What is a good class for a begginer?

I like pvp, group sometimes for hard quests and solo a lot.

I was wondering since I just bought guildwars yesterday what a good begginer class is for the stuff I listed?

Warrior/Monk

Forget warrior monk. Build a monk as your first character. Mo/Me and play a healer. That was my first character and i learned a lot more then other people who started at the same time as me. Warriors unfortunatly breed ignorance if its your first time.

Any class will do for a beginner. Any class. This is because the game gives you a lot of time to learn how to play it. Most people say not to play Mesmer as your first class, but the truth is, I'm confident that a beginner could play a Mesmer well and enjoy it given the amount of time you'll be using it.

I startd with a mesmer, purely because I liked the hair styles, but the game is pretty fun as one, unless you have to get a group. Of course I'm still just in the mountains.

If you want to be good at this game, don't start as a warrior. Please. For all our sakes.

Try a monk or mesmer. Those classes will whip you up into a good player in no time.

It depends on how close to the main battle you want to be, aside from the monsters coming to you. My first char way back in beta was a ranger. I could stay away, do my damage and laugh at the way my oobies jiggled. Either way, I would pick monk as either my primary or secondary. That way while your learning, you have some way to heal yourself. One technique is to make 3 characters spanning across the 6 professions. You get a view of the skills and what the classes have to offer.

My opinions:

Warrior: usually the easiest class to play, click and attack

Ranger: slightly harder than a warrior, much better at higher levels

Elementalist: easiest caster to play, at the begining just click and flare

Necromancer: pretty easy to be MM (minions), blood is fun

Monk: at the begining is very hard to die

Mesmer: Most advanced and hardest class to play, most powerful class, but easiest class to die with (worst armor)... takes skill


(again, these are my opinions)

Stay away from warrior as other people have stated. Any other class should be fine but i would stick with the spellcasters. That way you get a good idea of the mob AI (no flames please) and how to react.

well, the three classes I'm most interested in is

Warrior
Ranger
Elementalist
Necromancer

not too interested in primary monk/mesmer ...might have monk has my 2ndary for the heals

Depends on if you'd like to play a caster, an archer, or a melee character?

Like people already suggested, w/mo is not a good choice because it's branded as the class attracting the dumbest players, so you may get that attitude from others even if you play a brilliant warrior. Besides, in later areas any other class is doing more damage than warrior, although the very first areas are easier to play through with a warrior because of their higher armor level.

I pretty much agree with what Venus said. Elementalist was my first character, and it's a very straightforward damage dealer caster and easy to play. Monks are hard in the beginning, but the easiest to get in group with later, and great farming class.
Necros and especially mesmers can be more powerful than eles, but are more complicated to play. I'd say, depends on what you like to play generally ... if usually you play games on "easy" mode, go for elementalist or warrior. If you like to play them on "difficult" mode, play mesmer - you'll enjoy the complexity and power of mesmer skill combos. I'm not totally sure it's the best option for a GW newbie though, because of its complexity.

I have played all 6 classes in PvE and my personal favourite is necro . The game is really easy with a minion master, and necros are very versatile for later areas as well. Be aware, though, that if you want to join groups of other people, it might be harder with a mesmer, necro or ranger - most players don't know how to play them well, therefore assume they are weaker than warriors, eles or monks - while in fact it's exactly the opposite.

I actually prefer casters and ranged characters then melee these days

Then give Necro a shot. You can go as a minion master, which completely owns if you can keep the army alive during a whole mission. There're also blood-damage spells which ignore armor, and are fun to use if you don't feel like managing a minion army.

impressive counting... but back to the topic. Warriors are by far the easiest to play. so go with a warrior, and call yourself leeeroy jenkins. Run into the biggest groups of monsters you can find, and start yelling at the monk for not healing you

My first char was a Ranger/Elementalist...it was pretty fun...I mostly used marksmanship & fire skills.

Now, I'm playing a Blood/Domination Necro/Mesmer...I like it best out of the others I've tried...

just try whatever fighting styles appeal to you and you cant really go wrong

As a necro it's easy to keep yourself alive too, Blood Siphon is a nice spell to help ease your passage through the game.

