New to GW2

[mirix]

I'm thinking of picking up GW2. I've been playing WoW since Vanilla, on and off from BC until WoD. I'm looking for something to play alongside, but not replace WoW as I still enjoy raiding. I'm intrigued by GW2's supposed balanced PvP. I've done some research, read some guides and introduction to Guild Wars stuff but there's a lot of information to go through. What I'm looking for is advice from experienced players, a sort of TL;DR of everything I've seen so far. I've gathered that racing to max level isn't a necessity, playing through the story is the main part. I'm looking for more information on races in particular. I'm most interested in playing as warrior as I main one in WoW and prefer melee to casters. What advice can veterans give me? Is PvP truly balanced no matter the class you play? What should I know starting fresh?

[PACOX]

Pretty much everything you need to know about GW2 is on the GW2 wiki and can be accessed in game with the /wiki command. The wiki is very comprehensive and possibly under utilized by the masses. The only thing you cant really find on the site are class builds. You can use meta battle for that.
Th
PVP: Every map is a variation of "hold the point, race to x amount of points" with their own mechanic you must consider. There is one (two come the expansion) to this rule, that map is dedicated to team deathmatch. Theres obviously some builds that outperform the rest but no class is useless in PVP, there are meta builds for each class that make them competitive at some role. Class races dont matter, you can't use racial skills in PVP and the are lackluster in PVE (with a handful of exceptions that can't be 100% ignored).

One thing I'll say about PVP since you're interested in it is that they're not deathmatches. Veteran players pick up on novie players who fall into this trap. They'll simply kite you around, manipulate you into meaningless fights, while they run up a matches score on you. PVP is about knowing how to effectively control your points and to rotate to a new one if pressured. Killing is part of taking/defending a capture point but not main objective of matches (one map is an exception).

[Fencers]

GW2's PVP is not "balanced" in the vulgar sense.

Structured PVP is equalized.

WvW PVP is asymmetrical.

There are important distinctions. You may be under a false premise if you come to the game with a low understanding &/or expectation of the design.


Races mean nothing in GW2 beside the aesthetic and minor story intro. Everything is the same eventually with rather slight nods to race choice later on. The racial elite skills are PVE only and mostly for flavor- they are pretty terrible for actual play. Few people use the racial elites aside from 1-2 skills when nothing better is available.

Every class is everything in GW2 as well. There are ranged Warriors that use bows and guns. Guardians with magic fireballs and long range aoe. Rangers wielding greatswords and spell casters dual wielding long swords in melee.

Again, your premise might be faulty if under the assumption that a Warrior is a "melee" class in GW2. It is merely a heavy class in the context of the game.

The GW2 wiki should be where one seeks these details of operation.

[Jinxz]

I'll take gw2's PvP over wow's any day of the year. Blizzards PvP is an insult to players.

[Justin-Sane]

I'll take gw2's PvP over wow's any day of the year. Blizzards PvP is an insult to players.

GW2 has an equally unbalanced class system, the only thing that gives the illusion of balance is that everyone is instantly 80 with the same gear.

[mirix]

GW2 has an equally unbalanced class system, the only thing that gives the illusion of balance is that everyone is instantly 80 with the same gear.

Which professions would you consider underpowered / not fun in pvp? Is it the same situation in pve?

[Justin-Sane]

Which professions would you consider underpowered / not fun in pvp? Is it the same situation in pve?

Last I played, rangers were underperforming and d/d elementalists were very high up there, but things might've changed. For support, you can't go wrong with a guardian, pve or pvp. greatsword warriors were good as well.

[Vintersol]

I'll take gw2's PvP over wow's any day of the year. Blizzards PvP is an insult to players.

This! At least, you have more options to build your character to have a decent success.

[zito]

GW2 has an equally unbalanced class system, the only thing that gives the illusion of balance is that everyone is instantly 80 with the same gear.

Imo you're wrong. I agree that pvp in general will never be balanced but Wow pvp is the biggest croc of shit I've ever played

[Fencers]

Guys, please keep this discussion on Guild Wars 2 specifically.

- Fencers

[Christonya]

Last I played, rangers were underperforming and d/d elementalists were very high up there, but things might've changed. For support, you can't go wrong with a guardian, pve or pvp. greatsword warriors were good as well.

