First, sorry for skipping two days. Things suddenly got busy. Anyways, a lot of people out there are having trouble deciding which of the eight professions they want to play as their main in GW2. If I weren’t so completely about maintaining that elementalist is always my original profession, I’d be having this problem, too. So, I figured today I would help make things easier for people and come up with a handy tool for deciding what class to pick. If you’re having trouble with something that isn’t deciding your class, let me know! Hit the “Got A Question/Request?” button on the right and tell me about it. I’ll make sure to address your worries/concerns/indecisions and help you get everything straightened out!

Before we get started, one last quick note for everyone who’s been reading, replying to, and liking my last post on the character blog project: reblog it too! If we’re the only ones who do it, it’ll be less cool and less impactful than if you help me spread the word about it!

How To Decide On Professions

So, there are a lot of things that people look for in their profession, and I’ve boiled it down to a few things that I’m going to look at. All of them, except for Magic, will be rated as PNE (Practically Non-Existent), W (Weak), M (Mediocre), or S (Strong).

Melee Capability - Even if you want to play a primarily-ranged class, a lot of people want to also have the option to go melee when necessary or to change it up sometimes.

Ranged Capability - Very similar to melee, only this applies to how viable a profession is at a ranged. I’m mostly looking at ability to fight at long range, but this also covers medium range as well.

Magic - Some people really want to be a spellcaster. Some people want nothing to do with it. Some people want to do both. So, I’m going to assign a rating of PP (Purely Physical), MP (Mostly Physical), B (Balanced), MM (Mostly Magical), and PM (Purely Magical) to each profession.

Support Utility - Support Utility shows how party-oriented the class is or can be. If all of a profession’s abilities have something to do with party healing, it’ll be pretty high. If there are very few with party support but they’re very strong, it’ll be rated poorly. If there is a good mix of both, but has the ability to go very high, it’ll be rated well.

Versatility - Versatility represents how much you can change up what you’re doing on the battle field. If your profession is going to pretty much be doing the same thing while you’re out there all the time, it’s rated pretty low. But, if it can switch up and drastically change what it’s doing mid-fight, it will be rated higher.

Theme - No rating to this one — I’m just going to give a quick one sentence description of the class.

Explanation - Finally, I’ll give a very quick explanation of how the profession got its ratings.

Elementalist

Melee: PNE, Ranged: S, Support Utility: S, Versatility: S, Magic: PM

Theme: Attune to the different elements to change and adapt your spells like the elements themselves.

Explanation: So the elementalist is a spellcaster with no physical abilities to speak of. All of its spells are ranged without any melee attacks, even with a dagger. With a lot of its non-weapon skills changing function based on attunement, the elementalist is easily the most versatile class. When you go water, the amount of support utility you get is astounding.

Engineer

Melee: PNE, Ranged: S, Support Utility: M, Versatility: S, Magic: PP

Theme: Use your inventions, elixirs, backpack, etc. to fight your foes and have the right tool for every job.

Explanation: Engineers are physical fighters that are very reminiscent of Batman or Tony Stark. There are many slot skills that can be taken to change out the weapon bar to something with a different theme. While the engineer can only take ranged weapons, there is one slot skill that gives them a few melee attacks. Some of the slot skills or weapon skills while using certain kits provide bonuses or healing to allies, but most of the skills focus on the enemy.

Guardian

Melee: S, Ranged: PNE, Support Utility: S, Versatility: W, Magic: B

Theme: Use many different skills to support allies while still being a valid melee combatant.

Explanation: Guardians are almost exclusively melee with a few, very poor choices for ranged. They focus on fighting in melee but use magic to augment their abilities and help their party. The supermajority of the guardian’s skills either focus on or dual in buffing or healing allies. However, because most of the skills focus on this, it’s hard to switch much during a fight. There are a couple offensive-oriented weapons, however, that can be brought to trade in place of a more supportive weapon.

Mesmer

Melee: PNE, Ranged: S, Support Utility: M, Versatility: W, Magic: MM

Theme: By conjuring illusions and deceiving enemies, the mesmer can take win any fight.

Explanation: So the mesmer focuses on mostly using a lot of magic in creating illusions which in turn also help attack your enemies and can be destroyed for various effects. Most of their abilities are at range, as they have only one weapon with melee attacks. They have a small number of party-support abilities, but the ones they have are quite useful. Unfortunately, no matter what a mesmer does in a battle, it’s pretty much always going to be doing that same thing. Changing out weapons isn’t going to give much of a different feel to what’s going on.

Necromancer

Melee: W, Ranged: S, Support Utility: S, Versatility: M, Magic: PM

Theme: Through corruption and the power of the undead, the necromancer controls life itself.

Explanation: The necromancer on using its magic for various effects. It has the unique ability of raising undead minions that all have different effects and abilities linked to them. It’s small variety of melee weapons actually have melee skills and tend to involve stealing life to help facilitate fighting at point-blank range. A lot of the skills involve giving boons to or removing conditions from allies. In fact, a lot of its abilities involving enemies remove boons or give conditions as well. At the same time, the weapons offer various ways of doing this and some focus on stealing life, offering a good degree of versatility.

Ranger

Melee: M, Ranged: S, Support Utility: M, Versatility: M, Magic: MP

Theme: With the help of an animal campion, the ranger rains death on its enemies from afar.

Explanation: The ranger is primarily a ranged fighter (hence the name) that also has very viable melee options. It fights with its weapon and the aid of its animal companion. While most of its weapon skills revolve around damaging the enemy, most of its slot skills offer good support for the party. All of its weapons give a variety of different styles, though all of them are offensively focused.

Thief

Melee: S, Ranged: W, Support Utility: W, Versatility: M, Magic: PP

Theme: Using stealth and trickery, the thief aims to take its enemies swiftly with out fighting for long.

Explanation: The thief is an almost exclusively melee profession that makes heavy use of the stealth mechanic. While the shortbow is clearly ranged, the pistols don’t lend to a ranged play-style unless used in both hands. The thief has even fewer support skills than the mesmer, without having the power in each that the mesmer has. Additionally, most of the weapons are pretty much doing the same thing with slight variations. However, the Steal skill will make up for part of this once we know more of the things you can use it to steal in combat.

Warrior

Melee: S, Ranged: M, Support Utility: M, Versatility: M, Magic: PP

Theme: Using its own might and weapons, the warrior fights the fight to see who is the better man. Or woman.

Explanation: The warrior has a LOT of different weapon choices, most of which are melee. That said, its two ranged weapons are very viable options that mix just as well with the rest of their skills. The warrior has a lot of support skills with a good mix of strong and weak, but not quite as many as the elementalist and guardian. The weapons offer enough variety and potential that the versatility is still there.