1st and 2nd professions?

I was just about to create a new character and started thinking about the advantages or disadvantages of Which Profession to make the 1st.

I can see the advantage of - example only - creating a warrior as the first so you have heavy armor and Elementalist as 2nd for the spells.

But what about Assasine/Ranger vs Ranger/Assasine? What are the reasons to make one profession the 'main' and the other as a secondary?

With the Ranger you will get a pet either way. You will get the skills of the assasine. Armor is almost the same.

Your thinking on this? Thanks.

W/E for shock axe, conjures, or stuff like that. E/W for points in tactics to use a shield with >8 armor. Eles don't have PvE skills that are worth using: Elemental Lord is +1 attribute and a mediocre heal ; intensity is a bad version of BuH.

A/R for crit barrage. R/A for pets with daggers (Lightning reflexes is in expertise, as is d-shot).

In general using the secondary is bad because you can't rune up, with the exceptions of N/Rt Healers, E/Mo protters, A/D critscythes and whatnot.

Just look at PvE skills: Critical agility is much better than Never Rampage Alone in terms of flexibility.

You should go A/R because pets aren't that great due to pet AI. When you get bored at least you have more options, because assassins are the meta.

I think you are over-thinking it. If you are just starting out, your secondary profession isn't important. Unless you've already had some other characters you've played and levelled up, and therefore have some idea of what does what, don't concern yourself with it yet.
When you first start a character, you don't really have enough attribute points to spread around, so it's best to just concentrate on your primary. Later on in the game you will be able to change your secondary to whatever you like. For now, since you have to choose a secondary, just choose whatever you think you might like, but remember that you don't have to use any of the secondary skills or put any points into any secondary lines. Generally, I recommend using Monk as a starting secondary, just for the "hard" rez and maybe a self-heal (but don't try to be a "healer").

The advantage of having something as your primary profession is to spec into their main attribute, making those skills more effective.

The armor isn't almost the same, the +30 vs elementalist makes a big difference, and the assassin gets one more pip of energy; however with the latter, the ranger's expertise makes up in that area with some skills.

The most important point of primary vs secondary is:

If you are a W/E, you are a Warrior above anything else. Don't be an ele wannabe, you'd fail, bad.

There are some exceptions, such as Rt/R being better at Splinter Barrage, W/D being better at scythe damage etc. But that's just that, exceptions, and exceptions confirm the rule. They are prone to being rendered outdated by skill balances anyways, so don't base your primary profession on that.

If you want to use a profession's skills/weapon, go for the primary.

A common newbie mistake is to think that the difference between primary and secondary professions is minute; in reality, there are major things to consider.

1. Primary Attributes: Each profession has an attribute line all its own, and these attributes affect how the character functions. Only the primary profession can "spec" into its primary attribute, making it effective. For example, Elementalists have Energy Storage, each rank of which raises the elementalist's energy pool to a degree that, with enough Energy Storage, the ele can cast a lot of their very expensive spells. The warrior, with a smaller energy pool and an inability to spec in to Energy Storage can't do the same. While some professions' primaries allow them to run effective builds based around their secondaries, this is, as stated, a gimmicky exception that could change with any skill balance.

2. Primary Skills: Each primary attribute has associated skills. While a character can equip and use these skills as their secondary, because they can't put points into the attribute, they won't be as effective.

3. Energy and Energy Regeneration: Each profession has different energy limitations. Casters inherently have more energy bonuses than physicals do. But each profession handles energy management differently.

4. Runes: Only the primary profession can equip a profession-specific rune. An elementalist, with a Superior Fire Rune on its Flame headpiece can achieve 16 points in fire magic, whereas another profession, unable to equip any fire runes or headgear, is limited to 12. This applies to all attributes (except for primary attributes, which, as said, cannot be spec'd into by non-primary professions and is thus limited to 0).

A secondary profession is only intended to augment your primary profession.

(Apologies to previous posters for reiterating their points. No disrespect intended. )

I'm sorry, I saw Haggis post that W/D's are better at scythe damage and I LOL'd.

One other motivation to decide what primary to choose is that it will decide how yer character looks and what armor u can were, looks/eyecandy wise.

Though this prolly shoudnt be the most important reason to choose your primary profession

Great info - Thanks!

It is all confusing when you see that you can have the two different professions - the advantages of one over the other. There is so much info to learn AND understand.

I really appreciate the input and will take it all into account when I create my new character!

You better be sorry