Hey,

I have been looking at the classes on the website and the videos they have for the class skills. I saw a few classes that seemed very interesting but I am not 100% sold on them. I am most curious about every class except the warrior and thief. The class I am the most curious about that I have not tested was the Mesmer.

Please post your thoughts on the classes that you played during BWE or the classes that your interested in learning more about from other players.

I would love to hear more about the Mesmer and Engineer if any of you have had some time with them.

mesmer: played this class to level 15 in BWE3 and honestly, FANTASTIC. the class was fun and it honestly played better than expected. i played with 2 sets, 1 being a greatsword with a kicka-ass skin, and then the other was a 1h sword and a pistol. the setup was very interesting, as the meele fighting was crazy fun and my mesmer tanked like a boss. the phantasms and clones are confusing in the begining, but once you understand them, they become clear as day, very useful to kite mobs

warrior: very robust, very action- oriented. i felt a larger challenge playing warrior than mesmer, and Warrior is my main in most games. fun class as well, i hear it is very flexible. (like a chinese gymnast)

Originally posted by xm522

mesmer: played this class to level 15 in BWE3 and honestly, FANTASTIC. the class was fun and it honestly played better than expected. i played with 2 sets, 1 being a greatsword with a kicka-ass skin, and then the other was a 1h sword and a pistol. the setup was very interesting, as the meele fighting was crazy fun and my mesmer tanked like a boss. the phantasms and clones are confusing in the begining, but once you understand them, they become clear as day, very useful to kite mobs

warrior: very robust, very action- oriented. i felt a larger challenge playing warrior than mesmer, and Warrior is my main in most games. fun class as well, i hear it is very flexible. (like a chinese gymnast)

 Yeah the Mesmer skills remind me of a Enchanter from everquest with a twist. I wonder if the warrior has comparable skills for distance fighting if its mostly up close damage or gap closers.

Originally posted by Wakygreek

 Yeah the Mesmer skills remind me of a Enchanter from everquest with a twist. I wonder if the warrior has comparable skills for distance fighting if its mostly up close damage or gap closers.

 The rifle and longbow on warrior are comparable to the long range attacks on any other class.  I played a warrior up to 20 with a friend, and they were a ranger with a greatsword, and I was a warrior with mostly a rifle.  :)

Every class can be good at range.

Obviously I haven't had an extended amount of time to really dig deep into the professions, but I tried all of them.

Warrior - My current all around favorite class.  It takes the typical warrior archetype from traditional MMOs and ramps it up, giving them viable ranged attacks and (as of last beta's tweaking) fairly decent damage mitigation (especially in pvp where they can be a pain).

Elementalist - Second favorite class by far.  Eles are going to be popular, they're incredibly versatile and have a lot more skills than the other classes, not including skill point skills, which will allow them to have approx. 100 different abilities.  No matter how many skills you earned per level in WoW, no class could ever claim to have that many.  Favorite attunement: Air - Ride the Lightning and the whip made of electricity are incredibly fun to pull off.

Necromancer - I was very surprised by the Necro.  With the staff I could lay down ground curses, and with the dagger I could deal a lot of single target damage, and the underwater spells were amazing (vampiric shrimp?!)  Another scary pvp class because they have so many options for last minute survivability.

Guardian - I expected this to become my favorite class, and even though it isn't currently, I plan to put all those boons to good use sometime after launch.  They have some of the least annoying spell effects.  I didn't find much AOE use for them.

Ranger - Rangers have some good survivability skills (especially when in a downed state with their pets' abilities to help them back up).  I guess I expected more from the ranged weapons, which are fun don't get me wrong, but I actually ended up using a great sword at one point and having a blast.  The pets seem to be much more improved since the first beta.

Engineer, Mesmer and Thief - Not necessarily bad classes, but what I played with them I didn't enjoy as much as the above professions.  I think Thieves will have more late-game appeal.after they've acquired a lot of skill points.  Engineers are better for laying down a perimeter than going toe to toe with mobs.  The Mesmer I only played for until maybe level 4 so I can't say much about that one.

Thief- In PvE with a shortbow, they are kiting machines, nothing can touch you. You just need to be careful of where you kite is all. In PvP, a condi build wrecks, especially in tournaments. I used dual daggers with a shortbow swap and a decent amount of toughness (to combat burst), condition damage (to make my bleeds, poisons and any other condition I get through fields hit like a truck), and traits/utilities that allowed me to regain/regen intiative at a constantly high rate. I never really found myself out of initiative for any long amount of time, but when I did run low I could always spam shortbow's 1 ability to keep bleeds up on multiple targets (I ran a sigil of doom on it).

Don't listen to the people saying that the Thief is non-viable in PvP (large amount of people on the official forums saying this). They are amazing if played well, they just take a fair amount of practice/reflex to feel comfortable with.

