Complete new player help

[Local is Lekker.2970]

Hey there,

Thanks for reading and my apologies if this is a really dumb question...

I just started playing this game and I decided to try engineer as my first profession for now. I do see people do not recommend this for new players, however Engineer is the class that most interests me.

One thing that struck me is the extremely low damage output. At the same time I created a necro that seems to kill things much much faster than the engineer. I understand that engineer is a complex class, but so far I do not even have a full action bar yet so I do not think I have gotten to the complex part yet.

When I was playing the necro a few minutes ago I saw a level 4 engineer put down a turret, and I realized that I must have played engineer completely wrong. I have looked at my character and I do not see a turret skill at all.

What am I missing?

[montecristo.1324]

when you are leveling up you get hero points (https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Hero_point), with HP (hero points) you can unlock specializations, and skills.When you reach level 80 you will have all the specialization and skill unlock thanks to all the hero points collected during the leveling.Once you have all the specializations and skill unlocked you can start to unlock the elite specializations, which are specialization from the Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire expansions.

My suggestion is, if you are totally new to the game, is to explore all these things and play what you like, every class has his difficulties. When you will reach level 80 you will know pretty well your class and then you can think about meta builds for playing end game content, but for now have fun and experiment with all the skills and traits you find fun to play!

Edit:the skills at the left of the health bar are decided by the weapon you are using, the skill that you unlock with hero points are the ones you can put on the bar at the right of the health bar!You can also check on Youtube some videos that explains better the game or, if like me you like reading, take a look at the wiki: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/

(you can also access the wiki from the game if you type /wiki )

[ShadowCatz.8437]

@"Local is Lekker.2970" said:Hey there,

Thanks for reading and my apologies if this is a really dumb question...

I just started playing this game and I decided to try engineer as my first profession for now. I do see people do not recommend this for new players, however Engineer is the class that most interests me.

One thing that struck me is the extremely low damage output. At the same time I created a necro that seems to kill things much much faster than the engineer. I understand that engineer is a complex class, but so far I do not even have a full action bar yet so I do not think I have gotten to the complex part yet.

When I was playing the necro a few minutes ago I saw a level 4 engineer put down a turret, and I realized that I must have played engineer completely wrong. I have looked at my character and I do not see a turret skill at all.

What am I missing?

It is too early to when you are only around level 4 to talk about how much damage you can do as most likely you use gear (armor and weapon) that find from random loot or rewards during game play. Some things will be stronger then other just from fitting with how some skills work. While you level up you will also gain access to more skills, traits and even unlock a second weapon that you can swap and with some traits trigger some extra effects. There is also a difference between power or direct damage and condition (where you need some duration to stack condition). When you start to play you will only have one stats like power or condition damage, later you will have some set that have four stats. Two major and two minor.

Stat is what GW2 call attribute.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Attribute_combinations

As for Engineer putting down something on the ground, it is most likely (healing) turrets.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Engineerhttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Turret

Necro are based around manipulating condition and have an extra health bar. It is probably faster at low level to find condition based gear that give high number then finding power based gear (as power also need Precision and Ferocity to give high damage and it is only from direct hit). A new player might not know what gear to pick and what to sell or even be able to craft gear at that level (it is no point in crafting as will replace gear too fast until you get into level where you can use exotic gear.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Necromancer

All profession can use direct damage or condition damage as main source of damage type, but some work better then other because of the type of condition they have from weapon, trait and utility skills (incl their Elite skill). Condition damage is 'damage over time' meaning you need to be able to avoid to take too much damage until you have been able to kill your target. Direct damage (power based) often invest in strong initial damage (burst), but then need to avoid take damage until skills are off cooldown or that they have regained a limit resource pool that each use of skill instead have a cost (dodge as example has a cost of two dodge which replenish over a set amount of time; there are tools that change this like buffs or debuffs how fast this will happen). Cooldown is pure time based way to limit how much you can use a skill during a set of time, energy/initiative (Thief)/dodge are a pool based limitation for how many times you use a skill in a set timeframe. With cooldown the only way to change how many time you use a skill is change time. With energy or pool based system it is to change size of pool, change cost of skill and how fast this pool refill (replenish). Your health is a pool based system, that is why you also can see HP as short for health pool.

[Local is Lekker.2970]

I am sorry if my question did not seem clear enough. How is a level 4 Engineer able to use a turret? I cant find any way to use it myself.

[HnRkLnXqZ.1870]

A level 4 cannot use turrets. Those skills can be unlocked at level 11. What you have probably seen was a down-scaled Engineer.

