im new:whats the order in the classes, most to least popular?

i've been eying guild wars b4 the first version came out, and im finally getting it soon!

I want to play a ranger cuz i like 2 use bows and also the expertise skill looks pretty awsome. But im coming from a game where one class had a huge majority of ppl playing it. It got so annoying that an archer (which in that game, sucked) 30 lvls below you got more respect than you did because he looked different.

i REALLY do not want to get a generic character in this game (nightfall)
looking at the forums and stuff i think the order is like:

Warrior
Deverish
Ranger
Paragon
Monk- though i think theyre like number 1 in pve
Elementalist
Necromancer- i think theyre like number 2 in pve
Mesmer

im debating between ranger-paragon-warrior depending on which is less seen. So plz tell me, whats the real order of the popularity of classes?

It's somewhat hard to say, because the balance is somewhat evenly distributed, and because the new classes from the expansions tend to be huge right after the expansions comes out and drop off later, plus be much less popular in campaigns other than the one they came from. The core class order is something like:

Warrior (Def the most common)
Monk
Ranger
Elementalist
Necromancer
Mesmer (Def the least common)

If I were to guess, the Class Order for all classes is probably something along the lines of:

Warrior
Monk
Dervish
Paragon
Assassin
Ranger
Ele
Ritualist
Necro
Mesmer

Note that these are for PvE. For PvP (at least Random Arenas) it's more along the lines of:

Ranger
Monk
Assassin
Warrior
Rit
Ele
Necro
Mesmer
Dervish
Paragon

Anyone else want to have some input on this?

Just play whatever you want.

Guild Wars has enough balance. lol

It really varies

I see Warriors in most places i go. I would say they are the most popular.

I myself play a Ranger and never step into a town without seeing at least one other Ranger (its a great profession what can i say )

Elementalists and Necromancers are like the plague from my views. I always see a few in a town.

Dervish and Paragon are all over Elona,the setting of Nightfall.

Monks are a popular profession but sometimes seem to be scarce.

Mesmers are the ones i never see in crowds unless at events.Although thats usually because players dont know what they are capable of

All in all I suggest you pick a profession you find fun .Remember you have 4 slots to use.

As Free Runner said you have four slots with one chapter. You can try out all the core classes and the two chapter-specific ones and decide which one(s) suit your playing style.

There is no one overwhelming choice of profession for the core classes - most people who have played the game for a while have bought other chapters and/or character slots and have one of each.

In Nightfall, you will see a multitude of dervishes and paragons in every town and outpost - that's because they are the new professions with this chapter. So you will run into "GLF more - no derv, no para" simply because there are too many.

From the core classes, warrior/monks (the ever made fun of wammo), rangers (because of the pets), elementalists (fire spells), and necromancers (minions) are the most popular first choices.

If you want to guarantee always finding a party, choose a healing monk because there are never enough healers to go around.

I have a poll running in The Riverside Inn forum asking "What Profession was your First Character?". Many of the posts explain why new players changed their minds and made a different character.

Also, if you are beginning with Nightfall and its heroes, study the build forums for information on the best skills to make your heroes more effective.

First choice here for me :: Elementalist
Last choice for me :: Monk (Taking care of people? Pfft)

You can't play a lot of PVE then as you would of NEVER put necros 2nd to last if you did. Assassins used to be popualr in factions but since people have found thier pretty much useless in pve. Thier hardly played at all now. Its wierd but I've seen many 5 or 6 monks in towns in Elona since I started. Used to see a lot more in factions and proph.

Based on what I've seen in elona since it started I would say the list is something like

Dervish/Paragon
Warrior
Ranger/Ele/Necro
Mesmer
Assassin
Ritulaist.

Since you have 4 characters slots why not start one of each of the ones you want to try and see which you like best. You can allways come back to the others at a later point or delete them if you don't like them.

Well I've played GW for about 19months now.
And my main character is and forever will be my Necromancer.

As I see it, ppl want these professions the most and in this order for PvE:

Monk
Assassin
Necromancer
Ranger
Warrior
Elementalist
Mesmer
Ritualist

(I don't think ppl like mesmers much but they are effecient in PvP)

for PvP I would say:

Monk
Assassin
Paragon
Elementalist
Ranger
Mesmer
Warrior
Necromancer
Dervish
Ritualist

(but then again I don't have Nightfall yet)

I have Necromancer, Ranger, Warrior, Mesmer, Monk, Assassin.

