newbie question: which profession is the easiest for newbies?

hi, I just bought the original guild wars today, because I heard that it is a very good games with 4m ppls playing over the world. So....what profession should I start with?

Easiest?

Wammo.
Warrior / Monk.


But I'd recommend trying something a bit tougher. I personally jumped in at the deep end with Assassin (and unlike most others, I didn't try to play him like a warrior... but instead made the opposite mistake and tried to play him as a caster). If you prefer a social and supporting role.... I'd strongly recommend Monk (and there is a LOT you can do with monks) or Ritualist if you have Factions.

But if you want the really n00bish option... you'll need Wammo..... (with or without Frenzy + Heal Signet + Mending ... and a Fiery Dragon Sword).

A Ranger is also a safe profession to start with.

SotiCoto, Stop Promoting that awful profession combination! It only leads to disaster!

As a first character it would be better to start off with a less demanding, and less complex professions. Elementalist, Ranger or *sigh* I suppose Warrior would all be good choices for a beginner in my opinion.

Mmmkay, choose wisely...

I wouldnt start with either monk or Mesmer as a first character, the other 4 are all fine.

Reasons why not monk or mesmer
Much is expected as a healing monk which everyone assumes you are if you dont know how parties work together you may be innefectual for a while.

mesmer also needs a little experience since they work by stopping others using skills, you have few ways to damage opponants its more a case of making them damage themselves.

whatever you choose just enjoy yourself make the most of the early part of the game to learn how best to play the character.
Move on to the main part of the game when you have gained all the skills money and armor you can.

Think about your secondary class it will be withn you for quite a while, much later in the game you can change secondary as often as you like but that time is quite a way off.

If stuck and no one is around to ask then check out guildwiki website, it can be a spoiler for later parts of the game but it helps with advice on skills and character types.
Read the bits you need and leave the rest till you are really stuck.

good luck and see you online maybe.


My experiences as a beginner if your interested.

Personally I dont like playing warriors too much so went for ranger as my first character and necro as my second.

Thats not quite true I started a mesmer lost my confidence part way into the game couldnt seem to get anywhere with it.

Put the mesmer aside and played ranger then necro right through the game then went back to mesmer with more experience and loved it, its now my favourite class.

The ranger had a pet so it was easy to get through some of the fighting, the necro raised small armies of undead and blasted her way though some missions with ease.
I also found my necro readily accepted by parties the ranger less so but still had little trouble joining.

warrior is usually what most people start to play, its easy role to play.

Warrior is easiest IMO, you don't have to worry about energy management or kiting or any of that sort of stuff. As long as you don't do anything stupid like using healing prayers, you'll be fine.

The most straightforward professions to start out with are probably the Warrior and the Elementalist. Things don't get much more straightforward than smashing things until they fall over or nuking the living daylights out of things until they burn to a crisp.

Somewhere in the middle are the Ranger, Monk and Necromancer. The Ranger takes a bit of getting used to as you have to keep an eye on your effects monitor at the top of the screen to check on the status of your arrow preps (and recast them when necessary), as well as keep an eye on the general status of the battlefield (where the monsters are and the directions they're all moving in) if you want to set down traps. Rangers can also charm a pet, so they can bring along some extra muscle for the team.

Monks are generally expected to be healers and protectors. This means you have to learn to pay close attention to which team members are taking the most damage and not wasting your energy bar by casting an unnecessary spell or by overhealing. This does take a while to get used to, although if you explain to groups beforehand that you're still learning, most of the time people will be very understanding and will try to make things a little easier for you.

The Necromancer is a profession that requires a certain degree of patience and discipline. Many necro skills require you to inflict a negative condition on yourself or sacrifice some of your health to cast. It is quite possible to sacrifice yourself to death this way, so as a necromancer you would need to learn to watch your health bar carefully to avoid accidents. If you decide to specialise in death magic for the ability to raise an army of undead minions, maintaining your army is an art form all on its own and can also take you a while to get used to the process of army building and maintenance (and staying energy-efficient and out of harm's way).


The least straightforward profession is the Mesmer. Mesmers specialise in turning the enemy's abilities against them, and needs you to have an understanding of how enemies act and react in combat; knowledge that as a newcomer, you won't have yet but will develop as you play though the game. This is the main challenge when working with the mesmeric arts, and if you do decide to play as a mesmer be prepared for a lot of trial and error until you learn what you're up against and how to counter what you're facing (everything is situational, and a spell that's a real killer in one area will probably be totally useless in other areas). If you take this challenge though, you'll find that you'll learn not just about mesmers, but about every other profession in the game and a good bit of game mechanics in the process.