In Guildwars 2, the game always tries to offer challenging content to everyone. So our level and stats get down-scaled (= adjusted) to the environment we are in. Characters of level 2-80 get a green downward arrow next to their level-counter. That means, they are normally of a higher level, but they were just down-scaled to that level. Characters at level 80 which have unlocked Masteries do no longer get that arrow. They still get downscaled, but the Mastery level remains as it is (golden counter).

Here is a picture of a player that was downscaled to a level 7 area

[Danikat.8537]

Engineer may be slow to get going but it can be a very strong profession later in the game, once you have more options. It's one of the more complicated professions (I think it can have more skills available at once than any other profession in the game) but that also makes it very versatile, able to adapt to different situations.

Incidentally necromancers are often recommended as a new player profession because they're pretty strong right from the start which makes them easier to play. They are also good later on, but things even out a lot more so they're more on equal footing with other professions.

With the right build engineers can also do a lot of damage, I've just got my holosmith (engineer with an elite specialisation) set up with a power damage build and I've been really surprised at how quickly everything dies. In a way it's slightly frustrating to me because I have tons of skills available and ideas for long chains but most of the time I don't get to use them all. But it's a nice change from my usual characters, who are normally more defensive.

I definitely think it's better to stick with a profession you enjoy than swap to one which seems to be stronger but less interesting for you. Your options will really open up once you get to level 11 and start unlocking utility skills. I recommend looking out for Hero Challenges in the world, the game will introduce you to them at level 11, but you can complete them before then if you find one. Each one gives you a hero point, and these can be used to unlock new skills and traits (passive abilities). Just levelling up will give you enough points to unlock all the base game skills and traits, but completing hero challenges lets you unlock things more quickly, and then gives you a headstart on having points for an elite specialisation once you get to level 80.

[AliamRationem.5172]

@Local is Lekker.2970 said:Hey there,

Thanks for reading and my apologies if this is a really dumb question...

I just started playing this game and I decided to try engineer as my first profession for now. I do see people do not recommend this for new players, however Engineer is the class that most interests me.

One thing that struck me is the extremely low damage output. At the same time I created a necro that seems to kill things much much faster than the engineer. I understand that engineer is a complex class, but so far I do not even have a full action bar yet so I do not think I have gotten to the complex part yet.

When I was playing the necro a few minutes ago I saw a level 4 engineer put down a turret, and I realized that I must have played engineer completely wrong. I have looked at my character and I do not see a turret skill at all.

What am I missing?

Hi! Welcome to GW2!

I think what you will find is that GW2 has a fairly complex combat system and that this complexity is not evenly distributed between all classes. Engineer is not recommended for new players because it has a ton of available skills and to get the most of it you not only need to understand what these skills can do for you individually, but how they fit into a coherent build. Necromancer, by comparison, is a very straightforward class offensively while also relying heavily on passive defenses.

In other words, your perception is correct. Engineer has to work a lot harder to get the job done than necromancer does. This isn't necessarily a problem for an experienced player, but it can be a lot to handle for a new player just learning the basics! Still, if you love the class, I say stick with it and learn it! There's nothing wrong with engineer and a lot of players love the class.

I love playing weaver, even though it has 26 weapon skills instead of the usual 10 and a unique method of rotating between them. It's a lot busier than most other builds I've played and took more time to understand and get comfortable with. But I find it rewarding anyway!

[ErickDntn.1847]

@"Local is Lekker.2970" said:

One thing that struck me is the extremely low damage output. At the same time I created a necro that seems to kill things much much faster than the engineer. I understand that engineer is a complex class, but so far I do not even have a full action bar yet so I do not think I have gotten to the complex part yet.

What am I missing?

Hi there and welcome. I just wanna add a little more about this. So as you already notice there, the utility skills (skill 7-9) are locked at your current level yet they are really important for Engineer. But once you start unlocking your utilities, skills like grenade kit and bomb kit can be valuable additions to your arsenal since each gives you 5 additional skills and they can be played pretty spammy while deals really good damage.

Bomb kit is the easiest to use, but you need to be semi-melee to use it. Grenade kit is ranged, but they are aoe projectiles that have a rather slow velocity. So the cons are that it can be hard to hit a moving target and you have to constantly target the ground and track your target that can be pretty tedious. However, these problems can be fixed by going to the Options (from Esc), then scroll down until you see the 'Combat/Movement' section. Under this section, first you want to change the 'Ground Targeting' from 'Normal' to 'Fast with Range Indicator.' So when you cast a ground-targeted skill, the skill will activate immediately after you release the skill button instead of left-clicking your mouse. Second, under the same section, you want to check 'Snap Ground Target to Current Target.' This option will allow you to automatically target and track your target when using ground-targeted skills, whether your target is and enemy or an ally. Having both of these settings make grenadier play a lot more viable.

