[Leveling engi]

Thanks heaps I really appreciate the help and builds to kick me off in the right direction 😊👍

[Leveling engi]

So as the title says I am looking to level engineer. I know I am wanting to run flamethrower and dual pistol but for the life of me cannot seem to find a build. Does anyone have one they would care to share or help with this 🙂 thank you. 

[Elite spec]

Currently levelling my necro and will hit 80 very soon. I mainly play solo OW content but like to do group events and dabble in fractals also. My question is what elite spec should I work on first? 

[EOD class choice]

32 minutes ago, oscuro.9720 said:

Pick warrior. Warrior is best class. Other classes scared and hide in their silly magics. Warrior sends it while half nude and nothing but a pointy stick. 

The cowards enhance themselves with flashy colors to try to match warrior. Warrior needs no flashy colors, warrior is the walking manifestation of a thousand exploding suns.

The cowards maneuver around the battlefield to have an advantage. The battlefield maneuvers to accommodate warrior’s existence. 

Do you like to see the terror in your opponents eyes as you rip their limbs from their body with you bear hands? Do you like to bathe in the blood of the masses you slaughtered as they vainly struggled to escape? Do you long for the thrill of chasing your enemies as they flee from you, mentally defeated and incapable of anything but cowardice?

Thats right, there’s only one class for you. Warrior best class. 

You come forward with pretty good case I must admit haha 😄  

[EOD class choice]

As EOD is just around the corner I have made a return to the game and wanting to pick a main as to speak. My focus is pve, open world content and also dungeons/fractals and raiding. What would be the "best" moving into the EOD expansion and forward. 

[Gearing a fresh 80]

7 minutes ago, Wolfb.7025 said:

Sorry, i'm not gonna elaborate, but I wanted to share with you a good and complete guide of character gearing.

 

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/User:Tanetris/So_You_Want_To_Gear_a_Character

Excellent thank you I appreciate it. 

[Gearing a fresh 80]

I am almost level 80 and wanting some guidance on what I should be doing to best gear up once I get there and things I should be doing once 80 🙂

[Class help]

4 hours ago, Xukavi.4320 said:

Thanks mate. Hope it helped you too.

You're most welcome dude. If you got any other questions feel free to send a DM and I'll helpwith wtv I can.

Will add you when I am online next 

[Class help]

8 hours ago, Xukavi.4320 said:

Nothing to be sorry about bit now that we know your previous experience as you've seen more people are able to reply with better info for you. I've played wow vanilla thru wotlok then came back for legion before quitting for good. I'll try to use wow terminology to make things easier to understand though @Loules.8601
already did a great job.

A few things to understand here is unlike wow buffs (called boons here) are either standardized or class specific. Standard boons are like Might giving extra power and condition dmg for some time or Protection reducing incoming Strike (power/direct) dmg. All classes have ways of either providing themselves or others in  short area around them these buffs. Class specific buffs are not cast but persistent in a small area around you as long as you take the trait (think wow talets) for them or take the utility skill that provides them. An example of these are Ranger's Spotter trait which increases Precision (inc crit chance) for its whole party by 150 or Warrior's Banner utility skills that increase specific attributes based on the type of banner they use.

Damage is divided into power dmg (referred in game in skills/traits now as Strike dmg) and Condition dmg. Power dmg is direct dmg dealt to enemies while condition dmg is basically your DoT from WoW. Conditions are also standardized and all classes have access to most of them through different weapons. These can be things like Burning, Bleeding and Poison. They normally stack in intensity so the more stacks of burning for example the more damage per tick it will do. There are of course non-dmg conditions like Cripple (reduces move speed by iirc 25%) or Immobilize (root target in place) .

Some skills or even entire weapons will deal power dmg only like Ranger Long Bow. Some will have both power and condition dmg, Ranger Short Bow auto attacks do some power dmg and 1 or 2 stacks of Bleeding while the rest of its skills also have some condition dmg. For a WoW comparison think what if Mage's Fireball did some direct damage but also applied a DoT burn by default, most elementalist fire skills are like that.

