Returning Disabled Player

[MistWolfGaming.1037]

Hello All, im a disabled gamer returning to the game i had to start again as i for got my origional Account information. I cannot move very well due to the fact i can only use 1 hand and have to use a left handed razer naga to play, the way i have it bound at the moment my movement is locked to forwards and using dodge to just go back as if i bind for full movement i dont have enough buttons left to use all my skills. What would be the easiest Class to build a viable group/solo stationary build that has a decent amount of damage and has a good amount of survivability to at least counteract my lack of ability to move excessively. Thank you for all the help!

[Danikat.8537]

I know it's not what you asked for (someone else would be better at recommending professions than me) but here's some recommendations I think will help.

Firstly it's good you've already made sure you can dodge, I was going to say that's worth having no matter how short of buttons you are.

Secondly try playing with the Action Camera turned on. With that activated the camera will always turn as you move the mouse, and if you're moving forwards your character will turn in the same direction. That removes the need to hold down the right mouse button to turn the camera and the need for buttons to turn your character, giving you more mobility with fewer controls. (You can get a similar effect by holding down both the right and left mouse buttons, but then you don't have the targeting icon in the middle of the screen, left-clicking won't auto-attack and ground-targeted skills won't automatically place themselves, they'll go wherever you left the cursor.)

(Incidentally keyboard turning isn't recommended, no matter how many butons you have, because it's slower and less accurate than pointing the camera in the direction you want your character to face and then moving them in that direction. They'll turn instantly and on the spot to start moving in the right direction if you do that, whereas it can take a few seconds to turn them using the right and left keys.)

I also recommend binding auto-run rather than forwards as it has the same effect but it means if you're going a long distance you don't need to hold the button down, which helps avoid RSI and means you have a finger free to push something else while running. It's a toggle so if you need to stop you just need to push the button again, and with practice it can be as accurate as using the forward button.

Overall I think the only important movement option you'll struggle with is strafing, but I think you can play without that.

Finally no matter what profession you pick I recommend using equipment which gives toughness (armour bonus) and vitality (health bonus), at least at first. A lot of guides for GW2 will recommend pure-damage stat combinations (especially beserkers) but that means you're relying on dodging and moving out the way to survive. You don't need to make a pure tank but some defensive stats will help give you a bit of leeway if you aren't able to move out the way of an attack. (Incidentally if you use the level 80 boost that gives you defensive equipment, but it's better not to boost your first character because levelling up helps you learn the game and your profession.)

[Cuks.8241]

I guess a class with pets that can tank for you and you can pew pew from range. So a ranger or a necromancer. I'm not so familiar with necromancer so can't really give any tips there but it is known to be the most laid back open world class. For ranger the issues could be that you have some extra buttons for pet control. But on the other hand for open world you don't really need those since the pet AI is good enough.

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

Instead of binding movement buttons, instead bind a button to enable or disable Action Camera, which will make your movement automatically follow where your mouse is pointing, along with binding Autorun to enable movement, and binding Closest Enemy to always keep your target selected, this means three buttons that will allow you to move towards and attack anything.

(If you play support you'll also want to bind Closest Ally, but even then, Closest Enemy is usually enough because melee allies tend to stack on the target and ranged allies tend to take care of theirselves since its part of their builds.)

Once you master this, you'll be able to move almost constantly in battle with little input besides hand gestures.

Next, Permanently turn on "Ground Targetting: Instant", and "Snap Ground Target to Current Target". This will make all of your AoE skills automatically cast on the currently selected target without any additional effort. Also enable "Promote Skill Target", "Lock Ground Target at Maximum Skill Range", and "Allow Skill Retargetting", which will minimise your need to target/retarget significantly.

Disable "Stop Autoattacking on Target Change", "Autotargetting", "Melee Attack Assist". These are annoying features which will only cause trouble for you, targetting random mobs and getting stuck on enemies unable to move through them.

Assuming leaving left-click for manual targetting and UI usage, that leaves you at least a dozen buttons to use for skills, which should cover almost any class except the most complex ones like Mesmer and Elementalist which require additional keys. However: There is a workaround, you can bind several buttons to cycle between a list of skills to use. THE TERMS OF SERVICE ALLOW ONE ACTION PER KEYPRESS/BUTTON PRESS, SO AS LONG AS YOU ARE PRESSING A BUTTON TO ACTIVATE YOUR SKILLS, YOU AREN'T BREAKING THE RULES. Even if its just the same button activating all your skills from predefined lists.

This is completely different to a macro, which executes multiple actions per keypress/buttonpress, and generally isn't allowed.

As a general rule, skillsets are organised so that #5 is the strongest, and #1 the weakest; there are edge cases, but usually just sweeping from right to left will give a fairly decent result in combat situations.

You'll never be able to play optimally, but you should be able to handle 90% of content without problems, even solo. Make sure you play a somewhat tanky class and build, try to stick to weapons that don't have alot of gimicks, and favor AoE utility skills so that you can clear groups of enemies without having to target every single enemy and clear them out one by one.

You can train your muscle memory in a private instance on the test golems in the lobby for Fractals of the Mists.

[Danikat.8537]

I've been thinking about it and I don't think there's any entire professions you would need to avoid, or which would necessarily be better for you, it's more about which weapons and skills you use. For example a ranger with a shortbow would likely be a bad idea because you need to be constantly moving, often stafing around your target, to be most effective, but a ranger with pretty much any other weapon would be fine. I'm not sure of all the examples for all professions, but I think my advice would be the same as for pretty much any new player - pick the profession/s which appeal to you most, try them out and figure out what works for you.

Incidentally one of the items included in the daily login rewards is Tomes of Knowledge, which each grant 1 level, so levelling up new characters gets quicker the longer you've been playing (many long-term players keep at least enough tomes to instantly level a character to 80, just in case they want to). Which means if you decide you don't like the profession you've chosen you can switch to another without having to go through the whole process of levelling up again. (Although it's worth doing the first few levels manually, by completing hearts and events, because until about level 6 you gain levels much faster, so it would be a waste of tomes to use them early on.)

[Chichimec.9364]

As an old, slow player I was probably a 1 on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the best, when I first started playing GW2. Having never played an active combat system like this one before, it took me a while to make it up to a 2. So out of necessity I had to find a survivable build if I wanted to do any high end content at all. Having tried all the professions and a number of the specializations, the most durable one I found was a Revenant with a full load out of Soldier's gear. The DPS was not at the high end. It took me a while to kill stuff if I was running solo, but it had the most survivability of anything I tried. With hammer and sword/sword weapons, I could range from a distance or close in for melee as appropriate. These days I've made it up to something like 4.5 on that 1-10 scale and have switched my rev main to a full berserker load out. In doing the Storms of Winter meta this morning, there were times when my berserk rev was just standing there going toe to toe with the bad guys, wailing away on them with swords and was still standing while others around me were dying. When my health did start going low, I'd back up to safety until I could heal up some, then go forward again. Don't know if such a build would meet your needs or not but you might want to check it out. Oh, and I use the Renegade specialization because the F3 skill, Citadel Bombardment, wrecks real havoc in underwater combat, more than it seems to on land even.