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Difficulty and Class.. what's your thoughts?
Aerowyn
Member Posts: 7,928
Having played all the classes to at least level 15 I will say some classes are by far easier than others to me in the early parts of this game. Obviously playstyles differ and one person will find X class much easier or harder than the next person. The overall concensous from my playthrough so far any everyone I have talked to ingame can say warriors are pretty much the easier class to play all around. This makes sense since ANET themselves have said it was one of the easier classes to get into and play.
For me I look at this like difficulty settings on a single player game.. In many games you have standard easy, normal, hard modes and this can fit that into this game depending on your playstyle and the class you play.. the thing is it will be differn't for everyone almost. Now I'm not saying the classes are "that hard" to play or anything just some I found harder than others especially when facing groups of enemies and especially in some of the personal story quests. Here's my list for standard PVE from my experience.. now obviously like I said some may find elementalist or thief or engineer to be easier for them and ranger to be harder just depends on the person and how well they know how to use the class and it's abilities.
Easiest Class for Me - warrior, ranger
Normal Classes- Necro, guardian, mesmer
Harder - Elementalist, engineer, thief
I will say if you are playing warrior and game feels to easy try an elementalist and see how that fairs for you. Again not saying difficulty will shoot through the roof or anything but as an ELE i found I had to be much more aware of my surroundings and how I was using my skills over how I played my warrior.
I angered the clerk in a clothing shop today. She asked me what size I was and I said actual, because I am not to scale. I like vending machines 'cause snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at a store, oftentimes, I will drop it... so that it achieves its maximum flavor potential. --Mitch Hedberg
Comments
I angered the clerk in a clothing shop today. She asked me what size I was and I said actual, because I am not to scale. I like vending machines 'cause snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at a store, oftentimes, I will drop it... so that it achieves its maximum flavor potential. --Mitch Hedberg
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Weird, I have played most classes to lvl 15 too, and I have different experiences
My warrior didn't get hold of any greatsword or rifle/longbow at first, and fighting at lvl 5 using axes was a pain. I didn't do much damage, and I died just as easily as my clothies charachters
The class I find easiest to play (in most games, GW2 no exeption) is the nuke-machine fire mage. Just move. Stay out of harm's way and nuke them to smitherines
It was a surprise though, how good daggers were. I'm using two daggers now on my main, and he can do story-missions two levels higher without any deaths.
I like the way the story plays out differently for every class/race, my five chars so far has been extremely different to play. GW2 must be the most alt-friendly game ever, and I love it. There's endgame for you
and that's my point sorta everyone will have differn't experiences depending on class/weapon setup and such. Some classes will be much easier to you than others. So far half my guild who tried stopped playing ELE because they found it "to complicated". But many others have no issues.
And I agree I find this the most alt friendly MMO i have ever played.. from the branching story's on each race to the way zones are setup to how differn't the classes can play. So alt friendly I have yet to even hit the halfway mark leveling a single character:P
I angered the clerk in a clothing shop today. She asked me what size I was and I said actual, because I am not to scale. I like vending machines 'cause snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at a store, oftentimes, I will drop it... so that it achieves its maximum flavor potential. --Mitch Hedberg
Guardian - much easier than Warrior. Better defenses, more healing, Spirit Weapons. Guardian is almost the total package. Really their one and only short coming is weak ranged.
Thief - the difficulty seems to be in weapon choices. Nearly all Thieves I see go double daggers and have a hard time. I mainly leveled with Short Bow and had an easier time than I did on my Guardian.
Mesmer - the most difficulty Ive had is with Mesmer. I tried every weapon and they all seemed very weak. Even the class abilities were very weak. Yeah you bring conditions and boons which are good for groups but not so much for soloing.
Necro - when you get your minion army things get a lot better but until then they do struggle. Unfortunately, some key abilities are bugged and I dont know if they are fixed yet.
Yeah I definately agree. Warriors are easy as heck to play. With signets that heal you passively, and heal you actively every 16 seconds, signets that reduce damage, signets that increase presicion and power by the time I was ~35, I had 80%+ critrate. This made PvE really easy for me as hundred blades would take care of most mobs.
The warhorn skills gives faster endurance regen + signet that increases passive endurance regen allows for kiting fairly easily. The speed boost from warhorn lasts a decent amount of time and without runes or traits has only a 10 second window when you don't have speed boost.
I think the reason this class is so easy is that A) it's heavy armor class,
100 Blade skill C) Reduce incoming damage signet
At level 80, I can take on about 5-10 level 80 monsters fairly easily WITHOUT using any immune to damage buffs.
I think the classes like elementalist and mesmer are so difficult is because of their skills. Take the mesmer portals for example, it isn't something you can spam effectively while fighting PvE mobs.
Definitely a good idea to suggest mixing it up a bit if one class seems too easy or the like.
However, that said, one can also change the difficulty quite significantly, and more easily than creating a different character, by simply changing one's playstyle e.g. finding longbow ranger too dull? Try going something unusual like sword/torch etc.
