What Classes do you enjoy outside of gw2?

[Khailyn.6248]

In other MMOs I tend to play tanky characters for solo content (paladin, force shielder etc), but for group content ranged support/healers (white mages, summoners, priests) both light and dark themed. Also I like the durability and bringing a longer duration fight.

In card games like Magic, it tends to go back and forth between these two as well. Angelic knight or dark healing/necromancer.In DnD its definitely a wizard or cleric with the necromancer sub set.In WoW it was paladin for soloing, while discipline/shadow priest for group content. PVP played both.In Final Fantasy its kinda the same thing. White mage, black mage, summoner, knight.In cabal online was the only one I couldnt play a support, just a shielder.In guild wars 1 I started with a warrior/monk then started a necromancer/monk.So then here we are in GW2. first and still main is a necromancer (core, reaper and scourge depending on mood and situation), second and main alt is a guardian. Followed by druid.

[Za Shaloc.3908]

100% favorite class fantasy is Nightblade from ESO. Not even for the assassin aspect, but the stealth and blood magic aspect together. I have always really loved the idea of life/essence manipulation, and particularly when able to orient it towards a way of supporting allies. Not just that, but skills like Dark Cloak and Refreshing path that restore health through shadows/darkness. I have always been oriented towards playing healer classes and from a fantasy standpoint, I really appreciate the moral ambiguity of a theme like that much more than something like a traditional Paladin.

First MMO I played was Planetside, and in that my favorite thing to play was a stealth medic/engineer/hacker. Niche and truly a bit snowflakey, but some of the most fun I have had in a game. Tried Planetside 2, was not impressed in the least.

Back when I played WoW (basically classic to BC), Resto Druid was my love. For similar reasons: having access to both stealth and healing. I also really liked the class fantasy despite the Tauren cat form being the most godawful fugly thing around back then.

In City of Heroes I played basically any Defender and Controller set, but I remember Kinetics being the absolute most fun one to play because BOUNCY! God that was a fun kit. I really loved the Illusion Control set as well.

[sasoefje.6708]

I have always liked hybrid fighter/magic user classes. And ranged DPS.In EQ2 - Shadowknight and WarlockIn Conan - Dark TemplarIn non-MMO - fighter/mage types.In GW2 - main is a Ranger and Guardian.I like the heavy armor and magic use.

[aymnad.9023]

This is an interesting question.Usually in solo rpg I play a weird hybrid character. I like being tanky (healing or magic defenses like a mage warrior), having allies (summons / mind control) so I often end up doing a small amount of damage.I played 2 mmos before gw2. In both of them I was a summoner profession. I loved them. I could either spec into aoe poison mage or healer. Healing was one of the reasons I picked those professions and I really enjoy being a healer. I also love how cc can be impactful for both offense and defense.So you would think necro will be the perfect fit for me? Well no I am a ranger. Necro did not fit the support role at first neither did it have a permanent pet (also someone told me I would not enjoy it).This is could be why I want a corruption ranger and a healer ranger so badly in PvP.

What else do I play in rpgs? After the summoner I take a warrior but never play them for too long, then go to a druid playstyle (which also allows to be a hybrid mage / healer / warrior).

[SkyCake.4216]

I really enjoyed Engineer from Warhammer Online. Still play it sometimes, even!

• It had great AoE. Usually called "fluff damage" since it was difficult to kill anyone with grenades. But, you could very easily make the enemy team weaker and cause trouble for their healer in SCs. It was fun seeing all the numbers! Really satisfying.
• It had deployables that were very useful. Barbed Wire morale for a slow, turrets that were actually fairly strong, a healing station that was too good when it stacked, a magnet to pull goons. That's something I think GW2 Engineer doesn't do well.
• High range and single target damage if you went down that tree path. You could snipe someone before they even saw you! It was fun to pop goons on walls with it.
• It was also rather bulky for being a DPS character and I really enjoy bulk over being a glass cannon.

Another class I've really enjoyed in the past was Doctor in Star Wars: Galaxies. I used to have a reputation for being an ATK Doctor and won many friends for it! Still remember someone giving me a free med droid and several people on the server losing their minds from being upset. Young me got pretty upset about that, but most people were cool with it. Doctor doesn't really have a place in modern MMOs since it was entirely a social class. But, I do miss it!

[aceofbass.2163]

Sage tree from ragnarok. It was basically antimage with spellbreaker and land protector. And since it is an antimage, it doesn't have aoe damaging spells unlike counterpart wizard, instead it has aoe spells that buff elemental attacks. Can also be built to be a melee mage.

Enhancement shaman from wow. It's basically an elemental melee mage.

Discipline priest from wow/scholar from ffxiv. I dont know why but i really like to have shielding as healing.

I wish we have more access to support with barrier to fill that shield healing, unfortunately i dont like the flavor of being a necro.

[Yasai.3549]

I like Battle Mages, or any sort of melee or midranged mages.