A small disclaimer: since I haven't played all professions yet I simply put the professions I know the least about at the bottom of the lists just so ppl don't get angry at me.

/Spine Hellspawn

My first choice was and still is Elementalist (highest damage dealer in the game, or at least is supposed to be). The choice you make will be determined on how you like to play. Whether you like to be up close and personal with the monsters or if you like to be in the background in a support role. The choice is realy up to your play style.

Mega Mouse

Go play a ranger if you like. You won't regret it.

You also forgot Assassin and Ritualist, but I guess you won't buy factions?

Warrior
Monk
Ele
Dervish
Paragon
Ranger
Assassin
Necro
Mesmer
Ritualist

My opinion..

This I would agree with...maybe put monks a little lower...

You forgot a class though. Right at the top...

WAMMO!

..."It's a class of it's own"

It's all about the playing style, each class has a different feel to it.

For me it means Ritualist and Monk are not my thing. Though many players (including me) have a monk char, just because it is easier to get into the higher-end content (without having a clue about it).

Almost everyone has a Warrior, though it's not the easiest class to play. The "in your face" playing style appeals to a lot of players.

Rangers are also very common, many players have one and are a very diverse class. The days when rangers were scorned like mesmer are long gone.

Elementalist are a bit like rangers in how frequently I see them and at the moment the kings of pve. Like the minion master in the past (zomg the necro has an army!), a searing flames ele will make everything go alot faster.

A Necro is a good support class, but it's alot less active play then when compared to a warrior or ranger. I like this class but hardly have time to play my necro.

The Mesmer is often forgotten class, but over the 3 campaigns the mesmers have gained alot of skills making even less-skilled players effective at playing them. However to play this class best you need to know what you are fighting against, so not recommended as a first class.

A Paragon is a party-wide buffer usually, which does little dmg on his own, but can act like a fail-safe for a group. Quite unique play, you may well be the deciding factor in victory, but you'll hardly notice :P

The dervish plays in your face like the warrior, haven't tried this class, but as I like warrior and assassin I know I'm going to like them.

The assassin is more a single-target kill machine. But some have problems staying alive.

Hope this helps

another monk is always useful

Warrior
Dervish
Paragon
Ranger
Monk (dont count bots)
Necro
Ele
Assassin
Mesmer
Ritualist

The Holy Trinitiy will get you anywhere in PvE:
Warrior, Elementalist, Necro, Monk (yes, there's four classes, but this is the general setup for Tank/Nuker/Healer group).

Other classes are not asked for. Warriors are in permanent overabundance, followed by necros.

Ranger and Dervish are secondary "meh, it can't hurt" type of classes. They aren't asked, but will be taken into groups more often than not. Rangers are a special case, since they form a backbone of certain builds which dominate some high-end areas.

Paragon, Assassin, Mesmer and Ritualist are the bastard children of PvE. While they are insanely useful, their playstyle is too different from Holy Trinity, and as such, are shunned by most.

For PvP the demand changes based on various FotM factors, but with free character creation, it doesn't matter.

No class is inferior from game mechanics perspective. You can endleslly debate whether class A has normalized DPS higher by .1 point that class B, but given very different aproaches each class provides, there are no gimps by design. Some missions do favor certain builds, but that's mostly due to players, not mission design.

Looking around at the main characters of our (PvE) guild, warrior and ranger are the most popular classes. Then there is a fair number of elementalists, some monks, although only two good healers, and some minion masters, although only one good curses necro. Then there are some dervishes although they don't seem very happy once they get to 20. There are only a couple of paragons but they seem to enjoy the class. There's one good assassin (the others having been deleted in disgust) and the only ritualist that wasn't deleted is used for storage. There are no mesmers.

wow people are way off on pvp...

1) monk
2) war
....perhaps people should consider looking at gvg besides looking at SFhero eles in HA .. memser is probably the most popular after war and monk

Wow people seem to think mesmers are unwanted, but the reason you do not see use yelling LFG is because we walk into a town and get 3 or 4 invites to join a group.

