Player returning from GW1

I played GW 1 and enjoyed the game as a Mesmer, Ritualist and Ranger. I was able to get all of those characters the no death achievement. Of all the classes I enjoyed mesmer the best. Now that the children are older I am able to return to the game. I currently have a Mesmer at level 21. There appear to be many ways to build a mesmer and I am exploring that. In general I do not like to be top dog with DPS. I like to survive and use misdirection, guile and skill.

What classes / builds would you recommend I take a look at as I progress throught the game.

Also, what difference to races make?

Wow 4 days and no responses. I'll give it a go.Answering your last question first: Your race mostly just makes a difference in PvE. Your home world and the first many missions in the storyline are defined by your race. At some point the stories do merge and will be the same from then on, but there is a good amount of content at the beginning that's different. You also get pve race specific skills. They are fun to play with a bit but in the end, no one ends up using them. Also asura can be harder to click on in pvp cuz they are small.

I didn't play those classes much in gw1 nor do i in gw2. It sounds like mesmee is what you are looking for though with its clones. Search the forums and metabattle for builds. The elite specializations are really good for mesmer too if you have the expansions.

@SlitheSlivier.1908 Thank you for the input. I appreacite it.

Sadly there is no profession like gw1 mesmer on this game.Apart from the name and the name of some skills/traits gw2 mesmer is not similar in any way.

Yeah... it seems like a lot of things have changed. However, the staff and scepter Mesmer have some similar skills.

The interrupt style gameplay of domination mesmers in gw1 isn't really here in the same effect that it was in that game. You can still build in order to do some interrupts and dazes, but that generally will be more useful for pvp and is a little harder to accomplish than in gw1 due to the combat being more fast and action paced, and having to look at characters animations instead of a skill use icon popping up thats more easily noticeable. Warrior's have an elite specialization called spellbreaker that actually focuses a lot on interrupts and I believe boon ripping, so you get that kind of anti-mage feel that gw1 mesmers had.

Buuut, mesmers in gw2 still fill the role of misdirection and can be more support like than dps like in a lot of cases. In pvp and wvw you might feel this more where other roles are more useful, but summoning clones, stealthing, shadowstepping, and shattering illusions are all things I think you would dig. They do also have decent raid builds I believe (could be wrong) but they are generally a wanted class in end game content if you ever decide to go there.

So, although mesmers aren't the same, they still scratch that same itch a little bit and better than other classes. Thief would probably be my second choice but they are more of a pester you're enemy and avoid being hit class and aren't the best and bringing boons or other supportive tactics to the battlefield which I think would limit your fun with the class since gw1 mesmers are more of an offensive support class.

@Silverlock.9736 said:I played GW 1 and enjoyed the game as a Mesmer, Ritualist and Ranger. I was able to get all of those characters the no death achievement. Of all the classes I enjoyed mesmer the best. Now that the children are older I am able to return to the game. I currently have a Mesmer at level 21. There appear to be many ways to build a mesmer and I am exploring that. In general I do not like to be top dog with DPS. I like to survive and use misdirection, guile and skill.

What classes / builds would you recommend I take a look at as I progress throught the game.

Also, what difference to races make?

So in terms of the classes, Mesmer really doesn't feel too similar to the Mesmer of GW1. Its still a fantastic class, but if you're playing it you're more likely to get a sorta caster hybrid of assassin if I had to compare it to anything. It does retain some elements from mesmer, but a lot is missing. (Here's hoping for a Hexer, controlling elite spec for mesmer for the next expansion.) I DO still thing mesmer is absolutely worth a try. It is in my opinion one of the most fun classes and very versatile in play styles.

As for your other two I'll start with ranger. Ranger in GW2 does a pretty good job at capturing what the ranger wants to do in GW2 and is a pretty good translation. I wasn't big on ranger in GW1, mostly using them as heros because I loved them for my Mark of Pain necromancer teams so I'm familiar with some of their builds, but not as intimately as you might be. But if you loved ranger in GW1 you should love ranger in GW2.

Ritualist is probably going to be the hardest fit. Engineer was supposed to be the mechanical successor to the Ritualist play style, but They're not all that similar to be honest. Turrets which were supposed to be the stand in for Spirits just don't function how you'd like them to, which is a real shame. However this doesn't mean its all doom and gloom for a Ritualist style that has some similarities in GW2. The Necromancer's Elite specialization Scourge has some similarities to the Ritualist's spirit builds. The scourge's Condition build uses Shade placement to control the field around them and offers a lot of disruption and aoe damage. Similar to how Spirit spammer was used in DoA or other elite missions to body block enemies so you could quickly dispatch them without them triggering their attack animations. Necromancer relies on fear to displace them instead playing a much more active style, but the connections are there. As for a Ritualist healer type, the RAW healing ability isn't reflected in the Necromancer, being more of a thing on Engineer, which I'd say is probably closest or maybe Firebrand healing, but it does give you a build that provides the same mechanical function as the Soul twisting ritualist builds of GW1. Scourge as a healer gives your party damage absorb through barrier spam and is the best at picking up a large group of downed players. Its not NEARLY as strong as the soul twisting build but it does fill the same role.

SO! In my personal opinion, Mesmer is still worth trying out. Ranger will be an easy translation. And Necromancer(scourge), Engineer and Guardian should all help to find that play style you enjoyed from ritualist.

I would suggest giving Revenant a try, if you own an expansion. You get your fix of GW1 nostalgia, channeling familiar icons of the past, and thematically, it's the love child of Dervish and Ritualist (especially with the Renegade specialization).

In general though, classes in GW2 are more flexible and varied than GW1. Sure, the first game has duel classes, but for example, a monk would still be mostly a healer/support, or a warrior wouldn't really become a caster regardless of what your secondary profession was. In GW2, and especially with the addition of elite specs, the same ranger can be a pure dps or a full healer as druid. Mesmer can be a stealthy, agile assassin or a tanky support.

So I would say try different classes to see what fits best for you. Just don't get stuck rerolling, get to level 80 first and you start getting tons of tomes and levelling scrolls, so that you don't have to worry about hard levelling your next toon. GW2 makes it extremely easy to have multiple alts.

from my personal experience, as i started as mesmer, you can be a great survivalist if you manage your stealth and illusion play but if you want it a little less shaky the sword/shield chrono can avoid quite a beating with teleports, dodges and blocks (at least in pve) even without any illusion around. because of the way this game is designed you won't survive a lot without skill anyways, at least when you come into HoT lands with your light armor.imo mesmer has a rather big toolkit and one of the reasons i changed to rev is that i like it more laid-back and didn't want to permanently get reminded that i'm too lazy for my class by seeing all the unused opportunities.

Can try a phantasm chronomancer. Is not too bad.