The classic case in point re the above is engineer...if you want more difficulty, just add more kits! That alone gives more flexibility (& potential), but also more room for confusion.
For me, I find necro very powerful...at times it feels a little like god (presumably Grenth) mode - the survivability is insane...but one does have to stay active and involved to use the character effectively.
Totally agree on warrior and ranger - easy for sure. I've basically shelved my warrior
A friend of mine has been playing ele and has been unhappy with it for some time until it just clicked for him - he's now quite effective with it, and now says it's demanding but fun
Engineer - *totally* depends on one's setup, I believe
Mesmer - I feel effective for sure, but can get punished quickly for being off my game.. The control is amazing, though. I'd put this towards hard if one's looking to get the most out of the class. (Mesmer is my main, btw, and I normally run Sw/P & GS)
Haven't really played guardian, ele, thief or engineer outside the betas, however...but certainly remember guardian as quite powerful back then.
Disclaimer re the above - I'm about L40 on my main and L20 or thereabouts on my other characters.
I miss DAoC
yea changing weapons can really alter playstyle a lot.. but a lot of the time if one weapon set "feels" more powerful people tend to just stick with what they feel is more powerful. But for example on my ranger, i really enjoy playing a full melee ranger. It's a bit more challenging but also I find it to be a heap of fun.
I angered the clerk in a clothing shop today. She asked me what size I was and I said actual, because I am not to scale. I like vending machines 'cause snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at a store, oftentimes, I will drop it... so that it achieves its maximum flavor potential. --Mitch Hedberg
Right now I have a ranger at level 43 and level 25 Warrior and Guardian.
I find the Ranger to be the most fun for me. In GW1 I played a ranger but hated the pet system. In GW2 I love the pet system. My bear makes a great tank and by speccing my non armor and weapons with healing he regens over 100hp per tick at level 43. Plus with a longbow of Life I get 25 stacks of 7 healing power. Definately helps keep the bear alive and tanking multiple MOBs.
Guardian and Warrior are not as much fun for me. Both are strong and able to fight MOBs above level quite easily but the fun factor is not what my Ranger is for me.
In order from easiest to hardest from personal experience.
Easy: Guardian, Ranger, Warrior
Medium: Elementalist, Mesmer, Necromancer
Hard: Engineer, Thief
Truthfully though it was hard to fit it in three catagories. Elementalist leans more at the easy side to me and truthfully difficulty wise I'd be tempted to push engineer and thief down to medium. There really isn't all that much difficulty in the classes, once you have it down its one of the more simple game designs for each class. Over-all once you see how they work you will find that the classes over-all are pretty easy to play. Its just the talent system being a bit unclear as well as figuring out the utility to use to get through and any class can be picked up by even the most casual of player.
Difficulty through knowledge... or so the lack of knowledge.
I've played all classes in sPvP and made many multiples of classes.. but have only stuck with a few that I found to be engrossing.
In terms of difficulty and effectiveness:
Mesmer: Definitely an effective and powerful class, one of the best in PvE and PvP when played well, and can wear down many multiple mobs with high survivability. The mesmer has a sharp curve early on, but once you learn to play with all of your skills... its quite repetitive with a good build and therefore becomes easy at top level.
Thief: Easy class to get the hang of in PvP, but tough to master for survivability in PvP and PvE. Theres more to life than dual daggers, but most people don't bother trying to master what the thief has to offer in PvE and rather wait for people to run in before they heartseeker spam a mob. Overall simple class to play for beginners who are used to stealth classes though.
Ranger: One of the best classes in the game IMO, but most people play rangers terribly, using greatsword and longbow, but completely forgetting the strength in shortbow, axe, torch and warhorn. Lots of amazing abilities that increase survival far more then greatsword allows. Lots of additional abilities available due to pet variety. Easy to pick up and play but tough to play well (apparently).
Necromancer: My worst played class - when played right, they are a powerhouse, even with some of the broken skills, I find the difficulty to play them to be tougher than most, but an amazing class when you get down to it. I've been bested a few times 1 on 1 by necros.. many more times then being bested by warriors or thieves.
Elementalist: One of the best classes in terms of variety, very difficult learning curve for those that want to make the most of them.... very underplayed. My 2nd favorite class after the Ranger/Mesmer tie.
Guardian: Lots of these guys out there, they are one of the easiest to play. At the top level, you can just whack away and lost little health... going toe to toe without having to worry about dodging much, and damage output is respectable.
Warrior: See guardian - just with more weapon variety and better damage output - a little less survivability in PvE when played poorly.
Engineer: If you really spend some time with the engineer you learn all sorts of great things about the kits and different specs. One of the best in terms of variety, and one of the toughest classes to play well at the top level. They have some of the most useful abiilties in PvE, but most seem to stick with turret spec, flamerthrower, or rifle.
Thats how I see it anyways.
Ranger was easiest for me as in fastest level. With longbow stand there in d/e spots and press 1 and it auto targets everything. Warrior started as really easy until enemies used range on me alot.
