When I wrote about my favourite profession in Guild Wars 2, I was looking at the topic from a pure PvE point of view. This entry is about WvW now.
I used to play World of Warcraft on a PvP server and I always hated it. As soon as I got the chance to get away (because I founded a guild with friends on a PvE server and later transferred to join a guild that bookahnerk had been with back in Ultima Online who are also on a PvE server), I left and never looked back.
The ironic part is that I actually love open world PvP. However, and here’s the big caveat: There have to be “safe” zones and going to either (PvE or PvP) zone has to be optional. I want to decide when I want to PvP or PvE! I do not want some random player who passes by to make that decision for me. Especially since that usually meant players that were much higher in level or had much better gear and thus, much better chances than me.
I found out how much I enjoy PvP when I played Warhammer Online. For those who don’t know: The game has 4 tiers, which are basically four level ranges. Each tier had different zones that belonged to the different race pairings. For example, dwarves and greenskins. So there you were, a level 5 player in the dwarf/greenskin T1 area. You could either do your PvE – regular quests or public quests (events) – or hop into the RvR lake which was marked on the map with a brownish border. When you entered the area that was marked as RvR, you got a warning and had a few seconds time to run back in case you did not want to get flagged.
This is what I miss most in my current MMOs. The ease of joining RvR when you wanted to (PvE and PvP was on the same map in each zone) and do PvE if you wanted to do that. There were clear borders (on the map, at least, not in the world per se). Joining was as easy as setting a foot into the area.
All this long-winded history of my gaming habits is just here to explain what I love about “world PvP”. For some reason, Guild Wars 2’s WvW hasn’t sticked with me yet. I’ve been in there a couple of times (almost literally) and I enjoyed my time there, but it seems to be so distant from the rest of the game that I find it hard to get in there, but yesterday, ArenaNet talked about the upcoming WvW area Edge of the Mists, and it makes me want to get into WvW!
The problem here is: As much as I love melee and swords in PvE, I do not like playing melee in PvP. So, the warrior is basically out. I did think about taking my mesmer there, but I really dislike that she’s so slow… or I’d have to get builds that make use of the focus which is a reliable way of getting some swiftness. On the other hand: Maybe this weapon IS the perfect one to use in WvW?
All I know is that I want something tricky to play. The warrior is too straight-forward. I absolutely loved playing a frost mage in World of Warcraft’s Burning Crusade. That mage was about controlling, freezing, slowing, the enemies. Making sure they can’t hit you. Something like that would be great. And this is why I’m rambling about this topic. Maybe some of our readers can help me here. Which profession would resemble such a playstyle in Guild Wars 2? Maybe the engineer? Anything tricky that isn’t melee… it’s okay if it’s not easy to play. I get used to it… I hope. ;)
Nerdy Bookahs 
I found your post really interesting and thought I’d share some ideas!
I’m pretty much the same when it comes to pvp, I don’t like melee. It doesn’t work for me as an option against other people, so whenever I’ve been into world versus world its been on a ranged class/build. I play world versus world every so often, I’m no hardcore build master, but hopefully I can help you out a little!
I’ve tried Elementalist, Ranger and Necromancer in world versus world. I think elementalist might be the closest to the Frost Mage that you’ll be able to find in GW2. The elementalist is a fairly decent class in world versus world – although you will likely run in to other people who want to tell you how to play your own character. That seems to happen the most with Elementalists, I’m not sure why.
On the whole though I’ve always enjoyed Necromancer the most, running on a very condition focused build. The class gives you a lot of condition control, and in a round about way some crowd control. Epidemic is an especially awesome skill, fire it off and suddenly a whole zerg can have a plague of >20 conditions. So much fun! You can chill with a necro, but other than that it won’t immobilise or cripple your enemies though unfortunately.
Try out the Necro and the Elementalist and see which one you like the most, the staff is probably the weapon you’ll be needing most on both. Ranger might be for you, but it doesn’t translate well in to world versus world if you’re running as a non-melee build like I do.
Hope that helps!
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Thank you! I’m never sure about the elementalist. I like it, but there’s a lot of skills to remember in the heat of a fight… especially when you want to consider the cooldowns, etc. Hmm… I’ll have a look at the necromancer again.
My ranger is the only level 80 out of those three, but I found her a bit boring, to be honest. Fun, but boring. I’m not sure that’d be different in WvW… it could be.
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I like the Elementalist and find it really fun to play, especially dagger/dagger builds, but I find it awkward it world versus world. There’s lots to remember in a fight, like you say, but I also feel like I’m doing as much damage/causing as much chaos as I could on another class. Elementalist just feels a bit lackluster in world versus world for me personally, as fun as I find it.
Necromancer I would really recommend, its great fun. With the amount of tagging you can get on groups with the staff and epidemic, you’ll level one up in no time in world versus world as well which is a nice bonus. Scepter and Dagger would be ideal to match with the staff.
My ranger is my main, and was one of my first level 80s. He’s probably one of my favourites too, and I always use him as my go-to character for pve. My blog is even named in his honour! All that considered I just can’t stand him in world versus world for some reason! I’ve tried, I really want him to be good there, but something about the ranger just doesn’t gel in that mode.
So I guess try the Necromancer out first then, that might work for you. I had to give it a couple of tries, but once it clicked it became an instant favourite. Let us know how it goes!
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I love the name “Digital Salad”. ^^
I’ve had a lot of fun leveling my sylvari ranger, but once she hit 80 (and I stopped using her as my muse for a column on GuildMag), I lost interest in her. Maybe she’d be more fun in WvW.
I’ll have to play my necromancer a bit more before I can make a decision. She’s only level 21, but got boosted to 20 from level 9 or so, so I really don’t know much about how to play her yet. ;)
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