Once you hit lvl 80 you can start training in your elite specialization. These will quite often change how you play the class in a drastic way. As stated before as an example Ranger is your typical Hunter from WoW but is viable as range or melee. At 80 you can unlock Druid and Soulbeast (we still don't know the 3rd spec coming in the next expansion, we'll find out next month). Each elite spec unlocks a new weapon to use and a new trait line (talen tree branch basically). Druid is nothing like WoW Druid. They don't shapeshift but they're very in tune with nature and are good healers. They have weaker pets than standard Ranger but get access to a Celestial Avatar form which lets them do massive heals. The other is Soulbeast which allows you to merge with your pet. When you do you get increased stats/attributes as well as new skills based on the pet you're merged with. As an added bonus, you can still merge with your pet if it dies and it will revive it when you unmerge.

Its also worth mentioning that you can access the pvp lobby from the top left menu (crossed swords) omce you finish the intro mission. You'll be upscaled to lvl 80 and will have all the class skills and traits unlocked (if you have the expacs you'll also have access to the elite specs) so you can try them all out to get a feel of how they play at 80.

I know that this is already a lot to read so sorry for that, but below I'll try to give a summary  on the classes, how they play and a bit on what to expect from their elite specs.

Heavy Armor:-

Warrior: This is pretty much a Fury/Arms warrior from WoW for the sake of comparison. While you can use a shield its mainly for the CC and not really for tanking. You can use almost every single weapon in the game and are pretty resilient. While they do have ranged dmg options in longbow and rifle their meta builds are usually melee. They gain adrenaline in combat and spend that adrenaline on Burst skills which are powerful skills that change depending on the weapon you have equiped in your main hand.

E-specs:

Berserker: They get access to off-hand torch and a new berserk mode. While in the berserk mode they will deal increased damage, move faster but take more damage and get access to upgraded Burst Skills called Primal Bursts

Spellbreaker: They get access to dual daggers and a new full-counter ability they can spend adrenaline on. The spec is more pvp focused imo though it does have uses in pve and is focused on removing buffs from your enemies while dealing extra damage to targets without buffs.

Guardian: This like said before its the GW2 Paladin. They're focus is more defensive with lots of skills to stay alive or mitigate incoming damage and supporting other players in your group. Their class mechanic is Virtues which are abilities that provid passive buffs to yourself or can be activated to provide a slightly more powerful version of that to your group for a short time.

E-Specs:

Dragonhunter: They get access to Longbow and become magic archers basically. They focus more on offense and dmg being dealt than on defense. They get a more offensive version of their virtues.

Firebrand: Think what if the Paladin went all out on smiting enemies with righteous fire. Yea that's Firebrand. They get access to main hand axe and their new mechanic is Spell Tomes. Using these tomes they can read pages in these tomes (each page is a skill basically) that csn either buff allies, heal allies or burn enemies.

Revenant: They fill the sort of Dark Knight archetype in GW2 in a way. They get their power by calling on legendary characters from the lore that are in the Mists (think GW2's version of the afterlife). They use Legend stances each with their own unique utility skills and an energy system. You gain energy automatically while in combat but all your weapon and utility skills use energy. You can have 2 legend stances equiped at the same time and can switch between them in combat. They can be both dmg dealers or support allies through buffs.

E-Spec:

Herald: They get access to a shield and Glint (a powerful dragon from the lore) as their Legend Stance. The focus is on providing buffs to themselves and allies around them.

Renegade: They get access to a shortbow that's mainly focused on condition dmg. They also get access to Kala Scorchrazor (rebel charr that made it so females weren't basically slaves anymore) as their Legend Stance. They get to summon Kala and her warband members in battle while calling on artillary fire from the mists.

Medium Armor:-

Engineer: These guys are jack of all trades. While at a core they only have access to dual wield pistols, rifle and shield they more than make up for it by having Kit utility skills. Want to be a grenadier? Equip the grenade kit which changes your weapon skills to grenade skills. Want to burn stuff? Equip the flamethrower kit and burn your foes. Their unique mechanic is called the toolbelt which gives them extra skills to use based on the utility skills they have equipped.

E-specs:

Scrapper: They get access to a 2 handed Hammer and become frontline bruisers. They get access to the function gyro which lets them send it to locations to help revive downed allies anf the gyro skills which can either support allies or dmg enemies in an area.