If you're interested in playing around kits, or just being a grenadier, at lvl 21, you also want to choose Explosives as your first specializations. There are 'traits,' or passive effect, that will enhance your kits. As example, Grenadier will increase the grenades' radius and increase its velocity after being thrown, making it a far more reliable ranged kits for you. Tip: save up your Hero Points before reaching lvl 21 if you want to unlock most part of the specializations, to fully unlock a specialization itself you need 60 Hero Points. But you don't really need to unlock all when you just hit lvl 21. Side note, at lvl 80 you will eventually have enough HPs to unlock all.

For lvl 80 open world, if you enjoy grenade kit,

for the full build. There is also a

. Note that he uses an elite specialization that you can unlock at lvl 80 later in the game, with Scrapper and Holosmith being Engineer's elite specs. But overall, core engineers can be really hard to play efficiently due to the nature of its reliance to kits (except Holosmith). Playing this profession was actually the reason why I bought that 12-thumb-button mmo mouse bacj then lol.

Good luck!

[Ashantara.8731]

@"Local is Lekker.2970" said:What am I missing?

Basically, the elite specializations. Both, Holosmith and Scrapper, do insane damage.

[Infusion.7149]

I strongly recommend against playing core engineer as it is regarded not new player friendly. With core engineer you only have access to rifle and pistol mainhand and rely on kits for damage. It's gotten better due to changes to core engineer kits & skills (bomb kit, grenade kit, turrets) but generally holosmith (sword and photon forge) and scrapper (hammer) elite specs are much easier.

Core necro is generally considered easy but I think for a starting class, warrior or guardian are the best options. I would recommend against ranger because I see a lot of "ranger mains" settling into extremely poor habits like camping longbow with their pet doing most of the work and just auto attacking.

New player friendly:Warrior if you use double axe, Greatsword, or hammer (highest health + armor level)Guardian if you use sword+shield or sword+focus, Greatsword, or even scepter+focus (high armor level paired with passive regeneration + aegis)Ranger if you actually use the Greatsword, axe mainhands instead of camping bowsNecromancer if you use axe mainhand (condi ramp up on scepter and staff is extremely slow)

Not new player friendly:Elementalist is generally not considered new player friendly due to attunement swapping , but it isn't that terrible if you run dagger or staff mainhands (scepter has a severe delay on some of its attacks and is generally single target)Engineer is generally not considered new player friendly because instead of weapon swapping you rely on kits , also core engineer damage is dependent on how well you use kitsRevenant is only available to Heart of Thorns players but due to the energy mechanic and legend swap it isn't as intuitive for some peopleThief is a high mobility class with low health so if you don't dodge/evade you will probably die ; initiative mechanic rather than weapon cooldownsMesmer is probably one of the hardest classes for a new player due to the shatter mechanic; without shatters you do much less damage and are better off playing guardian or warrior

[AynArria.8597]

Hey can someone help me please I just used my level 80 boost but when i went back to the Caldeon Forest area my health and stats dropped severely and it told me my effective level is 16 what the frack does that mean? and why did it do this?

[Danikat.8537]

@AynArria.8597 said:Hey can someone help me please I just used my level 80 boost but when i went back to the Caldeon Forest area my health and stats dropped severely and it told me my effective level is 16 what the frack does that mean? and why did it do this?

That's called down-scaling. It's a mechanic they put in so no part of the game ever becomes obsolete. When you're on a map which is below your level your stats are reduced to mirror those of a character at the appropriate level. Higher level characters still have an advantage because they still have all their skills and traits available and have equipment with 3 or 4 stats (the strength of those is decreased, but none are removed so it's still better than an actual level 16, or whatever, could have).

It means you'll never get to the point where you can instantly kill everything in a low level map without trying, but it also means you never get to the point where you no longer get XP or useful items (XP and drops are scaled up to your level) or can't play on the map at all. So you can still do the whole game, even on a level 80 character.

It takes some getting used to if you're more familiar with games where high level characters obliterate everything, or simply can't fight on low level maps, but IMO it's a better system because it gives you more to do, means new content can go wherever in the world it makes sense instead of only in the newest map and it means maps are less likely to be abandoned. (Also it means players with only level 80 characters can help their friends who have just started without making it totally unbalanced and preventing their friends from doing anything.)

[Danikat.8537]

@Infusion.7149 said:I strongly recommend against playing core engineer as it is regarded not new player friendly. With core engineer you only have access to rifle and pistol mainhand and rely on kits for damage. It's gotten better due to changes to core engineer kits & skills (bomb kit, grenade kit, turrets) but generally holosmith (sword and photon forge) and scrapper (hammer) elite specs are much easier.