I find Antheus to be right on the money.

Even if you choose the most popular class combination (w/mo) you do not get the attitude you describe. It used to be so, but I see it MUCH less often. Also note that you get two classes - while a warrior may be the most common through all the chapters you see very few warrior/necros or warrior/mesmer (and there are some great builds with them).

I would also add the order depends on which chapter you are playing. I see tons of dervishes and paragons in Nightfall, few in prophecies (my derv still gets comments if I stop by one of the very early or the last missions). You see tons of asassins in Factions but very few outside of there. All of prophecies characters are core so you see them every where.

If you really want the "rare" go mesmer. Mine hasn't remotely had the experience Tagon has had - it doesn't bother me since I like the heroes and hench anyway.

In the end, just play the one you like. Even the classic "wammo" that everyone kinda makes fun of (but I bet 90% of us either have one or use one form time to time) isn't shunned or anything - well, unless you start off the in the explorable casting "mending" on yourself. But that is because of the player, not the class

Lets see...10 professions, millions of players with multiple character slots...every class is represented and in abundance. If you want to be popular play a healing monk.

Best advice: play whatever you like and enjoy it!

1) Ritualist

Everything else sucks

(comeon..)

wow so many posts... holy crap thx a lot guys, this thread is awsome for ppl who don't what class to choose (like me)

hahaha my #1 choice was to make a "wammo" until recently when i found troves of posts scorning the billion n00b wammos. Lol i thought no one would think of my idea cuz it was so unique (a paladin) but i guess i was a little off...

looking at your several (and often contradictory) posts i have come up with a new list of the classes' popularity- in NF:

dervish
warrior
ranger/paragon
monk
elementalist(mostly pyro)/necro
mesmer

Other than the wammo, I think they're all relatively even (xcept for mesmers in pve and necros in pvp)

I don't think we can tell how the list will look like once the para-dervish hype cools down, but anyway im cut b/w paragon and ranger because the paragon seems to be fun paladin like support class but u can't make creative builds like you can w/ the ranger... so i dunno ill think of something :P

From what I've seen around so far, there's a good mix of all the professions around the entire game world. Warriors, rangers and elementalists are the most common ones I've seen as they tend to be a little more straightforward to play with. Once in a blue moon you might come across a few mesmers (who can be very difficult to play if you're new to the game - but if you have the patience to learn they're a lot of fun to play). You're far more likely to see mesmer as a secondary profession for the huge array of energy management skills available from that class.

And here's a thought for you - if you think that a paragon can't make creative builds like a ranger, why not play a character who uses skills from both professions? Play about with all the different combinations and see what you can come up with

well then wammo is kinda old but i like it.
Mesmer and ritulist is by far not AS popular as the other class but meser can be a varity of thing using fast cast and ritulist can replace mm(necro that summon monster to support them) any a monk(well not really protective monkn i should say) any time

Popularity in PvE depends on where you are. Whatever chapter your playing will have more of classes that came with that chapter as opposed to other areas.

IMO
Warrior
Ranger
Necro
Ele
Monk
dervish
assasin
mesemer
paragon
ritualist

Yea, don't be afraid of a w/mo. Typically speaking saying "wammo" has a meaning beyond w/mo - either humorous tongue in cheek (I name all my saved builds in the format <primary> <secondary> <role> so I may have a "monk mesmer RC prot" except all my w/mo builds are in the form of "wammo farmer"), or it means the bad players.

As long as you accept you are not invincible and you do not have the ability to be a healer (not even a third one in extreme circumstances) your good. If you are a good player this will *quickly* become apparent even if you only hench the game and have no one make fun of you.

You can also go with a ranger/paragon Barrager spamming "Go for the Eyes" and get both classes going (at least PvE wise). My hero seems to do quite well with that - especially with a dervish or a minion army getting that many critical strikes (not to mention a barrage ranger has a pretty dang decent damage output also). Worked well through Nightfall and Prophecies and I'm in the Arborstone mission in Factions now.

i want to turn everybody into a mesmer. were under rated. .mob. make a mesmer. it takes a little bit to et used to, but once you start it you cann stop.