Deciding class and what to do

Hello thereI'd like help from more experienced players to figure out my class and what should I do after that.Should I jump on pvp from level 1 and level there? should I focus on PvE until I'm geared then PvP? maybe a mix of both? What do you guys think?

then about the class:I know GW2 doesn't work with the trinity, but I'll try to be describe my gameplay from most games

• Heavy focus on damage. Burst mainly, but sustained dps works too.
• I heavily dislike being a main tank, but I don't mind being the second tank that does a bit of damage
• I hate the caster archetype. Sitting in one place casting things for an hour then doing damage. Just no. Overal I hate mages, but I'm always willing to try. Over more than 20 years playing games, I've come to like mage characters in like... 3 of them.
• I like to play alone most of the time. A 1v1 or 1v2+ class/specialization would be nice. I do enjoy GvG (if there's any in GW) tho.
• I most of the time play characters with deep mechanics, they usually are regarded as high skillcapped if I'm not wrong. I'm not the best, but that's what I enjoy.

I know it's quite a work, but I'll be glad for any help. Thank you.

From what you're saying, I'd say Thief (and the specializations daredevil and sniper) might something you'd enjoy playing! From what I know It's one of the highest dps / burst dps of the game (in pve and pvp) and while I haven't played the class much, I've heard (and seen) the difference between the different levels of mastery of the class (doubled with mastery/understanding of how gw2 works). Tanking is definitely not something you're going to do on thief though, to have good dps while tanking quite a bit a bit you can consider Reaper (necromancer specialization)! For the pvp, thief is very much a roamer / 1v1 class though, not best suited for GvG.

In high dps AND very high skillcap (and high versatility), you have the Elementalist (and specializations) too! The staff does feel a bit like a "caster" but the other weapons are more "in the action" feeling (especially the daggers, and sword if you take the Weaver specialisation). Same as thief I can't speak as someone that plays the class a lot. But aside from the fact your equipment makes you squishy, I've seen so many kinds of elementalists, it's a very versatile class.

Finally, I can tell you (with a bit more experience this time xD) to consider Holosmith (a specialization of Engineer) ! The dps is good, you can tank a bit (though armor and skills), there are no cast times and there's definitely ground to play 1v1 or GvG o/ ! Holosmith is very different from playing engineer though so going through 80 lvls of one playstyle to end up playing another might be weird as a first experience of the game :X

For these propositions I only focused on "power" damage, hitting with big numbers etc... But in guild wars 2, condition damage (dot) can be VERY strong, so if you're interested in that, there's a lot of other classes/builds you can consider ^^ !

PvP is almost entirely detached from PvE in this game; your PvE gear doesn't come over to PvP, as PvP automatically sets you to level 80, and you use a single amulet and rune set to get your stats instead of a full set of gear. As such, there's no best way to go about playing the two modes. Just do whichever you find more entertaining. That said, the World Versus World game mode DOES use your PvE equipment, and is heavily dependent on your PvE level as well. You get scaled up to level 80, but your stats aren't going to be as good as they would be if you were genuinely level 80, and you won't have access to all of your traits and abilities unless you've gotten them in PvE already.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by the "caster archetype". Mages take so many different forms across so many different games that it's hard to gauge what it is you dislike about them. Honestly, Elementalist actually sounds like a decent fit for what you're after. It's got really good damage, decent self-sustain if you play well (full-blown tanking is a rarity in this game, so self-sustain is about the best you're going to get), and a pretty high skill ceiling due to its Attunement system, which is essentially four weapon sets instead of most class' two sets. I know Elementalist has been very good at 1vs1/2 and high-population combat in the past, though I admit that I'm not sure if that's still the case. GvG kind of exists, in the form of World Versus World. It's not explicitly about guilds fighting each other, but you can always find a guild that's primarily stationed on one server, and get a pretty similar experience.

@Zellk.6308 said:But in guild wars 2, condition damage (dot) can be VERY strong, so if you're interested in that, there's a lot of other classes/builds you can consider ^^ !Oh, I'm all ears! I do enjoy from time to time leaving my nuker to a more CC oriented class that controls the field or playing DoTs.One of my favorite classes in the entire gaming industry was Venomancer from PW. Heavy-Debuffer with a good-enough damage. The pet was just a flavor for me. And it was THE solo class. Do we have anything like this?

