Have some questions.

Hi all,

I have looked at these treads:

Assassins

Dervish

Elementalist

Mesmer

Necromancer

Paragon

Ranger

Ritualist

Warriors

I've spent few days reading before making this post. I have some understanding about it. I have been playing GW for about 2 weeks now. I have seen my friend and he is Ele and he does a lot of damage.

Now here is the thing. I love playing as warrior, but for some reason I cannot play that in this game. So I will stick with range/spells. Right now I have war/ran build and it sucks (I do not like it).

Anyways, from what I understood, Monk is healer, Necro and Ele are kind of dmg toons. Also, I read online that some Monk builds can do 3000 negative damage in less than 10 sec.

This is what I want. I do not want to play as warrior, but I want to do A LOT of damage, and want to be self efficient (I guess healing and energy regeneration). I play PvE, and play Missions on Elite/HM (with my warrior atm).

So can you guys suggest what profession as a combo I should pick for Pro, Fac, Nightfall and EotN? I am playing Pro right now, and would like to finish that first. Then move to something else. IF NOT, then tell me what's the best combo and I will start the game from that expansion (campaign).

Thank you very much.

BTW, please move this post to appropriate section if this one is not correct.

P.S. Do not know how this went under The Hall of Knowledge!

First off, Warriors have the highest damage output in the game. Once high level Armor rating begins to show up (HM PvE), Warriors quickly get around this and have lots of armor-ignoring damage to boot. Warriors are also greatly self-efficient; their self-heals/health regen is quite effective, and if you're DEPENDING a LOT on your ENERGY (sorry to say) you're playing Warrior wrong.

But since you said you don't want to play as your Warrior...
Ritualist or Assassin is the way to go.
Both of these classes are extremely fragile, but are self-sustainable regardless.
-Rits are used in DoA HM(high end PvE), and can run Spirit builds extremely effectively. SoS Builds with Rits are extremely useful in farming, and they receive nice self-heals from Vampirism (although it isn't much). Energy is a big problem for beginners, but once you learn how to play Rit, it shouldn't be a problem.
-Assassins are used in almost EVERY form of HIGH END PvE. Their class in general is just pumping out with self-efficiency. Self-heals in EVERY form in the Shadow Arts line. Crit Strikes maintains energy rather well (provided you aren't spamming your skills, and did you know that just simply attacking can do more damage than your skills? ;D)
(Oh and just a side note, Warriors can deal more damage than Assassins)

In other news...
Monks can't deal damage worth crap, unless you are farming, or playing JQ (running Smite in most PvE is hardly efficient)

In terms of a campaign...
Nightfall is the easiest to grasp for beginners.
Prophecies is meh...
and Factions is just hard (for beginners).

But if you want large learning curves, try Factions!
All in all, it doesn't matter what campaign you do first, you can do them all eventually.

Quote: Originally Posted by _Aphotic_

First off, Warriors have the highest damage output in the game. Once high level Armor rating begins to show up (HM PvE), Warriors quickly get around this and have lots of armor-ignoring damage to boot. Warriors are also greatly self-efficient; their self-heals/health regen is quite effective, and if you're DEPENDING a LOT on your ENERGY (sorry to say) you're playing Warrior wrong.

But since you said you don't want to play as your Warrior...
Ritualist or Assassin is the way to go.
Both of these classes are extremely fragile, but are self-sustainable regardless.
-Rits are used in DoA HM(high end PvE), and can run Spirit builds extremely effectively. SoS Builds with Rits are extremely useful in farming, and they receive nice self-heals from Vampirism (although it isn't much). Energy is a big problem for beginners, but once you learn how to play Rit, it shouldn't be a problem.
-Assassins are used in almost EVERY form of HIGH END PvE. Their class in general is just pumping out with self-efficiency. Self-heals in EVERY form in the Shadow Arts line. Crit Strikes maintains energy rather well (provided you aren't spamming your skills, and did you know that just simply attacking can do more damage than your skills? ;D)
(Oh and just a side note, Warriors can deal more damage than Assassins)

In other news...
Monks can't deal damage worth crap, unless you are farming, or playing JQ (running Smite in most PvE is hardly efficient)

In terms of a campaign...
Nightfall is the easiest to grasp for beginners.
Prophecies is meh...
and Factions is just hard (for beginners).

