Hey, new player here

[Lynx.9058]

Been through a lot of MMO's in the past, figured I'd finally give guild wars a try. So far I'm enjoying it, especially the dragon-age style character creation and intro.

I went straight for a charr engineer as my first character and love it, but I've tried a few other race/class combos and none of them are really 'speaking' to me the same way. Not sure why, but I'm finding it very hard to get immersed in those other characters.

[Trise.2865]

Hello! Welcome to Tyria!

[AgentMoore.9453]

Welcome to the game!

One of the most useful things for me when I was new was the /wiki command. You can type /wiki anywhere in the game to pull up information about events, NPCs, loot, gear, maps, achievements, and just about anything else you might be stumped by. (ie: /wiki butter)

The wiki is compiled and maintained by players, but as with most wikis, it's ruled with a nerdy iron fist and is therefore pretty accurate most of the time.

Take your time, see the sights, and enjoy Tyria; you really do get a lot of bang for your buck just with the core game, but the expansions and living story chapters add a lot as well.

[Danikat.8537]

Welcome to Tyria! :)

One of the nice things about this game is there's a lot of freedom to play whatever you like. Your race only really affects your story (there are some racial skills but they're not required for anything) and while some professions are prefered in some game modes they are all functional anywhere and in most cases any group composition will work, so unless you're playing with people who are very strict about following the meta you're unlikely to run into things you can't do because of your profession and can pretty much play what you like. All of which means if a particular combination appeals to you most there's no reason not to play it.

Although this is also a very alt-friendly game and I think the majority of people end up making at least a few characters to have different options available.

[Lynx.9058]

I tend to gravitate more towards the jack of all trades / support classes, and engineer is right up my alley, plus i love the char and engineer seems to fit an iron legion charr perfectly.I dont know a whole lot about guild wars' races and their lore yet, though; part of the reason im having a hard time making alts that hold my interest. If something early on doesnt seem to fit quite right, it bugs me and I end up remaking the character lol.

A few questions on that, though:-For a sylvari character I'm wanting to make something dryad/nymph/forest spirit like, but I'm having a hard time deciding between ranger and mesmer. I dont particularly like the hunter/archer style of ranger, but the pet abilities and eventual druid or soulbeast specializations seem interesting. Mesmer seems like it would fit a trickster/illusionist forest spirit type of character pretty well, but all the purple coloration doesnt really match up and since mesmer doesnt really tend to have an analogue to other game classes I'm not really sure what kind of character it'll be more late-game.

-Also wanting to make an Asura, but despite engineer seeming to fit them best I dont want to double up on classes and my charr already has engineer covered. Was thinking maybe necromancer or mesmer for the magic focus (I already have a norn elementalist I styled up after avatar korra, lol), but it's hard to imagine a cute little 3 foot necromancer, and again I really have no idea about mesmers.

[Stelawrat.6589]

@"Lynx.9058" said:Been through a lot of MMO's in the past, figured I'd finally give guild wars a try. So far I'm enjoying it, especially the dragon-age style character creation and intro.

I went straight for a charr engineer as my first character and love it, but I've tried a few other race/class combos and none of them are really 'speaking' to me the same way. Not sure why, but I'm finding it very hard to get immersed in those other characters.

It would be a really tough decision, but if I had to choose just one, I think that it would have to be my Asura / Ranger. If you have time to listen to any Asura NPC chatter, it is some of the best in game as far as I'm concerned. The play on words & humour among them & in personal interactions as well, makes for a fresh approach, unlike most games I think. I kind of feel most connected to them, that their "characters" have influenced my dedication to them the most.

As a Ranger, I love stumbling on the various pets to tame & then seeing how those can be used in play. There seem to be never-ending combinations. I really like that pretty much all of the Races have a wide variety of weapons open to them. I'm not great at melee, so ranged weapons are my favourites & there's lots of them, so for me, it's a win / win all around.