My first character was a mesmer, and he's still around today and is the crown jewel of my account (and he celebrated a birthday last week). Took more hard knocks than I could count at the beginning while I worked out which spells countered which actions, which defensive options to bring and prioritising which enemy skills needed to be interrupted more than others; though in the end I feel that he's given me a solid understanding of how the game works and a tremendous amount of self-satisfaction that I don't think I would have got if I had chosen a different profession as my first.


The bottom line is this though: Play with whatever profession you enjoy. You will always have a minimum of four character slots available, so you can experiment with different professions until you find one that's right for you. All of the professions are equally powerful in their own unique ways, and if you have fun playing a certain profession, you'll find yourself mastering that profession much more easily.

Warrior can be easy to play because there is not too much you can do wrong. You are not the first target for enemies and can run around mashing opponents.
(actually there is a lot you can do wrong like running into mobs and aggroing enemies while the rest of the group isn't prepared)
on the other hand if you are facing blinding opponents being a warrior can be quite frustrating.
Derwish is very similar to warriors.

I think rangers are a nice profession to start with.

One of the best things is that rangers can be very versatile.
If you want to you can run around with daggers and play assassin style or toucher or use a hammer (bunny thumper). There are a lot of different things you can try out with one profession.
Just take a collection of nice builds and play around a little.

Necromancer.

Step 1: Cast spell
Step 2: Wait till stuff kill themselves.

Any profession which has strong armor or does high damage is going to be the easiest to play. But you have to consider what is going to be fun to play in the long run.

A necromancer might be hard to start with, but you can later create a very strong minion master or SS necro.

A mesma might be hard to play at first, but you can create a very powerfull shut-down or energy-drain mesma later ingame.

You have to concider what you want to do. Damage, long or close combat, interupt, control minions, heal.

Ive always loved being an ele mind, but we get rubbish armor and skins. But mines oober good now after 2 years. But again.. its all personal preference. You wont know unless you try them.

Monk, Warrior, Elementalist, Ranger, or Necromancer.

Monk - when you are starting out, people will not expect you to be the ulitmate healer. With time, you will gain experience. With experience, you will see what is good and what is bad. In time, you will become a good monk or at least see why monks do not party with silly people (those who go off on their own and expect to be saved by the monk).

Warriors - in the beginning, its hack and slash. Eventually, you'll see defense with offense makes you better to kill and to save yourself from enemies

Elementalist - Area of Effect spells become your main source of power, killing from afar is your greatest asset.

Ranger - single target at far range; crippling them so you can take your shots without being hit at melee is a good way to beat your enemies.

Necromancers - summoning minions and hexing your enemy is your method of death; stealing the life force of others and giving life to yourself is your method of healing.

I went with the Warrior for my first character, its simple. It can become a bit more complex the more skills you gain and the more you adventure, but you should be up to the challenge by then.

Go mesmer. It maybe harder at first (but since you have no experience in the game you won't know the difference) but you will learn the ins and outs of the game faster than any other profession. It will make you a better player when you do move to other clases as well.

A warrior is the easiest character to play in my opinion.

for people just getting started I would recommend a Warrior/Monk with a skill called Mending

man, you guys make it sound like being w/mo is such a bad thing. personally, when i use my w/mo, the only mo spell i have is rebirth with everything else being damage dealing and blocking stances.

spkeaing of w/mo, i need to teach my guildmate, who plays as a w/mo, to leave the healing to the monks...

Be a Water ele!.. Don't see many of those anymore...

I should slap you...

A W/Mo isnt as bad as many say, its a relaxing layed back type of play (compared with caster charrs). it gives you time to test and a little margine of error due to the higher armour rating.

The only 2 Monk spells I have for my wammo are rebirth and healing breeze (to cast in emergencies or to cast on a monk who is taking too much heat and has to cover other members atm).

Mending is good for low level areas, but totally uselless later on in the game.

Use the warrior skills mainly and take a hard res skill and maybe a way to help the real monk keep you alive (healing breeze or defy/endure pain)

Rofl, why is that? Wa/Mo is the easiest build to play and if you have mending it's going to take the strain off of a newbie who justs wants to get a feel of the game...

that is my honest opinion

My warrior is a Shock Warrior full time so no one can accuse me of being a Wa/Mo supporter if that is such a bad thing..