@Toolbox.9375 said:World Versus World game mode DOES use your PvE equipmentThere's my place then =) Thanks.

@Toolbox.9375 said:I'm not entirely sure what you mean by the "caster archetype". Mages take so many different forms across so many different games that it's hard to gauge what it is you dislike about them.Sit in the backline, press the Meteor button, channel it for seconds while stationary. Repeat. The damage is good but it's plain boring. The mages I like have instant-cast spells and require intense kiting, dodging and mechanical knowledge to stay alive, if you get what I'm saying.Sometimes games get the mechanics right but then the mage "canon-fireball" feels weaker than a drunk mans breath.

@"Sigilli.2941" said:Sit in the backline, press the Meteor button, channel it for seconds while stationary. Repeat. The damage is good but it's plain boring. The mages I like have instant-cast spells and require intense kiting, dodging and mechanical knowledge to stay alive, if you get what I'm saying.Sometimes games get the mechanics right but then the mage "canon-fireball" feels weaker than a drunk mans breath.

Hm... I'm afraid most large-scale combat is going to involve sitting in the back, since running into an enemy mass gets you killed in a fraction of a second. However, there is one class that do that; Warrior. Especially with the Spellbreaker specialization. Honestly, I despise these overpowered jerks; they can hop right in to a zerg, completely invincible for upwards of ten seconds every minute, and annihilate anyone who doesn't run screaming from them, even in 1v30 situations. I hate, hate, hate them. But, they are absolutely effective.

@Toolbox.9375 said:Hm... I'm afraid most large-scale combat is going to involve sitting in the back, since running into an enemy mass gets you killed in a fraction of a second.

Oh don't get me wrong. I've been playing mostly core-DPS classes since... ever. I know what's being in a backline and a whole team strategy to keep it safe. I don't mind it. I mind having a gameplay that requires me to press one key, watch a boring animation and repeat until everyone's dead. Some numberlovers like it, but that ain' t me. I've always loved Archers to my heart, but each time they get more a tower-defense approach, so we fall into the press "fire-arrow key", watch the animation, repeat.

@Toolbox.9375 said:However, there is one class that do that; Warrior. Especially with the Spellbreaker specialization. Honestly, I despise these overpowered jerks; they can hop right in to a zerg, completely invincible for upwards of ten seconds every minute, and annihilate anyone who doesn't run screaming from them, even in 1v30 situations. I hate, hate, hate them. But, they are absolutely effective.

Oh, that's a new. I've always liked dps warriors. Not the ones with giant weapons on a 5 ton armor, but the quick ones. The middle ground on warriors and thiefs. I'll check'em out. They gain access to daggers is that right?And you said Weavers get swords. Might be worth a try too.

While we're at it. Is there any debuffer class? That maybe can do enough damage to hold its own?

Yeah, Spellbreaker gets dual daggers. Core Warrior does not, though.

Debuffing isn't as interesting as I'd like in the game, personally. :( It basically just comes down to Conditions. Class-specific debuffs aren't really a thing, though Necromancer certainly has a much higher proclivity towards Fear (enemy runs away for the duration), and Slow (all animations take 50% longer) is hard to come by overall. Off the top of my head, I believe Necromancer is likely the most debuff-y class you'll find, as they can throw out a LOT of Conditions (damaging and otherwise), and corrupt enemy Boons into Conditions on top of that.Since Necromancers can dole out a lot of Condition damage very quickly, as well, and can be quite durable with their Death/Reaper Shroud, they fit your first two criteria, as well. However, their best damage and debuff/corruption capabilities come from the Scourge specialization, which effectively removes their Death/Reaper Shroud, substantially reducing their survivability. That said, they do get a good amount of access to the Barrier mechanic, which is similar in that it grants a separate health pool of sorts. Scourge also has some rather unique mechanics, summoning little sand tornados that act as "emitters" for a number of your abilities, making the specialization considerably more unique than just "press button, watch numbers". From the looks of things, Scourge sounds like it'd be right up your alley. You might want to go to the PvP lobby to try it out, since you're put to level 80 with everything unlocked. You can mess around with all the different abilities to see how it feels.