If you want to solo a lot, then probably Warrior/Monk. You can solo (without henchmen) quite a lot of areas with relatively little skill (in my opinion) with this class combo.

I would think a bit about being a monk for your first char in Guild Wars. Despite what people say, it really isn't that easy a profession to play, especially in pvp. It's a profession with a high learning curve but great reward for success. Really good monks tend to be very popular.

You can always create one, so it's not like you are missing the boat or anything.

IMO, Warrior is a good first choice, as well as ranger. One can tank, one has a pet early on to help out.

Hi,

I gotta say what the heck is all this Anti Warrior/Monk feeling floating around?

I played the game for 3 months and I chose W/Mo because it was a good beginning character. Well I still didn't make any other characters yet, been playing my W/Mo all this time (over 3 million exp) and I cant honestly say I mastered it yet or indeed used every skill. By that I mean you have axes, swords and hammers to play with, as well as a choice of strength and tactic skills, followed by the three different monk prayers (Healing, Protection, Smiting).

All thats left for me to play with now are Hammers and Protection Prayers, then I will consider what my next character will be.

The Warrior-Monk is a good choice for your first character, so therefore some people consider it a nOOb class lol

Warrior: If you really want to learn battle mechanics and attack skills, this is the class for you.

Monk: If you like keepin people's butts alive, or smiting down the undead for mega damage, this class is for you <remember, undead are in selective areas>

Elementalist: If you like dealing mass damage and being the groups leader with damage dealing spells or Warding<earth>, or knockdowns<air>, this class is for you.

Mesmer: If you like subverting the other players so they DON'T Want to attack or cast spells, make them move slower, and do great with 1 VS 1, mesmer is the class for you. Keep in mind, mesmers are hard to play as a first class namely for the fact of the matter is they get low end armor <die alot, if you're not careful>, and their spells are more geared towards One on One combat. It's a great first class IF you want to be challenged.

Ranger: Lovable first classes, as they're support. From Trapper rangers to bow skills, rangers are an easy class to grasp and get comfortable with. Hey, tell me having a pet isn't cool?

Necromancer: If you like these wierd off-the path characters, there's good learning ability. From casting hexes with curses to raising dead minions as a death necro, necromancers are a versatile class. Easy spellcaster to learn with as the blood reaping keeps mana full considering on your rate of killing and lifetaps to keep you alive.

<End Descriptions>

I personally have no class I wouldn't have played first if I went back. I've been a warrior in every other RPG, so naturally, I'm a W/Mo in game. Everyone has their preferences. Really, it's what you like to get comfortable with. Reference my descriptions to piece together a class best suited to you.

--The Shim

I think w/mo is the best starting character since its really easy to use.

U have it do healing or protection prayers and the quests will be easy to do since u cant really die.

war/mo easy to play easy to find a group
ranger/mo easy to play, harder to find a group, possibly more fun

Lol.

Choose any class. All of them are equally difficult to play well.

To get into groups easy, go Monk or Warrior, or Elemantalist (cant spell it)
If you dont want to get picked, go Mesmer, Ranger, or Necro

Quoted for truth. I started with a melee ranger/warrior. Got me a lot of experience with stances and running for my life. But, seriously, I'd pick the one that looks the coolest to you. Then, learn how to use that class. Just my opinion.

You really can't go wrong, no matter which profession you choose, but here are some tips for ANY first character:

1) Don't be in a hurry to leave pre-searing by entering the Academy. I would explore the introductory area of the game fully before moving on to post-searing. Try to uncover as much of the map as possible, go everywhere you can, and talk to everyone you can talk to. There is a lot to do in pre-searing, but most people rush through it. Stop and smell the flowers.

2) Try out all of the secondary professions before you decide which one to pick. Not only will you earn more experience this way, but you'll get to sample all of the professions to find a better match. Each profession has a lot to offer as a secondary, and it is best to make an informed decision.

3) Don't let the comments you read about one profession or another influence YOUR decision of what to play. I've tried nearly every combination of professions, and I find that many of the "popular" characters aren't much fun to play. In the end I am most satisfied with the characters that I chose based on my own concept of what would be fun.

