Guild Wars 2

So I hit 80 on my necro and I’m ready to start a new toon. I want a support caster type. I’ve never been much of a melee kind of person. Is mesmer the way to go for what I’m looking to do?

You can play Guardian with Staff and Scepter.

Is ranged guard better support then a mesmer?

Well… I bet many would probably say guardian offer more support with boons than mesmers. They both offer a nice amt of projectile reflection/negation. GS is mesmers ranged weapon and offers good spike dmg but not so great dps. Guardians staff/scepter i believe has better dps. However, I wouldn’t recommend always being at range.

Depend what you want by support, guardian at range is bad, maybe you need to range, but mostly, you stay at melee. Running around mob auto attacking with you staff doesn’t help.
So, if you want to bet at range and support your team, Ele can be good with a staff, and you can put fire/water field on the group while you’re doing dmg, can help with auras, etc. Engee can be a great support, might stacking/elixir gun.
But keep in mind, if you want to range, don’t stay at 1200, stay close to your teamates, not in melee, but close enough to benefit from boons and give boons to them.

If you’re not a melee kind of person, GW2 isn’t the game for you.

The entire mechanics are based around ranged being a way to get the heat off while offering some support to those still in melee range. The bulk of your damage is done in melee, and that’s been true since the first beta event.

My necro does just fine at ranged with the condition build. Maybe I’ll go melee guard and see if I like it. Thanks for the input everyone.

If you’re not interested so much in melee, stick to PvP/WvW.

If you camp range in PvE “supporting”, then well you’re not really doing that much to help.

That’s probably the hardest part for new players to accept, that in PVE you’re so much better at melee.

Justdeifyme.9387:

You can play Guardian with Staff and Scepter.

Please don’t do this…..

Staff/Sceptor Guards, Bearbow Rangers, and any other ranged abomination makes me want to cry… Unless your team decided to range a boss, do not roll range primary.

I’m new to lvl 80 on my necro and the groups I’ve run with have had no issue with me being ranged and we have had no issues completing paths. I’m sure I could do more DMG and less support with dagger/war but I don’t enjoy that play style on that toon. Any way this really isn’t what the thread was about but I guess I should have known better on here. Thanks to all who tried to help with the op.

Stubie.5834:

Is ranged guard better support then a mesmer?

If you can’t stay alive in melee end-game, you might as well go Ele or Engie

Guardians do pathetic damage with ranged and mesmer damage is all about phant & clone spam shatter which you might find to be too much effort for what it does … especially if you have difficulty timing feedback.

Stubie.5834:

I’m new to lvl 80 on my necro and the groups I’ve run with have had no issue with me being ranged and we have had no issues completing paths.

Which paths… and by “no issues” how many times did you actually die (details matter if you want real advice) …. Your Necro wasn’t that one in full Menhlo’s Armor I guided through Arah was he?

Did path 1 and 3 so far. We died a few times on lupi but like I said I needed to learn the mechanics. Nope that wasn’t me I’ve only been with guildies. Once again a bit off topic but thanks for your input.

1 and 3 of Arah that is. I’ve done quite a few in the other dungeons.

Well if you can get through Path1 with necro … then there’s no reason you can’t atleast run 1 melee weapon on-swap on whatever is the next class you pick… You don’t HAVE to melee lupicus either. (but it takes a lot longer than is reasonable IMO on guardian when running Staff/Scepter …trust me, I’ve had to do it too many times …some other class choice would just be a lot less awkward when doing mostly ranged dmg.)

Also don’t forget that Warrior is ironically one of the best “support” classes for some of the newer content we’re seeing where we’re getting a lot more conditions & mobility checks thrown at us. It’s hard to argue against such easy team might-stacking

Melee really is the way to go in PvE… However there are always some situations (some bosses eg. One of the bosses in TA ppl like to range). Mesmer staff is great for ranged support, winds of chaos and chaos storm are both good for boon sharing but it’s still better to remain close to your party for all the boons they put out. Mesmers also have great support utilities null field, feedback, time warp, and the boon sharing signet. Elementalist staff is great for putting down combo fields and their weapon summons are great for more damage eg. Frost bow killing the burrows in AC. I never really got into engie so I can’t help you there… Good luck with whatever you do..