Guild Wars 2 is certainly generating a lot of buzz, with close to a million players pre-ordering the game before it officially launched on the 28th of August. We got caught up in the excitement as well, having attended the midnight launch and grabbing a few copies of the game. So excited were we to get into the game, and five of our editors decided to band up and play the game together. The first hurdle of course, was choosing a race and profession, something that proved to be ridiculously time-consuming in the end. So here's what each of us chosen, and why we had to resort to flipping a coin in order to decide.
I've chosen to play as an Asura Necromancer - I played through the beta of Guild Wars 2 as a Charr Necromancer, and really enjoyed the skills available. The fact that I can summon minions as well while I level up is also a great boon, and while I usually play as a pure spellcaster, the Necromancer offers combat that's different from other professions like the Elementalist. I only got to play the Asura race towards the end of the beta, and enjoyed the 'brain over brawn' concept, hence the swap over from Charr to Asura.
The reason I went with Mesmer is because of it's unique combat nature. Creating illusions of yourself that fight alongside you is cool, but when you play that Profession you'll realize how much fun it is. The only other Profession I was mildly interested in was Thief because of the ability to dual wield guns, but the combat was so reminiscent of Rogue in WoW, that I simply couldn't bring myself to take them. I must say I was very close to getting the Engineer, but Nick said that just because I find Engineers fun in TF2 doesn't mean the same for GW2.
With the Profession out of the way, it was time to choose my race. While Mesmers looked cool as Humans, and Sylvari, they weren't so bad as Charr or Asura either. In the end, though, I went with Sylvari simply because of all the races, there's is the most interesting back story. They are compared a lot to elves, if all you look at are screenshots, but their story couldn't be more different. A race that literally came into being just 25 years before GW2, makes them young, but that's what's so fascinating about them. Like me, they are here to discover Tyria and have new interactions with all the other races, and discover new places and fight new monsters for the first time. Their facial features may not make them look as appealing as the Humans or the Norns, but they have their own twist on things.
Like any RPG, I was torn between choosing spellcaster or melee combatant. I managed to narrow it down to necromancer and thief, and those two professions seemed like the most interesting of the two playstyles. While necromancers do look awesome, I was drawn to the thief's swift combat style and its weapon variety (swords, guns and bows).
Race choice was Charr from the beginning. The Charr (or "steampunk death-cats from hell" as we call them in the office) came off as the most unique of the races, with alot of Guild Wars 2 marketing material focusing on them in particular. On the plus side, they seemed very suited for the thief profession. But in the end I went with human. I NEVER pick humans in RPGs when there are other options available, but humans seemed most appropiate from the thief profession. The gameplay, armor, the combat style, all of it seemed built for humans. So I went with humans at the end after much thought. And this way, I can go with Charr Engineer as my next character!
At this point, everyone except two of our editors, Mufaddal Fakhruddin and Faisal Hashmi had decided what they wanted to be. The problem was that they both wanted to be a Warrior, and if we were going to band together, each of us must be of different profession at the least. To settle the issue, we decided to use the only fairest way known to man on Earth. Coin toss. It solved major problems in school, so why not here, right? So the five of us picked up a coin and tossed it together to decide the faith of one. Ultimately, Mufaddal got his way after he won 4-1.
Honest to God I have not spent so much time reading and deciding on a game before than Guild Wars 2. I literally took a whole day just going over the skills and perks of each race and class profession to see what would fit me better.
Initially, I wanted to be a Norn Warrior - Norn because the female character looks pretty (you know, because if you are going to look at something for hours...), and Warrior because I wanted to play a character that's always in the heat of the battle, bashing and stomping through enemies. I got the itch to play a Warrior after trying the Barbarian in Diablo III. I liked how powerful the character felt, tearing through the unholies with ferocious attacks all the while grunting and shouting like a beast that would instill awe and fear into anyone. So I picked to be the Warrior in Guild Wars 2 (after coming victorious of the coin toss), and while the character still offers what I wanted, it did not really hit it home for me. Something was missing, and I was dying too much with too little gold to spawn back up.
So I tried the Engineer and I am liking it very much. The array of ranged weapons and attacks does it for me, and I cannot wait to setup turrets and other mechanical contraptions to see how they will change up the dynamics of the game.
I am also curious to try the Ranger, but haven't had the time to check them out yet. So yeah, I am probably still undecided which character I am going to have my first playthrough with.
Blame it on my utter lack of creativity when it comes to MMORPG's, but I'm never really inclined to choose a race or class so out of the blue that really allows me to 'role-play'. When I started playing World of Warcraft years ago, I chose a Human Warrior and primarily stuck to that with every other character I tried not being satisfying enough to finish the game with. 'Guild Wars 2' is literally the only other MMORPG I've tried years after I stopped playing WoW, with hopes of entering a whole new world with whole new mechanics. What I didn't factor in, however, is my lack of creativity as I found myself drawn into creating a Warrior once again. It's just something about that class that completely fits my play-style. They're on the frontlines, independent (though a healer always helps) and can do anything and everything in the game with their ferocity.
Even after losing a coin-toss with Muffadal about who would play that class, I cheated and still selected one anyway. But as I found myself drawn to the Human race once again, I decided to take a stand and firmly say no to literally re-creating my WoW character once again. So I took a leap of faith and select the Norn race instead, which is a race whose backstory interested me and seemed as human as humans are while having their own style. But as I write this, I can't help but realising that my Norn warrior Ruhaan (one the Ring of Fire server, for those to care) looks almost exactly like my WoW character. Not only that, I stripped the Norn away from all their distinctive looks and all I have now is a very tall and muscular human warrior at the end. Sigh
