Guild Wars 2

Hey all, coming back to GW2 after almost a year away, and looking forward to HoT. I haven’t had any experience with the beta, so am not sure exactly what to expect when the xpac hits and am wondering which way to go as far as profession. I have several 80s, but no real attachment or investment in any of them. Ideally, I’d like to settle on a profession to main and stick with it. I mainly do dungeons, PVE and a small amount of WvW. Raids are something I’d like to get into eventually. I’ve found I prefer ranged classes and builds that are more support oriented in this game.
Here’s what I have at 80:

Guardian – Have read that they won’t bring much to the table raid-wise that another profession already does better, but I love their aesthetic.

Mesmer- Like the playstyle and understand they are great for groups; most of the builds I’ve seen have them a little squishy.

Necro- Love the durability, have the majority of my playtime on this profession, but they have no love in dungeons.

Engineer- Way too busy for my tastes; if they had a viable rifle only (lol) build, I’d probably love it.

I recently started a Ranger and am interested in the Druid specialization – definitely a possibility.

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

Check out Vudani’s “Skirmishing Alchemist” engineer video on YouTube. Not sure if it’s the best build as far as utility goes, but I have fun with it. He focuses on condition damage with nothing but dual pistols, elixirs and supply crate.

I run dual pistols as well. I’m not a fan of the rifle unless I’m doing PVP. Bluewanders’ advice is spot on.

A lot of the trouble new players have with GW2 is realizing that there is no best setup for every situation. Have a plan of action for every battle you foresee. However, that being said, I do have a general setup I have used for 90% of PVE with success:
-Dual pistols, stat focus on condition damage, shield if I know the mobs are more melee-focused (make good use of the pushback and stun)
-Elixir H for the stat boost
-Elixir B for swiftness
-Elixir U/Grenade Kit for a quick burn or groups
-Net Turret/Bomb Kit/Rocket Turret depending on what I’m fighting

Spec Firearms for the increased gun range, Explosions for the bleed chance, and Alchemy for longer duration/reduced CD on elixirs.

Single targets shouldn’t give you much trouble unless they’re strong/elite. Normal mobs will die before they can get to you if you start at max range. For groups, net turret/Glue Shot and grenade kit will work wonders. As said earlier, try to kite in a circular pattern so you don’t accidentally grab more mobs.

9:40 is priceless.

I can see you have a lot of trait points into Explosives. Where did you put the rest of them? I have a hard time deciding between playing my guardian or engineer - this video is inspiring.

I personally think the Norn characters, specifically females, have the most fluid animations as well as filling out their armor the best. However, the deal breaker for me with this race is the female character voice. Were it not for the terrible, monotonous and near mannish sounding voice, every toon of mine would be Norn.