In which I compare Guild Wars and World of Warcraft, years after everybody else stopped doing that
I've been pondering the character classes in World of Warcraft and in Guild Wars. Some have a direct parallel in the other game. Others are more complicated...
GW Warrior = WoW Warrior
As you'd expect, thumpy tanking machine.
GW Ranger = WoW Hunter
Different names, but basically the same bow-shooting, trap-setting, beast-taming type.
GW Monk = WoW Priest
Both healers with a bit of optional smiting.
GW Elementalist = WoW Mage
Big blammy spells
GW Assassin = WoW Rogue
Stabby combo attacks
So all clear so far. However, GW has the following other classes:
Mesmer
Necromancer
Ritualist
Paragon
Dervish
And WoW has these:
Druid
Paladin
Shaman
Warlock
Death Knight
Well, I can see a certain parallel between the death knight and the necromancer, but some differences as well. Death knights make decent tanks, and while necros were tougher most GW classes, they certainly weren't tanks. And then there's raising the dead as minions. I know death knights can do this, but it doesn't seem to be on anything like the same scale as a minion master specced necro who would usually run around with their own personal army of oozy bone monsters. The nearest parallel would be a GW warrior with necromancer as their secondary profession.
(The necromancer spec I really miss in WoW is the battery necro. Batteries had one basic role in a party - to recharge the spellcasters. Through creative use of corpses and self-harm, a battery could keep the elementalist nuking and the monk healing even when their energy was running low. I don't currently know of anything in WoW that replicates that.)
The shaman and the ritualist are a reasonable match. The shaman's totems and the ritualist's summoned spirits may look different, but the basic principle is the same. Both of them are able to spec as restoration to back up the healer and both can fling lightning about. They have a slightly different focus though - while you could play a ritualist without any spirits at all, more often they were played as spirit spammer, with spirits being far more important to the fight than totems usually are.
I guess the paragon and paladin are probably the best fit for each other, although that's mostly thematic - they're both holy warriors. The spear-throwing midriff-baring paragon doesn't bear that much resemblance to the heavily armoured paladin. I guess again that the best match for a paladin is a warrior with paragon as a secondary.
That leaves druids and warlocks for WoW and dervishes and mesmers for GW. I guess there's a little similarity between warlocks and mesmers, given that both are big on damage over time and hex-type spells, and you could compare the druid's shapeshifting ability with the dervish's avatars, but by this stage it's all a bit of a stretch.
So why did I write this article? Because there are bits of Guild Wars that I really miss when playing WoW, and this is useful for helping me find what's missing. Not that I'll be abandoning Tlazolteotl, Macha or Palixa the adorable any time soon, but it's nice to know I can create something similar to my little blood necro by making a death knight.
GW Warrior = WoW Warrior
As you'd expect, thumpy tanking machine.
GW Ranger = WoW Hunter
Different names, but basically the same bow-shooting, trap-setting, beast-taming type.
GW Monk = WoW Priest
Both healers with a bit of optional smiting.
GW Elementalist = WoW Mage
Big blammy spells
GW Assassin = WoW Rogue
Stabby combo attacks
So all clear so far. However, GW has the following other classes:
Mesmer
Necromancer
Ritualist
Paragon
Dervish
And WoW has these:
Druid
Paladin
Shaman
Warlock
Death Knight
Well, I can see a certain parallel between the death knight and the necromancer, but some differences as well. Death knights make decent tanks, and while necros were tougher most GW classes, they certainly weren't tanks. And then there's raising the dead as minions. I know death knights can do this, but it doesn't seem to be on anything like the same scale as a minion master specced necro who would usually run around with their own personal army of oozy bone monsters. The nearest parallel would be a GW warrior with necromancer as their secondary profession.
(The necromancer spec I really miss in WoW is the battery necro. Batteries had one basic role in a party - to recharge the spellcasters. Through creative use of corpses and self-harm, a battery could keep the elementalist nuking and the monk healing even when their energy was running low. I don't currently know of anything in WoW that replicates that.)
The shaman and the ritualist are a reasonable match. The shaman's totems and the ritualist's summoned spirits may look different, but the basic principle is the same. Both of them are able to spec as restoration to back up the healer and both can fling lightning about. They have a slightly different focus though - while you could play a ritualist without any spirits at all, more often they were played as spirit spammer, with spirits being far more important to the fight than totems usually are.
I guess the paragon and paladin are probably the best fit for each other, although that's mostly thematic - they're both holy warriors. The spear-throwing midriff-baring paragon doesn't bear that much resemblance to the heavily armoured paladin. I guess again that the best match for a paladin is a warrior with paragon as a secondary.
That leaves druids and warlocks for WoW and dervishes and mesmers for GW. I guess there's a little similarity between warlocks and mesmers, given that both are big on damage over time and hex-type spells, and you could compare the druid's shapeshifting ability with the dervish's avatars, but by this stage it's all a bit of a stretch.
So why did I write this article? Because there are bits of Guild Wars that I really miss when playing WoW, and this is useful for helping me find what's missing. Not that I'll be abandoning Tlazolteotl, Macha or Palixa the adorable any time soon, but it's nice to know I can create something similar to my little blood necro by making a death knight.