Class to boost question

[heroicfish.8243]

Hey guys,

I'm like a week old in this game and just bought the expansions because of the sale and I'm loving it, the graphics and combat are great even only using the action camera

I'm wondering if anyone can tell me a strong class to boost up with my 80 boost so that I can get my first mount to use on my alts? And maybe something a new player could do some more of the PoF content with after boosting without too much trouble due to my inexperience?

Right now I have an engineer I'm most experienced with at lvl 22, a mesmer, a thief, a guardian, and an elementalist I haven't logged into kek

Would any of those be good to boost up to 80 and do some PoF content with even if I'm not much experienced with the elite specs or class in general?

I'd most love a daredevil, scrapper (or holo?), or mirage if those would be doable for a new player

tysm <34

[Cyninja.2954]

It is in general advised to not boost as new player, and if at all only boost to play the first PoF mission for access to the raptor. The class you boost WILL overwhelm you, not to mention you will be completely lost at 80, both story wise as well as content wise.

The general recommendation I would give is, boost a class which:

• you are absolutely uninterested in leveling (or which can be a pain to level like elementalist or mesmer)
• a class which you are willing to shelve for later
• a class which gets a semi useful stat combination of exotics when boosted (basically only Necromancer with rabid gear or Thief with Valkyrie gear. All other professions receive soldier gear, which is trash)

Between the classes you mentioned you are interested in, you could boost a necromancer to get the raptor, then play your thief naturally to 80 and beyond if looking at useful gear. As alternative you could boost the mesmer instead of the necromancer, and skip the mesmer leveling. That class will be a lot more complex than necromancer though.

[heroicfish.8243]

@Cyninja.2954 said:It is in general advised to not boost as new player, and if at all only boost to play the first PoF mission for access to the raptor. The class you boost WILL overwhelm you, not to mention you will be completely lost at 80, both story wise as well as content wise.

The general recommendation I would give is, boost a class which:

• you are absolutely uninterested in leveling (or which can be a pain to level like elementalist or mesmer)
• a class which you are willing to shelve for later
• a class which gets a semi useful stat combination of exotics when boosted (basically only Necromancer with rabid gear or Thief with Valkyrie gear. All other professions receive soldier gear, which is trash)

Between the classes you mentioned you are interested in, you could boost a necromancer to get the raptor, then play your thief naturally to 80 and beyond if looking at useful gear. As alternative you could boost the mesmer instead of the necromancer, and skip the mesmer leveling. That class will be a lot more complex than necromancer though.

with what you're saying about thief and Valkyrie, would that be something doable to play a bit further into pof and get more of the mounts? or do you think it could only do the first mission? I'm not too into leveling one but would like something I could unlock other stuff with to make leveling alts up easier

also, is mesmer quite difficult to level up through the maps? I was thinking the clones would make it easier lol

I suppose I'm not very interested in necro, would be kinda sad to boost it as a class I don't really want to play yet when I'm more into mesmer, thief, guardian, ele, and engineer (only have 5 slots rn) but ehhh.. I guess I could drop guardian until I save the gold to get more char slots.. would necro with the rabid gear be able to do more pof content and maybe do some stuff to make endgame gold so I can save up for gems? don't really have cash rn to buy char slots and stuff haha

[Cyninja.2954]

@heroicfish.8243 said:

@Cyninja.2954 said:It is in general advised to not boost as new player, and if at all only boost to play the first PoF mission for access to the raptor. The class you boost WILL overwhelm you, not to mention you will be completely lost at 80, both story wise as well as content wise.

The general recommendation I would give is, boost a class which:

• you are absolutely uninterested in leveling (or which can be a pain to level like elementalist or mesmer)
• a class which you are willing to shelve for later
• a class which gets a semi useful stat combination of exotics when boosted (basically only Necromancer with rabid gear or Thief with Valkyrie gear. All other professions receive soldier gear, which is trash)

Between the classes you mentioned you are interested in, you could boost a necromancer to get the raptor, then play your thief naturally to 80 and beyond if looking at useful gear. As alternative you could boost the mesmer instead of the necromancer, and skip the mesmer leveling. That class will be a lot more complex than necromancer though.

with what you're saying about thief and Valkyrie, would that be something doable to play a bit further into pof and get more of the mounts? or do you think it could only do the first mission? I'm not too into leveling one but would like something I could unlock other stuff with to make leveling alts up easier

Valkyrie gear is perfectly fine for a thief overall for open world and story stuff, then again berserker gear is very cheap on the trading post. My reference to gear was only made because soldier gear, which 7 out of 9 professions get for boosting, is utterly useless. Rabid and Valykrie are semi useful, which would save some gold for a fresh 80 on that class.

