Can't Decide On A Main - Despite 1.8k Hours In...

[Not Trying.4901]

I know there's been many posts like this, but mines comes from a more experienced and technical stand point.

To start I have one-itis so toon swapping will never be a thing for me, alts are nothing but daily parking farm spots, storage, and birthday present accumulators - even my retired mains.

Mesmer - The whole aesthetic is rather lame to me, sorry! - Only redeeming quality for me is the portal, but that's not nearly good enough to carry it on its own, plus I don't like being a clothie, let alone one with low HP

Elementalist - Never played one, sounds good on paper, gives me the vibes of potentially being the best class if you master the extremely high skill ceiling compared to the other classes, but my gripe with it is it's so kitten squishy, you get jumped by something unexpectedly, especially in pvp or wvw, it's over. Granted the downed state movement skill is busted. - The aesthetic isn't really there for me either, and no skills besides the down state 2 stand out to me, staff fire 5 is kind of OP in wvw zergs, but that's it.

Necromancer - I love the skull mask, the high hp pool, minion master, and the tankyness from shrouds, but that's it. The rest of the class feels rather, sluggish, harbinger is meta and overplayed, I really try to avoid overplayed classes (going to mention this a lot in the hunter bit). The aesthetic really isn't there for me either, and all other skills are a snoozefest.

Ranger - Has some potential, all the specs sound entertaining in their own right, traps are always a thing I like, would be fun to collect all the pets, longbow range is where it's at, aesthetic is o k a y, I'm not much of a nature person, and pets are a boon, not something I really want. But that's about it for me for the class. I'd be playing it souly to abuse the longbow 5 on zergs acting as a impromptu arrow cart. The rest of the skills are rather boring to me. But then you're basically just a mage using fire staff 5.

Thief - Also has potential, the rogue look is good, but the concept of constantly hiding in a fight is not only just annoying in general (to fight), but I would have to be in the mindset of just trolling, otherwise I would feel like a complete chicken, a sissy, a letter P kitty cat. I like the idea of just one shotting people with some burst builds, but then the ability to solo any big group of enemies, or champions basically goes out the window, due to stealth resets, and general squishiness, ESPICALLY if you're using a rifle. Not to mention it suffers from the boring skills situation.

Engineer - I feel like this is my calling, all skills are generally hilarious, cool, and unique, (except for you mechs), I LOVE turrets, but sadly they're generally garbage., all the gadgets are nice, it's tanky and can pretty much do everything - but here's where the problem lies. Toolkits, and weapons swapping. Since you're unable to weapon swap, you're basically required to use toolkits, I dislike all toolkits because either the whole kit isn't fun, or just sucks. Here's my POV, flamethrower, just spam skill 1, everything else MEH, fun and funny, useful in some scenarios, but feels gimmicky. - Bombs nobody uses for obvious reason -  grenades & mortar same thing, boring aoe spam - elixir only used for the condi purge and leap, boring - Toolkit the pull and block, boring - Medkit has ALL the potential of being the GOAT, but sadly a complete lack of bandage dropping and self sustain involved ruins it for me. My 2nd most played class.

Warrior - Another class I feel like I could main, SUPER tanky, funny physical skills, bladesworn is fun in pve, but here's the problem for me. Lack of any form of good ranged combat. You're basically required to chase people around all day, and in big zerg fights you're basically useless, bow, and guns are boring, so I would basically build it to be a tanky gimmick character.

Revenant - Most played, over half my played time souly because of the vindicator, just all around strong and hilarious to play, I hate revenant completely, outside of it, I hate being so slow, I hate my lack of range (Hammer is boring and sucks don't @ me), short bow is only 900 range, you can't work much with that, I HATE not being able to switch any skills out, only stances. You may ask then "Why don't you just play revenant then, you play it so much you clearly have a preference for it" or something along those lines, the answer? - I'm literally just playing this because I'm the most familiar with it, and only play it to farm for my eventual main, I'll sooner have a full set of legendaries, before a main at this rate... Plus I don't want to have to re-gear another toon I don't even know if I'll like anymore than what I'm playing now, and wasting time doing so, I've done this a lot, as to why I'm making this post.

