I only have Guild Wars, best class?

Hey all, I'm back from a long break and I only have Guild Wars, no expansions. See'ing as this limits me to only Necro, Ranger, Monk, Mesmer, Warrior and Elementalist; which would be the best option? I'm looking for a fun not to hard class.

I know that this puts me at a disadvantage since I don't have expansions and so I'd basically be playing by myself... any tips?

All classes are viable.

But if you want something easy and fun, then you are looking at Warrior or Elementalist.
That's not to say these classes still aren't difficult to master, but are easy to play at a reasonable standard or are generally forgiving to play as. Plus, both should be pretty competant even when limited to only Prophecies skills.

The necromancer is by far the most flexible with their passive ability to gain energy after each kill. The Ele 'recently' got an elite revamp, but the standard skills update have not happened yet, most likely due to GW2's release. The Ranger is just ok. It doesn't really excel in any area and pet AI is limited. The warrior is good for tanking. Easy to jump into, but difficult to master. The main role of a monk is a healer. Without Factions and Nightfall, offensive spells are rather limited.

Necromancer has been my favorite class from the beginning. You don't need to worry too much about energy, because soul reaping does that for you; so it's pretty easy.
You also have access to a lot of usable skills and elite skills with only prophecies... if you like blood magic you have life transfer/bip/order of the vampire, if you want to go curses you have SS, and if you like playing minion master you have have access to aura of the lich.

So yeah, if you want to play as a caster and have some versatility despite the limited skill pool, I recommend necromancer. If you want to play melee or ranged physical, you don't have choice, so not going into detail about warrior/ranger.

Necromancer certainly is powerful...but its not simple. It's support based and many skills require understanding of enemies and game mechanics for effective use; so I wouldn't recommend it to someone looking for something quick & easy.

It's more about how well you play each or any profession than which is best. Some professions have issues in certain aspects, but learning would get you much further than picking a profession and assuming you're better off. Learning what skills foes use, runes, builds, skill use, team synergy, etc.

Necromancer is probably the easiest, though I would guess ranger would be the most forgiving. After you get more comfortable with the game though, necromancer is heads and shoulders above ranger.

Basically, Soul Reaping lets you do whatever you want. If you keep a minion master around with you, the constant death of the minions guarantees that Soul Reaping is going to hit as often as possible. So you have this constant energy resupply. The only advantage the other casting classes have over it, is the ability to rune themselves to up their primary stat. Then again, many of the necro skills are pretty awesome, so there's no huge reason to have to cherry pick.

By not having Nightfall and EoTN though, you're making the game considerably harder than it otherwise would be. GW had massive power creep in PvE as the game progressed. Most of the things from prophecies are crappy in contrast to the later skills.

I see a lot of people recommending the necromancer for a Prophecies character. I am in the same boat as the op and am wondering what class you would pair with the necromancer?

For instance, should I be at all worried about healing and second as a monk? Or perhaps seek to increase my damage output with a second in elementalist?

I sort of assume that warrior and ranger are out as they are too different. Thanks in advance for the help!

::EDIT:: Disregard, I found a highly relevant thread elsewhere.

Soul Reaping certainly is powerful, but don't forget Warriors have Adrenaline (meaning they can take advantage of two different resource systems) and Rangers have Expertise which gives a lot of advantages as well.

None of the classes are super hard, even Mesmer can be pretty straightforward nowadays, although this doesn't play to their strengths.

The one downside to starting in Prophecies, and only having Prophecies this late in the game's life is that you're going to find it difficult to party with live human players. This presents a myriad of problems. One, you won't have Heroes. Two, playing a support or healing class (i.e. Monk, Necromancer and Ranger) may not be as fulfilling or fun. The Monk you'll mostly be redbarring Henchmen, the Necromancer will be hanging back and summoning minions (the best build to use with Henchies generally) and the Ranger is best at interruption and single target conditions.

A Warrior can run into a group and has the armor to withstand a lot of damage, allowing hench monks to keep you up while you do pretty good DPS, and is even more rounded if you slap Sentinel insignias on your armor. An Elementalist can of course nuke, and is still effective even in Hard Mode, but probably not as versatile as a Warrior. Mesmer can offer some fun, but if you're looking for relaxed, casual gameplay, an interrupter/controller is probably not the best choice.

Overall, I'd say Warrior is your best bet, as they are easy to learn but difficult to master, giving you play longevity. As for secondary, you might consider Ranger for a pet (always nice to have a companion), Necromancer for Plague Touch or Monk for Mending Touch (Blind, Cripple and Weakness are the bane of Warriors). Ranger can also acquire Melandru's Resilience later on during the Dragon's Lair mission which can help a lot in the Ring of Fire missions.

i didn't hear anyone mention mesmers. u can't underestimate that class. Tons of fun imo. they are powerful in the sense that u can RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GO up any other class by crippling their strong points. you can play them in so many different ways. plus, they are just the best :P it kinda sucks that yur limited to prophecies only skills :/