Completely New, A few questions

Hello everyone! I recently bought the whole GW set, including Eye of the North, and I'm currently installing/patching and found my way to these forums through the main website. Currently I'm trying to figure out what class would be best for me and I plan to start on Prophecies as a sticky said it has a relatively friendly learning curve. The types of things I enjoy in a class would either be support through buffs or support through debuffs. The classes that seem to be along those lines are Monk and Mesmer but I'm not 100% sure, and I want to have something generally newbie friendly too... I prefer to play caster/ranged types over toe to toe melee types. If anyone could give me a few tips or suggestions, or even point me somewhere that would better assist me that would be great. Thanks again!

Support through buffing and debuffing thats easy...Make a Necromancer

Really? Well I'll definitely look into it then.

Necromancer or Ritualist seems to be what you want to start as. But as Ritualist isn't in Prophecies, Necromancer seems to be the best.

You can find descriptions of the six Prophecies professions on the wiki
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Main_Page

Our Campfire section has subforums for each profession with a sticky covering the basics. Check them over and see what appeals to you.

While I think my mesmer is great, it is difficult to play as a new player as you don't know which skills counter which foes. Although Empathy is a good skill against any attacking foe.

Monks are basically healing and protection and, in my opinion, seem boring for a new player. Although you will have little trouble finding pick-up groups (PuGs) to play with.

Necromancers use a lot of degen skills to take down enemies (Curses) or buff/heal (Blood) or run minions (Death). They have varied uses in a party.

Keep in mind you have several character slots to use so you can create a few characters and see what they're like. You'll find a favourite.

Start a paragon in NF. the strongest Buff you can provide to your party. --> [save yourselves!] you can even provide a respectable dps if you use [ebon battle standard of honor]

although i personally wouldn't use a paragon because paragons can't farm and they can't PvP as well as other professions.

Ritualists could be good, providing your party with effects by summoning spirits.

if i had to make a support char in proph ( only core professions ) i'd make a monk.

sorry i disagree with you there, degen is not what curses are to be used for although there are a few options for it. curses are best used in weakening the enemy and using skills that turn their damage right back at them.

EDIT: Lucious dont be giving the guy gimick builds to run with whn he is just starting, give him time to explore his professions on his own

define gimmick build please ? he asked for suggestions and i gave him my suggestion. anything wrong with that ? oO i didn't tell him its a must to listen and follow what i've suggested.

Welcome to GW guru!

If you want to start with a Prophecies character, a Monk would be the purest "support" character, and it's not too awefully hard to pick up. Other options for a profession to learn the game with would be Warrior or Ranger. Necromancers aren't bad, and Elementalists can bring wards and snare and several ways to inflict damage. Mesmers are lots of fun, but they are also the least understood by the general community and are quite the challenge to master.

As for Paragons, they can play a vital support role, with many shouts and stuff that boost the entire party's effectiveness. But they're Nightfall only characters, and the skill [skill]Save Yourselves[/skill] won't be readily available to a new player, as they have to do work in the factions part of the game to earn enough faction to acquire the skill and even more (a LOT more) faction farming to make more than a 3 second boost.

Support works through various classes, namely monk, ritualist, necromancer and paragon.

Monks are the usual healing/protection of the team.

Ritualists are... Well, a jack of all trades, master of none. But since you're starting in Prophecies don't bother.

Necromancers are probably what you're looking for. They can support through various curses, buffs through orders, wells, inumerous options. And debuffs in the same way, as well as inflicting some conditions. Fits your description perfectly.

Paragons are a somewhat of a ranged warrior class, though focused on party wide buffs and protection, using shouts and chants. Pretty good as well, but works differently.

Bottom line, pretty much all classes offer some support, but those are the main ones.

I'm always very happy to see new people to GW. I follow the lines of most of the people above... monk is a great buffer and once you get much more used to the game, a great farmer. Necro's are also a personal favourite though.

Ping me in-game if you need anything.

<- IGN

Hmm, okay... well I read through all the posts and really appreciate all the replies I got on that. I'm not all that interested in playing a Paragon so I'm going to rule that one out. Necromancer seems to be the direction I'm being pointed at the most and hopefully it is somewhat newbie friendly. I did look into the wiki and respective class page on the forums and found I was interested in playing with the curses the most. So I will be venturing there...

On a side note, I have come from WoW/FFXI/EQ2 and I tended to play classes like Beastmaster/Hunter, but I'm not sure about trying out the Ranger here or if they can be a dedicated pet class. So if I could ask another question, can anyone give me some general input on the Rangers and their pet capabilities or do they lean more towards their bow?

youtube.com...gw guildwars

ele got power...(and a few good farming builds to get the stuff U need)

Don't forget about this game's secondary profession system that lets you mix and match. I'd suggest you try out a Necromancer/Mesmer (mesmer for your secondary profession for your necromancer). The mesmer's domination line is very similar to curses.