@Toolbox.9375 said:things

I'll both Reaper and Scourge a try. Reaper probably, if Scourge depends too much on terrain positioning with his tornados.I'm really grateful, have a nice whatever time of the day you're on.

@"Sigilli.2941" said:Hello thereI'd like help from more experienced players to figure out my class and what should I do after that.Should I jump on pvp from level 1 and level there? should I focus on PvE until I'm geared then PvP? maybe a mix of both? What do you guys think?

then about the class:I know GW2 doesn't work with the trinity, but I'll try to be describe my gameplay from most games

• Heavy focus on damage. Burst mainly, but sustained dps works too.
• I heavily dislike being a main tank, but I don't mind being the second tank that does a bit of damage
• I hate the caster archetype. Sitting in one place casting things for an hour then doing damage. Just no. Overal I hate mages, but I'm always willing to try. Over more than 20 years playing games, I've come to like mage characters in like... 3 of them.
• I like to play alone most of the time. A 1v1 or 1v2+ class/specialization would be nice. I do enjoy GvG (if there's any in GW) tho.
• I most of the time play characters with deep mechanics, they usually are regarded as high skillcapped if I'm not wrong. I'm not the best, but that's what I enjoy.

I know it's quite a work, but I'll be glad for any help. Thank you.

Hi! Welcome to GW2! It's time to retrain your brain with regard to what you know about MMOs!

You don't like tanking and want to be melee DPS? Good news! GW2 lacks "threat" and the means to manipulate threat, so "tanking" as you know it doesn't exist here at all! In addition, the weapon you choose (along with your class) determines the weapon skills you have available. There are no such things as "ranged" or "melee" classes. All classes have access to weapons at a variety of ranges and, with the exception of engineer and elementalist, the ability to swap between them in combat. There's no reason to lock yourself into only range or only melee damage here.

In any event, you will find that this system is flexible enough that a mage doesn't have to be an old robed guy with a staff that stands rooted in place chain casting fireballs. Certainly you can be a staff elementalist if you want to, and deal awesome damage while having a reputation for being made of glass. Or maybe you'd rather be a tanky, dual-dagger-wielding healer that is always right in the thick of the battle? That can be elementalist, too! You can even be all-of-the-above and take different builds into different game modes (you will end up doing this simply because the "meta" for raids is almost certainly going to be a drastically different build than you would use for PvP or WvW, for instance).

In answer to your last 2 questions:

Mirage (Mesmer PoF elite specialization) is probably the best class 1v1 in PvP at the moment, but do keep in mind that PvP is a 5v5 game of controlling points. Being a great duelist doesn't necessarily translate into winning games!

If you want complexity, Weaver (Elementalist PoF elite specialization) is widely considered the most complicated class to play. The class mechanics for elementalist remove the weapon swap in favor of elemental attunements. Each attunement offers 5 unique skills per weapon (4 attunements x 5 skills each = 20 skills per weapon, as opposed to only 5 for other classes!). Weaver adds another layer of complexity as you now "weave" two elements to create hybrid attunements (e.g. fire/water, air/earth, etc.) where your 1-2 skills are one attunement, 4-5 are another, and the #3 skill is a new hybrid skill that crosses the two elements. This is trickier than it sounds because there is a 4s cooldown on swapping. So where any other class can instantly swap to use 4 and 5 skills on an offhand weapon, Weaver has to plan ahead because any element not currently on their bar is TWO swaps away from being available in the offhand slot!

After reading your initial post, the thing that came to mind for me was engineer. It's interesting to see all the different responses here. Holosmith can be solid dps, the ideal dps rotations are complex (and since most of them involve swapping to utility kits, you don't need to jump off the deep end while learning unless you want to), and condi engineer is even moreso. It's also one of the more rare classes, at least in pve.

The classes here are different enough than most other MMOs that you may have better luck just experimenting with a few. The caster archetypes here, for example, largely don't play like casters in many other games.. staff elementalist is likely the closest to a traditional caster, but when you don't have other people around to distract whatever you're fighting, they're very active, and mesmers don't really feel like your typical caster at all.

