Best first class for ease of play and interesting story

[hlx]

hi people,

with the upcoming free weekend I decided to give GW2 a shot and would like to get you to answer some questions. But first a quick intro - I used to play GW1 a lot, went to WoW after that. I have played one of the open beta weekends for GW2 but I kinda went in blind, made a sylvari masmer (used to play a lot of Me/N in GW1 pvp) and had a rough time while playing till 10lvl, after that I mage charr necro and that went a little better, at the end of the beta I did play a little of the asura elementalist and that also didn't really work for me.

Now, once you have learned all that - questions:
1 - Which class would you recommend for me to test during the weekend? I won't have infinite amount of time, maybe 3-4h each day so I guess that is one or two classes I can test out - which ones would you recommend, at this time I would prefer something that kills mobs fast without me being "dead" too much
2 - In terms of story what would you suggest? - I assume story is based on race? So which one in your opinion is interesting? I did sylvari till 10lvl (didn't like the story), a bit of charr and a bit of asura.
3 - During the weekend should I bother with things like crafting? Is there anything to gain from it on such a low levels, or should I just focus on playing and leveling?

Generally this might sound a bit cheesy but I would like relatively easy and fun play through over the weekend and would like your help to achieve just that. If you want me to give you more info about my previous experience, just ask - I'll answer


thanks so much in advance and lets see the suggestions rolling

[Lane]

1. I still say warrior is the easiest/most overpowered. Mesmer is actually the weakest early on, so what you experienced is just how they play at the start. Ranger or guardian would also be decent choices.

2. I personally thought human was boring except for the noble storyline. Charr is great if you like Charrs, but they tend to be more difficult than other racial personal stories (IMO) and I do not recommend going Iron Legion since you're forced to use a certain weak weapon at one point that makes that part of the quest extremely difficult to solo. I found Norn to be bland, but some people love them. Asura for sure if you're looking for some humor and entertainment in the dialog, you basically can't go wrong with any choice. Sylvari have good stories, but they're a lot more serious.

3. I wouldn't bother with crafting at all unless you're intending to use it to level. It's an absolute money sink that will net you very little (if any) profit just starting. You can buy better gear cheaper off the TP usually.

[hlx]

Thanks for that. So for now we have:
Warrior, ranger, guardian - for those which weapon combos work best in early solo play?
What about elementalist or necromancer? How do they rank on easy to play while having fun scale?
In terms of gear acquisition - on early levels should I bother with anything above what I get from quests/vendors? While I don't want to spend too much time min/maxing my uber 8lvl toon, if I can easily do more damage tell me how, please

[zed zebes]

Mesmer, Engineer and Ele are my favorite classes, but they are also the hardest to learn/play/whathaveyou.

The easiest classes to play are Guardian, Warrior and Ranger.

Story-wise, I like Charr the best, followed by Asuran. Sylvari and Human are okay. Norn is the weakest.

[Lane]

Warrior, ranger, guardian - for those which weapon combos work best in early solo play?

Anything works for warrior. Personally, while leveling I liked greatsword and longbow, but I'd suggest trying out everything and see what you like. The warrior class is effective no matter what weapons you use.

Guardian I used greatsword mainly and weapon swap was whatever I felt I needed (scepter for long range, staff for AoE, etc.). Ranger I used longbow and/or shortbow, but I hear melee rangers are strong now so that may also be an option. I do find that shortbow is nice early on if you can get its bleed effect going. Ranger is my preferred choice for the level 1-10 personal story for key farming.

What about elementalist or necromancer? How do they rank on easy to play while having fun scale?

Elementalist is not one I would suggest as a first class. They have the highest learning curve of them all (except maybe engineer). It is really easy to suck at playing one, but if you enjoy more complex gameplay it might be for you. Just stay away from staff. :P I'd suggest scepter + dagger and attunement swapping is kind of mandatory, you'll have a difficult time if you stay in just one element.

Necromancer is fine, it's just slow to start. Their dps is a little bit lacking compared to other classes and a lot of it is condition based, which isn't so great on single targets. Supposedly a "minion master" is the way to go for leveling, so once you open up your pet abilities it probably gets a lot better.

In terms of gear acquisition - on early levels should I bother with anything above what I get from quests/vendors? While I don't want to spend too much time min/maxing my uber 8lvl toon, if I can easily do more damage tell me how, please

Don't buy from vendors. A lot of times you can get gear off the trading post for 1c above what they'd sell for to a vendor. Armor isn't terribly important, but since attack abilities are based on what weapon you're wielding you'll probably end up needing to buy what you want.

[androidftw]

Ranger is easy but I personally wouldn't recommend it. I started with a ranger and found myself bored with just auto attacking with the short bow/long bow. Rolled a warrior and have never looked back. All weapons work with the warrior long bow, rifle, great sword, axe, mace and Shield. Not a fan of one hand sword and war horn though.

