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Profession Rec (HoT) - Relative Newbie, Casual, PvE (Mostly Solo)


MeththeMadman.7420

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I'm picking up GW2 again... I have played on and off a few times. Have a 36 guardian and a 35 thief that I have absolutely no idea how to play any more. So I'm re-rolling. I have HoT but not PoF (though I won't rule PoF out).

Those were my highest level characters, so just like the last time I asked this question I'm still a relative newbie.

I am going to play mostly solo and really just want to experience the full range of open world PVE content.

I may delve into dungeons/raids/fractals at some point, but don't want a class for those purposes. Won't touch PVP in any way.

I'm not entirely closed off to any classes in particular, but here are the ones I am more drawn to: Warrior, Guardian, Rev, Ranger (but not druid)

I am not going to level skip. I want to play 1- hopefully 80 the old fashioned way.

I'm looking for engaging play, but nothing overly complicated with all sorts of complex rotations. And I hate being squishy (which I know guards technically are, but having played one to 36 I know they really aren't...).

So what I mean by that is: I don't want to have to weapon swap 45 times on a trash fight. Maybe a big time fight, sure. But basic play being relatively simple is a big time plus. Rev looks fun but the swapping around seems complicated.

If anyone thinks I should provide more info, I'd be glad to. Just looking for a little assistance.

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From the classes you mentioned, Guardian is probably the most flexible and easiest to play.

Unfortunenately the level phase can differ from the level 80 content tremendously. That's because of the lack of traits, class-skills, specializations and so on. A class that may not be fun at level 30, can be quite fun to play at level 80 for example. Whenever i'm going to play a new character, i'm going to boost to level 80 and then experience the game as i would from level 1 normally, just to have access to at least the core abilities. For me, that's more fun than starting with nothing and i'm more flexible that way. And you can start putting points into an elite spec, so there's still some kind of progression.But it may be overwhelming for someone new.

As for squishyness, if you're not playing any kind of bunker-build - which you most likely don't want in pve, pretty much every class is fairly squishy. Maybe one class can take a punch more than the other, but you probably want to learn to avoid damage anyway. Either by dodging, evading, blocking, kiting, crowd control or things like that.

So, i'd say get Path of Fire and try some of the new elite specializations. If you have a level booster, you can try out some classes as well, just to see how it's like later on, but not the elites i believe.But in general, just play what you like the most. I can mumble all i want, you may think different.

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Ok, seems you want simple.https://metabattle.com/wiki/Open_WorldTake a look at this, it has all of the information you need to get set-up and play the builds.

Personal opinion here: all these builds are what I run personally.Ignore the PoF specs if you don't plan on buying it.

here are the ones I am more drawn to: Warrior, Guardian, Rev, Ranger (but not druid)And if you are doing Open World and looking to survive, ironically the sPvP builds offer the most well-rounded ways to build your character.

===Warriors are just simple, no frills melee fighters. Getting the job done.Core Warrior

! Very durable and built to be a simple killing machine. Build up adrenaline with Axe autos and try to land your F1 burst skills, they kickstart your passive regeneration. You have a Shield for blocking hits while regenerating, a GS evade on #3 skill for evading while regenerating. Your attacks have a chance to grant Might which also heals you and recovers your Dodge Endurance with the trait Might Makes Might. You heal when you break out of a control effect and gain temporary toughness. You have "Shake it Off!" and Brawler's Recovery to help you manage conditions. When you are fighting tough enemies with Defiance Bars, you can use Bull's Charge, Shield Bash and Rampage to deplete the Defiance Bar reliably. When you are out of cooldowns to use, you can detarget and use GS#3, #5, Bull's Charge, Shield Stance and even the mobility of Rampage to get you out of there. Warriors only need a brief period of kiting to recover.! The real secret is not to put any emphasis on Hundred Blades. Always be ready to end it early for a dodge or fire off an F1 before your enemy gets away. Consistently land your F1s and you will be fine. You do not have to wait for 3 stacks of Adrenaline - if you feel you don't have time until the enemy moves off or you need to dodge soon, land your F1 then decide what to do.