But if you want large learning curves, try Factions!
All in all, it doesn't matter what campaign you do first, you can do them all eventually.
Thanks for the reply!

I heard warriors are sick, but the thing is I cannot do more than 70 damage. I do more with my bow than with hammer. Highest I have seen with my bow was 106 damage on a moving target. I acctually enjoy ranged weapons and or spells.

So you suggest Rit/As build? Or i can do Rit/Ran? what about Necro and Ele? What do you think about those?

It seems like you have all campaigns so you must have 8 char slots or more.

Can I firstly say, welcome to the community and welcome to the game. You're 5 years too late to see anything amazing happen, but hey, you're never too late to enjoy Guild Wars

First part of advice. If you can spend some time, go observe some PvP matches. Mainly GvG matches from top guilds. You'll get to see specific roles of what each character can do. No need to worry about tactics or even what they're trying to do (trying to kill the other Guild Lord, basically), but more importantly you'll see that positioning is extremely important and there are three lines of professions. Frontline of a team will be your melee damage dealers (warrior, assassin, derv), midline will be all ranged offensive casters and rangers/paras (mesmer, ele, necro), and then you'll have the backline of healers (monks and ritualists).

Monks also cannot deal 3000 damage in less that 10 seconds. If you want to look into builds, look into PvX wiki and visit the PvE section of builds and browse through those.

Quickest way of getting to know a profession will be through PvP. You have plenty of char slots, Learn from the Zaishen all the basics and hop into RA.

But yeah, you must be doing something wrong if you think your warrior isn't doing a lot of damage lol. Oh and on the topic of being self-sufficient, sure you can bring some personal heal like Lions Comfort, but Guild Wars is team based and you should really look into making a build about pure damage and offensive versatility (like Knockdowns or conditions) and rely on a healer monk party member to worry about the healing. You know yourself that missions get up to 8man parties, so logic says some go healers (usually 2) and the rest go offensive.

Maybe you'd like assassins, they were created to shadowstep, deal large damage chained attacks, step away, and heal themselves. unfortunately, the idea wasn't implemented well and after a few abusive builds, shadowstepping is nerfed and the assassins have been converted into big DPS players who faceroll their chains all the time with no versatility.

In a nut shell, observe top GvGs and make a few chars to try the professions out. Time will reveal your favourite profession.

Quote: Originally Posted by NotBad

I heard warriors are sick, but the thing is I cannot do more than 70 damage. I do more with my bow than with hammer. Highest I have seen with my bow was 106 damage on a moving target. I acctually enjoy ranged weapons and or spells.

So you suggest Rit/As build? Or i can do Rit/Ran? what about Necro and Ele? What do you think about those? Ok, a warrior will rarely do over 80+ damage, especially in elite/HM missions where foes above your own level (20) naturally mean you will have less chances of a critical hit. On top of that, their base armour will be slightly higher as well, making physical damage less potent.

Secondly, Warriors are sick because of their IAS (increased attack speed). Invest into either Frenzy, Flail or Soldiers Stance (coupled with a shout) and you'll see that you'll be attacking 50% faster. It says 33%, but that's actually time between hit, so you're actually hitting 50% times more in the same space of time.

Here's some perspective: An ele's invoke will do 100-120 damage. This has a recharge of 8 seconds. It requires an enchantment. In 8 seconds, (I've just tested this) my warrior has just done 348 damage from auto attacking in Frenzy. I didn't even use any skills to apply deep wound, +damage, or anything.

Just my 2 pennies.

My only toon that I play is an elementalist. I picked that class because it's the one I'm most familiar with in gaming in general. After a few weeks, I read a lot of negative comments about the elementalist class in GW, and I wondered if I made a bad choice. When I found myself struggling through the desert areas of Prophecies, I again wondered if I'd made a bad choice.

Fast forward a couple of months... I've finished Prophecies, finished EotN (did both entirely with H/H only), am about halfway through Nightfall and just starting Factions. I can now change my secondary profession at will, I've got almost every hero available in the game, and I love my elementalist.

