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Most forgiving class - best for bad hands?


Sylverlokk.4968

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As the title says I have bad hands. Not just fumble fingers but arthritis and carpal tunnel so I am looking for the least active class in terms of button mashing. Generally in other games that was a pet class so the pets could take some of the heat. In Wow I played a warlock, in EQ an enchanter (had good hands then). Given similar button mashiness I prefer ranged over melee, and support style classes with utility even if that means they are not the best dps.

I just started playing and have been working on a mesmer but at level 28 now I feel kind of fragile and spend a lot of time in the downed state. Thank you in advance for any help.

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I'm going to assume this is for PVE...

Minion Necromancer would be pretty good. They can have their pets tank while you plink away at a distance with axe/staff/scepter. Longbow/bear Ranger is also pretty easy on the hands.

Another option I might give you is Revenant Herald. You can win most fights by simply popping your auras and auto-attacking. No pets and it's melee, but fairly durable and easy to play. Dwarf Rev is in a similar position: pop your hammers and use an occasional weapon skill. I would also suggest Mirage, because Mirage Cloak makes avoiding damage super easy. But since you say you're having difficulty with early Mesmer, that might not be the class for you.

One final option is a flamethrower Scrapper Engineer. It'll never win any awards for killing things quickly, but it gets the job done and it's one of the "laziest" builds out there.

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Necromancer minionmaster, or Reaper vampire (or a mix of both) is a safe bet for people with trouble aiming and dodging, as damage is strongly mitigated, and aiming is very minimal thanks to AoE predilection on both. Guardian, in most of it's builds and specs is also generally rather simple to use, and will perform well in most roles, thanks to again, AoE attacks, and minimal aiming required and damage mitigation potential.

Some folks will say Ranger will do well too, but as someone suffering from dyspraxia, I have never managed to use my ranger well at all, whereas I can use most of the other classes with relative ease, even if not fully efficiently. The one class I Cannot under any circumstances play well at all is Elementalist, which is odd, because I can play my engineer adequatly enough, and it's a piano class as well.

Additionally, I wanted to point out that an option ingame allows you to immediately use targetted ground spells on the aimed enemy, without the faff of using your mouse to aim on them. It's a bit more automatic, but also a lot quicker, which eases on the hands

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Necro main here and i love it the the (undead) bone. That being said i would suggest:

Condi ranger. Ranger alone does not cut it. You want a build that puts majority of it's damage in autos (so you don't have to mash nothing) and has a relaxed safe playstyle. Having to press buttons is one thing. How stressed you are when pressing them is another. If you gently tap a button as planned, it is far less a strain than mashing it furiously, because you're in life and death situation.

Condi shortbow ranger shines in both aspects. Unlike longbow, your autos are not fillers, but actual source of damage. Your job is to flank an enemy for bonus benefits on other skills (with light on feet trait) rather then smashing your keyboard. With tanky pet that will be easy, and the shortbow itself is very fluid and responsive - you don't have to worry about reaction time - this bow is a very fast weapon. Even sweeter is that #3 skill is a backwards evade, so you'll feel safer knowing you get a 3rd dodge for free.

Your utilities are also a great deal for the situation you're in - mostly traps and entangle - skills that help you keep enemies at bay and do damage without you having to jump the hoops for it. There's tons of other great utilities for ranger to keep himself safe and in control of situation. Muddy terrain, pet commands for self-protection, Signet of Stone, Dolyak Stance (soulbeast). Condi ranger is all about being in control and playing it on your terms, while having decent damage output.

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@"ZeftheWicked.3076" said:Necro main here and i love it the the (undead) bone. That being said i would suggest:

Condi ranger. Ranger alone does not cut it. You want a build that puts majority of it's damage in autos (so you don't have to mash nothing) and has a relaxed safe playstyle. Having to press buttons is one thing. How stressed you are when pressing them is another. If you gently tap a button as planned, it is far less a strain than mashing it furiously, because you're in life and death situation.

Condi ranger that just autoattacks will be garbage. Saying that somehow playing condi build makes it viable to "press buttons gently" while the power build would somehow force you to "mash them furiously" is also simply false. Pick a longbow or axe/axe power ranger, have your pet help with the aggro (but that's not even needed in majority of the situations) and there's no "life and death situation with furiously mashing buttons".

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Most, if not all professions have builds that are fairly forgiving in term of demand on your handspeed/dexterity without being unplayable. Asking on the forum will just lead you to have answers full of prejudice that are based on meta builds (which usually are demanding).

  • For example, you can reach a fair amount of sustain on mesmer just by sloting the heal signet (signet of ether) and using scepter.
  • A guardian using autoattacking with hammer can also be quite sturdy (using traits to strengthen symbols increase the sturdiness even more)
  • A necromancer coupling minion and blood magic work wonder
  • A thief playing dagger/pistol can survive quite well by just using the auto attack and periodically laying a blinding field via pistol#5
  • An engineer can just camp bomb kit.
  • ... etc.

None of these will be especially efficient but it will work just fine with minute effort on your part.