Detargetting: turn off autotarget and sticky targetting, and click empty spaces on screen. Or, bind a key to ["Lock Autotarget"](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Lock_Auto_Target ""Lock Autotarget""), which actually detargets instead and you can use your mobility skills without a target.

Power Berserker

! I run this for big events where champions/legendaries can throw you onto nasty AoE patches and sometimes you can't get out of them because of a control effect. You have some really short stunbreaks which are best used to activate Rousing Resilience for a quick heal and toughness boost. The Headbutt and Signet of Fury can be used to enter Berserk mode on demand or pull off clean level-3 Adrenaline bursts in Normal mode, for the nice Adrenal Health trait in Defense line.! I run Mace offhand and Armored Attack for a bit more damage since you do lose the Strength traitline for so much safety. You can tack the Shield and Defy Pain back on if you like them better, solid choices too.

Strength Daggerbreaker

! This is actually just a sPvP build, but it does teach me a lot because of the lack of background passives which I'm used to have, keeping me alive. It's not for ease of use, but it makes me happy to see 25 stacks of Might and fast Endurance regeneration once I manage to attach the Tether. Full Counter awards good awareness of massive boss hits.

===

Guardians need to gear more defensively because their skillset has powerful but long CD defensives and you need to ration them for sustain.Core Guardian

! Use your heal or Virtues to stack Retaliation and pump out damage. Switch out Contemplation for a Spirit Hammer or Wall of Reflection if you need the utility, or use Bane Signet/Sword of Wrath if you feel like you've got this and need some oomph.! Warrior has consistent Dodges, movement and evade/block to help them sustain a fight and shrug off small damage, but Guardians have preemptive blocks and on-demand snap-heals to deal with big hits, at a higher CD cost. Guardian AoE burst is a lot stronger and doesn't have the wind-up time of Adrenaline Burst skills though. Try to maximize your mobility with detarget GS leaps or porting away to a distant target with Sword.! You can also switch Sword to Scepter if it's a really hard boss with frequent hard hits and you are forced to range it down. It does happen to Guardian because your defensive skills can be exhausted.

===

Rev I actually don't recommend because the basic Power build is fairly high skill-cap. Power Herald is like a mix between Warrior and Guardian and has insane Defiance bar breaking potential and plenty of burst, but it demands that you use your evade skills well and you have to swap Legends for resource.I don't play Rev much so I don't have anything to offer.

===

Ranger I would say Druid does have applications, such as using builds with some healing power to solo the Champion at the HoT Balthazar Hero Point.Ranger has a lot of tools for every situation and I would say they are the Warrior of the Adventurer/Medium Armor classes. Just more Ranged.Core Ranger

! Maul and Tiger F2 synergy. Tiger gives you permanent fury if you use its F2 consistently in melee range. Easy, no frills simple burst with the F2, and then Smokescale allows you to stealth with GS #3 (you can leap instantly if there's an enemy closeby) to get your heal off.! You can stealth with LB #3 seamlessly if you dodge as you fire, so you don't get controlled while in stealth, buying time for a heal or making some distance.

Soulbeast

! I know you said you thought Rev swapping was complicated, so you could camp the meld with the Rock Gazelle (gives you Power and Ferocity) and only switch out when you know you'll need the other pet's meld in the next 10 seconds or so.! There are builds involving boon stacking but I like sniping with Longbow a lot more on Soulbeast. You can use Sic Em, and "Strength of the Pack!" separately or combined (both used inside Beastmode) for an enormous amount of burst. Try stacking might with Rapid Fire, then doing a Maul -> Hilt Bash -> Maul -> Worldly Impact (melded with Rock Gazelle) combo for extreme spike damage.! Owl is great for the mobility so you can get behind cover and use the resistance + heal pet skill. Detarget and rush off with Owl's mobility skill and GS#3 and very few enemies can catch you.! Swap out Rock Gazelle for Smokescale if you want the on-demand evade.

===

That's a lot of spam from me.Personally I'd also try out Necromancer, Power Reaper breathes damage. Engineer is a bit more intricate but Holosmith has it dumbed down a bit into a mid-range brawler, up to you if you want to buy PoF though. Elementalist, Thief and Rev are classes you'd touch only because you love the theme/playstyle and you're determined to be a good player on them.

