Need help Finding Ideal Profession

So I’ve been playing GW2 off and on for roughly 4 years, with certain goals in mind. But now that I’ve gotten my first character back to level 80 (my original Asura Guard combo), I’m looking at other game options besides the core story and the living story. I want to get involved in other areas like PvP, WvW, and Raids. However, all of my previous experiences with those game modes have deterred me from trying again with my Guard, mostly because they were bad ones.I put together a list of my preferences, improvements since day one, and struggles that I deal with in a lot of MMO’s, not just GW2.Preferences

• Ranged = slow burn condi damage
• Melee = sustainable, high output burst damage
• Good survivability
• Simple rotation
• Decent health pool
• Minimal punishment for mistakes
• All-rounder class that is viable in any game mode
• Some challenge so gameplay doesn’t grow stale

Improvements

• Decent awareness of group status
• Backing off/recuperating
• Altering mechanics to compliment teammates/other players

Struggles

• Complicated rotations
• Lots of combos/steps
• Big risk, big reward
• Serious punishment for mistakes
• Spamming buttons or freezing up when cornered/overwhelmed
• Dueling actual solo/party players

My current guild recommended Revenant to me, but I have mixed feelings on the class. I’d love to have some outside input. Thanks.

Power Soulbeast might be an option. Base HP pool is higher than Guardian. You can start with Marauder's stats until you are comfortable with the class & mechanics, which gives you ~ 21-22k HP in total. There exist variants for ranged (Longbow) and melee (sword+axe, greatsword). It has a few options to support the party, not very complicated. Soulbeast is meta. If you want to stick to ranger, but increase difficulty a little you can switch to condition Soulbeast or Druid.

Guard is literally the best class all around currently. It's top tier meta in all game modes and has large variety of viable builds. It's also relatively easy to get into. Next options are warr, engi and rev which have also been relevant everywhere for quite a long time.

Guard might be a good choice, but myself i feel more comfortable with my Spellbreaker. But in that case we get to the point that perhaps warrior is not that great in all gamemodes. :/

Sounds like you need a scrapper in your life.

Power scrapper (hammer) - decent HP, high defense, traited for critical damage, is able to perform excellent in all areas (strike missions, pvp, open world is e.z., etc.), tough story instances, and fractals. Easily able to back off due to blocking mechanisms, barriers, and about every boon with alchemy tonics. There is little rotation to memorize, but being engineer there is moderate challenge dependent on how much you scale your skills/abilities. You also can take secondary weapons such as the flamethrow or elite cannon and camp it (which provides good damage).

Let me know if you want the build I run.

@SMTGS.6702 said:So I’ve been playing GW2 off and on for roughly 4 years, with certain goals in mind. But now that I’ve gotten my first character back to level 80 (my original Asura Guard combo), I’m looking at other game options besides the core story and the living story. I want to get involved in other areas like PvP, WvW, and Raids. However, all of my previous experiences with those game modes have deterred me from trying again with my Guard, mostly because they were bad ones.I put together a list of my preferences, improvements since day one, and struggles that I deal with in a lot of MMO’s, not just GW2.Preferences

• Ranged = slow burn condi damage
• Melee = sustainable, high output burst damage
• Good survivability
• Simple rotation
• Decent health pool
• Minimal punishment for mistakes
• All-rounder class that is viable in any game mode
• Some challenge so gameplay doesn’t grow stale

Improvements

• Decent awareness of group status
• Backing off/recuperating
• Altering mechanics to compliment teammates/other players

Struggles

• Complicated rotations
• Lots of combos/steps
• Big risk, big reward
• Serious punishment for mistakes
• Spamming buttons or freezing up when cornered/overwhelmed
• Dueling actual solo/party players

My current guild recommended Revenant to me, but I have mixed feelings on the class. I’d love to have some outside input. Thanks.

Guard has one of the easiest rotations already for raids, rotations however are not needed outside of that and strikes. My recommendation is if you enjoy guardian to begin with learning fractals first before raids. Not tier one or two, aim for tier 3 to start and then tier 4.

The issue with playing guardian isn't so much it's rotation, it's the roles it performs. As a guardian you aren't just DPS, you also bring support, even if minor, on all roles. Dragon hunter for example has group blocks, and a decent burst heal for emergencies. As a firebrand generally you are expected to lead the group and/or be providing support to others. It's one thing to manage your survival but you also need to be aware of when and how to keep others alive too.

My advice is starting on a character that is more selfish but allows you learn encounters that failing to use a dodge etc, at the appropriate time will punish you. I don't recommend necro as it allows for mistakes and poor habit building. Instead of say thief, Holosmith, power banner berserker. In these roles you'll be focusing more on your own survival have room to improve on DPS and rotations, and it will punish you for failing mechanics or improper play (I'm a firm believer in learning through failure). Once you master that, then I'd recommend playing supportive classes to keep others alive. I say this as someone who plays commanding roles in different environments typically as healbrand and druid healer (I don't recommend ranger in general either as most people don't know how to play the class properly, I.e. longbow max range - to anyone reading this, don't use ranger longbow in group settings if you're going to play at max range, you bring no support and LOW DPS, among other negatives).

If you went based on your preferences, you'd end up with a power reaper.. which in the long term your skill and abilities won't grow. Also never spam buttons. Whatever you end up choosing begin with fractals > organized strikes not the garbage pug ones.

@HnRkLnXqZ.1870 said:Power Soulbeast might be an option. Base HP pool is higher than Guardian. You can start with Marauder's stats until you are comfortable with the class & mechanics, which gives you ~ 21-22k HP in total. There exist variants for ranged (Longbow) and melee (sword+axe, greatsword). It has a few options to support the party, not very complicated. Soulbeast is meta. If you want to stick to ranger, but increase difficulty a little you can switch to condition Soulbeast or Druid.

