The Rapture of Gaming

[Zoobi]

Asura Thief, Sylvari Ranger, Norn guardian are going to be my main three. Might make a human elementalist down the line but that won't be for a long time.

[Zavon]

I'm seriously attempting to go for a main here. Since this game is set up by map exploration, what I'd like to do is have the one character who's done it all. I want to travel and explore 100% with that "one character".

It's weird, because there is no pressure to level in this game. I want to just walk around, explore, and finish the maps.

Which is the crux of my problem! What class is going to be versatile enough to make that experience enjoyable? Here is what I'm leaning towards:

The Engineer: I keep going back to this class because it was a lot of fun. My problem with it, though, is that you only have two main hand weapon choices and the weapon kits felt weak in combat. I used several in PVE in the second beta weekend. They just didn't pack enough "umph". I'm afraid I'd get too bored just using the gun and pistol.

The Ranger: It has a lot of neat utility skills, and really is a great class to keep the diversity up. However, pet management mechanics are a little annoying. Those pets seem to die way too much. That, and I played a Hunter most of my WoW career-- I fear that it might be a little familiar play style wise.

The Mesmer: I love the concept of this class. It is loads of fun in pvp. It just doesn't feel designed that well for pve! Most of the utility skills seem to be reactionary to pvp things (like conditions or illusion to allies).

[VKhaun]

I have no such problems, Zav.
Axe/shield all the way just like I said in the first GW2 thread.

[Zavon]

I played a warrior to level 10 or so, and it was totally bad ass. They have outrageous damage. They have outrageous survivability. I doubt I'd play one for a main though because they lack a lot of what I'd call "interesting utility".

I have circled back to that class a few times, but know myself enough to know that it wouldn't be "the one" for me.

[Ero Elohim]

I think that's why I'm going to end up playing a Guardian. They have a ton of variety in weapon choices, quite a few interesting utility skills, and are incredibly versatile in their builds. They're good solo, and only multiply in strength with allies around. The only downside is they have weak ranged options (though the fan-push wants them to use longbows in a sort of magic archer role, which I'd love to see) and their somewhat pigeonholed Elite skills - either stand still and do lots of damage or stand still and do lots of support.

Other options on my table are Warrior or Necromancer.

[Taolas]

How did you feel about the Ele, Zavon?

You might want to peek at Engi traits if you haven't. They can make kits a bit nicer. I felt the big damage skills came from the tool belt (f1-f4). The grenade one throws like 8 nades that can total up to some nice damage on one target. Big bomb that knocks down and does good damage. Throw wrench which can boomerang and hit twice. Throw mines which drop like 6 mines and can do good damage if they all hit. Then you trait 'cast chain lightning when using a tool belt skill' and you've got some punch. That line also lowers tool belt recharge.

The kits themselves do feel rather supportive, like grenades blind and chill instead of doing good long distance aoe damage. Bombs setup a combo field, confuse (actually decent damage), or root. Elixir gun is meh, but has one escape skill that leaves behind an aoe field of decent pain. It would be nice if one was more damage oriented. Though when things get tough, every third skill or so is something to support myself.

If any of that helps you learn towards or away from the Engi... Oh and you have the invaluable rifle jump for jumping puzzles.

[Zavon]

You know, I thought I might like the Elementalist. After playing it, it just wasn't jiving for me. I tried the scepter with a focus and the staff, but neither felt very good. I believe that I would have enjoyed using the dagger.

I've used the character builder to play around with the Engineer traits. Despite the lackluster weapon choices I think that the utility skills that the engineer has are all quite interesting. I haven't given much attention to the F1-F4 skills though. Maybe I should review those.

[Taolas]

Yeah, I usually decide my utilities based on the F skills. Turrets give F skills when not in use, otherwise it just blows them up useless!

[Zavon]

I think I'm going to go with the Thief. I love the idea of a pistols/shortbow thief with a lot of traps.

