Guild Wars 2

I want to do damage. Whats a good profession that does a lot of damage?

And why?

Elementalist.
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Elementalist…Necromancer and Mesmer can do good damage, but they are way better support in dungeons from my experiences.

On my level 80 Elementalist I actually have a DPS crit build with support built in. I only hit for roughly 2.5k damage crits while in air (Trait points are all in air and water with 10 in arcane) but I can also heal for upwards of 2k using a scepter/focus build. You also have insane survivability with these traits, weapon set and using cantrips for your utility skills. I strongly advise you do NOT go glass cannon with power and precision, you WILL be one hit in dungeons. A hybrid damage/support build is best, and Elementalists do it amazingly well when built correctly. If you would like my full build I can list it off for you including everything I’m using.

@Sisho: I would be interested in seeing that build—I’m working on mine (only 17, but shes getting bigger every day) and was leaning towards a similar set of traits. I hadn’t given it proper research as it was still a ways off.

Alright well I threw the traits and skills set up into this calculator to see: http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#MzsMM9cobTvMobTvM0x0xamsacsqV

(First air major trait can be swapped out for 20% CD reduction on Glyphs which is nice for the elemental). Essentially your crits can stack vulnerability pretty well, since most attacks in air attunement with those weapons are low CD and fire pretty rapidly (Number 2 and 3 can be fired while channeling number 1 even), and all your cantrips can be activated while channeling as well. The focus provides incredible survivability (Especially against ranged enemies). Mostly you will stay in air attunement for all your damage, flipping to earth for protection (Elemental Attunement trait) on top of some extra conditions, a blind and even more survivability skills. Then if you or your party is in need of a heal, switching to water automatically gives everyone nearby regeneration, and your water trident (number 3) does a nice AOE 2k heal as well as a bit of damage on enemies. You also have access to a nice chill and daze while in water, so if you have to pop a heal, you might as well hit that chill as well. This build requires little actual aiming aside from your heal, so it is really easy to use even in the heat of combat, just make good use of your attunement swapping buffs since they help the entire part.

Gear wise it is really personal preference. My gear is a mixture. All my accessories are ruby (power/precision/crit dmg) Then my actual armor is a mixture of a few pieces with power/precision/toughness, and my chest and leggings with precision/vitality/healing. I have yet to actual decide on runes, but I will probably go with something in the toughness, vitality or healing power area.

so necromancer?

necro can do pretty decent damage (condition) if you’re not competing for bleed stacks with 3 other people.
ele also has some pretty good support in dungeons (more for the buffing of group and combo fields rather than in terms of cc or mob debuffs)

it really depends on your playstyle. I’d argue mesmer is best for spvp, however. All 3 are good for wvw