Lynx.9058

I think I'll probably go ranger for the norn character. The elite specs seem to fit sylvari theming better but I like the kind of viking/native look and feel of the norn and the ranger fits better than the casters imo. But that does leave me in a bind for sylvari. Cant seem to get around the idea that they should be somehow nature themed, and ranger is really the only nature themed profession we have. At this point for human I'm thinking guardian (paladin esque), thief (more like a bandit/highwayman), or necromancer (corrupt royalty?) Decisions decisions...

What weapon type is nevermore?

Oh, didn't know about the bird pets, hadn't gotten there yet lol, still pretty new to the game. That makes me rethink things, ranger/soulbeast could work pretty well and give me both melee and ranged options... Doesnt one of their abilities also Swarm the target with a flock of birds?

Been looking to make a raven spirit inspired/ themed norn female, using the feathered hairstyle and such. I'm torn on what profession would best fit that theme though. Necromancer was my initial thought, given the shady/dark spirit nature of ravens/crows, and I prefer casters. Was also looking at thief as an agile melee brawler, or ranger as an archer, but I don't think theres any bird/raven pets other than the moas. Any suggestions?

Thanks for the input. If I were to want a raven spirit inspired norn character (theme/lore wise), do you think ranger, necro, thief, or revenant might fit that better?

If you had to pick one profession for each race - asura, charr, sylvari, human, and norn - without using any prof twice, what would be your picks? I dont like to play duplicates and I'm wanting to only run one character of each race, so I'm trying to figure out which ones fit best theme and story wise. So far I've got a charr engineer in iron legion and that seems to be a pretty perfect match, as well as an asura elementalist. Given their magical background it seems like one of the casters would fit asura best and elementalist won out. I was thinking sylvari ranger given the druid elite class, but ranger seems equally fitting for the animal centric norn. Human seems like itd be best suited by the necro, guardian, or thief, but I'm open to opinions

Yea, pretty disappointed that charr females seem to use the same armor as males.

You seem to be getting really defensive over a miscommunication. I never said that I wanted "another wow clone", just that MOST fantasy rpgs follow some general guidelines for character classes and names, and that guild wars breaks some of those which obviously leads to some confusion amongst new players. Being different isn't the issue, its being so different that you call something what it's not. I'm enjoying the game so far but from my perspective a lot of the classes, by name or description, don't match up to what they actually are, or at least what your common rpg gamer might expect them to be. As far as the mesmer, I just think the animations need more distinction from one another. There are 3 or 4 "ground aoe" skills that, in the thick of combat, all might as well be using the exact same animation despite doing completely different things. It leads to more confusion and visual clutter than is necessary. A lot of posts around here comment on how arenanet apparently wants people to be able to tell what abilities their enemies are using at a glance, but the animations team obviously didn't get that memo

Think you misunderstood my original comment. I said "I would never expect this (the ranger) to end up as a druid or shapeshifter". That's because nothing about the specializations is mentioned anywhere in the character creation process. Typically a player would not associate the hunter/ranger archetype with the more classically magic-based archetypes of a druid or shapeshifter. Now, afterwards, when you do hear about specializations, the descriptions of the soul beast spec on the website or wiki seem to imply that soulbeasts shapeshifting into their pets. Its not until trying it out that I learned that wasn't the case, and you just lose the pet to gain a self boost. Also I would say that the mesmer is too flashy, and the real issue is that all of their flashies look the same, whereas with the elementalist you have a lot more visual distinction between different spells

Which classes — besides Mesmer and Rev — do you find confusing or counter-intuitive? Only tested a few so far, but some examples: Everything I'd heard or read about soul beast made me think you actually shapeshifted into your pet, but it turns out you just turn your pet into a wolf slurpee and drink it to buff yourself.Druid seemed like it would have more nature based abilities and heals, but only seemed to have a couple of vine abilities and passive heals from attacking. Just wasnt what I expected. Weaver I knew was going to be complex but it was above and beyond what I had imagined, and didnt even feel interesting tbh. Tempest was mich more engaging and can still manage a melee playstyle with daggers. Necromancer minions and spell animations werent quite what I was hoping for either. Not even a skeleton or zombie in the spellbook, just weird looking abominations. Also bugged me that the lich form for a female necro turns you into this big glowing blue Arnold Schwarzenegger dude. Mesmer I just wasnt a fan of the animations, every ability looks the same to me and theres no visual impact or distinction to the casts. Purple circles, purple lines, purple walls, feels like just casting the same spell in different shapes. I'm going to try some of the melee classes later today when I get a chance to see if I end up liking them any. I had no interest in them at first but now most of the ranged classes just dont feel right to me and arent what I expected. Of them only the engineer and tempest have kept me entertained.

Now that I've discovered the pvp lobby im also finding out that most classes don't play anything like I'd expect. Kind of a let down tbh

What level do you start getting access to the necromancer pets, and do they have limited duration, or disappear when leaving combat like mesmer clones? Noob questions I know, just trying to scope out the classes still

Just posting here to say that, as a new player (going on 4 days now since starting), this is definitely spot on. When looking through the classes, heres what comes to mind: Warrior: probably a tanky class /weapons master.Guardian: Paladin style tank/support.Revenant: most likely a berserker type melee character, maybe demon hunter esque given the blindfold and coming from a wow perspective.Ranger: standard archer/hunter. If I didn't look at the wiki or other sources I would never guess this ends up as a druid or shapeshifter.Thief: probably the one class that is exactly what it looks like.Engineer: support centric, lots of options, probably a hybrid class or Jack of all trades.Necromancer: minion focused spellcaster. Would not expect it to start with an axe or have melee heavy specializations.Elementalist: typical mage/spellcaster.Mesmer: honestly doesn't seem to relate much to other game class archetypes. I'd guess a priest- like caster or cleric. Obviously most of those end up being completely wrong, but that's what I assumed when first creating a character.

I use Z for weapon swap. In most other mmos that's the key to either swap or holster/draw your weapons

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.

What if the turret was a backpack that you just carry around and it fires at your targets?

Well, I'm still new, but I know I'll be sticking with my charr engineer for a while (was also my first character). Everything about the character speaks to me. I love the beast/cat races (played caitians in STO, cathar in SWTOR, Khajiit in ESO, so on and so forth), so that was an easy pick. I also love playing jack of all trades / support style characters, so engineer popped out from the rest. The fact that engineer has access to all kinds of turrets and tech also helped, I used to play a game called Global Agenda and mained a robotics character there; robotics were the same kind of hybrid/support character, focused on drones and turrets and other deployables. Also played a powertech in SWTOR, for similar reasons. I love tech. Then, of course, the fact that Iron legion / Charr storyline really works well with a charr engineer just sealed the deal. That character is perfect right off the bat =P Problem is, I'm having a really tough time with alts, because I cant find another race/class combo that is nearly as entertaining for me.

noob lore question I'm sure, but I'm new to guild wars and one of the options during human character creation is something along the lines of "your sister was a seraph and her body was never recovered". Just curious what that is, I'm assuming some kind of paladin-esque holy warrior?

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...

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.

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.