Guild Wars 2

Hey guys, ive been playing for about a month now and have just recentlly got my necro to level 80. It seems like a great class but my main focus at the moment is dungeons, and i just dont feel like i am very important to the group.
I have been debating between Mesmer (which looks most appealing) Warrior (because lets face it, they are hyped up a lot) and a guardian. I am also considering a Ele but idk.
Some basic info about my play-style would be
1. I consider myself a somewhat skilled MMO player so a complex class isn’t out of the question.
2. I like feeling like im helping the group im in a lot, rather then just being in the background (but still helping)
3. I like DPS or “Tanking”, as a necro i am built as more of a healing support type character, and healing just isn’t my fortay. I don’t feel like it is as needed in GW2 as other MMO’s as all class’s have their own pretty good healing ability’s.
4. I like leading a group and being important.

I really cant decide between these class’s and im just looking for some more insight. I plan on doing a lot of “dungeoning” and fractals. I am looking for a solid class that will contribute a lot to the group, and even possibly help carry a not so good group. Any insight or advice would be greatly appreciated. THANKS

if you would feel like helping either mesmer or guardian.

A skilled mesmer is awesome to have in a dungeon group, i usually dont see many mesmers around and most of those that i group with just keep camping with greatsword at range. Only after i started leveling a mesmer i noticed how useful they can be, even that focus pull can be traited for reflection, which i found amazing. Most mesmers dont even use feedback though. And if you are good at skipping in dungeons you can port the rest of the group, you also have access to stealth.

The problem is that mesmers are very weak at low lvls, they can be difficult to lvl up compared to necros.

Hi, welcome to the game.
I don’t know what kind of necro you’re playing but with marks and wells you CAN contribute a lot, not necessarly by healing but with effects that debuff foes (well of darkness, well of corruption, well of suffering) and somehow buff allies (well of blood, well of power, mark of blood, putrid mark).
Regarding your problem: since you like “DPS” and “tanking” and “leading”, “helping a not so good group” and “being important”, probably a Guardian covers them all, possibly with (AoE) shouts and some damage prevention. But if you need to test your skill as a MMO player, you can basically do the same things with an Engi (I’m totally not competent with Engi, so you better check their forums).
Hope to have clarified a bit :-)
Best regards

A personal note: don’t give up the necro pleeeeease… it’s such an interesting and underextimated profession… pleeeeease… it’s way better than every other class! Yay! (OK, now I’m joking, but still…)

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Guide-DPS-Necro-for-PvE

Try this for your Necro. If you dont like it, you can still reroll to whatever you want.

Warrior is an one-man Army. You’re very strong on your own and contribute to the group by killing things faster and make your friends kill things faster, which is pretty important. But you cant help them in a direct way, when someone is down, all you can do is walk to him and press rezz.

For Mesmer see Casmurro’s post.

Guardians on the other hand are Warriormesmers with the best out of both worlds
Good dps, Reflection, CC, Might, Aegis and so on. On the other side, to achieve all this, you need to sacrifice every bit of survivability – a good guardian is not easy to play. But playing a high dps class who still supports like a champ is imho frigging awesome! It’s like Super-Ninja-Jesus with a plate armor.

Warrior: Simple and straight forward, probably the hardest class to f up. Great offensive buffing through banners and fgj. Every group should have 1-2 warriors just for that. Okay damage but great selfbuffing, hence your damage advantage shrinks the more group buffs your group throws out. Great base defense and mobility, okay at evading damage with evades from GS-Whirl and maybe offhand sword.

Guardian: Much like a defensive version of warrior. Meh at offensive groupbuffs (can stack some short lasting vuln up relatively fast), but can put out some group defense without giving up much DPS (reflects, condition removal, aegis, blinds, to a lesser extent hammer auto for perma prot). Good damage if buffed by the group. Good base defense, but you cant just sit it out like warrior. Defense is a bit more skill based with a lot of blocks and evades that shouldnt just be spammed. You got the GS pull and Line/Ring of warding to group mobs.

Mesmer: Sits very much in the same position as Guardian, bundling the desirable defensive support for the group with the least DPS lost possible. However it feels a bit different playing mes. Much like a catalyst mes will be bad in bad groups and make strong groups even stronger. Your utility skills are almost exclusively supporty. Weak self buffing, boonshare signet is conditional but a strong skill. Good condition removal and strong reflect, although it requires a bit more thought than guardians projectile protection. Mes is a light armor class but has a huge array of damage evasion at disposal, you shouldnt die a lot as mes. Damage relies heavily on your phantasms, without them you hit like a wet noodle, with them your damage is good. Phantasm upkeep doesnt work very well for me but others seem to be happy with it. Mes has a nice pull-skill as well.

Rating scale: Meh<Okay<Good<Great
I assume berserker gear and traits.

For testing warrior and guardian you could probably just create one and play them to lv30. Mes really isnt that great solo so its hard to rate it before you played one in a group. Maybe watch some dungeon guides played on a Mesmer to get a feel for it.

