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Newish Player here. How do I explain classes to my friends?


Shooth.6817

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Hey there. I am a newish player who's been playing Guild wars 2 seriously for about 1 and a half weeks so far. I say seriously, because I first bought the game when it was released in 2012 and played it for about 2 months before life got in the way and I never came back to it (until now). I created a new account this time; because the old account was useless without access to expansions, and because I didn't want to depend on my old Hotmail account that I don't use anymore. So, I committed and bought the game on my new account.

I've played all kinds of games in the past. What attracted me to Guild Wars 2 was how I can play something like a fantasy action RPG that is fluid and quick, but doesn't end up being like traditional action RPGs like path of exile, where you would only use 1 skill over and over to kill loads of monsters in just 1 hit over and over.

I love information and I read a bit too much about everything I can. I also prefer to play more complex classes, as I get bored if things feel too easy.So, I'm currently focusing on 2 characters: A level 23 thief class focused on sword/dagger aiming to become daredevil, and a level 29 Mesmer who is playing with sword/sword and undecided weather to go Chronomancer or mirage later (I want to go power build but I also feel like Mirage might be more fun...).

So far I've convinced 1 friend to play the game (he's maining a level 26 thief with 2 pistols going into deadeye later) and another to start downloading the game last night.I want to convert more people over to guild wars 2, but I'm having trouble explaining to them what classes they should try, being how different the classes here are.

We did play a lot of Dota 2 in the past, so I managed to explain that Mesmer is similar to phantom lancer there and Elementalist is like invoker, maybe.

So for my question: If I were to give a very brief overview of each class to someone opening the game for the first time, what would I say for each class?

EDIT: So would this be right?

Mesmer: Class that fights with illusionsGuardian: The Paladin class like in other gamesNecromancer: Traditional necromancer like in other gamesRanger: Archer that plays with petsElementalist: Complex spellcaster that plays with 4 sets of skills all the timeWarrior: Basic class that can tank and throw banners?Thief: Typical Rogue class like other games?Engineer: Super complex class to stay away from as a new player.

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Are you trying to explain the lore or combat mechanics?

In the case of combat mechanics, which game mode? PvE and PvP/WvW utilize things differently.

@Shooth.6817 said:EDIT: So would this be right?

Mesmer: Class that fights with illusionsGuardian: The Paladin class like in other gamesNecromancer: Traditional necromancer like in other gamesRanger: Archer that plays with petsElementalist: Complex spellcaster that plays with 4 sets of skills all the timeWarrior: Basic class that can tank and throw banners?Thief: Typical Rogue class like other games?Engineer: Super complex class to stay away from as a new player.

Not wrong(except warrior) but also not right since that leaves out all the other things the classes can do. I don't think warrior is used anywhere for the traditional MMO tank role.

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Maybe start here?

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Profession

This is a decent starting point, but it is hard to define or explain the professions in GW2 as they are not like other games for the most part.

While Thief is what you expect (stealth, stealing, ambushes) Necro is not what you expect (doesn't raise undead really). I will try my hand at giving each a sentence based upon my experience that is accurate tho, it may be a fun exercise.

Warrior - Weapons Master, prefers melee with heavy armorThief - Subtlety and Stealth, deadly 1v1Elementalist - Powerful offensive and defensive spells combined with low healthGuardian - Plate support class that can do a bit of everything pretty wellRanger - Pet class focused on nature, can switch from melee to kiting and back in combatMesmer - Caster Class that uses Illusions to confuse enemies, uses time warping effectsRevenant - An alternate look at plate/melee to Guardian and Warrior (requires HoT)Engineer - Uses 'Kits' to provide unique weapons like bombs, turrets, flamethrowerNecromancer - Melee caster class that can 'change form' to become more powerful, summons minions

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GW2 is known for breaking class stereotypes on mmorpgs. Gameplay wise all classes do different things, you'd be surprised knowing that Warrior isn't as tanky as you think, a Mesmer spec (chrono) is considered the best tank option in raid bosses. A "caster class-like" elementalist can actually go all melee to pack a punch (weaver).

If you want a more serious approach at this game you need to learn the basics first, level up one character until you reach 80 and then you'll have the chance to see endgame content starting with easy things like Strikes or Fractals T1, and then hardcore content like Fractals T3/T4, Raids, and pvp like sPvP and WvW. Then you will start to understand what's the meta compositions and which classes can do what.

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Thanks a lot for the replies! I'm mainly trying to help them out get into the game so that they don't pick a class they end up hating.

@Khisanth.2948 said:Are you trying to explain the lore or combat mechanics?

