When Guild Wars was first released, there was a total of six classes a person could play. Over the next year and a half or so, Anet introduced 4 more classes. Each class is very different from the last with certain ones having strengths in one area and weaknesses in others. As with any MMO, balancing is one of the key aspects that the developers work on before releasing the game and in the case of online games, well into its life. Balancing requires attention to be paid to the armors of a class, the damgage output of weapons, and skills/spells. Below is a list of each classes standard settings at level 20 and unique aspects/attributes.
Warrior - 80 armor, 2 energy regeneration, primary attribute = strength (adds an overall damage, improves strength related skills)
Ranger - 70 armor, 3 energy regeneration, primary attribute = expertise (lowers energy cost on a variety of skills, improves expertise related skills)
Necromancer - 60 armor, 4 energy regeneration, primary attribute = soul reaping (character gains energy equal to level in soul reaping whenever something dies -- this was nerfed in an attempt to balance the classes -> became once every 5 seconds could you gain energy, now it its 3 times every 15 seconds. (this caused much anger for me.) also improves the FIVE soul reaping skills.
Monk - 60 armor, 4 energy regeneration, primary attribute divine favor (adds additional health to a character whenever healed or "protected" equal to 3 x level of divine favor, improves divine favor spells)
Mesmer - 60 armor, 4 energy regeneration, primary attribute = fast casting (does what it says, for each level in fast casting, the mesmer casts their spells and signets a little bit faster, also improves the two handfuls of fast casting spells)
Elementalist - 60 armor, 4 energy regeneration, primary attribute = energy storage (for each level a ele has in e storage, their energy raises by 3 points, and as with the others, improves energy storage related spells)
That covers the core classes, the others will be discussed at a later date. Now for the purpose / things about the classes...
The warrior is a tank. They are the ones who are hopefully taking the damage in the group and can utilize a few different melee weapons (swords, axes, and hammers). They have a few "shouts" which can be used to help the warriors group or handicap foes. They have both low energy attacks (normally 5 energy) and adrenaline based attacks, which build up as the warrior hits and gets hit.
The ranger is one with nature. They have the ability to charm a "pet" that will aid them in battle and can summon nature rituals that have either good or negative effects. They are the master of the bow, and while usually lower in DPS than some other classes/weapon types, have the ability to interupt a great many skills helping yourself and team out tremendously. They can also set traps that will bother an unsuspecting enemy to no end. To improve on their bow attacks, rangers have a dozen or so preparations that make them even more effective and irritating.
The necromancer. Well here's a complex class. They are the masters of death, often making their newly dead foes serve them in whatever way they would like. The necro has three major attribute lines: blood, curses, and death magic. Blood magic allows you to take your foe's health and give it to yourself. It can also be used to sacrifice your own health for a specific purpose, such as dealing damge, healing/helping a friend, and healing yourself. In the curses line there are a great many hexes that really put a damper on your foe. You can lower their damage output, slow their attack rate, cause them to miss frequently, and make them lose health if they do ANYTHING. It also has a few ways in which to heal yourself. Death magic focuses mostly on corpses, but there are some other uses as well. With death magic, you can create a minion army to slaughter all who stand in your way, exploit a corpse to steal health, teleport to a corpse (teleporation is unique to necromancers), spread disease among enemies, and deal cold damage.
Necromancers, as with the other caster classes, normally use a staff or wand + offhand combo. The damage from which is really on the low side.
The monk. They are the healers and protectors of the games. Some foolish or bored ones however turn to their smiting prayers line of spells every once in awhile. Healing prayers - direct heals either through health regeneration or instant health gain (helped a bit by divine favor). Protection prayers are a bit more passive. They stop or reduce damage from happening, remove hexes and conditions, and can even stop a foe from attacking for a short while. You can even raise your maximum health with a spell. Smiting prayers deal a bit of damage to most foes, however versus the undead / summoned, that damage is doubled! It can be very useful to have a smite monk in an area with undead, however it is rare to see one and even rarer that someone will want one in a group.
The mesmer is just there to piss you off. Through the first few months of Guild Wars, the mesmer was more often found in PvP rather than in PvE. Why is this? They are the masters of annoyance. Mesmers have 3 lines of magic that are used: domination, illusion, and inspiration. Many of the domination spells are interupts. Your foe tries to do something, you stop them, the swear at you to no end (if you continue to interupt them, which you most likely will be). They also have a few dd (direct damage) spells to boot. The illusion line features several spells that cause health degeneration, causes enemies to miss with attacks, and slow their movement speed (very annoy two spell lines). Inspiration is mostly used for health management. There are stances to prevent/reduce damage and give you energy, and spells to steal a foes energy and turn it into health for you. What makes them even more annoying is the fast casting which makes their interupts seem almost instant, giving you no chance. Also, some of their more powerful skills take a bit long to cast.. but not for them, for the classes with a mes secondary.
The elementalist is one of the best damage dealers in the game. They have 4 lines of elemental magic to go along with their energy storage: earth, fire, water, and air. Each has unique characteristics/abilites, but they all do mega-damage. How did Anet decide to balance this class? Well, many elementalist spells require massive amounts of energy. For example, there are a handful of spells that a warrior could not cast even if he/she were at their maximum enery. Their spells also take longer to cast (many 2 seconds or 1 second, some 3 seconds, a handful 5 seconds. The recharge time on many spells is also very long (from 30 to 60 seconds in many cases.) Elementalists also have the unfortunate side effect of giving themselves exhaustion with lots of their spells, which lowers their maximum energy for a short time. They can do a whole lot of damage, but their down time is also the greatest among any class and you will often find yourself waiting while the ele pings, "My energy is 11 out of 96!"
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