You are not into leveling, but want to unlock things for future alts? That seems like a conflict there.

@heroicfish.8243 said:also, is mesmer quite difficult to level up through the maps? I was thinking the clones would make it easier lol

Nothing is inherently difficult (except maybe elementalist due to its complexity). Some classes are just more dependent on more skills/traits/synergies from higher levels and thus can be more cumbersome in lower levels. Mesmer phantasms being one shot spells, the clones being only good for shatters and despawning after their target dies makes mesmer more cumbersome than other more straightforward classes.

Here is what is going to happen once you boost your character and start playing it without previous attachment to the game:1.) you will be on a character which you have 0 connection to, not even from playing it2.) you will be completely lost as far as skills, traits and abilities for that character go3.) you will be completely lost as far as what to do with that character, besides maybe following the story, which you will be far ahead of and have skipped over huge portions of it (vanilla, Season 2, HoT, Season 3)4.) you will most likely grow bored within a few hours/days due to 1-3

So my advice remains:Boost a class to get the raptor, then play the game on a character you made.

[AliamRationem.5172]

Out of these options, mirage would be the best route if you want to boost your first time to 80. Even if you're really struggling with the combat, mirage has builds that are practically invincible even if you have no idea what you're doing. If that sounds good to you, then check this recent thread on the mesmer forum. It has discussion with some suggested builds for mirage and chronomancer including gameplay video. It might help you with your choice.

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/103420/chronomancer-vs-mirage-for-solo-pve-content#latest

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

But, where will the Hero Points come from to change a Mesmer into a Mirage?
That's a lot of Core Hero Challenges, or still a goodly amount of Path of Fire Hero Challenges for a new player.

[Taril.8619]

PoF isn't particularly hard. You'll be able to do enough to get the mounts on any boosted class (I mean, you literally only need to do the first mission and some Hearts to be able to get the Raptor, Bunny, Skimmer and Jackal. The most challenging thing is finding enough sources for Mastery Points to upgrade the Raptor to be able to long jump to get the Bunny and when you get the bunny you can then access TONS of Mastery Points on the map and then it's just a matter of grinding exp for the masteries)

In many cases you won't even be that hard up on damage even with Soldier gear (Just put all your specializations and traits towards damage and you'll be fine) and honestly, having that Vitality and Toughness will do wonders as a newbie to stop you getting downed a lot when participating in end-game stuff (I swear to god if I get randomly one-shot by stupid Mordrem Lashers/Thiefs/Snipers on my Thief one more time I'm gonna scream xD )

Also note, using a level 80 boost lets you play around with the class at level 80 in the Silverwastes (A normal level 80 zone featured in Living World Season 2) before you commit and consume the item. So you can play around with having all skills and specs (Minus Elites) on the classes before you make your decision.

As far as leveling up goes... With the classes you say you prefer:

Mesmer's not too bad for leveling up. Clones take a lot of aggro off you which is nice. Can take out Vets no problem and Champs are even doable if you're careful enough.

Thief is okay. But can be very squishy (Also, unlike back when I leveled my Thief, stealth has been nerfed to heck with very short durations these days). Thief is still good at getting map completion though, lots of Hero Points that can randomly have a Champion spawn on them but you can just lul and put down Shadow Refuge and channel it while invisible.

Guardian is pretty decent. It has consistent Aegis generation and health regen to give you a buffer against mistakes. Though doing more challenging content (Such as soloing Champions) does rely a bit more on dodging than some other classes (I.e. Necro and Ranger)

Ele can be quite squishy and somewhat overwhelming when you get higher level and start needing to dance between your attunements to do stuff (As opposed to lower levels where you can kill stuff just plopping the skills from 1 attunement on them and then swap attunement for the next enemy)

Engie is alright. It's pretty straight forward. Though its core gameplay doesn't really lend itself to being particularly good at taking out Champs solo (Though not that you need to, Veterans are the toughest thing you'll fight solo). It can also be somewhat complex to play well, stuff like knowing how to get the most out of your utilities (Such as picking up or blowing up your Healing Turret being far better than leaving it out) and swapping into kits.

