Are we talking PvE…PvP…WvW? You really can’t ask this sort of question without mentioned what form of gameplay you tend to prefer. One profession excels in one part while fails miserably in another. That being said, I’d think the one that can be spread thinly over all three and still get by is Warrior. Of course, this all depends solely on your play skill so really, asking this on the forums is a silly thing. Test the professions and figure it out for your self.
I have never played WoW and I never plan to. Subscription based MMOs are a dying breed and WoW only continues to succeed because it has some seriously loyal people who have now invested many years of their life into that game. To keep their monthly playing customers happy and paying they have to release a new ‘expansion’ everyone once in a while and it’s a ploy to get the old gamers who have let their subscriptions stop to come back to the game.
GW2 has a seriously different way of approaching bringing us new content. We have Living Story. Not only are they not making any of us buy this new content but it is updated on a far regular basis than a WoW expansion is. This isn’t GW1 guys, and they seem to not want to get into the model of forcing us to buy new content. Be kitten happy about that!
We don’t have traditional quests. I am sure you have seen those hearts pop up on the screen often. You can call those ‘quests’ but they aren’t. If you complete what the heart requests you get XP. It’s pretty simple. Also, I have a tendency of taking all of my characters to level from 1-15 over to Metrica Province (you do this by going into the purple, wavy looking portal in the starter area to get into Lion’s Arch and then finding the MP gate from there) because the dynamic events there are usually grouped up nice and easy and repeat often. You can go to the other starter areas to continue with the easier leveling content and just go from there.
Also, gather all the resource nodes you find on the mini map. You will want this stuff later for crafting. You can deposit all of your collections up to a stack of 250 by pressing that gear shaped thing on the top right corner of your inventory window and selecting the deposit all function.
I honestly don’t understand the whole profession issues people have. I have done dungeon runs now with plenty of parties with necros and rangers and engis and we did just fine. It’s the few groups who like their runs to go an expected way. If you don’t want to go on a speed run, don’t try to join on your necro. The normal parties I have found are usually welcoming of any profession, so I think you are basing your complaints on the forums and not what happens in game.
First off, because it sort of bugs me, we have professions here…not classes
Secondly, we do not have a holy trinity of sorts. We have no dedicated healing profession and you are not supposed to stand there and tank damage while someone is healing. GW2 has a system in place where everyone has a healing skill and for the most part we take care of ourselves. That’s not to say that in our dungeons, we don’t use a stacking method and our Elementalist don’t use their staffs to drop down water fields for others to blast into to group heal (more on that later).
Right now the Warrior is the ‘easy’ profession and the one that has been receiving the most love from the devs. Not trying to sound bitter or anything, it’s just the current state of affairs. That being said, I have tried starting a warrior like 11 times and I always end up deleting it. I find it to be the most boring profession to play.
Nothing is weak endgame, it’s all a matter of what part of the game you enjoy the most. If you love the dungeons, don’t invest too much time into a Necromancer but if you find you enjoy the World Vs World/PvP play, the Necromancer is an awesome choice. Most of us end up getting more character slots and just end up with one of each procession.
Usually it is recommended that you level your first character on the PvE maps and getting map completion (which is basically all the hearts, the point of interests and vistas) along the way. This way you learn how to play the game and the profession and not just spamming the 1 key in a huge zerg in the WvW map.
Now about fields and blast finishers because nothing in game will tell you about this: We have weapon skills and utilities that can drop rings called Fields. There are a few different kind and the skill description will tell you what kind it is. There are Fire/Water/Poison/Dark/Light/Ethereal/Ice/Lightning/Smoke. Each one will do a different ‘combo’ when used with a finisher. Finishers we have are: Blast/Leap/Projectile/Whirl. So, when someone lays down a Fire Field and someone uses a Blast finisher inside, it will stack an area with Might. If someone lays down a Water field and someone uses a blast finisher inside, it will Area heal. A more detailed chart is here in the wiki: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Combo Please learn it and learn when to use your fields!