Guardian - Generally boring to me, and overplayed. I love the traps but I feel I must build pure glass cannon to even make use of them, but then it ruins most gameplay in the game, because you'll be generally garbage as a full trapper, not to mention they ruined the nearly perma stealth perma superspeed with the removal of the trapper runes. Firebrand is a hard no due to it basically being the most overplayed thing in the game outside of soulbeast, and willbender is up there too.

Summary / TLDR - All of my playtime has been just toon swapping to find something I like, haven't truly found it yet, skill quirkiness means a lot to me, as well as survivability, and the ability to solo most content, having a good ranged compacity is a huge plus, as well as some mobility that doesn't require very much if at all no investment. Having the quickness boon up nearly 24/7 is a plus.

[Dadnir.5038]

You can't decide on a main? From what I see I can tell you're Not trying. 😉

[Joncal.9623]

If you push away the BIG DEEPS mentality to the side you'll have more fun exploring and finding your main.

I personally hate weapon swapping classes (altho mesmer is/was my main- pain!) and tend to stick with Elementalist or Engineers while also avoiding conjure and toolbelt weapon BS. :c
I'm a-OK with giving up X amount of pewpew if I can avoid that horrid mechanic.

Edited October 14, 2023 by Joncal.9623

[Sirvaleen.1379]

Not sure in which gamemodes you're playing the most but for thief, in case you didn't yet you can try out Specter - technically do not rely on stealth, even in wvw.

For engineer, same but with Holo - the forge can be your only toolkit, with or without FT.

[Not Trying.4901]

8 hours ago, Dadnir.5038 said:

You can't decide on a main? From what I see I can tell you're Not trying. 😉

Why yooouuuu!!!

[Puck.3697]

Well if ur looking for a main on the lower end of the spectrum regarding popularity

Revenant

Elementalist

Thief

Warrior

Are likely the classes for you.

You said u hate everything outside of vindi on Revenant, which leaves it unreccomendable. 

Elementalist, uve never tried. 

Warrior you don't like restricted to melee only combat. 

So ur looking at thief or elementalist. 

You show more like the thief cosmetically. So overall I'd say of the list maybe try main thief. 

 

Edited October 14, 2023 by Puck.3697

[Jedrik.3109]

Having a main is cringe.

[Not Trying.4901]

1 hour ago, Jedrik.3109 said:

Having a main is cringe.

Nou

 

3 hours ago, Puck.3697 said:

Well if ur looking for a main on the lower end of the spectrum regarding popularity

Revenant

Elementalist

Thief

Warrior

Are likely the classes for you.

You said u hate everything outside of vindi on Revenant, which leaves it unreccomendable. 

Elementalist, uve never tried. 

Warrior you don't like restricted to melee only combat. 

So ur looking at thief or elementalist. 

You show more like the thief cosmetically. So overall I'd say of the list maybe try main thief. 

 

My problem with thief though is Champs and groups of mobs are impossible to take on, unless you build non-squish, but then I feel that defeats the purpose of the class.

[Puck.3697]

2 hours ago, Not Trying.4901 said:

Nou

 

My problem with thief though is Champs and groups of mobs are impossible to take on, unless you build non-squish, but then I feel that defeats the purpose of the class.

Problem is, classes that are capable of that, are ones uve discounted. You have to remember. Classes capable of soloing to that level without building non squish are overplayed for that reason. 

If u look at logs ironically necro isn't the most played as a example, the major reason necro is most played is because of open world. 

[fatihso.7258]

Don’t need a main in this game. Have 9 characters and play all. 

[draxynnic.3719]

Feels like you've identified what your primary contenders would be, but you've also identified what many of the people who do main warrior and/or engineer have been complaining about for years.

