new to game, what to be?

I just got a trial today and want to make the most of my 10 hours so I know if it is worth buying. Any suggestions on what I should be? I play WoW and I'm a hunter, is the ranger basically the same thing? If so, does the ranger's pet behave in the same way as in it distracts the target while I shoot away?
I'd like something strong with a magical element to it as well...

Ranger is as close to hunter as you'll get.
however there are no pure aggression skills in guild wars, not for players, not for pets.

if you want magic you should go elementalist for direct and high damage, monk for healing, mesmer or necromancer for cursing and shutting down enemies.

Make an Ele and blast your way through. You'll like it more than playing a ranger at the beginning of the game since they are starting to become effective at higher levels. It's just my personal experience though.

Ranger was the first character I made 2200 hours later shes still going!

Ranger is a lot of fun, but their primary role isn't really damage. While their individual shots might deal damage comparable to other classes, their attack speed is a lot slower.
There *are* builds which do massive amounts of damage, but these involve very specific skill synergies and usually a specific secondary profession.

Rangers have no "magic" at all. Their buffs and such come in the form of stances, potions, and nature rituals (which are very wide area buffs or debuffs)

Elementalists are among the highest DD's if that's what you're looking for. You could always go Ranger/Ele. [wiki]conjure flame[/wiki] is a popular elementalist skill amongst rangers.

Monk is the obvious choice here. They are beautiful, angelic, and have the best dances.

You can heal all your allies and smite all your enemies all in a wave of your hand.

Depends on whether you're into PvE or PvP. While hunters are easy mode for PvE in WoW Rangers aren't quite the same in GW PvE. Apart from teams that have 6/8 players as rangers and rely on extremely high and rapid damage and party-wide buffs to survive they don't really serve any other particular worth in PvE. However in PvP Rangers are quite versatile characters as they can often make or break a game with the different kinds of pressure and shutdown they can apply as well as their defence capabilities.

If you want easy mode PvE and like fireworks go with an Elementalist and make red bars go down. Necromancers are also quite fun to play in PvE as well, especially in the lower level areas.

And be lumped in the "arrogant twit" basket by many by default.

I'd recommend warrior for mindless, able-to-play-when-drunk value.
But I greatly enjoy my Ranger and Necromancer.

In the end, entirely up to you; Just get the game, if you can spend the money to play WoW, the price for prophecies is trivial.

Aw... That's not very sportsman like.
You hurted my feewings.

I never said you were...

It's just my experience that alot of monks think of themselves highly.
Not you necessarily

Apologies !

Monks take the most skill to play, so when people think highly of themselves for monking it isn't entirely a bad thing.

Since traditional tanking has been pretty much destroyed I wouldn't say playing warrior in PvE is mindless.

Guild Wars Guru doesn't have a laughing emote.

Elementalists are among the highest burst damage dealers. Rangers beat them out easily at damage over time. Last I checked, they were just under Warriors in that respect.

Rangers are great classes for PvE, being versatile for practically everything, they have no real strength, but no real weakness either. The only problem is that they're practically useless until about level 15 and even then, it's not until level 20 they show their true colours. Not that it's hard getting to 20 anyway.

QFT that's the only time my warrior gets screen time

I knew you didn't mean me.
No offense taken.

He/She didn't specify whether they meant direct damage or damage over time, so you have no real reason to laugh. Warriors are definately the highest DPSers in GW but, often in PvE, Elementalists get the job done far faster than a Warrior can, which is why most warriors generally build in PvE with a shout or two, IaS stance, and an adrenal spike of some sort to assist with damage.

Haha. Blasphemy We're not that useless

If you like mindless fun, go warrior or ele.

If you want to be guaranteed to get on a pug, no matter how bad/inexperienced you might be, be a monk or an AoE SF Ele.

If you want to learn the game's ins and outs, and be a good player, be a ranger.

On a serious note, check out the pve thread on different classes. Each class has a good thread on how to play it, and many builds to get you started. Other than actually making the character and rolling with it, they will give you the best idea for starting off.

I'll add to Haggus: If you want to really learn how to play, go for Legendary Survivor.

Ele or Necro. Not a big call for Rangers in the early part of the game.

Mesmer is something what WoW doesn't have. It would be a new experience and you wouldn't have any assumptions how it work. You want something different because you want to play GW and not WoW.

I would advice to forget WoW aggro and all other things. GW works differently. Play and learn.

This is a wrong place to look for WoW elements in the first place.

However, noone can give u such advice on what you should play. Read and scroll over classes and choose what suits you best.

Looking at the different class:
Warriors, Monk, and Ele are easier to find a party.

Necromancer, Rangers, Ritualist, Dervish, Paragon, 2nd most easiest to get in to a party.

Assassin, Messmer, the most difficult to find a party.

This article will give you some insight why the War/Ele/Monk or holy trinity as it's refered too exists - http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...71#post3109071

(Edit) thanks pointing out the missing class

Where do Necs fit into that?

