Guild Wars 2

Hey everyone! I’ve been having a ton of fun with my Guardian, which I have brought to level 74! However, I need a change in action from just rushing in and swinging my sword wildly.

I’ve already begun on a Mesmer (level 13) and a Thief (level 4). While I will continually play my thief off and on, my Mesmer is incredibly aggravating to play and so I’m searching for a new cloth class.

I’m torn between a Necromancer -OR- Elementalist. Both of them look enjoyable, but I’m a little uninformed in how they play.

1) Do they solo PvE well?

2) Are they useful in dungeons?

3) Are they useful in WvW and sPvP?

4) Do they have multiple optimal weapon combos to choose from or is it pretty one-sided (EX: Greatsword Guardian)

5) Are they fun to play I.E. not sitting still and spamming.

Any other things you can let me know about we be awesome as well. Thanks!

I’ve only seriously played an elementalist. From what I can tell from my own experience and prowling the forums is that they’re not the easiest class to master, and are currently seen as underpowered by some (with whom I agree).
For elementalists I’ll answer the question, for necro’s I’ll let someone else do it :P
1) Yes
2) Depends on the dungeon, and some teams outright won’t let you in because you’re an elementalist, for some stupid reason.
3) I’ve barely dabbled in PvP, but staff Eles seem quite useful.
4) Essentially 3 weapon sets (you can’t swap during combat). S/D for relatively balanced solo play, D/D for aggressive close-range high dps, Staff for AoE spam and support.
5) I love playing an elementalist. It’s practically impossible to sit spamming one or two skills since you’re useless if you’re not swapping attunements. I’d say it’s as fun as it gets. I have a noobie guardian, ranger, and engineer. None compare to the fun of playing an elementalist.

Take this with a grain of salt, it is opinion after all

I’ll try to give you a run-down on the Necromancer:

I started playing it out of nostalgia – I wanted to reproduce the good ol’ times I had with my Necrodude in GW1.
So far I find it lacking. I’ve played a Minion Master+Staff ever since I started playing the class and, to be quite honest, minions seem to be coming straight from hell with nonexistant AI. You have basically no means of controlling them (especially the Flesh Golem tends to just go randomly berserk and run into enemies you don’t even want to tackle).
As soon as I get the gear I’ll switch to Axe/Focus (more direct approach to damage, support of group through stacking of vulnerability etc.) and hope for the best.

Now to answer your questions:
1) Yes. What I’ve seen so far lets me believe that MM is actually one of the more potent ways of going through PvE.
2) There is no particular situation I have encountered so far where one would rather have a Necro over any other class. But then again I rarely find myself in need for ANY specific class.
3) Can’t give a qualified statement on that – haven’t played enough of either.
4) Yes, depending on what you’re trying to achieve with your build you may have to switch weapons for optimal effectiveness.
5) If Anet miraculously ends up giving me some sort of control over my pets, I’ll recommend the class heartily to anyone asking me about it. Until then I can only give you a ‘Meh…’.

It seems the viable PvP classes are thief, mesmer and guardian, so don’t bother with either class if you want to PvP.

In PvE there are more viable classes, but the necro is heavily bugged and the ele is just useless. If you really absolutely have to choose between these two, go with necro because their bugs are getting fixed and it doesn’t look like eles are getting buffed any time soon (the latest patch even nerfed them).

Eles are fun until you realise everyone else kills twice as fast by pressing “1” than you do by frantically using 15 spells in every fight.

Well I got my neceomancer lvl 80 yesterday and I can reasure you that it has been a great experience.

While I focus on condition dmg with many AOE attacks I could easily switch weapons an focus great condition and direct dmg on a single enemy.

So necromancer can be great at PvE as well as dungeons. I cannot be 100% sure avout PvP though since I have only tried it a couple of times. But, so far I am satisfied also with PvP.

Yes necromancer has tons of weapon clmbos to choose an if you combine them wjth the right slots skills the results are amazing. For example I have scepter main hand and dagger off hand. These two combine with the slot skills Plague and Epidemic are able to do immense damage to any number of enemies in the area around you. And when needed you can switch to an axe main hand and war horn of hand and take down single enemies while still dealing some damage to the rest with the slot skills u have.

As I already said I have had a really good experience with the necromancer from the very start to the end. Also yes you better not stay still spamming moves unless you have a crush to the NPC that repairs your armor.

Well for the elementalist I can’t say much since mine is only lvl 18 but it looks like a fun class.

I hope that helped. :)

Killing mobs PvE is something every class is capable of. The question is: how many can you kill, how many levels above you? In the end, if you don’t farm faster than other classes there is no point in playing that class.

Don’t play an Ele. I’m a lvl 80 ele and I started playing a thief. While the gameplay is ridiculously simpler, it is far, far easier. I find it more fun to play the Ele, but the amount of effort to play the ele does not equate to better results. It is just that every class is easy mode in comparison.

So…. what did u pick? :P

My brother just sits and spams his AoE skills on his necro with minions so that seems pretty boring to me, I think he uses staff… whichever weapon gives necro 4 AoE skills.

I’d go Ele if you like to stay on your toes, you will be switching between elements constantly and I enjoy them in pvp/

Staff ele here, you need to switch between earth and fire frequently, while sometimes going water for healing and slowdown areas. Open with erupt, which bleeds all in the vicinity, wait to use it again, switch to fire, inflict burn, then facetank on your ground AoE lava. Underwater, earth and wind seem the most useful, though fire is good for the #2 skill AoE, but their #1 skill is weak compared to wind. Earth is great against heavily armored foes and those with powerful projectile attacks (like the chaos storm risen) because of DoT damage and the magnetic field.

EnochDagor.6185:

Don’t play an Ele. I’m a lvl 80 ele and I started playing a thief. While the gameplay is ridiculously simpler, it is far, far easier. I find it more fun to play the Ele, but the amount of effort to play the ele does not equate to better results. It is just that every class is easy mode in comparison.

This. I know melee should have more damage to compensate for lacking the safety of range, but good grief! You also get dashing pirate hats at around level 50 ^_^

Heh, you think Ele’s hard? Master the mesmer

Rukia.4802:

My brother just sits and spams his AoE skills on his necro with minions so that seems pretty boring to me, I think he uses staff… whichever weapon gives necro 4 AoE skills.

I’d go Ele if you like to stay on your toes, you will be switching between elements constantly and I enjoy them in pvp/

Well to be honest i don’t use staff w/ my necro cause i also find it boring… also the AOE skills don’t have such a good range. Also tell your brother that of he doesn’t start moving around and dodging he will regret it in a few lvls…