Not only can I deal a huge amount of damage from a safe distance while my Necro hero's meat puppets keep the foes at bay, but I'm a veritable font of energy... which means I can solo as an SoS (Signet of Spirits) ritualist if I want to farm an area on my own, and I never run out of energy doing it. There's an AP (Assassin's Promise) build available I could use as well, for farming some of the harder/higher end areas. And with my team of heroes, there really is very little I can't do on my own with a little practice, some patience, and a general understanding of the game.

I utilize the Wiki a lot to understand what sort of foes I will be facing in an area, because as an elementalist, it matters a great deal... if I bring fire spells against Destroyers without a way to turn my damage from fire to cold, I'm going to be pretty useless... but cast a Winter spirit from the Ranger line, and now I'm dealing massive AoE damage using my standard fire build, but it's being delivered as cold damage.

The further I go, the more flexible I find being an elementalist to be. I think the key rests with our energy potential... the same thing that (from what I've seen) makes it a lot more difficult for other professions to really make good use of their secondary profession possibilities. That pool of energy allows me to be a really effective interrupt mesmer, a font of healing, etc. I can keep casting when other classes would be long drained trying to achieve the same end. And part of me chuckles when I'm reading a build that says, "you've got to make sure you've got at least 50 max energy available." Fifty? That's IT??? I don't even remember the last time my max energy was that low. *chuckling*

Now with all that said... elementalist suits me and my style of play. That doesn't mean it's the right choice for you or anyone else. I can play my toon pretty damn effectively... partly because I'm a voracious reader/researcher, and I've spent hours pouring over these forums and the Wiki and PvX for advice on my chosen profession and its potential. I also believe I would be less than useless trying to do PvP... it's a different environment, a different style, and one I am not suited for. I'm fine going up for the Challenge/Elite fights against the AI teams...but against other humans? I'm sure I'd come up lacking in a major way. I'm ok with that... PvP holds zero interest for me. I don't LIKE fighting other people. It makes me feel yuck.

But I think I hold my own really well in PvE environments... especially given how many foes and missions I've managed that the Wiki says really can't be done by heros/henchmen & a single human player or elementalist. I've done ok, and more importantly, I've had a good time doing it!

Focus on having fun... it's a game, it is supposed to be fun. If you're having fun, the rest will inevitably follow.

If it's not fun... then why bother?

Quote: Originally Posted by TheGizzy My only toon that I play is an elementalist. I picked that class because it's the one I'm most familiar with in gaming in general. After a few weeks, I read a lot of negative comments about the elementalist class in GW, and I wondered if I made a bad choice. When I found myself struggling through the desert areas of Prophecies, I again wondered if I'd made a bad choice.

Fast forward a couple of months... I've finished Prophecies, finished EotN (did both entirely with H/H only), am about halfway through Nightfall and just starting Factions. I can now change my secondary profession at will, I've got almost every hero available in the game, and I love my elementalist.

Not only can I deal a huge amount of damage from a safe distance while my Necro hero's meat puppets keep the foes at bay, but I'm a veritable font of energy... which means I can solo as an SoS (Signet of Spirits) ritualist if I want to farm an area on my own, and I never run out of energy doing it. There's an AP (Assassin's Promise) build available I could use as well, for farming some of the harder/higher end areas. And with my team of heroes, there really is very little I can't do on my own with a little practice, some patience, and a general understanding of the game.

I utilize the Wiki a lot to understand what sort of foes I will be facing in an area, because as an elementalist, it matters a great deal... if I bring fire spells against Destroyers without a way to turn my damage from fire to cold, I'm going to be pretty useless... but cast a Winter spirit from the Ranger line, and now I'm dealing massive AoE damage using my standard fire build, but it's being delivered as cold damage.

The further I go, the more flexible I find being an elementalist to be. I think the key rests with our energy potential... the same thing that (from what I've seen) makes it a lot more difficult for other professions to really make good use of their secondary profession possibilities. That pool of energy allows me to be a really effective interrupt mesmer, a font of healing, etc. I can keep casting when other classes would be long drained trying to achieve the same end. And part of me chuckles when I'm reading a build that says, "you've got to make sure you've got at least 50 max energy available." Fifty? That's IT??? I don't even remember the last time my max energy was that low. *chuckling*

Now with all that said... elementalist suits me and my style of play. That doesn't mean it's the right choice for you or anyone else. I can play my toon pretty damn effectively... partly because I'm a voracious reader/researcher, and I've spent hours pouring over these forums and the Wiki and PvX for advice on my chosen profession and its potential. I also believe I would be less than useless trying to do PvP... it's a different environment, a different style, and one I am not suited for. I'm fine going up for the Challenge/Elite fights against the AI teams...but against other humans? I'm sure I'd come up lacking in a major way. I'm ok with that... PvP holds zero interest for me. I don't LIKE fighting other people. It makes me feel yuck.