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Core mesmer might be ok, but I find there is a lot of dodging/ button mashing there. I love my mirage, but she's hard on my rheumatoid arthritis. My Power minion Reaper is probably easiest for my bad days. Holosmith with turrets isn't bad either. Even when she gets downed, she's back up again quickly. Core ranger is pretty forgiving also. I use LB/GS on mine.

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@"Sobx.1758" said:

Condi ranger that just autoattacks will be garbage. Saying that somehow playing condi build makes it viable to "press buttons gently" while the power build would somehow force you to "mash them furiously" is also simply false. Pick a longbow or axe/axe power ranger, have your pet help with the aggro (but that's not even needed in majority of the situations) and there's no "life and death situation with furiously mashing buttons".

Less garbage then power ranger that just auto attacks with longbow. Power ranger needs to get into melee with sword for his real damage. On top of that he has big bursts (Rapid Fire, Wordly leap, Whirling Defense) that you'll want to set up properly by stacking damage modifiers before you go ham. Like Attack of Opportunity, going beastmode then sick'em, etc.

Condi ranger needs much less piano play to get his damage going, and traited shortbow is solid damage option as long as you're flanking. You don't need moneky reflexes and quick succession of several skills. Just flank, aa, use other skills (except #3) off cooldown and lay a trap when you can. Much less of a hand killer then power build.

Lastly it's about frustration and stress. To me Longbow's aa's are plain boring and fire off at..medium rate. This makes me treat aa'ing as punishment phase, waiting for something cool to happen (Rapid fire).Meanwhile shortbow's rapid autos, combined with flanking to get real payoffs on it, make for engaging, smooth experience, where i work with autos to get nice damage, rather then waiting for something cool to finally happen. It's very easy to me to get into "flow" when playing shortbow ranger.

Needless to say frustration vs flow state has huge impact on how you'll play. I see a lot of strong keystrokes when player vents his frustration after boring auto attack phase on longbow. But best let author try it and see how it works for him.

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As a person who has tremors and carpal tunnel, the class that I've found to be easiest to play is Revenant. Particularly the Herald.

When I say it is easy, I don't mean the meta rotations. Those will have you mashing buttons on your entire keyboard in a frenzy. The secret is this: your damage is pretty good even without doing all of that stuff. Really, all you need to do is this:

  1. Turn on the toggle skills. Try to always have the facet of nature on. Switch on Vengeful Hammers while in Dwarf, Impossible Odds while in Assassin, and in Dragon you'll want to switch on Darkness, Strength, and Chaos.
  2. Use Facet of Elements when entering into combat and when swapping into herald.
  3. Auto attack while using Sword 2 and Sword 5 off cooldown.
  4. When you run out of energy, switch legends and repeat.

There's some fine tuning where you learn which skills are useful in what situation. I. E. learning to drop elemental blast on enemies when it is off cooldown, and learning to juggle a few of the facets so you can keep the f2 toggle on. Overall the class does good damage, is really durable, supports allies around you effortlessly, and it is surprisingly low maintenance.

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When I am feeling really lazy, I'll use a Revenant Herald.Stacking Power, Healing, and Toughness. Anything that boosts Regeneration.Running the facets of Light (Regen) and Chaos (Protection).Sword and Shield with a Hammer on the weapon swap.

I just... auto attack. Low damage but nearly immortal.

If it's too little, you can always add more button presses by lowering your defense potential to add damage.

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@ZeftheWicked.3076 said:

@"Sobx.1758" said:

Condi ranger that just autoattacks will be garbage. Saying that somehow playing condi build makes it viable to "press buttons gently" while the power build would somehow force you to "mash them furiously" is also simply false. Pick a longbow or axe/axe power ranger, have your pet help with the aggro (but that's not even needed in majority of the situations) and there's no "life and death situation with furiously mashing buttons".

Less garbage then power ranger that just auto attacks with longbow.

Nah, not really.

Power ranger needs to get into melee with sword for his real damage. On top of that he has big bursts (Rapid Fire, Wordly leap, Whirling Defense) that you'll want to set up properly by stacking damage modifiers before you go ham. Like Attack of Opportunity, going beastmode then sick'em, etc.

No, he doesn't. And why do you keep using that double standard where you want power ranger rotations to be optimal while condi ranger is supposedly "fine just autoattacking"? That's just a lie. Just like you suggesting that "you can calmly press buttons when you play condi build but YOU HAVE TO FRANTICALLY MASH BUTTONZ IN PANIC MODE IN FIGHT FOR SURVIVAL IF YOU PLAY POWER BUILD!" -what the kitten, I'm not sure where that bias comes from, but that's just false and you're just trying to demonize one build in comparison to the other using blatant lies.

Condi ranger needs much less piano play to get his damage going, and traited shortbow is solid damage option as long as you're flanking. You don't need moneky reflexes and quick succession of several skills. Just flank, aa, use other skills (except #3) off cooldown and lay a trap when you can. Much less of a hand killer then power build.