Giving elementalist a try would probably be worthwhile. Use an 80 boost if you can - celestial gear does wonders for elementalist squishiness without actually losing as much damage as you'd think, and elementalist in sPvP can be surprisingly durable in the hands of a good player since the low base health can be offset by damage mitigation, ample self-healing, and possibly amulet choice.

I would also observe that 'non-squish' isn't so out of place for thief either. If you want to solo champs, celestial dagger deadeye is one of the stronger builds. Like elementalist, and for similar reasons, the build is able to use cele gear for a big survivability boost but a low DPS loss when soloing.

[Dalent.9358]

As a primarily PvE (Raid, Strike, and Fractal) player with some WvW, I have this problem still after 10 years. Necromancer was my main for years, but I was never happy with it and I just ultimately decided to retire it. In my search to find a main, I learned a few things: 1.) I hate alts, but this game is so alt friendly most of my hatred is moot. 2.) The flexibility of learning multiple  roles and professions is a better tradeoff.

When it comes to raids, I have a static I run with, and outside of Necromancer roles, I will play whatever my Commander ask me to play. Every profession has at least one thing I like to do somewhere. If I need to do Heal-Alac, I can grab my Tempest, Renegade, or Druid and forget the Scourge even exists. Sure, does this mean I have 9 8 geared professions with multiple builds? Yes, but that gear comes so readily when you're doing the content.

Outside of raids is a different topic, and I've basically become a meme to my guild. I want to have a consistent character to do map completion, story, dailies, and impromptu raids/strikes on. Have I found that? Sometimes I feel I have. I've made at least five different spreadsheets with breakdowns of what I like about each profession and their elites and their aesthetics and weapon options and what I'm comfortable doing. Works a treat, but I also love making spreadsheets.

[Not Trying.4901]

3 hours ago, Dalent.9358 said:

As a primarily PvE (Raid, Strike, and Fractal) player with some WvW, I have this problem still after 10 years. Necromancer was my main for years, but I was never happy with it and I just ultimately decided to retire it. In my search to find a main, I learned a few things: 1.) I hate alts, but this game is so alt friendly most of my hatred is moot. 2.) The flexibility of learning multiple  roles and professions is a better tradeoff.

When it comes to raids, I have a static I run with, and outside of Necromancer roles, I will play whatever my Commander ask me to play. Every profession has at least one thing I like to do somewhere. If I need to do Heal-Alac, I can grab my Tempest, Renegade, or Druid and forget the Scourge even exists. Sure, does this mean I have 9 8 geared professions with multiple builds? Yes, but that gear comes so readily when you're doing the content.

Outside of raids is a different topic, and I've basically become a meme to my guild. I want to have a consistent character to do map completion, story, dailies, and impromptu raids/strikes on. Have I found that? Sometimes I feel I have. I've made at least five different spreadsheets with breakdowns of what I like about each profession and their elites and their aesthetics and weapon options and what I'm comfortable doing. Works a treat, but I also love making spreadsheets.

I'll likely end up playing every class just up until I unlock all achievements tied to them I.E pvp achievements, elite spec weapon achievements, etc.

But at the end of the day I'll be hard stuck to one toon to do literally everything on. I got OCD and when I got a main, they must have maxed professions, 100% finished all story, 100% ALL world exploration, including guild halls so there's less fog, etc, etc.

On 10/14/2023 at 6:41 AM, Sirvaleen.1379 said:

Not sure in which gamemodes you're playing the most but for thief, in case you didn't yet you can try out Specter - technically do not rely on stealth, even in wvw.

For engineer, same but with Holo - the forge can be your only toolkit, with or without FT.

interesting, didn't know holosmith counted as a weapon swap. I do like the sound of the class in general, but I just feel I've always been more of a scrapper.

[overgun.5726]

 I don't think anything fits the bill for you. Maybe approach it from "The class I dislike the least". Looks like Ranger or Thief is the option you'd like the most. 