In the case of combat mechanics, which game mode? PvE and PvP/WvW utilize things differently.

I guess PvE at first and maybe later other game modes when we get more confident later on (after level 80?). Basically, we're all new and just here to have fun, while still wanting end-game stuff (PvP, WvW) once we've mastered the basics

@Mungo Zen.9364 said:Warrior - Weapons Master, prefers melee with heavy armorThief - Subtlety and Stealth, deadly 1v1Elementalist - Powerful offensive and defensive spells combined with low healthGuardian - Plate support class that can do a bit of everything pretty wellRanger - Pet class focused on nature, can switch from melee to kiting and back in combatMesmer - Caster Class that uses Illusions to confuse enemies, uses time warping effectsRevenant - An alternate look at plate/melee to Guardian and Warrior (requires HoT)Engineer - Uses 'Kits' to provide unique weapons like bombs, turrets, flamethrowerNecromancer - Melee caster class that can 'change form' to become more powerful, summons minions

Yes thanks that's very helpful! I can copy-paste things like this to them to help them out.

@"Wolfb.7025" said:GW2 is known for breaking class stereotypes on mmorpgs. Gameplay wise all classes do different things, you'd be surprised knowing that Warrior isn't as tanky as you think, a Mesmer spec (chrono) is considered the best tank option in raid bosses. A "caster class-like" elementalist can actually go all melee to pack a punch (weaver).

If you want a more serious approach at this game you need to learn the basics first, level up one character until you reach 80 and then you'll have the chance to see endgame content starting with easy things like Strikes or Fractals T1, and then hardcore content like Fractals T3/T4, Raids, and pvp like sPvP and WvW. Then you will start to understand what's the meta compositions and which classes can do what.

Yepyep, but we also want to have fun on our way to level 80 and not feel like a total grind.I do really like the idea of that melee elementalist. I might just make a new character based on that!

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Do you need to explain the professions to get your friends to try the game? Couldn't you describe the game in general and then let them try out professions for themselves and find the ones they like? But if you do want to describe the professions I think it's important to bear in mind that none of them really fit the archetypes from other games because there's no such thing as a ranged or melee profession (all of them can do both) and no dedicated tanks or healers. All professions have the option to be more focused on support but that's usually about providing boons and other useful effects, and crowd control on enemies, than simply redirecting or healing damage.

For example thematically a necromancer is similar to other games (although it might be necessary to point out that necromancy is not considered evil in Tyria, it's treated like any other form of magic) but they can play quite differently. They have a lot of melee weapon choices and relatively high health so they're as likely to be in the middle of the action absorbing damage (not quite tanking because there's no aggro management) and dealing it out as on the backline casting spells from a safe distance.

Similarly 'archer with a pet' is one option for a ranger, but only the pet part of that is true of all rangers. They are currently the only profession which can use a longbow and a shortbow, but they can also use greatswords, one-handed swords, axes, daggers, staves, torches and warhorns and one of their most popular group roles is as a healer/support build (using the druid specialisation), with melee DPS a close second.

Personally I'd focus on how they play rather than the themes. For example a warrior is a good choice if you don't want to deal with too many buttons at once. Their profession mechanic is just 1 button which you basically activate whenever the bar is full and a lot of their utility skills are either passive or relatively straight-forward boons or crowd control. At the other extreme both elementalist and engineer have 4 profession skills and need to use all of them frequently, plus switching between different sets of weapon skills (elementalists do this with attunements, engineers with kits) so there's a lot more to do in combat. Some players hate that, some love it.

But as I said originally my approach is always to describe the game in general, including how combat works, and encourage new players to try different professions and find the one they like best. I've had bad experiences in the past with people trying to push me into playing what they had decided I would like best (even with people who know me and my preferences) so I'm never keen on doing that with other people. I think it's better to let them find what they enjoy because you, and they, might be surprised by what that is.

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@"Danikat.8537" said:Personally I'd focus on how they play rather than the themes. For example a warrior is a good choice if you don't want to deal with too many buttons at once. Their profession mechanic is just 1 button which you basically activate whenever the bar is full and a lot of their utility skills are either passive or relatively straight-forward boons or crowd control. At the other extreme both elementalist and engineer have 4 profession skills and need to use all of them frequently, plus switching between different sets of weapon skills (elementalists do this with attunements, engineers with kits) so there's a lot more to do in combat. Some players hate that, some love it.

Chrono probably fits better for "at other end of extreme" for all teh stuff that needs to be done within a Continuum Split but that is build specific. The same can be said for elementalist and engineer. Some builds might be like that but it is not an absolute necessity.