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Thanks for the comments. Rolled a rev, war, ranger and guardian. Played them each a little (not a fair shake, for sure) and warrior so far is the one that felt right. Got him to 13. I'll probably wind up leveling the guardian, too. Obviously I didn't get a real good feel for anything... Just kind of an out of the gate feel (which really has no impact long term).

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@"MeththeMadman.7420" said:Rolled a rev, war, ranger and guardian. Played them each a little (not a fair shake, for sure) and warrior so far is the one that felt right. Got him to 13. I'll probably wind up leveling the guardian, too. Obviously I didn't get a real good feel for anything... Just kind of an out of the gate feel (which really has no impact long term).Seems good. Getting to know the world of Tyria is a great thing, sometimes you do the hearts and events pop up. You struggle with the event then someone joins and there's a temporary camaraderie to enjoy. Sometimes you'd even level together and get to be friends.It's great to take it slow, because 1-80 is an experience all its own.! If you feel like Warrior is your thing, my suggestion is to stick to it until you figure out why you like the class so much. This understanding of your enjoyment is a "transferable skill" and carries over to your other class experiences.! The good thing about Warrior is its sustainability (for Core Warrior most take Healing Signet + Defense traitline Adrenal Health + Strength traitline Might Makes Right) and you might note how fast Warrior Weapon and Utility skills cycle, and how you can gear full Berserker, hit rather hard and still be tanky. In particular, most Warriors love GS #3 for its everythingness (though the whirl only hits reliably at close range).! A lot of Champions in HoT can be handled solo with just GS/Axe Shield, but if you're sizing these guys up for the first time, you can take a Rifle and more defensive Utilities instead of Axe Shield so you can observe the patterns from afar. A good fight I use to warm up new keybinds to is the Mushroom Hero Point in Auric Basin.

Leveling Warrior Trait suggestions:

! For gear I'd suggest an update every 10 levels or so, buy whatever is cheap and has Power/Precision, and also buy a stack of Minor Bloodlust sigils and put them on everything - it provides a lot of Power early on.! I would suggest to first take the Strength traitline, along with some unlocks of the Physical and Signet utility skills, then Discipline, then Defense. Strength 3/2/2 offers fall damage reduction for exploring, improvement to your Physical skills (Mending is pretty good if you need help with conditions, Bull's Charge is Control and Evade all in one, Throw Bolas/Kick are easy ways to setup a 20% damage buff from the trait), improvement to the be-all-end-all weapon that is Warrior Greatsword (#3 is evade + movement, #5 is mobility, F1 has Fury and is wonderfully strong and consistent, and the wombo-combo for pesky Veterans is Bull's Charge -> Frenzy -> Hundred Blades), and the last 2 traits synergize with Precision to give you Might and healing + endurance on critical hits.! Strength doesn't hold your hand and gives you the incentive to be aggressive and maximize your gains with Greatsword.! Discipline is the actual core of most Warrior builds, because it lowers the 9 second weapon swap to 4 seconds and offers a lot of benefits to F1 bursts and swapping. Speccing 2/3/3 gives you a condition removal + Might + Adrenaline on swapping, Adrenaline refund on F1 Bursts, and a 25% movement speed increase (and allow you to get out of any immobilize with any of your mobility skills).! Defense builds safety and you can actually go full passive with x/1/1 for 2 automatically activating stances, but I like the interaction that x/2/3 gives me, in that I have to react to damage instead of relying on passives.

I can also give some advice on playing the other classes you picked the incorrect way because I do love running a lot of Open World PvE to relax + a side of sPvP.

Also:

I'm looking for engaging play, but nothing overly complicated with all sorts of complex rotations. And I hate being squishy (which I know guards technically are, but having played one to 36 I know they really aren't...).

So what I mean by that is: I don't want to have to weapon swap 45 times on a trash fight. Maybe a big time fight, sure. But basic play being relatively simple is a big time plus. Rev looks fun but the swapping around seems complicated.Guardians do have fairly low health even though they have access to a lot of defensive skills and boons. When you build a Guardian for sustained combat, you'd try to let go of some offensive stats to gear with Valkyrie/Marauder to prop your health up to 16-18k. Guardian damage is more reliable than Warrior in a sense because of fire-and-forget symbols, to-target teleports, and the snazzy Scepter.As for weapon swapping, I'd consider swapping only if it fulfills a purpose. Maybe there's a skill on the other set I need to use right now. Maybe I exhausted this weaponset's skills and they will need 5-9 seconds before they come up again, and I am not in position to actually use this set's auto attack. Maybe I need to get energy to dodge or cleanse a condition and my traits/sigils allow me to do that with a swap.In Open World there's no need to obey the super hardcore PvE rotations, and you can play however it makes sense and works for you.