Holosmith: As my friend likes to call it, become Iron Man. They get access to main hand sword and a new HoloForge mode. You can go into this mode which gives you new weapon skills using "hardened light". Stay long enough in HoloForge mode and you get heat which powers up your skills but stay too long and you'll blow up taking dmg and being unable to go back in until it cools off.

Ranger: This is your WoW BM, MM and Survival hunter all in one. They only class that has access to a dedicated pet. You can swap between 2 pets you've chosen and you can choose from a large variety of pets. Each pet belongs to a different family of pet types (felines, canines, bears etc) with their own stats and each pet has different skills. They have good ranged and melee options. Main focus as dmg dealers with some support like being able to summon natire spirits that provide group buffs.

E-specs:-

Druid: Unlike druids in WoW they don't shapeshift. They get access to staff as a new weapon and Celestial Avatar in exchange for weaker stats on pets. Healing allies and dealing dmg to enemies will will give you Celestial energy. Once your bar is full you can go into Celestial Avatar to heal yourself and allies. End game this is a very good healer for groups and in pvp can be a very good support or duelist.

Soulbeast: They get access to main hand dagger which focuses on both power and condition dmg. They also get the ability to merge with their pets allowing you to effectively play solo without a pet if you want. Doing so increases your own stats based on the pet type. Any skill or trait that affected your pet will effect you while merged instead. Very decent dmg dealer in both range and melee in end game.

Thief: This isthe GW2 rogue, however unlike in WoW stealth isn't a toggle here that's permanent. Stealth is a buff you can get that lasts only a few seconds (can be stacked for longer duration). Thieves focus is on mobility in combat and stealth. They're quite unique in their implementation. Their auto attacks change to stealth attack while stealthed that change based on main hand weapon. They have access to a dual wield skill, basically their number 3 weapon skill changes based on the combination of mainhand and offhand weapons. Sword+dagger will have a different number 3 than sword + pistol for example. Their class mechanic is Steal and a unique resource called Initiative. Steal lets you blink to an enemy and get a new ability based on their class. For example if it was a warrior I can steal an ability to do a whirlwind attack, if it was a elementalist I can steal an ability to cast a fireball. Their weapon skills don't have cooldowns but instead cost initiative. Initiative is refilled over time.

E-specs:-

Daredevil: They get access to a staff used as a melee weapon and an extra dodge bar. Their traits allow them to modify how their dodges work. The dodges can be a leap to an area dealing dmg, dash to an area removing crippling conditons or a jump whirl throwing daggers at nearby enemies.

Deadeye: They get access to Rifles and are your Snipers in GW2. Instead of stealing they can use Deadeye Mark to mark their enemies. Doing so allows you to get Malice (think combo points from wow rogues). At max Malice points you can get buffs and they are consumed to increase the dmg of your stealth attacks.

Light Amor:-

Elementalist: What if you played a WoW mage but had access to Fire, Water, Air and Earth magic all in one? Elementalist a very versatile by changing their attunement to magic while in combat. Cast some fire spells the switch to water to cast some healing spells for example. Their one of the more fragile and advanced classes to play but can feel pretty rewarding. End game they are pretty hard to play as a dmg dealer because they can die very easily.

E-specs:-

Tempest: They get access to a warhorn off-hand and can Overload their attunements. Doing so will have  different powerful effect but put that attunement on a longer cd. They can be powerful dmg dealers but also geared to be one of the best healers in the game.

Weaver:- They can wield a main hand sword to fight in melee and have the ability to be attuned to 2 magic types at the same time. Doing so will give you skill 1 & 2 from the first attunement and 4&5 from the 2nd attunement while skill 3 is a mix of both. They're dmg dealers that can deal really good dmg if you can survive in melee.

Necromancer: This is your dark magic user that can summon undead minions to help them. Closest thing to WoW would be Warlock. While minions can be great in the open world and in pvp, in pve end game they aren't used much asside from maybe one or 2. They focus more on applying conditions to their enemies. Their unique mechanic is a resource called Life Force and a mode called Death Shroud. Enemies dying around you as well as certain skills you use will give you life force. You can enter Death Shroud turning you into a shadowy spirit of sorts that has new abilities. While in Death shroud your life force will be drained and any dmg taken will be dealt to your Life Force instead making them pretty tanky.