Play guardian. You can lead through kiting and tanking the majority of the hits if your party is below par.

Even if you’re a support guard you’ll grant DPS to your party members and you (Staff Empower, grant longer survivoribility to zerk classes, grouping monsters together with greatsword, etc)

A lot of dungeons goes a lot smoother with a knowledgeable guardian: CM, SE, AC, TA, HOTW, to list a few. The biggest assets a guardian have is improving DPS, pulling groups, kiting mobs, removing conditions, and reflecting projectiles. I can’t encourage enough how important Wall of Reflection is. When you’re the only guardian in a party and you’re in one of the above dungeons, PLEASE USE IT. You will see some crazy damage done while also protecting your party from getting hit by it.

Since people focus so much on your primary ideas, I’d like so say a bit about elementalists and the already mentioned engineer.

There are few classes that can compete with the might and fury stacking capabilities of an elementalist. In addition, if employed right, the conjured weapons can make a lot of difference. Plus you have a ton of flexibility (in theory, sadly not all of that is that effective) since you are the only class that acutally sports 4 weapon sets instead of 2 (engi being the one exception).
The “increased flexibility” however comes at a price. Elementalits are notoriously squishy in my experience. If you’re used to a necro, that will probably put you off while learning to play the class.

When it comes to the engineer, I don’t think I know any other class that needs that amount of micromanagement when trying to use it at peak effectivenes. The engineer can provide an acceptable to decent amount of offensive and defensive support for the group, but it will most likely far less obvious compared to what a guardian or mesmer are doing. Their shiny light show alone will make sure of that.
The drawback with the engineer? Lower than average damage output. At least in my experience.

All in all however, given the resumé about your playstyle, I’d also suggest you try a guardian.

Wow, i didn’t expect so many great replies. Thanks a lot all of you. I’m thinking guardian will be the best bet. I have always been kind of turned off by them, but after reading some posts they do actually sound exactly like what i was looking for. I think i will leave Mesmer as a side project for now, as i am very intrigued by them. I have to go to work soon, so more reply s are welcomed. I will make my decision when i get home haha :P

Good luck with guardian!

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-DPS-Guardian-for-PVE/first

Mesmer is probably the best class in the game currently and guardian is probably one of the worst. That may change in the future but for the time being that’s the state of things. Both are decent for your playstyle though if you’re looking to the long term.

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Mesmer is probably the best class in the game currently and guardian is probably one of the worst. That may change in the future but for the time being that’s the state of things. Both are decent for your playstyle though if you’re looking to the long term.

alot of stuff you say is right. but this is just the most stupid thing i have ever seen from you.

necromancers are so underatted and i would advise you try to give necro a solid try. i have an incredible necro build that wrecks in dungeons. from huge amounts of crowd control, to healing and buffing allies, condition removal for allies and wrecking havok on enemy boons. just dont run MM as it is a silly gimmic build and nobody will take you seriously but necro can bring some serious assets to a dungeon group once you get used to learning what their true strengths are and how to build an effective one. if you want your necro to wreck kittens in dungeons shoot me a pm sometime and i can show you some things that aren’t being done as their are few necros in general and they really don’t have any kind of a meta to speak of. necro is a straight beast though i assure you

ok

There’s a surplus of Warriors if you PUG, with most PUG Guardians being horribly bad staff-auto attackers. Go Guardian so you can carry.

Tman.6349:

necro build that wrecks in dungeons. […] but necro can bring some serious assets to a dungeon group. […] necro is a straight beast though i assure you

If there was a tool to measure delusion in human beings it would explode on this post.

shoot me a pm sometime and i can show you some things

NoTrigger.8396:

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Mesmer is probably the best class in the game currently and guardian is probably one of the worst. That may change in the future but for the time being that’s the state of things. Both are decent for your playstyle though if you’re looking to the long term.

alot of stuff you say is right. but this is just the most stupid thing i have ever seen from you.

Yeah, well, I get that a lot but I’m always right in the end, huh?

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

NoTrigger.8396:

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Mesmer is probably the best class in the game currently and guardian is probably one of the worst. That may change in the future but for the time being that’s the state of things. Both are decent for your playstyle though if you’re looking to the long term.

alot of stuff you say is right. but this is just the most stupid thing i have ever seen from you.

Yeah, well, I get that a lot but I’m always right in the end, huh?

Even if you’re right, throwing such a statement without proof into a discussion is not very smart, is it?

Is this a discussion about Necromancers?

Also, to the guy spouting off about Necros being whatever machines you claim them to be, well… I guess you can’t stop people from playing what they want. I main Necromancer, but I also know my place.

I think Guardian would be fun for you, but if you plan on using a decent build, you’ll have to get used to how fragile Guardian is without skillful play. Good luck.

Gnat.9405:

Is this a discussion about Necromancers?

No it’s not, sorry. Edited. But i think my point is still valid.