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@Ralkuth.1456 Wow this is great. It also gives me more of a feel for the class. Do you have any quick writeups for Guard and Ranger and Elementalist as well? Don't want to ask too much of ya! But that was really informative and helpful!

I want to like Rev but they seem underwhelming... Even in reading about them. Esp. for solo PVE...

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@"MeththeMadman.7420" said:Do you have any quick writeups for Guard and Ranger and Elementalist as well? Don't want to ask too much of ya! But that was really informative and helpful!

I want to like Rev but they seem underwhelming... Even in reading about them. Esp. for solo PVE...Rev is a bit of everything and you'll sit into it easier when you've tried a bunch of other classes. It feels like a Thief, but instead of a light vehicle, it drives like a heavy, fragile experimental truck with boosters strapped onto it (I'm talking about Power Herald with Glint/Shiro Legends and the Devastation/Invocation/Herald traitlines). It rewards fine control and thought in play and has a lot of burst and evades for when you really understand a Champion and you can avoid all the moves.I'll just link the Metabattle build for Open World here, since I use it as well: https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Herald_-_Power_Glint

Guard:

! I'll cover Core Guard. It's actually even easier than Warrior in terms of skill usage - you pop your defensives like Focus #5, F3, and Renewed Focus when you are running out of dodges or you want to keep putting out sustained damage while being attacked. Try to have a bind for Sheathe Weapon - if you see an attack coming and you're in the middle of an attack you can sheathe/cancel, press Sheathe so you can pop a skill like Renewed Focus immediately. Guardian sustain is mostly preemptive... and actually a bit to the contrary, in the build I linked you, Meditation utilities are the best things Guardian have for personal survival, providing healing and anti-condition. That is what the Valor traitline is for - personal defense and offense mostly.! The Radiance traitline upgrades your Retaliation, making it grant critical chance and critical damage. You have minor sources of Retal everywhere, from activation Virtues (use F1 liberally, saving F2 and F3 for their useful boons), to your Heal skill, to the Greatsword pulsing symbol.! Your best burst comes from pre-loading Shield of Wrath and having it explode just as you put down symbol -> Whirl on GS. Once you're done spinning, GS #3 through the light field of the symbol to gain Light Aura for even more Retal. Swap to your Sword set, whack down the symbol, and auto liberally.! You can try leaping away from danger with GS #3, but you'll have to learn to detarget and you'll have to make this decision on the fly. Your other teleports are all to-target ports, so if there are critters around you can use them for getting away from big hits (you need to think quickly though); otherwise, they are great at maximizing your damage uptime if it's a boss with small windows for damage.! Try swapping Sword for Scepter if you find Guardian CDs to be quite long and you'd like to continue to pressure while kiting around for your defensives to come back up.! Things you can change: swap any of the three Meditations out for the Wall of Reflection and use the Consecration trait. Swap in a Spirit Hammer utility and use a Hammer with the Glacial Heart trait in Virtues, and try a Judge's Intervention -> Banish combo and add in a Spirit Hammer for bosses with Defiance Bars. Swap for the Spirit Sword for some spin-to-win, or the Bane Signet for extra power if you think you don't need the utility.! I shamefully almost forgot about Stand Your Ground!, and Hallowed Ground. These provide the stability and retaliation you might need in some situations, and SYG! in particular helps with on-demand Retaliation. But beware! Guardians are very Cooldown dependent and they are not invincible! Warriors have potential passive/active regeneration, but for Guardians you only have to keep in mind that you can play aggressive when your CDs are up (F3 is fairly powerful), but play defensive and conserve dodges when you have used up your CDs.

