What's your first character going to be?

[Genev]

I'm playing Ranger.... Just like everyone and their dog it seems like o.O

Loving it, thought, using longbow and sword/warhorn combo and i'm just tearing through stuff :D
Was using a ranged pet at the beginning, but now i tend to switch ebtween 2 bears, and they just last forever and in cases where they're not quite sufficient, i can easily switch them out to another pet more fitted, or equip some defense skills.

Also, occasionally when i switch pets my Charr says "I choose you!" /snicker

[EWSpider]

The other kicker is that your target has to stand still as a stone.

Read the description on Flurry.  Immobilized...Immobilized...Immobilized...

[Tyrnan]

Well after a couple of false starts and a reroll or two I finally decided to stick with my Mesmer and I'm really glad I did. It was a fairly slow start but picks up around level 20 and now in the 40s it's an absolute blast. Running Sword/Focus + Staff and my favourite combo right now is: Illusionary Leap, iWarden, Swap with leap clone, Blurred Frenzy, switch to staff and Phase Retreat followed by a Mind Wrack. Against most single mobs it's dead at that point. Groups of mobs take a bit more effort and I certainly can't mow them down like Warriors/Elementalists but I find the constant running/dodging/managing illusions very engaging and it keeps me from getting bored.

Had an awesome moment last night during an event in Bloodtide. There was one of those thief mobs that uses Dagger Storm clustered up with a load of his friends. I dropped a Feedback on him right as he started it and he was dead by the time he finished and had put a load of confusion stacks on his friends. Had me grinning from ear to ear for a good while afterwards.

[sachiel]

I'm playing Ranger.... Just like everyone and their dog it seems like o.O

No, that would be Guardian.

[Genev]

I'm playing Ranger.... Just like everyone and their dog it seems like o.O

No, that would be Guardian.

Heh, i'm actually thinking of creating a Guardian alt.... But i'm sseriously seeing more Rangers than anything else while running around

[Segoris]

Yeah, I've run across more rangers, thieves, and warriors than guardians actually.

[01101010]

Is there a reason we do not have class threads in this forum yet?

[Rasix]

Tried a few classes so far.  I haven't played too much due to a variety of factors (vacation, client instability, being a dad).  Here's my impressions so far.

Engineer: made it to 15 and got bored.  Don't really enjoy the mechanics of it at all.

Warrior: made it to 20 and I like the class.  It's a bit vanilla but not boring at all.  You got a lot of neat looking damage.  There seem to be a lot of warriors, however.  My favorite so far.

Mesmer: just started one and it's pretty wonky.  Sometimes I feel like my damage is OK, then I feel like I'm just plinking away. Very unique class, but I'm not sure it has enough punch for me.  I think I'll give it a few more nights.

Probably going to try a thief next.  I'm trying to find something that does decent damage, is fun mechanically to play, looks cool and has decent survivability.  From what I hear, thief might fall flat on the last point.

Is the human starting area/personal story any good?  Asura was OK, Norn is OK yet cheesy, and so far plant elves are just plant elves (lame as I would expect, but with a ton of plants v. zombies references). 

[01101010]

Tried a few classes so far.  I haven't played too much due to a variety of factors (vacation, client instability, being a dad).  Here's my impressions so far.

Engineer: made it to 15 and got bored.  Don't really enjoy the mechanics of it at all.

Warrior: made it to 20 and I like the class.  It's a bit vanilla but not boring at all.  You got a lot of neat looking damage.  There seem to be a lot of warriors, however.  My favorite so far.

Mesmer: just started one and it's pretty wonky.  Sometimes I feel like my damage is OK, then I feel like I'm just plinking away. Very unique class, but I'm not sure it has enough punch for me.  I think I'll give it a few more nights.

Probably going to try a thief next.  I'm trying to find something that does decent damage, is fun mechanically to play, looks cool and has decent survivability.  From what I hear, thief might fall flat on the last point.

Is the human starting area/personal story any good?  Asura was OK, Norn is OK yet cheesy, and so far plant elves are just plant elves (lame as I would expect, but with a ton of plants v. zombies references). 

Human intro part is -has to be- exploitable. Every villager you tell to get their asses to the Inn is worth 2 karma. You can do that indefinitely... though it gets to be grating after 100+ villagers.

Oh you mean actually playing. Yeah... it is better than the other zones, though I enjoyed the feel of Norn more. YMMV.

Thief is a paper warrior with access to pistols and some cool ass abilities - but holy shit does my thief die way more than my warrior. I took warrior to 32 and then started working on my 18 thief. Same zones, same encounters - way more dying. Fun was about equal, but the warrior is asura and thief is human so asura animations win out.

I'll start a mesmer some time this week and plink around with that for a bit. I want a caster and have no desire for a pet caster or the elementalist.

[Brogarn]

I've run through just about all of the classes and ended up on a Mesmer last night after doing some reading yesterday instead of, you know, working. Wow is this class fun and engaging. It's like a Thief Illusionist or a standard D&D mage before everyone went all elemental DPS. I'm pretty enamored with it right now and having more fun that I've had yet with a class.



