Returning player | levelling

[kaelk.7469]

Morning all, I am a returning player after quite a number of years away from the game. I will be levelling solo and mainly interested in pve content (DPS role) open world to start then diving into harder stuff. 
 

I am wanting some advice on classes or builds that are pretty straight forward and easy to play (minimal) buttons to press or rotations to focus on. I want to enjoy the game and not have to stress about button mashing. 
 

any advice would be appreciated and happy gaming 😊

Edited January 5, 2023 by kaelk.7469

[DeanBB.4268]

Builds while leveling really isn't a thing, since any builds you find out there assume level 80. 

Pick a profession with signets and equip them. No button mashing and you still get the benefit from them. Warrior, guardian, thief and elementalist all come to mind.

The Metabattle web site has a section for "low intensity" builds, or you can google that for more options.

[Asum.4960]

Revenant is the quintessential do great with Auto Attacks profession, and will come online very quickly in leveling, as soon as you get your hands on Swords and Devastation + Shiro with Impossible Odds, providing you with Damage, some Might, Vuln and Sustain, and then eventually Invocation taking care of your Crit Chance needs. 

 

That then later translates into both Power Vindicator and Herald as pretty straight forward DPS builds - as well as providing other (although more complicated/spammy) options in Condi Renegade and Quickness Herald. 

 

That said, there is something for pretty much all professions, even if not quite as simple or early, to get what you are looking for. But that's obviously down to personal preference.

 

[oscuro.9720]

 

On 1/4/2023 at 4:23 PM, kaelk.7469 said:

I will be levelling solo

Solo

On 1/4/2023 at 4:23 PM, kaelk.7469 said:

diving into harder stuff. 

Tribulations

On 1/4/2023 at 4:23 PM, kaelk.7469 said:

I am wanting some advice on classes

Yesyesyes

On 1/4/2023 at 4:23 PM, kaelk.7469 said:

 I will be levelling

Well, my good sir, if you would be so kind as to lend me an ear so I may spin you the tale of the eighty step path of the warrior!

I warn you, though, that this path is not for the front of heart. It’s floor is rocky and unstable, it’s pitch steep, it’s trials unbearable at times, but there is only one path that shall pull you to the heights of your potential, only to reject the ceilings placed upon you by the foolish gods, and push forward with a resolve that would make the silly blue ones blush in the face of a real expression of virtue. 
For you see, the eighty steps of the path of warrior are not like those of the lesser professions. They lead not to a hall warmed with the heat of a homely fire, nor a table upon which a feast is laid out to commemorate your achievement. Nay. The eighty steps of the path of the warrior only leads to the base of the mountain. The air will be frigid, and the rations will be dull. There is no luxury or comfort, for those who tread the path of the warrior know that the first eighty steps only take thee to the starting point. 
So tell me, my brother, what is it you seek. Do you seek the comforts and self satisfaction of completing a commonplace task that the inferior professions choose to wrap themselves in? Or do you wish for the blissful suffering of the infinite March up the mountain of trials and tribulations? Do you not wish to push your body to its absolute limit, only to come back the next day resolved to push further, the process repeating for an eternity? Do you not wish to pierce through the clouds as you ascend beyond the realms of man? Do you not wish to be the one who demand shonage from the gods, demands fealty from the dragons, demands dominion iver the very programmers who seek to reign in your unending power?

Are you curious what lies beyond that which man hath already uncovered? Aren’t you curious whether you can conquer the planet? Subjugate the stars? Take the galaxies that shimmer in the sky and use them as a foothold to propel thine self ever further?
For this is where we go, our march unyielding, the cadence of our footfalls overwriting the pulse of the universe, our blades prepared to pierce through whatever veil shall claim itself the end, as we cut our way through the the place beyond the end, to the realms that have yet to exist. With our iron will and steely bodies, we will pave over what has been with the infinite potential of what shall be!

So, my brother, if you dare to seek for what is greater than thy self, I beseech thee, take up thy sword, and take those 80 steps to the foot of the mountain so we may welcome you on our climb of pain and conquest!

Edited January 6, 2023 by oscuro.9720

[the krytan assassin.9235]

Honestly we really cant decide what fits best for you since alot comes down to personal preference. In general leveling up is quite relaxing. The enemies are normally really easy to kill and most professions are pretty straightforward to play when leveling up.

 

My best advice would be to look on https://hardstuck.gg/ you can find pretty much all relevant PvE builds on it sorted by class and difficulty level of the build. If you want to see the builds in action just type the build name on youtube and you should find loads of vids demonstrating the build. 

Also you dont have to worry to much about dps. Most classes are quite forgiving aslong as you have decent traits, armor and weapons. Ontop of that there are barely any dps checks ingame. 95% of the endgame PvE content can be done with only ~10k dps (which is like 25% of the dps capacity of most builds). Sure extra dps definitely helps on most boss fights, but it is by no means necessary. 

[kaelk.7469]

6 hours ago, the krytan assassin.9235 said:

Honestly we really cant decide what fits best for you since alot comes down to personal preference. In general leveling up is quite relaxing. The enemies are normally really easy to kill and most professions are pretty straightforward to play when leveling up.

 

My best advice would be to look on https://hardstuck.gg/ you can find pretty much all relevant PvE builds on it sorted by class and difficulty level of the build. If you want to see the builds in action just type the build name on youtube and you should find loads of vids demonstrating the build. 

