Guild Wars 2

I have been thinking of getting back into PVE (Fractals, Raids) And I know that my old Engineer is really good in fractals, but not really useful in raids. I have a warrior. But, I have a set of ascended Light armor I made for WvW — And I would love to be able to use it in raids/pve, but need help picking a class.

I don’t really like the necro thematically, so its basically Mesmer or Ele.

I have heard mesmer is really hard for Pve, where you have to have a perfect rotation, often times tank, and know the ins and outs of everything with sounds both fun, and daunting. Is this the case? Is it as hard as people say?

As for ele, is it entertaining to play? Is it mostly 1 button spam? I like how much I have to do stuff with engi, but sometimes hate how theres so much to do as engi lol.

Which would you recommend, and why?

I’m looking for one that keeps me on my toes (active playstyle, kinda like engi), rewards me for good play, with a few diff playstyles and lets me always be useful/wanted in groups :P

Thanks!

First, Engi is fine in raids, it’s just not optimal very often so people discount it, plus the fact that for every Engi that plays well you have 5 that will stick to flamethrower >.<

Anyways, Dagger builds on Ele are the closest thing to the Engi playstyle IMO. You have your core rotation but you can deviate from that as needed. Every other Air rotation you go fire and hit those skills, the other break might be just a flash of fire and back to air, or you could have Arcane traits and go earth granting protection, or water to share auras. Then you might go Water and do a quick healing rotation to take pressure off. CC rotations of Air4, Earth3, Water4 or something like that. Very active and fun with plenty of variations to mix things up.

I’m not a fan of Staff Ele though, and that’s what you’ll be asked to use in raids most often. If you’re not using Staff you’re no better than an Engi in that likely you would have been better off playing Thief.

Engi my main and I had switch from power to condi build base how long you been away. Viper one of the newer armor sets I find a happy balance on power and condi. It all about skill rotation and fields. In raids I happier using my warrior which is more simple dps rotation but I am running PS warrior.

Flamethrower ok to be in the dps rotation but it only for the quick fire field or cc then back to dps. I know when I started playing engi I camped ft. But now the power of combos add so much dps, booms and healing.

Neco are getting A lot of love lately with good dps and being tankie as hell and super group condi removal. Once they where next to useless in groups but now a lot love. It even started to be elitist with neco only groups.

Ele great but after the last balance patch I find I am dps with a little off healing or healing with off dps. So you just need to pick your main role or have 2 armor sets. Great at giving booms which everyone loves. I agree it like engi but more forgiving if you miss your combo. But, sometimes you get 2 shot downed if you look away.

But general playing any class well takes time and a learning curve. Thief only the class I hate to see because it so hard to play well. So many of the bad players think they playing great and they are not. Note, I do not play well on my thief.

That’s just me 2 cents.

Your impression of mesmer is fairly accurate. Most raids run one chronomancer as the main source of quickness, which is essential. Messing up your rotation can cause serious dps losses to your group. You will also be expected to tank in most groups, which can take getting used to. You have to block or evade most attacks. Likely, your first boss will be VG which is one of the hardest to tank well. I usually don’t recommend doing this as your first raid class.

Most groups still bring a few eles to most fights even though they might not be optimal in some situations. There is a lot that you can do as ele if you take the time to learn how to optimize the rotation. There is definitely less to do than engi, but you use most of your skills across two attunements. It’s a lot of fun and probably better to start raids with since you won’t get put into a critical role.