Ranger:

! Just remember as a Ranger, you can adapt to fight anything, and if you do it right you will outlast everything. Kite! Evade! Recover! Maintain distance when you think you don't have the defensives to dive in (e.g. no Protection on you rolling, not enough dodges or Vigor). You can make enemies stop with your Stealth skills, giving you some time to use healing skills and halt their pressure. Use a Smokescale's F2 and use your GS#3 in it - you will evade while you enter stealth. Use your Longbow #3 to enter stealth but check for projectile reflects, and try to dodge once the shot goes off so you don't get stunned while in stealth and waste those 3 seconds of useful repositioning.! For the Core Ranger build, you can actually swap the Wilderness Survival traitline off, for Nature Magic, which offers longer boons. I picked WS traitline for you because of the Survival utilities which can remove conditions and grant offensive boons - and Quickening Zephyr is a very iconic Ranger skill.! Core Ranger with Beast Mastery traitline emphasizes constant pet swapping to gain the lesser QZ effect (affected by WS traits), allowing you to put out faster Rapid Fires and Maul -> Hilt Bash -> Maul (+Pet F2 e.g. Tiger) and even cleanse conditions. Marksmanship has trait synergy with swapping as well, and grants large stacks of vulnerability on receiving Fury - which you have crazy amounts of regular access to thanks to traits and Tiger if you choose it.! Basically, try to line up your Mauls with the Tiger F2 so that your Tiger F2 hits just after Maul gives your pet the hard +50% damage buff. Maul has a bit more range than melee skills so you can experiment the timing to activate Maul when you approach your target.! Your GS has an Evade on the auto chain 3rd hit, and you can actually use it 3 times if you sheathe weapon and don't let that 3rd hit in the combo damage anything (you can also run away during the 2 swings, then go right into a Swoop to gain massive distance, and then decide if you want to keep being defensive or range your target down), for some neat free evades!! Just attack with GS and sync with your pet, and if you need to dodge away, you can GS #3 Swoop out (remember to de-target), swap to your Longbow and maintain fire while you assess the danger.! Ranger is very defensive and evasive. You will notice the Stealth on Longbow #3, the Evade on GS #3 and the auto chain, the Block on GS #4 (it doesn't go into the kick attack if you are blocking ranged projectiles, making it a very long block instead), the protection and healing on dodge from WS traitline, and you have a survival skill Lightning Reflexes which evades and grants Vigor for more dodges. Ranger healing skills are also on relatively short CDs and either heal for a lot or have regeneration or some way to recover more health.

Elementalist:

! To be very honest, building a sturdy Ele is going to be fairly suboptimal for everything. I'm also really out of touch with Ele, haven't played it much after HoT came out.! Scepter/Focus Ele has some glorious bursts but suffer from long CDs and a need to gear very glassy to pull off the burst.! Hence, the only option I can think of that is easy and safe... is a D/D Elementalist with Celestial gearing maybe with a side of Knights.! I'll have to warn you though, it might be fun but depending on if you like the overly defensive D/D or not. Dagger/Focus is the premiere PvE combo but I feel it is too limiting. Personal opinion.! Condition damage is actually important on Celestial Ele as with the right rotation you can stack a lot of Might, up to 1.4k condition damage at x25 Might so you should make use of all skills.! Basic rotation goes from Air -> Fire -> Earth -> Water if healing needed.! Ride the Lightning, Shocking Aura, Lightning Touch, Updraft (Control effect) -> into Fire, Drake's Breath -> Fire Grab, Burning Speed, Ring of Fire -> into Earth, dodge roll into the Ring of Fire for the Blast effect from trait, Earthquake then Churning Earth immediately for a total of 3 blasts for Might stacks! Alternately you can go from Fire -> Earth and if the #4 and #5 are on cooldown, swap to Water for the #3 which you can also use to blast the Ring of Fire.! When you are really low and trying to run away, use your Water #2, #4 and #5 then determine if you need your Cantrips, then constantly auto-attack the air so you can get healing from your Signet of Restoration passive. Air's auto Lightning Whip has the highest attack speed and hits the hardest too. Always cast something to benefit from the Signet.! D/D rotation is not set in stone but you want to be constantly swapping and keeping all attunements on CD so your boons keep rolling.! After you work so hard to keep your boons up you'll realize why no one plays D/D - the new specs added to the game does everything D/D can do and more, and with less work.! For me it's a style choice and I break it out for a run occasionally to remember the glory days.! Swap out Cantrips as you please for Signet of Air (25% speed), or Conjure Lightning Hammer, or Signet of Fire (swap trait to Written in Stone), or play with Glyph of Elementals instead of the Fiery GS for elite skill.