Sorry for the book of text
Ricochet: Now also increases range to 1050, along with a few bug fixes to make it hit more reliably
Bug fixes aside, I don’t understand this one. Why not give that range to SB? We need the range on a more used weapon :/
The forums had me terrified to get my deadly blooms for the legendary work. Everyone is making our dungeon system out to be full of self-entitled people who will kick at the first wipe. I finally decided to give the LFG a try and found out that it really isn’t that bad. Sure, the self-entitled people do exist but you can easily avoid those groups by not joining. They are very clear with what they are looking for and so long as you have wiki-ed/ googled the dungeon and have an idea of what goes on…you can get them done.
At least here we can’t right click on someone and see their gear. We have an AP system that some like to judge worthiness on but for the most part, you are allowed to prove you know what you are doing. And if you don’t, you can ask the group if they can show you what to do. The forum community is far more toxic than the in game one.
Well if you want an easy time getting into the different content and dungeons, Ele is the way to go. All content can do a little better with an Ele wandering around. However, you will need to learn the rotations and might stacking. Everyone wants the Ele conjured weapons and it is so easy to get 25 might stacks with Ele it’s not funny. You will be squishy as kitten so learn to move…always move.
Engi is a space filler but is still a fun profession. That grenade kit though, not a fan of no auto targeting (makes my hands hurt). It’s a unique profession and bomb kit is so much fun! The Toolbelt skill mechanic was designed well and kit swapping is awesome.
I main a thief. I found I enjoyed the playstyle a lot more than I did other professions. The initiative system allows me to think about my skills, rather than mindlessly going from 2-5 and switching weapons to 2-5 again. You will be a space filler with dungeons (though, because of Shadow Refuge you might be wanted a little more than the others). There is a lot of complaining about this profession because of the stealth mechanics so be ready for that.
If it was a TTS run map, usually they complete it because a good portion of the people are on teamspeak so if someone DCs it’s easy to get the spot filled. I think I was on that Teq run last night and I am pretty sure we killed it. No worries and TTS doesn’t hold grudges over something someone cannot control
Do not touch those laurels until you have gotten all of your ascended trinkets or you will be sorry later on.
Easiest and simplest way to make money in this game is one of three ways:
1. Go to Southsun and find the Karka farming party. 4 silver at least per vet karka killed guaranteed on top of the potent/powerful blood you find.
2. Always, always, always do your complete world boss farm daily. This will get you the rares you need for ectos and sometimes a nice exotic to sell on the TP.
3. Frostgorge Sound champ farm train. This gets you t6 mats to sell if you aren’t working towards a legendary.
Note…do not sell the blues/greens you pick up from bags and looting monsters. You salvage these into their basic crafting materials and sell those. That’s where the profit is. My rule of thumb is if a rare will sell for more than the cost of 1 ecto on the TP, I will sell it there but if not I salvage it. Good luck with the farming, turn on music and just go Karka farm for a few hours and you will see the gold start to come.
if you aren’t level 80 yet, go to Edge of the Mists and hop on the karma train express.
More character slots is probably your answer. I know it’s real money but it helps to stop purging leveled characters.
As I mentioned in another thread, the thing that stopped me from constantly switching to other characters is the want of a Legendary. Go through the list, find the one you really want to make and it narrows down the choices for a first main. Making a legendary is part of the end game play so you should find the one you can stand looking at and would like to spend all that effort making.
I think it’s funny that people are wanting these rather unattractive back pieces when in the Engi forum there is the longest thread running that would like those ugly things gone. This community is a strange place sometimes.
I had the mind problems as you have, I was never sure what profession I really wanted to invest a lot of time into. What helped me finally narrow it down was I took a look at the list of Legendary Weapons and decided to pick one that I wanted to spend all that time getting/the one I wouldn’t mind looking at all the time and went from there. Petty I know, but it’s a part of the game…the farming for your nice shiny weapons and I didn’t want to end up spending all the effort getting the one weapon that the profession uses the most because I had to, not because I wanted it. It helped me narrow my choices to either thief or ranger (as I want the PonyBow). Take a look at the equipment and skill style of each profession…as you will have to look at this over and over for hours.
Nothing wrong with having a bunch of alts either
I main a thief now. Shadow Refuge…that utility alone just makes getting various skill points and vistas so much easier and I can escape if things don’t go quite my way. It’s also a great tool for making dungeons run smoother too.
Honestly though, it’s my main mostly because I am making Dreamer and I didn’t want to go through the effort of getting it on a ranger. I love that stupid, silly bow and I will have it!
