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Wondering what profession you should play? Read this article. |
While there are only 6 professions to choose from in Guildwars, the choice is more confusing and complicated than it looks, and not to mention vital to how you will perform on the battlefield! We hope this guide helps you better understand the profession system.
Professions: Which one suits you best?
Most mmorpg players recognize what a class is; in Guildwars the classes are called Professions. There are 6 professions to choose from: Elementalist, Mesmer, Monk, Necromancer, Ranger, and Warrior. Most of the professions are self explanatory as to what roll they will play on the battlefield, but we will explore what each profession is capable of in this guide.
Traditionally, classes are defined by the skills they use and the skill set they have is limited. Wizards have combat spells, where as Clerics usually are confined to just healing. This is not the case in Guildwars. Each class has a set of 75 "skills" that they can choose from, of which they can bring 8 into battle. When you first begin your character you begin with only the most basic of skills, but as you progress in levels and explore the world, you will acquire more and more skills. This makes you character more powerful and gives him more variance in the role he will play in the battlefield. However, there are things that you can expect from the various professions you play and encounter:
- Elementalists are traditional spell casters. They have access to a lot of direct damage spells and area of effect damage spells. If you prefer staying behind the main lines and blasting away at the enemy, Elementalists will fit your play style.
-Mesmers are a unique profession to Guildwars. The profession is a spell casting class like Elementalist, but prefers spells that alter the state of their enemies. They have spells to counter spell casters by preventing them from casting spells for a set amount of time. Any other profession that you will encounter in the game, the Mesmer has a spell that will reduce their effectiveness. If you prefer staying behind the battle and diminishing the effectiveness of the enemies key classes, you will love to play an Elementalist.
-Monks are the traditional mmorpgs Clerics. Being support casters, they utilize healing spells as well as buffs for party members. They also have access to resurrection spells. However, Monks also have access to various damage spells, and while they will never match the damage effectiveness of an elementalist, they can still contribute to the battlefield. If you enjoy ensuring the existence of your party as well as dealing backup damage, you should try this profession.
-Necromancers fit in with the typical stereotype they have. Necromancers in Guildwars are masters of the undead, wielding the ability to exploit corpses on the battlefield to raise undead minions to serve them. They also have access to a wide variety of hexes that debuff enemies, reducing their battlefield effectiveness, and causing damage. If you like the idea of approaching the battlefield with a host of undead minions, this is the profession you should try.
-Rangers are masters of the wilderness. Rangers primarily attack from a distance using a variety of skills that pertain to the use of a bow. They are also masters of their environment with the ability to perform rituals that globally affect the battlefield, effecting both friend and foe alike. They can also tame wild beasts and train them to fight for them on the battlefield. If you like to attack from a distance with your bow and use your pet to shred apart the enemy, you'll love being a ranger.
-Warriors are the masters of close combat. They wield vast knowledge of using every close combat weapon in game, and have a host of skills that they can use with every weapon. To back up their up close and personal style, they have the largest repertoire of defensive skills at their disposal. If you like to be in the enemies face ripping them apart with brutal close quarters combat, you need to be playing a warrior.
To add to the customization of every character, each profession comes with a set of attributes. Attributes add to your character by:
Providing passive benefit to all skills you use. For example the Ranger attributes "Expertise". This attribute decreases the energy cost of any skill you use that has the attack, trap, or preparation description. Furthermore these attributes are not necessarily class specific. Take the above example. Expertise is a ranger attribute, but it also applies to Warrior skills that have the "attack" description, which is basically 50% of their skills.
Attributes can make your skills more effective. An increase in your attributes can make skills last longer, hit harder and overall more effective. The more points in the attribute, the more effective the skills affected by the attribute will become. For example Warriors have an attributed named Axe Mastery. Spending points in this attribute will increase the effectiveness of every skill that uses the attribute. You can tell if a skill uses a certain attribute by looking at its description.
Some attributes effects are both passive and direct. Take for example the warrior attribute Strength. This attribute is linked directly to some skills the warrior uses. Strength also has a passive benefit by adding an armor penetration value for every attack skill you use. Each rank in strength adds a 2% armor penetration value to the attack.
In a later article I will highlight every attribute and describe what they do. In this article I wanted to touch on the idea of Primary Attributes. Each class has a primary attribute that it has access to. You can only gain access to that attribute if the class is picked as your Primary class. That is the class that you pick first. For example, Warrior/Elementalist, Warrior is the primary class. Furthermore primary classes determine what type of armor you can wear. You are only allowed to wear the armor of your primary class that is if you are a Warrior/Elementalist you can only wear warrior armor. Why is this important? Each armor set has advantages and disadvantages. For example, Warrior armor has excellent armor rating and bonus's to resistances but has absolutely no bonus to energy or energy regeneration. So if you plan on playing your Warrior/Elementalist like a caster, your armor isn't going to be benefiting your play style. You will gain bonuses to your armor rating and resistances, but will receive no bonus to your energy or energy regeneration, which is primarily what a caster uses.
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Furthermore your primary attribute gives you access to various items you'll acquire during your adventures, namely runes. Runes are objects you add to armor to increase their stats or increase the users attributes.
So, what's the big deal about armor not fitting your play style? Here's what makes Guildwars so dynamic. Say you want to play a pure ranger and are interested in doing nothing but sitting away from the battlefield and plucking away at enemies using your bows. Naturally you would pick Ranger as your primary class. However, rangers have access to mid level armor, yet you would like to be wearing the best armor in the game, just incase the battle doesn’t go as planned and you have to absorb some punishment. Then, it would be beneficial to select Warrior/Ranger. The reason being you trade off the use of Expertise (being the ranger primary attribute) for the warriors ability to use the highest level armor in the game. However, just like a primary profession ranger build, you can invest all your time acquiring ranger skills and bring 8 of those skills into battle with you.
Guildwars is a dynamic game with the ability to create a virtually limitless array of characters to bring to the battlefield. Having knowledge of how attributes affect your character, and how each profession behaves on the battlefield is essential to be an effective warrior. If you are curious about what skills professions have at their disposal, feel free to check out our complete skills database. Feel free to build your own templates by using our easy to use character generator, which you can access on the main page.
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