Profession Poll

Main Character's Profession

  • Warrior

    Votes: 8 17.0%

  • Guardian

    Votes: 6 12.8%

  • Engineer

    Votes: 3 6.4%

  • Thief

    Votes: 3 6.4%

  • Ranger

    Votes: 9 19.1%

  • Mesmer

    Votes: 4 8.5%

  • Elementalist

    Votes: 12 25.5%

  • Necromancer

    Votes: 2 4.3%
  • Total voters
    47
I didn't play much of the BWEs due to a medical problem. In total it was maybe 8 hours. But I did try a Charr Engineer and like you Enok, I wasn't impressed with the class.

My "core" of classes are first and foremost is the ranger, then mesmer, guardian, and lastly thief. I'm pretty sure we'll get a 5th character slot but I'm undecided what class that will be. But definitely not an engineer which is disappointing.
 
Curmudgeon said:
I loved the engineer, for pve it was great, I would set up and farm as long as I wanted. For pvp the toolbelt gives me mobility and cc skills to each their own though. :)
Click to expand...

I'm aware that I didn't get really far with any of the classes, so my perceptions are probably terribly skewed.

In general PvE it felt like I killed everything fast enough that turrets seemed redundant, but not as fast as I killed things with other professions. It also seems weird to tie myself down to an area with a turret in a game that's all about movement. I have the same problem with Guardian's sigils.

The engineer's weapons felt weird, too. Rifle has the longer range, but you get better damage if you're closer, if I remember correctly. Pistols seemed akin to other mid-range weapons, in that they didn't give me enough room to feel like I could kite effectively, but didn't give me the damage that a melee weapon has.

I liked doing some support in DEs with elixirs, but was frustrated by the extremely random one.

So I'm left with one of the coolest looking professions leaving me scratching my head.

What I really should do is go play in sPvP to get a feel for maxed professions, but it's the area of the game I'm least interested in.
 
It totally makes sense how things are falling out, though. The four classes with the most unusual systems are the least favorites. Either ANet is having trouble making them work (and be balanced) because they are unusual, or players are having trouble figuring out how to play them for the same reason, depending on who you talk to. My guess is it's a little bit of both columns.
Click to expand...
This may really be a real part of the issue Enok, that and the question of how things change as you level up. I had a real problem with the Engineer that I played levels 1-6, if felt far too fragile, and seemed to have too little DPS, but I see others playing them further than that quit happy with them. The idea of a Ranger with a broadsword was a very hard mechanic to stay alive with, a new concept from the devs that I just couldn't get straight. Yet once I got used to it the odd combination of ax and torch with a Ranger I found quit effective. Another class/weapon match up from the devs that others struggled with to make work and complained about. Yet so much of the fuss and feathers over class difficulties are based on beta weekends and stress tests, who knows how it will all work out as time goes on? The assassin in GW1 was a class that took some getting used to, especially it's fragility, yet once it was max leveled it was a great class. The devs will not want an "orphan" class that is rarely used, so they will balance out everything in the long run, so don't rule out any class to try. Or to be effective, the devs did make a 5 man dungeon run successfully exclusively with the thief class remember.
 
In GW1, my main was an elementalist, so of course for GW2, it will be a human ele. (for now at least; it could change...)
 
Ursen, yes. Some of the professions definitely need some traiting to start functioning smoothly.

In the end, my problem isn't that I'm ruling out classes, it's that I can't seem to rule out classes. I don't play enough to effectively play every profession, so I really need to focus on one, but other than the Necromancer, there isn't a profession I'm willing to put aside.

Three more days to decide... at least on which one I'm going to focus on first. :D
 
There are some real problems with GW2census, though. It's been around for a long time, even before some of the professions were revealed. People were logging their characters with fewer options, and then during peak hype over reveal week. There's also no way to change your mind, so if you go back months later and log your choices, they are counted right along with your originals.

You could say a similar thing about race choice, because we had race feature weeks which definitely caused a spike in people saying they would play those races.

Interestingly, if you switch the chart to reflect "main character" instead of "all entries" you get a significant bump of Warrior players and a drop of Mesmer players.
 
I was originally planning on playing a necro, then i decided on ele, then thief, then ranger, then guardian, then i realized i really had no idea what i wanted to play but that i was sure it wasnt mesmer... i just spent this last stress test playing mesmer and loving it...

oh boy.
 
lol!

I have the same problem. I've never particularly liked the in-toon-with-nature, love my pet, bow and arrow Ranger type. It and Necro are the two that have been off my list from the beginning. Then I ran around as one with leopard and eagle, and it's way up near the top of my list, now.

Yikes. I need seven character slots, and way more spare time to spend on them.
 
So I was thinking about going engineer but after playing it during the stress test, both pve low levels and the pvp lvl 80 stuff, I just wasn't impressed. I didn't have a ton of time to play it, but I just couldn't get a good feel for the class. I tried a little bit of the low level necro stuff (I played necro on gw) and I liked it a lot better.
 
So after what I said about the Engi, it's actually in my top two at the moment. Silly, I know, but I can't let go of the aesthetics of the profession. I figure there's got to be some build of the class that I'll enjoy, and it seems to be a decent profession for WvW which will eventually be my main focus in the game.

My inspiration for the character is River Song from the current Dr. Who series.

So female human Engineer and male Asura mesmer are my finalists for the profession I'll concentrate on at launch. Ive got about 15 hours to make a decision. :D Or perhaps levelling two toons at the same time won't be too terrible.

Planned out a new keymap to start the game with, so if anyone sees me looking like I'm having a seizure in game, you'll know why. ;)
 
So, about six hours later, I think my final plan is to hit Engineer first. I plan to stick with her until at least level 40 so I can get going into some of the trait lines and get a better feel for the profession.

If at 40 I'm just not feeling it, I'll main the mesmer.

It may sound very trivial, but the deciding factor was perma-swiftness. I was having a tough time deciding between the two, but the idea of getting that run buff for getting around only a short way into the trait lines verses never really getting it on the Mesmer was the straw that tipped the scales. The poll should read one fewer Guardian, and one more Engineer.

Man I can't wait for tonight. :D
 
Last edited:
Engineers can trait into swiftness every time they equip a kit, so, unless things change, 10 trait points should get an engi perm-swiftness. Speedy Kits, is the name of the trait, I believe.

At any rate, there's an interesting discussion in the Mesmer forum on Guru about Mesmer having the least access to speed buffs in the game.
 
ah, was thinking about going ele for all the movement buffs air attunement gets, 10% + and additional 5% every 10 seconds youre attuned for a max of 25% (so ~35% now). and thats just traits. signet of air is another +10%, and you can keep swiftness (+33%) up 20 out of every 30 seconds.

I dont know how itll all stack, whether itll be like +10%+25%+10%+33% = +78%? Or maybe 110% * 125% * 110% * 133% = 201% (+101%)?

either way, youd be movin pretty fast :D
 
Yes, as far as I can tell, almost every profession can get close to perma-swiftness except Mesmer.
 
Just out of curiosity, why is the necromancer getting no love? Is it something to do with his skill and trait design?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top