Which Profession Should I Choose?
Choosing Your Profession
All nine professions are good choices. Pick one you like: you can try others later.
Not sure which class to pick?
Try our quick personality test to see which classes naturally fit your style.
Take the TestHow to approach your choice
GW2 has nine professions. Every one can explore solo, play through the story, and join groups. None is an inherently wrong choice.
Revenant requires Heart of Thorns, Path of Fire, or End of Dragons. Free accounts can choose from the other eight professions.
All nine at a glance
A protector who turns faith and magic into physical defenses. Guardian has low base health but blocks attacks with Aegis and provides defensive boons to allies.
A good fit if you enjoy protecting teammates and playing a magical warrior. Later, you can specialize in support, mobile melee combat, or damage.
A straightforward close-combat specialist. Build adrenaline and spend it on burst skills. High base health makes it easier to learn the basics.
A good fit for newcomers who prefer weighty attacks and a traditional warrior over complex magic. Fighting builds the resource for a powerful finishing strike.
Channel legendary figures through the Mists. Equip two legends and swap between them in combat to replace your healing, utility, and elite skills. Managing energy and legend-swap timing is central to the profession.
Each legend provides a fixed set of slot skills. Learn when to swap to move between damage and support. Requires an expansion.
Fight with an animal companion. Your pet has its own health, fights alongside you, and uses a special skill on command with F2. Fight at range or in melee, and tame new pets in the world.
A good starting choice if you want an animal companion for exploration. Druid later offers a dedicated healing playstyle for group content.
Use stealth and shadowsteps to catch enemies off guard. Steal teleports you to a target and gives you a stolen skill, while stealth unlocks stronger opening attacks. Low base health encourages mobility over trading blows.
Most weapon skills spend initiative instead of having a cooldown. Repeating the same skill gives thief a different combat rhythm from other professions.
An inventor using firearms and gadgets. Kits such as Flamethrower and Grenade Kit replace your weapon skills. Turrets are separate devices placed on the ground. Core engineer also gains tool belt skills based on its equipped healing, utility, and elite skills.
Builds using several kits and tool belt skills have many buttons to manage. Engineer suits players who enjoy switching tools to fit the situation.
Use death magic, minions, and conditions. Nearby deaths generate life force, which powers Death Shroud: a separate health pool that absorbs incoming damage.
Necromancer shares the highest base-health tier with warrior. Death Shroud adds another layer of protection, making it durable despite wearing light armor. A good fit for newcomers who want a forgiving start.
Create illusions to confuse enemies. Phantasms perform a special attack and then become clones, of which you can maintain up to three. Shatter skills consume those clones for damage, confusion, invulnerability, and other effects.
Learning when to create and shatter clones takes practice. Chronomancer later offers a group-support role.
Swap between fire, water, air, and earth attunements to replace your five weapon skills with damage, healing, or defensive tools. In combat, attunement swaps replace weapon swapping; you can swap weapons out of combat.
Elementalist shares the lowest base-health tier with guardian and thief, and you need to learn skills across four elements. A good fit if you enjoy actively switching spells and using varied elemental magic.
Choose by what you enjoy
Still unsure? Start with the experience you want.
These offer approachable starting builds and useful survival tools. Guardian and necromancer also open up several roles later.
Minions or pets can share the pressure and fight alongside you.
Elite specializations at level 80 open up builds focused on healing and support.
Both offer striking spell effects, though learning their mechanics takes more practice.
Stealth, teleports, and repeated attacks make thief a highly mobile choice.
Many skills and frequent decisions make these more demanding to learn, but rewarding to master.
Coming from another MMO?
GW2 does not divide professions rigidly into tanks, healers, and damage dealers. Builds let most professions deal damage or provide support. Use this table as a familiar starting point.
| Role you enjoyed | Professions to try |
|---|---|
| Tank: hold your ground | Warrior · Guardian |
| Healer / Support | Guardian · Ranger · Revenant · Mesmer |
| Melee damage | Warrior · Thief · Revenant |
| Ranged damage | Ranger |
| Rogue / Assassin | Thief · Revenant · Guardian |
| Summoner / Necromancer | Necromancer |
| Mage / Caster | Elementalist · Mesmer |
| Engineer / Gunslinger | Engineer |
Each profession can deal damage, with healing and support options determined by its build and specialization. Use this table to choose a starting profession based on the playstyle you enjoy.