Yet another class advice thread

[Wandidar.1692]

I'm giving the game a try again after a very long time away. Rather than asking about a specific class, I thought I'd try describing myself as a player a bit and asking for some "best fit" advice because I can be happy playing most anything.

• I'm 52, and my twitch reflexes definitely aren't what they used to be (I'm not glacially slow, but slow enough that I probably shouldn't be playing a class that's all twitch)
• I often heal in MMO's, because I like the responsibility of being a healer, and because I'm usually pretty good as a healer
• I have a love / hate relationship with pet classes. I always love them in theory, I sometimes love them in practice (and when I do, I really love them)
• I haven't tanked in ages in an MMO
• I often perform better when I'm playing a class where I can keep things out in front of me a bit
• I solo a lot in MMO's until I feel like I'm competent enough in the mechanics of the game to feel like I won't kill a group just by being in a group.
• I have a TON of MMO experience in general (started in EQ, played WoW, Vanguard, this (a bit), TESO (a bit). EQII, etc...)

If any of that suggests a class / build you could recommend, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks in advance!

[Pirogen.9561]

Ranger. Just stay away from Longbow and Bear coz its slow and boring.My favorite combo is:

• power based
• Axe/Axe + Greatsword or Sword/Axe
• you get pet, but its only one.
• if you go Soulbeast, you merge with your pet and so have none
• plus you can switch to Druid if you want "healer"

Guardian is also very good:

• in other games it would be called War Priest or Paladin. A warrior and a caster and a healer. But not all at the same time
• melee is top notch
• core is a bit weak on "ranged"
• elite spec fixes that

[Irensaga.6935]

For people with glacially slow reflexes or disabled in motor skills - I suggest a Necromancer (because you can just drop all your minions and then auto-attack and do most things in the game), but that's probably overkill in your case since you're experienced and not all THAT slow.

I'd say the classes that require the most keyboard dexterity are Elementalist, Thief, Engineer, and Mesmer in that order. Elementalist because in addition to their core abilities - they have to swap between different elemental attunements - giving them effectively 20 skills to manage instead of the usual 5 (more if you get the Weaver specialization). Ele's also are made of wet-paper unless you get really good with their totally-not-obvious defensive skills. Engineers have to swap between different kits in addition to their core weapon abilities. Thief just requires a quick reaction playstyle in general and is really squishy if you don't rely on your active skills. Mesmer... Honestly I don't find Mesmer really that hard anymore... I guess I listed it mainly because it's a unique class to Guild Wars, and it takes a bit of time to get used to managing your clones and shattering them correctly, etc. I think you'd actually kind of like Mesmer if you got over the initial learning curve.

As for healing, Rangers get the Druid specialty in Heart of Thorns that turns them into the closest thing you get to a dedicated healer. Elementalists get the Tempest specialty in that expansion as well and can use auras for that purpose. Revenants and Engineers have some group heal builds as well and I THINK Guardians can do a bit. But really, those roles only come into the forefront in Fractales and Raids - end game content. And GW2 was designed to be a game with no healers - where everyone can manage their OWN healing. So I wouldn't pick a class solely on this selling-point.

Pet classes in this game are Ranger and Necromancer. Ranger gets a dedicated pet that can be swapped with other animals as you prefer. The pet is permanent and does a lot of your attack damage. If you wind up getting tired of the pet, there's a new specialty in Path of Fire that allows you to ditch the pet and merge with it, becoming a solo character.

Necromancer is able to summon a whole mob of undead minions that follow you around and do a lot of damage and status debuffs - but aren't as survivable as a ranger pet. Some people report getting bored of this kind of gameplay, but it does tend to faceroll a lot of content. Once into Heart of Thorns, you can switch to the Reaper specialization that uses a greatsword in close combat and is not reliant on minions at all.

Elementalist can sort-of, kind-of have a pet in the form of a Earth/Fire/Air/Water elemental they can summon. But the thing has a relatively short duration and disappears after a while, so it's more a combat spell than a "pet". Totally optional.

Don't worry about tanking. It's only a role that shows up in Fractales and Raids at end-game. Last I checked, Mesmers were ironically the main group tanks in the game - not because of their armor or HP, but because Mesmers have a lot of hard evade and dodge skills that allow an experienced Mesmer to avoid all boss attacks - if they know the bosses well enough to know when all the hits are coming. GW2 is so alt friendly that it's not a big deal to level up a tank if you ever want that sort of thing, so really, don't worry about it. None of the classes are "just tanks" like Warriors and Paladins in WoW.