A N/Me or Me/N could teach you a lot about the game. However I won't reccomend any class to you.

What you should really be asking yourself, is how do you play?

Do you want to sit back and blow things up, possibly throwing some hexes on them to slow them down, maybe knock them over, fry them to death? Go for an Elementalist

Do you want to charge in and take the brunt of the damage while stabbing things in the face or beating them over the head with a mallet? Go for a Warrior.

Do you want to stay out of the way of battle and keep people alive? Possibly even doing a bit of holy retribution and smiting things to death with assistant damage enchantments? Go for a Monk.

Do you want to stand back a bit and fire through people's faces and laugh while they're impaled with arrows? Maybe running up and laying down traps to catch your enemies, maybe letting your pet do the damage while you assist the team with other things? Go for a Ranger.

Do you want to stop melee classes in their tracks and kill them before they even get close to you? Or be the master of the battlefield and control what the casters do by flat out interrupting their spells, denying their hexes and possibly their energy? Go for a Mesmer.

Do you want to raise corpses from the dead as your own minions and let them do the dirty work or drain their life away or hex them to death? Go for a Necromancer.

I've only just started a N/W but it's great fun - running in and bashing everyone with a sword/axe and if they start fighting back you can just drain their life to fuel your own. i can get in about 3 life draining skill while someone is chargin at me and by the time we get into melee range their down to half health.

Also found R/W quite fun if only to out run ppl who think they can RUN FAST! (at lvl 8 i was out running lvl 18 W/Mo's )

Try them out. You may be surprised by what you like. I knew I'd hate rangers, so I didn't make one. Then eventually I made on and love it. You never know till you try.

As for ease of use? Anything is easy to use passably in the game pretty much:
Mesmer was difficult with henchies though, since they re-target every time you change to shut down a skill or drain someone's energy. Hard to play a caster-disrupting mesmer when the henchies focus on whoever you target, allowing the meleers to do what they want. All the other classes were pretty straightforward. While I like my mesmer, I'd have to say that PvE with henchies is tougher with a mesmer than with other classes - however, with players it can be a blast.

Very nicely put, as for you people trying to discourage warrior starters, stfu... A Warrior newbie can learn just as well as a non-warrior primary newbie so keep your ridiculous pointless prejudices to yourself...

As for W/Mo, unfortunately, the game's society frowns upon W/Mo's as a whole, even the truely skilled ones who know that self-heals on a warrior are not that good....

I'd suggest W/N. Yes I'm prejudiced and the like but I'm not going to stand and bash the other class combos... They work too, I just don't care for them.

A new W/N has quite a few advantages to work with in pre-searing. Since hp counts are low for the first 1/3 to 1/2 of the game, using Blood Magic to keep your health up as well as drain life from multiple foes is fun. Demonic Flesh coupled with hp-regen and the right damage reducing stances make you into a formidable tank. Strip Enchantment, though not nearly as useful as Rend, can help to a degree in both PvE and PvP. Necro hexes to a point have some of the best energy efficiencies in the game. 10e. for 30s of duration. Well enough for a 2regen 20e. pool character to make use of. And then there's Plague Touch... Ah sweet...

You can use some cursed caster style effects for devastating results. Barbs, Mark of Pain, and Weaken Armor come to mind. Obviously, a warrior won't need all 3 but each one has a use depending on your teammates.

If you're non-elemental damage team build [warriors+rangers], then Barbs is the bomb.

If your casters need that mob scattered like leaves, Mark of Pain can now be used as an anti-mob skill to keep heat off your casters OR kill the mob much quicker in case you don't have a cursed necro with 16 curses on your team.

Weaken Armor. The Shiverpeak Dwarf killer. These little guys must have adamantium armor or something at times... Want to kill an enemy much faster? Weaken Armor is probably the best at it.

So as a W/N, you can serve as a switchblade for your team by alternating between blood or curses magic. Death Magic is a real pain to use and I'd advise against that line unless you know what you'd like...



I'd like to see more W/N vs. more W/Mo however. It seems the Cursed or Bloody warrior are a dying breed...

