Hello. I am new to this game and I was wondering what is the easiest class for a new player to play as? If someone could offer a suggestion, I would be very grateful.

this should help

Although warriors are simple to use and understand, they are not so easy as many suggest (I know ppl who struggle with a warrior in some chapter of the story/LW). But necro and rangers... totally. A bit boring on the long run maybe (if you only play them ranged), but definitely good to start.Oh, and welcome!

Warrior is 'easy' but the fact that you generally play melee to be effective may be a bit more challenging since you have to face some heavy damaging hits. Bosses - even in open world - sometimes hit with 10-30k damage and since there is so much visual clutter you won't always see the telegraph. Hence Ranger is super easy as you are far away and if you have the urge to go melee switch to your melee weapons. Also necro is very easy to use as the health pool is huge and in addition you have a lot of defensive skills - it's their nature.

@"Urud.4925" said:Although warriors are simple to use and understand, they are not so easy as many suggest (I know ppl who struggle with a warrior in some chapter of the story/LW). But necro and rangers... totally. A bit boring on the long run maybe (if you only play them ranged), but definitely good to start.

Yes, for example my first toon was warrior, and I used to struggle with that. I made a ranger, which remained my "workhorse" for a long time, even thought I shifted to use necro as my workhorse to complete things. For me, guardian was easier to play than warrior at first. Ranger and/or necro I can hearthly suggest as first toon for new player.

@"ProtoGunner.4953" said:Warrior is 'easy' but the fact that you generally play melee to be effective may be a bit more challenging since you have to face some heavy damaging hits.

Yes, it is easier to play later when you are bit more familiar with mechanics. For learning mechanics, both ranger and necro are more forgiving classes to play.

I wrote about the subject earlier a bit more for a player who asked for classes with option to have support builds (and I was not sure if s/he has HoT/PoF): https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/comment/718122/#Comment_718122

I think pretty much any class aside from the mesmer is good for a beginning player. This game is not really hard in terms of the beginning content. You will be able to go through most of the PvE content with ANY build on ANY class, with different levels of comfort. Difficulties begin when you reach expansion areas as well as stuff like dungeons and fractals. But it's kind of end-gameish, so you'll learn how to play by that point.

My first class was Warrior and it was super easy to play as, as I just had to hit things till they die. However, as people above pointed out, it can be difficult to use during events. You also might have some problems with expansion content, as warrior has to be near the enemy to deal good damage and it's kind of hard when said enemy deals contact damage, blinds or poisons you if you're close :^)

So yeah, pick ranger or necro.

Might I just add; necro tends to teach the worst habits to new players. Rangers come in at 2nd. Once they get into a scenario where the ai dosn't focus their minions or wipes the minions quickly, they're at a loss since they don't know they have a dodge key, what conditions do (especially blind), what their skills do, what their traits do, or what boons are (prot and aegis especially). If you do go with these classes please read up on these mechanics in game. Once you familiarize yourself with these, any and every class becomes easier.

I mainly play Soulbeast (Ranger spec), Warrior (base), Mirage (Mesmer spec) and Deadeye (Thief spec) with various other seldom played builds on the side.

As a fairly new player, I found Ranger to be the easiest to level. Especially if you have better reflexes than I do - which is very probable, statistically - and be careful about flanking / back greatswording, you will have the easiest time and wonder why people complain about some events or certain areas.

The vanilla "pet and longbow" is viable and super easy in the open world to a point BUT I would strongly recommend playing melee and not relying heavily on the pet to learn the ropes. Sephylon is very right here and the problem with Ranger with a longbow is greater than you. I cannot stress this more, please for the love of gods don't use the longbow knockback unless a CC is required :tongue:

Cheers!

The best class is the one you enjoy playing. With the way things are you can set up any class to be easy to play.

Easy To Play Effectively

Ranger = Easy, Longbow gives the greatest range and even with full DPS gear, you have alot of survivability. Can use Melee weapons like Greatsword/AxeNecro= Strong spell-caster. Can have minions and lots of health-draining spellsGuardian = Strong "Paladin" class with spells and stuff

Medium

Engineer = Can place turrets and has access to lots of kits with different types of weaponsWarrior = Standard warrior with decent survability. Being in melee range is hard for beginners as warr, cuz you have not as much heals as Guardian

Hard

Elementalist = Hard to play because meta is full DPS and it's VERY squishyRevenant = Despite being a heavy armor class, very squishy and more complicated than Ele to playMesmer= Not that squishy, but damage output revolves around managing illusions and can be confusing for new playersThief = This is a somewhat Medium-Hard class to play, because like the other two class, it's squishy, but slightly less hard because access to stealth

ranger is pretty easy.. your pet can killer most things and you can heal and use arrows

thief is good for new players and warrior is good too. elementalist is pretty easy as well.