New player

So WoW has officially lost me, and I'm pretty intrigued with GW2. I just bought the expansion path of fire, and I'm still torn between which profession to go with.So, as an old druid main (for all you wow players) I've been playing a ranger, and a necromancer, what would you recommend? What would be a good learning profession that isn't a generic warrior? What do you play and why?

Hi! Welcome to GW2! I am also a former WoW (Vanilla-WotLK) and resto druid player (among many other classes!). I came across GW2 about 2 years ago, after HoT released.

If you want to try something unlike anything WoW ever had (At least in my experience!), I like mesmer or elementalist.

Mesmer is an illusionist that specializes in misdirection, teleportation, and evasion. WoW had nothing comparable to them. I highly recommend giving them a try if only to see something new.

Elementalists are sort of like a cross between a mage and a shaman, but with a playstyle unlike either. Capable of strong damage or strong heals (but not both at once!). Elementalists are known for their complexity (especially the PoF elite spec: Weaver!).

The only reason I might not recommend these classes to a new player is that they are among the classes with the highest learning curve (especially weaver!). To follow are videos of my power/healer hybrid elementalist (tempest) and my condi mesmer (mirage) to give you a taste of what these classes can do. The tempest build used in this video is really more of a PvP-style tanky healer build, while the mirage is closer to a raid DPS build.

Tempest vs. Champion Mushroom Queen:

Mirage vs. Champion Havocwreaker:

Note the drastic difference in playstyle. The mirage is extremely evasive and mobile, but has barely any healing and doesn't take hits well. Meanwhile, the tempest can absorb hits and heal right through what would otherwise be an overwhelming amount of damage. But the build system is flexible enough that you can create a variety of different playstyles within a class. The fact that weapon choice actually determines which skills you have available adds a lot of variety as well!

With the elite specialisations, the classes can be very different when levelling then when you unlock the elite specialisation. You do have a instant level 80 slot. I do not recommend to use it, but you can use it to try out different classes at max level and play with the builds. Just do not make it permanent. The way it works is:1: create a character with a class you want to test2: after the first instant, click the lvl 80 booster. You are sent to the silverwastes. check out the builds possible and the playstyles in that map.3: when done, leave without applying the booster permantly. You will be sent back to where you came from at the low level.I do recommend that, once you have set your mind, to level it up to 80 the normal way. Keep the boost for a future alt.I have played all classes. My main used to be a guardian, but after 4,5 years, I got bored of it. Specially cause the newest elite specialisation was not appealling to me. It is not that it is bad, but after so much time, it was not refreshing enough for me. So I dusted off my engineer and play it now as a holosmith.

Engineers are a bit of a wacky class. In the core game, when levelling, it is more or less a ranged class. It uses turrets, potions and kits instead of a secondary weaponset. The real interesting part is to me the holosmith specialisation. It sends you into a photon forge mode. This alters your skills and heats you up. After it ends, you explode damaging yourself, but also your foes. it makes it a very interesting melee class in a glass canon style. Very different then traditional melee classes and very refreshing to me.

Engineer is another class you might consider for a change of pace from WoW. They are somewhat similar to elementalists in the sense that they can have many more weapon skills than other classes. But instead of elemental attunements, the engineer uses "kits" (e.g. grenade kit, bomb kit, flamethrower, elixir gun, etc.). Engineers have tons of skills and ways you can play them, and like elementalist they are considered among the most complex classes to learn.

Sorry, no video of them at this time. I've only done ele and mesmer so far!

@mercury ranique.2170 said:Engineers are a bit of a wacky class. In the core game, when levelling, it is more or less a ranged class. It uses turrets, potions and kits instead of a secondary weaponset. The real interesting part is to me the holosmith specialisation. It sends you into a photon forge mode. This alters your skills and heats you up.After it ends, you explode damaging yourself, but also your foes. it makes it a very interesting melee class in a glass canon style.Very different then traditional melee classes and very refreshing to me.

That is only the case if you take the Photonic Blasting Module trait.

That aside bomb kit is not ranged and flamethrower can barely be considered range.

Try a mesmer. And since you have Path of Fire, you can later learn the elite specialization Mirage. It's true what people tell you, Mesmer is unlike any class you've played in an MMO. Like a duelist that's also an illusionist mage/summoner. Especially Mirage over core Mesmer. Mirage is like an illusionist thief mage.

You can create clones of yourself that look exactly like your character, have your armor and weapons and nobody can tell the difference except you. Other players will have a tough time telling who the real mesmer is. They don't deal a lot of damage but can mirror Mirage's ambush attacks and you can shatter them for various effects. They run towards the enemy and break like mirrors.

Or you can create phantasms that are pink summons. Each has its own weapon depending on the akill you use to summon them and they deal a lot of damage but are obviously summons. It's also a waste to shatter them because of the summoning cooldowns.

Also, if you ever wanted to use a greatsword as a ranged weapon, Mesmer uses it ranged. :smile:

@OverQualified.4617 said:So WoW has officially lost me, and I'm pretty intrigued with GW2. I just bought the expansion path of fire, and I'm still torn between which profession to go with.So, as an old druid main (for all you wow players) I've been playing a ranger, and a necromancer, what would you recommend? What would be a good learning profession that isn't a generic warrior? What do you play and why?

Stick to ranger, get the druid specialization (required HoT). The class overall is straightforward, the pet makes open world a breeze, druid is in a great spot as healer and support class and Soulbeast (PoF specialization) is great as damage dealer. I think you'll enjoy this class quite a lot, especially as a previous WOW druid. If you miss shapeshifting make a norn character for the racial shapeshifts (racial skills here are more fluff than useful though).

Try them all. Only you can know what play style you enjoy the most.