Page 1 of 1

New

Posted: Fri Jul 17, 2015 11:45 am
by pcmn1331
So I got GW2 when it was on sale a while back and have yet to install or play it. As a complete new player what is some advice you would give?

I have played MMO's before (WOW, DAoC, DDO, SWtOR, etc) and tend to like either tanks or healers.

I look forward to trying it out and seeing what advice you guys may have for me!

Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2015 5:55 pm
by Calumut
Well first I will need to point out that with the expansion (Heart of Thorns) at some point we cannot be sure that any advice or suggestions given will become moot when new content is revealed.

Anyway picking a class, Before you pick a class it would be good to check on the GW2 forums and MMO sites at "Revealed Specializations". These are optional variants for your chosen class which will give you access to an additional weapon and skill set as well as modifying your class mechanic to something that may fit your style more. They will be coming with the Expansion HoT as will the new Profession "Revenant".

Eg ~ Necromancer is a "Core class" but when you meet the requirements you can become a "Reaper" allowing your Necromancer to use [Shout] skills and wield a [Greatsword] as well as changing their Profession mechanic of [Death shroud] into [Reaper Shroud] a more melee focused version.

You will only be able to equip one of these specializations at a time and they will not be mandatory so you can just run your Core profession if you don't want anything they offer.

As for the current classes I think your best bet at a Tank/Support/Healer will either be an Elementalist or a Guardian, Though it should be noted that every class in the game has a dedicated heal skill regardless and other methods of healing themselves it is just some classes offer more group support/healing than others.

Also remember you have several character slots to start with! And you can always buy more if needed so you can make several classes to try and find your fit.

~~~~~

Other than that random advice? Combat is different it is a lot smoother than most other MMO's. You'll only have 10 skills on your bar to use.

- 5 skills determined by your weapon.
- 1 skill that will be your mandatory heal skill
- 3 utility skills
- 1 elite utility skill (Stronger, Longer Cooldown)

Each class gets it's own Mechanic which can take from 1 - 5 buttons so at most you'll need 15 buttons assigned for combat unless you click skills (Not recommended!).

In GW2 combat you have a "Endurance bar" if half the bar is full you can do a dodge which puts you into invulnerable frames as you dodge incoming attacks this is going to most likely be your main source of damage mitigation so assign this to a key you are comfortable with.

On second thoughts I'm going to post a video of a PvP match I had so you can get a first hand look at most of this and on that note a brief explanation of the current incarnation of PvP.

5v5 teams than can be random or formed of a party, 3 points on a map than you can capture some maps like the one shown below (Skyhammer ~ no one likes this one) where there are secondary features such as a giant laser cannon (Boo!), Lord NPC's you can kill or Orbs to pick up and capture. Points tick for score (PPT) with more points per capture point you own + the points you score for kills and the first team to 500 points win.

So in the video you see the red circle/orb in the middle of my bar that is my health? Above that you'll see a yellow crescent/curve that is your endurance bar that is linked to your dodge. The 5 weapon skills are on the left hand side of your health and on the right is your Heal, 3 Utility and elite in that order. (The skill linked to [F1] and has the green bar above my 5 weapon skills is my Class mechnic [Deathshroud] for necromancer this is where your Class mechanic will be found for any class.)

The Yellow images you'll see next to my team mates names in the top left hand corner are boons ~ possitive stat modifiers and the red ones are conditions ~ negative or damaging stat modifiers.

[MEDIA=youtube]G5sa5AHHnNY[/MEDIA]