Questions about clearing Hard Mode out.

Hello all,
I had a coupe of questions which I could use some help on. I recently started guild wars and Im enjoying it. I so far have the following characters.

1. Warrior / Monk (Finished Prophecies)
2. Mesmer/ Elementalist (Finished Nightfall)
3. Ritualist/Monk (Finished Factions)

Unfortuntely I havent used any characters to finish all three campaigns and havent finished EotN yet either. I usually play with Heros and Henchmen mainly since I can't find a group (Timezone problems) and I really don't mind doing the same. However I seem to have hit an obstacle once I start trying out Hard Mode and I guess its mainly due to the way I have my characers built. Iev read about Build Teams like Sabway and Discordway and I was hoping if anyone could tell me if any of the above characters would match with such a build team going on. Ive also started a Necro / Assasin so I could get more used to the classes and also capture their spells while leveling and playing them.

Thanks

for sabway they all work, for discord i would suggest a caster, warrior could do it but they'll run out of energy fast, for discord i use [assasin's promise][you move like a dwarf][pain inverter][finish him] other skills are optional

Having a character that's finished all three would be great. I'd suggest that, as it means you develop a strong sense about that particular profession's strenghts and weaknesses and effective play styles.
Out of those three, I'd recommend the Warrior.

With that in mind:

Sabway will work with all three. It's reasonable, but I find it leaves a lot to be desired.
Discord works with all three, but I find it to be lacking. Some love it though.

On your warrior, bringing a Necromancer with Order of the Vampire and Strength of Honor (disable it and have the hero cast it on you) will buff your physical damage output by a considerable degree.
A Minion Master/Bomber also helps, as it provides a minion wall that distracts the enemy and the minions blow up.
Paragon heroes are often neglected by people. But their shouts and chants provide unstrippable party wide protection or buffs that are very useful.
I do not suggest you bring Monk heroes. If you have to bring a healer like hero, I suggest either a N/Rt healer (still leaves something to be desired, but they work) or an E/Mo ER healer (Ether Renewal, Aura of Restoration, Infuse, Spirit Bond, Prot Spirit...).


With regards to the player build:
A warrior is fairly straight forward. Bring strong damage skills and Save Yourselves - A PvE Luxon/Kurzick warrior skill that provides +100 armour to all other party members - this is a "Make HM easier" button. An IAS, Dragon Slash, FGJ and some other skills will allow you to basically maintain SY without any downtime, whilst dealing a lot of damage.

The mesmer is a little less straightforward. You cannot reasonably run SY without doing something quite gimmicky.
Cry of Pain is powerful, so bring that.
A mesmer doesn't have innate energy management and needs to bring skills to keep their blue bar up. Energy management skills or an elite like Assassin's Promise or Lyssa's Aura should help (AP recharges skills too, which is always good).

The ritualist is... weak. There's no nice way of putting it. Their unique aspect (spirits) is weak. Their primary attribute is geared towards spirits and is also weak.
That leaves Channeling and Restoration - Ritualist damage is largely all lightning damage and is therefore weak in HM. Restoration is pretty much just healing with very little protection.
The rit does have access to things like Splinter Weapon, but to be honest, a necro can perform the rit's job and thanks to Soul Reaping, doesn't need to invest into mediocre energy management skills.

I'll tell you this: go witht the class you like the best instead of wich one is better for those two gimmicks. No offense, but it's a dumb move when you're trying to chose wich class to use based on the team build you're thinking of using, it should be the other way around actually. There's a lot more than sabway/discordway like people make it out to believe, and balanced teams aren't any myth. And that way you won't regret it half way through the game. Keep in mind you'll be spending A LOT of hours with it, and you'll find some situations that can be nerve wrecking so take the class you like, enough to endure all of that. Trust me.

Now with that in mind, if you want to know wich might be better on it's own, Warrior. Builds like Godmode and Earth Shaker, and a few others aswell as taking Save Yourselves with you make the game easier truth be told. Mesmer has a few options, Ritualists only play them those who actually like the class because it seems to be common sense that the glass is gimped due to it's useless primary. Yet, still possible to play HM with them (and check my 1st paragraph about the lecture of going with the one you like instead of the one better for the 3 necros, same applys for the class itself over easiness).

I did it with Warrior.
And I would recommend that, mainly beacause u can spam Save Yourselves. But Warrior also have a high damage output.

The other classes would work just as fine, since no class is better than others.. It's all about what you like to play

gl^^

I wouldn't suggest ritualist since previously stated, are underpowered. Good concept, bad way of introducing a new class.

Warrior can be useful because
A)Save yourselves
B)Using walls and proper coordinating, you can be the body block for proper aggro control (meaning you are the only target)

Mesmers are also useful because
A)can cause massive armor ignoring damage with several skills (wandering eye, clumsiness, cry of pain etc)
B) can be more useful for area specific builds. MEsmers have many counters and playing the right ones can make any area easier.

Both are great choices. There are times I played warrior and wanted a mesmer, and vice verca. I use Mesmer as my Main though.

Everything works with Sabway, just check pvxwiki for details. It may not always be the best, or easiest, or smoothest... but you're guaranteed itll always work.

Hardmode is indeed a bit tricky, because you need quite a few skills and a decent supply of heroes to choose from to get workable tactics. Its not all that hard to setup, there's plenty of good/great working builds on pvxwiki to get you started which you can then alter to your own style. Just takes a bit of time to buy/unlock whatever you need, tough doing some pvp for balt faction can help on that.

Nearly everything can do everything as well... i've healed trough entire prophecies on an ele and used him in melee just fine as well, played a necro as ele and mesmer, used a warrior and assassin for ranger. They work just fine, and keeps you playing when you get bored without having to restart all over.
So a different playstyle is easy; change the 2nd proffesion in the list, reset attribute points and put up a new skillbar. Keeps you going when you get bored.


So to decide on which character you wish to focus on, mostly take into account the looks as you'll be stuck to that.

I would say it depends on your favourite playstyle. If you prefer being upfront dealing lolwtfdmg, take your warrior, and so on. Always keep in mind, if it's not fun, it probably aint worth doing.

I rarely ran out of energy when using a Discord setup on my Warrior.

Sorry for the delay posting but I just got caught in a storm and it seems that the whole town is in a blackout :O .

Thanks for the suggestions. I mainly started the warrior cause I use to be one on EQ . The reason I stopped playing each class with the end of each campaign is cause I wanted to be sure I didn't miss out on the story. Nonetheless I can't seem to get the high damage mentioned above , although I haven;t followed a certain build per say for it. After playing the assassin though I seem to be enjoying the class much more. I don't think I have enough faction for the SY spell but I think I could get it quite easily . I'll check out the some of the warrior builds mentioned above and see if I can make use of it. Although I recall that a rune I wanted to buy cost 19 platinum and is definitely way beyond my budget. I'm guessing gear plays a good part in with melee characters. He still uses the sword gained from the end of the prophecies campaign.

I'll see if I like assassin or warrior more, I doubt changing my profession to warrior / assassin would be a good choice either.

Thanks again.

You ever played warrior? :P

Yea discord is the way to go.