Coming Back Class

[Loboling.5293]

Hi fellow Tyrians,

I'm stuck trying to choose a class to focus on when I come back to the game. I became pretty disenchanted with the game around EoD and the new expansion didn't manage to kindle my interest. But recently, I've run out of alternatives that are equally enjoyable, so I'm coming back to gw2, to see if I can enjoy the new story and maybe do some pvp.  I would like to do both with a single character. 

I'm really interested in hearing what people think about the: Engineer, Revenant & Warrior; in the current state of the game and going into the new expansion.

While I'm a veteran with almost 10 years playing, I can't find any lasting enjoyment with any of the classes. Not enough to finish the story. So if I can just complete the story and have fun doing it, I would be happy with my pick. 

Engineer: As a previous Ele main, I enjoy complex gameplay, and the engineer is one of the most diverse classes in the game. It's the only class I got to 100% world completion back at launch. And when I didn't feel like playing Ele, I would swap to Engineer or Thief. I love the fast, combo gameplay, along with the concept of a diverse kit that keeps things interesting. I dislike the aesthetic/theme, as I work as an engineer in real life, and this doesn't get me as hyped as things I do in real life. So there isn't much sense of wonder, although the laser tech is pretty cool. 

Revenant: The revenant was my favorite class at HoT launch, and got me to abandon my Ele, Engie and Thief around that time. I loved the highly mobile gameplay that focused on being slippery in combat. I was mainly into PvP back then, and I loved the flexibility of the class. But eventually, I got tired of two things: bugs and rigidness of the class gameplay loop. The bugs would swap my utility bar order, changing my ability keybindings during combat. That drove me completely nuts when I didn't notice before a match, and found I had to relearn my class while playing a ranked game... The repetitiveness in the gameplay came from the loop of cycling to get back energy and popping everything you could. It felt a bit like the Thief. Which I found the least enjoyable for PvE. Revenant has my favorite Aesthetic, although, I don't really know much about the characters I channel. 

Warrior: The warrior is my favorite class to play when coming back to the game. I always find the gameplay loop very enjoyable and the class feels incredibly fluid, especially spellbreaker. I think spellbreaker is my favorite class for open world. (For a while). But the warrior gameplay does become stale after a while. There isn't much diversity in how you tackle a problem, like there is with Engineer and to a lesser extent Revenant. I want to love this class and commit to it, but I get bored eventually, and find my options don't leave me more than just 1 or 2 enjoyable gameplay loops. I get more out of both other classes, but they don't feel as fluid and enjoyable to play when I just want to pop a few pvp matches. With the release of the staff, I almost believe it could add more to the class, but I'm not convinced. Only core warrior gets t3 burst skills, and the staff seems to mostly just add heals to a class terribly focused for support. When I play Rev, I love to play as a healer, engineer is decent at it too. Warrior never felt good as support. Has that changed? 

 

Thanks for your time! 😁

Edit: I spent more time in the pvp lobby trying things out, and I've ruled out warrior. I feel staff is more of a personal sustain tool for warrior. So to truly have a variety of playstyles, I'd be better off with either Rev or Engie. 

Does anyone have any suggestions between the two?

Edited June 12 by Loboling.5293

[Dean Calaway.9718]

17 hours ago, Loboling.5293 said:

Does anyone have any suggestions between the two?

Flip a coin.

There's nothing anyone can say here that'll inform your personal taste better than the time you spent with them in PvP already.

[Loboling.5293]

I've been playing around with both classes and they both seem fun. I think I prefer the Revenant, but I'm worried about that old Revenant bug with skills swapping position.

Also, I worry I'll get bored before I finish the story again, so maybe engineer will give me enough diversity to make it through. I just wish they could change weapons in combat. 

So torn.... Going to fiddle around some more today and see if either of them stand out more from the other.

 

To reiterate, I want to take this character through the story, while completing open world objectives. I also want to use this character for PvP when I'm bored of doing story missions to break the monotony. 

Do engie and Rev have fun pvp builds right now?

I could just play my warrior there. I can never get over how fluid warrior feels. And if it had a few more ranged options and banners were actually interesting, I'd be sold. Support war feels bland. (At least it did before staff, and staff seems to mostly be a sustain weapon from my quick testing)

[StraightPath.3972]

On 6/11/2024 at 7:50 PM, Loboling.5293 said:

I feel staff is more of a personal sustain tool for warrior.

Hold it partner, to a warrior support main (in pvp) them's fighting words!
In all seriousness - that's a very poor argument for at least two reasons:
 

• personal sustain is huge on a healer - a dead healer can't heal.
• my healing to team is massive, often outpacing meta supports
• currently warr is the only one who can grant allies stacks of unblockable (and enemy guards hate it)
• staff gives huge mobility allowing you to be the roamer as well (moment of silence for guard supports here).

So as certain old Vampire would say: "Hate it, but do it honestly!".

[Dahkoht.5392]

As another returning player , the staff warrior sounds interesting , what elite spec do you go to continue being a staff warrior healer/support type ?