[Sobx.1758]

L2 duelist, dual sword heavy armored battering ramm having the mix of 100b, ranged energy projectiles and some pretty-much-a-weaker-malice-like charging mechanic (but it was a long time ago so I might not remember correctly how it worked). Would be absolutely broken in gw2 though, so I don't see a way of having anything like that here :D

[Lily.1935]

I really love all the responses! I've got a couple more.

Spellsword from Final Fantasy Tactics. This is basically what you'd expect a mesmer to be in a tactics game, but its so much fun to use. I could zombie people, turn them into chickens, immobilize them, pacify them, make them sleep. Beowulf was a lot of fun to use in the game and great for grinding experience. I didn't use Sigurd because he was honestly too broken, but if he wasn't in the game Beowulf would have absolutely been seen as absolutely busted.

I wouldn't put the spellsword into GW2 as I feel the mesmer does that role okayish. I'd like mesmer to have a more controling elite spec which would offer more of that feel, but everything the spellsword does except like, faith and zombie, are pretty much very doable in GW2.

Another Class I loved is the Necromancer from GW1. GW2's necromancer plays nothing like the necromancer from GW1. The necro from GW1 is a hyper glassy support class with lost of debuffs. It shares the debuff aspect with GW2, but beyond that there really isn't a comparison between the two. The GW1 necromancer used life sacrifice, could hex foes, was a superb martial support class, punishment class and could summon a legion of minions. IF I was to bring Necromancer from GW1 into GW2 I'd focus it around these elements. It would be high support, very glassy, sacrifice health and summon minions rapidly with an explosive exit. It would be a very difficult class to play but reward you with some of the best support or damage in the game.

[montecristo.1324]

The short period I played League of Legends I really liked the lore/style of Bard, kind of Miyazaki style, odd skills and really enigmatic.In Neverwinter Nights I loved to play bard + shadowdancer, again some support/magic and movementIn DnD (5e) I love the Wild Magic sorcerer, that can use some powerful magic with the cost of casting a second random spell which can be good or really bad.

[Kulvar.1239]

I would like a "magic bracelet" weapon type crafted by artificer.We could have magic cast from the palm of the hand rather than through a staff, wand, sword, ...Could also be used for mystic martial arts fighters.

[Vornollo.5182]

Definitely LotRO's Warden. The versatility was great.Mobile, Medium Armored class that could roll as Tank, Melee or as Debuffer, depending on the chosen trait tree. They also had these unique shields, only available to that specific class.

Thematically I guess it'd fit the Ranger, or maybe funny enough the Thief. It's been described as a "border-patrol" based on Haldir (that Elf guy from Lorien who also comes to help at Helms Deep), but also as a "local beat cop".So the link to Rangers is clear, but you could also consider it for a Thief-gone-good sort of thing. Could even give up Stealth (wouldn't a lot of people like to see that...)

Mechanically, pulling it off in GW2... Maybe difficult. It would come closest to Ele's attunement swapping and playing into various combo fields/finishers and base new flipover skills based on the combo effect. Kind of like how you currently get the ability to transmute aura's on an Ele when you get them, but then amped up to weave intricate skill-combinations based on action input, feedback on it and the following change of reactions/interactions.Like... Blocking an Attack using your #5, it flips over into a taunt, simple enough. However, it expands from there. if the taunt works and you get hit by the taunted opponent, your skills #2 and #3 flip over into ripostes, one offering damage, the other boonstrip or something. If the taunt isn't succesful due to a stunbreak being used, your #5 may still flip over again into a quick short-range pull or something. It could get very, very intricate and I do believe it could be doable. It would also require a very dedicated team to work out all of the options and scenarios...

Really loved it because, while it wasn't really the best at anything, it was able to play into niche roles and setups due to always having something, some kind of tool that fit the situation... A versatile skillset and toolkit. while playing very fluidly as a mobile-melee bruiser "bob and weave" type with a high skill-ceiling.

[Axl.8924]

Warlocks world of warcraft very interesting class blood mage dragon age origins. The idea of using your blood to control people or harm them interests me.

magic knights FF9 i like the idea of magic and knight combine.

[VocalThought.9835]

@Edge.8724 said:For me it's:

-Knight from Final Fantasy Explorers (3DS)A classic and very efficient sword and board tank that has high attack and defense but has very limited AoE attacks. In GW2, I think we'll need some major tweak to warrior if I could even play that, though for the AoE part, we already got that.

-Inquisitor from Grim DawnSome kind of mix between a dual pistol thief and guardian in gw2, really enjoyed that class in GD. However, not sure how I could do that in GW2.

They do it by making it a Thief with some guardian abilities.

[SaferMurderweapon.7143]

Enchanter.