But I think I hold my own really well in PvE environments... especially given how many foes and missions I've managed that the Wiki says really can't be done by heros/henchmen & a single human player or elementalist. I've done ok, and more importantly, I've had a good time doing it!

Focus on having fun... it's a game, it is supposed to be fun. If you're having fun, the rest will inevitably follow.

If it's not fun... then why bother? Thanks. That helped a lot. I am kind of interested in Ele/nacro for DMG + Dead minions. I am also interested in Ele/Monk (or Monk/Ele) because I heard Monks have the most energy. And finally, i am very interested in Ele/Ranger because I want to be able to charm the pet(s). So what do you suggest? I think I like Ele cuz my friend is playing it too and he is KILLING machine. lol

Quote: Originally Posted by Fate Crusher Here's some perspective: An ele's invoke will do 100-120 damage. This has a recharge of 8 seconds. It requires an enchantment. In 8 seconds, (I've just tested this) my warrior has just done 348 damage from auto attacking in Frenzy. I didn't even use any skills to apply deep wound, +damage, or anything.
Just my 2 pennies. Another perspective... I maintain Fire Attunement/Aura of Restoration constantly. It's habitual to cast those every 60 seconds. I often carry Glyph of Elemental Power (+2 attributes). With 16 (+2) pips in Fire, and 13 (+2) pips in energy, I can spam Searing Flames at 118+ dmg a pop, on every foe in a ball of targets. If I nail them with Deep Freeze first (with zero pips in Water, or +2 if I've got the Glyph running), I can keep them balled up long enough to hammer the hell out of the entire group with Searing Flames and take them all down in the same amount of time it takes that warrior to deal 348 to one.

If I add Glowing Gaze to the mix (as I do when I've got a baddie or a priority target in the midst of the group), I can take that higher health target down pretty much at the same time I'm taking out its pals. They're all burning the whole time, getting spammed with SF, and the priority target is getting an additional +59 dmg every time I throw in Glowing Gaze. That isn't counting the initial damage I've inflicted on the entire group when I trapped them with Deep Freeze.

Glowing Gaze & Attunement are healing my energy, Restoration is healing me by leaps & bounds, and tossing out a Shock Arrow (with zero pips in Air, or +2 if I've got the Glyph running) is feeding me back a nice burst of energy if I find I'm getting low.

I'm not trying to say that a Warrior can't be just as effective in dealing damage... honestly, what I know about the other classes could fit in a thimble with room left to spare. I don't like playing melee classes, so my focus is on maximizing what I can deal out at a distance, and it's one hell of a lot of damage. *grins*

But something for the OP to keep in mind... there's a lot of Searing Flame builds floating around, primarily because it's such an insanely powerful nuke spell. And it's great, it definitely has its uses. But if you decide to play elementalist, and go into it with the mentality that you will be able to rely on a Searing Flames build to get you through anything, you're going to find yourself woefully disappointed. The PvE world is diverse in its environs... and fire is utterly useless against plenty of foes out there. Sure, I can turn my fire into cold against Destroyers and still get high damage output...but I utterly lose the burning effect that helps make SF so powerful... Destroyers are immune to burning. I might as well be blowing fairy dust at them.

If you're going to play PvE primarily on your own with just h/h, you can't be a one-trick-pony. You've got to learn ALL of your elements, and create builds that function in each. And you've got to be able to identify when being an elementalist seriously sucks for you, and figure out how to make the skills of your secondary professions help you through an area. I struggled with that in a major way my first month or so... I thought, "fire hot, fire strong, fire make me unstoppable! *grunt grunt*" Yeah... right up until the first time I had three little evil imps casting maelstrom on me again and again... I wasn't so tough anymore, I ran like a little girl and died anyway.

