What profession to use to introduce a new player to GW who loathes point-and-click?

Hello,

I recently got a friend of mine to agree to test out Guild Wars. He doesn't like normal MMORPG:s because of the dull point-and-click mechanic, so I got him interested about GW that breaks that rule. He is a fighting game player and quite good at that actually, so he is looking for deepness.

In short, I would like to know what class gives a "point-and-click" experience the least? What class should I use to introduce him to GW?

Any class gives that. Its all up to how you set up the interface and use the hotkeys.

It is entirely possible to play the whole of Guild Wars without even using the mouse once you have the actions you need mapped to the right keys.

Thats about the only real answer to give - if you want to see it in action check out a lot of gw videos on youtube and you will see the players screen sometimes with the hud and often without and the player isnt using mouse to control - no mouse icon shows - and the player is using keys.

I control my chrs often with a mix of keys and clicking - often if running about i only use the keys and mouse will only rotate camera.

My gut feeling would say Warrior or Mesmer. Mesmer because it might as well be completely based on interupts and knowing your enemy.

Warrior is based around chassing and positionning, also, mosters die fast enough that I feel you wind up moving a lot (again, a lot more than just standing there and spam attack skills). Why not assa? because at "high level", most sin builds are based on SF or critical defense, less interesting if you ask me.

Mesmer for interrupts,
Necromancer with minions (using the new minion UI)
Ranger with interrupts
Ritualist with SoS and Splinter
Warrior with some interrupts

Interrupts for the "I'm not winning this game by mashing random buttons"

The mouse is optional to play Guild Wars, and many people only use it to control camera.

That said, many skills need a selected target before activation. Targets can be :
- Foes (many people use "C" as key shortcut)
- Group Members (many people use 1-8 from numpad, but you have to configure it yourself)
- Minions/Spirits and may be pets (The mouse is needed here but the new minions window : "Y" shortcut is very usefull)
There is also an option in game settings to allow "auto-targeting", but every players I know have turned it off... But that's maybe because we learned to play without, so we don't feel the need...

I was going to suggest melee. You have the feeling of being more in the battle. I think paying attention with sin chains or some war builds would hold their attention best.

If I had to pick one I would say Warrior so you can start out in Pre and give the whole experience from the beginning.

But as others have said, you can map your keyboard to do most every function and only "point and click" for a few things.

I also play SSF4:AE and MvC3 competively. Those two and GW are the only games I touch. I would say Sin for the combos or Mesmer for the mind games. But honestly I don't think it's gonna matter. If he doesn't like point and click you can get around it, but most of my friends who play FG's don't like MMO's because they're slow, involve walking around and exploring, adventuring, etc... that bores them.

I wish GW Warriors had street fighter style inputs for moves lol.

1 advice I could give you for general GW gaming. What ever the class, don't take more people than necessary. Me and a new friend (who is not a gamer at all) did most of faction (up to tanakai temple) with 6 man in our party (war + rit, no heroes untill We no Su). It helps you feel like you matters a lot more and makes the game just a tad more challenging. (aka, enemies don't die before the warrior can land his combo)

any type of intelligent play goes beyond click to move.
While GW maintains a click-friendly format, there is a point where good play is rewarded by making the mouse less important than the keyboard.
PvP is especially kind to those that move beyond mouse movement. Also if you are running a profession that must use and spam skills as fast and as much as possible (imbagon, perma, E/mo Bonder)

I would not advocate abandoning the mouse however for a few key situations:

* picking a specific enemy out of a crowd
* getting stuck on map edges while cartographing, or on weird ledges
* long distance movements (ie at the end of a VQ, or Sunqua Vale, etc)

Can't you move via WASD by default? I've never (well, rarely) used the mouse to move. I only use it to click skills 5,6,7 and 8 regardless of what class I play.

Bare in mind I'm not a huge PvP player. I'm not sure how if it works differently there (lag wise etc).

WASD is terrible for PvP because of pathing.

Also weapon swapping faster using moving is harder with keyboard.

use wasd if u feel most comfortable with it or use both that and mouse, its realy a matter of preference and the thing u prefer will usually give u better results also.

Assasin - lots of fast key pressing!

I would suggest playing a Mesmer would be ideal for this player. This profession is one that really relies upon thinking about what skills your opponents have, be it in PvE or PvP, and knowing which ones to interupt and which to ignore.

A good mesmer can destroy the opposition through the use of the correct skills, timing and most of all intelligence.

Thank you for all the answers.
My friend wasn't as intreagued about the game as he thought he would be, he said it was too much like World of Warcraft and not enough like Morrowind/Oblivion.