Returning player after years of not playing

[Kamdar.2530]

So long story short. I bought GW2 at launch played mesmer at first. Achieved max lvl play for little while life got in the way had to quit. Fast forward a few years there was now a expansion out i bought it and used my boost to get a warrior max lvl. Didnt play at all (ex GF problems at the time) so i stopped before i started playing really. Im not currently in a good spot in my life i can play games agains and i miss MMO's. But i feel like starting at max lvl with no real idea what todo might be a bad choice. More or less im looking for advice should i just do the grid over again with a new class to get a feel for game again or Wing it and start with my 1 of 2 max lvl toons. If starting fresh lvl 1 what class's are decent for both pvp and pve (not looking for stupid OP) but i dont want to pick a class that isnt gonna get picked up for anything or struggle in pvp cause they are underpowered. Im a decent mmo exp player. play alot of rift swtor and wow. Wow was only game i played pvp competitively, i multiclassed and achieved 2k in arena 3's on all of them with a max rating of 2300 to 2350 on disc priest and arms warrior. Please just looking for constructive responses here

[Kamdar.2530]

i should proof read more. Im currently in a good spot in my life that i can play games again* sorry

[Ashen.2907]

I am a firm believer in using the leveling process to learn the current state of the game.

But dont delete old characters as birthday gifts are per character anniversary, not account.

[Klipso.8653]

The elite specs all play very different than base classes, so even if you use one of your existing characters, you'll need to learn the elite spec anyway

[otto.5684]

If you are experienced in MMOs, no need to restart from level 1. I have not played WoW to give clear comparisons. I would say pick something you like thematically and stick with it. Guaranteed you will be fine. There is not any class that I would call highly deficient in any game mode and I do not think you are aiming for top level PvP next month. when you are experienced enough you will know what works and what you want to play.

[Kamdar.2530]

Thank you guys, been goofing off on mesmer and kind of starting to get swing on things again. lol no idea on specs but thats okay its a learning curve and fun.

[kharmin.7683]

Try doing a forum search on Returning Player.... there have been several other threads that might have more information for you?

EDIT: you could also check out the Players Helping Players forum for more!

[Paradoxoglanis.1904]

If you are looking for viable pvp builds, check the metabattle site. I would start with the "meta" or "great" builds, but most builds can get you to plat 1 if you are skilled enough. In pve if you are pugging raids or t4 fractals & challenge motes i would only use the recommended builds as pug groups can sometimes be picky about what builds/class they want. Right now warrior is very strong in both pve and pvp, and is easier to pick up than some other classes.

As for leveling 1-80, it can be useful if you are brand new to a class, and it goes by pretty quick. The core game is very dated however and doesnt really offer any challenge, and if you are used to mmos you could probably skip it. You will learn your class pretty well going through the HoT and PoF expansions.

[Goettel.4389]

To me, GW2 has the best leveling in any MMO, so I'd say start over. If you hate the leveling, well... maybe you shouldn't :-)That's my general advice: never put any time in a game activity you don't enjoy. It's not a job. Take your time leveling, do any meta you encounter, and you'll find that usually you'll be joined by others, even in low level zones.

As for a good class: you've picked mesmer before, and they always seem to be in at least a good place both in PvE and PvP.Ranger (druid/soulbeast) is a great pick too. As for me, I love my elementalists, even if they can't hold a candle to the mesmer when it comes to 'OP lists'.

Welcome back, take your time and have fun.

[Rasimir.6239]

If you do find yourself overwhelmed, use one of your remaining character slots (you should have at least 5 total) to start a new character. Your mesmer should have 6 years of birthday gifts waiting, and each of those contains a level-up scroll, from boosting to level 20 (year 1+2) to level 60 (year 6), so you could shortcut your new character to level 60 (or anything inbetween) anytime you get tired of leveling and/or feel you've figured things out enough to jump back to higher level play.

[banJelacic.4201]

Core classes became useless when HoT and PoF went out with Specialization, so do not need to start over from lvl1 since leveling up will not make you learn much about the class since it is totally different then PvP - not doing PvE to say about it but think that as well since living Story is different than Fractals or Raids...And you are able to start using Specialisation only on lvl80...

A year ago I returned to the game after 3.5 years with new account - only got that up to lvl80 since I bought HoT so lvled up necro (which was and still is my main), but what I did was creating each of a characters and went to pvp with it right away to check it out, checked the specialisation, mechanics behind it, how I liked it and if it is worth it investing time in that character to level it up, unlock Specialisation and gear it up.Plus when you do PvP you get nice amount of lvlup scrolls so leveling up goes faster with it.

You can check meta builds on metabattle.com to get an idea what most of the people are using build and rotation wise.