Core Class Recommendation

I am a returning player after taking a 2 year break and have one of my friend joining me as well.

Neither of us have the expansions but might buy it in the future if we decide to stay. In the meantime, we were wondering if you had some recommendations as to which core class we should start with that would have good potential in fractals, raids and possibly PvP.

Your help would be greatly appreciate it and feel free to drop a comment ?.

Thanks!

First of all, welcome back!I'd say Ranger or Ele for PvE.Ranger is awesome for open world PvE, and still very viable in dungeons and fractals.Ele, even with just core is a pretty good damage dealer, so it won't be as bad in raids and fractals, but it's harder to pull off.Core Guardian is also decent for Fractals and Raids.

None of the Core classes will come even close to Elite Specs in damage though. So you might want to consider buying one of the expansions sooner or later.

Also if you're on EU, feel free to PM me in-game if you need a hand on anything.

Core condi ranger can do a solid job in fractals and wvw. Dont have any experience in raids, and not much in sPvP, so no advice there.

Check out MetaBattle. The curators attempt to ensure that readers can see what's being commonly used as well as the builds favored by their members. You can see at a glance which builds are Core and which require one of the expansions (the Core builds use the original icons for the profs).

It's a great place to start, even if you plan to figure out your own builds later.

Some other guidelines:

• Open world Core PvE is very forgiving of build choices. There aren't any completely horrid options (although I do recommend aiming higher than "not awful").
• Pick-up Group (PUG) oriented builds depend mostly on your skill; you make no assumptions about your colleagues, so you aim for self-contained builds. There are several "viable" core builds for this that will work in Fractals & WvW.
• Efficient fractal teams and any (useful) training raids are about learning to work as a team. For that, your build needs to synergize with the builds of the others. Additionally, you can't raid without one of the expansions (and for that, HoT is better if you can only afford one, but both together are only US$50, so I recommend buying as a bundle).

Specifically:

• Any prof is fine for open world in the core game.
• As @ReaverKane.7598 & @Ashen.2907 suggest, ... core condi ranger can be very effective in fractal (PUG).
• Ele is a solid, traditional caster profession with good damage (dwarfed by its elites, but still good when you learn what you are doing)
• Guardian is a really solid option in dungeons, a bit less so in fractal/PUG (also dwarfed by its elites) and in WvW.
• There's a very effective WvW mesmer with a core build (it's tiresome in PvE though).

And more specifically: if I were buying a fresh account to play with a friend... I'd go with one of the following:

• Mesmer plus Warrior, as a combination of control + DPS
• Ele plus Ranger, as a combination of DPS-ish plus control
• Guardian plus Thief, for two great tastes that taste great together.

Like @Illconceived Was Na.9781 said if you're playing with a friend (didn't think about this part), Ranger + ele (or any other strong ranged class, but Ele is probably the best) is a strong combo. Be sure to grab a couple of bears or other tanky pets, keep the bears alive by healing (water staff skills can be handy here as well) and switching pets.Control the aggro by not attacking when switching and avoiding melee damage.Let the pet tank while you do the damage, and you can duo (or solo with ranger) every Champion in the core game except the Bandit Bounties.

Sorry for my vote. I just feel poor core engie is too alone and sad in his forgotten corner.

PS welcome back to the game. (Should have said that first thing :) )