Which two classes?

A friend and I have both picked up GW, and are looking to get started soon. But which two classes would you recommend for us, considering the following:

- We want to be able to play just the two of us.
- We want to be able to join a larger party, preferably without looking too long.*

* Previous experiences with MMORPGs tell me that healing classes are more sought after. Is this also the case with GW?

1. Monk
2. Necro
3. Ele
4. Warrior
5. Ranger
6. Mesmer

This is the order I would choose. 2 monks are great especially when you have all the campaigns, but any combo can be useful.

We both have all campaigns, but we do not both need to be the same class.

We each create a character that will follow eachother in level. Question is, which pair of classes are the best suited for both a party of two and a party of more?

Anyone but Mesmer,

If you have NF I would suggest Warrior and Paragon.
Im pretty sure you can do anything in the game with a Warrior, Paragon and 6 heroes.

If you want to play through the storyline you will soon discover that 2 people alone cant get far. The majority of missions are designed for teams of 8. There are not so many places where random people join together, in most places it will be the 2 of you and then the npc's for hire, henchmen, or heroes. You can pick heroes and henchmen of any classes to make up for what you don't have. So you can actually pick any class you like, but I recommand one of you being a monk, to control the healing. Henchmen can be stupid and don't heal who you wish, heroes can be made to heal desired person, but its tedious to micromanage them.
You didn't say what part of guildwars you got, or if its the complete game. If you only have Prophecies or Factions you won't have access to heroes, so you can disregard that part.
Good luck playing

edit: Oops I was disrupted while typing and meanwhile you posted.
With having complete Guildwars I would recommend either starting in Nightfall to get heroes or cross over to it soon and get them. 2 people with heroes can play through 95% of the game, only exception is elite areas like Domain of Anguish, The Deep and such. I would not recommend paragon and warrior , IMO the best option is having a melee like warrior or dervish and then a caster like monk, necro, elementalist etc. It will show you different aspects of the game trying out both types.

i would suggest a warrior and monk or para and monk pair. whoever play's the monk should be decent at being able to heal. at least better than what a hero is >_<. then the warrior and para both have excellent builds that power save yourselves which is invaluable when it comes to defense. also whoever plays the para or war will be able to coordinate the henchmen using call targeting. the warrior SY build is more offensive while the para SY build (a.k.a imbagon) provides even more defense. both are reasonably interchangeable so it just depends on ur prefered playstyle. i find the warrior hack and slash to be a bit more fun ;-)

or use a war and para like ben said =D between the defense u both will be providing, healer hero's will be fine. =) it would also prolly be more fun for the both of u and u can still reasonably split apart if u choose to in the future ;-)

Unless you do not want to be the same class then dual monks is the best way to go. Weather you go together or with others, monks are almost always needed. The current 600/smite owns almost everywhere in PVE, you can pretty much do anything with only two people. If you want to get in a group then you can go as a healer or protector/bonder monk, a must have for a balanced build. Any if you like killing things the a team consisting of [ray of judgment] monks are great. So unless you are opposed to going as dual monks it is by far the best way to go IMO.

If you don't want to be the same profession then IMO I would make a monk and necro, a monk and ele, or an ele and necro. I think those professions go together very well, but once again any professions can work well together as long as your builds compliment each other.

Me an my friend usually run as an ele (me) and warrior (him) in HM. Our builds work great together. We have managed to do just about everything in the game with those two characters. So as you can see, with the correct set up you can run any two professions you want.

I had a lot of fun learning with a warrior/necro. I didn't have much luck with warrior as a secondary class for a caster (ele|mesmer|necro); they tend to get wiped fairly easily if you try to melee. I've seen a lot of beginners using W/Mo, W/E, and R/N. Any combination of those should work well.

If you both want to continue to play together, then both should play as monks. Otherwise, at some point in the game groups will want the monk to go with them but not the other person. Ele and necro would be my next suggestions.

You can always start having 1 of you as monk and 1 as something else, then go to lvl20 and as long as you wish.Then make a new set of chars where you change roles so you both have a monk and a other char. It goves more options, also for if you want to join high end teams in the future.

First of all, like many people already wrote, you will start with parties of 4 (Except in the starter areas of pre-searing), then 6, then 8. You just have choose two classes that will fit in nicely for majority of combo.

One of you should definitely be a monk since that spot will always be needed everywhere you go. Some of the classes that you might want to avoid are...
Mesmers - Although useful, people are reluctant to take Mesmers in PvE.
Assassins - Useful but hated in PvE.
Ritualists - Contrary to what everyone and their mothers might say, Ritualists can be useful. Again, many people hate on Ritualists.
Dervish - might have some trouble in enchantment-hostile areas.

Warriors, necros, elementalists, rangers, and paragons should work pretty well. Paragons are reputed for having one of the most useful but also incredibly boring combos, so beware.

So, warriors, necros, elementalists, and rangers are some of your fail-proof options to combine with monk.