Since you asked about Ele, I would mention that keybinding becomes very much an issue because you might want to rotate through the 4 attunements in the span of roughly 10 seconds.In a wider context this also applies to Warrior and Ranger, since Warrior F1 is where all the fun is, and Rangers make heavy use of F4 swap and F2 pet ability, even F3 when you call it back from heavy area damage.

Breaking out of the F1-F4 and 67890 binds might be a consideration, but keybinding definitely is a very personal thing.

! I move with WER, backward is X, heal on Q, class abilities are TGZCV, utilities are ASF, dodge on D, 6 is Lock Autotarget (de-target), 7 is Previous Target, F1F2 are take target/mark target (for meta events in a squad), Capslock is interact, Left Shift is about face (for some tricks with retreating abilities), Left Alt is Stow Weapon, Shift + Space is Autorun! But, I change it if I’m running a spec that needs me to pull off a string of abilities rapidly. I will line them up under different fingers so I can press them in succession or all at once.

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@"MeththeMadman.7420" said:I think you've made me really close in on my original class (Guardian) and Warrior.I'm really glad to hear it. I tried to write it so that it doesn't feel like I'm trying to force you into a specific awesome-build-I-made, and you can read and decide how to customize your character as you want.Craft your characters by hand, know them inside out and adventures will be fun!

I have one more idea to share on Warrior.

! With the Shield Master trait, you can also reflect projectiles with Mace mainhand and Sword offhand. I've used this to fight the Verdant Brink lower left corner Frog Hero Point and made it that much more enjoyable when you can time it well and reflect her arrows (although watch out for that super fast dagger jab, it has deceptive range and comes out lightning fast, twice! I usually just dodge through her or use Whirlwind attack to evade through, turning around to give her a good F1 mace crack on the head).! Switch your weapons around and see how you can use them for different situations!

I was never a fan of "if I'm on this class I can do it better", each class has its own solutions to a problem in Open World. That said, when you have had solid experience on Warrior and Guardian, you can relax and try to level with other classes.

Depth is good, but I believe it's good to also have some Breadth.

! By performing decently with other classes, you get new ideas on how to play your Warrior and Guardian better.! For example, maybe you enjoyed dodging on a Daredevil Thief and it made evading certain boss mechanics easy. Now, you can take that chain evade technique and perform it on Warrior/Guardian but replace one of the dodges with a well-timed block or evade skill. Maybe you can even pop Protection because you know you can take it, or use a leap skill to completely avoid the area of the attack.! And also as an example, for the Frog HP, I found it easy to fight on my Warrior because of the low CD reflects. What about Guardian? Perhaps the 2-handed weapons aren't the best at dealing with her projectiles and daggers. Maybe I can run Scepter Focus/Mace Shield (Mace #3 has 2 blocks, Focus has #5 for three blocks, Shield #5 is a projectile block), the Shelter heal, the Spirit Shield, or Wall of Reflection. I might keep the Smite Condition and Contemplation of Purity on, in case the poison and stuns hit me. Perhaps when the projectile-hate skills are on CD, I can attempt to block the arrow shots with F3, or dodge, or use Renewed Focus. I plan to pressure with scepter and keep Fury and Retaliation up as much as I can, landing the Symbols on where she ports to, only swapping to Mace Shield when she closes in on me and I don't have dodges left, so I can run through her to block and gain some distance.

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Guardian is a more active defensive character, having to watch for attacks to use blocks at the right time. Leveling is super easy with GS. Jump in (ability 3), drop your symbol (ability 4), whirl (ability 2) auto attack (finish the combo) and whirl when available. Guardians also have one of the lowest health pools, so a bit less room for mistakes.

A class that is more passively defensive would be necro. Dodge as usual, but you always have your rechargeable second health bar to fall back on with shroud. I was leveling a throw away necro the other day for the weekly key, and was pulling 5-7 mobs at a time that were over my level with no problem.

