Quick noob question

Hey, you've props read these sort of posts a 1000 times but ive just ordered the game and just trying to figure out which profession best suits me, I most likely will pvp once i have got used to the game.

So what i want from the class is a melee class, i dont mind using the odd magic trick at a distance and having a spell or 2 to heal wouldnt go a miss, i dont really want to be a healing based char though. O i like having a pet 2, not essential though.

I have been reading up on the chars and i feel that retulist looks fun but when watching movies on youtube they all look like mainly spell casters, although i have seen some melee ones and just wondered are they viable and good damage dealers, if so i will probs go with this profession and see if i like it, i will take other suggestions on board mind :).

Thanks for any responses.|||You obviously want to be a (W,D,A)/R/(E,Me,N)/Mo.

(W,D,A) = melee

R = for the pet

(E,Me,N) = the odd magic trick at a distance

Mo = a healing spell or 2.

It's weird that you ended up thinking that ritualists are like that.



The disappointment for you lies in the fact that you can only have a primary and ONE secondary profession in the game. It gets even worse: You have limited attribute points, so you can't really use skills from all the attribute lines that you have available - no one slightly sane would run a build featuring, for instance, a domination&illusion&fastcasting&inspiration&death& blood&curses Mesmer/Necromancer.

What makes up for this disappointment is that you always play with other entities, be it human buddies, random strangers, or helpful AI - and they will provide the healing spell or two, and the "odd magic tricks at a distance".|||Rits are spellcasters. Melee rits are possibly, but not common...

I'd go warrior or dervish. They are both viable melee classes. Warrior has probably more depth of gameplay than dervish due to skills that KD or interrupt. Dervish has better self-heals and AoE which is also quite a bit of fun.

In PvP, you can easily make new chars and try then out. So just go ahead and enjoy it.

Either one can go /R for a pet.

Warrior self-heals are not great, and going W/Mo is usually a bad idea (there are exceptions) because W has low energy to spend on self-heals. But he has higher armor and a few defensive skills.|||I didnt mean i wanted to be able to do them all at once, i just dont want to have to keep creating other chars to be able to do this i would just prefer to change my skills around if that is possible|||Yes, that is possible of course. In all outposts, you can change your attribute points and your skills.

Once your PvE character is "ascended" (about halfway into the game, normally), you can also change your secondary profession in outposts and make new builds with their skills.

Your PvP characters can change their skills and secondaries at any time, as long as they're in an outpost.



But lets just leave it as "the w/mo with some healing skills" and the "w/e with firestorm" are joke builds. If you want to mess around with spellcasting, then roll a spellcaster and don't try to play one with your warrior.|||Basically, the 3 most PvP viable melee classes are: Warrior, Dervish, Assassin. Rangers were also popular for a while. Depending on your PvP style, W is always good, whereas D or A are better in some styles and worse in others. I'm not a PvP pro so I can't help further...

W will also have a tough time keeping up with energy demands of spells. So you probably will end up mostly using W skills, which have limited self-heal, and no ranged attacks or spells. It's all up close and personal.

D or A have more options. D has self-heal and AoE. A has 2-3 skills that work at a range but otherwise has great mobility via shadowsteps. Both are more energy, so they "can" cast spells, although this is not commonly seen aside for fun builds. Well, in RA/JQ/FA you can see just about anything. But more commonly the spells they cast are self-buffs, self-heals, and attacks. You can also carry some cheap "utility" spells.

R gets a reduction on the cost of attacks, and good speed buffs and defensive skills, so it's a decent choice for melee. They recently received a nerf because they were too strong, but they should still be viable.

Keep in mind that most builds spread the attribute points in 2 or 3 attribute lines. If you spread more than that, you usually end up weaker as a result. Learn to be ok with not being able to do it all, instead learn to be as strong of an asset to your team, and hope other team-mates bring what you need.

It's a team-based game afterall.|||Also, I'd like to point out that leveling doesn't take long (max level in a few hours if you follow the factions story but progress as quick as possible), so you can make a new pve char to try a profession out, or you can make a pvp character that starts at lv20 with max level equipment and any skills you have unlocked on your account (either learned on a pve character, or unlocked by spending points (takes about 1 few minute match of low end pvp per normal skill) you get from doing pvp.)

There are also randomly teamed pvp styles and pve missions meant to simulate possible pvp situations (against builds that were effective 3+ years ago) where you can easily try out a new skill set or a new profession.

So just starting with a ritualist or dervish (rit is probably the most versatile profession in the game, but a dervish matches your description of a melee character with the occasional spell much better), and then trying out different professions as they interest you (you get some kind of idea of their gameplay by just seeing others play them) or if you want to try something you can't do well with your current one.