I play necro mainly and bleed / poison the mob and they die. Used to do the strength of the pack thing for extra defense but find that the minions are too dumb so I chose staff / condition damage instead.
Guardian is easy but seems like low dps but with everything else it has thats ok.
This isn't a signature, you just think it is.
I like playing support, so I'm used to the "toolbox" kind of characerts. Because of that, I generally have an easy time with them.
- Guardian and Engineer are the support-heavy classes I played at length (say, 25 levels). I've had a pretty easy time with them, the Guardian more so. In fact, Guardian to me is probably the easiest character to do PVE with. The Engineer, you can die more easily, but it's quite versatile so once you get the hang of swapping kits and watching toolbelt, and you can do some pretty impressive stuff.
- Warrior I only played into the teens, but it felt pretty powerful.
- Elementalist I played into the twenties. Yeah, it's quite easy to die with one, but still it's powerful as heck.
I'd also say managing elements was a bit easier to get accustomed to than managing Engineer kits.
- Necro I played into the teens. It was actually the class I had the most difficulty with - besides, it felt pretty boring to me; I guess I never properly got in tune with the core design of this class.
- Ranger I'd played in the BWE for a bit. Was smooth leveling, except the pet dieing in every other fight was a bit annoying. :P unno how the class fares now at release.
I'd say anyone wanting to have it easy should go Guardian, Warrior or Ranger...
And if you want a class with some tricks up his sleeve and versatility, try Engineer or Elementalist.
I angered the clerk in a clothing shop today. She asked me what size I was and I said actual, because I am not to scale. I like vending machines 'cause snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at a store, oftentimes, I will drop it... so that it achieves its maximum flavor potential. --Mitch Hedberg
Spec has a lot of effect too. I can't play a pure dps, murdelatin' Guardian for the life of me, but I do well with the support guilds. I grasped Most mesmer builds pretty intuitively, but I still don't use sceptre/shatterspam builds as well I could.
Can't wrap my head around engi, period. Sigh. I keep wanting to.
My engi is 45 now and really quite a capable class in all respects. I found the easiest way to go was turrets until you get enough skill points for the Elixir gun. I know flamethrowers are fun, I use one myself a lot and it always puts a big ol' grin on my face torching the countryside, but when you need to do a DE or group boss the elixir gun rocks.
Heal turret and elixir gun gives you a heal on F1 and F2, the turret itself, and another on key 5 of the Elixir gun. Go with Healing Power/Cond Dmg for stats, the gun does poisons and bleeds.
Once you get Supply Crate as an Elite skill you become very strong solo or in a group. Everyone says you can't get decent rewards healing in events but I always get Gold and I heal like a mad man, at the same time as doing decent dmg.
So far engi is the most interesting class I've played, very versatile and great fun. It's not an easy class to get your head around but if you can it's worth it.
Easy - Ranger
Normal - Mesmer, Guardian
Harder - Necro, Engineer
I just can't seem to break thru with Necro. And I don't really have any interest in the warrior, ele or thief. I'm playing primarily Guardian because it seems the class I have the most complete understanding/skill with. I can handle dps and support.
Pfft to the guy saying mesmer was the weakest class, with no joy with trying any weapons they were all weak lol's just lol's
Check out the 3 mesmer guides.... and think again.
http://www.youtube.com/user/MrPrometheus0110
I won't say easiest, but elementalist has easily been my most intuitive class. Maybe it's because I played a druid for years in WoW, (even though, sadly, the gameplay rarely required that i constantly swap forms) or because I've played hundreds of Nidalee games in LoL, but constantly swapping attunements to maximize effectiveness just made sense. As early as level 7, I rarely stayed in one attunement for more than 5 seconds. In contrast, I've heard of people who just sit in one attunement exclusively, which I just can't understand.
For reference, I have an 80 elementalist, 45 warrior and 10 ranger and 15 necro. I also had a level 12ish mesmer and thief and engineer in beta.
mesmer is my main spvp class right now.. probably strongest all around sPVP class atm imho
I angered the clerk in a clothing shop today. She asked me what size I was and I said actual, because I am not to scale. I like vending machines 'cause snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at a store, oftentimes, I will drop it... so that it achieves its maximum flavor potential. --Mitch Hedberg
I'm not sure why everyone is saying Engineer is so difficult. It's been my primary class and I've found it easier than both my mesmer and my thief. I have a bit of a ranged tank setup - lot of turrets, lots of knockback and snares. It's not unusual for me to end up tanking event bosses, which usually isn't a problem unless they have strong ranged attacks.
Yes, the difficulty IS vastly different.
I'd count Engineer as medium and Guardian as easy though.
Yes, Ele and Thief are waaaay too squishy and not really balancing it with dmg.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Keep in mind I'm not saying it's difficult..I'm saying I couldn't "get" it. Much like some people think Mesmer is impossible, or my guildmate that swears Guardians are horribly weak and underpowered. I think it's up to indivudal playstyle preferences. Aerowyn mentioned Thief as one of her hardest, and I'd call it one of my easiest, as a for instance.