Man I'm going to have serious problems deciding my profession on the 22nd of August.

I have so little knowledge about the professions. But they look very different from each other with the various weapon abilities.

I know that every profession has some heal abilities etc. But which one is best at healing and which one is best at tanking?

I wonder if I'd make the right choice from start....kinda exciting.

Originally posted by jazz.be

Man I'm going to have serious problems deciding my profession on the 22nd of August.

I have so little knowledge about the professions. But they look very different from each other with the various weapon abilities.

I know that every profession has some heal abilities etc. But which one is best at healing and which one is best at tanking?

I wonder if I'd make the right choice from start....kinda exciting.

I agree, it's very exciting!  As for tanking and healing, you might not want to concentrate on those areas until you've earned a significant amount of skill points and traits, because in the early levels it's almost impossible to take direct damage or heal for a decent amount.  The game is not meant to have traditional healing and tanking roles but that doesn't mean it's impossible to throw yourself into those roles.  It's not the purpose of the game, however with enough points in toughness, you will obviously be able to take more of a beating as a warrior than getting unwanted attention from a tough mob as say, a thief.

Originally posted by jazz.be

Man I'm going to have serious problems deciding my profession on the 22nd of August.

I have so little knowledge about the professions. But they look very different from each other with the various weapon abilities.

I know that every profession has some heal abilities etc. But which one is best at healing and which one is best at tanking?

I wonder if I'd make the right choice from start....kinda exciting.

Best at healing? Elementalist or Guardian.

Tanking? Necro, Ele, Guardian, Warrior.

Originally posted by Kyelthis

Originally posted by jazz.be

Man I'm going to have serious problems deciding my profession on the 22nd of August.

I have so little knowledge about the professions. But they look very different from each other with the various weapon abilities.

I know that every profession has some heal abilities etc. But which one is best at healing and which one is best at tanking?

I wonder if I'd make the right choice from start....kinda exciting.

Best at healing? Elementalist or Guardian.

Tanking? Necro, Ele, Guardian, Warrior.

That doesn't sound right for some reason :-)

I have more faith in Eir_S's comment. However I've read somewhere that the whole healer/tank/dps structure is still present in GW2, that it's just a little less important.

Charr Engi was the bomb ( ;

Warrior -

Huge array of possible weapon skills, but only a fraction that can be equipped at a time.

Virtually no combo fields, but the largest acess to finishers.

Nice burst through Adrenaline "Burst" skills.

Highly viceral.

Ranger-

Pets offer an added layer of combat.

Highly moblie melee

Strong Ranged DPS

Elementalist-

Highest possible skill set (even moreso than the engineer when you account for Weapon utilitiy skills.)

Extremely versitle.

Very strategic position based attacks.

Very team friendly.

Tons of combo Fields.

Engineer-

Rapid skill use style.

Amazingly flexible.

Bombs. (Need I say more?)

Largest simultanious skill set.

Necromancer-

Crazy tanky.

Deceptivly damageing.

High Control qualities.

Staff turns into a scythe when casting.

Masses of pets.

Mesmer-

Lots of tactical descsion making.

second only to the Necro in Minions.

Hugely moblie.

Heavy access to Confusion effects.

Guardian- I had almost no experience with the Gaurdian

Thief-

Insane positioning.

High Burst.

Large number of Evasive move. (very skill dependant)

Lots of teleportations!

Originally posted by jazz.be

Originally posted by Kyelthis

Originally posted by jazz.be

Man I'm going to have serious problems deciding my profession on the 22nd of August.

I have so little knowledge about the professions. But they look very different from each other with the various weapon abilities.

I know that every profession has some heal abilities etc. But which one is best at healing and which one is best at tanking?

I wonder if I'd make the right choice from start....kinda exciting.

Best at healing? Elementalist or Guardian.

Tanking? Necro, Ele, Guardian, Warrior.

That doesn't sound right for some reason :-)

I have more faith in Eir_S's comment. However I've read somewhere that the whole healer/tank/dps structure is still present in GW2, that it's just a little less important.

No, that statement is correct.

Elementalist and guardian just have more skills that heal making them better healers. I can only be specific from the elementalist side but they usually have 2 healing skills in the water attunement(the frost beam and tidal wave for example) as well as several other things like traits that make swapping into water attunement heal people around them.

Elementalists also have some very nice traits/skills for reducing damage they take, but I wouldn't say they are as good at it as the other 3.

Necro's have their class skill that basically gives them 2 health bars on top of their abilities that return health on damage. So they can certainly be pretty tanky. Guardians have the extra armor, aegis(blocks an attack), healing, and a ton of abilities that block or reduce damage. Warriors have the extra health/armor, shield block, counter attack, defensive banner, and a bunch of skills to stop their opponent from attacking(stun/knockdown).