Theres a massive difference between d/d ele's being good and rangers being a bit on the weak side VS getting one shot by another player in wow.

The balance in gw2 by comparison is AMAZING. In reality, it's not perfect, but it is very good.

As per the OP. Tl:dr:

Pvp is balanced no matter what you play, yes some classes are weaker then others yes some are stronger then others, but the gap is no where near as disgusting as it is in many other games.

Warriors are fantastic in pve, in pvp they are a little lacking but they still have great builds that work.

What you should know when starting: Expect to get crapped on. In pve, in pvp. Learn to dodge is your first goal, or at least should be.

[Deleted]

Well in wow you can't really oneshot people. In GW2 they haven't been able to deal with design of stealths, so thieves have always been able to oneshot somehow. Little skill with lots of reward, and it's one of the reasons me and my friends left the spvp. We played thieves, did heartseeker pro and backstab skill, and I read GW2 official forum now and then and patches comes but the issues remains. In order to create balance they should consider redesigning the thief profession.
Guardians have been issues on the former maps where you hold stations, because of their healing and tankiness. A guardian was a must have. As far as I understand it's still the case.
These two professions have always overperformed, since launch and ongoing. Other professions have seen better or worse days depending on patch.
Also updates in spvp are really slow, but then again so they are in wow, however ANet are allergic to hotfixes so even gamebreaking pvp bugs have to wait for next patch to be fixed which was pretty gameending for me and my friends after launch.
If I will return I won't do it for spvp but for wvwvw which they do quite good, and balance issues isn't as gamebreaking there.

[Christonya]

Well in wow you can't really oneshot people. In GW2 they haven't been able to deal with design of stealths, so thieves have always been able to oneshot somehow. Little skill with lots of reward, and it's one of the reasons me and my friends left the spvp. We played thieves, did heartseeker pro and backstab skill, and I read GW2 official forum now and then and patches comes but the issues remains. In order to create balance they should consider redesigning the thief profession.
Guardians have been issues on the former maps where you hold stations, because of their healing and tankiness. A guardian was a must have. As far as I understand it's still the case.
These two professions have always overperformed, since launch and ongoing. Other professions have seen better or worse days depending on patch.
Also updates in spvp are really slow, but then again so they are in wow, however ANet are allergic to hotfixes so even gamebreaking pvp bugs have to wait for next patch to be fixed which was pretty gameending for me and my friends after launch.
If I will return I won't do it for spvp but for wvwvw which they do quite good, and balance issues isn't as gamebreaking there.

When was the last time you par took in spvp? Heartseeker spamming thieves get crapped on with ease. Guardians are running zerker runes and are rather squishy, it's ele's / engi's that have high healing atm.

Miss information, is miss information.

[zito]

Only thing heartseeker thieves can kill is zerker geared players. They will easily die and it's easy to count stealth to know when to dodge roll that backstab or just use a block.

[Caruktna]

I like GW2, but sometimes i feel the PvP with lack of flavor... other times i really like it, specially the WvWvW

[Nofo]

Imo you're wrong. I agree that pvp in general will never be balanced but Wow pvp is the biggest croc of shit I've ever played

says the 1200 player

[Shakadam]

PVP is as balanced as it gets in an MMO, every class have 1 or more builds to choose from that can be considered "meta" at the moment and can compete with nearly anything, however most (all) builds also have another class and build which is more or less a direct counter, and what is considered good and what is considered bad is constantly evolving in the pvp area because when 1 build gets popular, there are builds created to counter that, and then new builds created to counter those builds etc etc in an endless evolution.

Every class has a part in pvp and the popularity of a certain class rises and falls with the changing meta. No one class is really over- or underpowered right now.

[zito]

says the 1200 player

Are you talking about WoW rankings? lolok because that's relevant.

[Fencers]

Alright, guys. No. This is not going anywhere productive.

Apologies to the OP, but I would recommend further investigation on the topic be done without connection to specific games in the future. Instead taking a broader, more knowledgeable view of both symmetrical and asymmetrical PVP systems for the purposes of electronic or digital competition.

- Fencers