What class to play - newish players.

My bf and I have gotten into GW recently (mostly for HoM points). He's having a lot of trouble picking a class to play. Honestly, we just want this to be as painless as possible. He wants to play a class that will engage him but isn't super demanding, that the heroes dont play better, and whose skills won't overlap/ruin any skills heroes might be using.
I'm currently planning to play an ele, and we've looked at builds on PvX, but we just need a clear answer on what class is best for him to play in this situation. He's an altaholic, so it's quite difficult for him to choose just one to stick with.

Any help is greatly appreciated!!
-Doom

Paragon is good and simple, my GWAMM is a paragon and that is the toon i got my HoM to 50/50 on (get the imbagon build from pvx wiki and roflstomp PvE).

Necromancer has more capabilities, same with Monk (although monk is either boring or overly stressful depending on situation). Ritualist and Mesmer also have high end potential, but Mesmer has a steeper learning curve.

if just getting into the game, i'd suggest Ritualist or Necromancer, unless you guys want to dual ele... ele has good potential in both early and late game areas (my wife's main is ele).

melee classes (war, assassin, dervish) can be fun, but have a bit of a learning curve and might not fit with someone who doesn't have a bit of dedication to learning how to play them.

Hope this helps

i Would choose necromancer or elementalist, both easy to play and are good in all situations

if he likes to smash things then I would suggest warrior. If he likes to heal--then monk....
Ritualist is a good one as well and doesnt take much time to get the hang of.
Necromancers are one of my favorite (as long as you dont do minions which can get a bit boring), curses is a fun line to play with.
Personally I would stay away from mesmers--they are trickier to work with and you really dont see the damage they do, assassins are hard for some to get a handle on--so I would stay away from them as well. (dervishes can also be a little much for beginners as well).
As for rangers and paragons--they are just...boring to play (though I do like to take my pets out and let them beat up on things).

Since you are already playing an ele I would suggest necro (as pleiiki says), warrior--easy to get the hang of and you get to smash things up close and personal, or ritualist (my favorite class).

he wants to be the damage dealer?
let him make a warrior and a paragon

warrior's strength attribute makes (melee-only?) attack skills stronger, and can use adrenaline and energy cost attack skills
do axe mastery, then he has shield and his weapon is stronger and axe has more dmg skills, sword has more conditions and such

paragon is weaker, but easier to use, as its ranged, but not like casters are, which is at the back, paragons with spears are more in between melee and caster range
the skills arent that hard to use (some echo skills require you to use or end chants or shouts), and spear mastery is easier

ritualist is easier to use, but caster range, dont know if he wants to attack more or use spells more, but spirits and dmg skills work great on rits

in case of warrior and paragon, watch out for energy cost skills, you may lose too much energy, as they have the least energy regeneration

and read about skills and such here:
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Main_Page

have fun, nice to see more people in GW

as necro he can be minion master, and if he aggroes the enemies (make them attack you) while he has minions, they start attacking the enemies, and take the damage you'd get otherwise

small offtopic fun thing i try is, i will walk from ascalon through the first part in GW (also known as prophecies) with heroes who interrupt, protect and heal the team, with me as only damage dealer... just for fun :P

have fun and i hope both of you will learn about the game well

also, if you both are used to the game, try assassin and dervish, they are a little harder, but can do much more at one point than warriors can (especially dervish)
complicated, but you'll see by then

oh yeah, dont forget using secondary professions.... just watch out with overcast and energy skills, energy runs out quick on warriors, and overcast is a real bad thing on them

good luck and have fun, dont bother asking help here

Given he's an altaholic the number one priority for me would be flexibility - greater build variety should help ensure progress doesn't get too sidetracked with other characters. As such, I'd go for either Elementalist, Necromancer or Ranger. In addition to a lot of inbuilt flexibility (it comes with being a midline profession) their primary attribute allows them to adopt playstyles of other professions when desired. For example, the only weapon native to the Ranger is the bow, but with good armor and the Expertise attribute lowering energy costs of many skills, they can use any weapon well. Not as well as the profession that uses them natively, but well enough to be a solid contributor (i.e, not a gimmick). Ritualists have a lot of flexibility too (both literally and metaphorically). Role comes into play too, of course. If he'd rather not be a midliner, Monk would be the best bet for backlining and Warrior would be the easiest to pick up for frontlining.

I wouldn't advise using PvX as a guide on what to run. It only lists what it considers to be top tier builds. There are a ton of build options that aren't listed there. For example, it'll lead you to believe that Rits are only good for spirit spamming when they're capable of so much more. Experimenting with skills is part of the fun and will make you better players in the long run.

