Profession and build for a solo player that only play with strangers

[CoOloKey.6758]

Guys help for a "new" player here.

I have been trying to get into GW2 for many years since I bought the base game during 2013 and the HoT expansion a few years later, however I have always had trouble staying with the game, I always play a few weeks or days and always drop it for the same problem returning years later.

This problem being "I have no idea what I'm doing with my character", amazingly enough this is a serious problem I have with any kind of game that requires character creation, I love RPG games, but I have no creativity to create or tell if a build is good by myself.

I'm the kind of guy who loves to follow a pre-established and reliable path, and not have to worry about thinking about the whole build process like gears, skills and rotations at the beginning of a game and just focus on the gameplay and mechanics, because I hate late to know that I chose a "wrong" or "not ideal" profession for what I want to do in the game, that is pve content. I know this goes against the concept of most MMORPG players follow, but it is what works for me unfortunately.

After this long and maybe unnecessary explanation about me, could someone point me in a direction about these subjects bellow, because searching through google I always end up with information from years ago that I can't tell if it still applies to the game today or not:

A build for a profession/specialization that is available in the base game + HoT (since I don't plan on buying any more expansions for now) that is viable for doing as much content as possible playing solo, but that still has some utility in group content with strangers without the need to beg for a slot.

Basically a profession that say "I don't like to depend on other people to make content that is viable to do solo, but I also don't want to be begging for slots in random groups, or depend on a specific group of friends because my profession is not ideal or to niche for group content."

A leveling guide for such build, like what gears to get and what points to put, what rotations and skills to use as I level until the build is complete.

Sorry if this post sounds like I hate MMOPRGs or socializing with other people, but it's really not that, I love the idea of progression that MMORPGs offer since I have been playing them for 12 years now, but I have a difficulty time in having a fixed group or friends for content, because I play only when I feel like to do it and only when I have the time, this is why I literally hate spending time begging other people for group when I could be doing other things in the game, or games that have content that is not viable to do with strangers and need a well coordinated group of people for "obligatory" weekly content (looking at you Lost Ark).

Thanks for all the help.

Edited February 26, 2023 by CoOloKey.6758

[Gibson.4036]

You’re not going to find a lot of “at level 50 take this trait” kind of stuff because leveling happens crazy fast in this game, and the story and open world are tuned to the easy side. You can level to 80 largely on the gear you get for leveling, doing story, and drops.

Hardstuck.gg has a fairly thorough guide that will walk you through the professions and basics. I believe the have “core” builds which is what you’ll use for leveling. Metabattle also has a core build.

With a few exceptions, elite specs are superior to core, so if you find a core build it’s likely to be a leveling build.

Be prepared, though, that you’re going to have a moderate relearn of your character at level 80 when you get enough hero points for an elite spec.

[Elricht Kaltwind.8796]

Yeah just mess around to level 80 and then once you're level 80 look at some PvE builds online and just go off of that. That's what half the people in the game do anyway lol

[Acanthus.8120]

To preface: Ironically, at least getting Path of Fire and at least getting a Springer with high jump and getting canyon jump on the Raptor would make Heart of Thorns significantly easier for you. If you decide to do this, Firebrand Guardian with celestial stats becomes objectively the easiest class to learn in because it's the best generalist and uses every stat effectively.

If, no matter what, you only want to play base game + Heart of Thorns, I would recommend Revenant. Herald, their elite spec, is versatile and can function as pdps, support pdps, or even a healer. It can also run celestial in open world relatively effectively, which is what you get from your level 80 boost if you have one.

[CoOloKey.6758]

Thanks all, so what I can tell from the replies is that the builds does not start before level 80, now makes sense that I can't find much about leveling guides, since I have a level 80 boost I can use it right from the start without losing any "content related experience", correct?

About the professions, Revenant will fit my needs for the time be? I do intend to at least get Path of Fire as soon as possible, but not before a 50% sale or some other discount, that from what I saw usually happens frequently, even more so considering that I already have HoT.

Additional question, I saw that the first party store only sells Path of Fire as bundle with HoT or am I wrong? Or is there a third party official retail that sells only Path of Fire keys? if not, the bundle will be.

About the Revenant any specific build that I should do and look information about?

Edited February 26, 2023 by CoOloKey.6758

[Acanthus.8120]

32 minutes ago, CoOloKey.6758 said:

Thanks all, so what I can tell from the replies is that the builds does not start before level 80, now makes sense that I can't find much about leveling guides, since I have a level 80 boost I can use it right from the start without losing any "content related experience", correct?

About the professions Revenant will feat my needs for the time be? I do intend to at least get Path of Fire as soon as possible, but not before a 50% sale or some other discount, that from what I saw usually happens frequently, even more so considering that I already have HoT.

Additional question, I saw that the first party store only sells Path of Fire as bundle with HoT or am I wrong? Or is there a third party official retail that sells only Path of Fire keys? if not, the bundle will be.

About the Revenant any specific build that I should do and look information about?

So, what happens when you use the level 80 boost is that it warps you directly to the Silverwastes map, puts you in level 80 exotic celestial gear (one step below max stat gear, which is ascended), and gives you a preset set of traits that you can change at anytime. You can go back and do your story at anytime, and you won't have any map progress besides where you've been.

Regarding bundles, while I don't know how it works for expansions, in the regular shop, when you own partial content in a bundle, that content gets deducted from the bundle. Check the price on the website and cross-reference the cost while logged in.

Early on, your build will look something like this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PmwAYxzlxQKMPyi1RXMOCjRSiMCqgJ/larE-zxIU1o+/MiQVluU1jDAA-e Although you can take Retribution over Devastation if you want more tankiness and slightly less damage. Getting a hammer would be alright too. Bizarrely, that's the ranged weapon of Revenant, and not every fight favors melee.

if you want to run as a healer, take Salvation in place of Devastation, camp staff, and run Legendary Centaur in place of Legendary Assassin. No matter what, you want to take Legendary Dragon for quickness. And Invocation (the traitline) is basically required.

Edit: Forgot to explain how to get elite specs. So, the first trait to unlock the spec is 30 hero points. After that, the price drops to 10 or something with occasional 15s. In core, every hero point on the map is 1 for 1. In expansion content, all hero points on the map are worth 10. Hilariously, HoT content is the hardest of the 3 for hero points despite being first made.

Edited February 26, 2023 by Acanthus.8120

[Buran.3796]

  Leveling from 1 to 80 without boosters, crafting, dungeons or even hearts (just discovering the maps, completing vistas, points of interest, Hero Points...) will take you 24-28 hours. If you chose to do it with a Revenant I will recomend you to use a condi build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PmwAkeZlhQHMJyhFRNMI6hBSfMBKgjuSfKD-zxIY8o7vUSoA6KByMC6ME8fA-e

  Buy cheap gear with condi stats at level 30, then again with condi and vitality at level 60-65. That would carry you easily to 80. Don't bother buying runes or sigils before. If you chose to craft below 80, do it to earn xp (rising a craftmaship from 1 to 400 gives you 80 chacarter levels, but is better to use this with alt chacareters once you have some stuff in the bank to do the craft. Do also the dailies in low lwvel maps: the total cost of your gear purchased at level 30 and 60 wouldn't cost more than 3-4 gold coins. I say this as a vetaran which recently rised manually two characters to 80 despite having enough knownledge tomes to instantly rise two dozens pof chacarters to max level... And I did it just for fun.

Edited February 26, 2023 by Buran.3796

[CoOloKey.6758]

Thanks all for the help and your time, this was really helpful, for now I will use the boost to level 80 and start enjoying and learn the game, thanks again.