starter question

Hi guys

Im pretty new to the game and i was just wondering what profession combo do people think is good for the first character? something to level 1-20 reasonably easily to get a feel for the game. solo pve mostly (with henchies ). oh, and ive only got prophecies for now

Well, it depends on what role you want to play in the party.
For direct damage dealing, Warrior and Elementalist - a melee fighter or mage - are good.
For indirect damage, degen, and disruption, there's Necromancer, Mesmer and Ranger.
For party support, there's the Monk, who can also smite if you wanna kill stuff...

So what's your playing style?

Personally, I generally recommend people to Ranger or Ele first, they're fairly easy to pick up, it doesn't matter if you fail miserably at them (unlike a warrior or monk, who's screw-ups can literally kill the party), and you can learn a lot of the basics - energy management and monitoring enemy skill usage - through them.

I agree with Alex.

Ranger makes a good first character. Bow, traps & beast mastery – plenty to have some fun with.

hi, thx for replies
for playing style, i would have to say self sufficiency for now. would like to play a soloish character until i get better and more experienced. dont want to group till i know the game better so i dont let team mates down with my newbness
ive been looking at some of the other threads and it seems monk is thought of highly as a secondary for self heals and re-use rez, are war/monk and ele/monk good combos?

any /Mo has it's uses, as long as you don't end up taking inferior monk skills over your own class' skills (like for example orison of healing instead of healing signet for warrior, or healing breeze instead of troll unguent for ranger).

If you have a full skillbar of primary skills, you should just take /Mo for the re-usable resurrection skills, instead of resurrection signet.

I agree. My first real character was a Ranger, and she worked beautifully. Playing around with her interruptions also taught me a lot about enemy skill usage.

As for a secondary, it's honestly not a big deal. /Mo is good for the rez, but it's not a must. IMO, you should just look at all the classes, find one you want to learn more about, and put that as your secondary. It's more fun that way, and you end up learning more about the game and the roles of the various classes.

Monk is a good secondary to start, especially if you don't want to party with others in a group. If you want to be self-sufficient then try Ranger/Mo first. I can do more with my ranger than any other character although they are each fun and make great contributions to the party. You also get the benefit of a pet when you start out which gives you a built in helper.

At this point I'd go monk first, since it's getting hard to find teams. If you go Monk you'll always be guaranteed a place.

ok thx for the info guys, been a great help .
just one more question if i may, when you get a bit further in and the allowed group size goes up eg. 4, when exploring with henchies is it worth making up the full four or trying to get away with as few as possible? i understand they share loot and xp, but is the limit what it is 'cause thats what you need?

Well it used to be worth getting away with fewer, but with the new loot scaling addition you may as well go with a full team and make lighter, faster work off it, since there's no longer any pay-out for smaller teams.

for whites theres no longer a payout in small groups...for the valuable stuff tere is - but still, take full teams, enjoy it - dont worry about loot or values untill youve fully enjoyed the storyline....and hunger for some 15k

for a first character go with either elementalist, warrior or ranger. and probably monk secondary, but dony use monk heals, just ressurects and condition removal.

Don't give in the thoughts of using things like healing breeze or mending or orison of healing for self sustainment. Your characters primary skills will do the work better. If you choose ranger as your character you can also go with mesmer for a secondary if you want to interrupt your opponents, or elementalist to use conjure lightning/fire/ice with the appropriate bow string to deal a significant amount of extra damage.