Also consider which campaign you intend to start in. Assassins and Ritualists can only be created in Factions and Paragons and Dervishes can only be created in Nightfall. The other six are core professions which can be created in any campaign. If you want to start with the original campaign (which has the easiest learning curve and is imo easily the best place to start for beginners) then you won't have access to those four professions.

Thanks for all the responses guys!
We have a different problem now. He's started playing necro and really enjoys it...but I started a paragon to try it out and now i'm not sure what I want to play. I really enjoyed my ele, but I heard that ele isn't as useful in HM because its damage gets nerfed to hell with the higher Elemental dmg resist that comes with HM. Is this old info/is it ok to play ele still?

Edit: We've also heard a lot of people saying how hard HM is, and that certain classes can't do it easily if at all...we just want this to be as painless as possible. Don't want to run out into an explorable area, die, have to port to get rid of the death penalty, run back out, die to the first set of mobs again....rinse repeat.

That info is outdated. Unless they have a specific reason not to be, the armor levels of foes follow the same patterns as players, even in hard mode. In any case, I'd advise playing what you're interested in rather than what someone tells you is good. You won't make much progress if you don't feel like playing.

Whereabout should we get our builds and such? We both need to have a build to go for, before we just start making up our own. >.<

Edit: problem with choosing a class based on what we like is....1) we don't have all the skills for all the professions, so its hard to tell if we'll like it endgame, 2) we really do end up liking EVERY class in almost every MMO we play.

what i'd do is, make your own builds on your chars, and use strong ones on heroes, be it offensive or mostly defensive (in case you want to be the one doing most dmg)

but since you're new, first try to get used to the game

and nice that he's enjoying it

skills in GW can be bought with ingame money, and you dont need to be any level, unlike most MMOs

i dont do hard stuff much, but i do say its fun having at least all classes once

i know you start with 8 character slots, but there may be a way to buy more if you can and want

store.guildwars.com

can also buy extra stuff like costumes and unlock packs (skill unlock packs may be good for heroes, as they use unlocked skills only)

have fun there

also, for player made builds
http://gwpvx.gamepedia.com/PvX_wiki

i make own builds, but sometimes try to get ideas there

EDIT:
use this site for other builds
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/campfire-f17.html

Making up your own builds is the point. They're not some kind of abstract scientific process requiring very specific elements to function that is impossible for newbies to comprehend. Use the thing between your ears to look at what you have available and use them as well as you can. Tweak as needed. There are three reasons why I discourage new players from studying PvX:

-Firstly and secondly, as I mentioned earlier, it can narrow the minds of readers and stunts development as a player.
-Thirdly, it disregards accessibility. As a new player you'll be working with the skills you have, but PvX assumes you have access to everything.

Also, I would avoid overemphasizing the build. How well you use it and other non-skill related things (such as managing aggro) are just as important. One of the tenets of GW is that a good player with a bad build ought to be better that a bad player with a good one. Perhaps not so true nowadays with the ridiculous amount of power creep that has occurred, but still very valid.

If you feel you need guidance at any point, posting what you're running and why would allow us to help you. You can also browse through the stickies in the profession forums which may have starter builds in them.

I'd say Ele is way better than a Paragon. The Paragon is the most underpowered profession in the game. Also the LEAST popular as in less played of any profession I've ever seen in the game and for good reason. Only people playing a long time seem to be able to play it well and then there is only one main build.

Ele and Rit are the best casters I believe with Ele being more flexible and being able to run a Rit line as well due to it's large energy pool. I think Ele is the first choice for beginning casters and my main character is still an ele after 6 years playing. They can use all 4 elements, run a great healing build when needed as well as a great SOS line (Rit staple). You never get bored with an Ele and they deal out tons more damage than a Paragon.

As for Ele in hard mode? They rock. As I say my lead character is an Ele. I use a ritulist build a lot with him in HM as well as the standard Ele stuff. They are not in any way shape or form under powered in HM. Never understood that old wives' tale. They rock anywhere at any time in any mode.

If you want to use a Paragon later in the game make it then but Paragon is the worst in my book. A terrible profession concept that bores me to tears. You just shout a lot basically and never have any fun playing that under powered profession. I have a Paragon just to complete the collection of professions but I'm totally bored with mine and play it the least.

If your bf likes Necro that is okay too but dead minions get pretty boring pretty quickly since they move so slowly and usually arrive at the battle after it is over. And three early heroes you can get are necros as well. You can run a rit line with a necro as well though.