[Puck.3697]

On 10/16/2023 at 9:49 PM, overgun.5726 said:

 I don't think anything fits the bill for you. Maybe approach it from "The class I dislike the least". Looks like Ranger or Thief is the option you'd like the most. 

Dont think its a case of "dislikes everything" more, its hard to find 1 class u like every game mode with haha 

[Apraxis.4803]

I think you're making this wayyyyy too complicated 😅 just make some RP builds since u have these fantastical pre-conceived notions in ur head of what each class "should" be. Also some insufferably cringe takes sprinkled throughout the post but that's just me having my own insufferable opinion 

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

At this point, why even have a main?  Just do what I do and play whatever you want for the day.  

[kash.9213]

On 10/14/2023 at 2:24 PM, Not Trying.4901 said:

Nou

 

My problem with thief though is Champs and groups of mobs are impossible to take on, unless you build non-squish, but then I feel that defeats the purpose of the class.

About your earlier comment, you don't have to sit in Stealth most of the time, especially with how Shadow Arts has been reworked. It can be a lot more beneficial to go into and out of Stealth more frequently for sustainability. Even without SA, you don't have to camp it. 

As long as you're not entirely glass and you're not a potato when you're on a core build, you can take on all of that in open world and that includes core. All of the Elites have trait options for feedback loops to sustain. Secondary modifiers from primary actions, like Life Leech on Interrupt or extra damage from crits or whatever should get you into a nice groove if you're talking about mob to mob kill rate during map travel in open PvE or WvW. 

The purpose of the thief class is to capitalize on opportunities, improvise, and sustain with deliberate mitigation using your Initiative. Your choice of skill and Initiative pool expenditure will make use of a space offensively and defensively and that's how you stay in a fight because you won't have innate padding around your Health pool or a lot of passive mitigation. 

A Stealth heavy build is valid, but I can't remember my last build that used Stealth heavily. I use it in my sequences for Protection and Barrier to keep people up but most of the time I'm thinking about Stealth for masking my map travel. I'd think about it more if I was trying to land a Malicious Backstab or something, but thinking ahead and reading body language is more helpful to me if I need to dip in or bounce. 

Edited October 19, 2023 by kash.9213

[Buran.3796]

On 10/14/2023 at 10:24 AM, Not Trying.4901 said:

Warrior - Another class I feel like I could main, SUPER tanky, funny physical skills, bladesworn is fun in pve, but here's the problem for me. Lack of any form of good ranged combat. You're basically required to chase people around all day, and in big zerg fights you're basically useless, bow, and guns are boring, so I would basically build it to be a tanky gimmick character.

Revenant - Most played, over half my played time souly because of the vindicator, just all around strong and hilarious to play, I hate revenant completely, outside of it, I hate being so slow, I hate my lack of range (Hammer is boring and sucks don't @ me), short bow is only 900 range, you can't work much with that, I HATE not being able to switch any skills out, only stances. You may ask then "Why don't you just play revenant then, you play it so much you clearly have a preference for it" or something along those lines, the answer? - I'm literally just playing this because I'm the most familiar with it, and only play it to farm for my eventual main, I'll sooner have a full set of legendaries, before a main at this rate... Plus I don't want to have to re-gear another toon I don't even know if I'll like anymore than what I'm playing now, and wasting time doing so, I've done this a lot, as to why I'm making this post.

   I think it would help to known which are exactly your preferred game modes, since oftenly a build which works well at PvE doesn't at WvW and viceversa.   

   Celestial berserker with either long bow + hammer or long bow + sword torch work very well at WvW/PvE and has range, which seems to be one of your likes.