That doesn't mean the tank classes can just sit infront of an enemy and "tank" or that the better healing classes can keep people healed indefinitely. It just means those classes do it better than others.

Elementalist: Played to level 32. My favorite profession. You can't swap weapons during combat, you you have four Elemental Attunements, which change the weapon skills on your 1-5 action bar slots. This is a complex, versatile profession. The plethora of skills and general squishiness make them perhaps the most complex profession to play well, but they can still be fun if you stick to one or two attunement while you are learning.

Warrior: Played to 26. One of my top 3 professions. Great ranged options via Longbow and Rifle. Range/Range is viable. Melee/Range is very capable and fun. Mobility related skills make Melee/Melee builds viable as well. Warriors have the largest selection of weapons, which provide them incredible versatility in the field. Unlike other games, where warriors are typically the most generic class, GW2 Warriors are great fun and provide a number of build options.

Ranger: Played to 18. Also in my top three. Pets got better in BWE3 and there are many different pets, with different stats and skills to find and tame. Pet taming is easy, but you can only tame Juveniles. Ranged play was pretty good, though there are a few skills I'd like to see tweaked or changed. Melee is actually great fun as a Ranger. The skills are very dynamic, provide some mobility and are just plain fun. Ranged/Melee is probably the best basis for a general build, but Melee/Melee was also viable as I explored content in the mid-teens.

Pets are a pain, if you let them die. Properly managed, they need not die very often. Aside from large scale DEs with a ot of hostile AoEs, I only let my pet die three times from level 1-18. Learn to swap pets one one gets low, heal when they need to be healed and call them back to you if health is low and lealing unavailable and you won't be one of those Rangers who constantly trails a disabled pet.

Necromancer: Played to 15. Pretty fun and capable. Different weapons provide very different capabilities. Pets work well and I typically don't like professions that trail more than one pet, but I actually enjoyed using them in GW2. The life-force/Death Shroud mechanic is great. I hear it has been nerfed a bit since I played in BWE2, but many people still enjoy it. LEarning to properly utilize Death Shroud and knowing when to use the pet sacrifice specials are key to the profession. There are also minionless builds that are viable, if you don't care for playing Necro as a pet profession.

Over all, fun, cool profession.

Guardian: Played to level 13. This was the first profession I played in BWE1. I was most interested in the profession due to the way it mixed melee/magic with long range mobility skills. I was disappointed that the range on the mobility skills had been significantly nerfed from what was shown in the profession skill trailer, which soured me a bit on the profession.

The melee/magic mix is solid. The profession has had it's ranged capabilities improved a bit, based on player feedback. They have great utility and survivability and can provide superb support. Good profession and I know people who absolutely love it. The clash with my initial expectations was my only let down and I will try the profession again sometime after launch, but it will not be in my top three.

Thief: Played to level 12. Good ability to mix ranged with melee. Short Bow is a very fun weapon with some good mobility. This is a great burst potential for the profession and hit and run tactics are the word of the day. During my limited play time, I was reminded a bit of the way the Witch Elf played in Warhammer Online, but with a lot more versatility. If you enjoy hit and run, high excitement action, this is a good profession.

Mesmer: Played to level 22. The profession looks cool and has some nice game play dynamics based on the available skills. I did not like the F1-F4 key shatter mechanic and the zero damage Illusions felt near pointless. The very often fail to distract the mob and end up just being fodder for shatters. The fact that Illusions and Phantasm die when your target dies were annoying as well. IMO, they should persist as long as you are in the combat state.

You can probably tell I didn't like them. I can see the potential here, for those that really master target management while casting their illusions and fantasms and the shatter mechanic, but not the profession for me. I also hated the very limited weapon choices. The profession either needs more weapons, or Illusionary Weapons that work in a fashion similar to the Elementalist's Conjurable Weapons.

Engineer: Played to level 14. What I got to play felt pretty good. Pistols and Rifle are nice weapons, but as with Mesmer, I hated the very limited selection. Unlike Mesmer, you do have access to additional 1-5 weapon skills via some of the kits you can equip as utility skills. I found the Turret mechanic to be clunky. You can pick up the turret, but the cooldown before you can place it again is as long as it would be if you just sacrificed the turret.

This profession has incredible versatility and utility. I had worried the gun sounds would be annoying, but the sound guys did a great job. I look forward to playing them, but not in my top five.

Additional Comments:

I was impressed by how many of the professions I truly enjoyed playing. In most MMOs, if I like half the classes I'm happy. Some where better fits for my playstyle than others, so it's definitely worth trying another profession if you just aren't enjoying your current choice.

Also, most of the professions don't necassarily play the way smimilar classes in other games play. Don't assume that Warriors play like Fighters, Rangers play like Hunters, Thieves play like Rogues, etc... Sometimes they support similar approaches to play, but they almost always support alternatives as well that feel very different than classes found in other games.

