For an elementalist, the staff has lots of long-range powers that you’ll use if you’re fighting dangerous foes at a distance, while the smaller scepter has close-range attacks that are usually good for mopping up mooks. You don’t choose your weapon by looking at the pure damage numbers and picking the higher one, you choose your weapon based on what you need to be doing at the moment. The two-handed sword might focus on raw damage output while the sledge might feature knockdowns and knockbacks. This fixes the problem of the overabundance of toolbars and buttons, thus keeping your focus on the middle of the screen where the action is taking place.Ī warrior with a two-handed sword will have one set of abilities, but if they switch to a sledgehammer they will have five different ones, and if they use a sword and shield they will have yet another set. You change these powers by changing the type of weapons you’re holding.

You don’t spend the game acquiring new concurrent abilities until your screen looks like the dashboard of the space shuttle. You get dropped into the world and it should look like this: It’s all about flavor and, possibly, a very mild dash of actual roleplaying through dialog. As of this writing, I’m not aware of any mechanical difference between these. By mid-game all the personal stories generally converge, so what you’re really doing is selecting your starting quests. None of this is a huge deal, so don’t sweat it. Sometimes you’ll get to choose a bit of gear. Some of these are minor or cosmetic, while others will have a significant impact on your personal questline. You have to pick a few bits of information about your character background. Just pick one that sounds good and get on with it. The classes are radically different, but they’re all self-sufficient. Everyone can do burst single-target damage.

While not all classes are equal, they should all be able to deal damage and heal damage to some degree. Just remember that this game does away with the long-standing Holy Trinity. Using starter weapons! Naked! While drunk, both in-game and IRL! It was piss easy! You must really suck.” “You died fighting Murdaar the Murderer, the Legendary Elite Champion Veteran Badass Boss King? Pfft. And for everyone saying class X is too weak, there are a dozen people claiming your’re just playing it wrong. This early in the lifespan of a game, you can find criticisms of every class. That discussion is messy, complicated, and prone to heated debate and chest thumping. I’m not going to cover race or class selection. Or maybe you don’t have the game because you’re a big meanie who hates innovation, but you want to know what sorts of vibrant new ideas you’re boycotting. You’ve heard this game is a little different from other online games, and you’re wondering what you need to know. So you’ve got Guild Wars 2 and you’re ready to get started.

Gw2 frozen out afk