Another fun class is the ranger. You have a pet to help without taking away utility slots, you have strong ranged burst with LB, and strong melee sustain with GS, and you are a very versatile class once you unlock druid, giving the ability to take on multiple roles in a group.

The other classes have their strong points as well, but some of them are a bit more difficult to get used to. Starting with something easier to get a feel for how the game works is always a better option, imo. Elementalists have a lot of element swapping, and abilities that go along with it, engineer is the same with kits, and mesmer is slow to really get to the core of the class. Warrior is durable, and pretty straight forward, but a little boring to me, and rev is fun, but kind of strange with energy and "stances."

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I've been playing with a Warrior that is Sword/Sword and Sword/Shield. (You don't need to have three swords, just two and put just a shield in the offhand for the alternate weapon set -- it keeps your main-hand weapon between both.) Definitely not meta, and it doesn't give me any ranged options, but it's been fun open-world.

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@"MeththeMadman.7420" said:I have PoF now. Warrior is 38 at the moment in large part thanks to your posts...

Great! There's a lot of trouble going down in Tyria and a Warrior hero is much needed in fixing up the mess. PoF is very fun, I don't think you'll regret it.

Another Warrior tip:Greatsword can be quite slow although it hits like a sack of bricks how much it hurts depending on how strong your arms are. You can swap weapon to cancel out Rush's follow up hit if you need to dodge during that animation to avoid getting squished. Likewise, you can swap during Whirlwind Attack to fine control your movement so you don't overshoot your target too much - once you've evaded/blended through your target with the whirl, you should sieze the moment to get in another hit!

! How do you find Arcing Slice? The damage is absolutely glorious at under 50% HP. Try using Battle and Vision/Intelligence Sigils so that your F1 will be an automatic critical after swapping. This skill is the closest you have to an Execute - although you also have another Execute in ranged format on the Mainhand Axe.In fact, due to Disciplne trait line, swapping on Warrior is a part of your combos (to control/defend then use Greatsword to follow up) and dodge mechanic (to clip off slow animations so you can dodge), and I practise swapping with purpose - you can actually swap to cancel out the very last part of a logging animation after you've obtained the material from the 3rd chop.

! I would suggest taking it slow, completing all the starting areas first since they have the easiest scaling, and try to go for map completion - getting all the vistas, points of interest, hero points, and waypoints. You get a small chunk of exp out of that and some nice items for completing it.! And on busy days where you go home and just hit the sack, don't forget to log on for the daily log-in reward; you get a few Tomes of Knowledge for leveling up and a lot of items useful in the game - Laurels give you a lot of options.! I usually save up the Tomes until I have enough to prop my current leveling character all the way to 80 - the last few levels on some of the harder maps are tough because of the scaling.

Some info on different specialisations:

! Spellbreaker is definitely very powerful and inject a counter-puncher playstyle into the Warrior; calm and determined like the Sunspears who teach you this method.! Berserker is wild and unhinged, allowing you to compress your damage into very small windows. Take Defense traitline so that you can use periods outside of Berserk to play a bit passively and recover with Adrenal Health. Arc Divider used to be even more glorious, but it's not half bad now either. Mostly because of the range you can run away and still have it hit your target.! Core Warrior is a rampaging, tough fighter who utilises extreme physical fitness; you came into a class of your own simply because you're literally a muscle wizard who achieves incredible feats of destruction and durability simply by hitting things hard.

You need to try out Rampage - the boulder throw is a magical, surreal experience that reminds you anything is possible as long as you are angry enough. You can even throw it backwards and it has a range of 900! Observe the hand-picked, aerodynamically stable rock of destiny as it sails straight through the air and knock your dumbfounded target silly for 2 seconds!!The cooldown can be pretty long though if you're not taking the trait in Strength; most Warriors go for Signet of Rage but it's pretty outdated at this point.