I disliked Mesmer enough that it detracted from my overall enjoyment of the game, so a bad fit can sour your experience. However, I know people who love Mesmer, so in the end, the best thing to do is to try professions to at least level 12 until you find one you enjoy playing enough to keep going. You may luck out and find a perfect match on the first go, but if not, don't get frustrated, there will be seven other professions to try and most players will find a good portion of the professions fun.

Originally posted by Wakygreek

Hey,

I have been looking at the classes on the website and the videos they have for the class skills. I saw a few classes that seemed very interesting but I am not 100% sold on them. I am most curious about every class except the warrior and thief. The class I am the most curious about that I have not tested was the Mesmer.

Please post your thoughts on the classes that you played during BWE or the classes that your interested in learning more about from other players.

I would love to hear more about the Mesmer and Engineer if any of you have had some time with them.

I wasn't interested in Warrior at all... until I tried it. The class is very very fun. Don't write it off as a tank class. It plays more like a LOTRO captain than a traditional tank.... and I find their bow skills far more interesting than the ranger or thief ones.

i tryed most of the class's the 2 i played the most necro 34 and guard 32 loved them both gunna roll both come aug 25th. guard is a blast i dont think i had to dodge at all for first 15 lvl's if i didnt want too. and guard is hard as hell to drop i ran septer/shield staff. great thing if you get low on life you have 2 bubbles 12 secs total and 1 bubble heals you my heal was a cone aoe heal so you can heal team mates while your at it and staff has a heal on it too but slow cast time. staff is a great support wep and goes great with your 10s bubble utility skill switch to staff and aoe hit everyone waiting for bubble to drop. was a blast septer was great for WvW and kiting boss mobs even casters agis takes a hit and 2 dodge rolls by that time agis up again.
Necro was a blast but pets are to squishy 1 big aoe and they all drop if your minion master all your utility skills are on cool down. very very hard to kill class was alot of fun.
thief,mesmer,ele,and ranger i didnt like thief just wasnt fun to me way to squishy but dps was high. mesmer there dps was so low and took forever to kill mobs your pets hit for almost nothingonly good for distractions and thats all. ranger's dps seemed low to me with both bow's and pet is dead every other fight i just said screw it and left it dead kinda sad mobs will get out of aoe's but pet is to stupid to do it. ele's i will be honest i was sick of making new toons at this point and just wanted to play my guard some more haha so i know i didnt give ele fair shake. didnt play warr or eng.

i played Ranger and a Guardian.

Norn Ranger i like the most i kind of had a Ranged/Ranged/Melee Hybrid useing the elite skill Become the Bear for 30 sce you can even go toe to toe with a boss and the one hit that most bosses have does not even put a dent in youe health but when it runs out you better not be any where near the boss.

i found the Ranger was a gold all around class like the GW2 pages says The ranger is a jack-of-all-trades and a master of them all as well.

Originally posted by Distaste

Originally posted by jazz.be

Originally posted by Kyelthis

Originally posted by jazz.be

Man I'm going to have serious problems deciding my profession on the 22nd of August.

I have so little knowledge about the professions. But they look very different from each other with the various weapon abilities.

I know that every profession has some heal abilities etc. But which one is best at healing and which one is best at tanking?

I wonder if I'd make the right choice from start....kinda exciting.

Best at healing? Elementalist or Guardian.

Tanking? Necro, Ele, Guardian, Warrior.

That doesn't sound right for some reason :-)

I have more faith in Eir_S's comment. However I've read somewhere that the whole healer/tank/dps structure is still present in GW2, that it's just a little less important.

No, that statement is correct.

Elementalist and guardian just have more skills that heal making them better healers. I can only be specific from the elementalist side but they usually have 2 healing skills in the water attunement(the frost beam and tidal wave for example) as well as several other things like traits that make swapping into water attunement heal people around them.

Elementalists also have some very nice traits/skills for reducing damage they take, but I wouldn't say they are as good at it as the other 3.

Necro's have their class skill that basically gives them 2 health bars on top of their abilities that return health on damage. So they can certainly be pretty tanky. Guardians have the extra armor, aegis(blocks an attack), healing, and a ton of abilities that block or reduce damage. Warriors have the extra health/armor, shield block, counter attack, defensive banner, and a bunch of skills to stop their opponent from attacking(stun/knockdown).

That doesn't mean the tank classes can just sit infront of an enemy and "tank" or that the better healing classes can keep people healed indefinitely. It just means those classes do it better than others.

All right I may have been misguided by past experiences. Light armor good at tanking sounded a little bit weird.

But how about aggro, is there aggro or hate at all? Are there classes that can manipulate that hate/aggro?