Edited to remark on race areas:

I didn't even know about the karma with the villagers. I didn't even realize you could talk to them and direct them to the inn. Wow... I should pay more attention.

My mesmer is a noble and I really like the story so far. Feels very heroic and more standard fantasy, which I'm cool with. Feels like the start of a D&D adventure where I'm dealing with lowly bandits but leading to bigger things.

[March]

Mesmer: just started one and it's pretty wonky.  Sometimes I feel like my damage is OK, then I feel like I'm just plinking away. Very unique class, but I'm not sure it has enough punch for me.  I think I'll give it a few more nights.

I want to believe... but I've just never been able to get my Mezmer to work right.

I know it is boring, but the Warrior is the class that just works the best.  I also like the Ranger purely for exploration, look/feel, and Pet variables...but my warrior's ranged options are [sadly] somewhat better than the Ranger.  Since the game is so "explorey" I'm enjoying the Ranger the most so far.

Thief is definitely more fun, but the way the camera [doesn't] work makes him un-fun for me to play long-term (or until they make the camera snap to his over-shoulder view after all the movement).

[01101010]

Mesmer: just started one and it's pretty wonky.  Sometimes I feel like my damage is OK, then I feel like I'm just plinking away. Very unique class, but I'm not sure it has enough punch for me.  I think I'll give it a few more nights.

I want to believe... but I've just never been able to get my Mezmer to work right.

I know it is boring, but the Warrior is the class that just works the best.  I also like the Ranger purely for exploration, look/feel, and Pet variables...but my warrior's ranged options are [sadly] somewhat better than the Ranger.  Since the game is so "explorey" I'm enjoying the Ranger the most so far.

Thief is definitely more fun, but the way the camera [doesn't] work makes him un-fun for me to play long-term (or until they make the camera snap to his over-shoulder view after all the movement).

My opinion of ranger is a thief with a pet hybrid class and not the typical MMO ranged non-magic DPS. My ranger had a bow for the kiting and plinking into the scrum, but sword/axe worked amazingly well with certain ability combinations. That poison strike followed up with the attack and jump outta range ability, then thrown axe followed by the return jump and finished with the axe tornado of blades ended pretty much any single NPC target I was up against... even etten.

[Tyrnan]

Mesmer: just started one and it's pretty wonky.  Sometimes I feel like my damage is OK, then I feel like I'm just plinking away. Very unique class, but I'm not sure it has enough punch for me.  I think I'll give it a few more nights.

I had pretty much the same start with the Mesmer. It doesn't really get going until around 20ish (utility skills and traits make a huge difference to them) but you're never going to be putting out huge damage numbers. Apart from iWarlock crits on mobs with a ton of conditions on them. If you like a very active class where you constantly have to adapt on the fly and think a couple of steps ahead then I'd say stick with. Personally, once it finally clicked with me it's hands down my favourite class to play in the game. There's a few decent threads on the guru forums that discuss weapons and traits which I found helpful when I was starting out.

[kildorn]

Mesmer: just started one and it's pretty wonky.  Sometimes I feel like my damage is OK, then I feel like I'm just plinking away. Very unique class, but I'm not sure it has enough punch for me.  I think I'll give it a few more nights.

I want to believe... but I've just never been able to get my Mezmer to work right.

I know it is boring, but the Warrior is the class that just works the best.  I also like the Ranger purely for exploration, look/feel, and Pet variables...but my warrior's ranged options are [sadly] somewhat better than the Ranger.  Since the game is so "explorey" I'm enjoying the Ranger the most so far.

Thief is definitely more fun, but the way the camera [doesn't] work makes him un-fun for me to play long-term (or until they make the camera snap to his over-shoulder view after all the movement).

I run a glamour mesmer. Greatsword/Staff (can go sword/pistol if you really need single target damage for a fight). The key is understanding that due to how their damage is stuck in the phantasms, you will be weapon switching like a mad man. Open fights with a clone skill (because your first anything out will be burst down to dead, so don't waste a phantasm), then phantasm/switch/phantasm/clone. Wait a few seconds for them to all get a hit in, then shatter with F1 for damage. It's rarely worthwhile to just sit on illusions since killing them is a decent chunk of AE damage. The only reason to sit on them is if you're being lazy killing a champion in a large group (at which point, three phantasms and go find a nearby mining node)

[Fordel]

Mesmers are just weird, always have been and always will be. It's like, why they exist.

[kildorn]

The best bit about being a mesmer: your #2 when downed teleports you and leaves a clone with a rez icon.

And every friendly for miles will run and rez your clone since they have no way of knowing which is which ><

[Ingmar]

The clones have a different color name, that's just people being dumb.

[Draegan]

Mesmer shatter builds are awesome.  Once you get the GM trait Illusionary Persona, you can start spiking the crap out of things.  That trait essentially gives you 4 shatter effects if you have 3 illusions up.  You can hit up to 10-12k damage on a non-tanky target.