Well I bought the Winter Outfit and the Ancestral outfits when they were available and neither uses the transmutation charges. It’s a complete free use all the time any time but its a whole outfit, not pieces. I am pretty sure that once you buy the outfits they are unlocked and you don’t have to use charges even for individual pieces but I could be wrong? Those charges are for those who don’t buy the gems stuff and want their armor to look a certain way.
No…trading gems for gold is usually not a good idea. You will see the conversion rate and think its ridiculous. Easiest way to get gold here is dungeon running/karka farming/world boss farming/champ farming. Basically a lot of farming and salvaging for crafting materials and selling those on the TP. Crafting mats is where the easiest gold is at. It’s by no means a quick process, you won’t have your legendary bought within a week.
If you bought gems, spend them on character slots and bank stuff like Yargesh mentioned. You will find that having 250 for a max stack will get annoying.
Yes you make the most money by getting you character to 80, then jumping in on either the world boss train or the Frostgorge Sound train of champ killing. You salvage everything and sell off the materials you pick up. Or you go dungeon running and do the same. It’s a very deconstructed sort of way of making gold. This also gets you the essences of luck which increase your magic find.
Note – a good tip is, salvage all whites and blues you find. Greens, some of them are worth more on the Trader’s Post than others (usually the rule of thumb is if it sells for more than 3 silvers put it up on the TP, if not salvage it). Yellows you want to either use the yellow salvage kits the NPCs sell or if you have them, the Black Lion ones you occasionally get as rewards but I save mine for exotics that I happen to find and don’t want to sell off.
Good luck!
I don’t think that is the problem. Thieves can blind spam and get up close and fight any profession. They have also access to range weapons and stealth.
1. Not all Thieves blind spam so please do not lump that into ALL of us. Can we? Sure but stop trying to hurt the whole profession in trying to stop the few from spamming. You can easily remove the blind and yourself from that situation by not standing in the blinding area…but most don’t. They choose to fight the thief of the thief’s terms and that’s where the L2P issue comes in.
2. Mesmers have access to so much steath with their PU builds it puts most thieves to shame and they have far better ranged weapons than our bows/pistols. Are you going to go cry about them and have them nerfed down into nothing? (sorry Mesmers, but you are the other stealthy profession to compare to and I have no issues with the PU builds) We already now will have a 6 sec reveal that will end up killing most of us from the engi/ranger.
Stop complaining about the mechanic, it works fine and chill affects our movement speeds (which is vital, a slow thief is a dead thief) and our utilities like all other professions. Our initiative system works off a system of give and take, those hard hitting annoying blind/stealth on hit takes up a lot of resources and most of us can only afford to give those 1 or 2 tries and then we are out.
It sounds like to me, the OP has never really tried the profession and should make a new character to understand the bad that comes with the squishy melee.
I used D/P for leveling but I soon found out as I got to the harder content that the crutch was making me hate this profession. I’d spam 5 and AA and if I forgot/missed getting the 5 up I’d be dead. I moved on to other professions but I want the PonyBow, it’s the only legendary I truly want. Getting one on a ranger looked like something I didn’t want to do…so I came back here. Watched some videos on the different play styles and decided to try D/D and fell in love. I stay alive far longer being a D/D than I ever did with D/P because I have to pay attention. So I fully believe that D/P is a crutch but some people love that play and power to them, it’s just not for me.
I sort of agree with the smoke to dark field…it’s too easy and cheap to spam into stealth and might get people to stop kittening about this profession. We get nerfed hard because the spammy builds kitten off people.
This whole SB is terrible thing makes me feel better about deciding to get my PonyBow on the thief. Yes I know they are account bound now but I’d hate to go through all this effort on the ranger for it. Poor ranger SB…the ugly mutt of the group of hounds.
Both are really the ‘meta’ these days…and it’s funny that a blind spammy D/P would be all over you like that. I’ve encountered way more of the D/P wandering around. I wouldn’t call someone a bad anything for dying fast, in this game one wrong move or one lag spike and you are dead. So you like S/D…wish people would stop being so kitten over builds. Deal with it. This profession gets more flack than anyone else and to have it from one thief to another is stupid.
The thing I would add to this is the lack of variety with the medium armors. So many leather trench coats and those awful masks. Then if you are female, some of them are just shreds of ‘armor’.
