Guild Wars 2

Howdy! Well, as the post states, I’m trying to decide between a Mesmer and a Necromancer. I’ve never really played the Scholar professions much – highest was a 40ish Mesmer.

Now, I like the classes that are fast-paced, dynamic and always moving – with tons of player interaction. A class that you really have to pay attention to to do well. So far I’ve got an 80 Warrior, a 68 Engineer, and a 57 Thief. While all these classes are fun, they do get a bit stale after a while. Since I’ve never had a caster, I thought I’d go that route, see what it’s like. I chose either Mesmer or Necro because I love melee, and I was thrilled to see that both these classes have some melee ability.

So I ask you guys: which Scholar profession do you think would best suit someone who hates standing still, someone who wants to always be switching weapons or skillsets, and just changing all over the place? I hear Elementalists are the kings of dynamism, is this true? I might be able to live without melee ability, but are they a fast-paced caster class?

Thanks.

Elementalist for certain. We do have melee (or rather, ~400-ranged) capability with dual daggers, and it is a very viable and survivable set, so don’t worry about that.

In order to be effective as a D/D elementalist, you have to move constantly, be good at timing dodges, think of ways to combine skills, be creative in skill usage, and practice a lot. Here’s a video of soloing a veteran and myriad normal Risen in Orr. And here’s a video of the infamously immortal daphoenix. EDIT: For contrast, this is a video that shows what happens if you try to facetank on an ele.

You’ll struggle early on, very likely, but it is a very rewarding class when you make it.

Between Necromancer and Mesmer, I would say that Mesmer is more suited to your play style.

elementalist’s gameplay is very mobile if u go with daggers, and you can develop builds centred around attunement swapping, which is very fast paced and engaging. while dagger ele is not strictly speaking a melee combat style, the range is short enough to make it feel like melee.

based on your description, I think you’ll like mesmer. mesmer offers a lot of fun tricks you can pull off with your illusions. you need good timing with your skills and manage your shatters well for max efficiency.
positioning matters a lot with mesmer, and they happen to have a lot of utilities.
not to mention they have several skills that benefits the whole party greatly. (ie. time warp. this is one of my favourite elite skills.)

As the others have said-
if it is between Necro and Mesmer- go Mesmer, they are awesome fun and very tricky and slippery.
I would suggest dagger/ dagger Elementalist though. They are so fast they make your head spin and they are melee death on wheels

I’m a Mesmer on my main PC and I can tell you that mesmers level faster than necros. But if you want a scholar that can deal good melee damage go ele.

Morrigan.2809:

As the others have said-
if it is between Necro and Mesmer- go Mesmer, they are awesome fun and very tricky and slippery.
I would suggest dagger/ dagger Elementalist though. They are so fast they make your head spin and they are melee death on wheels

Pretty much this.=P

Between the 2. Mesmer moves around way more. However a Dagger/Dagger Elementalist does even more.

smeen.4237:

I’m a Mesmer on my main PC and I can tell you that mesmers level faster than necros. But if you want a scholar that can deal good melee damage go ele.

Are you serious? I could never get into my Mesmer BECAUSE he levels so very, very slowly. Necromancer has Locust Signet for 25% movement speed so I was zipping from one heart/event to another, and had warhorn for swiftness when I wanted. Mesmer had to make do with temporal curtain every 25 seconds for swiftness.
Additionally, there was a goodly amount of set-up time each fight, getting up clones and then shattering and hoping some jerk didn’t kill the enemy before my illusions got to him.
Necromancer was far more fun. More set-up before battles, but I could do that on the way and things went down way WAY faster as a necromancer with the stacking vulnerability and direct damage.
What spec were you using to level so fast as a Mesmer?

Based on what you asked for and my own personal experience, I would also suggest you try the mesmer.

I’m a Necromancer… and I suggest you go Elementalists or Mesmer. Mesmer atm are basically the number 1 profession atm imho. Wanted in Fractals, Dungeons, Good at 1v1, good at roaming in wvw, and has so much more support in zerg wvw.

Ramiah.5648:

Are you serious? I could never get into my Mesmer BECAUSE he levels so very, very slowly. Necromancer has Locust Signet for 25% movement speed so I was zipping from one heart/event to another, and had warhorn for swiftness when I wanted. Mesmer had to make do with temporal curtain every 25 seconds for swiftness.
Additionally, there was a goodly amount of set-up time each fight, getting up clones and then shattering and hoping some jerk didn’t kill the enemy before my illusions got to him.
Necromancer was far more fun. More set-up before battles, but I could do that on the way and things went down way WAY faster as a necromancer with the stacking vulnerability and direct damage.
What spec were you using to level so fast as a Mesmer?

I could say that I cheated because I had the guide next to me and I swapped weapons almost immediately after entering the game. I’ve been using GS since level 5. It works so much better than Scepter for me. It’s a personal preference though.