If you want to keep stuff at a distance, good news - ALL classes have effective ranged weapon options. Even the Fighter has a fairly effective option with a longbow. Guardians have an actually pretty solid scepter they can lob energy balls with (or a staff for tagging lots of enemies in group content). Revenant has the hammer they can chuck at range. Thiefs can go for shortbow or pistols. Engineers look like obvious ranged characters with the rifle, but the rifle is actually more effective in close combat ironically, but pistols and some bomb kits kite pretty well. Mesmer has the great sword option. And Elementalists have staff or scepter. Mesmer shoots lazers from the greatsword. Rangers have longbow. Necromancers have scepter (although their real long range weapons - staff - is kind of weak on damage).

Basically, you can kite effectively in this game on almost any class. You can also do close combat on any class.

I personally found it hardest to solo on Elementalist and Thief. Because both classes are very fragile with low HP pools and not good armor and few options for evening the odds.

Once I got the hang of Mesmer, it became a great solo character - but it's not that beginner friendly. The Ranger pet makes Ranger pretty beginner friendly. It has a good ranged kiting option in the longbow, but honestly its best DPS is in it's close-combat weapons, so you'll want to get used to that. Fighters are forgiving due to their great HP and armor and defensive abilities and can put out good damage - most people recommend them as newbie-friendly (though they certainly CAN be complicated at end-game). Necromancers faceroll solo content with their mob of minions - but I find core Necro boring honestly. I'm just trying to get my Necro into HoT content were I can swap to the Reaper specialization and ditch the minions.

You might consider Guardian. They actually are not a tank class. Think of them more like an armored magical knight. They wear heavy armor which makes them survivable in spite of their low HP pool. But they do a lot of damage by spell-slinging from range combined with great close combat options with greatsword or sword (also hammer and mace, but that's more specialty situations). They also specialize in self-buffing and dropping energy shields to block arrows and stuff. They kite well and aren't too hard to pick up...

Here's the thing though - you don't have to get married to any one class just yet. Even if you're a free-to-play account and only have two character slots.

Try out a few different classes and play them until you hit level 20. By level 20, you'll unlock all the basic weapon skills and you'll have a bit of an idea of how cool the class looks when it does stuff and if the skill set is really jiving with you or not. If you don't like a class. Just delete the level 20 character and start over. Believe me - it takes almost no time at all to get a character to level 20 in this game. Complete the starter map, play some personal story, unlock all the waypoints, points of interest, and vistas in your race's capitol city, and join active world events whenever you encounter them and you'll be level 20 in no time. So deleting and starting over at this point is not a big deal.

I'd recommend keeping one slot for your main character that you want to level all the way to level 80, and then keep the second slot open for playtesting other classes. If you like it, buy the actual game and now you'll have 5 character slots to play with and you can start seriously leveling some other classes that caught your fancy.

Just to sum up again - from your criteria, I got the personal sense that you'd like:

Ranger for a medium armor classMesmer in the light armor classGuardian in the heavy armor class

Start with those and see what you think and take it from there.

[ZeftheWicked.3076]

I would suggest Revenant.

He is extremely versatile and fits almost anything you want to do with him. Twitch reflex heavy or necro easy - both are attainable on him depending on builds (power builds favor reflexes, condi builds are much more easy). More over he has not one, but 3 healing styles (Ventari, Kalla, Glint). While ventari is very twitch heavy (managing tablet), the other two are not.

Glint (Herald elite spec) is generally the boonshare defensive regen spec, that can muster 1khp/s regens, and add bit on top if needed. As you can see while getting regen this potent is impressive, it's still pretty small for a dedicated healer. Reason for that is, that Glint's number 1 ace in the hole is her boonshare capability. Semi passive (upkeep skill), 600 radius pulsing boons, that can be shared to even 10 ppl if you trait for it. You don't need great reflexes to keep many ppl buffed with protection, fury, swiftness, might and regeneration if you're playing this spec. On top of that she has ability to extend incoming boons to allies as well as those already on them with professionn mecanic (Facet of Nature - Dragon).

Kalla (Renegade spec) - kalla may be the most potent healer, giving Ventari the run for his money. The deal with renegade healer is simple - you pop your ult (Soulcleave's summit) and allies in range get increadible lifesteal that can heal from 382 hp to 700+ depending on your healing power, but most of all has no internal cooldown that usually gimps most of lifesteal traits or skills. The more vicious and fast attacking your party is, the greater her potency. From your side of things - again much like glint - it's an upkeep skill. You just pop it and provide it energy, and she'll do rest of the work for you.

Another reason renegade is loved in end game content is his great and easy access to alacrity - your f4 skill provides it and if you trait and build for it - you can have a very major uptime of it on up to 10 ppl (whole raid squad). Application is also very easy - you just press the button and for next few seconds you'll pulse it around you - so just move to where rest of your party is and you're golden. On top of that Renegade is very condi friendly and in some raids absolutely tops the damage charts with his condi build.