I'm working my way up to a 20 Dom, 20 chaos, 30 Illus build that reduces the CD on my GS and Staff.  +Confusion stats in the illusion line and stack condition/power.  I have no idea if it'll be better than a full blown phantasm build or a full blown power/precision shatter build.  We'll see.

[Mosesandstick]

I know people have already mentioned it, but once you start weapon switching the mesmer starts to feel more natural.

[DraconianOne]

So Mesmer isn't all pink butterflies then?

Currently dicking around with an Engineer but have absolutely no idea what I should be doing or how to play it. Flamethrower's fun though.

[statisticalfool]

I think the two dominant PvE options are:

rifle + power + utility skills that help you kite
pistol/pistol + condition damage + flamethrower

turrets are a no.

[MrHat]

Just played against a tank mesmer in sPvP and it was annoying as fuck.

Think I might roll a giant fat norn mesmer for the lulz.

[kildorn]

I think the two dominant PvE options are:

rifle + power + utility skills that help you kite
pistol/pistol + condition damage + flamethrower

turrets are a no.

Turrets are ass in that they have long fucking cooldowns, do shitty damage, and take aggro and die quickly. Also, have a tendency to stand around attacking world objects instead of hostiles.

Rocket Turret and Flame Turret can be useful in dynamic events where you know what spawns where. Flamethrower still wins in that situation however. My engineer is pretty much pistol/grenade pack spec with elixirs in every other slot. Grenades will cause your 1 finger to die an early death however.

[Segoris]

Can't you put your grenades on auto-cast and save your index finger? Or is there reason to not do that, like timing being important over spam while not casting other abilities)?

[tazelbain]

That's why I like my plant turrets for my elementalist. "Oops you are going to kill me? Here have some flowers to keep you occupied while I heal up."

[kildorn]

Can't you put your grenades on auto-cast and save your index finger? Or is there reason to not do that, like timing being important over spam while not casting other abilities)?

I don't think you can do that with grenades, since they are ground targeted. You CAN do that with things like flamethrower #1, but for some stupid reason you need to do it every time you equip the kit, it's not automagically set to auto cast.

Grenades are awesome, but you basically have to spam the #1 and use fast ground target for the silly kit to work at all.

[01101010]

Can't you put your grenades on auto-cast and save your index finger? Or is there reason to not do that, like timing being important over spam while not casting other abilities)?

I don't think you can do that with grenades, since they are ground targeted. You CAN do that with things like flamethrower #1, but for some stupid reason you need to do it every time you equip the kit, it's not automagically set to auto cast.

Grenades are awesome, but you basically have to spam the #1 and use fast ground target for the silly kit to work at all.

Pretty sure you can make any ability auto-fire with the ctrl+ hotkey combo. Hover over the hotkey for the ability and I think it shows that at the bottom of the mouseover tooltip. IIRC.

[Segoris]

Yeah with ground targeting I'd rather not have it autocast even if it could, I prefer to have control over things of that nature and not use the auto target

[kildorn]

Can't you put your grenades on auto-cast and save your index finger? Or is there reason to not do that, like timing being important over spam while not casting other abilities)?

I don't think you can do that with grenades, since they are ground targeted. You CAN do that with things like flamethrower #1, but for some stupid reason you need to do it every time you equip the kit, it's not automagically set to auto cast.

Grenades are awesome, but you basically have to spam the #1 and use fast ground target for the silly kit to work at all.

Pretty sure you can make any ability auto-fire with the ctrl+ hotkey combo. Hover over the hotkey for the ability and I think it shows that at the bottom of the mouseover tooltip. IIRC.

I'll try tonight, but I have no idea how that would remotely function well with a GTAE skill. It would just.. spam fire wherever your cursor is at all times?

[01101010]

I'd assume. But think of the lulz. 

[kildorn]

This engineer video brought to you by Micheal Bay?

[Riggswolfe]

I have been dicking around with a bunch of classes, and of all things, the elementalist has surprised me by being fun for me. Guardian is still my favorite, and I like the warrior pretty OK too, but I wasn't expecting to like the elementalist at all.

I should probably branch out, race-wise, I have three norns. 

For some reason, despite the size difference, Norns remind me of Dwarfs from other MMOs.

I don't get that at all. What I get from Norns is "Giant Vikings." I made a Norn warrior and suddenly my human thief is languishing, untouched.

[Sjofn]

Dwarves are often "short vikings" and shaped a lot like the Norn are, so it's not really that surprising. I guess the norn ladies are hotter than dwarf ladies usually are.

Ingmar totally has a crush on Eir Whatsherface. I am glad to have it reaffirmed he likes giant women. 

[Phred]

I'd assume. But think of the lulz. 

Doesn't work. Intentionally, as the -> icon is replaced by a lock.

[Brogarn]

Still liking the mesmer, but was in the mood last night for blowing shit up and burning things down with napalm. Oh ya! This is why I liked my engineer. Lots of knockdowns, knockbacks, roots and explosions. I just wish I could replace his face mask with a cigar.