Help choosing profession

Alright everyone, let me start by saying that I am no noob at Guild Wars. I have played for about three years now. My problem is, I CANNOT seem to stick with one profession, even though I would desperately like to. I would greatly appreciate it if you all would help me decide. I will provide as much information as I can, but, if you feel that you require more information to help me choose the profession that best suits me, please post a polite request and I will attempt to provide the information. Please keep in mind that this is for PvE. Here goes

- I tend to prefer attacking at a range, I'm not much into warriors or other melee professions

- I like to be able to do a decent amount of damage, but be able to do other things beside damage as well

- I don't enjoy healing very much, though the Monk Primeval armor really appeals to me

- Should the need arise, I like to be able to hold my own

That's all I can think of for now...Again, if you need more information please don't hesitate to ask.

Thanks!!!!!

Ritulist Spirit Spammer...solo...and DO WHATEVER YOU WANT.

It might help to know WHY that is...

But without that info... I'd say go with either a Ritualist or a Ranger.

Ritualists are an fairly easy to play profession with lots of options for both damage and support. With the recent buffs to spirits a solo rit can handle most places in the game with a little care, at least in NM. Throw on some reasonably good heroes and you can pretty much destroy whatever you want fairly quickly. On top of that, rits can be back up healers, give buffs with weapon spells, and even nuke with spells from the channeling line. Of all the professions in GW, a rit should be the last one you'll get bored with. They also have some good farming options.

A ranger is a nice ranged attacker, usually staying out of the danger zone for the most part. You can also trap, interrupt and bring a pet along for extra tanking potential. Rangers can throw in some decent utilities, like interrupts, blinding, crippling, daze, etc. as well as provide a decent amount of damage (though bow damage is somewhat inferior to other options these days).

Good hunting!

A ranger sounds like the perfect class for you tbh.

Either Ranger or Ritualist.

- Neither are melee profesions.

- They can both deal damage. Ritualists both offer support in terms of healing a boosting damage. Rangers offer things like interupts and conditions.

- Rangers are not healers, Ritualists can be healers, but are not forced into that role.

- Bother can hold their own with Rangers having excellent self survival skills and Ritualists can pack some heals.

Paragons. If you don't buy into the imbagon garbage and get to to know the class it's DPS can rival Rangers and can also spam conditions quite well. On top of that you can also take more support oriented roles.

Then again, most ppl can't seem to play them for GOREDENGINE, and it takes a while to get comfortable enough with them to put their rather limited set of (wortwhile) skills to use.

I'm not really sure what to say here...though from what it sounds like ranger is more for you.

1) Ranged class
2) Can hold their own in PvE and PvP
3) Unless your crazy enough to make a "healing" build for rangers they will never heal and they can be melee but you don't have to be.
4) Can do plenty of things besides damage(running,trapping,toucher,etc.)

monk SMITER!!! rawr!!! ranged, decent dmg, can do stuff other than dmg, have monk primeval, hold ur own as a 600. go go go.

I too would recommend Ranger. (That's what I play.)

Once you get the hang of the skills, you can do quite a bit of damage. You also have a great deal of flexibility in what skills you can bring to the table for any particular mission. Traps, nature rituals, bow attacks, conditions, pet attacks, interrupts... lots of room to be creative.

Another nice thing is that, while obviously a Ranger is not going to wade right into melee, you're tough enough that you can take some damage without collapsing, either. You may not be a tank, but you aren't as fragile as a caster, so you can take some risks.

Plus it's fun to have a pet.

Ranger sounds like a class you would enjoy, speaking from personal experience.

Why wouldn't you play with a lot of characters? Sounds to me you have been enjoying just that, without having a 'main'.

Sure, it could be harder to get a character to GWAMM if that's what you are aiming for, but other than that, keep on playing on those different characters.

A ranger would fit your play style, and you can always go secondary ritualist if you would want to spam spirits. This is easier if you create a R/Rt Factions character, of course.

Do you mean "if everybody else is dead I want to be able to finish the remaining foes by myself" or "in case I want to play JQ/AB/... I want to have a good skirmisher"?
In the first case a spirit spammer is most suitable, but it can be played by any profession with 4 energy pips or expertise, so there's no need to play primary rit. In the second case a ranger or mesmer is most suitable.

Give some thought to earth ele, as well as the good suggestions above. You can damage, you can tank, you can support with blind/KD/wards, you can solo farm. An ele has the energy pool to run secondary-profession builds, such as e/rt spirit spam, when desired. If you ever change your mind about healing, you can even do that, too (ER Infuse).

Sorry for the essay format, but it makes it a bit easier to read:

INTRO:
I've got to say that there are plenty of options out there and that most of them have already been mentioned. I agree with the proposal of being a ranger, which should suit you well, but there's another idea out there that hasn't been mentioned. Similar to BrettM's proposal of an earth ele, I would like to suggest the idea of being a water ele. Often overlooked and under-considered, the water ele might be something you'd be interested in.

BODY:
-Water eles, similar to most casters, attack at a distance, making it so you wouldn't fall into the melee category. There are a few exceptions, primarily with the skill Ice Spear, which is a half range spell. On the reverse side, there are a few skills that help prevent you from getting stuck with the melee-ers, notably Frozen Burst, which damages and slows down everyone around you, providing an escape if warriors, dervs, sins, etc. start to crowd in around you.

-Water eles can fill multiple niches, some at the same time. Water eles can inflict quite a lot of damage against a single foe, using skills such as Shatterstone, or against a group of foes, using Malestorm for interupts with Mirror of Ice (MoI) in combonation with AoE water hexes. Both, the latter especially, demonstrate the different possibilities of the water ele. The MoI water ele not only damages multiple foes at once, increasing the damage via MoI, but also "snare" the opponents, slowing them down, causing them to miss, and slowing signet activation time through skills like Deep Freeze/Ice Spikes, Blurred Vision, and Rust.