Warriors are... well, you know, warriors.
Necro's are probably the most versatile PvE spell-casters.
Elementalists can decimate PvE with nuking and such. Their role changes to more of support way later in the game. (Hardmode)
Rangers are probably the most versatile non-spell casters. With bow, they can spread conds, interrupt, and do area of effect damage (similar to nuking). You can also give rangers scythes (dervish weapon) or daggers (assassin weapon) for melee combat and still do well.

Above four classes should work equally well but it might be a good idea to make a warrior so you wouldn't need to put up with having a random dumbass warrior in your party. You can get by with retarded elementalists, necromancers, or rangers in your party, but when your frontline (your warrior) starts sprinting way into hostile territory, that might cause some headache.

i would say both go monk and run a 600/smite if you want to be pretty much invincible.

While since you own all campaigns i would suggest One of them being a Paragon, because you can be an imbagon and you will soon learn what that is. Also the other person can be whatever, i would reccommend a necro as the are hella fun and pwnage. And with the two of you, you can complete anything with heroes.

I would recommend you start as a Monk or a Necromancer.

necro and monk
warrior and monk
para and monk
ranger and monk :P

funny thing is, these guys are the most dominating in PvE.

Ahh.. I had no idea about the heroes..

I just figured we'd start at the first chapter and work our way onwards. Is that really a bad idea?

I've already rolled a monk, and I'm thinking about going with elementalist as second profession. I'll see what my friend decides on.

Generally speaking, we don't need the über builds. Just two builds that are fun to play and easy to find/join parties with. This is again based on assumptions from previous MMORPGs like Everquest 2.

TBH I just found the class combination that worked for Me. thats what makes it fun. if you try running with classes you dont get on with then it begins to feel arduous.

Try a few out and see for yourself how they work. once you factor in heros you can run almost anything.

I suggest starting on Prophecies as it has a nice steady build up and you dont get dropped in it too fast as with other campaigns.

If you try a profession and decide you don't like it, just delete and create a new character. There is no penalty for changing your mind. There is also no uber profession in Guild Wars. Each one has its strengths and weaknesses.

All the campaigns on the same account will give you 8 characters slots, so you will have the ability to play more than one profession at a time. You can switch characters whenever you get bored or want a different experience.

Whichever character you decide to play, make sure you visit the Campfire section and read the stickied basic how-to-play thread in the appropriate subforum.

1 monk
2 nec
3 war
4 mes
5 ele
6 ranger

No! If you've never played GW before, it's the best way to do it, IMHO. Start in Prophecies, by all means.

It won't be any trouble to play without heroes, at least in the early parts of Prophecies. When you reach the main port city, then you can make a quick side trip to pick up heroes if you want, and then come back and finish Prophecies with them. In fact, I picked up the first three EotN heroes (monk, elementalist, and mesmer) when I got to Lions Arch. They got me through the rest of Prophecies and all of Factions, since both of those campaigns were designed before heroes were added to the game.

1. Warrior
2. Necro

The role of healer in GW isn't restricted to the Monk (primary) class. Necro's have Soul Reaping, and this makes for an attractive PvE package (N/Mo, later on maybe N/Rt)

3. Monk
4. Ranger
5. Ele
6. Mesmer

Yeah, mesmers suck, especially hate mesmers with VoR/empathy/CoP and some interrupts during vanking in HM. Sure, mesmers suck...


To say the truth, you can do everything in PVE with heroes and henches, not mentioning only the high-end elite missions. So it doesn't really matter what you pick to be successful through the game.
Like the other guys mentioned, if you want to make full-powered A Team, go dual monks or monk+para. Those two, along with their heroes, usually wipe the mobs with no real problems. However the mesmers are really underrated - maybe it's because they're hard to play and most of mesmers out there just suck (as players, not as a class).
Each class is useful in PVE, each class has it's own responsibilities when going to elite areas with guild (mesmer-cryers, ranger-eoe, to mention two from the end of the list). Just pick classes that fits your playstyle - whether you want to be casters or physical fighters, defensive or offensive, cursers or direct damagers, maybe supporters, maybe one likes the idea of being a minion master as well - just pick one you like, that's the game about.
Just remember that some classes are just 'T 1 2 3 1 4', and others require active play, thinking all the time and picking the best targets for their skills. I've found mesmer and cursing necro the hardest to play, while ele and warrior or ranger are fairly easy to go on with.

Ranger interrupt and War tank.

Thanks for your suggestion guys. I've gone with Monk/E for now. I'll try out the game while my friend waits for shipping.

I just wanted to say- sometimes being a monk is not that much fun because you are not going along killing things but mostly just healing. If that is your cup of tea, go for it. I personally like killing things. Also, Prophecies is the most fun if you are just starting out but if you want to breeze through the game- you should just get "heroes" in Eye of the North.

Boondock: Naah, I'll start from the top and take it at my own pace. I'm playing the game for the experience, not for the excel sheet

Monk is fine for now, I'll just see how long my friend keeps playing and maybe I'll pick something else. Since I'm the bigger geek, I'll probably have two characters (one to play with him so levels are synched, and one for myself)