[Cyninja.2954]

@Taril.8619 said:Thief is okay. But can be very squishy (Also, unlike back when I leveled my Thief, stealth has been nerfed to heck with very short durations these days). Thief is still good at getting map completion though, lots of Hero Points that can randomly have a Champion spawn on them but you can just lul and put down Shadow Refuge and channel it while invisible.

Thief in core still has pistol 5. Pistol 5 negates all enemies in core maps besides dredge due to permanent blind, which dredge are immune to. Just saying, the class is on the easy side to level in core. Daredevil takes care of any HoT or PoF content after core.

[Pifil.5193]

Some people believe that you shouldn't use the boost as a new player for various reasons. Commonly because of a belief that you learn more about a class by levelling it up normally or that jumping to the end of the levelling process can lead to people becoming bored with the game more quickly.

Others disagree and believe that levelling to 80 and unlocking skills and traits slowly doesn't mean you will learn anything about them or even use them. Some believe that you learn more about a class when you have all your skills and traits unlocked especially as so much of the complexities in GW2 is about skill and trait synergies and that levelling is not interesting in itself.

Regardless, if you just want to unlock the mounts then I'd say any of those classes are solid. The actual soldier gear you get from the boost for most classes is pretty bad for damage but you'll be tough as rocks. You've chosen 5 professions I'd say pick whichever of the five that you are least interested in and most willing to park for a while.

Personally, I'd say that thief with valkyrie is pretty solid if unoptimal for a lot of builds, I'd recommend a new player start replacing the gear with marauder gear.

Necro with rabid is OK too and but if you're not interested in necro then I wouldn't bother with it (although reaper and scourge are both much more interesting than base necro, IMO).

You can definitely play through the story enough to unlock the springer and skimmer with either. In fact, you can just go do the hearts and buy them directly without doing the story if you don't want to spoil it for yourself right now. You will need to train the canyon jumping mastery for the raptor before you can unlock the springer though.

[krz.1327]

or just ignore mounts and explore core areas on foot like developers intended

[Pifil.5193]

Oh yeah, you might want to unlock your glider too, you'll have to do the first instance of HoT for that. A glider can be very useful for escaping and exploring.

[ParadoX.3124]

You should not use boosterGuardian is the most useful in any mode

[heroicfish.8243]

@Cyninja.2954 said:

Valkyrie gear is perfectly fine for a thief overall for open world and story stuff, then again berserker gear is very cheap on the trading post. My reference to gear was only made because soldier gear, which 7 out of 9 professions get for boosting, is utterly useless. Rabid and Valykrie are semi useful, which would save some gold for a fresh 80 on that class.

You are not into leveling, but want to unlock things for future alts? That seems like a conflict there.

Nothing is inherently difficult (except maybe elementalist due to its complexity). Some classes are just more dependent on more skills/traits/synergies from higher levels and thus can be more cumbersome in lower levels. Mesmer phantasms being one shot spells, the clones being only good for shatters and despawning after their target dies makes mesmer more cumbersome than other more straightforward classes.

Here is what is going to happen once you boost your character and start playing it without previous attachment to the game:1.) you will be on a character which you have 0 connection to, not even from playing it2.) you will be completely lost as far as skills, traits and abilities for that character go3.) you will be completely lost as far as what to do with that character, besides maybe following the story, which you will be far ahead of and have skipped over huge portions of it (vanilla, Season 2, HoT, Season 3)4.) you will most likely grow bored within a few hours/days due to 1-3

So my advice remains:Boost a class to get the raptor, then play the game on a character you made.