In addition to being a damage water ele, a damage snare combo water ele, water eles also have two more distinct options: pure snare and wardmaster. With pure snare, the water ele would cause slow down, blindness, burning, slower activation time and knockdown using skills like Elemental Flame (Fire Ele Skill), Icy Shackles/Ice Prison/Freezing Gust, Steam, Slippery Ground, and Rust. In the wardmaster variation, as BrettM was alluding to, you can provide an active support role for your allies. Whether in the front line with the melee-ers, or in the back line with the other casters, using Ward Against Harm (only elite ward skill) in combination with earth wards, can slow enemies down and cause them to miss, provide armor increases for allies, and so on.

Even with these four main types of water eles, there are indeed many more. One could go water ele interrupter with Spinal Shivers/Shivers of Dread (necro skills) and quick recharging water magic skills (possibly even Ice Spear) with Ether Renewal as the elite, providing massive energy return. Also, a water ele could go "Slow down to Die," in which using AoE skills like Maelstorm in combonation with Water Trident and Winter's Embrace, cause emenies to hurt themselves (using Maelstorm can cause enemies to move out of the spell's area, to which one would cast Winter's Embrace on one, making it hurt itself as it moved away, casting Water Trident on others, causing them to be knocked down as they tried to flee). Lastly, water eles could also go as a tank, using skills like Swirling Aura or even Mist Form, to prevent melee damage.

-As a water ele, you wouldn’t have the ability to heal others, but as an ele in general, one could, as BrettM said, be an Ether Renewal Infuser (more detail on that can be provided).
-As a water ele, it’s quite possible, and in some instances easy, to hold one’s own. If the intent is to escape from the enemies alive, to be able to return and resurrect allies, then, as mentioned above with Frozen Burst and the water ele tank idea, a water ele is a viable option. If the intent is to exterminate the rest of the group of enemies, then resurrect team mates, one could make use of the armor increasing water ele skills, such as Armor of Frost/Armor of Mist/Frigid Armor, to minimize damage, while using Rust and Blurred Vision to cause enemies to miss and activate signets slower (particularly mean to warriors who use Healing Signet), finishing them off with damage spells.

There’s only more thing that I would like to hit on before I close up, and that’s the combination with PvE only skills. Since you said that this is for a PvE character, then PvE skills would be available. There are quite a few of these skills which work in sync with the water ele, such as Summon Ice Imp (Asuran skill), which increases snares, Snow Storm (Dwarven skill), which would be another viable AoE spell.

These are only some of the possibilities with the water ele, as here, only builds with only, or mainly, water magic skills were provided and many of the combination builds between other professions were ignored.

SUMMARY OF ABOVE:
This was a lot of text and if you read it all the way through, then kudos that might mean that you have some interest in the water ele. If not, here’s just a brief summary:
-Water eles attack at a distance
-Water eles can go pure damage, snare, or ally protection, or a combination.
-Water eles have the potential to interrupt, tank, and go "Slow down to Die”
-Water eles aren’t big healers
-Water eles can hold their own
-And as with any ele primary, they can go ER infuser, rit spammer, and of coure, much more

If you, or anyone, has questions about being a water ele, feel free to PM me, as I can hopefully help. Thanks for reading!

~The Frozen Ele

Disclaimer:
I am not arguing that water eles are the best eles out there, merely that based off of your description of what you are looking for, they are something to consider.

Thanks to all of you for your replies...I'm considering a Ranger, Water Elementalist, (thanks to Frozen Ele for all that info ) and Paragon at this time. I tried to play my Ranger (level 20) earlier today, and I had mixed feelings about it. I'm not sure if I like it or not. Later tonight I will try out a Water Elementalist in PvP to see if I like it before investing too much time into it. What I would like now is some more information on the Paragon. What is their role? Can they do decent damage? I really don't know much about this profession... to be honest, I can see myself going either Elementalist or Paragon. You all have been so much help, please continue! I'm almost there!!!!!

Why limit yourself to a water ele? As an ele you can freely switch between the elements.
The paragon is a damage/support-hybrid: He deals good damage at range and support his allies via shouts, chants and echoes at the same time, but weak when fighting alone; for more detailed information about the paragon read The Paragon Basics

Paragon or ranger. but if you want a more warrior like then try paragon. They're really quite under-appreciated.

Paragons deal reasonable ranged damage with spears which offer both adrenaline and energy based attacks. They offer support through shouts, which can also be both adrenaline and energy based.

They can offer both offensive and defensive support. Offensive support primarily comes with Command skills like "Go For The Eyes!" and "Find Their Weekness!". Offensive support is also offered passivly with skills like Aria Of Zeal and Lyric Of Zeal.
The defensive support comes mainly from Motivation with skills like Song Of Purification and Ballad Of Restoration. Command also offers some defense with skills like "Stand Your Ground!" and "Never Surrender!".

Leadership offers self help skills like Leaders Comfort and Agressive Refrain. It also offers a small amount of defensive support from skills like "They're On Fire!" and offensive support from skills like Anthem Of Flame. Leadership effects a paragons energy management, as for every rank you gain more energy from each ally that is effected by by your shouts and chants. This turns your adrenaline based shouts and chants into free energy, making low adrenaline shouts very useful in energy heavy builds. Leadership is very important, as without it a paragon using many of their energy expensive shouts would run out of energy very quickly.

Most of their shouts and chants are conditional (on attack skill, not moving, on cast, etc) So these conditions need to be taken into account when making your paragon build.

Short version: Paragons can offer ranged damage, offensive support and defensive support, often all in one build.