Engineer can be pretty simple. Example with holosmith.1) F12) hit stuff until you overheat3) go back to 1 if enemy is still alive

There are additional details but that is the overall picture.

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@Shooth.6817 said:

@"Wolfb.7025" said:GW2 is known for breaking class stereotypes on mmorpgs. Gameplay wise all classes do different things, you'd be surprised knowing that Warrior isn't as tanky as you think, a Mesmer spec (chrono) is considered the best tank option in raid bosses. A "caster class-like" elementalist can actually go all melee to pack a punch (weaver).

If you want a more serious approach at this game you need to learn the basics first, level up one character until you reach 80 and then you'll have the chance to see endgame content starting with easy things like Strikes or Fractals T1, and then hardcore content like Fractals T3/T4, Raids, and pvp like sPvP and WvW. Then you will start to understand what's the meta compositions and which classes can do what.

Yepyep, but we also want to have fun on our way to level 80 and not feel like a total grind.I do really like the idea of that melee elementalist. I might just make a new character based on that!

The lv1 to 80 leveling is essentially the tutorial of this game, Its not truly grindy, and you can definitely have fun exploring and doing story without worrying about leveling spots.

Enjoy your early game, the only explanation I can give you about the classes is tha they're not really sterotypes. For example Guardian is themed aroudn the paladin-eske" type of character, but in fact is one of the more versatile classes of the game, they're one of the meta supports right now, but also has other offensive builds and its currently one of the most picked dps classes for fractals.

All 9 classes have offensive builds, the only different thing is their aesthetic, which you can pretty much use the description you gave on your main post.

Mesmer: Class that fights with illusionsGuardian: The Paladin class like in other gamesNecromancer: Traditional necromancer like in other gamesRanger: Archer that plays with pets Variety of melee weapons, bow is just one of them, They do have pets.Elementalist: Complex spellcaster that plays with 4 sets of skills all the time Like I said his elite spec Weaver can equip a sword for close range combatWarrior: Basic class that can tank and throw banners? They're mostly bruisers, could say its the stereotypical warrior class on any mmorpg, but their banners are special supportive AoE buffs for up to 10 targets, almost any party/squad has 1 banner warrior.Thief: Typical Rogue class like other games? I wouldn't say they're a typical rogue class, they fight like any other class except that their aesthetic is more acrobatic.Engineer: Super complex class to stay away from as a new player. Its not really super complex, but it might be hard for the average player, Their focus is on inventions and tools, elixirs, and turrets (although turrets are pretty weak).

You are able to unlock Elite Specs after you reach lv80, these basically gives you a mechanical change of your class. Each of the 9 classe, which you shoudl refer as core classes, has 2 elite specs, for instance Necromancer has Scourge and Reaper, once you unlock these elite specs you can swap them at your heart's content as logn as you're out of combat.

Imagine playing a necro spec (Reaper) that allows you to go melee and swing a freakin' Scythe at enemies.

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Combat:

  • active. WSAD based. Movement is part of combat. Not point-and-click.
  • if you like being active(move) in combat you'll like GW2. If not you'll hate it

Classes:

  • all classes can be traditional tank, DPS, support
  • all classes can be melee or ranged
  • because of that, you pick class based on unique class mechanics
  • this are F# skills. By default they are bound to F1, F2, F3, ... keys

Mesmer: I pawn stuff with my clonesGuardian: I burn or heal or protect stuffNecromancer: I suck life energy and morph into fugly monster that pawns stuffRanger: My pet pawns stuff ... sort ofElementalist: I pawn stuff with all mythical elementsWarrior: I angry, I smashThief: gimme stuffEngineer: I am Iron Man. Gadgets and stuffRevenant: I pawn stuff with dead heros stuff

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I'll take a crack at it too for fun. Thematically.

NOTE for them if they care: In "serious" pve content, gameplay is melee 95% of the time so if you're a melee only person like me dont worry about 'casters' that does not exist here. And you rarely ever have to stand still to do anything

Warrior: It's the warrior

Uniqueness of warrior in GW2: warhorn/rifle/bow/torch/banners/healingMost common weapon(s): axe

Guardian: It's a paladin but blue colors

Uniqueness in GW2: blue fire, trapsMost common weapon(s): sceptre/greatsword

Revenant: Think of the anti-paladin archetype like a darkknight or deathknight or whatever except instead of having 10/10 points in defense it put more points into agility and wisdom

Uniqueness in GW2: It's more like a mystic heavily armored monk that talks to dead people in it's mind than a necromantic shadow warrior. You can go from channeling someone like Ghandi to Diablo in a single button press. HAS A RANGED HAMMER WEAPONMost common weapon(s): sword/staff

Ranger: Its a hunter but can be melee as well as ranged, has a pet

Uniqueness in GW2: Healing/Buffing, mid combat pet swappingMost common weapon(s): Longbow/Greatsword (staff when supporting)

Thief: It's the rogue, except it can also be wukong or a sniper or a double pistol shooty shooter.