I know the leveling is important, I just kinda want to have a char I can make some endgame gold on and unlock more than just one mount (if at all possible) so I can use them to make leveling everyone else easier. I'll consider just getting the raptor, will see how it ends up going with whatever class I choose, mostly looking at thief or mesmer, or maybe a necro if they're survivable (: tysm for your advice and help too

@"AliamRationem.5172" said:Out of these options, mirage would be the best route if you want to boost your first time to 80. Even if you're really struggling with the combat, mirage has builds that are practically invincible even if you have no idea what you're doing. If that sounds good to you, then check this recent thread on the mesmer forum. It has discussion with some suggested builds for mirage and chronomancer including gameplay video. It might help you with your choice.

https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/103420/chronomancer-vs-mirage-for-solo-pve-content#latest

awesome! I'll give that a read, I was highly considering mesmer!

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:But, where will the Hero Points come from to change a Mesmer into a Mirage?

That's a lot of Core Hero Challenges, or still a goodly amount of Path of Fire Hero Challenges for a new player.

'tis a worry ):

@Taril.8619 said:PoF isn't particularly hard. You'll be able to do enough to get the mounts on any boosted class (I mean, you literally only need to do the first mission and some Hearts to be able to get the Raptor, Bunny, Skimmer and Jackal. The most challenging thing is finding enough sources for Mastery Points to upgrade the Raptor to be able to long jump to get the Bunny and when you get the bunny you can then access TONS of Mastery Points on the map and then it's just a matter of grinding exp for the masteries)

In many cases you won't even be that hard up on damage even with Soldier gear (Just put all your specializations and traits towards damage and you'll be fine) and honestly, having that Vitality and Toughness will do wonders as a newbie to stop you getting downed a lot when participating in end-game stuff (I swear to god if I get randomly one-shot by stupid Mordrem Lashers/Thiefs/Snipers on my Thief one more time I'm gonna scream xD )

Also note, using a level 80 boost lets you play around with the class at level 80 in the Silverwastes (A normal level 80 zone featured in Living World Season 2) before you commit and consume the item. So you can play around with having all skills and specs (Minus Elites) on the classes before you make your decision.

As far as leveling up goes... With the classes you say you prefer:

Mesmer's not too bad for leveling up. Clones take a lot of aggro off you which is nice. Can take out Vets no problem and Champs are even doable if you're careful enough.

Thief is okay. But can be very squishy (Also, unlike back when I leveled my Thief, stealth has been nerfed to heck with very short durations these days). Thief is still good at getting map completion though, lots of Hero Points that can randomly have a Champion spawn on them but you can just lul and put down Shadow Refuge and channel it while invisible.

Guardian is pretty decent. It has consistent Aegis generation and health regen to give you a buffer against mistakes. Though doing more challenging content (Such as soloing Champions) does rely a bit more on dodging than some other classes (I.e. Necro and Ranger)

Ele can be quite squishy and somewhat overwhelming when you get higher level and start needing to dance between your attunements to do stuff (As opposed to lower levels where you can kill stuff just plopping the skills from 1 attunement on them and then swap attunement for the next enemy)

Engie is alright. It's pretty straight forward. Though its core gameplay doesn't really lend itself to being particularly good at taking out Champs solo (Though not that you need to, Veterans are the toughest thing you'll fight solo). It can also be somewhat complex to play well, stuff like knowing how to get the most out of your utilities (Such as picking up or blowing up your Healing Turret being far better than leaving it out) and swapping into kits.

thank you so much, you're incredibly helpful <3333 the thief being able to stealth and get a hero point sounds kind of alluring

@Pifil.5193 said:Some people believe that you shouldn't use the boost as a new player for various reasons. Commonly because of a belief that you learn more about a class by levelling it up normally or that jumping to the end of the levelling process can lead to people becoming bored with the game more quickly.

Others disagree and believe that levelling to 80 and unlocking skills and traits slowly doesn't mean you will learn anything about them or even use them. Some believe that you learn more about a class when you have all your skills and traits unlocked especially as so much of the complexities in GW2 is about skill and trait synergies and that levelling is not interesting in itself.

Regardless, if you just want to unlock the mounts then I'd say any of those classes are solid. The actual soldier gear you get from the boost for most classes is pretty bad for damage but you'll be tough as rocks. You've chosen 5 professions I'd say pick whichever of the five that you are least interested in and most willing to park for a while.

Personally, I'd say that thief with valkyrie is pretty solid if unoptimal for a lot of builds, I'd recommend a new player start replacing the gear with marauder gear.