[Graveworm]

You know, I thought I might like the Elementalist. After playing it, it just wasn't jiving for me. I tried the scepter with a focus and the staff, but neither felt very good. I believe that I would have enjoyed using the dagger.

I've used the character builder to play around with the Engineer traits. Despite the lackluster weapon choices I think that the utility skills that the engineer has are all quite interesting. I haven't given much attention to the F1-F4 skills though. Maybe I should review those.

Yeah, I like Dagger/Dagger Elementalist for PvE and sPvP. Staff isn't great for most PvE but it is great for some large-scale dynamic events and is killer in WvW.

[Zavon]

Oh it ended TOO SOON! Le sigh...

Anyhow, I did the elementalist dagger thing and I liked it far more. The fire damage was downright sick.

BUT! I rolled a pistol thief just to see if I would like it. I LOVE it. I've found my class. Pistol and dagger was a sickeningly awesome combo.

[Boxy Brown]

I'm going Mesmer and Thief 100%.

[Zavon]

Never say never sir! I played an engineer the first beta weekend thinking that I would hate it (didn't want to spoil the other classes), and it has turned out to be one of my favorite classes. I guess maybe its because the combat is so different, that classes don't really feel like what you expect.

I was dead set (pun) on being a necromancer. I actually didn't care for it at all

[Graveworm]

Oh it ended TOO SOON! Le sigh...

Anyhow, I did the elementalist dagger thing and I liked it far more. The fire damage was downright sick.

BUT! I rolled a pistol thief just to see if I would like it. I LOVE it. I've found my class. Pistol and dagger was a sickeningly awesome combo.

I'm a big fan of air and water for dagger/dagger. The water dagger auto-attack let's you easily stack to 10x Vulnerability on whatever you are attacking, and air let's you do a ton of damage and gives you great mobility in the form of Ride the Lightning and the many swiftness granting traits. Properly traited, you can get permanent swiftness just from using the healing glyph while in air attunement, which is a huge plus for me. Though, it does kind of suck when you get hit by the necro skill that flips boons into conditions and you end up with over a minute of cripple...

[Zavon]

Yeah, I really liked the water primary attack too. I fought some big evil dude in an event, and the water daggers ripped through everything in my path (the adds). Cone of cold was really nice too. I hadn't got a chance to read its description, so when I used it I was very surprised to see it healing 3 people in melee range of the boss.

The daggers just felt very fluid.

[Pyrrhus]

My inner fanboy is foaming at the mouth to play this. Haven't played in any of the betas been simply waiting for release. Loved the direction arenanet went with a lot of things in GW2.

I'm down to roll on a specific server if a couple others are. WvWvW makes me hope for healthy communities.

[Wulf]

Just tell me where you guys are rolling and I'll be there

[Graveworm]

I'm rolling on Maguuma with Something Awful's guilds.

[Zavon]

Will Maguuma be East coast?

Can Taolas or Zoobi just, pick for us? You two seem to know whats what.

[Zoobi]

I just pick whatever server has the best name :P. I'll probably end up rolling on Sorrow's Furnace again with my friends.

[Taolas]

Pretty sure there is only one server location in the US. I'm waiting on an official launch server list or something... they should have some announcement.

I'd like to stay away from crowded servers so I can WvW without it being full. Hopefully we can then hop around if we want to PvE... just need final details.

[Zavon]

I agree with you Taolas, I dont want to go to a server thats too crowded.

Are they not going to use the same server names from Beta?

[Zavon]

http://www.yourfreepoll.com/qobfubeosp.html

Server list.

Maguum and Sea of Sorrows, might be too crowded, but I'd be willing to go to either.

[Taolas]

I imagine the final number of servers is going to be larger than before and stuff. The current names should carry over.

Those servers should be the beta ones.

[Zavon]

Well lets try and coordinate it then, because it would be nice if we could wvw together. I know Zoobi is in to competitive pvp in games, so it would be nice to have someone like him at your back.