I had to learn to be flexible...I'm STILL learning to be flexible... and still getting my butt kicked often enough to remind me that I've got a lot left to learn.

I like playing with other and never alone. It's just that I want to do some damage. when i play with my buddy he kills them all before I even imagine to hit someone. Kind of feel useless. So, I was thinking that if I can get build like that people would appreciate me more in their team. I am good team player, but if my build sucks...then there is nothing I can do.

Quote: Originally Posted by NotBad Thanks. That helped a lot. I am kind of interested in Ele/nacro for DMG + Dead minions. I am also interested in Ele/Monk (or Monk/Ele) because I heard Monks have the most energy. And finally, i am very interested in Ele/Ranger because I want to be able to charm the pet(s). So what do you suggest? I think I like Ele cuz my friend is playing it too and he is KILLING machine. lol I started in Prophecies with an elementalist/ranger...exact same reason, I wanted that pet!! I love my melandru stalker... and you wouldn't believe the ridiculous emotional turmoil I put myself through a few weeks ago, turning it in temporarily at the Zaishen Menagerie just so I could go get a Jingle Bear & Jingle Moa. *laughing* I must have checked half a dozen times to make sure I could get my kitty back BEFORE I went and got the Bear/Moa. I'm a big, sentimental wuss. LOL

Having the pet made my final ascension mission a breeze... I took the doppleganger out in 38 seconds in NM. Actually went back last night and took him out in 11 seconds in HM... I have new tricks, now. *laughing*

I liked that I could constantly have my pet with me by just using one skill slot (comfort animal). I think it helped me a lot - primarily because I think having my cat attacking things and defending me helped "buy me time" to learn what in the heck I was doing. He took a lot of the beatings that should have been mine, and gave me a chance to learn.

I had nothing but Prophecies/Core skills available to me until I got to Augury Rock and realized I really needed the help of heroes if I was going to finish Prophecies without human assistance. I just was NOT that good of a player. Then it took me a while to realize I could even GET different skills from F, NF & EotN... and eventually I did decide to buy the Skill Packs because I was constantly chasing after skills to capture and not really playing the game the way I wanted to. That definitely helped.

I'm not a hardcore gamer... and I'm not what one would call a "purist." I play to have fun... MY fun... MY way... MY "rules/morals/ethics." No matter what you end up doing, someone is going to give you crap for it because you're not doing it their way. Screw that. You paid for the game, YOU are the one who has to enjoy it... make that your goal, and you can't possibly fail.

Quote: Originally Posted by NotBad

I have been playing GW for about 2 weeks now. Quote: Originally Posted by NotBad

For me its Necro all the way

Great at armour ignoring damage and has plenty of energy because soul reaping feeds the necro as anything in range dies.

Can cause interrupts with some skills combined with cold damage.
Can control battlefield by turning corpses into power circles for healing and damaging.

Raise an army of minions soak up damage.
Boost the damage of parties using spiteful spirit
Poison and disease enemies.

Very versatile caster class with few if any limitations.

Make your secondary a Ritualist or Monk and you can heal and use spirits in combat very easily.
Though be careful of spreading your points out accross to many skill lines.

You can do many things just don't try to do them all in one build.
Better to be very good at a couple of things than mediocre at lots of them.

Quote: Originally Posted by caballo_oscuro

Ok, so you've been playing for 2 weeks and you play on Elite/HM? Er, where did you buy the account?



Don't you mean self-sufficient? Hey caballo_oscuro,

I want to thank you for the post, and it seems that I have learned something new here today. Yes, I have been playing for 20 days now to be exact, and no I have not purchased an account from anyone. I got the game from Steam. Anyways, from what I understood (maybe I misunderstood the whole thing) is that Elite/HM are missions that you have previously completed and then are doing them again. But from what you are saying...I am starting to thinking that HM is after you finish the campaign.

In addition, as of "self-sufficient": Yes that is exactly what I meant. You see, English is not my first spoken language, but I am trying my best. Hope you did not see any spelling or grammatical mistakes in this last post. And trust me...if you see let me know.

Thank you very much!

As of my build, I am going with Ele/Ranger. I got an idea what I will do. My ranger now does 1600 damage in 51 sec. So if i can work out both of them, I would be happy. You can close this thread if you wish admin.

Thank you very much to all of you for help!