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[BuriBuriZaemon]

If I want to play as long range fire support, fragile but massive damage, is the Elementalist good?

[dennislp3]

From what I have seen thats exactly what you want to be. That or a staff based necro. Thats what I am and its good long ranged damage.

[Bluerobin]

Yeah, it's interesting, you can kind of guess what a certain profession/weapon combo is going to do once you learn the flavors of each. Staff tends to be long range AoE, Scepter/Focus is medium range with some utility, daggers are short range and tend to have some active survivability-based abilities, shields have shield skills, swords are actually surprisingly mobile and... that's basically the extent of my weapon knowledge. Elementalist abilities typically heavily prioritize damage with control and support tied at second/third, necromancers are I think more balanced with damage being a slight priority and control being a bit more than support, while mesmers are best at damage and control with support being pretty low priority.

So yeah, Elementalist with a staff ends up basically being elemental artillery with a few control and support abilities in air/earth/water stances. Keep in mind, though, that you'll have the ability to switch to a second weapon set regardless of how you end up playing, so take a look at the other options you have (although scepter/focus is likely to be your secondary setup).

[hachnslay]

So yeah, Elementalist with a staff ends up basically being elemental artillery with a few control and support abilities in air/earth/water stances. Keep in mind, though, that you'll have the ability to switch to a second weapon set regardless of how you end up playing, so take a look at the other options you have (although scepter/focus is likely to be your secondary setup).

... you want your second weapon set to be dagger focus. This is what i was running around with.

[The Fool]

For a guild name, what about The Dwarves of Steamspur Bay? I have no idea what limits there are on guild name length, but I like it.

I feel that we should try to include Steamspur Bay in the name since it's an actual place in-game, but that might just be me.

[tootboot]

Boatmurdered was a SA thing though, wasn't it...? Would you really want to tempt the ire of the goons?

Speaking as a longtime SA member I doubt anyone would care, and for the most part these days SA is just a popular discussion forum and not a giant fist waiting to come down on you like it was a decade ago

[BuriBuriZaemon]

For a guild name, what about The Dwarves of Steamspur Bay? I have no idea what limits there are on guild name length, but I like it.

I feel that we should try to include Steamspur Bay in the name since it's an actual place in-game, but that might just be me.

Personally, I'd rather avoid the word dwarf in the guild name because it's too explicit.

[The Fool]

The Bay of the Twelve?
The Steamspur Armada?
Blood of the Bay?
Armok's Pride?

I'll just keep throwing out suggestions until people start to agree on what to call it. It would be nice to figure this out before I leave on a week long camping trip, but I'm sure it'll be figured out before the 3-day head start.

[BuriBuriZaemon]

Slaves to Armok. :p

[hachnslay]

Slaves to Armok. :p

Legion of Urist
or --- Urist's Daggers - just for the punnieness

[Sirian]

I'm considering playing this when it comes out, but i have no idea what i'm getting into. I've never played GW1 and i have only vaguely heard about a couple features of GW2.

Looking at the races, i'm really not sure what i want to play. Asuras are cool on the paper but i'm really not sure i want to play a little furry creature. Humans are kinda boring as always. I don't think i want to play a vegetable. Then there's the tall human-like with tatoos, which i would probably play as a guardian but I played tanks so often that i want to try other things now. There's the animal race, no thanks, i have more class than that. And i think that's it. Well... i guess i'll have to wait until i can create a character to really make my choice...

Classes seem fairly usual, but again, i don't know if i want to play an elementalist, a necromancer or an engineer. Choices !

Basically what i wonder about is, if i play, say, an elementalist, would i deal considerably more damage than, say, a guardian ? By considerably, i mean, not just 50% more damage, i want to feel really more powerful for the tradeoff of way less durability, is that possible ? Otherwise, i might as well play a tank class, i may not deal quite as much damage but at least i'll be able to survive tough encounters...

[Greiger]

One of the interesting things about guild wars 2 is that the classes aren't really specialized as classes.  All classes can be played for damage output, support, or control (which is GW2's different versions of DPS/Healer/Tank respectively) and they work a bit differently and players can usually change roles on the fly in combat when needed.

The combination of weapons you choose and your class more affect your ability at a certain task then class alone.  I haven't played elementalist myself but I hear a fire attuned elementalist with a 2 handed staff can output a lot of damage, but really all classes can output comparable damage to eachother with the right weapons.

If it helps explain it better I played a warrior for most of the betas so far.  A warrior with a greatsword can inflict crazy damage in melee, but a warrior with a maul plays almost completely differently being far closer to GW2's analog for a tank, keeping enemies under control with knockdowns and stuns.  And a warrior gets a lot of support style moves as well in their utility slots, with all kinds of buff shouts and placeable buffing battle standards standards and  'I will avenge you' which will rez all nearby allies if the warrior scores a kill within a few seconds of using it, making a warrior effective in a supporting role as well.

So no class is significantly better or worse than others in a particular role, they just do their role in different ways.  You could be a control thief, or a support warrior, or a damage guardian, and preform reasonably well.

[Bluerobin]

It definitely is much easier to play a damage-based Elementalist or a support/control Guardian based on my experience, but yeah it's possible to play whatever profession in whatever role as far as I know. But yeah, you assign trait points as you level up and even within a profession the difference between a damage-based build and a survivability/support/control build is very noticeable.

[Greiger]

Yea I will admit that that support warrior example can be a bit tricky at times.  "Hey where are you going with my banners?" the most obvious one.  I swear, those things are just magnets for....for...whatever the hell possesses people to beat the crap out of mobs with banners.  At least they don't grab them and use them to run away I guess, like what happened all the time in BWE1, and more or less keep the buff nearby...

...Just because it has a picture of a sword on it does not make it a good weapon.

[SeaBee]

The first time I put down a banner as a warrior, a ranger sprinted from the very limit of visible range as if my banner was the most powerful item in the game, picked it up, and proceeded to hit every button he had available while jumping in triumphant circles.

Unfortunately, he got bored after 10 seconds of this, choosing instead to streak away to the distant horizon. For some reason, he had removed most of his clothing for this.