Guild Wars 2 PvP: Warrior, Necromancer OR Elementalist?

[Gorani]

.. but I still don't know how a dagger ele will be able to compete with other professions that are using ranged skills, as far as ranged attacks go. Hmm, probably the utility skills eh? I guess that's ok if you load up on damage for your utility, but I got the sense most of them would either be more support, or have long recharges so with daggers you'd still spend most of the time in the frontline. Which is fine, because you can use other weapons in pvp if you don't want to have to run up to everything, but that limits your options to two mainhands, which could be a limiting factor for some.

All example skills from dual wielding daggers:

Getting into range? Burning Speed, Ride the Lightning or Magnetic Grasp both get you close to your foe. They either have 12 or 15 sec recharge which is OK.
Getting out of range? There is always Lightning Flash (utility), which teleports you anywhere you ground target, but you can use your spells to chill and cripple your enemies too, making it difficult for them to follow you (Frozen Burst, Armor of Frost, Churning Earth, Earthquake, Updraft) If you equip the Signets of Air & Water (utility) you have an additional chill (active Water) and a 10% speed boost from the passive air signet. Should (unknown to me) the trait Windborn Dagger stack with the signet's passive effect, your permanent speed boost will be 25% (trait adds 15% speed boost), which should allow you to kite almost everything.

[kokabel]

I haven't followed Necromancer much, because I don't think I will be interested in it at first (will move onto it later in the game for sure).

I'm probably going to be focusing on Elementalist. The sheer amount of skills available, plus the support one can offer to the team with those four attunements is going to be invaluable, assuming the Ele is wise enough to know what to do with itself. I think it will be a tough class to learn and play well, but it will be amazing in a team that understands how to work together and how take advantage of each other's strengths. It's going to require a lot of field awareness and movement - especially when playing close range, you'd probably end up wanting to use your dodge and rolls defensively quite a lot.

Warrior looks pretty fun, but I guess it will play very differently to the elementalist. You're probably looking at taking a melee weapon set and a ranged weapon set so you can maximise damage output even when getting shut down by foes, but to me Warrior feels to be all about getting in people's faces and making them hurt. Your team mates will be most likely watching you so they can place their combos (you will be expected to pick the place to be at the right time), and there will be more of a role of controlling enemy movement, rather than keeping tabs on where your team is moving to as the Elementalist might. However, you will be relying on your team to keep you mobile and effective, so you're going to want to help them out if they get into major trouble with the enemy.

Honestly, your best bet is wait until you have the game, give both a whirl in 5v5, and then decide depending on how it feels. Even with all the great info out there, it's tough to judge how much you personally will enjoy a certain class until you've got your mitts on it yourself.

[Simply Kedde]

Don't pigeonhole yourself into a predetermined choice based on no data at all. That's just dumb. Try everything out when you finally get the chance to do so, pick a favorite or if you're into experimenting and trying to define metagames then pick whatever is going to be the best at the needed role. Confining yourself to a single choice based on nothing but arbitrary rules put up by noone but yourself will get you nowhere.

[Alaris]

Also, keep in mind other classes like ranger (who has many melee weapons) or guardian (see above). The professions in GW2 are not nearly as stereotypical as the classes in standard MMOs. The professions are meant to be versatile.

[Akirai Annuvil]

Just a small correction: daggers aren't melee based, they're mid range. Scepter is melee range, staff is long range.

[djacob]

Just a small correction: daggers aren't melee based, they're mid range. Scepter is melee range, staff is long range.

Doh, thanks, I should have double checked that. I thought for sure that I saw daggers having a very short range during videos.

[Alaris]

I guess it also depends on the profession. Axes are melee usually but they are ranged on rangers. I am not a big fan of daggers, so I can't really tell...

[Gorani]

Doh, thanks, I should have double checked that. I thought for sure that I saw daggers having a very short range during videos.

There are only very few skills that are actual "melee/touch range" for the Elementalist. Most of them are what GW1 would call "adjected" or "nearby". Nevertheless a staff will have a greater range of course.

Take a look at the Yogcast video with the human Ele
http://www.youtube.com/v/W2BqYdtmVM0...dded&version=3
They play around with all skills so you can make up your own mind about the actual range

[djacob]

Gorani, I've seen the vids of the weapons, merely got confused which ones were melee and which were medium range. And yeah, I'm calling it melee, because frankly adjacent range is melee range, just because skills don't require an enemy in adjacent range to go off doesn't change it from being melee.

EDIT: Maybe I should watch the vids after I get off work though, as I'm a bit confused. Arc lightning is for the scepter and lightning touch is for daggers. Is everyone sure that daggers are mid ranged and scepter is close, cause that doesn't sound right.

[Alaris]

Again, I think dagger range depends on the profession using it.

I'd think it closer to melee for elementalists and thieves.