That said, it hasn't stopped me from creating multiple characters of the other Races / Professions, although I only have one Charr, a Guardian. :3

[Ashen.2907]

Sometimes one option just sings. Go with it. Enjoy it and let your experiences in game slowly entice your interest in the other races and professions.

[Humor.5763]

Ultimately, I don't think race/class really matters too much.

Honestly, I rarely see people use racial skills at all. The only reason I would ever see anyone use them, is simply because they're left with no other options at that specific time. The second you start getting new skills to slot into your hotbar, say goodbye to those racial abilities. They'll seldom be used.

Although, Charr's racial ability is fun. I mean Rocket launchers are cool.

That being said, ever since the Beta/Launch of the game, I've always made Sylvari characters. This is simply due to the fact, it's not your "normal" looking Elven race, especially when it was going to be at the beginning, but the art designers decided against being generic, and I'm pleased with my Salad people.

I'd say Charr, and Asura characters are neat, but they've pretty much been overdone/used in every Mmorpg' in existence. Asura= Gnomes/Dwarves, and Charr, well I've played Guild Wars 1, so they're not new to me at all.

To each their own though. Again, I doubt Racial Skills make the world of a difference, especially like I said, once you get other skills later on, you're just going to replace them.

I'd say the Races really only matter if you're looking for the personal stories, which take you up until level 40 ish, I think....? Then everything else is the same for every race, no matter which you are.

Either or, hope you enjoy Guild Wars 2, it's a great game. It's even nice of Anet to basically give you a "Free Demo" (full base game, with some restrictions) before you decide if you want to purchase the expansions, and find out of the game is for you or not.

[Fueki.4753]

Welcome to the game!

Have fun buying all the old Living World Episodes.

[Lynx.9058]

Well, the stories matter to me a good deal, I mean I was looking for a game to get immersed in and I'm a big fan of story driven RPGs like the dragon age series. I've settled on making one character of each race for now (five slots, five races, makes sense) just so I can see all of the personal stories. I ended up going with charr engineer, sylvari ranger, asura mesmer, human necromancer, and norn elementalist. We'll see if I can stick with them, lol.

I already put the 30$ or so into buying the standard edition so I've got the character slots unlocked and heart of thorns/path of fire. Not sure what you mean by buying all the living world episodes...

[AgentMoore.9453]

@Lynx.9058 said:I already put the 30$ or so into buying the standard edition so I've got the character slots unlocked and heart of thorns/path of fire. Not sure what you mean by buying all the living world episodes...

Living world episodes are small DLC that get released in between expansions. Now that you have the game (and the first two expansions), any new living story that comes out will be free for you if you log in while the release is new (no special action needed, you just log in and they unlock for your account). If you want the older ones, you'll have to purchase them separately since the free period is over for those.

I do recommend playing through the core game first though, since it teaches you a lot about the mechanics of the game and really lets you get immersed in the world. It also lets you start accruing game currency as you explore, which is handy because you can trade that for shop currency (gems) and later use that to buy the living story chapters you missed if you don't want to spend any additional real world money on them.

[Danikat.8537]

@Lynx.9058 said:A few questions on that, though:-For a sylvari character I'm wanting to make something dryad/nymph/forest spirit like, but I'm having a hard time deciding between ranger and mesmer. I dont particularly like the hunter/archer style of ranger, but the pet abilities and eventual druid or soulbeast specializations seem interesting.

It's a common misconception but rangers do not have to use bows. All professions in GW2 have a choice of both ranged and melee weapons and can be effective with both. As well as long bows and short bows rangers can use swords, greatswords, axes (in both hands) and as off-hands daggers, torches and warhorns. Druids can also use staffs and soulbeasts can use a main-hand dagger. I think greatsword and axe are two of the most popular options, but sword/torch or dagger/dagger are my personal favourites.

On a related note some weapons work in unexpected ways on some professions in this game. For example for mesmers the greatsword is actually a ranged weapon, and rangers use axe as a ranged weapon too. Revenants and thieves use staffs as melee weapons. (There's possibly other examples I'm forgetting.)

