Anyone have tips for picking a profession?

[Lannden]

Honestly the best thing is to just try them all. I was originally dead set on playing a guardian, and really enjoyed it the first BWE and stress test. Then my guild decided to make new characters the next BWE to try different classes. I played a Warrior and fell in love almost right away. It became more cemented after the 3rd BWE and playing all of the other classes for a few hours. I enjoy every weapon combo, even the ranged ones (I hate ranged usually) that warrior offers.

Now I'm probably going to make a Mesmer alt way before I make a guardian. It is really a try it before you become committed sort of thing with this game, you might be very surprised by a class you never thought you would like.

[Ace Ventura]

jewelcrafting blacksmithing

[Squirrelbanes]

jewelcrafting blacksmithing

U need to hone ur detective skills Mr Ventura....

[vilhelm1992]

jewelcrafting blacksmithing

not sure if witty joke or in the wrong forum :P

[Hjalmtyr]

I thought I was content on engineer but then after this last stress test, that went down the drain...

I have the same problem. Honestly, I've loved everything I've tried in the BWE so far.

I'd like to know how people do it, too. I can never find a class I like, only ones I don't. In WoW I had 5 classes at 85 and only 2 below level 70 (Warlock and Druid which I just couldn't get into). I ended up settling for paladin because of their versatility, but I still often went between my warrior and hunter for melee and ranged DPS in addition to my tank/healer paladin. I guess I just like fulfilling every role

And that's why I'm enjoying Warrior so much in the Guild Wars 2 stress tests. Quite tanky, heavy melee damage, good ranged capability and nice support capability, too.

[Vsml]

Write all the profession names on paper, and put them in a hat and whatever profession you pick you HAVE to play it! Or you could narrow it down to three classes or so that you have experienced that you have enjoyed and pick one of the three out from the hat.

(I might actually do this, as I really can't decide either).

[Ynna]

If you want, I could completely arbitrarily decide for you.

[jimmy valmer]

i havnt played the game yet but i got my eyes on necro and mesmer. If you cant decide then try getting opinions off others and put them together and work out what you wanna play.

[DrakeWurrum]

I've always been indecisive, in wow I have every class to 85. I've always had a hard time picking things out, yet there's people who are able to play the same thing over and over even in different games. How do you people do it? Is there anything in particular you look for when selecting such things?

I thought I was content on engineer but then after this last stress test, that went down the drain... I just don't get how people just decide almost instantly what they're going to play. I see a elementalist, and I think it's awesome they can do so many cool spells and blow crap up with aoe. I see a thief and I think it's awesome how they can shadowstep to their target and have abilities to jump over their enemey. I thought turrets were awesome with engineer, but after this last stress test they turned out kind of meh for pvp which I didn't like. But even then there's still many ways to play engineer that I think are awesome.

Everything is awesome! And I hate it! Because it makes it so I can't decide on anything!

My tip: roll an 8-sided die.

If you want to include race as well, roll a 5 or 10-sided die with it.
Yes, 5-sided die exist, they're just not very common.

Randomly googled, if you don't have dice, you should totally build up a small collection: http://www.gmdice.com/dice

[Kimiko93]

People who can instantly decide what profession to play probably have a different personality/decision process than you.

For me it was easy. I want to support and protect my allies, so the Guardian is a natural fit (and no, I don't need a lecture on how every profession can do that).

Other than that, I look for certain things I want/need to fully enjoy a playstyle and see how well each profession fits with that.

This more or less, im always trying to find playstyles/Characters/Classes that match my personality, which in WoW etc makes Shamans an instant choice!

[Jibjub]

I don't think anyone has said this yet ... but some more specific advice would be to play them all. After the tutorial -- which takes like 10 minutes -- you can go directly to the Heart of the Mists and play around as a level 80 with all traits, weapons, and abilities. There are also some tough NPCs around that you can practice your skills on ... you can dig in and see exactly what fits your play style best and avoid getting to level 50 and realizing you made a mistake.

FWIW, I was dead set on Mesmer until I did the above and found that the Necro is much more what I am looking for from a main (the necro's abilities seemed so bland on paper but man is it fun!)

Good luck!

[Crazyjoe]

The problem with this game is that everything seems too damn fun which makes it harder to choose

[Kuntantee]

I always look for rich mobility and escape mechanisms.

[Repefe]

For me it's a mix of:

What is fun (you can backtrack games you have played and find patterns of what is most fun for you)
What kind of play style the class offers (does it tank well, heal well, ranged/melee dps well, ...)
What are the role playing qualities of the class and how do they match my preferences.

[neuk]

I was all set on the Thief before the beta's but, after playing each one of the Professions I changed my mind and going with the Necromancer. The Nerco just fits me like a glove.

[Ticktox]

I might have to try the draw from the hat thing. But not include classes I'm simply not interested in, like guardian and warrior. Cool classes, just never been my cup of tea. So that leaves me with Ele, Mesmer, Necro, Thief, Ranger, Engineer... And whatever they add in a later expansion! =P

And as someone mentioned, researching, as much as I love doing it, is what puts me in this state of not being able to choose. Probably just need to dumb it down, and pretend I don't know all the details and base it off of animations and clothing. Too often I'll try to think whats fun in certain situations, like what would be fun in WvW... Well staff elementalist would be pretty cool with all that aoe for mass battles, but then I'm like, but to play one effectively you really have to be constantly attunement swapping which just doesn't sound fun to me. Then I'm like, well, theif would be cool in sPvP, but then I'm like, but it would suck for WvW! Little to no aoe! Bah humbug....
Race isn't really a problem, pretty much set on human or asura.

[DrakeWurrum]

Cool classes, just never been my cup of tea.

You won't know that until you give them a try. :P

[Ticktox]

You won't know that until you give them a try. :P

I've played warrior and paladin in WoW, different game I know, but the general idea is there. I can't stand paladin, and warrior is fun, but I feel like it's too faceroll, and I've heard similar things about it in GW2.

[DrakeWurrum]

I've played warrior and paladin in WoW, different game I know, but the general idea is there.

Like I said: You won't know until you give them a try. They're pretty much nothing like Warrior and Paladin from WoW.

[oplawlz]

I've played warrior and paladin in WoW, different game I know, but the general idea is there. I can't stand paladin, and warrior is fun, but I feel like it's too faceroll, and I've heard similar things about it in GW2.

Sorry man, but the similarities are pretty sparse. I mean, they do wear plate, and use melee weapons sometimes, but that's about it. Especially the guardian-pally comparison, they are really nothing alike at all.