! Not to mention really boring - I'm going to pop this Elite skill!! 3 boons! Wow! Utterly fantastic! These boons look exactly like the boons Rangers get on their Warhorn skill Call of the Wild!! I have Warrior's Sprint already for movement speed without sacrificing anything, Fury on Arcing Slice, and Might on dodging/swapping/criticals especially with Greatsword - these mechanics ensure I'm playing Warrior correctly, so at least I can have something interesting for my elite, right?! Rampage can be used to help the downed, break bars, even mobility, and you get damage buff for entering and exiting it due to trait. Spellbreakers get to experience the most ridiculous version of Rampage due to Magebane Tether - prepare for extreme destruction as you gain 25 might stacks and +10% damage from the tether, then enter Rampage for another +20% damage buff, and you proceed to beat everything up with your bare hands.! Battle Standard, or "Warbanner" as it's called in the old days, can be a pretty cool thing to use if you're expecting all the non-Warriors in this group event to over-estimate their toughness, and you want to whack a banner right in that mess and tell them to stop lying about and start putting out that DPS we needed yesterday!

How did you setup your Warrior? Any interesting combos or skills you've found? What do you like best about the class up to this point?Don't be limited to my suggestion of builds - try all the different utilities and weapons and see if you can create your own synergy.

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@"MeththeMadman.7420"Also, it might seem rather daunting to see all these techniques being talked about, but this is the resulting wisdom of many Warriors after trial and error and dedicated playing for years. My comments represent but a fragment of the accumulated insight that all Warrior, and indeed other classes' players have shared over all this time. After all, I spend a lot of time fluffing on all the classes and not all my time is dedicated to Warrior.

I fully expect that anyone, any player of any level, can create new ideas to share about a certain class. Perhaps someone might be new to Warrior. Perhaps that someone may struggle now and find frustration. But once one finds a way to be at ease with the class - anyone can become a Warrior God (good Warriors are some of the most terrifying duelists or solo PvE artists). I believe this completely.

Also, at level 38, I would suggest a build like this:

! http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQNAR3ejMdQjH25B+dAnIGICK8EehnX/ipfLsAIC6ZA-jxAEABMpMAgnEQiqBAA-e! Try to keep your gear updated every 10 levels and use Power/Precision gear - if you find content difficult, go for a bit of Toughness but always try to also have Power.! Build Discipline, then Defense, then Strength. Discipline augments your Burst skills and allow you the signature 5 second Warrior weapon swap so you can feel like a weaponmaster; Defense rewards you for landing your burst skills by giving you immense sustain, and also rewards for using stunbreaks reactively; Strength rewards gearing and playing aggressively, dodging into enemies, landing your vicious Greatsword skills and using a lot of Precision in your gear.! Slot Healing Signet for most purposes, and Mending only when you are encountering constant conditions. Dolyak Signet is good both for its passive as well as active usage, so don't hesitate to pop it if you know a stun is coming in and you can't dodge. "Shake it Off!" is pretty great all around already, and Rousing Resilience makes it even better. Signet of Fury is the optional slot, and because leveling in PvE means fighting in bursts, popping this ensures you will be able to activate the full Adrenal Health effect when you really need it - or if you want to land that snazzy Axe Burst Level 3 Eviscerate.! A lot of people like to use completely passive utilities that are best kept as passives - but in my opinion, you lose interaction with your character if you don't use utilities that offer choice in play. Of course, there are situations where passives are great, such as fights best dealt with at range, or those that require a lot of dodges and need Signet of Stamina; Healing Signet is also good because it encourages Warriors to disengage for sustain, while Mending breaks up your offense because of its low CD (but has its niche uses), [and "To the Limit!" is... meme](http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQJAURj8cQbI23BWeAnIGKCKtLi+sAXhWIFsB4BCAA-jRCBABccIAA4BAEwFA4MlgGqLYjjAAWK/qU9ni2fgUAjqMC-e "and "To the Limit!" is... meme").! Bloodlust Sigils (common/rare ones) on underwater as well as land weapons so you don't lose the effect when you go for a swim.

Adapt and change traits according to your needs. Use Rousing Resilience, as well as weapons with access to evades and blocks, for big fights with stuns and launches flying around. Use Stances, and consider control weapons (Mace/Hammer/Shield) or Shield reflect trait, for situations with short term, high incoming damage. Use skills with adrenaline recharge, when you need to kite a lot (try Signet of Fury, Signet of Stamina with Shake it Off!) but want Adrenal Health at full stacks to keep you alive.

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