[Hesione.9412]

Welcome to the game! The most confusing part of the game for me coming to this from other MMO/RPG games is that casters often melee.

If you have a preferred playstyle - melee versus distance, pets/minions versus by yourself, PVP versus WvW versus PvE - you can have a look at various websites with suggested builds and see what suits. Good luck!

[Fueki.4753]

@Hesione.9412 said:You can have a look at various websites with suggested builds and see what suits.

In my opinion, this is the single worst advice for new players.New players should unbiasedly explore what each profession has to offer before indulging in builds made by top end people.

[Hesione.9412]

@Fueki.4753 said:

@"Hesione.9412" said:You can have a look at various websites with suggested builds and see what suits.

In my opinion, this is the single worst advice for new players.New players should unbiasedly explore what each profession has to offer

before

indulging in builds made by top end people.

I didn't say top-end builds. There are quite a few websites that suggest levelling builds assuming solo PvE play.You think players "should" try out each profession. I don't think there is any should. There's no point a player leveling a profession they hate, and any time spent on that could have been spent on more fun activities. The various websites about builds, and I have purposely not linked to any, give an idea about playstyle. Let people choose based on their own playstyle.There's also YouTube videos about builds and leveling.

[serialkicker.5274]

@Fueki.4753 said:

@"Hesione.9412" said:You can have a look at various websites with suggested builds and see what suits.

In my opinion, this is the single worst advice for new players.New players should unbiasedly explore what each profession has to offer

before

indulging in builds made by top end people.

I completely agree. This is what is wrong with gamers today and why we have this mentality, where every lost second is considered a failure. They can't think for themselves and immediately want to go check "best" build, "best" race and whatnot. It saddens me really.

OP, you definitely chose, in my opinion, best profession as jack-of-all-trades. Enjoy and welcome!

[Hesione.9412]

@serialkicker.5274 said:

@Fueki.4753 said:

@"Hesione.9412" said:You can have a look at various websites with suggested builds and see what suits.

In my opinion, this is the single worst advice for new players.New players should unbiasedly explore what each profession has to offer

before

indulging in builds made by top end people.

I completely agree. This is what is wrong with gamers today and why we have this mentality, where every lost second is considered a failure. They can't think for themselves and immediately want to go check "best" build, "best" race and whatnot. It saddens me really.

OP, you definitely chose, in my opinion, best profession as jack-of-all-trades. Enjoy and welcome!

My comments have been centred around playstyle. If people want to go around smacking things with a hammer, then perhaps mesmer isn't a profession to consider.

Only the last part of my comment was quoted, and that was done selectively, including putting in an upper-case "Y" in "You" to make it look like that was my entire sentence, and the entire point of my comment in this thread. It wasn't. At least make sure I am quoted honestly. Nice strawman that the two of you built.

[serialkicker.5274]

@Hesione.9412 said:

@serialkicker.5274 said:

@Fueki.4753 said:

@Hesione.9412 said:You can have a look at various websites with suggested builds and see what suits.

In my opinion, this is the single worst advice for new players.New players should unbiasedly explore what each profession has to offer

before

indulging in builds made by top end people.

I completely agree. This is what is wrong with gamers today and why we have this mentality, where every lost second is considered a failure. They can't think for themselves and immediately want to go check "best" build, "best" race and whatnot. It saddens me really.

OP, you definitely chose, in my opinion, best profession as jack-of-all-trades. Enjoy and welcome!

My comments have been centred around playstyle. If people want to go around smacking things with a hammer, then perhaps mesmer isn't a profession to consider.

Only the last part of my comment was quoted, and that was done selectively, including putting in an upper-case "Y" in "You" to make it look like that was my entire sentence, and the entire point of my comment in this thread. It wasn't. At least make sure I am quoted honestly. Nice strawman that the two of you built.