[DrunkenBeard]

I see no one has mentioned the Thief profession (= class). I think a Thief with double Pistols (P/P) and Short Bow (SB) would be perfect for someone just starting. They are a lot of fun, do respectable damage and you'll always be at range which highly reduces the chances of going down. Even if you do find yourself in such a situation you have the 5 and 2 Pistol skills to get out. Short Bow is an absolute beast at AoE damage and mobility (with Skill 5). You also have access to a lot of very nice utilities and traits like permanent increased movement speed, on-demand stealth, reduced fall damage, a wire that pulls enemies to you, etc...

As for disciplines (= profession), seeing how you don't have much time in your hand I'd recommend checking out Cooking (it's kinda fun discovering the recipes yourself, but maybe it's juste me!) and the Armor discipline that goes with your profession, so for Thief get Leatherworking so you can make some crafted armor with the mats you collect while leveling. Leatherworking will also allow you to make bags, which is very useful early on.

Race is a difficult question. People have very different opinions on the story lines, that's to be expected. I personally like Asura, they're just fun and goofy and Rata Sum is a pretty awesome place to be honest, just going around listening to the conversations makes you smile. They also have the best jump animation of all races in my opinion I actually haven't completed the Personal Story on my Asura but from what I've experienced it's what you would expect: lots of failed experiments, crazy scientists, strange machines, and some emotional moments. Don't forget that your race isn't the only attribute that affects your personal story, the choices you make when you create your character (about your personality and your background) will decide future events and characters you will encounter.

Hope you have fun

PS : A LOT has changed since the Beta Weekends, be it balancing of mobs and events, quality of life improvements, better pointers to where to go and what to do, etc... So if you like Mesmers you might want to give them another go, although I wouldn't personally recommend it as I find them extremely boring in PvE (they're great in WvW and PvP though!).

[hlx]

thank you all for all the info - keep it coming

one issue I just remembered I had over the beta weekend was that I was running out of quests/hubs to do before moving to the next personal story mission. Not sure if that was just me missing something from how the game should be played but I have saw myself griding mobs after being done with particular quest hub just to level up and go for the next mission.
- is that something that was addressed or it was me doing something wrong?

[DrunkenBeard]

thank you all for all the info - keep it coming

one issue I just remembered I had over the beta weekend was that I was running out of quests/hubs to do before moving to the next personal story mission. Not sure if that was just me missing something from how the game should be played but I have saw myself griding mobs after being done with particular quest hub just to level up and go for the next mission.
- is that something that was addressed or it was me doing something wrong?

Lots of people will tell you have to play the game differently and blah blah blah, while that's certainly true it rarely actually addresses HOW you should go around playing the game. What has worked for me personally is this: I first look for a scout (indicated by a looking glass in the map), the scout will tell me the THEMES of a certain area (for example: centaur attacks, inquest disturbing some place, Skritt stealing stuff). What you should understand here is that those are only the symptoms and you will find other Dynamic Events in the area that will deal with the cause of the problem and any developments. Pretty much every Heart (the closest concept to a quest) tells you "Look, something is happening around here, stick around!". So what I do after having a general view at the scout is choose one heart that seems like fun and go in the general area towards it. If I bump into any event I stop and do it even if it's unrelated! Not only that but I try to stick around in case there is any development (for example if you hear NPCs talking about how they should counter attack, stay and an event will likely spawn there). By the time I get to the Heart more often than not I will have already completed it. I have actually done very few Hearts directly. Once a theme or general issue is dealt with, meaning I have done most of the event chain related to that issue I move on in the general direction to the next heart, rince and repeat. Notice how I say "general direction" because there are always lots of distractions along the way, and you should stop and check them out. Be curious, be investigative, if you think something looks suspiciously like a platformer stage, jump on it! Talk to random NPCs etc... It's a game that plays a lot like old school RPGs and rewards curiosity.

The more you advance in levels, fewer will be the Hearts. In Orr there are no Hearts at all and only dynamic events. So try not to pay too much attention to them and use them only as an indicator of what you should be looking for. Leveling in GW2 is certainly more involved than other games. Also, don't forget to do some WvW in between and get on your server's TeamSpeak server for the full experience.

[Fencers]

hi people,

1. Ranger, Easy to play, very powerful solo. Will allow you to see and grasp the basic mechanics of the game in the least amount of time.

2. No relevant suggestion.

3. No. Focus on participating in as many of the different activities as possible. Do a little SPVP, WvW, wander zones for events, play the mini games, jump in a fractal group, etc.

With limited time on a trial, the logical goal would be to maximize one's ability to see/do as many of the gameplay modes as possible.

