Blackace

well for class specific forums the VN boards has those, but they are kind of...wild.

As for whats popular, whats good and what sucks? Check the campfire forum for alot of information on that

Sausaletus Rex

We've made a conscious decision here not to have class specific forums. They sound like a nice idea, sure, but in past experiences they seem to just devolve into nothing more than one giant echo chamber where a few diehards talk to each other. I think we get much more benefit out of getting everyone talking together than we do from creating such ghettos. It's important to remember that professions and, by extension the 36 different classes you can make from them, are extremely flexible in Guild Wars. You're not locked into one role or way of doing things even within your profession and it's incredibly easy to complete reroll a new charcter and we've even been assured (although I haven't seen it yet so I can't really say how it works out) that we'll be able to switch at least part of our professions without losing our character or our progress. Elementalists can become Warriors, Warriors can become Rangers, Rangers can become Mesmers, and everything in between. And, at the same time we'll all be dealing with each other, too, so "knowing your enemy" so to speak is a good thing so familiarizing yourself with the tactics and strategies of those characters you'll be teaming with and against will benefit everyone.

We want our boards as streamlined as free of clutter as possible so that we can have meaningful discussions about things here. We've added forums as we've grown, sure, but I wouldn't expect to see profession specific boards any time soon.

As for what's uber and what not, it's hard to say. There are certainly profession combinations that see far less play and others that are more popular but I hold to the idea that no combination is inherently bad or good it's just that some are more easy than others to do well with. I'd scratch my head if you told me I had to play an Elementalist/Warrior, for example, but with the right plan and the right team and the right circumstances that might just be the best combination to have. It's a matter of how common those circumstances are and how simple such plans would be to come up with. But each profession has something it excels at (Yes, even Necromancers. I wouldn't be caught dead in a primary Necromancer in PvP but in PvE a minion/Death Necro can be juggernaut of flailing mounds of decaying flesh that can climb through nearly anything. The trick is to get the ball rolling to start with.), often several things, and each profession adds something, if only a key skill or two, to any other profession. And, as I said, it's easy to experiment because it's a simple matter to pick yourself up and try again.

As for what you should avoid, it sounds like you're interested in doing damage. Elementalist/Mesmer is a bit of a cliche but it's a cliche because it works. Expensive, powerful damage coupled with deblilitating debuffing or energy management can go pretty far. Elementalists aren't so hot in terms of DPS, though, they're best at spike damage - delivering high packets of damage in a short time frame - rather than sustaining it. A good Warrior or Ranger will run rings around an Elementalist in terms of sustained damage which is what I generally associate with DPS. An Elementalist is the one best able to deliver thta one, strong hit if you need it, though. They just tend to have a lot of time spent casting or recharging that sinks their total damage output. It can work quite well depending on what route you're taking and whether you're talking about PvE or PvP or Tombs or Arena or running missions or trying to solo or whatever else. One thing you might consider is Elementalist/Ranger which is a bit rarer than an Ele/Mes. Something like an Earth/Wilderness setup using the Ranger's ability to cut cooldowns and some of their powerful ritual spells to enhance your casting is soemthing I'm pretty keen on. Might not be for you, though, so just play around and see what you like.

Really, as long as you stay away from something like a Necro/Mesmer full of random hate with nothing to back it up or a Warrior/Ranger trying to use those non-Expertise influenced bow attacks, you should be fine. Even those combinations can work, you just need to be a bit smarter about how you set things up.

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In my day, we didn't have virtual reality. If a one-eyed razorback barbarian warrior was chasing you with an ax, you just had to hope you could outrun him.