So it’s been about a month since the first day of the head start, and I still haven’t really settled on a profession to focus on. At this point I have an Elementalist, an Engineer, and a Thief in their early 50s and I just started a Guardian. I know I don’t HAVE to choose a primary profession, I have five character slots after all, but I’d like to narrow my focus and achieve more on one, rather than spreading myself thin, but it none of them quite seem to fit what I want when I play. But being the indecisive person I am, this decision ended up being pretty darn difficult. I’ve mentally wedged myself into a corner on the subject, and usually when that happens some outside opinions, or the very act of putting my concerns to words on a page, often serves as a good pry bar.
The elementalist was my first character. I like daggers the most, it felt like getting into a stick fight while on roller blades and the PBAoE spikes made me snicker. I had the survivability of tap dancer in a minefield if I wasn’t careful, but I kind of like the risk v reward aspect. The traits were awkward, seeming to benefit only one attunment when I’m rarely staying in one for any length. Then a conversation in HotM made it apparent that using daggers in WvW is tantamount to just committing suicide. I think I had the most fun here, but that might also be because it was my first character, and if the aspects I enjoy don’t carry over into PvP it’ll kind of be a moot point.
On the thief the damage was good, the traits made sense, shadowstepping around combat was fun, and the brief stealths made me feel much more survivable than the elementalist, but not a lot of support options. In the lvl 40 range it got kind of stale. Despite the various weapons it felt as though there were really only one or two skills I every used depending on my equipment (cluster bombs, death blossom and caltrops, pistol whip, C+D and backstab, etc) and waiting for initiative to return on enemies I couldn’t flat out kill just felt awkward. It was fun, no doubt there, just maybe a little too focused for my tastes? I want to do more than just explode damage.
So next I tried engineer. I loved the toolbelt skills which between rocket kick and the pistol barrage (toolbelt of charr hidden pistol skill) kept me very engaged in combat and dishing out conditions and swapping to the flamethrower. I felt I could rise to meet almost any situation with forethought, but after my first two characters I just felt like it was lacking something, likely the double edged sword of being so versatile. There were many skills I just didn’t bother to use after unlocking them, specifically turrets, I wasn’t a fan of the long CDs which made them only useful every 3rd or 4th fight. But I did get farther than my other two characters.
Now I’m messing around with a low level Guardian. Seems fun so far, I can be aggressive when I want or provide support, often both at the same time, and aesthetically blue fire is awesome. But I dread the thought that I’ll just abandon it in a few weeks once I get some experience with it like my other characters.
Any suggestions on which I should stick with/focus on, or should I try something else entirely?