Necro with rabid is OK too and but if you're not interested in necro then I wouldn't bother with it (although reaper and scourge are both much more interesting than base necro, IMO).

You can definitely play through the story enough to unlock the springer and skimmer with either. In fact, you can just go do the hearts and buy them directly without doing the story if you don't want to spoil it for yourself right now. You will need to train the canyon jumping mastery for the raptor before you can unlock the springer though.

reaper and scourge do seem so much cooler so that's why it wasn't an interest until getting the expac, and I can understand all those thoughts about using the boost ): I'm the type that can def learn it at once if I give a good readthrough, but then again I've not experienced endgame so I'm not sure whether or not that's true for this game, I just like to theorycraft builds in other games so idk.. I def don't find the leveling terribly interesting, would much prefer to do engame stuff and PvP/WvW instead of spend hours or days leveling up >;c why do you say I'll park them though?

@Pifil.5193 said:Oh yeah, you might want to unlock your glider too, you'll have to do the first instance of HoT for that. A glider can be very useful for escaping and exploring.

and oof, I haven't even thought of HoT contents yet, but gliders do seem quite fun

@krz.1327 said:or just ignore mounts and explore core areas on foot like developers intended

nyet, need a dino and bunny

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

You don't need anything to play PvP. All builds are available.https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/PvP_Build

[Etria.3642]

Definitely unlock raptor and gliding. I did that on a guardian, then parked them at Matriarch for about a year to earn hot xp easily on my alt account.

I realize you'll never really experience core maps the "hard" way if you do this, but you can always make an alt account.

Gliding and mounts just make the game so much more unique and enjoyable compared to every other fantasy setting. If you skip scenes it won't even really spoil things.

As to which class, the only one I had trouble grasping was revenant but ymmv.

[Pifil.5193]

@heroicfish.8243 said:

@Pifil.5193 said:Some people believe that you shouldn't use the boost as a new player for various reasons. Commonly because of a belief that you learn more about a class by levelling it up normally or that jumping to the end of the levelling process can lead to people becoming bored with the game more quickly.

Others disagree and believe that levelling to 80 and unlocking skills and traits slowly doesn't mean you will learn anything about them or even use them. Some believe that you learn more about a class when you have all your skills and traits unlocked especially as so much of the complexities in GW2 is about skill and trait synergies and that levelling is not interesting in itself.

Regardless, if you just want to unlock the mounts then I'd say any of those classes are solid. The actual soldier gear you get from the boost for most classes is pretty bad for damage but you'll be tough as rocks. You've chosen 5 professions I'd say pick whichever of the five that you are least interested in and most willing to park for a while.

Personally, I'd say that thief with valkyrie is pretty solid if unoptimal for a lot of builds, I'd recommend a new player start replacing the gear with marauder gear.

Necro with rabid is OK too and but if you're not interested in necro then I wouldn't bother with it (although reaper and scourge are both much more interesting than base necro, IMO).

You can definitely play through the story enough to unlock the springer and skimmer with either. In fact, you can just go do the hearts and buy them directly without doing the story if you don't want to spoil it for yourself right now. You will need to train the canyon jumping mastery for the raptor before you can unlock the springer though.

reaper and scourge do seem so much cooler so that's why it wasn't an interest until getting the expac, and I can understand all those thoughts about using the boost ): I'm the type that can def learn it at once if I give a good readthrough, but then again I've not experienced endgame so I'm not sure whether or not that's true for this game, I just like to theorycraft builds in other games so idk.. I def don't find the leveling terribly interesting, would much prefer to do engame stuff and PvP/WvW instead of spend hours or days leveling up >;c why do you say I'll park them though?

Oh, some people like to put their boost character aside and then level another normally, to get to know the game a bit better, I don't think that's necessary but I've played a lot of MMOs before gw2. It's not like you learn a lot as you level, nothing a half hour video or two won't tell you, anyway.

[Dayra.7405]

I would boost the mesmera) mesmer is clumsey to lvl vs many weak mobs in the open worldb) he is qukite strong vs single strong targets.

The 2 dogs in the 1st PoF mission will likely eat you several times anyway :) but you may be able to distract them from you with your clones and illusions.