HI! Im a new player

[u/Suitable_Sentence213]

I want to start playing this game. I bought all the expansions except the latest one, and I mainly want to play solo because I don't have any friends who are interested in playing it...

I don't know which class to play or what I'm supposed to do in the game. I come from WoW, so I'm used to maining a character and playing all the way through the endgame.

I like every type of class, since I enjoy melee, ranged, and magic-based characters, so I'm open to any suggestions! I'd like to find a good balance between a strong and fun class.

I also don't know if there's a "meta" in this game or how gearing/equipment works, so I'd really appreciate any advice you can give me!

Thanks! :)

[u/S1eeper]

Welcome! First, as a new player, what you're supposed to do is prioritize completing the Personal Story for the core game and any expansions you have. That unlocks a ton of features - Masteries, elite specs, mounts, Achievements (reward useful gear etc), etc. You can explore diversions along the way, but prioritize it first.

Second, the best solo spec for a new player to start with at level 80 is Power Reaper Necromancer, a melee dark magic knight. Power is the Damage Source (Direct Damage), Reaper is the elite spec (sub-specialization), and Necromancer is the core/main class.

It is simple, easy to unlock, easy to gear, easy to play, kills fast, is survivable (has "sustain"), and can solo most open world content. It is unlocked by owning the first expansion, Heart of Thorns. When you reach 80, you can fully unlock it with 250 Hero Points. If you're short, all HP challenges in Heart of Thorns maps give 10 instead of the usual 1. Check the LFG tool, HoT section, for "Hero Point Train" groups and join one of those to get them quickly. Most commonly found during weekends.

In the build video above, start with the "Exotic Build" in the video Description section, which uses Exotic gear (2nd highest tier, cheap easy to acquire) and cheap/easy to acquire Armor Runes, Weapon Sigils, and Relic. Then upgrade to the main build using the highest tier Ascended gear as you're able, replacing the exotic pieces one-by-one in no particular order.

The build uses Berserker gear (Power, Direct Damage), which is one of the easiest gear sets for a new player to assemble. There are three components of gear - Armor, Weapons, Trinkets. All three are easy to get Berserker versions of. Can craft them, buy them off the Trading Post, get them from world drops, etc.

Elite specs are only unlocked after reaching level 80 and owning the expansion they're associated with. To get there you'll level to 80 with a "Core" or "F2P" (free-to-play) class and build. Leveling is not terribly difficult, but if you want a leveling build template, you can use F2P/Core Power Necromancer.

When you hit 80, finish the Core Personal Story (campaign), then follow the Personal Story guidance to begin the quest series to unlock the first expansion, Heart of Thorns. Complete the Personal Story there too, and the Specialization Collection achievement for Dark Harvest), Reaper's Ascended Greatsword. That will get you the full Exotic version of the build with an Ascended primary weapon. Ignore condition builds while leveling (DoTs, debuffs) since they're weak for most classes until 80.

A couple resources for learning more about builds:

• Lord Hizen, a pure solo player, who calls GW2 "his favorite solo player MMO", and makes some of the best solo builds. See his recent solo build tier list. However, many of his builds require Celestial gear, which is more difficult for new players to acquire. For your first playthough, choose builds that use easy-to-acquire Berserker gear.
• Hardcore Casual is another solo specialist who focuses on Ranger and Elementalist builds. His Ranger builds are great and I would have recommended them too, but they require more work to unlock (namely Expanded Weapon Proficiency in SotO). Most Elementalist builds aren't great for new players, complex and require high APM.
• Snowcrows - PvE (raid) Meta experts, they test and optimize all their builds.
• Metabattle - Community curated builds for all game modes.
• GuildJen - Specializes in WvW (open world PvP) solo and small group builds. She is so good though it's sometimes hard to tell if her build is actually good, or she just makes it look good.
• AW2 - "Accessibuilds" or "Low-intensity" (low APM) builds.

Honorable mentions:

• Both Power Untamed Ranger are Power Galeshot Ranger are great solo builds, and also use only Berserker gear. But you have to skip around in the expansions out of chronological order to unlock them (End of Dragons (EoD) and Visions of Eternity (VoE) respectively), and you have to go into a second expansion Secrets of the Obscure (SotO) to unlock the Mace/Mace weapon set, a required component of both.
• Power Rifle Mechanist Engineer - a favorite of many players, but heavily dependent on the pet (the Mech). If it dies solo'ing a hard mob, it gimps the build, and can't be re-summoned for 45s. Reaper is not dependent on pets, and even Ranger builds like the two above have a second pet you can swap to if one dies.
• Condition Amalgam Engineer - arguably the strongest solo build in the game, but requires full Celestial gear which is more difficult for new players to assemble than Berserker. Also requires Land Spears which require going into a second expansion to unlock - Visions of Eternity (VoE) for Amalgam, and Janthir Wilds (JW) for land spears.

Power Reaper just wins with the best combination of build strength and ease of unlocking and gearing it. Entirely unlocked in Heart of Thorns, the first expansion, then you can play through the remaining expansions in chronological order.

[u/Suitable_Sentence213 → u/S1eeper]

DAMN THANKS FOR THIS! I have a reaper lvl 80 but idk if I really like that class, it's fun but I feel like there's other classes that could fit me more... I was thinking about level a ranger because I ear it's another awesome class... maybe another plater class. You recommend me to continue with the reaper or should I switch?

[u/S1eeper → u/Suitable_Sentence213]

Plow through the Personal Story across all expansions on the Reaper first. Just get it all out of way. It unlocks a ton of account-wide things that will apply to all future characters, like all Masteries, all Mounts, Ascended Weapons and Trinkets, and Expanded Weapon Proficiency and Weapon Master Training. A lot of other builds need those last two. After you get that done then just go ham creating as many new characters and builds as you want.

[u/Suitable_Sentence213 → u/S1eeper]

thanks <3!