When I was starting out with a necro back in the beta, I found it a little hard to control as I was new to the game, so I tried a "Paladin" as people like to call them and it was much more relaxing and gave me time to get the hang of the game..that's all

Ranger was my first and still is my favorite character. Having a pet to start with makes the game much easier and you can stay back and cripple, poison and interrupt without taking too much damage.

Warrior is pretty mindless at first but I think it teaches new players bad habits like tanking and aggro without regard to other's energy or health and will often be the death of a team. A really good warrior is an asset, a bad warrior is death sentence.

Elementalist is also a good starting character. You can do a lot of damage and still stay in the background. Most everything will take damage from fire at first and you learn very quickly how to manage your energy or die.

Necro is a fun character and starting out with minions will give you your own little army. However, you can only raise minions from fleshy creatures so if you are fighting ice or stone monsters you won't have any minions. There are other skills that cause damage and steal health but you will have to be aware of where you are and set your skills accordingly.

Monk is the most abused player in the game and in my opinion playing a monk even for a short time will make you a better player of any other class. Monks can only heal as long as they have energy. Once your energy is gone it takes time to build it back up and if other players *cough*tanks*cough* run in and attack everything in site you will not be able to keep them alive and will often take abuse for being a "noob".

Mesmer is a fun player as well but most people don't give them credit for being as powerful as they are.

Play around in pre-sear with different professions for even a couple levels, try out the different combinations for your secondary and see what you have the most fun with. Monk is always a safe secondary and is useful to be able to heal yourself and resurrect your party members. Necro or Mesmer secondary are also very good as you can steal health or energy along with causing damage from your primary profession. Ele secondary can cause a lot of damage but also takes considerable energy so be aware of what your base energy is and consider that before taking that.

The game is fun and you will meet lots of nice and helpful people along the way as well as quite a few jerks. Don't be afraid to ask questions, don't sell your dye to the merchant and be aware that black and white dye is worth a lot so check it out and don't get ripped off.

Good luck and come back if you have questions or problems...as you can see many are more than happy to share their experience and opinions... Oh and ranger is a great way to start

I think if you want easy you will go for Warrior monk, which in my opinion is so boring and same-y. but you can advance quickly as there is no real skill involved... Just tanking your way through.

My first character was a Ranger mesmer but I really didn't understand mesmer skills at the beginning. But Rangers can be very varied in the way they are used..ie Barrage, trapper so lots of scope.

Monks are great but it is very hard work til you understand the various combinations of healer protector bonder. You will be very popular from lvl 20!
Again this is a really good profession and not too hard.

Necros are fun and not too difficult, and again easy enough to get through the game if your noobie.

IMO Ritualists and Assassins are hard and better left til you have learned the ropes on an easier profession, otherwise you may get demoralized.

Easiest?
(1) Easiest as in easiest to play,
(2) easiest to team up or
(3) easiest to get to know the game better so you learn the next professions faster?

Considering only the core professions, I'd say Ele and Warrior for 1, Ele, Necro and Monk for 2 (might be outdated in NF, where you get hero monks) and Ranger for 3.
That would leave mesmer as a no-go at first (mostly mesmer or monk player myself).

My choice for first players would be ranger, since it can learn you the most about enemy behaviour and the environment while playing ranger does not require as much knowledge as playing mesmer.
As ranger, you can learn how to disable enemy skills (interrupt), cause conditions (preparations, traps), avoid damage (stances) and you can keep a good look over the total playing field (for example how enemies move while the team attacks them).
This is information that is usefull for playing every other profession.

The backdraw of warrior is that he's up front most of the time and therefore has less time to take a look at the field.
Monks heal or prot (smiting not considered) which is easier when knowing the enemy.
Ele and necro can deal damage without caring much about the enemy profession (aka nuking, or necro minion masters which only don't work when there are no corpses around).
And the mesmer is too specialized to use most effective when not knowing the enemy. (a decent skillbar can deal with most situations, but other professions can do that better).

The ranger has disadvantages but in my opinion gives the best start to become a good player with other professions.

I'd recommend that you ignore all of our advice and just try ALL of the classes. By the time you get each class to level 7, you'll have a good idea of how each is generally played. And you should have a good idea of whether or not you're having fun playing each class by then. Obviously each class will only get better the longer you play it, but it is the playstyle that stays the same.