I don't think it's a good recommendation for someone struggling. Druid is not an easy healer to use, marauders on soulbeast doesn't increase its survivability by much at all, and aside from myself, in group settings I've only seen one other ranger play it correctly. Yesterday morning was my last example (almost every other day I've been getting these really bad longbow rangers join fractals - to the point I've had to post an LFG no longbow rangers allowed). The longbow variant plays in melee as well using sic em and one Wolf pack to maximize damage. Unfortunately most players see the longbow and think it means you can max range all encounters.

I’ve added the Engineer to my roster and I’m taking it from 0-80. Leveling has been a breeze so far and I’m enjoying it despite the complexity. Thanks for the ideas friends!

But I am curious: how do the elite specializations compare to others in the endgame department? I mainly want to start with less demanding scenarios like Fractals and Strike Missions before I graduate into Raids and WvW. PvP is last on my list, as I have other personal priorities. What direction would you guys recommend for a new Engi player?

@"SMTGS.6702" said:I’ve added the Engineer to my roster and I’m taking it from 0-80. Leveling has been a breeze so far and I’m enjoying it despite the complexity. Thanks for the ideas friends!

But I am curious: how do the elite specializations compare to others in the endgame department? I mainly want to start with less demanding scenarios like Fractals and Strike Missions before I graduate into Raids and WvW. PvP is last on my list, as I have other personal priorities. What direction would you guys recommend for a new Engi player?

You need to adapt your character to different type of content. In WvW and sPvP there are changes to how strong skill will work and heals. Look up on wiki and then change between PvE and PvP/WvW to see how large of change it will be. As an example Rangers "We Heal as One" change from 20 seconds cooldown to 30 seconds in PvP and WvW content. Toggle back and forth and you will also see that some boons are changing in duration or stacks.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/%22We_Heal_As_One!%22

I just mention Ranger as I have played Soulbeast for some time and now my main is Engineer or more precise Holo (have also played Scrapper). This important to keep in mind independent on which character you use to go to different content as duration on both boons and condition might change and you will get used to a use skills in a certain way and then don't understand why it isn't working when you change into PvP/WvW.

As for Holosmith have a built in mobility that Scrapper lack (yes Hammer have one skill that make you jump three times forward) and feel more fluid for doing midrange combat. It is built around the same principle as Revenant and Thief where use an energy bar to control how much you can use of those skills until you need to change back. Both Scrapper and Holosmith make use of a lot of combo fields which is AoE for groups (while you blast a field the same effect you get will also be for up to four other player in that field: in tooltip 5 player). Scrapper have access to much more hard CC then Holo and that way can keep target under control, but need also to use Engineer Kit (those kit replace all five weapon skills with a new skill set - it also can proc on swap sigils which normally will trigger from swapping weapon - in combat you can not change weapon on Engineer/Scrapper or Holosmith, so this important if you ever use any on swap sigil).

In this link you will see that Engineer Kit also change to a skill in your tool belt (profession skills from F1-F4): https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Engineering_KitSo you need to also look at what skills that your tool belt will have and not as a utility, healing or elite skill. Here is a list of which tool belt skills you get from each skill: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Tool_belt

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Holosmith

Engineer, Scrapper or Holo all have condition, but work best as Power builds. Even Flamethrower will do decent damage with Berserker gear or any version with power as major stat.

My suggestion would be to create two character from Engineer and then see which one work best for the content you want to play. That way you can use one character and don't need to change build with Templates. In sPvP you will pick stats (it is called an Amulet as it have all your attributes) , rune and sigils and that are already set and normalised. Some attributes are not available in PvP and other attribute combination aren't available in PvE content. You can search GW2 wiki if you want to know more what attributes or restriction there are between PvP and PvE. WvW work the same way as PvE for this part with exception for skills coefficients, duration (boon/condition) and cooldown.

Scrapper work probably best if you are going for healing and support, but Holosmith isn't bad at doing condition cleans for group either, so all in all you have to find out what works for you. With Ascended or Legendary armour and weapon you will also rather easy be able change gear between those two as most stats can stay the same, but work in different way. As healer you will probably want Healing Power to increase healing for group, so try get trinkets from maps where you can farm those and then keep weapon and armour to power based damage or go all out to have enough tankiness with Vitality and Toughness.

@SMTGS.6702 said:I’ve added the Engineer to my roster and I’m taking it from 0-80. Leveling has been a breeze so far and I’m enjoying it despite the complexity. Thanks for the ideas friends!

But I am curious: how do the elite specializations compare to others in the endgame department? I mainly want to start with less demanding scenarios like Fractals and Strike Missions before I graduate into Raids and WvW. PvP is last on my list, as I have other personal priorities. What direction would you guys recommend for a new Engi player?

The build really depends, in raids and WvW, what other professions are there in your squad. The people you raid/WvW with - assuming there is a core static group - will have specific traits, gear, and runes/sigils they want you to run, They may also want use to use specific skills at specific times, in response to what is happening or about to happen to the group. If you're going to roam in WvW, I'll leave it to someone else to suggest build etc, as I don't run engineer in WvW.

Don't shelf your guardian yet. It is the most versatile profession out there and ticks most of your requirements. It has low health pool but compensates with base tools that can save yours or your group's kitten. If there is an overall OP profession out there, it is the guardian.Also keep in mind that in group PVE there is no ranged role. Unless there is a specific mechanic you will be standing on top of each other sharing boons. It is the most important rule of group PVE play and most frustrating for others when people try to play at max range.

But in the end play what you like. Every profession can find its place in the world in any game mode. And playing more professions will teach you how to play with them and against them.