As for tanking - that is another reason i suggested rev to you. Not only he has tons of ways to mitigate damage, but they are also varied. He can have incredible sustain just off stats and build alone without a need for god tier reflexes and timing one crucial skill.

[ruikarikun.9402]

I found Necromancer very friendly and chill class.

[thepenmonster.3621]

@"Wandidar.1692" said:

• I'm 52, and my twitch reflexes definitely aren't what they used to be (I'm not glacially slow, but slow enough that I probably shouldn't be playing a class that's all twitch)
• I often heal in MMO's, because I like the responsibility of being a healer, and because I'm usually pretty good as a healer
• I have a love / hate relationship with pet classes. I always love them in theory, I sometimes love them in practice (and when I do, I really love them)
• I often perform better when I'm playing a class where I can keep things out in front of me a bit
• I solo a lot in MMO's until I feel like I'm competent enough in the mechanics of the game to feel like I won't kill a group just by being in a group.

Pity about your ambivalence towards pets because it seems like a Ranger would suit you. The pet AI in the game can generously be described as "meat shield" though. The Druid elite spec is traditionally the go-to healer for the game though I have no idea about these days.

Guardian might also work for you but it takes a bit for the profession to come into its own and can be a drag to play in early levels due to having one of the lowest health pools in the game. The Firebrand elite spec is versatile and can be used for support, healing, or setting things on fire.

Engineers do need a lot of keyboard ballet to be played at their peak, but they can also be played in a "For The Olds" method with the grenadier and/or flame thrower for the core profession and Scrapper in general for their elite specs. They do have some decent support abilities though it's not meta (AFAIK) due to other professions being much better at it. If you're looking to support other players the two above would be better methinks.

As mentioned minion Necromancer is probably the easiest thing in the game to play and the minions are numerous enough to make up for their AI. There are also some Reaper elite spec "can't die" builds, but that's something you might want to look into at a later date.

[aspirine.6852]

I would stay away from Ele and Engi in your case. They are fun but imo harder and lots of keyboard/mouse play.

Necro is easy and also very good voor open world pve. But also a good solid spellbreaker is not that hard, only need to look at your positioning a lot more than Necro.Ranger with LB is also easy and is really not that relying on its pet. You can even ignore it and do most PvE content.

[Wandidar.1692]

Thanks everyone! I'm starting out with a Ranger, as there seems to be a lot of consensus here around that or Guardian. Will see how it goes!

[Pirogen.9561]

If leveling Ranger from 1 to 80:

• go Axe/Axe, swap Greatsword
• when available, first fill Beastmastery(BM) specialization
• this is because it improves Command(pet oriented) skills and Greatsword and Axe. So 3 for the price of one.

[ZioGio.9102]

@"Wandidar.1692" said:I'm giving the game a try again after a very long time away. Rather than asking about a specific class, I thought I'd try describing myself as a player a bit and asking for some "best fit" advice because I can be happy playing most anything.

• I'm 52, and my twitch reflexes definitely aren't what they used to be (I'm not glacially slow, but slow enough that I probably shouldn't be playing a class that's all twitch)
• I often heal in MMO's, because I like the responsibility of being a healer, and because I'm usually pretty good as a healer
• I have a love / hate relationship with pet classes. I always love them in theory, I sometimes love them in practice (and when I do, I really love them)
• I haven't tanked in ages in an MMO
• I often perform better when I'm playing a class where I can keep things out in front of me a bit
• I solo a lot in MMO's until I feel like I'm competent enough in the mechanics of the game to feel like I won't kill a group just by being in a group.
• I have a TON of MMO experience in general (started in EQ, played WoW, Vanguard, this (a bit), TESO (a bit). EQII, etc...)

If any of that suggests a class / build you could recommend, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks in advance!

OK, this is weird, but in a good way. This post mirrors almost exactly what I was going to write if I couldn't find a thread that answered my question. It's like bumping into your doppelganger on the street! :smile:

I'll add that when I returned to Guild Wars 2 I gave Thief precision pistol/pistol a go because I remember liking it years ago before the expansions, even though it didn't do a lot of damage then. It's fun, kills single targets quickly now so you can pretty much stand still and turret, killing everything before taking damage; and I've leveled mine to 60 so far. However, during open world event group play, I don't feel like I'm contributing much in the way of shared boons or healing because Thief pistol/pistol is so DPS focused (plus I can easily die if I don't notice a bleed or condition on me quickly enough). That's why I came here looking for something else to try that might fit my stationary turret play style that works both solo and contributes to impromptu groups.