[Linken.6345]

14 minutes ago, Dahkoht.5392 said:

As another returning player , the staff warrior sounds interesting , what elite spec do you go to continue being a staff warrior healer/support type ?

I think it is berserker mate.

[Buran.3796]

On 6/11/2024 at 7:50 PM, Loboling.5293 said:

Does anyone have any suggestions between the two?

   I do play mostly Rev in PvP. My current "go to" build there is this one:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PmgAEZlZSHsTqhhSOsU6hpSfsSKgn1UW0D-D6gXGZmC9WBieCAAA

    Instead of the glassy canon played in MATs this build has plenty of sustain outside mobility and can edure teamfights. It loses all the ranged damage from the hammer, but IMO hammer doesn't even work well outside premaded teams. It has plenty of condi cleanses, good armor, regen access, tons of blocks and evades´Can stun enemies and provide stability if needed and defend himself against stealth users and their burst, a thing hammer Vindi struggles against.

[StraightPath.3972]

On 6/15/2024 at 5:42 AM, Dahkoht.5392 said:

As another returning player , the staff warrior sounds interesting , what elite spec do you go to continue being a staff warrior healer/support type ?

All of them work. 90% of warrior healing and boons come from core.
So here's what you get from each spec that others will be missing:
 

• Zerker - only one with quickness share
• Bladesworn - only one with alac share
• Spellbreaker - insanely hard to kill in spvp, best boon hate.
• Core - possibly strongest heals - without mandatory e-spec line you can easily go Discipline + Tactics and still squeeze in defense.

[Tinker.6924]

Out of those three choices i would definitely pick necromancer 😀  

But seriously…

Any reason thief isn’t an option for you? You played it in the past and  you liked it. It has plenty of options in builds, gameplay, requires lots of skill to play well (which you seem to be looking for) and its really strong in both pve and pvp. The few times I’ve beaten a thief 1v1 in pvp/wvw were reasons for me to celebrate because it’s so very rare for me. 

I would go with the revenant if you’re truly limiting your choices to engineer and revenant  I think many bugs have been fixed and it has 3 elite specs now and a few more legend choices and way more weapon choices now. Personally your comment about being an engineer in real life and not wanting to be one in game and knowing that mechanist, one of its currently strong specs, is incredibly simple to play, would lead me to revenant if i were in your shoes. 

 

 

[Obnoxa.6702]

On 6/20/2024 at 8:11 AM, Tinker.6924 said:

Out of those three choices i would definitely pick necromancer 😀  

🤣 +1

 

On 6/11/2024 at 1:50 PM, Loboling.5293 said:

Revenant:  The repetitiveness in the gameplay came from the loop of cycling to get back energy and popping everything you could.

Does anyone have any suggestions between the two?

I don't like any incarnation of Engi's, I never really have, so I wont speak about the pros or cons since I just haven't committed to one long enough to have a say - but I will point out the repetitiveness of Rev's is still a thing... and it will likely always be a thing just because of how the class is so keep that in mind.
I adore my Revenant absolutely, I love the whole aesthetic of the class, I love the toon herself - a Norn Havroun using the Mists to aid her in battle, since Havrouns mistwalk, it's perfect - but the repetition is still there so I tend to bounce between her and my Reaper since I get tired of it after a while myself.

At least we can move between the elites on it now, unlike HoT so there's that; but the ol' dump-swap-build is still behind it, leaving you with the rigidity of Rev rotation in all three specs in the end.
Though I haven't seen legend utilities random swap in years though, at least three, even post patch - so I think you are safe in that regard.

Edited June 21 by Obnoxa.6702

[Loboling.5293]

On 6/20/2024 at 8:11 AM, Tinker.6924 said:

Out of those three choices i would definitely pick necromancer 😀  

But seriously…

Any reason thief isn’t an option for you? You played it in the past and  you liked it. It has plenty of options in builds, gameplay, requires lots of skill to play well (which you seem to be looking for) and its really strong in both pve and pvp. The few times I’ve beaten a thief 1v1 in pvp/wvw were reasons for me to celebrate because it’s so very rare for me. 

I would go with the revenant if you’re truly limiting your choices to engineer and revenant  I think many bugs have been fixed and it has 3 elite specs now and a few more legend choices and way more weapon choices now. Personally your comment about being an engineer in real life and not wanting to be one in game and knowing that mechanist, one of its currently strong specs, is incredibly simple to play, would lead me to revenant if i were in your shoes. 

 

 

Funny enough... I settled on Thief in the end.. haha After I saw the new Spear, I got kind of hyped. And I went with Thief primarily so the story is still challenging in some ways, as they can still be squishy. The game gets boring when it's just a repetitive cycle of abilities and things just die. I just played cele vindicator to unlock the extra weapons and found it fun, but repetitive. 

Engineer is not a bad idea. But I just don't like classes with too many keybinds anymore. I even wrote a whole backstory for my character. 

So now I've unlocked the new weapons with Rev, (I played the story with sound off to avoid spoilers as much as possible) and learned it's not for me. I'm starting my adventure with my old favorite Thief. I do love the class for PvP and WvW roaming. Spears will be available for testing in a few days, so I'll know if I made a mistake. But kind of excited for combos with thief. Kind of like Sw/D kit, but even extended. 

