New-ISH to the game, curious on classes.

[Kasoon.3758]

I own the original game, I was a day one purchaser and player when the game launched...god, ages ago now isn't it? Jeez.

Anyways, I quit before the first expansion, hell, quit before I even got to any semblence of "end game" this game has. This was for many reasons, one of which being the computer I had could not run the game worth a damn at all.

Well now I want to try again, without any expansions at the start obviously, I'm not jumping in that fast. XD

Anyways, to the point, I'm curious on what classes are fun to play right now, I know I know, stupid question, but let me explain.

When I think of FUN in a class, the majority of the reasoning is "is it a chore to play?". Is it something I can hop right into and have fun with or do I need to look at a spreadsheet and several guides to learn to even begin playing it half decently? Don't get me wrong, I don't mind doing a bit of work, but that's generally after I know I like it and can stand to sit here and do research on it...

I like the idea of Guardian a lot, for instance, but I'm just not sure on weither it's worth it to go into or not. I guess in a way I'd like to extend this as well, is the GAME still worth getting into or not? Is it something I can play casually and still enjoy? That's the BIG issue, I want to be able to play casually and enjoy my class choice and the game.

Thanks in advance, and sorry it kind of went all over here, I got on a tangent and realized I wanted to ask more than just the base question. xD

[Donari.5237]

You want bone simple and deeply satisfying? Reaper with greatsword and shouts. The GS is a bit slow to wield (more so now that they nerfed the reduced cooldown trait) but the shouts counter that with their instant results, and all the skills synergize well. Toss in the trait that puts you in shroud automatically if you take a killing blow and you can relax your way through the most massive fights. Now, you would need the HoT expansion to play that, but you could start with just a Necromancer which has a lot of tools available to customize your style but doesn't require much tricky stance-dancing to make viable.

As to the game itself, of course I'm going to say yes as even a cursory glance at my posting history will reveal. But one of my guilds has a lot of new folks joining who are finding the game very fun, and yes it can be done casually with no problem at all so long as you aren't the sort that gets upset you don't have end game gear just for sneezing in its general direction. You don't need endgame gear for most of the content (PvE open world and story) anyway. So give it a try. All you'll lose if you don't enjoy it after all is some time and some disk space, since you already own the game you needn't spend another dime on testing out what you enjoy.

Main hint: Do not delete your original characters without careful consideration. They'll have 6 years of birthday presents, and years 3-6 have progressively cooler stuff. Year 7 will be this August. Know what you're losing if you ditch them.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

I think most of the Professions are easy enough to play in Core Tyria. So, that should not be a problem. Ranger, Necromancer, Warrior are probably the easiest. I don't really have any problem with my Guardian, and I don't use Elite Specializations, nor have uber-great gear on that character.
There's tons to do in Guild Wars 2, and there's always people in Core Tyria maps.

Welcome return and good luck!

[Kasoon.3758]

@Donari.5237 said:You want bone simple and deeply satisfying? Reaper with greatsword and shouts. The GS is a bit slow to wield (more so now that they nerfed the reduced cooldown trait) but the shouts counter that with their instant results, and all the skills synergize well. Toss in the trait that puts you in shroud automatically if you take a killing blow and you can relax your way through the most massive fights. Now, you would need the HoT expansion to play that, but you could start with just a Necromancer which has a lot of tools available to customize your style but doesn't require much tricky stance-dancing to make viable.

As to the game itself, of course I'm going to say yes as even a cursory glance at my posting history will reveal. But one of my guilds has a lot of new folks joining who are finding the game very fun, and yes it can be done casually with no problem at all so long as you aren't the sort that gets upset you don't have end game gear just for sneezing in its general direction. You don't need endgame gear for most of the content (PvE open world and story) anyway. So give it a try. All you'll lose if you don't enjoy it after all is some time and some disk space, since you already own the game you needn't spend another dime on testing out what you enjoy.

Main hint: Do not delete your original characters without careful consideration. They'll have 6 years of birthday presents, and years 3-6 have progressively cooler stuff. Year 7 will be this August. Know what you're losing if you ditch them.

Thank you for the reply! Unfortunately I do not have any old characters, I never got far and was in a constant mood of deleting things and it just went overboard. I had trouble picking a class and...yeah. <.< So no worries on presents, that's fine though. :P

[Kasoon.3758]

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:I think most of the Professions are easy enough to play in Core Tyria. So, that should not be a problem. Ranger, Necromancer, Warrior are probably the easiest. I don't really have any problem with my Guardian, and I don't use Elite Specializations, nor have uber-great gear on that character.

There's tons to do in Guild Wars 2, and there's always people in Core Tyria maps.

Welcome return and good luck!

Thanks! :D Do server transfers still cost a lot of gems? I don't know if the server I was on is still alive or not, actually.

Then again I don't know if they put in like, cross server stuff or not now.

[Kanok.3027]

Actually, bone dead simple is any Minionmancer, Warrior or Longbow Ranger. Sorry, but Minions remove any challenge, so do most tanky Ranger pets and Warrior is just spam 5 on dual axes and your auto and you win.

If you want more robust gameplay, without piano keys, try the other classes and elites that aren't Elementalist and it's elite specs. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE my Ele and his two espec variations, but they require good timing, fast movement and focus. Most others are middle of the road in terms of that kind of gameplay yet wield good results. I'd suggest trying out some of the other classes and their especs. You might find them rewarding!

[Naxos.2503]

@Kanok.3027 said:Actually, bone dead simple is any Minionmancer, Warrior or Longbow Ranger. Sorry, but Minions remove any challenge, so do most tanky Ranger pets and Warrior is just spam 5 on dual axes and your auto and you win.