A warrior monk is a great class to begin with. With it, you won't die easily and you will be able to solo a lot, allowing you to discover the world by yourself without being sorta "run", that is to say: go into a group, they do the mission as quick as they because they only want to raise their character to lvl 20, you don't understand what you were supposed to do, what is the plot etc...
The warrior monk is really (unfairly) yelled at.
When you begin you are reaaaallly more solid than other classes, being able to deliver a lot of damage and being able to take a lot of damage. At the beginning, as a W/M, you are able to run into mobs of monsters, kill'em all, and still survive. With other classes, you learn from the beginning how much life can be short.
However, being a newbie W/M is problematic. As you can fight early armies of monsters alone, you will "tend" to do this when you are with teammates. But, the more you go in game, the more you'll see that you can't deliver as much damage as, say, elementalists, and that your armor can't save you from really tricky skills some monsters have, thus falling into the "Dumb wamo aggro" syndrom. You will have to learn to tank and catch in a smart way the monsters, and to think as a team instead as a solo-fighter.
Being a Warrior is easy. Being a good Warrior is difficult.
I have a Wamo and I play it with great enjoyment.
And to answer to some of those anti-warrior here (guess they didn't play one), it is really difficult to play successfully to the end of the game a warrior. More difficult I would say that a Full-Heal Monk, who have to sit back and watch over his teammates bar (with a good energy management). And I have a monk AND a mesmer character so I know what I'm talking about.

So, play a W/M, it's great for the beginning, but as soon as you will play with teammates, think you won't be alon, listen carefully to your teammates, and adapt your gameplay/build and think as a team, what so much warriors fail to do when it comes to do cooperative missions.

A good reason NOT to be a W/Mo, IMO.

I found that Warriors hit their stride early in the game, and slowly become less effective as it continues. After all, you can get your hands on a max damage weapon pretty early, and bump your damage up really easily. Then you kind of plateau, and while you do improve a bit, the enemies improve faster, so your killing power/staying power drops, and suddenly you need to find all new ways to play, when you had an easy time in the beginning (when you should be learning the basics). My W/Me was my 4th character and my first Warrior character. I remeber coming to post searing, buying him the Ascalon armour (why not, I had money and fur, and you can't beat it in Ascalon), handed him a low req. max damage weapon and proceeded to solo (no henchies) the first three missions. I felt invincible. They are truly overpowered in the beginning, which made it SO disappointing later...

That's not to say it isn't fun, or that all Wa/Mo suck or anything like that. I am just glad that my first classes were fragile - I learned a lot about AI, and about how to minimise damage - something that the warrior tends tolearn much later in the game, since a warrior has no fear for the first bit.

Hmm, yes, it is a matter of opinion here.
To resume:
If you want the easiest class for a beginner, try a W/M.
If you want the class who will teach you the best, but won't be easy to play, try a mesmer (and really not easy, as all your skills are condition-dependant, and as so many groups don' want you).
To my opinion, for a beginner who doesn't know game basics, the easiest class in the beginning is the best.
To Epinephrine opinion, the hardest class will teach you the most is the best, so go with a Mesmer.
It depends if you like challenge or not.
I know.
Why don't try a mid class? The necro has really tricky skills, can heal self by blood magic, can really teach you the game processes and strategies with Curses Magic, and with the correct build, is really appreciated in groups.
Let's take a Necro. And have fun.

Ranger was my first class ever with GW and I loved it.

Then I made a warrior and it was boring and mindnumbing for me. I eventually deleted him and made a monk which I also enjoyed playing.

I also have a necromancer which is a lot of fun.

Fourth class is elementalist which is okay - like someone said, just click and flare. I hope other elements are more fun to play with. If not, I'll either wait for chapter 2 to see if we get more slots (Assassin heh) or delete this one and go with a mesmer which should be fun.

I have an alternative class/gaming style description - please don't take it too seriously. =)

Do you want to cast spells that fail to hit your targets most of the time, but drain your mana a lot? Do you want to have your energy limit decreased steadily by exhaustion? Do you want to have poor armor and very few HP because of superior runes that are required to run this class? Go for an Elementalist.