Uniqueness in GW2: You steal items from people that you can use as skills in combat/guns and bows.Most common weapon(s): Staff/Dagger/Rifle

Engineer: This is a pretty unique one, It's like iron man without post-modern technology. Has kits that are extra weapons you can pull out mid-fight but without visual customization options. Swing with your sword, pull out grenades, toss a few, back to sword, ect.

Uniqueness in GW2: yes.Most common weapon(s): Sword/Hammer/Rifle

Mesmer: Another unqiue one. Temporary Clones that either do big damage themselves or get bursted for damage or utility effects. Melee magical swordplay with some range. Pink and purple pretty butterflies.

Uniqueness in GW2: RANGED GREATSWORDMost common weapon(s): Sword/Greatsword/Focus (offhand thing)

Elementalist: It's this games mage class except it's like the avatar and swaps elements a lot.

Uniqueness in GW2: Element swapping, you get a ton of skills at onceMost common weapon(s): Sword/Sceptor/Staff

Necromancer: It's the dark caster class except it's also the deathknight in cloth armor

Uniquness in GW2: tanky as a cloth class, ranged and melee weapons. RANGED AXE. HEALS TOOMost common weapon(s): Axe/Staff/Greatsword

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A couple of thoughts - first on your main question, you might introduce your friends to metabattle.com and have them look through the builds that are available for all the classes. Just looking at Rev, there are boon/support builds, power DPS builds, condi DPS, etc., etc., etc. There is even a healer build for necro.

And for my second thought, you mentioned: "...I created a new account this time; because the old account was useless without access to expansions, and because I didn't want to depend on my old Hotmail account that I don't use anymore. So, I committed and bought the game on my new account."

If you still have access to that hotmail account, you can change the e-mail address associated with that original GW2 account. Then you can still have access to it. If you don't have access to that hotmail account, you still might try contacting customer service and try to regain access to the original account. There are some unique things in the birthday gifts that you would have racked up over the years, assuming you didn't delete your accounts 8 years ago. You can also use that account to make supplemental gold for your main account. I had an account gifted to me and I started using it htat way - just farming extra materials from the guild hall, extra potatoes (we were upgrading the guild hall at the time), flax, mithril, elder wood, etc. And then I created a couple of extra characters over there to try out a couple of professions, etc. I did increase my gold using that second account. I have since upgraded it with both HoT and PoF and run all of the story on at least on toon on both accounts. I spend gold from both accounts to obtain home instance nodes for the main account, but, I take both accounts through there every day, basically doubling my money from home instance harvesting. And without having to spend gems, I have an extra 5 toons that I can play different builds on. So, I've ended up with a power Herald on one account and a power-alacrity Renegade on the other, power reaper on one and a condi scourge on the other.

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@"Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.2946" said:If you still have access to that hotmail account, you can change the e-mail address associated with that original GW2 account. Then you can still have access to it. If you don't have access to that hotmail account, you still might try contacting customer service and try to regain access to the original account. There are some unique things in the birthday gifts that you would have racked up over the years, assuming you didn't delete your accounts 8 years ago. You can also use that account to make supplemental gold for your main account. I had an account gifted to me and I started using it htat way - just farming extra materials from the guild hall, extra potatoes (we were upgrading the guild hall at the time), flax, mithril, elder wood, etc. And then I created a couple of extra characters over there to try out a couple of professions, etc. I did increase my gold using that second account. I have since upgraded it with both HoT and PoF and run all of the story on at least on toon on both accounts. I spend gold from both accounts to obtain home instance nodes for the main account, but, I take both accounts through there every day, basically doubling my money from home instance harvesting. And without having to spend gems, I have an extra 5 toons that I can play different builds on. So, I've ended up with a power Herald on one account and a power-alacrity Renegade on the other, power reaper on one and a condi scourge on the other.

Hey, that never occurred to me. Yes, I still have access to my hotmail account and I can still login, I guess. I might just try your idea and see what birthday gifts are there, at least.

But how would I go about sending them to my new account? by mail? or do I trade the items to a friend face to face somehow and have him give it to my other account?

