Which class & fairies...

[Senseo1990]

Alright, so the announcement of Path of Fire has sparked my interest in Guild Wars 2 again. I started playing it a couple of times in the past but never played past level 40, because of various reasons. One issue I'm facing whenever I decide to try the game again is that I dont really like any of the classes in the game.

I usually dislike very magic focused characters so Elementalist is out, right off the bat,

I dont like the Engineer design and concept at all,

Rangers were, I was told, very weak in the past and I hate pets (in games!),

Guardians and Warriors are alright, my first choice but somehow boring,

Thieves I usually like but not in this game (design, abilities, i dont like their handguns, the upcomign sniper rifles, various things really),

Necromancer, despite the magical nature, could be interesting,

Revenants I will consider if I buy HoT, I never checked them out

and finally: Mesmer was the only class I had fun with. But: Will I always look like a fairy, when playing one?
The armor ive seen so far really isnt for my taste and puts me off quite a bit. It looks, in my opinion, very over the top, much too "fancy" and "too fantasy". The butterfly FX and all I can cope with, but I do want to play a character that I like looking at.

Now these arent complaints. The classes are well designed from what I can tell, I just need some help deciding what I want to play and that is why I thought Id ask the fans who know their GW2 professions.

This is for PvE purposes by the way. I dont know if balance has improved considerably but when I last played lots of classes were >according to the community< (so I take that with a grain of salt) very weak, while Warriors and Mesmers were dominating everything. So viability is also of concern.

[PACOX]

Every class in the game does decent dps...except Mesmer. Not really noticeable in open world, in instanced content you become a quickness bot or tank. They do great in pvp/wvw though.

You can always change your armors appearance or get an outfit. I wouldn't worry about changing the look until you're level 80 with a gear set that you're not going to change.

Weird that you said you don't like magic but picked mesmer. Mesmer feels more "magic" than melee ele to me. Rangers were trash back in the day but are fine now.

[Xandrigity]

Yea pink butterflies lots of pink pink pink, yea it's kinda fairy-ish. One has to embrace the pink butterflies!

[schwank05]

I love Melee Mesmer, but have heard their DPS is shit, which is sad I love the Decoy system.

[Xandrigity]

I love Melee Mesmer, but have heard their DPS is shit, which is sad I love the Decoy system.

The new mirage specialization uses an axe which is a melee range set up. Have to wait to see about numbers but it's worth looking into.
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mirage

[Lotus Victoria]

If you dislike certain classes, you can always count on the elite specs. They feel like totally new classes.

[PACOX]

I love Melee Mesmer, but have heard their DPS is shit, which is sad I love the Decoy system.

Yes, mesmer dps is trash. Good enough for open world but if your not supporting your group with buffs in instances youre kind of dead weight....and thats going full berserker gear.