New to GW

Hi guys, I'm new to GW and my copy is actually only arriving tomorrow. I'm loving the idea of the Necro but was thinking of playing a Me/Ne. Any ideas? For those of you who play/played magic the gathering I love blue. What that means to you guys who have never played magic is that I like to play irritating decks where you have your opponent pulling out his hair in frustration before you beat him. If there is a similar build/idea in GW i'd be keen on that. Maybe shutdown Mes? Anyhow, let me have any of your suggestions please.

RaD

For beginners, a W/Mo, otherwise known as Wammo.

Warriors have high armor, fair decent amount of damage and enough healing capabilities to keep themsleves alive, thus ideal for solo.

Or, if you like, I suggest you try out every profession in PvP, just to find the one that suits you the best.

Have fun.

If you like the idea of frustrating your enemy and backfiring their abilities to make them harm themselves, then the Mesmer class is for you. It is my favorite class, however it does take a little more skill to play than other classes since their spells aren't simply damage or healing. They're able to steal energy from their foes, damage their enemies for having energy, damaging them for taking certain actions, and much more. Shutdown is basically the name of their game. Plus, Mesmers are drop-dead gorgeous:

Check out The Campfire\Mesmer board for more information and tips on this awesome class.

Mesmer/Necromancer is also a great combination, the Necro's hexes in the Curses line compliment many of the Mesmer's skills. Necro's also have a bit of self-healing if you use Blood magic, they can steal health from their foes.

Many beginners like to start off playing simple classes like Warriors or Rangers to learn the layout of mob structures and the maps, but of course you can do just as well playing a seemingly more "advanced" class.

If you're a M:tG player, just go ahead and play something more complicated like Mesmer or Necro. Wammos are really for those beginners who don't know much about games and are just able to run around and whack at random things untill they learn how the game works and what the skills do .

The true mesmer's capabilities are only revealed in PvP though, so get into that as soon as you can ^^ You might have problems getting into PvE mission groups with a mesmer since most PvE players don't understand their abilities.

Rangers can be very versatile, and VERY annoying as well - again, especially in PvP.

Personally my favourite class to play in PvE was necro, especially the minion master builds. While I absolutely LOVE playing mesmer in PvP, I found it boring in PvE since most areas just need brute hack n slash anyway. But many disagree .

Anyway, have fun! I also suggest you to join an active PvP guild since I don't doubt that a M:tG player would immensely enjoy the GW 8v8 PvP.

~Railin~

Be warned that although you'll hear sentiments like the above far too often in the game, quite the opposite is the case - rangers and warriors are tactically extremely difficult to play because they require a level of battle awareness that only comes from experience. The easiest class for a beginner, in my opinion, is either an ele or a necro. A good second play through class is monk. Warriors and rangers are the next tier, and mesmers are the highest tier in difficulty. To play a mesmer well, you must not only be able to read the current state of the battle, but also quickly figure out the rhythm of the battle and how best to disrupt it.

From your post, I would say mesmers are your perfect class.

(An interesting bonus of starting the game as a mesmer is that you learn very fast. The mechanics of this class force you to observe, predict, and conceptualize skill combinations, both your own and of your foes, as a basic means of survival. Be prepared to be heavily frustrated yourself -- not everyone can learn swimming by jumping into the deep end.)

The way you like playing? That suits a mesmer's personality perfectly.

And I'll have to disagree with you on that one Stabber. Warriors and Rangers (moreso warriors) are an easy begginner class. You don't have to really have to have any skill to beat something over the head while your monk keeps you alive. Anyone can play a play a warrior. However, not everyone can play a GOOD one. They're easy to play, hard to master.

The only class I'd be as bold to say requires the least skill and/or knowledge is a monk. Go through the game as one and you really don't learn much about the game aside from certain spells make the red bar go down slower and some make them go up. Some faster than others.

Mesmers are great, but they can be hard to get used to. If you want to do damage, make an elementalist. I, personally, like air magic. Necromancers are good too, probably my favorite. If you want to make money, warrior is the way to go.. best farming profession.

It all depends on your personal preference.