If you want more robust gameplay, without piano keys, try the other classes and elites that aren't Elementalist and it's elite specs. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE my Ele and his two espec variations, but they require good timing, fast movement and focus. Most others are middle of the road in terms of that kind of gameplay yet wield good results. I'd suggest trying out some of the other classes and their especs. You might find them rewarding!

Agreed on minionmancer, any variations of it can be pretty fun to have if you keep things varied, while being relatively easy to play with.

If you want Something a Bit more adventurous, a stealth thief is very fun to play with in PvE and stealth is generally a pretty good safety belt.

Things that are waaaaaaaaaaay more complex but really fun when you want to experiment, I'd say Engineer, but that is by no mean an easy class. At all. Still darndest fun class for me.

[Donari.5237]

@Kasoon.3758 said:Thanks! :D Do server transfers still cost a lot of gems? I don't know if the server I was on is still alive or not, actually.Then again I don't know if they put in like, cross server stuff or not now.

Servers only matter for purposes of WvW now. Otherwise the main regions (NA and EU) are each one megaserver and you will find yourself with a mix of people from all over your region in any map instance you enter, with some filters to weight who you end up with. Even the WvW servers will be going away, though that could be a year or more away at this point, when they completely revamp things to make your WvW teams based on guilds rather than servers.

[Goettel.4389]

The ONLY reason this is my post-WoW MMO of choice is the casual endgame. I just can't get enough of the HoT metas, and I'm not alone. Vanilla is a bit bare for casual play IMO, unless you love alting (best-in-class MMO for that IMO). My advise is to invest in HoT. You won't regret it: the open-world metas always draw tons of people, unless it's early morning, and offer (semi-)challenging & rewarding (loot) content As for classes, I've capped all of them (but not all elites), and I just never can''t seem to get enough of tempest (elementalist). Soulbeast or druid (ranger) are good too, and I do like engineers too. If you like the guardian, stick with it, they bring tons of utility for a random group. Welcome back, and do take your time!

[Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.294]

Core necro with axe/dagger. And always go for power when leveling. Once at 80, then you can look at switching to condi instead of power. Then get the expansions and try out Reaper and Scourge. I run a power Reaper on my main account with axe/dagger and GS, condi Scourge on my alt account with axe/torch and axe/dagger. Love playing both of them.

[aspirine.6852]

Think if you want to play melee or ranges, melee can be a bit smashing if you are unaware. But it's OK in core, it gets harder in HoT and PoF.

[ReaverKane.7598]

@"Kasoon.3758" said:I own the original game, I was a day one purchaser and player when the game launched...god, ages ago now isn't it? Jeez.

Anyways, I quit before the first expansion, hell, quit before I even got to any semblence of "end game" this game has. This was for many reasons, one of which being the computer I had could not run the game worth a kitten at all.

Well now I want to try again, without any expansions at the start obviously, I'm not jumping in that fast. XD

Anyways, to the point, I'm curious on what classes are fun to play right now, I know I know, stupid question, but let me explain.

When I think of FUN in a class, the majority of the reasoning is "is it a chore to play?". Is it something I can hop right into and have fun with or do I need to look at a spreadsheet and several guides to learn to even begin playing it half decently? Don't get me wrong, I don't mind doing a bit of work, but that's generally after I know I like it and can stand to sit here and do research on it...

I like the idea of Guardian a lot, for instance, but I'm just not sure on weither it's worth it to go into or not. I guess in a way I'd like to extend this as well, is the GAME still worth getting into or not? Is it something I can play casually and still enjoy? That's the BIG issue, I want to be able to play casually and enjoy my class choice and the game.

Thanks in advance, and sorry it kind of went all over here, I got on a tangent and realized I wanted to ask more than just the base question. xD

Guardian is pretty easy to get into, and it's still a class that can go into "end-game" content with a core build (without expansions) if you know how to build it.I'd recommend either Guardian, Ranger or Warrior to get back on the horse.

[Majic.4801]

Mesmer is best.

That is all.

[Trise.2865]

GW2 is a game that rewards skill more than skills; observation and decision making matter more than your specific build. Obviously, there is a great deal of depth if you choose to dive in to "optimize", but there are no outright BAD options if you prefer a more casual approach. As long as you aren't just standing around while enemies attack, or jumping off cliffs without a glider or water to land in, you should be fine.

Play around, experiment, and don't be afraid to tinker and adjust as needs be. Welcome back to Tyria, and see you in-game!

[Cernow.3974]

If you are only going to play casually without expansions then I think all of the classes are viable, but you might prefer something with easy access to a run speed boost (as you'll have no mount) and/or something with a bit of survivability. Guardian is a solid choice, as is Ranger and Necromancer. Personally I would suggest staying away from the more complicated classes such as Engineer, Elementalist and Mesmer. They are all fun classes but perhaps not so suited to a first run through the game.

If you find you like the game and plan to stick with it, then you will need the expansions. Mounts, gliding and the elite specialisations for each class add a huge amount of fun and variety to the game and are somewhat mandatory for getting the most out of the game once you hit the level cap. Heart of Thorns also brings the Revenant class which is a very solid choice for most content (it's become my go-to class for most PVE content).

[Tzarakiel.7490]

All of the classes are in a better state than they were in at launch. If you don't enjoy a class then try a different one. Just don't delete old characters. The birthday gifts contain stuff you can only get in the gifts and some dyes you would have to pay 100+ gold for.

[kharmin.7683]

You may want to ask around in the Professions forum or maybe look at other similar threads there.