[hlx]

3. No. Focus on participating in as many of the different activities as possible. Do a little SPVP, WvW, wander zones for events, play the mini games, jump in a fractal group, etc.

apologies but what exactly is spvp, wvw and fractal group? and how one goes about participating in those?

[alt-ithist]

Single player vs player, world vs world.

[Cowt]

apologies but what exactly is spvp, wvw and fractal group? and how one goes about participating in those?

'SPvP' stands for 'Structured Player versus Player', and is in WoW terms essentially Battlegrounds.

SPvP is differentiated from 'WvW' (AKA WvWvW), which is World versus World but is still by definition PvP. It is instead played on large-scaled maps with up to 1500 players at any given time. In WvW you are pit with your server (or Worlds, as they are called) against two other servers, for a continues battle. Not entirely different from a gigantic, never ending Alterac Valley.

Fractals, or Fractals of the Mists, is a five-player dungeon crawling experience where you are taken through multiple short instanced adventures in series of three or four. These adventures are different from the regular dungeons found in the game, and are comparable to Scenarios in WoW. They also have an adjustable difficulty level.

SPvP and WvW can be accessed through the in-game menu bar from anywhere in the world. For fractals, you'll have to go to the city of Lion's Arch and physically enter the instance portal.

[hlx]

thanks for the explanation - but being a new 10ish level toon would I be able to participate in those and not spend most of the time on the floor?

[catcommando]

You'll be upleveled for wvw, spvp. And you can level in wvw...think of it as a giant Alterac Valley. Hit "b" to join and follow the zerg around until you get the hang of the place. You join spvp by clicking on the crossed swords icon on the ui.

Fractals are in the main hub of Lion's Arch. Though for fractals I don't recommend going in there before L30...you won't have your elite skill until then and that's useful to have going in there.

Do some jps, check out some of the living story (temp) content as well while you're here.

[Fencers]

apologies but what exactly is spvp, wvw and fractal group? and how one goes about participating in those?

SPVP is the GW2 structured form of PVP. It designed to be balanced*, like DOTA or Smite. PLayers are made level 80 instantly and given all gear needed to participate on a level playing field sans personal skill differences. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Structured_PvP

WvW is a GW2 PVP mode that mimics realm vs. realm PVP. It is essentially 3 large battlefields and a center battlefield. 3 servers fight over territory, capturing keeps and so on. After a week or so, the winning servers are ranked on a leader board. This is an asymmetrical, unbalanced by design PVP mode. Players are level to 80, but you retain only the skills and abilities that you have in the mundane world of GW2. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/World_versus_World

Fractals are a set of mini dungeons you can group up for at any time. They are short dungeon played in sets. Every time you are successful in reaching a new rank, the difficulty of the next set of dungeons is increased. It goes on forever. There is also a specific mechanic called Agony in the Fractals that applies gear pressure- which you combat by earning ascended gear. Players are boosted to level 80 in fractals. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fractal


*Obviously, 1:1 balance is not truly the goal of these systems. But equity among play capability usually is a goal, even if not often achieved.

[Eldryth]

Fractals are in the main hub of Lion's Arch. Though for fractals I don't recommend going in there before L30...you won't have your elite skill until then and that's useful to have going in there.

While this is mostly true, it is doable with even lower level characters, at least in the early levels. You'll be a bit of a handicap without an elite, even though you're upleveled to 80. But if you can find a group willing to bring you for a rank 1 run, I'd say go ahead to see if you like it.

[Sierra85]

Norn Warrior is easy to play and fun. i would recommend it for its story as well.

[lawow74]

1)Only played a Necro so far so I can't speak to anything else, but I hear it said ANet loves Warriors and Guardians, so if you like melee classes those should work. As far as a Necro, I went for a Minion build and once you open up a few skill slots it gets progressively easier to play. It's forgiving in that you can always just run away and let the minions die in your stead.

2)I'd focus more on following the area stories. Check out all the levelling zones for their different art styles and the varying renown hearts/events. Be sure and combine the two where possible. Check out the map channel for player updates on what might be spawned for you to jump in with and check out.

3)Give it a try if you want, but I'd focus more on exploring the world and trying the other activities. Don't be intimidated by WvW, just jump in and give it a go, see what you think.

[hlx]

thanks for all the responses.
for the weekend I will be mostly looking into warrior (still havent decided which race to choose and which story will be interesting enough for the first 10 levels or so) but I would like to dabble a bit into necro (I do like the concept of the class) and a thief (never liked stealthy classes but maybe in GW2 it will be fun)

I do hope it will be fun enough for me to finally convince myself to dive in and buy the damn thing

one question regarding me staying for longer - which servers on EU side would you recommend? not looking for any end game or devoted pvp play just looking for a big community and thriving economy (and friendly players ofc)