Speedy Kits is so very useful and relatively inexpensive traitwise to get. However, these days you have to wait to level 30 to use trait points so there’s that.
For leveling…two words: Lightning Hammer
I only have an ele…the two heavy classes bore me from the start. Ele is very versatile and you will never be without something to do in a fight. They are wanted/needed in all aspects of the game but with this comes a price. You will be locked into builds and you will be forced to learn how to properly stack might for a whole group and how to keep that up. You will also find out how stupid other players can be when they are dropping useless light/dark/poison fields in the way of your fire/water ones. In the larger WvW area, you will be running a staff while in the zerg for the water fields and spammable fire field. If you are up for learning what each skill does and how it will interact with each attunment, then give Ele a shot. They really are a fun to watch class and I found, aren’t boring.
And then there are those of us who love our little pint sized necros…but I have mine running around in a green colored winter’s outfit so that might be the reason I am pleased with how she looks. I just love the asura’s storylines and the random dialog. I tried a charr but all the grunting and deep voices just threw me off and the 4 legged running…not for me at all.
This frustrating issue is the reason I don’t run minions on my necro. Watching them happily staring at the daisy on the ground while I am being beaten to death isn’t cool.
A way around this is not to travel with them out of combat. You summon them when combat starts and usually they are ok and will attack. Or you can just do what most of us do and pretend like minions don’t exist. The most infuriating is the elite…when that bag of flesh and bones just stands there all stupid, it makes me so angry -.-
So, are thieves going to get new buffs that completely lock out the abilities and mechanics of other classes or is it just us that get shafted again because bad players can’t deal with stealth?
They already have that, its called evade, blind and stealth
Did you even read the comment? A source of clearing conditions for those who don’t like running around s/d is to stealth. Locking us out of being able to do what the profession is supposed to do because people just want to facetank each other without thinking is stupid.
This revealed thing puts a huge damper on playing a d/d thief…we are supposed to stealth, it’s part of being a thief and now it gets taken away for 6 sec. Guess it’s another profession I will toss to the side for now.
/sigh
I have a fondness for SB (mostly because I love the silly PonyBow legendary) and I usually run it with a sword/dagger or sword/torch. Off hand axe would work too, I just favor dagger because it lets me have extra evades/methods of pulling out of the AA to avoid being killed and torch gives a fire field. I wouldn’t use SB as a main weapon, more of a backup and if you require a ranged option that doesn’t have the knockback that everyone will complain about you using.
We should definitely bring back those bunny ears…at least for a week or something.
This…so much this! Please ANet…bring those back and I promise I will spend my real money again!
Mine is Tech Savvi…an Asura of course!
Wait…were most of these actually buffs? Like real buffs to the ranger profession??? Mr. Whiskers better catch me when I faint. May have to dust off the ol’ ranger and start leveling her before this hits game.
From the first glance over, it looks like they are trying to give this class a chance. I like the idea of letting us use our conditions as a source for more damage besides just letting them tick away. I mean, someone gets crippled by a ranger now…it’s going to hurt. I also am liking that they removed the pet requirements for those pet buffing attacks.
I have all three above 70 these days so I think I can give some opinion.
First off, I main the Thief. Honestly, I chose this in the start for the pure fact that the thief uses the shortbow far more often than my ranger did and I am going for Dreamer for my legendary. I am completely in love with the initiative system for the profession, it lets me play on the fly and not rely on cooldowns (also, chill…like seriously what’s that?) And Shadow Refuge…omg that skill; it lets me get skill points and vistas without having to battle things guarding them or get to chests. Stealth is a fun ability and once you find the right way to use it, it will save your skin especially if you go with Shadow Arts.
Engineer is a unique profession for sure. The one downside I have for constant play with the class is the need to spam the 1 with ’nades as I have previous thumb injuries and it bugs that. Bombs are really fun to use with PVE, running around a mob and just dropping them all over the place. It has access to an awesome healing turret skill and a lot of fields/finishers. I loved the swiftness access, just pressing a button and I went faster everywhere.
