Which Profession?

I'm a new player. Which profession would be the simplest to level? I don't want to use "easiest". Just something where the learning curve isn't steep and solo well.

Usually Warrior ,Ranger ,and Necromancer are given as what one should start with. It will come down to personal preference between those three on which one may suit you best. While all three have a low learning curve in my honest opinion Ranger ,and Necromancer take it even further with making solo play a breeze. Ranger has pets which can tank for you ,and offer some support. Necromancer has it's minions ,and lots of personal sustain. Warrior is no bum though it hits hard ,and has lots of passive buffs. To sum it all up those three are great starter classes that will help you learn the game ,and give you a little leeway when taking damage. Hope this helps ,and welcome to GW2.

Start with either warrior, ranger or necromancer. These are the most beginner friendly professions out of the nine professions. But since you want to play the more advanced professions, here are my recommendations:

Soldier (heavy armor) professions: play either revenant or guardian. Revenant looks complicated at first, but if you play it you'll get the hang of it quickly. Guardian is on the same level of difficulty as revenant, only it has more build variety compared to revenant at the moment.

Adventurer (medium armor) professions: play thief. I wouldn't recommend engineer even if you're a new player. It's by far the most difficult profession in the game unless you're thinking about playing holosmith which is easier to play compared to core engineer and scrapper in which case, go for it. Thief is a highly rewarding profession if you know how to play it and it is viable in every game mode.

Scholar (light armor) professions: play either mesmer or elementalist. Elementalist is the second most difficult profession after core engineer, but if you're not planning on playing the more complex builds in PvE or PvP and instead you play the more simplistic builds, then you don't have to worry about anything.

If the goal is merely "to level" then the answer is all of them. Literally, there is nothing hard about reaching 80. Thats when the game begins.

At that point one might begin to argue whats most PvE effective for the least effort in terms of survival, taking on champions, tagging in events etc. Even then its pretty much a level field - one can dumb down all classes to simple builds. So pick something that... feel right. The ultimate goal in terms of characters is to have at least one of each anyway.

The only advice I could maybe give is if you are interested in endgame WvW once you get there, pick one of the basic zergers first - guardian, necromancer, revenant. Dont go picking thieves or rangers cause you're gonna have a bad time as a new player as you get tossed from groups.

Any of them. The question of which profession to choose is the most common and the most pointless. Pick the one that appeals to you. They are all perfectly good for whatever you want to do. The ONLY time you should worry about it is if you start the game already planning to fill a very specific role in end-game. For instance if you want to make sure you will be welcome in high-end fractal groups, then it might matter which prof you pick. For basic pve open world play and levelling they're all great. Exercise your whimsy. Choose something.

@Biff.5312 said:Exercise your whimsy.

An exquisite phrase. That's going in my SWTOR forum signature.

EDIT: and here as well, obviously.

@Steve The Cynic.3217 said:

@Biff.5312 said:Exercise your whimsy.

Haha - I saw that in your signature and wondered where on earth you got it from. Now I know...

And knowing's half the battle.