guzzling initiative constantly (and use black powder effectively).

Well said. I’m now using a shortbow and while powerful…I really wish I could be blasting away with my pistols.

Tulisin.6945:

GuilguiS.2738:

1) Increase the healing from signet of Malice from about 100 to about 150 without healing power. This will help on the set survivability.

SoM already used to be about that powerful and it was nerfed because high hit volume can break it (particularly with AEs).

I doubt that even with an aoe buff, P/P will ever be like this. Just make it P/P only. Bingo

Honestly, as a mesmer, you should be pretty close to a hardcounter for P/P.

Basically P/P does excellent burst and can interrupt. That is it. They have:
- bugger all damage outside of unload.
- no defenses or mobility if they are unloading.
- no aoe whatsoever.

This is a good thread, but honestly I’m not sure if the devs even read these :|

P/P needs bug fixes, either more conditions or none, initiative costs reduced, at least 1 attack redesigned, better combos, some AOE and probably a numbers tweak too.

And even then…it will be ‘viable’ at best, and probably still worse than SB.

Some decent ideas here, apparently we are getting buffed in next patch so keep em coming and keep this visible!

Thieves are really not a fantastic class to level as. They really benefit from having an already max main, not only because you can feed it gold and mats for crafting, but because playing a thief can actually be very tiring.

Shortbow is my personal favourite leveling tool and is insanely powerful with heavy condition damage. D/D is decent, but feels slower and weaker than SB (even in melee!). P/anything is gimpy, and P/P sucks.

While the thief class does need a lot of love (P/P needs a total teardown, squishiness overall needs a tweak) posting your titles all in caps is just going to get your thread deleted.

How exactly do you ‘nerd’ a class?

Also – if you have an opinion about balance and can phrase it in a coherent and constructive manner, you should post it. Worst case scenario – someone tells you why you are wrong.

Vayne.8563:

Find a guild of like minded people and play with them. Make your own community. Solve your own problem. That’s my advice.

I play with my guild 90% of the time and never have the problems you’re describing.

That sounds like good advice on the surface, but unfortuantly ‘a guild of like minded people’ isn’t something that just falls into your lap. It can take months or years of searching, and on some servers it’s just not possible.

I am in the market for a decent guild though …:)

I can just see the update:

“New staff skins added to the store! 10k gems to unlock the chance of dropping!”.

But seriously, Pistols, Staffs and Bows all need better legendaries.

Warrior is immensely overplayed, but is the main class of one of the devs and loved by them so will likely always be solid in PvE.

Guardians are awesome, but also extremely common.

Mesmers are extremely powerful, but apparently are getting a nerf.

Thieves and rangers are getting a buff.

Right now, if I had to start from scratch, I’d probably go Guardian.