Rangers…rangers, rangers, rangers…how I want you to be the class for me as you are the other shortbow user. I love pet classes in games and I hoped this one would let me have the Mr. Whiskers pet that I could pair up with and slaughter everything in sight. However, it’s not that at all. You are relying on a borked AI system and honestly, the whole profession feels like it was just thrown together at the last minute and now the creators just wish the frankenprofession would go away quietly. That’s not to say I don’t play it, I just don’t think it is a well implemented one and one I’d spend a lot of time and effort into playing until they work on it. I can’t say too much good other than you will never be alone while you roam but man that partner can be kitten stupid.
We have a mount, it’s called a riding broom. Granted it won’t make you go any faster but you can sit around on it and make those fake motorcycle noises if it pleases you.
Seriously, find it in the gem shop and shut up already -.-
Ah that makes sense now! Poor Troll, bet no one visits him anymore…
Yes but the Defiant could just be reapplied by the boss, no nerfs needed. That way the boon removal professions could have something to do during the fight
Actually, how about defiant just be a boon that can be removed.
Boon removal classes like necro will get used at least.
This. So much this. Would give the poor necro a reason to be besides killing the zergs.
The problem with most coming into this game is they come from other MMOs, where you stand there and use your skills and get wailed on while doing so. You will find a thief squishy if you do this, you will find an ele really really really squishy if you do this…the warrior not so much but that’s just the nature of that class. Warrior is a good starting place but honestly, you won’t learn the proper dodge mechanics of the game playing a faceroll, facetank character. I started an ele and learned real quick what I had to do to not die all the time. Also, try leveling an necromancer first, I found that the death shroud helps to have a oh-kitten button for if you miss your dodges and is more forgiving when learning.
Learn the dodge mechanic and then find the profession you enjoy. Don’t base your judgements of the squishy professions off your first few goes at them.
Sorry for this stupid question, as I haven’t had much time for the game until recently. Last I heard, was the screaming about the QD champ train being derailed, however I was wandering around on my thief yesterday and who do I find roaming the Heartwoods? Good old Oakheart, with her gold champ ring and everything.
Did they change it back or did I miss something?
I completely preferred leveling in GW2 than I ever did in any other MMO I have played. There is no ‘Go get me 10 things from the next map over and bring them back’ quests and there is no real ‘grinding’ (I mean old school, you go out to a group of monsters on a map and just kill over and over). Your hearts complete when you finish them, you don’t have to return to the npc. The Dynamic event system is brilliant and keeps things fluid and changing on a map. Sure we ‘grind’ the events but that is so much more interesting than sitting in the middle of a mob.
The new trait system sucks though. They really dropped the ball with that one, yes 11 was too early but level 30 is way too extreme. And to have the grandmaster traits not even usable until 80 is something I don’t understand. This makes leveling in PVE that much harder -.-
Also, for those of you who are just dying for a mount…they do have the riding broom for gems. So it’s been implemented, just won’t get you anywhere faster. Now can we shut up about it already?
I like the think of the necro as being the ‘all around profession’. Meaning we can be a pet profession if we choose to be, we can be a power based one or a condition based one off our traits and gear. We have a class mechanic, while some complain about it, saves our skins more times than we can count. We have multiple ways of making people suffer and run in fear from us (seriously those WvW videos of the necro standing on top of the airship area and decimating a whole zerg make me giggle) We are one of the masters of AOE with multiple different ways of getting the job done. We are not by any means squishy, though thats what I’d name my elite minion if I could name him
Yes we have problems, a general lack of stability and our best AOE are on a stupid long cooldown and the whole game seems to think all we can do is condition damage so we get labeled as useless in party play. We don’t have banners or shouts or spirits for group benefit, we are more of a take profession than a give one (though to an extent we can clear other’s conditions if we spec for it). Our AOE heal of Well of Blood really should be a water field, not sure why they made it a light one? The fields we can lay down are mostly useless to other players and when overwriting a fire/water field, you can get snapped at.
It’s more of being a jack of all trades and fears but master of none that hurts the image of the profession. Too many impatient people who only want a few warriors/ele/guard in their quick run parties. There are plenty of casual groups out there who just want to run the dungeons and not at breakneck speed.
Learn to move around and kite things. You are a squishy so you tend to get the beat down quickly in melee combat. Lightning Hammer will be your best friend when you get access to it and you fly through content once it’s open. Read up on combos and how to stack might, you will be required to learn/know this when you get into groups.