I do wish they would do something with initiative generation, that encourages different skills. To reduce the drawback not for spamming one button always when it is the highest dps.

Anyway, wish me luck and thanks everyone who responded! So starts a new adventure this week. 😎

ps: I know the writing formatting could use a lot of work. But I wanted to share it, as it was just for fun to make my new character and the people here helped motivate me to get started back. 
 

Lobo Ling (Loboling)

Young Wolf

Background:

Forty-one years ago…

The King had summoned the two of them to his royal chamber to discuss something private… This made both Samantha Wolf & David Ling very nervous. They had never had the chance to personally meet with the King… The secrecy of the whole ordeal was extreme, but when dealing with royal matters, it’s best to keep your cards close to your chest…

(Inside the throne room)

The meeting was brief, but insightful. Both the Countess and the King described internal treachery and proof of it… In fact, we (Sam & David) had unknowingly been victims of this ordeal. Thinking it to be nothing more than a common burglary, our farms had both recently been ransacked by bandits. It turned out to be a much larger campaign that involved a lot more players than we even knew were on the board…

Our minds were swirling, but our resolve wasn’t. It was clear that this would continue, unless someone stepped up. And as recent victims of this conspiracy, we felt it was our obligation to help…

(End Scene)

We underwent 2 years of intensive training that made our years of tending to plant and beast seem like child’s work. The Countess educated us on stealth, subterfuge and combat… I wish there had been more training…

Thirty-nine years ago…

We joined the ranks of the White Mantle with minimal difficulty. It seemed they were pretty open about their recruiting if you knew where to look. But it wasn’t as simple as joining and getting in on the scope. We had learned from our training that the whole organization is compartmentalised; and the mouth does in fact, not know what the hand is doing…

We would need to infiltrate quite deep if we wanted to get the answers we needed…

Both of us pretended to be a couple that had come down on hard times, and was looking for a score to keep our bellies full. The truth was closer than even we realized. It wasn’t before long that actual emotions started to brew and things swung out of hand pretty soon.

Thirty-Five years ago…

With the birth of the Lobo Ling, things became complicated for our spies…

They had additional resources from the Countess delivered to them by courier at random times. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to tide them over. There was no way of contacting the Countess without risking their cover, and food was short in supply.

Maybe it was desperation, or maybe some higher instinct, but eventually David’s pockets grew a little larger with each run, and a little more full…

He was stealing from the White Mantle to feed their child…

(End Scene)

Little Wolf was born in a quiet village south of the Delanian Foothills. Although he wouldn’t be there for long… He travelled with his parents far and wide; it seemed the world was endlessly vast. The reason for this was his parent’s secret mission to expose a White Mantle plot given to them by the King himself… They were to infiltrate their ranks and expose who was backing them from within the council.

Lobo was privy to this from an early age, his parents taught and trained him, and his circumstances forced him to grow up quickly. Both the King and the White Mantle couldn’t learn about his existence, and his only education came from his parents. This was for the first 3 years of his life though…

Before his parents got killed….

Thirty-two years ago…

It took nearly three years for a mistake to cost David almost everything… Well, it cost him  and his wife everything. Samantha was doing laundry, and David was in the shower when they came at night…

They set fire to the house and killed both David and Samantha when they fled. Luckily they had a small safe room built for Lobo in case anything should happen and he needed to hide. It had it’s own air supply and was built beneath the house…

Hours later, as his parents instructed him, he left the enclosure and found only destruction around. The fire had turned everything to ashes. And his parents were no where to be found. But he waited patiently for days until the hunger got hold of him and the thirst was too much to bear.

He drank water and fell asleep by a stream… Hungry, sad and alone…

He awoke to the smell of food cooking by the fire and noticed a tall woman wearing a cloak standing by the fire. She called him over and asked if he was hungry. Telling him she had found him by the stream and he seemed to be in bad shape.

I explained that I was looking for my parents and she understood. But told me that my parents had not been seen in days and for safety reasons, I should come with her to Divinity’s Reach where I can get a safe night’s rest and food and drink. It wasn’t safe for a young boy to be about.

I’m not sure what it was that made me follow. I was usually so obstinate with strangers. But something in me commanded me to follow. Like I could trust this person…

1 day ago…

Lobo had gotten mixed up in so much trouble growing up, you’d think he was the devil’s child himself…

In and out of orphanages, and never having reunited with his parents. This little rascal had become quite the headache for the citizens of Divinities Reach, but all that was about to change. And had been gradually changing.

Something inside Lobo called him to a greater purpose. But he couldn’t tell what it was. For now, he made a living stealing and tricking others into giving him what he needed. It wasn’t a noble life, but it was honest in its own way. If he ate one night depended on his success that day. He was ruthless and cunning, but also increasingly kind and compassionate.

He didn’t want other children to go through the kind of life he had. He wanted to stop needless violence. Why kill when you can simply steal…

This is the story of how our young boy became the Young Wolf… Loboling.

Edited June 21 by Loboling.5293