I have read your entire comment, before I made mine. I don't see how that makes any difference really. You suggested a new player to go to the website to find a build that suits them. I'm not trying to trash you for it and I don't think bad of you for doing that. I know that a lot of people are just trying to help, when they provide others with links. But I guess I'm just in vast minority of people who can't understand what happened with just trying to play the game and figure it out by yourself. Gamers these days rely on hand holding way too much. People barely start a game and already asking what's best class, what's best build, how do I get that that mount? "Oh it takes time. Well, that's nonsense!" They want everything by tomorrow. OP probably didn't even level up his first character, yet he is directed to websites to look for build.A lot of these people sooner than later end up of Snowcrows website, snatch the build and BAM, they think they are popping those sweet 30k-35k numbers and often let that go over their head. Then I'm outdpsing a dragonhunter with my scrapper and he insults me, because he just assumes he's doing more damage than me, because he's dh of course. Just few days ago, warrior insulted me for using grenade kit underwater. And I was outdpsing him with nades.

[Fueki.4753]

@"Hesione.9412" said:You think players "should" try out each profession. I don't think there is any should.There's no point a player leveling a profession they hate, and any time spent on that could have been spent on more fun activities.And how do players know whether they hate a profession or not?By the way the profession (or related professions in case of Guardian) played in GW1?By thinking it's the same as a class/Job of the same name in other games?By visual representation?By lore?Perhaps by the name of the profession alone?

If someone hates a profession for without trying it out first, it's no less superficial that people hating others because of their shampoo's smell.

I hated playing Mesmer in GW1.But in GW2, it's currently my main character.

[Lynx.9058]

Well, I never played gw1, but personally the image/aesthetics and lore of a class matters just as much as how effective it is. I mean, i picked engineer right off the bat because the name and brief description stood out to me. Mesmer, on the other hand, I have no idea about because it isn't a typical class analogue in rpgs.

[Sigerk.2897]

@Lynx.9058 said:

-Also wanting to make an Asura, but despite engineer seeming to fit them best I dont want to double up on classes and my charr already has engineer covered. Was thinking maybe necromancer or mesmer for the magic focus (I already have a norn elementalist I styled up after avatar korra, lol), but it's hard to imagine a cute little 3 foot necromancer, and again I really have no idea about mesmers.

An attempt to dispel the cute from a 3 foot necromancer:

Imagine running through the woods in Brisban Wildlands. As you make your way through some thick brush you hear the soft sound of footfalls. Your ears tell you that something is moving just ahead. A few more paces and you enter a clearing.There, right before you, you see a small creature, not much more than 3 feet tall. It has large, floppy ears and short stubby limbs. It seems bipedal, you can make out knees, in fact, the creature is kneeling. It's doing something weird with its hands and you hear a slow, strange hum. Something feels off.''Excuse me?'' you say, and immediately you feel like you made a mistake in speaking out loud. The air seems to tense, the edge of your vision seems to darken. You still can't make out exactly what the creature is doing. And then it turns around to face you. As pitch black eyes turn on yours, you feel your face pale. Tiny rows of jagged teeth stare at you in a grin that reminds you of the most messed up halloween pumpkin you've ever seen. The tilting of the creatures body allows you to see what it had been doing. You wish you couldn't.Something wet and white sticks out from the jungle floor, glistening drops seep down from it. There's dark red too, like a stain, but still spreading. Still watching you with a grin it wipes away some dirt with its small, dirty hand. In its other hand its holding a strange looking artifact. Sticks of wood with a spinning orb. As your eyes are drawn by the orb you don't notice the change in the eyes of the creature. Or the fact that the mound of dirt with the weird, sickly looking stains is now heaving. Suddenly you begin to feel sick. You snap out of the strange hypnotic state but by then its too late. A cold seizes your body and you find yourself unable to move. With stiff lips you try to call out. The creature sees your attempt to speak. It grins even wider, then holds a finger up to its mouth in a silencing gesture. ''Let's play, Bookah...''

[Ashantara.8731]

@"Ashen.2907" said:Sometimes one option just sings. Go with it. Enjoy it and let your experiences in game slowly entice your interest in the other races and professions.

This is the best advice. No one can "make you" enjoy any race, profession or specific combo - you need to figure that out for yourself.