   I run a Vindicator WvW build with tons of mobility and good mix of range and mele using short bow & greatsword; does well at (solo) PvE also:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PmgAEVlxQHsOqhxROMP6hRSfMCKgn1UVsF-D2IY1o6/QiUElpUtXFhIvEkAB29fGCY5RzKA-w

 

[Raarsi.6798]

So some things to do from someone who has gone through this cycle for years in GW2:

1. Take a break from the game.  Seriously, the more you spin your wheels on this, the less you're going to enjoy the game overall.  TAKE. A. BREAK!!
2. While on that break, step back and think about what game modes you want to focus on (OW, PvE, WvW, etc).  Prioritize one or two because there is a possibility that you might want multiple classes for multiple game modes, and that's okay. 
3. When you do eventually come back from that break and pick a character to work on, focus on what exact features you want out of a class (theme, playstyle, ranged vs. melee, etc.), and forget about factors like how much dps it does or if everyone and their dog is playing it.

For me personally, I main a warrior because it's usually simple (because my brain can't handle rotations requiring a PhD in math), consistently tanky (because dodging is hard), and I mostly focus on bladesworn because their gunsaber is a ranged weapon and dragon trigger goes boom.  While I've never been a fan of playing classes that everyone is playing, GW2-Statistics has always listed warrior in the top half of popular classes, yet not very often do I see people playing it.  Prior to that, I played a revenant for the longest time (HoT to the start of EoD), and had to stop because if I had to play alacrigade one more time, I would've thrown my computer out the window.

I also started playing a reaper, and despite necromancer being one of the most popular classes right now, I'm enjoying myself because it's easy high damage and tankiness that requires maybe no more than three brain cells.

[Puck.3697]

1 hour ago, Raarsi.6798 said:

While I've never been a fan of playing classes that everyone is playing, GW2-Statistics has always listed warrior in the top half of popular classes, yet not very often do I see people playing it.  Prior to that, I played a revenant for the longest time (HoT to the start of EoD), and had to stop because if I had to play alacrigade one more time, I would've thrown my computer out the window

Because it isnt top half, remember gw2 statistics measure based on from the launch of the game til now, if u want actual lists, find a linked list from like EoD launch and then find the differences between numbers. 

Thief and warrior have by far had the least hours / characters made since PoF, warrior is by no extent popular. 

However Warrior and elementalists dominated the numbers during earlier times in the game which is ment they simply started miles higher 

@OP

The issue ur having is ur looking for a class with no downsides, that doesn't exist im afraid, if u intend to main a class its a case of picking the class thats worth dealing with the downsides to continously play. 

Ur never gonna find 1 class that ticks every box. 

I chose thief through many downfalls, however I know I can log on every day and there's something I can do with my thief that I will enjoy. 

Regardless of WvWvW, spvp or pve, regardless of balance or downfalls I enjoy it :) and that alone is a the best reason to be logging on daily. 

Edited October 23, 2023 by Puck.3697

[Antrix.4512]

6 hours ago, Puck.3697 said:

Because it isnt top half, remember gw2 statistics measure based on from the launch of the game til now, if u want actual lists, find a linked list from like EoD launch and then find the differences between numbers. 

Thief and warrior have by far had the least hours / characters made since PoF, warrior is by no extent popular. 

However Warrior and elementalists dominated the numbers during earlier times in the game which is ment they simply started miles higher 

@OP

The issue ur having is ur looking for a class with no downsides, that doesn't exist im afraid, if u intend to main a class its a case of picking the class thats worth dealing with the downsides to continously play. 

Ur never gonna find 1 class that ticks every box. 

I chose thief through many downfalls, however I know I can log on every day and there's something I can do with my thief that I will enjoy. 

Regardless of WvWvW, spvp or pve, regardless of balance or downfalls I enjoy it 🙂 and that alone is a the best reason to be logging on daily. 

This might be the most accurate description of the entire situation regarding choosing a main. There's no perfect choice, and no matter what, the "grass is always greener" effect will always be in play to some degree - it will always seem like another class has something better.