He'll be doing more gymnastics trying to flank crap and wear the targets down with ticking condies than he would be doing by just attacking a target from 900-1500 range with cleave dealing easy instant dmg. Since when do you need some supreme reflexes to casually play a power ranger? lmao.

Lastly it's about frustration and stress. To me Longbow's aa's are plain boring and fire off at..medium rate. This makes me treat aa'ing as punishment phase, waiting for something cool to happen (Rapid fire).

"frustration and stess" followed up by "for me it's boring". So stressful that it's boring. Ok. And pretty sure firerate has nothing to do with what we're talking about here. But hey, at least saying that YOU just like x more makes sense, so not much to argue about here.On the other hand AAing in power is "punishment while waiting for something cool to happen", but apparently AAing with condi shortbow is... super exciting I guess? <.<

Meanwhile shortbow's rapid autos, combined with flanking to get real payoffs on it, make for engaging, smooth experience, where i work with autos to get nice damage, rather then waiting for something cool to finally happen. It's very easy to me to get into "flow" when playing shortbow ranger.

Using "engaging smooth experience" here sounds like a bunch of meaningless buzz words. How is holding "a" or "d" key while AAing making it "cool" in any way? I'm actually confused about the argument you're trying to make here.

Needless to say frustration vs flow state has huge impact on how you'll play. I see a lot of strong keystrokes when player vents his frustration after boring auto attack phase on longbow.

You see it where? Are you standing behind people and observe what they do and how they play their power rangers and then compare it to the way they play other builds/classes including condi ranger? Again, it just sounds like you're trying to use some buzzwords to oversell your own opinion.

But best let author try it and see how it works for him.

Actually true!

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I struggle with similar conditions.Here is my solution and my suggestions.Firstly I have a Ranger (soulbeast), 2 Mesmers (1 Mirage, 1 Chronomancer), a Thief (Deadeye and 2 Necro's. (both Reapers)

I had the exact same issue with the Mesmer as you have. I now have them only for Jump Puzzle and alike reasons. Ability to port people.The ranger is a bit easier, you can engage from a distance and have your pet help you, reducing the buttons smashing, but in that light, my Thief (elite DeadEye) works better due to the sheer amount of stealth and the power build it has. Can one-shot half the enemies in PvE.Reaper (for me) is most forgiving, and I don't even run Minions with mine. The suvivability of a Reaper makes it more forgiving than the other classes I have tried.

This is what I do to reduce stress on my hands:

  • Remapped the keyboard. Take a look at Options - Control Options. There's so much you can change

  • Use mouse for steering: Moving with just WASD is too hard on my hands, specially if you have to move with that, and dodge, and use weapon skills. Just too many buttons in rapid succesion. To work around that, I use my mouse to steer. Meaning left/right as also up/down in water or on flying mounts, I control with my mouse and only need W to move forward or S to move back. Saves quite a bit of stress.

Took it even a step further. I have a mouse with extra buttons. One is set up to be a toggle equivilant to holding the right mouse button.I know left/right doesn't matter for steering, but this prevents issues with other software I use. My right hand is so weak that I cannot physically hold down a mouse button for longer than maybe 5 seconds.The downside of this, is that dropping wells and AoE effect are hard to do, I have to release the mouse first before I can use it to point at something on my screen.That slows down a lot of actions, but they are non-trivial to me. I simply don't set up my characters to have to use that many Wells or AoE effects.It's a small price to pay to be able to play pain free.

With this setup, I find my Deadeye and Reaper the easiest to play.Sidenote on the Thief (deadeye) though: I boosted that toon, after trying to level manually. It took way too long to get the abilities that I needed to play it comfortablyThe Necro though, one of them I manually leveled and had a blast doing so. It really was much easier on the hands than the Mesmer was.

Macro's can help too, but carefully read this article on Anet's Macro Policy first:

https://help.guildwars2.com/hc/en-us/articles/360013762153-Policy-Macros-and-Macro-Use

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Wow, there are a lot of us having hand problems. 43 years old myself, suffering from tendonitis and on the same boat as the op. There are professions that are beatiful to watch like weaver but are realistically way out of my ability to play. Warrior, thief and ranger are the professions I have narrowed my choices down to. Which one would be the least "twitchy" and more forgiving to my condition?

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I'd definitely recommend Necro. It's a very sturdy class that can perform very well in general open world content without requiring particularly fast reflexes or complex key presses (compared to other classes). Minions give you a lot of quality of life since they can tank enemies for you and Reaper can do some very heavy damage as well once you have it unlocked.

Woodenpotatoes has a great video for an open world build at max level on this class:

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  • 4 weeks later...

Minion Necromancer with Marauder or Soldier gear is crazy hard to kill, and great at slowly killing stuff. Use Axe/Focus for damage, and Staff for CC and long range. I LOVE my flamethrower scrapper (power build), but I know it's not exactly a powerhouse. It gets the job done, but slowly.

The 2 classes to avoid are Elementalist and Thief. Neither one is forgiving, both require lots of button pressing and active dodging to survive. They are also the 2 lowest health classes in the game.

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