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@Shooth.6817 said:

@"Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.2946" said:If you still have access to that hotmail account, you can change the e-mail address associated with that original GW2 account. Then you can still have access to it. If you don't have access to that hotmail account, you still might try contacting customer service and try to regain access to the original account. There are some unique things in the birthday gifts that you would have racked up over the years, assuming you didn't delete your accounts 8 years ago. You can also use that account to make supplemental gold for your main account. I had an account gifted to me and I started using it htat way - just farming extra materials from the guild hall, extra potatoes (we were upgrading the guild hall at the time), flax, mithril, elder wood, etc. And then I created a couple of extra characters over there to try out a couple of professions, etc. I did increase my gold using that second account. I have since upgraded it with both HoT and PoF and run all of the story on at least on toon on both accounts. I spend gold from both accounts to obtain home instance nodes for the main account, but, I take both accounts through there every day, basically doubling my money from home instance harvesting. And without having to spend gems, I have an extra 5 toons that I can play different builds on. So, I've ended up with a power Herald on one account and a power-alacrity Renegade on the other, power reaper on one and a condi scourge on the other.

Hey, that never occurred to me. Yes, I still have access to my hotmail account and I can still login, I guess. I might just try your idea and see what birthday gifts are there, at least.

But how would I go about sending them to my new account? by mail? or do I trade the items to a friend face to face somehow and have him give it to my other account?

The only trading possible is through mail and guild bank. Most of the stuff in birthday gifts are account bound so those are untradeable.

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Mesmer:Make clones and shatter for dps, be it power dmg on shatter or apply conditions on shatter. I main mesmer since 2012 and condi mirage is where I find the most fun currently. DPS is very good, but it lacks a bit on small trash mobs, medium/hard mobs to champ is where its fun, since a lot of conditions can be applied and I just repeat what is quite a simple rotation and keep evading attacks. If you master mirage you can evade most of the dmg.I would say mirage is condi oriented - axe/torch pistol. And chrono is power oriented. Chrono can also be used as a support, but imho his support role got overtaken by guardian firebrand and revenant renegade (quickness and alacrity). Continuum split and reseting everything is fun mechanic tho, altho can be hard to get perfected.Currently not very usable in pvp and wvw due to recent nerfs =/Guardian:Burn dragon hunter melts people in pvp, I imagine in pve its the same lol. Very sought after support in fractals. Nice in wvw.Necromancer:Think of him like mage tank who applies conditions. Used to be broken, now its not as much, but still survivability is quite insane. Good for any game mode, not must have on any tho.Ranger:Can be either condi build or power build. Also can be support with druid trait line, tho meta shifted to heal firebrand imho. Decent in any game mode really, not a must anywhere, maybe raids for spotter.Elementalist:besides the engineer, most complex class, it can be the best class, or the weakest. If you are not prepared to learn his every skill in detail and learn of aoe blasting for might apply, aoe heal, aoe cleanse etc, skip it. You need to heavily invest and master it to a point where you will type on a keyboard like a friking piano. At that point your a god. Seriously, i would advise you to skip it if you are not going to learn about every little thing about it. Fyi, play since 2012, didnt yet master it and i suck.Warrior: Most basic class. I have the less knowledge off since I never played it because rl friend mains it. Can be used as banner slave support, quite popular. Very good as support in pvp atm. If you love general warrior class, you can go for it. But for general warrior could also apply to drahon hunter power build, or power ranger with greatsword, and even revenant.Thief:For pvp, it has similar role as mesmer. You run around and +1 fights and empty ponts. Mesmer would probably have better 1 on 1 chance, but thats not their role. In certain raids its usefull as boonstrip, for wvw i guess it could be fun to solo roam with proper build, same as mesmer, but so would be ele, or pretty much any class. Think of it as a best mobility class, and daredevil is only class with 3 dodge bars. And mirage got nerfed and only has 1, even tho whole specialization is based around dodges and evades. Retarded move in trying to balance somethng that was supposed to exceed in comparison to other classes.Engineer:I wouldnt say stay away new players. In fact, I would put him as a viable new player class if you arent looking for a one button class. It is a lot more forgiving to play engi compared to ele. I would say make it and test few skills/kits and see if you like the gameplay. Its easy class to play for real, but its just as hard to master as ele. Difference is, you wont be dead in few seconds :DRevenant:Lovechild of warrior and thief. Its quite fun in pvp and not the hardest to play there either. Highly sought after for raids and fractals. I thing wvw they are good too. His gameplay is quite different than other clases, has the smallest amount of skills to go trough, so you could get a hold of it quicker i guess. Can be powerfull as condi or power.

This is my insight into classes, hopefully you find it insightful :D

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