Guild Wars 2

Hello there!

I need a little help with class choice. So far I’ve been playing lvl 80 Mesmer, but i found it… boring (I play PvE, not PvP). Also the only weapons i really like are GS and Staff, and it’s hard to make build that supports both of them.

So i decide to reroll to a new class, which will be my new main (I want to put all my efforts into that new character, make a legendary weapon etc).
I want to play a magic-type class (I like their armours best), so the choice is between Necro and Ele.

Most of the time I play solo PvE (hearts, events, exploration). In future I would like to go for Dungeons (as DPS or some kind of support). I’m not interestet in PvP for now.

So which of those two classes – Necro or Ele – will be better for me? Which will have more playable builds, useful skills, survavilibity? Oh, and I really don’t like do die often.
I don’t care about recent nerfs/boosts because everything may change with next patch.
Unfortunatley I don’t have time to level up both (eh, work) and then decide, that’s why I’m asking you.

Thanks for all replies!

Elementalist. Necro isn’t very desirable for PvE as stacks cap at 25. If there’s more that one necro in a raid or dungeon group then they will be stepping over each other. They are among one of the weakest classes for PvE but pretty good in PvP if you ever get into that.

Choose which you feel you will have more fun with.

For solo PvE, young necros and eles are both going to have a hard time, but then again, young mezzies aren’t that easy either – so you may not notice much of a difference in PvE difficulty. Most of the beauty, synergy, and survivability in their builds comes when you finally get those grandmaster traits.

Necro has a ton of viable builds out there (check out iamoneandiamlegion’s Youtube channel, or of course the builds tossed around on the necro forums here or on gw2guru), and can bring moderate DPS with some good offensive party support through the use of wells and boon/condition control. With your large HP pool and condition control you’ll not die much in open world PvE. I actually found open world pretty boring and slow on my necro, but that’s because I leveled to about 65 then crafted the rest of the way (lacking the traits and skills to really test out a build). Life for a conditionmancer mainly is collecting a group of mobs while stacking conditions on one, using a combo of [Blood is Power] [Epidemic] to spread the conditions to other mobs, and running in circles until they all die, repeating said combo when it’s off cooldown. Sometimes your ally (or a friendly passerby) will whack the mob you’re building conditions on and take the wind out of your sails, though. I don’t have experience with petmancers because the pets kinda creep me out.

Eles, unfortunately, are prone to dying with their low HP and light armor – it will be up to your active defenses (positioning, dodging) to keep yourself alive. If you’re bored when playing this class, you’re probably playing it wrong – each weapon set has 20 skills available. They have a few popular PvE builds, and all focus on both DPS and party support. Each weapon set plays very differently, as well, and while you may hate one set, you might fall in love with another. Open world PvE will involve kiting an enemy or two or three and throwing skills at it until it dies, changing to different attunements as you focus on attacking, healing, or controlling.

I know I haven’t told you which one to go for, but that’s because I main an ele and know the class isn’t for everyone I hope my short descriptions help you make an informed decision though! I highly recommend grabbing a Sigil of Bloodlust for an ele or direct damage necro or a Sigil of Corruption for a condi necro – they’ll help you tear through enemies faster (and speed up leveling). And never, ever, go out without eating some cheap food and a sharpening stone (for ele or direct damage necro) or attuning crystal (for condi necro) – it’s an easy way to get even more experience from those kills!

Necros are very good at PVE farming, have many viable builds, and are designed to be able to facetank mobs despite being a light armor profession.

Attument mechanic that ele has, for some this is too much pain in the a##, but for some this mechanic is absolute fun and make other classes too simple. Maybe you should try ele and play in pvp and see if you like attument mechanic. If you don’t like it, you should play necro.

DEKeyzToChaos.7381 gives a good review of both classes.

I have 3 necrosis but only one ele. The ele is stuck at 40+ because I cannot play it properly. shrug. Necrosis have such survivability, build variety, minions if you like, crowd control… The list is endless.
Farming Orr got a bit repetitious for my lvl 80 necro, so he is a dedicated WvW power necro helping with keep defense and open field battles.

Hope you find a satisfying professional. Good luck.

I have one of each. I don’t think you can directly compare them as one being better than the other. It just depends on which class suits you the best. For WvW…for running with a small group or zerg in open field. I prefer my necro. But for Keep and Tower defense / offense…my ele works the best. <shrug>

For PvE….necro, hands down for survivability. That said, dungeon wise…I prefer my ele for the dps.

Roll both and see which one fits your playstyle?

I play both. First, when people think Necro they always think Condition Necro. That’s just because their condition build is pretty good, so lots of people use it. Second, when people think Ele they always think D/D Ele. That’s just because their D/D Bunker build is pretty good, so lots of people use it.

In neither case are those your only options, and honestly I don’t think they’re even the best options. They’re just the easiest.

The take-away is that both of these classes can be built to do almost anything very well, so no matter what you choose there will be a way to build your character to perform well in any area of the game.

That said, Ele is more popular in groups because people think Necros are bad. They aren’t, but once an idea gets traction and becomes a widespread belief it’s difficult to change.

A few core differences to the classes.

Elementalists bring a lot of AoE, no matter which build they use. Some of that AoE is damage, some is healing, some is crowd control. Elementalist damage is somewhat anemic on single-targets unless you specifically build for that (Lightning Hammer is a great way to add a bit of single-target damage on demand). Also, it’s difficult to build an Elementalist without a lot of mobility already baked into the weapon skills. Only Focus and Scepter lack a solid mobility skill, but they have other control/buff effects to compensate.

Necromancers are tough to kill. They bring control effects and debuffs on every weapon set, have a surprising number of condition clears, and have permanent access to Fear in Death Shroud (which also functions as a bucket of extra hitpoints). Their AoE is rather spotty, but they can build around that with Wells if needed. They are usually pretty slow, and only have a few Utility skills that improve their basic mobility. Dark Path (a Death Shroud skill) is a short range teleport, but it needs to hit an enemy to work so it’s far better at chasing/closing than escaping.

Most common complaint of each class, beyond “I don’t do enough damage” is…

Elementalist – “I’m too squishy. I get one-shot.”

Necromancer – “I’m too slow. People just run away from me if they start losing.”

I hope this write-up has been helpful. The two classes can accomplish most of the same things, but have wildly different playstyles. I actually enjoy swapping between them just for a change of pace.

Thank you! You helped me a lot I will start with Necro. I think it is better for my playstyle than Ele.

One more question: Is it good idea to do dungeons on lower levels? I made some with my 80 lvl Mesmer with others lv 80, and I remember it was a bit hard.

Necro minion master with almost the most vitality in the game
versus
Elementalist either spamming aoe’s or just trying to survive with a healing build.

Dungeons are hard but good way to lvl and get lvl 80 gear via tokens easier.