This isn't WoW, it won't take 20 hours to get to level 7. You should get to level 7 in no time. If you're bored, try another class. You are bound to find one you like.

Thanks all...I have 3 slots right? I start as a warrior-monk first then, probably after I am used to the gameplay, gonna go become the more demanding professions.

Having said that, the absolute 1st thing I need to do is to chuck out the Intel 82845G intergrated graphics card, and get a new Dell Dimension 530 with an ATI HD2400 video card. If I only have 10fps all the time I cant play at all even with the strongest character on the server -.-

yifan's heroes,

Create a character which you will enjoy playing.

Hacking/tanking, create a warrior.

Arrows/Pets/Traps, create a ranger.

Casting spells, create an elementalist, necromancer or mesmer

Healing or Protecting the party, create a monk.

All classes can be easy or difficult to play. Just start playing a profession which interests you the most.

Also, if you enjoy doing missions/quests with other people, some professions find it easier to get into groups. My monk character took far less time to run through the missions because she had minimal wait time to find groups. On the other hand, monks also take the most abuse (usually from idiots who dont know how to play, Squishies who want to tank).

Please, don't mislead newbs when they're so easy to manipulate.

I highly recommend using a warrior or elementalist. Warriors are utlimately the easiest profession to master, giving you a fairly easy time through and a good look at the game itself before you wanna get serious with a monk or something else. The only problem with a warrior these days is the overabundance of them. Waaay too many wars lfg.

Elementalist. So long as you don't split into all four elements, just being this profession just about guarantees you're getting into a group. Eles have extremely high damage output, and while they're fairly sensitive to damage themselves, if they stay back, they're very effective.

If you go W/Mo, please don't be a frenzy healsig newb.. If I see just 1 more of those.. Let's just say someone's gonna be looking for their head in the mornin'!!

Before you run off and make a warrior monk, you might consider a warrior ranger. First, you won't get ragged on all the time for being a wammo. Second, you get troll ungent as a self heal rather than mending or heal sig. Also, you can do things like apply poison to your axe before using cyclone axe to start killing a lot of enemies at once. That class combo also makes great runners to make cash. Also, the are great for solo-farming in certain areas. Easy to play, too.

Elementalist.

Easiest job in the book. Takes very limited skill to play. Stand in midline, nuke, nuke, nuke. Does not need to know which enemies he is fighting, at least not until far into the game. Does not need to know about aggro range. Does not need to know about tanking, manipulating opponents. Overpowered class, always wanted by parties.

Warrior, Elementalist, Monk. Enjoy the game from start to finish.

Necro, Mesmer. Needs a bit more thought.

Ranger. Needs a health warning. Jack of all trades but master of none.

If you want a Water Ele around... just ask and I'll lend you Lon Zi's help for a while. Water Elementalist Exclusive for the moment (though I'm collecting some nice staves for when he touches on other elemental proficiencies).


Only true if you go fire.
Afterall... Fire are the nukers... Air are the spikers (even moreso with Glyph of Quickening)... Earth are the defenders.... and Water are the incapacitators.

I've had all sorts of folks giving me grief because I play a Water Ele in PvE (and various other things too) .... but let me tell you he IS useful. Deep Freeze can pin down whole mobs for the nukers (and does extra damage in a Water Ele's hands besides), Blurred Vision takes pressure off the group by greatly reducing the effectiveness of enemy melee, Ward Against Harm when used correctly can provide considerable defense for the entire group (particularly in Hard Mode) or alternatively Mind Freeze is the ultimate one-character snare.... and of course Maelstrom, which on a snared group is total caster shutdown with just one move.

Normal Mode PvE? Totally unnecessary... but still very useful. Hard Mode PvE? All the more useful.
And besides... setting someone on fire won't stop them running over to you and hacking half of your health away before they snuff it. On the other hand, making it so they're stuck an aggro range away and cannot move gives you all the oppurtunity in the world to smash them down and kill them without them being able to reach you NOR get away.

So... yeah... Stubbornly enough, I am entirely Pro-Water-Ele. And besides, they are my worst nightmare to come up against in Alliance Battles... even more than most Mesmers.

Been dwelling in water for my ele as well collecting skills trying to form new builds ect.. something new and different.

But for someone new I highly recommend a Ranger/any the survivability and the increased distance from target foe come into play. Great defenses and good armor,and more time to think.