@Vayra86 For someone like me who played GW2 for about 4 hours 2 years ago,what do you recommend
Consider that I want to start fresh from the start and kinda get the full story from the top. I am a more pve / lore story kinda player than pvp.
Do I need this
https://www.instant-gaming.com/en/711-buy-key-ncsoft-guild-wars-2-heart-of-thorns/
Do I need the extra gems ?
https://www.instant-gaming.com/en/141-buy-key-ncsoft-guild-wars-2-2000-gems/
What class build is better for PVE ? Which one would be the most dps ? Which one would be easiest to lvl ? What is the hardest ? What is the all around ?
How does the switching between 2 sets of weapons work ? I am a mage can I use sword and shield... can I switch between mage and tank ? Do I need to learn both skills ?
Cool! Hit me up when you're online
Or if you need guidance, its a lot to take in / explore here.
- All classes are viable in PVE, its more about stat choice, just focus on 'Power' or raw damage for normal exploring. Play what excites you the most. Until you reach the hardest (Fractal) content you can really free-form in terms of builds/stats/gear setups. Just have a broad idea and build everything towards that. For example; I play a Guardian mostly, as a damage over time (fire/bleed) DPS combined with some healing and a massive boost to buff durations. Major party support but just as effective in solo because of all the long buffs that I can stack. Respeccing is easy and is done on the fly, what makes playing different specs a bit harder in PVE is that each spec really prefers a certain stat combo so you need to re-do your gear. Its not hard, but it needs doing - at max level that is. Prior to that, you'll find yourself trying out everything first
PVP is a great area to play/test different builds, you can freely select stats and respec + have all skills available.
- Weapons. Most classes have two weapon sets to alternate between, but some also have one and get utility from other 'swaps'- the 'Mage' for example (Elementalist) can only use one weapon at a time, but alternates between 4 elements fire/water/earth/air to get 20 different skills out of that single weapon - 4x5. Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire each introduce a specialization/elite skill tree for every class, and in the case of an Elementalist, one of those trees will allow you to 'stack' two different elements at the same time depending on how you swap between elements (you retain the last two) which provides another layer of depth and different skill bars. Weapon swaps works with a simple button press and is quick, same as the whole gameplay - dodges, target swapping and careful positioning of area effects matters a lot. Its really active gameplay, no waiting on cast bars.
Another example is the Engineer, which also only has one weapon setup but also has a toolbelt + can equip a flamethrower with its own skillbar. Each class has some sort of mechanic like this.
- Roles. You mention tank and mage - forget the 'holy trinity' of MMO's though. Yes, there are more tanky and more healy / DPS-y classes, but the specialization trees do mix it up a lot. We now have Rangers that can turn from almost raw DPS into the best healers in game by becoming Druids. Most classes offer a vibrant mix and almost no build is 'pure tank' or 'pure healing'. Party setups are also not '1 tank 1 heal 3 dps' setups - everyone can do everything, but different builds excel at different things. One thing you will NEVER see in this game is 'threat bars' and a tank taunting the whole map. My current Guardian build is capable of tanking, but can also provide massive AoE healing/debuffs AND stack fire damage on large area's of enemies, while hasting the whole group almost all the time.
- Progression: levelling and gaining skill points is done by any activity and once you've learned a skill or trait it is never lost and you can freely respec at any time you're out of combat. Weapons can also be swapped at will, no 'learning' involved.
- Getting the game: the base game is F2P now so you can start there. You won't be needing the expansions Heart of Thorns / Path of Fire until level 80 but you might want to access the class specializations faster than that - also Heart of Thorns introduces 'Gliders' to fly/float to other areas and Path of Fire adds 'mounts' so you can travel (much) faster; these are also useful in vanilla content. Gems are entirely optional; you may want more storage/bank/bag space which is a gem purchase for example, or more character slots (you get 4 I believe), or cosmetic items, can always buy gems later. The best deal really is getting both expacs for 50 eur and nothing else. See link
https://buy.guildwars2.com/store?Action=html&Locale=en_IE&SiteID=gw2&cid=104:5::::Global:290:::&pbPage=heartofthorns&themeID=4785548000
Here below you can see my 'build' and skill options, same for almost all classes and specs - you choose 3 different trees and each path has 3 different skill choices and 3 fixed ones. Each weapon gives five different weapon based skills (numbers 1-5) and you freely choose skills 6-10 - Skill nr 6 (G) is my heal skill, Q/E/R are utility skills and T is an elite skill with (longer) cooldown and major effects. Custom keybinds btw, usually its 6-10.
On left side you'll see a selection of the weapon options available for my class. These are independant of builds.
Then you see my class specials: Z/X/C shortcuts on the bar: these are Tomes/Virtue skills that each provide their own 1-5 skillbar and is sort of a super saiyan mode
Finally clocked a 100% world completion yesterday! But I am actually astounded by its performance, overall feel and even the looks... This is 2012.. For giggles, I also visited a desert area 
When the sun rises, I'll add some more pics. 120 FPS everywhere except with 15+ other players on screen. DX9... 1080p.