Do you want to aggro as many creeps as possible to kill your entire party? Do you want to get smacked in the face all the time and deal minuscule damage (that is if you're not blinded or your attacks aren't evaded/blocked etc. ;-)? Do you want to be called a n00b for choosing this particular class and generally be regarded as the arse of the party? Go for a Warrior.

Do you like being a priority target in a party? Do you want to be blamed for every death of a stupid party member rushing into battle? Do you like calling for regen-rests without ever being heard? Do you want to strain yourself while trying to keep people alive, that probably don't deserve it anyway? Go for a Monk.

Do you like reading posts on forums that your class is the worst of the worst? Do you like seeing animals (your pets) die in a thousand horrible ways? Do you want to annoy your party members by placing nature rituals etc. that don't comply with their builds? Do you like people ignoring the fact that you haven't finished placing your traps yet? Do you like being picked last for any party? Go for a Ranger.

Do you like skills that will be useless in most situations and you wish you had brought the ones you didn't? Do you like being unable to do anything directly? Do you like dying a lot? Do you like to look like someones butler? Do you like being regarded as the most powerful class in the game which surprisingly nobody wants to have in a party and nobody seems to play? Go for a Mesmer.

Do you like corpses? Especially your dead corpse lying on the ground? Do you like to kill yourself with your own skills? Do you like to spam your keyboard as if you were transcribing a speech simultaneously while trying to keep your undead minions alive? Do you want to see your targets being killed by other professions before you manage to finish casting your debuffs? Go for a Necromancer.

End note: this, of course, is a parody of the classes and partially takes into consideration the (mostly stupid) arguments I've heard being used against particular classes/builds. It also bases on common misconceptions - and I can tell you that they all are misconceptions because I have two accounts and 6 characters - one of each primary profession and I know that every single one can rock.

P.S. My first character was (is) a Mesmer and I don't regret having made that choice.

P.P.S. I want to stress a second time that all classes can be strong and very fun to play and I'll sooner die than delete any of my characters. Playing W/Mo as a beginner can get you on the wrong path though, because most people SAY this is the easiest class combination to play, but even after hundreds of hours of playing don't know how to make the most of it - simply because it was their first class and they made the wrong choices in the beginning like "Weee! I can heal myself!" and now they are just to stubborn to adapt. ;-) W/Mo require a lot of knowledge to work properly. So I don't discurage Warrior beginners, but I'd try to try hint at different combinations like W/N or W/E as they can make you realize what a W should REALLY concentrate on and how skill/class combos work and prepare you to switch the class to a Mo secondary later on. W/Mo is a good combination, but a tricky one because the most obvious and seemingly right way of using (especially Mo) skills is actually the least effective. =)

Divide a dart board up into six equal areas. Close eyes. Throw dart.

Now divide board into 5 equal areas for secondary profession.

You made my decision easy in one paragraph

if you ask me, warrior can be a difficult, altho simple, class to play. most warriors just run up and start smacking things. what most people who have warriors dont realize for a long time ( or ever ) is that ITS NOT YOUR JOB TO KILL. i didnt figure that out till i had logged bout 200 hrs. thats when you realize that warrior is a tough class. it is now your personal responsibility to bodyblock anything that takes more than 2 forward steps. i might also add, once you figure that out, thats when the fun starts.

but meh, my first ever and main character is a ranger =P
~i

For me the easiest one to play and finish the game with was the W/M. I have a necro who can deal huge damage but it's harder to get into a group, it was also (for me) harder to learn how to play well. It took quiet a while for me to finish the game with my necro but it was worth it. I love my "Life Transfer" skill. I like playing my Monk but it was the hardest to ascend. She is my favourite though. It's very easy to get into groups with but hard to play well with people who rush when you need to regen. The worst thing about Monks is the abuse you get from some warriors when they rush in and get themselves killed but blame you for their mistakes.

It's hard to ascend with a monk? You mean the doppelganger thingy? LOL! It's by FAR harder with a W. My Mo clone was dead after around 15 seconds. ;-)