You're not wrong, but I consider a variation of that the worst gaming advice I ever recieved (except maybe advice on finding Mew in Pokemon Red, which was all lies). When I first started Baldur's Gate (which was the first RPG where I had any clue what I was doing) I was told to make my first character a human fighter and not to play anything else until I'd completed the game like that because otherwise it would be too confusing. Thankfully that's a game where you have to play your whole party anyway, you can't just focus on one character. But I soon found I was spending all my time focusing on the other characters and almost totally ignoring mine because for me simple and easy to learn is also boring, there was so little to do that I could pretty much select a target and then ignore her while I worried about chaining spells together because that was much more interesting and felt more impactful.

If I had been stuck only playing that fighter with no idea what the rest of the party was doing I'd probably have never finished the game at all because I'd have concluded it was boring and not worth bothering with, which would have been a huge mistake. Instead I rerolled as a cleric and loved it.

Same thing in GW2. I literally had to bite my tongue when my husband (who doesn't have much experience with RPGs) picked a mesmer as his first character. I was worried he'd find it too complicated, die a lot and give up. I did persuade him to check out warrior as well, but like my fighter he found it boring and while he did struggle with learning to play a mesmer he enjoyed it a lot more and therefore had more of an incentive to learn to play it well because he was enjoying it.

I suspect the same is true for most people, if you're enjoying the game you'll be more inclined to put in the time and effort to learn how to play it, however complicated it is. It's nice to know there are simple options available in case what you chose is too difficult and you're not enjoying it, but I don't think it's a good idea to insist that everyone start with the simplest option just in case they struggle with the others.

[Seera.5916]

@Danikat.8537 said:

@Infusion.7149 said:I strongly recommend against playing core engineer as it is regarded not new player friendly. With core engineer you only have access to rifle and pistol mainhand and rely on kits for damage. It's gotten better due to changes to core engineer kits & skills (bomb kit, grenade kit, turrets) but generally holosmith (sword and photon forge) and scrapper (hammer) elite specs are much easier.

You're not wrong, but I consider a variation of that the worst gaming advice I ever recieved (except maybe advice on finding Mew in Pokemon Red, which was all lies). When I first started Baldur's Gate (which was the first RPG where I had any clue what I was doing) I was told to make my first character a human fighter and not to play anything else until I'd completed the game like that because otherwise it would be too confusing. Thankfully that's a game where you have to play your whole party anyway, you can't just focus on one character. But I soon found I was spending all my time focusing on the other characters and almost totally ignoring mine because for me simple and easy to learn is also boring, there was so little to do that I could pretty much select a target and then ignore her while I worried about chaining spells together because that was much more interesting and felt more impactful.

If I had been stuck only playing that fighter with no idea what the rest of the party was doing I'd probably have never finished the game at all because I'd have concluded it was boring and not worth bothering with, which would have been a huge mistake. Instead I rerolled as a cleric and loved it.

Same thing in GW2. I literally had to bite my tongue when my husband (who doesn't have much experience with RPGs) picked a mesmer as his first character. I was worried he'd find it too complicated, die a lot and give up. I did persuade him to check out warrior as well, but like my fighter he found it boring and while he did struggle with learning to play a mesmer he enjoyed it a lot more and therefore had more of an incentive to learn to play it well because he was enjoying it.

I suspect the same is true for most people, if you're enjoying the game you'll be more inclined to put in the time and effort to learn how to play it, however complicated it is. It's nice to know there are simple options available in case what you chose is too difficult and you're not enjoying it, but I don't think it's a good idea to insist that everyone start with the simplest option just in case they struggle with the others.

This.

I would not have a blanket general I would not recommend class for a new player. Especially not for a stranger.

I would explain which classes are easier and harder. Then let the player choose. Now if it was someone I knew in real life and I knew what their preferences were for a first play through of a game or what type of character they like the best or what type they hate, then I would give them a recommendation. But still would let that player decide without making them think that I think they made a wrong choice.

GW2 was my first MMO. I played in the last beta weekend for the first time at the invitation of my brother. I played warrior there first just so I would have an easier character to get my feet wet on. But I also played a little Ranger and a little Elementalist during that beta weekend. Definitely not enough time on any class to have learned the game or the mechanics.

Game launch comes and I make an Elementalist. Because it's one of the hardest classes. I harder class would make bad habits more punishing and therefore less likely to become habits in the first place.

Did I die a lot? Yea. Needed help with a story step that's in the chapters from before you join an Order. Still die a lot on her. Took me several deaths to figure out to do Eater of Souls in PoF's story and even then I didn't do it at the ideal method (didn't break the breakbar, I still struggle with that). And she's still my main.

And even looking back, I wouldn't change what class I started with. Or what character I take through content first.

[MidnightX.6294]

the game is sandbox untill u hit lvl 80. end of the story.