It depends a lot on what you want to do as well. Is raiding more important to you? You might want to look at a weaver or condi engi for the complicated rotations, or a guardian or soulbeast for solid dps that have some great utility. Do you like open world stuff the best? A ranger or necro might be worth a look. For wvw, a scourge might be more appealing for solid damage, a warrior for someone on the front lines, or if you want to go smaller scale roaming instead of jumping in the zerg, a thief or mesmer might be more your style.

You also might want to just pick one based on what sounds fun, and do a little poking around to find out what they're strong at at what they're not. Once you get your first character to max level, between login rewards, eventual birthday scrolls, etc. it's much easier to level a second or third character, too, so don't worry too much about your first one.

I'd like to thank everyone helping me!! =)

I spent the night deleting and creating chars for PvP. I was terrible most of the time, but in a few cases I had +-40% teamdamage so I had my share of fun.As a feedback just for flavor:I just love Reaper. Necromancers felt pretty ok, Scourge meh, but Reaper, ohboy.Rangers with longbow and GS for mobility are just as fun.Warrior is amazing on its own. I felt that it was too easy to predict what a warrior was going to do, people kept dodging my engages. Fun nonetheless.

Thief is what I'm used to run at anygame. Add the shortbow and that's me pretty much on every MMO.Engineer is fun, I'd like to see some high-tech longbows and some weird arrows to it. It didn't feel amazing, but it didn't feel bad too.

Mesmer had a nice concept but -for me- the gameplay didn't make up for it.Weaver mechanics are cool, but it felt that I needed to invest so much time getting good at it while at pvp I could kill things faster, easier and with just right mechanics on something else.

Revenant and Guardian are out of my interest tho.

Then again, I'm terrible, maybe I'm wrong on most items, idk, but it'll shape things from here =) thanks you, really

@Sigilli.2941 said:

@Zellk.6308 said:But in guild wars 2, condition damage (dot) can be VERY strong, so if you're interested in that, there's a lot of other classes/builds you can consider ^^ !Oh, I'm all ears! I do enjoy from time to time leaving my nuker to a more CC oriented class that controls the field or playing DoTs.One of my favorite classes in the entire gaming industry was Venomancer from PW. Heavy-Debuffer with a good-enough damage. The pet was just a flavor for me. And it was THE solo class. Do we have anything like this?

Seems like you already tried it out, but I'd have advised to try out necromancer and the variants ^^ They all have different gameplay and can go power (reaper) or condi (reaper / scourge / necro) and it's just THE unkillable thing in pve and in wvw if you're good xDI didn't think about spellbreaker but honestly, it's a big change of flavor on warrior and while I don't play WvW much, ever since they've arrived in the game they seem very cool (or horrible if you're going against them I guess x) )

Hope you'll find a few other classes you like playing by digging around!

Trust me on this.. Everything you described that you want felt like you were describing a good Theif. I would advise to play PvE and just enjoy the game and learning the characters skills/playstyle while you get to lvl 80. The game story is actually pretty fun and you get to fight dragons for the first time. Warrior would make a good 2nd choice as they are a good off tanky class with lots of dmg and a very aggressive playstyle. Theif can pick their battles and do massive burst damage while warriors are more in your face, lets fight kind of character.

Also, If you have purchased Path of Fire, I would suggest Memser also. The new POF spec " Mirage" is incredible at dueling and its play style is very active and engaging. Mesmer is not like any other mage spec in MMO's and they have amazing utility skills such as portals/illusions/physics manipulation/etc...

Stay away from Elementalist, Necromancer, Guardian, Revenant, and Ranger.. You will surely be bored.

Just an updateThanks guys for everyhelp and hints. I do really appreciate it. Nice community you have =)

Thief didn't catch my eyes. While I'm used to run them, thief's skills didn't had that much of a "impact feedback". But that's me.I love reaper from the bottom of my heart, but the class is kinda lackluster. I need mobility and/or damage. It's fun but it gets frustating.

That being said, I'm running 2 characters because I couldn't decide which one:Ranger both Core and Soulbeast gives me a really, really nice mix of ranged-melee character and it adds up to versatility. While at raids I've read I can change to Druid and become a healer.Warrior Spellbreaker and Core with GS + S/Sh. I've seen a few good warriors that would stick to my face like glue no matter what. The pressure, the aggressiveness, those were just charming. I love it.

thanks for your help again =) !!