E-specs:-

Reaper: They get access to greatswords and the replace Death Shroud with Reaper Shroud. Instead of focusing on condition dmg the Reaper is all about in your face melee. In Reaper Shroud they use a large conjured Scythe to attack their enemies.

Scourge: They get access to off hand torch and instead of having a Shroud form they get into they use Life Force to summon Sand Shades. Sand Shades are immobile and last for a while where they are summoned (max 3). Using certain skills will cast them around you and your sand shades, allowing you to deal dmg in multiple areas at the same time. They can also be used to provide temporary hp shields (barrier boon) to your allies around them. Very good ranged magic dps atm with a very good support build.

Mesmers: Mesmers are very unique to GW2 and don't really have a WoW equivalent to compare. Their class mechanic is to use illilusion magic to summon clones that they can then shatter for different effects. Think a SpellBlade archetype with clones and illusions. They're very good duelists using clones to confuse their enemies.

E-specs:-

Chronomancer: They're essentially time mages with access to shields. Shattering your clones have new effects one of which essentially allows you to reset your character state including CDs to when the ability was used. They can support their allies by providing buffs to increase their action speed (quickness) and speed up CDs (alacrity).

Mirage: They get access to main hand axes and their dodge becomes Mirage Cloak. Instead of dodging they phase in place gaining access to a special ambush attack. They're focus is more on condition damage.

This is amazing thank you so much I really appreciate your help 🙂

[Class help]

3 hours ago, Xukavi.4320 said:

You're going to need to give a bit more detail than just ranged vs melee in order for us to help you out. All professions in GW2 have ranged and melee weapons they can use so its not like other MMOs where your class can be strictly ranged or melee. Its also worth pointing out that while you can for example stick to using ranged weapons in open world PVE, in instanced end game content like fractals, raids and strikes players are typically groupes together in melee range even if using ranged weapons due to boons have a small radius. Unless ofc some mechanic forces you to stay ranged.

Maybe telling us what kind of playstyle you like would help giving you suggestions. Also if you haven't already, I'd suggest looking at the elite specializations of the different professions because those often change the playstyle of the profession dramatically.

Sorry, in my previous mmo experience being WOW I played pure dps classes. I enjoy playing a ranged pure dps class in wow for me that was hunter and mage so now sure how things stack up in gw2. I am just wanting to make the best start possible with getting to 80.

[Class help]

I am brand new to GW2 however years playing mmos. With the expansion around the corner I want some guidance as to class selection. I only play pve and in the past would play a ranged class however looking this time at both ranged and melee. If I can get some advice on a class to choose would be appreciated. 

[Leveling revenant :)]

I have recently started leveling a rev and only lvl 22 currently. I am wanting some advice and tips for the leveling process would condition or power be best and any tricks would be appreciated. 

[Ranger leveling]

Thanks for the input I appreciate it guess I better start levelling and enjoying the class now 

[Ranger leveling]

Sorry yes I should have mentioned pve

[Ranger leveling]

I have been looking to make an alt ranger and see a lot of LB/GS builds but wanting to see is LB and axe/axe a viable option?

[Mesmer or Necromancer]

So after trying different classes I have narrowed it down to either necro or mesmer. I need some help in deciding, I will be playing solo so looking for the best pick. I am not interested in pvp just pve and end game content when the time comes

[Help me choose a class :)]

So I have recently come back to gw2 after years away and started with ranger however found it quite boring to level. I am looking to start with either engineer, mesmer or theif. I will be levelling solo then moving into end game content and wvw eventually. What would be the best out of the 3 thank you 🙂

[New Player Help]

Thank you everyone for the input I appreciate it. I will level my ranger and focus on getting to 80 then I can expand with other characters. 

[New Player Help]

I am needing some help as a new player, I am currently looking at either Thief or Ranger. I play casually and solo so looking for something that is going to be easy for me to get through the story and world. I will be looking to progress later in the game with dungeons and higher. 

 

Any input or advice appreciated on what class.