Rangers are very much a jack of all trades type of class.

They can use all pet stuff, or some sort of mix of pets and bow. They are also the ONLY option when it comes to being a pet class in this game. No other class has a pet. And using a pet with ranger as your secondary profession doesn't work well either.

Rangers can also use weapons from their secondary profession very well due to the nature of their main attribute line, expertise (ie, a R/W can use a hammer really well, and a Ranger/Paragon can use a spear very well). They can also spend there time summoning nature spirits (which provide global buff/debuffs that affect everybody on the field, friends and foes alike) or making traps, which are a type of area of affect damage dealer then trigger whenever any enemy steps on them.

Furthermore, there are a lot of options even with just using a bow. Rangers can focus on providing heavy damage to single targets. Or they can focus on disrupting and interrupting enemy spellcasters. Or they can provide large amounts of damage to large groups.

A gimmick build is derogatory term for a build that uses a particular odd and often overpowered combination of skill and circumstances to achieve its victory condition. The popular gimmick builds tend to be very effective, and are often candidates for skill rebalancing. For example, the EoE Bomb build is a classic gimmick build required the entire team to kill themselves as fast as possible to activate [[Edge of Extinction]. However, with the change to Edge of Extinction that prevents damage on foes at full health, this build is now entirely obsolete.

Gimmick builds are always counterable, but in most cases the counter for the gimmick requires sacrificing key elements that would be necessary to face more balanced teams.

To a certain extent, whether a build is a gimmick build or not is a matter of opinion. In competitive games, players play to win, and any legal build is a valid strategy.

OP planned to start in Prophecies. Telling him to start a Paragon in Nightfall instead is wrong.

What you suggested does not help the OP since (s)he plan to start in Prophecies for its learning curve.

Necro would be a very good choice, I think. Once you've advanced far enough to unlock Ritualist as a secondary profession -- which you can do in Prophecies, though you can't make a primary rit -- necros make extremely powerful buffers. The Necro/Rit healer is a staple of the game, using the high energy gain of the necro class (through Soul Reaping) to power ritualist spirits and weapon spells. Debuffs for the necro class are also extremely powerful.

Monk is another good option. Aside from healing and protection, they also have buffs available through Smiting Prayers that can increase the damage done by the front-liners. Smiting monks can also do substantial direct damage with a number of skills that ignore armor and do double damage against the undead and summoned creatures.

Elementalists are not loaded with skills that can be cast directly on allies, but they can help buff the party as a whole through the use of ward spells, as well as supporting the party by slowing (snares and knockdowns) and blinding the enemy.

My own primary characters are earth elementalist, smiting monk, and beastmaster ranger. I thoroughly enjoy all three.

I will agree that for you, it seems that necromancer would be the best option.

I've replied as you asked about Rangers.

I started with a ranger and found them to be a great profession from beginner to some of the hardest things in the game. As mentioned before they're very versatile and can run damage, support, defensive builds, pet builds and even run other weapon builds such as a scythe build or daggers etc.

You can pretty much do anything with a ranger and you never find trouble getting a group or finding a role.

However if you wish to be a support char then necro is the way to go, monk isn't for beginners imo as too much expectation is placed on them and some knowledge of the game is beneficial.

Good luck, and welcome to the game
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Amen to that. I started off making a Warrior, thought that was my fav class from playing other online rpg's, turns out I hated playing as a Warrior in GW's and my main is now a Necro. Also have other characters (with the exceptions of Mesmer & Ranger) to tinker with when tired of Necro-ing, Dervish is pretty fun, but you'll probably have to make up your own mind

Ps. Just for the record, the only reason I don't have a Mesmer or Ranger is not enough character slots

you want a supporter thats easy to pick up eh? monk. mesmer is more challenging and requires more thought then spam heals.

I'm a bit new to GW too and am a Mesmer currently (only character, while the thought of playing every role and profession is interesting, I don't think my brain could handle remembering and being competent at couple roles lol), though I think Necro would have suited me better. Personally, I think playing Mesmer is pretty tough... PvE isn't a very favorable place for Mesmers, and in PvP you're 2nd in line of who to target (after Monk)... it could be fun, but I think you have to be really skilled. So trying Necro I think would be a good choice too (your post is almost word for word for what I was thinking when I was thinking of how I like to play as well: suppport, buffs/debuffs, long range, caster).

I always feel drawn to stuff that isn't me lol... like when I heard of the Chronomancer (from canceled GW Utopia game), I thought that would fit me great too.

They should put a profession chooser test and such in game... that might be kinda cool and help people see what really fits them.