Neither does it have an 'elitist much?' emote.

I actually thought about emphasizing the "amongst" part as I was writing the post, but assumed it wouldn't be necessary.

I never said elementalists are the bestest dd's in the whole game above all else. I said they were 'amongst' the highest direct damage dealers.

Necros, monks, mesmers, dervishes, paragons, and rangers do not largely specialize in direct damage the same way elementalists do. Rangers will outdamage ward eles, most warriors will outdamage water/utility eles, a good smiter monk will outdamage a crappy fire ele, a good mesmer will outdamage a crappy air ele, but that still doesn't change the fact that eles are one of the classes whose primary function is to deal large amounts of unconditional damage.


Let me ask you this; if eles *aren't* among the damage dealers in this game, what are they, then? Is water/earth their most used attribute while fire/air is just this minority obscure attribute that nobody really uses?

They're more of a support class. I didn't specify them not being damage dealers, I specified them as not the main damage dealers.

When i say support, I mean that to be taken completely vaguely as it is an unspecific term. Support for damage, is fire and burning/degen or air for burst damage on single targets. Support for disabling is Air for anti melee, blind, knockdown and Water, for Snares. Support for protection, earth in enchantments, wards for armour. evasion. Just the basics thrown out. I'm not going to list the what is it now 150+ skills for the elementalist.

To the OP: Pick the profession that you think you'll enjoy most.

If you like smashing things up, be a warrior. If you like animals and the grace of the bow, be a ranger. If you like to protect your friends, be a monk. If you're a sadist at heart, be a necromancer. If you like blowing things up, be an elementalist. If you enjoy spreading panic among enemy ranks and look absolutely fabulous while doing it, be a mesmer.

Read over the little descriptions you get at the bottom of the screen when you select your character's primary profession (during character creation), and see which one speaks to you the most. This game is supposed to be fun, so it's important that you choose a profession that looks fun.

Unlike in WoW, all of the classes in GWs are about equally useful in soloing for general play (some combos are particularly effective for gold farming in certain areas, but I assume that's not your goal).

So there's no point to hordes of hunter clones in this game (not that hunters are actually that useful in WoW, most of my guildies with them got bored in the 40s-50s and started over - but people seem to think they're good for solo farming).

Just go with whatever seems like it would be fun to try out.

Magical classes on a trial account is probably going to mean Elementalist, Mesmer, Monk, or Necromancer. A lot of people claim Mesmer is tricky to play, but I'm not of that opinion. And in 10 hours, you won't get far enough in to notice - you'll probably only just make it out if pre-searing, if past it at all (given that it will be your first time through).

Mesmer is a lot like a warlock / shaman / paladin without the healing - you buff / debuff stuff, do a lot of DoT.

Elementalist is like a Mage, but without the ability to do AoE grinding as you can't lock them in place.

Monk is like a Holy specc'd priest, and once you get past pre-searing you can change to protection monk which is like a paladin / shaman in that you 'heal' through buffing / blocking damage.

Necromancer is hard to find an equivalent for in WoW. Its the minion class of GWs, but unlike in WoW you end up with a whole stack of minions and they die out very fast and at least in the early game, are not controllable - they find the nearest mob and kill it, regardless of what you are up to. In some ways they resemble a Warlock with some DoT spells and the theme behind the minions, but the play is very different.

From my experience, these classes have an easy time getting a group:

Necromancer (MMs are needed almost everywhere; where they're not they go BiP or SS)
Monk, for obvious reasons (but not in my groups; I refuse to take human monks on grounds of encountering one too many arrogant little b****es; I prefer hero monks)
Warrior (Granted only one tank is usually needed, but Warrior is still an important class)
Elementalist (Almost everyone loves SF)

The following can get in although they may have more trouble:

Ranger (some people don't recognize how important a ranger is, but they're still valued and while most groups won't actively search for one, most will still accept one who tries to join)
Dervish (for extreme tanking, ie the Obsidian Flesh tank, a warrior or earth elementalist is needed, but in most cases people will accept a Dervish instead)
Assassin (despite the negative impression about them in PvE, I find most groups will still accept one, although you'll never see 'GLF sin' in PvE)

Good luck getting in as these:

Mesmer (people don't like them in PvE. Very hard to get a group since most people see their spells as lacking substance)
Paragon (heavy negative impression about them amongst the general player base. Very hard to get a group)
Ritualist (people consider us inferior to Monks for healing and unnecessary for anything else. Like the Mesmer, people don't know our skills very well and so they are unable to understand how we fit into a team. They're happy to whine about our PvP capabilities and demand that spirits be nerfed, though)

my cousin plays wow and i gave him my trial key, which he used up, but he never ventured off the starter land and never triggered the storyline of the gae - which is one of the things it has that wow doesnt.. so reguardless of what you choose to be, and make sure to go to war and get a look at the story as well.