What I said is a simple fact, Warriors and Rangers are generally the simplest classes to play. This isn't to say that every build they have doesn't require skill, I have a lot of fun playing a trapping/interrupt/poison build on my Ranger. That does take a degree of skill to play. But the general concepts behind Warriors and Rangers are very simplistic (Hit the enemy with your weapon until they are dead, use your healing skills if your health is low). Plus it's also a fact that many new players to Guild Wars start off playing as a Warrior or Ranger. This pretty much sums it up:

To translate GW into MTG -

Monk - White / Blue
Mesmer - Blue / Black
Warrior - White
Necro - Black
Ranger - Green / White
Ele - Red

thats pretty much it, if your MTG decks were Blue counterspell / general annoiance then a monk/mesmer combinaiton is probably for you, you can pacifism, counter-spells and just generally mess with them without delaing much direct damage.

My first char was necro, but im loving my Mo/Me, pre-searing is the place to learn what sorta skills your likely to be getting and if you like the general feel of the chracter, if not, delete and do over, simple

Uhh.. if you go monk/anything, the general group playing gw will automatically assume you're a healer. If you need to annoy people, mesmer/monk, not monk/mesmer. However, if you MUST play monk/mesmer for annoyance spells, let your team know what you're playing for the sanity of everyone, please.

Also, enjoy playing when you get your game

When you're using general spell counterspell annoyance, Fast Casting > Divine Favor generally.

Pacifism makes a great hex on the enemy monk. You never know when they could wand spike you.

Meh, Ive done all the missions with my wammo, was a lot of fun. Afterwards I didnt really feel like playing the whole story again, and I made a 55 Monk money making machine Hehe they are now my personal favorite but its hard to get the money and items for the build and requires a bit more skill to play than the normal monk. I agree, making a warrior is better for a first char, then when youve got some experience and money, go and make that annoying mesmer youve gone on ranting bout Welcome to the wonderful world of Guild Wars btw

I started as a warrior. Not because its was the easiest to play (i had no idea whatsoever which prof was difficult and which one was easy) but simply because I wanted to slash and smash faces.

When I finished the game with my warrior I started again but with a mesmer. I chose the mesmer because it was the complete opposite of playing a warrior. Reading your post I would say, start out with a mesmer.

But the PvE part of GW is fairly easy to complete, so if it gets boring after that, I can truly recommend playing PvP, especially if you played MtG. Although it's difficult to compare them with eachother, MtG and GW PvP have many similairitys regarding strategy, tactics and skills which I think you will enjoy very much.

If you play mesmer, curse-necro or interupt-ranger in PvP, you can be that irritating SoaB

Play N/Me or Me/N because those are the hex-heavy professions

Also there is First Expansion coming to Guild Wars in couple weeks so you might want to check that out too. Of course it might be a little bit overwhelming experience for a newcomer ...

That expansion brings among many many new things, two new professions: assassin & ritualist. While assassin plays with speed & stealth, ritualists summon different kind of spirits to aid in battles. Ritualist could be good choice for you as well because they have spells that gives enemy very hard times ^^

You could play a pressure build. Tons of health degeneration hexes can be very annoying.

As mentioned, Me/N or N/Me is the way to go if you wanna be annoying. Me/N is your best bet. You COULD go Me/E and use Maelstrom (group interruption while your enemy stands in the area of effect) combined with some snares (slows down enemy movement) and be annoying that way.

The possibilities are endless!

for PvE any class is equally hard to play, except the mesmer, it is hard as hell to make a nice Mesmer for PvE, but any other class is simple. warrior beats stuff, ranger shoots stuff, ele bombs stuff, nec hexes stuff, monk heals stuff.

PvE isn't challenging compared to PvP, but you will find that in PvP any class is hard to play well(notice well).

Be warned that if you use a mesmer for PvE missions, you may spend a lot of time spamming 'LFG'...

Lots of good suggestions here. Just remember there are NO bad combinations of classes or even bad classes for that matter. It all just depends on how you play them and how much your willing to learn and look into them.

If you like to be the last one standing, try being a monk. Monks stay way on the back, and prefer to rather support people than lead them into ambushes, like Warriors often do.