I have 3 toons at level 80, my first to get there was my first toon a warrior. Coming from trinity based games, it was a very hard road to unlearn years of playing tanks with my warrior. Since most warrior damage is melee, it has to be one of the most dependent on the patented GW2 twitch style combat, that is still not my cup of tea, so I toughed it out and got him to 80, grinded his exotics and a few choice dungeon skins, and even grabbed a handful of FOTM levels. Now that it is 'done' I am not motivated to take it any further. I don't buy into the whole 'legendary' RND scam, so end of story for my warrior.
I tried a thief, and got it to around level 30 at which point I decided it was too much of the same kind of twitch combat dependent that I scrubbed it. I did an Engineer that is sitting at lvl 28, that due to having machine pets/tanks etc in the form of turrets etc. is fun to play when the mood strikes me, but I still find it tedious to level because skills do not outweigh squishyness from my take on this class.
I was totally surprised by my Mesmer. Once I got a handle on using illusions as a sort of endless supply of diversionary cannon fodder, it was sitting at 80 before I knew it. It turned out to be very effective in dungeons and I was always glad to see a Mesmer as a team mate in any dungeon run. In fact I remember Mesmers saving my toon more often than any other class in dungeons.
My only regret is that mesmers are still a bit too squishy to my tastes.
Next to reach 80 was my Elementalist, queen of complexity, and more combo permutations than a normal person can memorize. If you like to juggle, this is the class for you. Way too squishy, and hopeless in areas too tight to kite in. If you gotta nuke, its the best ride in town for that, but any class where "Run away, run away" is a frequent survival tactic is not my favorite.
I am working on a Guardian at the moment, and wish I would have picked one as my first. With all the defensive spells and group buffs, it plays head and shoulders above any other class in terms of survivability and effectively supporting team mates. So why did I leave Guardian to almost last to try? For some strange twist of fate, in all my dungeon runs, very few included Guardians.
The preview videos from Anet just looked too good to be true. It appeared to be counter to all that manifesto baloney about killing the trinity etc. so thought it would be just as ineffective as all the other classes in terms of support and defense. It is the only class I have tried so far that has significant amounts of defensive power.
Glad I did roll one and find out it is just the opposite. If I had rolled one first I might have enjoyed my first character a great deal more.
Which makes me think of a suggestion. As it is now, the pvp Mists is way too tedious too try out new classes and builds from scratch. If there were some pre-built build templates one could try people could try classes before rolling them. If there were such a feature, I would have tried each class and would have learned Guardian is my preferred class.
Edited by beadnbutter32, 08 January 2013 - 01:14 PM.
3
Blixcoe, on 07 January 2013 - 07:28 PM, said:
Engineer, Thief, Ranger and Ele are imo incredibly dull, but Mesmer is by far the most entertaining profession of them all followed by Necro. But just because they're not my mains doesn't mean I don't play these. It just means that if I'm required to do my best I bring my kitty. That's it. 
