Introduction
This guide focuses on the steps to take after creating a Guild Wars 2 account, offering advice on race and gender selection, profession choices, and character customization options. Additionally, it highlights the variety of appearance customization features, helping players craft characters that align with their preferences and desired play experience.
This guide assumes that you already own at least one of the bigger expansions: Heart of Thorns (HoT), Path of Fire (PoF) and/or End of Dragons (EoD).
Playable Races
Charr
Charr are large, feline creatures that have developed a military culture. They are raised as warriors from birth and are loyal to their legions and warbands. They do not believe in gods and view all aspects of life with a cynical eye. Victory is all that matters to them and the weak have no place among this war-forged race. They inhabit the eastern regions of Tyria and are spread all over Ascalon.
Human
Humans have lost their homeland and former glory. Even their gods have forsaken them, yet they fight on with all their bravery and strength to defend Kryta. No matter if noble, a commoner or a street rat - humans go through their lives with an unshaken and unbreakable spirit.
Norn
The Norn are tall, experienced hunters. They were driven from their homelands after experiencing a great defeat against the Ice Dragon. However, their enthusiam for life and the hunt can never be broken. Guided by the Spirits of the Wild, they try to achieve great victories to cultivate their legend.
Asura
Asura may be short in size, but they are intellectual giants. While other races pride themselves in their victories and strengths, the Asura pride themselves in their intellectual achievements. However, due to their intelligence, they may come across as arrogant and superior.
Sylvari
The Sylvari are botanical humanoids and the youngest race in Tyria. They are not born but awaken under the Pale Tree with collected knowledge from their pre-life Dream. The Dream seems to define their destiny. Due to their young age, as they recently appeared, they come across as naive, struggling to find the balance between warfare and honor, duty and curiosity, eagerness and chivalry.
Although different races offer unique racial skills, they are never important used unless in some extremely niche scenarios. So play whichever race is most appealing to you!
Choosing a profession
The next step is to pick a profession. There's no right or wrong class to pick as every class can be useful with a good build. Some may fall a little behind in terms of DPS (damage per second) but as long as you are not in a speedrun group, you won't have to worry about that!
Below is a brief overview of each profession to give you an idea of the style of the various classes this game has to offer.
Almost all classes can be played as pure damage, hybrid damage or healer.
The different builds on our website will help you fulfil these different roles and find the one that fits you best!
Heavy Professions
Guardian has long been the golden child in this game. They gain powerful enhancements from their Virtues to aid their friends or damage their foes. This class is still a well-loved healer but can also function very well as pure damage.
Guardian Elite Specialisations are:
Dragonhunter, Firebrand and Willbender.
Warriors are versatile and resilient fighters. They can unleash their Adrenaline to destroy foes but they may also bonk your head in an effort to heal wounded allies! Warrior is a classic MMO class and a popular choice among many players!
Warrior Elite Specialisations are:
Berserker, Spellbreaker and Bladesworn.
Revenant channels their power through the Mist to various legends from Tyria's past. They spend their own Energy to channel the abilities of these past fighters. They make reliable allies in battle but also dangerous enemies!
Revenant Elite Specialisations are:
Herald, Renegade and Vindicator.
To be able to play Revenant you have to own either Heart of Thorns (HoT), Path of Fire (PoF) or End of Dragons (EoD). !
Medium Professions
Engineer is a jack-of-all-trades as they are technological and alchemical masterminds. They employ turrets, grenades, elixiers, gadgets or even their own battle mech. Whatever you need: the Engineer has it!
Engineer Elite Specialisations are:
Scrapper, Holosmith and Mechanist.
Thief is the master of shadows and assassination. What they may lack in defense, they make up for by striking from the shadows. Thieves manage their Initiative during combat to carefully time their attacks. Enshrouded in shadows, they can also heal and support their allies.
Thief Elite Specialisations are:
Daredevil, Deadeye and Spectre.
Ranger is deeply connected to nature and can tame various pet companions that assist them in their battles. They lay traps for their enemies, channel nature spirits and the stars to support their allies or fight as one with their pet.
Ranger Elite Specialisations are:
Druid, Soulbeast and Untamed.
Light Professions
Mesmer is a master of illusions and deceptions. After they dumbfound their foes with their illusions and phantasms, they shatter these to damage the enemy. This class also comes with a variety of utilities to help their allies in a fight or even heal them!
Mesmer Elite Specialisations are:
Chronomancer, Mirage and Virtuoso.
Necromancer - the bringer of death or life! The Necromancer absorbs the Life Force of its enemies, overwhelming them with conditions or reap their souls. They can also be the barrier between life and death for their allies!
Necromancer Elite Specialisations are:
Reaper, Scourge and Harbinger.
Elementalist is master of the four elements: Fire, Water, Air and Earth. Like the avatar, they can control these elements to aid their allies or defeat their foes in combat. This class may be lacking in health and is a bit more difficult to master, but it's very versatile when attuning to different elements!
Elementalist Elite Specialisations are:
Tempest, Weaver and Catalyst.
Character Appearance and Background
Guild Wars 2 allows you to customise different aspects of your character's physical characteristics and appearance. You can change head options and face details as well as hair, hair colour and the eye colour. If you picked a Sylvari or Asura, you can also change ear shapes and sizes. If you picked a Charr, you can change the horns. You can also change body features such as height and physique. For Asura, you can change skin markings, wheras Charr come with the option to change the fur patterns. Norn can wear tribal tatoos and Sylvari can have a skin pattern and a glow colour. The glow colour will show at night in the game! Lastly, you can change the armour dyes of your beginner set!
Now it comes to creating the biography of your character. You can answer five multiple choice questions, that influence the background of your character. The first question will determine a profession-dependant aesthetic armour piece of your character, except for rangers. Rangers instead, choose their first pet. The second question determines the initial personality, which affects how some NPC's ract to your character. This typically shows in differences in dialogue options. The last three questions determine the Personal Story of your character. These questions are different for each race; relating to the background, motivations and experiences of your character.
There's no right or wrong to choose as all Personal Stories will eventually be streamlined into the same direction and it won't affect gameplay otherwise!
In this game, you can choose between two genders: male and female. The only differences are their physical appearance, some dialogue and animations.
Naming your Character
Lastly, you have to name your character. You need to have at least three characters and you can't exceed a maximum of 19 characters. The game allows all of the 26 standard letters and you can use accented letters, as well as the ÄÖÜ umlauts. You can leave spaces between the names, which allows you to come up with a firstname and a surname for your character.
If you want to roleplay or want a lore-consistent name, you may note that some races have naming customs:
- Charr usually have Roman or Grecian inspired names with a last name that can combine the warband and a particular descriptive word (e.g. Ashblade)
- Norn often go by Northern European or Viking inspired names. Their surnames include patronymic (e.g. -son) or matronymic (e.g. dottir) or other kin-centric variants (e.g. Stegalkin)
- Humans have a wide variety of names. Those in Kryta usually go by European or English names, Humans from Cantha with Asian inspired names, Elonian names are inspired by African or Middle-Eastern names.
- Asura have very short names. Usually just one or two syllables with a set of double letters. Their names are usually precedent with a title, a job or an honorific (e.g. Dendrologist Mikka)
- Sylvari have a variety of Celtic, Welsh or Irish names and often go without a surname. As single names are often not available in this game, a lot of players add their Sylvari's cycle as last name (e.g. Of Dawn) or another Celtic surname. Other elven fantasy names also work really well for this race!