DO NOT CHOOSE ELEMENTALIST its the worst class in the game, trash can kill you just by breathing on you. most ridiculous thing ive ever seen in any game......Biggest mistake i ever made making this garbage class.

@"Bloodstormz.3510" said:DO NOT CHOOSE ELEMENTALIST its the worst class in the game, trash can kill you just by breathing on you. most ridiculous thing ive ever seen in any game......Biggest mistake i ever made making this garbage class.

It doesn't have to be that way. Elementalists have very strong healing capability and can build to be extremely tanky. For example, here's a video of my celestial tempest facetanking the Champion Avatar of Balthazar. Yeah, it took 3 times as long to kill him as it did on my glass mirage, but he basically had no chance of killing me!

I will admit i pretty new to the game but i am very experienced in games i played Archeage (High-end PVP Guild) and EQ2 (high-end Raiding) But i have never seen a character Class that would literally trip over air and die, Self Recovering system is horrible. I am Playing with basic Exotic gear and i haven't' finished Elite SPec yet....I shouldn't have to have END GAME gear just to be able to fight Hero Mobs. if that is the case then someone screwed up really bad on the game design.

@Bloodstormz.3510 said:DO NOT CHOOSE ELEMENTALIST its the worst class in the game, trash can kill you just by breathing on you. most ridiculous thing ive ever seen in any game......Biggest mistake i ever made making this garbage class.

it has a high skill cap so if you didn't read what the abilities do and didn't bother learning the mechanics then ya you die a lot. i soloed HoT content with thief and ele and it was a breeze. i main scourge and ele in wvw and guardian in pvp

I started 2-3 weeks ago and I've tried out 5 or 6 different classes now I'm finally settling down to guardian, 1 reason because I'm getting bored of doing the low level hearts and areas over and over hahaha, I'm excited to start doing some dungeons and what not soon though. =)

@"Bloodstormz.3510" said:I will admit i pretty new to the game but i am very experienced in games i played Archeage (High-end PVP Guild) and EQ2 (high-end Raiding) But i have never seen a character Class that would literally trip over air and die, Self Recovering system is horrible. I am Playing with basic Exotic gear and i haven't' finished Elite SPec yet....I shouldn't have to have END GAME gear just to be able to fight Hero Mobs. if that is the case then someone screwed up really bad on the game design.

Exotic is only slightly below the maximum (we're talking 5-10% difference). If you can't do it in exotic, chances are you won't be able to do it in ascended either.

I know how you feel. I started playing a few months after HoT released, but I had been playing WoW for years. Being a so-called "casual" game, I expected to pick this up rather quickly. But this game has a very different combat system. There is a much greater focus on reading enemy animations and precise timing.

I like to use video illustrations. This is a video of a boss that is really fairly simple, but also very powerful. The executioner's signature move is to whirl toward a target and deliver a strike at the end. It's this final strike that must be avoided. It looks like there's a lot going on there, but that's really all just distraction. This is almost a pass/fail: If you fail to dodge this hit, it is very likely to kill you. In the video you can see that, aside from the first strike (which I allow my mount to take instead!), the boss never lands this attack against me.

This illustrates the point that it isn't gear that is required to succeed in this game, but sharper play. You can zerg this boss and overwhelm her with sheer numbers (she can only execute one of you at a time!), or you can learn the mechanics and the telegraphs the boss has and how to respond to them. For instance, the boss begins to swing her sword around in a circle and does a loud cry before whirling at you. She does this every 10 seconds or so. Just watch for it and be ready, but make sure to time your dodge toward the end because it isn't the whirl that's dangerous, but that final strike!

You're an experienced player. You just lack knowledge of this game's mechanics and the improvement that can only come with practice. Every single one of those HoT HP champions can be done by a single player and you'll probably be able to defeat some of them yourself once you've played a bit more.

If you want a middle ground between Warrior burst/mobility/self-sustain and Thief then definitely check out Ranger. So many different builds you can run and its very dynamic and versatile gameplay.