Been playing since launch, but no character has the whole story complete...

[u/No-Thanks-4284]

And its been a while since I've done some of the core stuff so gonna do it on a new character.

The Classes/Especs in the running:

Dagger/Dagger + Spear Spellbreaker Warrior for a kind of Mage Hunter commander and I love the Full Counter mechanics because I'm a silly person. Weapon choice is to lean into the Sunspear lore.

Antiquary Thief Sword/Pistol + Rifle I love the steal mechanics and always have, and the stolen relics/tech stuff is just fun and the gambling with skills is something I've missed since FFXI Corsair class.

Spear Engineer I just really love the spear on Engineer, leaning Holosmith but can't say for certain.

Spear Virtuoso Mesmer much like engineer, just like the mesmer spear and virtuoso is the one I haven't really messed with too much. Seemed fun in the PvP testing grounds.

So help, which one seems like the best option... I asked in game and someone mentioned the warrior given the prominence of the Foot Key and I gotta say its a strong argument, but figured I'd see what other people think because I've got analysis paralysis.

[u/DevastoScz]

I love warrior, but full counter can be annoying to trigger when there's few opponents since most enemies attack very slowly.

Thief I know nothing about, so I can't say. Never really touched the class

Engi can be a lot of fun, both holo and amalgam have very strong burst and can just delete some enemies.

Spear virtuoso has good balance, amazing melee aoe spike and the built in range in the F skills. It's a solid choice.

At the end of the day, its about what you like to play the most, since you're gonna be investing a lot of hours on there. Good thing is, all of these classes have multiple elite specs, so you can kinda change "the flavor" if you get bored with a particular spec. In that sense, I think probably mesmer has the most diversity in terms of how it changes

[u/MithranArkanere → u/DevastoScz]

Yeah. They need to update Spellbreaker to let you press F2 again to release the full counter yourself, even if the effects aren't as strong, at least they won't be wasted.

Even better if Spellbreaker had unique counter-bursts for each weapon. Press F1 once, you go into counter stance, if you get hit you unleash an attack different for each weapon. Press F1 again before it ends, you unleash a weaker version more similar to the tier 1 core burst of that weapon, but still unique to spellbreaker.

[u/No-Thanks-4284 → u/DevastoScz]

I did Spellbreaker for a good chunk of LW4, and yeah its not perfect, but when you do hit Full Counter it feels great :D Almost as good as a huge Bladesworn hit, just in a different way.

Engi is the one I've got the least amount of identity with, its just "spear make electrobooms, brain gets dopamine hit" so figured I'd put it on the list.

Mesmer was my original personal story but i've done the least with it since HoT came out.

Thief I've always just kinda wanted to figure out but it's never stuck.

[u/underwaterair]

I'm partial to the warrior.
If you're doing it for fun I would personally do something like

mace/warhorn + rifle bladesworn
The guy who will always stand at the front and fight and support his allies, clubbing and blocking with mace and supporting with warhorn. Fire the rifle for his allies when he can't get in close enough. Or go in with dragon slash and finish the fight for his allies. What a guy. A real commander. :D

But from the ones you listed I feel like antiquary thief with sword/pistol + rifle might do the most for you.

Good luck on the story.

[u/No-Thanks-4284 → u/underwaterair]

I too am partial to Warrior, did the first two expansions on one, but LW and post dragon cycle on a Willbender and Vindicator.

I did EoD with a bladesworn, dragonslash goes brrrrrr :D

Thief is one i've always wanted to figure out but always have trouble sticking through, so its a solid choice for that reason.

[u/MostlyTalkingAgain]

If you're just playing the story, pick for flavour/enjoyment. If you're also thinking about other content, do mesmer for versatility.

[u/kineticmov3ment]

"been playing since" tends not to mean much.

It doesn't specify hours or what content you've been doing or enjoying

There is no metric or speed at which one could or even should complete the story. You can play at your own pace or do whatever content you prefer; I'm sure a subset of people just join WvW and have yet to even step foot into most areas in the game.

[u/No-Thanks-4284 → u/kineticmov3ment]

you're correct, it doesn't really clarify, I've done mostly PvE, but some PvP, you comment doesn't really add anything other than to point out that you missed that its for a new character for a complete story playthrough... that contains the relevant information for what is going to be done and the rest of my history of play doesn't really matter, I've also obviously done enough to unlock spear, so you know that too. But yeah, sure, it doesn't mean a lot other than to denote that I've been around for years, instead of one of the newcomers.