The closest thing to it in a modern MMO was Chrono back in Summer of 2018. You had CC, buffs, debuffs, all of which I loved about enchanter. Chrono let me do all of that and be a tank while bringing some supplementary heals. They weren't strong heals, but they were good enough to matter and help me carry people who are learning content or to take pressure off the healers in case someone makes a mistake. I know it was more optimal to maximize DPS as much as possible and that I shouldn't worry about healing, but I wasn't exactly playing with tier 1 players or trying to speedrun and honestly, I don't like being a damage monkey

Now Chrono heavily limited and clunky and has been nerfed with seemingly extreme prejudice. Much so that I haven't touched the game in a year as that spec was the reason I played. There are things like it, but they don't come close to how fun, unique, and challenging that class was. These days, I hear anyone can pick it up and play it now and people rant about it more than ever before.

So the next best option for me would be something like Warden or Sorc in ESO. They have some things in common. Controlling enemies, protecting allies, buffing, etc.

I enjoy playing anything support as long as it's support that require tact and not just clicking a cooldown. For instance, Chrono, you could just fire your shatters and then SoI. Or you could pre-cast shield 5, CS then fire your remaining shatters while casting SoI then do it again like a smart person would. Or assuming other utilities aren't required, get your wells into CS too. There was a lot of thought that went into playing this spec and now it's just wells or gtfo and you can't even shatter during CS anymore because all shatters require clones now and distort is merged with CS so not only does distort have a much longer cooldown now, but it's merged with an even more powerful cooldown rendering its effect moot. Basically you're forced to choose between two different skills as they are the same skill now. That's like taking a car and then merging the gas pedal and brake pedal into one pedal.

I honestly feel very out of place in the genre because everything seems to be moving away from new ideas and all about a damage meta with skills that more or less function and feel the same but look different while getting in bed heavily with the trinity. In GW2, tank was very fight specific and more involved with mechanics and not just spank the big bad and hold aggro.

I kinda went off on a tangent here, but honestly, I like anything that plays and feels like Chrono as it did long ago.

[Jenny.4831]

I loved my Night Elf Druid in WoW. Not only because she had access to every role, but because she could turn into different plants (tree form), animals (bear, cat, bird forms) and humanoids (base and moonkin form).

And while Guardian has the 'do everything' ability in this game, I really despise the plate look so I can't bring myself to play it.

[Jski.6180]

FF11 puppet master and corsair i love thoughts classes.

Puppet master was a pet base class where you used H2H weapons as a player and contorted the pets ai. The pet it self could have any number of skills you set as well as spells. In a way it was a reviews ranger where your pet stands back and you go in. I love the ideal of an support pet and the player is the tank / dps (all though pup did not have to play like that).

Corsair was an gambling class for powerful pt buffs that got stronger if classes where in your pt. So if you had say a war in your group your war roll (that gave doble attk %) would give a higher % because you have that class in your group. The ideal was that each roll had a luckly number and an unluckly number as well as a bust state if you went over 11 (11 was the best for all rolls). Corsair was also a ranged dps class who could make debuffs stronger if the right element shot was used on a mob who had one debuff or another.

I like the ideal of green mages from ff TA melee cc mages class but i realy did not play that game so i could not say much on that.

[Bawi.9541]

Chanter from AIONPretty similar to Alacrigade in GW2 now that i think about it. Support/pDPS hybrid with good CC. What i liked better in AION:

• Auto-attack weaving in AION was a lot of fun and felt super satisfying; in GW2 it's barely tolerable to me. AION weaving felt simpler, better paced, animation canceling instead of auto attack chain counting, just overall really fun to play. Better/clearer/distinct hit indicator maybe? I cant put my finger on it
• A few big impact cooldowns besides the passive mantras and the spammy buffs
• Staff as main weapon; the aesthetics

From this thread, wow druid, rift talent trees in general, and ragnarok online's sage were fun too^^

[Anchoku.8142]

GW2 has a lot of overlap in combat functions and styles compared with other games. However, there are some aspects missing or down-played.

Fishing, ranching, harvesting, mining, forestry - In GW2, material gathering is very simple but in other games it can be quite complex and time-consuming while providing a lot of casual and relaxing content.

Crafting in GW2 is a bit shallow with the output being predetermined. Some games have hidden variables, allow a range of quality for output, and may even use an AI to allow generation of unique results because output does not have fixed recipes.

The combination system in GW2 is also rather simple and does not produce large finishers rewarding or penalizing groups for attention to complicated combo generation.

Aggro control is the last big difference I can think of. Gathering and removing aggression in PvE team play is very important in some games so it added additional complexity that forced players to cooperate and monitor each other's skill use as much as a mob. Without this element, dps is more important than aggro control, which some games integrate into skills.

[Psycoprophet.8107]

Dragoon, in 4 more lvs hoping to add samurai to the list.

[knite.1542]

Merchant from octopath traveler (or many other games I assume).

I like the idea of classes having advantages or unique abilities that go beyond combat.

I don't think it would really translate well into gw2 unfortunately. Gearing up/maxing out a character in this game is basically a non event once you reach a certain point in the game so the advantages would just be a formality. Oh I need to buy something, let me just swap to my merchant.