Also you dont have to worry to much about dps. Most classes are quite forgiving aslong as you have decent traits, armor and weapons. Ontop of that there are barely any dps checks ingame. 95% of the endgame PvE content can be done with only ~10k dps (which is like 25% of the dps capacity of most builds). Sure extra dps definitely helps on most boss fights, but it is by no means necessary. 

thanks for providing the link that will help me a lot while levelling and when I hit 80 with build guides and plenty more I appreciate it. 

[ZeftheWicked.3076]

"Necromancer is the answer" - me.
There are pros, there are cons, here's a list of them.

Cons:

- early game core necro is a boring until high levels.
- lowest mobility of all professions until you get mounts, then it doesn't matter anymore
- very different from other professions (he's a more of a  stat checker, while others are action-oriented)
- slow in everything he does (but gets remedied later on)

 

Pros:

- the best mobber in my opinion (ability to pull packs of mobs from miles away, great AoE, great durability)
- very forgiving to play - lotsa margin for error, both yours and team's (healer scourge is hard carry for bad teams)
- insanely good e-specs compared to core
- easy to pilot
- great build depth - there are tons of ways to build your necro and they'll all be viable.

As for minimal effort I would say necro e-specs fit the bill nicely.
Reaper just needs to pull mobs with spectral grasp than go shroud and destroy with his spin to win.
Harbinger goes shroud and machine guns enemies with his autos.
Scourge requires button presses due to profession mechanic. But is the best resser in whole game and is known for extremely reliable damage output no matter the situation.

Edited January 7, 2023 by ZeftheWicked.3076

[AliamRationem.5172]

Leveling should be easy no matter what you do.  If you want effortless domination in solo play at max level I recommend staff mirage.  It has it all as far as ease of play: long range, clones for distraction, self-boons for days, decent damage and most importantly you don't really have to know what you're doing because most of your offense, defense, and utility comes from simply spamming dodge and auto-attack.  As long as you do that you should be able to roll through open world/story content up to and including champion solos with little or no effort.

Here's a sample clip of staff mirage:

 

[Buran.3796]

  I agree with AliemRationem. That last two weeks I chose to manually level up a Mesmer from 1 to 80, without the use of any booster, knownledge tome or crafting abilities. The only advantage was that I had access to mounts and gliding, so the pace was faster, but aside from that was a vanilla character.

   Took me 23 hours and half to reach 80; my only xp sources were map exploration (vistas, teleports, Hero Points and points of interest, which are % based and the most time effective xp sources given the circumstances) a bit of gathering (each tree, ore or crop collected is 1% of a level) and less than 20 hearts. Did a few OW events: they give nice xp but usually are slow, so just exploring felt faster.

   I ran a staff + greatsword build, first using Chaos traits and adding Dueling at lvl 31. I started around low level maps and cities, then expanded on the next levels...  Around level 65-70 the small number of high maps means that you will find out sometimes a bit overleveled by the enemies, but if the difference isn't above 5 levels would work fine: Mesmer has plenty of tools. I only died twice: one one-shooted crossing a 35 level map with the character at level 12 (should have been more aware) and other at level 72 fighting a HP without having cleansed the area before. I did wear the armor and trinkets provided by the game, and only bough weapons 2 times in the whole leveling ~30 and ~60. Some of my gear at 80 was single stat and most of it two stats.

   Anyone moaning about Mesmer being "too hard to level up solo" is wrong. Easiest solo leveling I remember in 10.5 years playing GW2.

[Gaiawolf.8261]

13 hours ago, ZeftheWicked.3076 said:

- lowest mobility of all professions until you get mounts, then it doesn't matter anymore

Huh? You mean at level 10, 10-15 minutes into the game?

 

1 hour ago, Buran.3796 said:

  I agree with AliemRationem. That last two weeks I chose to manually level up a Mesmer from 1 to 80, without the use of any booster, knownledge tome or crafting abilities. The only advantage was that I had access to mounts and gliding, so the pace was faster, but aside from that was a vanilla character.

   Took me 23 hours and half to reach 80; my only xp sources were map exploration (vistas, teleports, Hero Points and points of interest, which are % based and the most time effective xp sources given the circumstances) a bit of gathering (each tree, ore or crop collected is 1% of a level) and less than 20 hearts. Did a few OW events: they give nice xp but usually are slow, so just exploring felt faster.

   I ran a staff + greatsword build, first using Chaos traits and adding Dueling at lvl 31. I started around low level maps and cities, then expanded on the next levels...  Around level 65-70 the small number of high maps means that you will find out sometimes a bit overleveled by the enemies, but if the difference isn't above 5 levels would work fine: Mesmer has plenty of tools. I only died twice: one one-shooted crossing a 35 level map with the character at level 12 (should have been more aware) and other at level 72 fighting a HP without having cleansed the area before. I did wear the armor and trinkets provided by the game, and only bough weapons 2 times in the whole leveling ~30 and ~60. Some of my gear at 80 was single stat and most of it two stats.

   Anyone moaning about Mesmer being "too hard to level up solo" is wrong. Easiest solo leveling I remember in 10.5 years playing GW2.

Mesmer was the first class I ever leveled, at launch. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Granted phantasms worked differently back then, but that seems like a minor issue. Clones do so much for you while learning the class.

[Ruisenior.6342]

Ranged classes will help alot. Take a look at Necromancer, Harbinger/Scourge specs are both good choices and they can easily be tuned to deal with any situation.