Most of all for an ele though…learn the attunement dance. Don’t sit in one element for too long and don’t get used to spamming the AA of fire over and over again, play with the various things you can do and learn the timing of your hardest hitting skills. Some traits will be extra helpful so you might want to invest some learning into the later levels of an ele.
Good luck!
In Metrica Province, there is the vista in the cave to the right after you enter the map. They constantly spawn there. They are lower level ones of course
You just deal with it…clipping will always be an issue if you play something other than a human-like form. It’s pretty sad watching the tip of your GS sink into the floor but you get used to it…the animations and the general asura-ness make up for the clipping really.
Any of them will do…but man, my female asura Ele is beyond fun to watch. Those wild and wacky animations look so much more vibrant and bouncy with the asura. Asura + Lightning Hammer = awesome ^^
An asura necro, my god how much more cute can it get when they DS? This little tiny thing saying that she is death incarnate, I squee every time. And the asura gets lost in the middle of a walking army of minions.
Asura mesmer is adorable. If you like looking at one, you will love looking at 3 more copies. I am not sure how many others like the animation but I like way the asura uses the GS, it’s different from the other races.
An asura ranger, while racially odd, I find is so much fun to run around as. The pet is as big/if not bigger than you are. Sure, most asura don’t play with the animals, but I like to think of mine as a scientist studying the wildlife and making them do her bidding.
Asura fit right into being a thief, small of stature and most like to get themselves into trouble. The racial dagger idle animation is awesome!
Asura engi are the only ones that the hobo sacks really look cute with. Also, having one run around with a flamethrower burning ALL TEH THINGS is so much fun!
I don’t play the heavies but hey, knocking around bigger norn/charr with a hammer should be amusing too.
Glad to see you’ve joined the correct side, asura is master race
The whole pet death mechanic is clunky on a ranger. AOE spam is everywhere and when they die, it’s so crippling to the profession. I like the idea of an active pet res or just lowering the cooldown with the pet swapping. It’s far too long for what the pet actually provides. Of course discussing all of this seems pretty pointless. We have to wait to see if they were actually serious about that CDI or if it was just to placate the community into shutting up for a while /sigh
I think the easiest thing to implement for the devs would be either:
1. When our pets have been killed and are on cooldown, we get a buff of our 30% damage back until the pet is off cooldown. That way we don’t lose that amount when they get AOEd to death; it’s ridiculous that our class mechanic can hamper the WHOLE class like that. I am not saying remove the pet, the only way the ranger would get this buff is by having both pets dead and on cooldown. I love my Mr. Fluffy and I don’t want to see him removed.
2. Or they do what WoW did and implement some sort of AOE damage mitigation for the pet. Our pets are AI and can’t move away from the deadly circles on their own and usually the ranger is too busy trying to save their own skin from being bombarded to death. Let them take less damage from AOE, that shouldn’t be that hard to do.
I am not a fan of turning our pets into walking buff bots…it seems like a waste of a class mechanic.
Personally, I’d like to see our pets/class mechanic work more like how the Necro’s Minions work (though not like they work now of course, they really need to work on the responsiveness of those guys). F1 would be the basic attack, any pet the ranger has out will attack that target. I’d like my f2-4 to summon a pet and it stays until it dies. Once summoned, it lets me have a f based attack like the minions have. If it dies, it goes on a cooldown but at least we’d have 2 animal summons so we wouldn’t be so crippled when one dies. The attack damage the pets do is based off how many you have out…if you have all 3 of the f2-4 out, the damage each one does is spread over the 3 AIs. If you have 1 out, the damage is lumped into that one animal. This way you can be tactical of what pet you want to have at what point in the battle and if the boss AOE slaughters one of them, you have 2 as backup. Also this would allow them to give us an elite pet as well. But that’s just me…might be a stupid idea, I dunno /shrugs
(edited by rabidsmiles.5926)
I you were lucky enought, you could heal from 0 to max when fighting inside a Healing Spring just autoatacking. I’d say that’s a little bit OP.
And if you aren’t paying attention enough to the ranger who is stabbing you with their sword to actually stand IN the healing spring and allow him to get the finisher…I say you deserve to die and he deserves the healing. Just because something could be OP in 1 situation doesn’t make it always OP in ALL situations.
Can you guys stop breaking the mac users ability to use the BLT every time you update? It’s really really really aggravating. I update the client and again, no access -.-