Warrior is the easiest to play probably since it is melee and it is all whack and chop and non stop action. Assassin is somewhat similar but not as many options for skills in some ways. The skill bar tends to be more regimented but the Sin does have nice graphics hopping all over the place and is good for one on one damage.

You can get consumables to help take away death penalty too. That's getting ahead of things but don't think you have to sit there with a -30 DP on you or something forever. Too early to be able to afford buying them and such right now but the death penalty isn't that big a deal as you move forward in the game and get you sea legs more.

I envy you two just starting out in GW. Have fun first last and foremost.

the ele and HM issue is for destroyers which are found in eye of the north. Destroyers are immune to burning so using fire on them is not very effective---there are 3 other elements to play so no worries there (I like to use air or earth).

As for builds, the fun part of the game is playing new skills and learning which ones work where (and which ones dont work). For the most part you can play whatever you want (until you get to the end game elite areas) and have a great time doing it with whatever build you decide to use ....the key here is to have fun not to worry 'oh should I be using xyz skill here instead of abc'? THAT you will learn thru playing. If you are just playing together with heroes/henchmen you shouldnt be worrying about that.

and as for liking every class--for your alt-a-holic that will be great, and you will get to unlock a LOT of skills and learn how the classes work (also how the enemies work). I enjoy most of the classes and have multiples of many (ele, necro, rit, monk, mesmer), and sometimes it just fun to smash the &%#@ out of things so I take my warrior out, etc. So make up your own builds its part of the game! (and look forward to hours and hours of fun doing it).

I should have added the best thing to do is for you guys to join a guild right away. Ask around for one friendly to beginners and people there can help show you the ropes, work with you when you get stuck etc.

Kamadan in Nightfall is the most populated area so you could start a character there just for the purpose of finding a guild then delete after if you don't want to do Nightfall right away. You get to Kamadan right after a brief tutoruial mission so in 10 minutes you are there.

Also pre-Ascalon and Embark Beach are good places to look. Just the other day someone was advertising at Embark Beach a teaching guild that was friendly for beginners. (All of these are in the American Dist which has become the default district for finding population still in the game).

And if you join a guild and it isn't working for you just leave and find another. Nothing wrong with guild hopping a bit.

That and meeting people in game and adding them to your friends list ("N" shortcut key). That's like a virtual guild as it is. You can shoot someone a question right in the middle of a mission if you get stuck and they can give you tips.

Again good luck. With no monthly fees you can play this game as often or as little as you like. Intensely or go away for a year and come back. Doesn't matter. No rush here. Just keep it fun.

Many people have come back to GW who went off to GW2 since they like the game construct of the original way better. And new guys show up. Meanwhile some people have been playing this game for over 10 years. You never run out of things to do here. After the campaigns get completed there are tons of titles to earn, new professions to explore etc. Best bang for your buck of any game I ever bought. So welcome aboard a game that can last for years.

"I discourage new players from studying PvX"
even i, who plays for more than 10 years since september last year, still wont use pvx

i did say i use pvx to get ideas, but i forgot to mention i barely get a good feeling about what could be good in my case
some builds look good, but not to my liking, or just different from what i want

if i want to have enemies their skills interrupted, i need more interrupt, nothing like on pvx... unless i use 4 panic mesmer and change some skills
but then i wouldnt need pvx for that

i also watch these forums sometimes i get an idea for heroes in some areas cases... but not quite what i'm looking for

on my main i use a variation of zway, which was made by (forgot name, sry :P ), but on the rest, i kinda play more than do serious stuff, so on melee chars i use more stuff which protect me and what may assist me, and on casters, i use the same old teambuild i used a long time now

even though i use other's builds on my heroes sometimes (in my main's case) i dont use builds made by others for my own character, as i can only use builds which i made myself, well (unless its Signet of Spirits, as my main is rit, and the variation of zway i use, has no offensive spirits)

anyway, what i'm saying is, other's builds never have exactly what i want, so i try some of the skills myself, and see whats best for me, and replace them with others, to see what i can use best for my own use

so i agree its bad to use pvx as starter, but i also say you 2 should try and find builds from many different people, to see what skills you find the best for yourselves

just find some inspiration (not the mesmer attribute, haha... wordjoke) from others, and make your own.... but do that after you figured out waht skills do and dont work at which enemies

at the moment i'm kinda not much in the mood to try new stuff, but i am planning on making own builds from scratch again with my characters, and start over completely with making hero builds,a nd see what works best with my own character

ps. i only gave the pvx site to answer the question "where can we find builds", and maybe it helps getting inspiration of what you like to use, what skills, so you can learn more about them and how they work with certain other skills

anyway, i gotta afk, i hope to see news from you on how the game is for you, soon
enjoy