Which class should I start with?

I am completely new to Guild Wars, and I'm playing Nightfall. I'm a bit confused by the game, because it's nothing like any other RPG I've played before. I've tried a couple of classes already, Paragon and Dervish and Necromancer. The Paragon seemed to do so very little damage that I felt weak and useless that my henchmen around me are doing all the work for me. Dervish was similar, and now Necromancer has that one strong skill that damages three targets at once, but the other skills also seem very weak in comparison. It's fun to summon the bone minions, but they despawn very quickly and I keep having to summon them over and over and so during battle I feel like I'm not doing anything, while everyone around me is fighting and taking care of the enemies.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I want to play a class where I can feel like I'm contributing to the action, I want to be very engaged in the action. I don't mind if the class is hard to play, I'll just have to learn. What can you guys recommend that I try?

you won't be doing high dmg until u lvl some ;-)

try warrior, it is very engaging

The necromancer is a very good choice if you like ranged caster classes. The starting skills are not very good, but it's getting better, especially if you have access to the other chapters like Prophecies. I consider necromancer the most powerful character class. It outshines the other classes if you like to play in hard mode later.
If you play a minion master: there are skills for healing your minions, for example Blood of the Master. In Nightfall, unfortunately it is only available right before the 4 last missions. Be patient. The curses skill line is what you will use most if you want to do damage.

A very good and strong ranged caster starter class, especially in Nightfall, is elementalist. This class does more direct and visible damage and is strong from early on, but if you play endgame content or hard mode, it gets considerably weaker than other classes as a damage dealer role. In the endgame content, elementalist is more useful as a supporting role.

If you like melee, try a warrior. I cannot say much about it, since I don't like playing warrior. It does not enough damage in my opinion. People say it is a good starting character. I feel warriors don't develop much during the game. It's a somewhat one-dimensional play in comparison to most other classes.

A totally different and interesting character is the monk. He can do damage, but his unique and strong role is that of healing and keeping his party alive. In this role, you only take healing and protecting skills, heal your party, and don't attack for yourself.

If you like a ranged fighting and non-spellcasting class, choose ranger. He fights with a bow. Unfortunately, he is (in PvE) a bit weak for damage dealing and gets only strong if combined with a supporting and team-playing team. This is not always what you get if you play in random pick-up groups.

Don't start with a mesmer, because you should have a general knowledge about the game mechanics to be a successful mesmer. It is a good second or third character after you learnt how the game is working.

It seems to me that you want to see the damage vs. playing more of a utility role.

With that being said i would recommend one of these class's for you

Warrior, Dervish or Elementalist

I would avoid

paragon and ranger as they are more utility then actual damage

As for the other class's i didn't mention they all have the potential to be heavy damage dealers but you might not actually have the satisfaction of seeing the numbers always

~Unfaithful

If you want to feel like you are doing more, choose warrior. On the frontlines often shielding the rest of the party from damage, dealing decent damage him/herself. I recommend you put as many of your points into axe mastery and strength as you can.

If you want pure damage, go elementalist. I recommend using fire magic spells as they traditionally do the most damage, although air is close and can blind/weaken enemies. The elementalist has low armour though, so be careful not to run straight into large numbers of monsters, stay back and blast them =D

hope i helped, - Woody

The templates are pretty generic (Tank, Caster, Glass Cannon, Ranged, Crowd Control, etc, etc), especially if you play NW, although the mechanics will take you time to adjust to.

As others have stated Warrior is honestly the best place to start for a newer player who wants to be in the thick of it while learning the basic mechanics.After you have got to grips and logged a few hours you can always re-roll.Getting Factions would also be a good idea as it's the quickest chapter to get a character to max lvl hence you can pretty much try a majority of the classes quickly and decide what you want to main on once you get a rough idea of what a lvl 20 will play like.

Good luck to you.

I remember my first character was an Elementalist, and it was a good choice to start with. It's a powerful but relatively easy damage caster class to play as. I'd say Rangers are also an easy damage dealing long range class to play as. And Warriors are good as a durable tank class, but won't do much damage overall. Monk is great if you want to be a healer, but not as much as a damage or tanking class.

Necromancers and Mesmers are good damage casters, but more of an advanced class. And Paragon and Dervish may be a little too complex for a starting character too.

So my recommendations for a starting character would be:
Elementalist for a long range damage caster class
Ranger for a long range physical damage class
Warrior for a durable tank class
Monk for a healer class

If you want to feel like you are leading your group of heroes, then go warrior. I've been playing one for over 4 years and I never tire of her. Players who don't understand the profession think of it as one-dimensional, but once you are level 20 and have a large supply of skills, you will rock. A warrior can hold aggro, take out the healers, solo farm, and so forth. And it only gets better in hard mode.

Be confident before recruiting the warriors in the war field..

Warriors, elementalists, assassins all deal big damage although the sin is less durable as in its position. The dervish also deals a lot of damage but I suppose you don't really like them.