Which class has the best mobility?

I am in some need of advice!

I only got to play in BWE1 for one day and did one stress test (which I played a gaurdian in WvW only) so I'm still a little unsure of what class would be good for my play style. Maybe if I detail what I like, you can help me find the best class that fits it. Watching youtube video after video only gets me more confused. 

1. I like Mobility: Speed bursts, charges... anything that lets me close gaps or create them when needed. 

2. I like flexiblity in range: I don't like being pigeon holed into just a melee or ranged character. I want to swap from melee to ranged on the fly. The ~ key in GW2 is my favorite thing and I want to exploit it.

3. I like survibility skills: heals, evades, stealth, some sort of "oh @#$%" button to stay in the game a little longer.

My only experience from the 2 days I got to play was a Gaurdian and an Engineer which both felt sluggish with little mobility skills. The Gaurdian also had no good ranged skills while the Engineer was the opposite having no decent melee skills (that I found at least).

Any suggestions?

Have yet to try the Mesmer, Thief, Warrior, or Ranger. Is one of those what I am looking for?

Thieves are far and away the most mobile class, with numerous "Shadowstep" abilities, the most frequent use of dodge rolls, stealth... They should like what you would like. I really enjoy them. They are very squishy if pinned down but that is extremely hard to do.

Not to mention they have the best Movement Speed signet (25%), and a trait for +33% speed in stealth.

Thief or Necromancer may be what your looking for.

Yeah I read about the move where you can shoot with your pistol and then shadowstep in to slash with your dagger. Sounds pretty slick. How does stealth work in GW2? I haven't looked into it much.

according to GW2 guru eng is one of the best classes for mobilty, multiple people on those fourms say mesmer and necro are bad for mobilty . For a mere 10 points into the tools trait tree you can have permmant swiftness

» Edited on: 2012-08-20 18:36:42

Elementalist is pretty mobile too - with some traits, you can get a 25% increase in speed while attuned to air, and you can even add swiftness every once in a while over that. Engineer has some great skills for mobility, including one that doubles his speed over a short time. That said, most classes have options for high mobility, even the Mesmer. I think the only one lacking in mobility is the Necromancer, though you might argue that the Necro makes up for it with its extended health (Death Shroud).

An air/fire elementalist is very fast in a sprint. but for constant speed i would probably go with theif

engineer, elementalist, and rogue are all VERY mobile. necromancer I have not found to be mobile in the least, though you can get extended swiftness.

This thread is about a speed Ele build, but from what I understand.... the max speed increase is only 33%, and that is through the swiftness boon. If you do not hit 33% the highest speed modifier at the time wins. Passive speed boosts do not stack on themselves, or with a boon. However there are builds that allow almost constant up time of swiftness. My information came from this link: http://www.guildwars2forum.com/archive/index.php/t-5419.html I am not sure, but would presume that this is applicable to all prof's.

Cool guys, thanks for the suggestions. I think I will start with a Thief first and maybe Elementalist second. I haven't played a caster in an MMO since my Priest in Vanilla WoW so maybe I'm due. I think it has been hard to settle on character classes for a lot of us because we can't just chose a character archetype outright like other games. It's a neat concept but confusing as well.

Warriors and rangers both have melee and ranged options that you can switch between. I played my warrior like you mentioned, I would hit with melee then run out and start shooting with my bow or gun when I got low on health, then back in once I was healed up. Warriors are obviously more melee orientated but they do have the ranged options as well as the gap closers.