2 OP: I also agree that, for me, the Thief, despite its minor (in my opinion) drawbacks, is probably the most versatile and self-sufficient class. I'm not sure how else to describe it. I once posted a wall of text about this on the forum, but in short, I can only say that with this class, there's a sense of freedom in the game, perhaps? If you're interested, here are some advantages I see in this class (your opinion may differ from mine):

• Mobility. There's no class more mobile in the game, regardless of what anyone says about the Willbender.
• Versatility and self-sufficiency - we have a toolkit for every situation, be it OW, Fractals, PvP, and so on.
• Self-sustain - the best head-to-head survivability after the Revenant, with the most potent self-heal.
• The most engaging healer. Very (VERY) challenging to master but highly rewarding in the end.
• A plethora of utilities - teleports, endless stealth, portals, and so much more. And probably the most diverse specs, in my opinion.
• Nobody loves us - this is one of my favorite points. It's delightful to see all those forum posts like "remove this class from the game, take away their stealth, they run away when I attack them, why am I even paying you?!?!?!"
• The most beautiful transmog.
• The most juicy and impactful skills in the game.
• And much much more...

As for the downsides? I don't even know; I can't gather my thoughts on this matter. It's not that I'm fanatical about the Thief, but its drawbacks are so insignificant (for me) that I can't even list them off the top of my head. Maybe underwater combat skills? But underwater combat in the game is terrible and garbage mechanic in general. Maybe also that there isn't (in my personal opinion) a deity for the human race that best suits this class? But that's neither here nor there. I'm hard-pressed to pinpoint any cons.

In any case, as already suggested, you might need a break, or as I believe, the class should choose you, not the other way around.

Edited October 24, 2023 by Antrix.4512

[draxynnic.3719]

10 hours ago, Antrix.4512 said:

It's not that I'm fanatical about the Thief, but its drawbacks are so insignificant (for me) that I can't even list them off the top of my head. Maybe underwater combat skills? But underwater combat in the game is terrible and garbage mechanic in general. Maybe also that there isn't (in my personal opinion) a deity for the human race that best suits this class? But that's neither here nor there. I'm hard-pressed to pinpoint any cons.

Thief has pretty good underwater weapons, IMO. As for deities - you can basically look to the deities that assassins followed in GW1. Lyssa if you focus on trickery, Grenth if you think of the character more as an assassin-y character or focus on the shadow side of things. Mind you, there are ways to justify pretty much any of them.

I think some cons are that it can be very squishy and unforgiving of mistakes if you do go glass (covered for somewhat due to having a lot of evade frames and thief being a profession that works well with celestial in open world, but there are some effects that can either hurt you a lot right away or stick you with an unbreakable CC), a lot of weapons have forced movement which can be a problem in some situations, some weaponsets can feel a bit repetitive through just using the same skills all the time (subjective), and a lack of a quickheal build. Broadly speaking, though, a lot of thief's past downsides have been fixed over the years. 

[Antrix.4512]

3 hours ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

I think some cons are that it can be very squishy and unforgiving of mistakes if you do go glass

Hm... You know, you're right about this one. "Glass cannon" is really unforgivable in case of Thief.

[Puck.3697]

3 hours ago, Antrix.4512 said:

Hm... You know, you're right about this one. "Glass cannon" is really unforgivable in case of Thief.

I think the major con of thief is its typically pigeon holed in what it does. 

It can be good in spvp but only as a decapper. 

Jt can do WvWvW but only as a solo runner. 

It can do roles, but it tends to fit more of a niche then have the sort spread other classes can faciliate. Spectre was a good move in pve however to try and expand this, as prior thief rly was only ever a dps. 

However as many as pointed out on the thief page, there are things thief does really really well. It just doesn't have that "I can do everything" build which is seen as a flaw. 

That will be considered a con in meta-ists eyes ofcourse, there's nothing a thief cannot do, it's just people will make the argument other options do it better. 

I love my thief though and I rly couldn't care if "another class is more efficent" pve is so power crept at this point the arguments are futile, u can bring just about anything in alot of cases and clear the content absolutely fine. 

And our role in spvp maybe niche in terms of what we fill but tbh, thieves dominated the spvp enviroment because of how good it was at this role. 

And yeh glass cannon haha, I running cele condi DE tho resolves alot of issues in open world solo 

Edited October 24, 2023 by Puck.3697