Guild Wars 2

Hello guys. I’m looking at building a new character. I get bored easily and like to try different things. I’m playing through with my Dagger Dagger Ele and my ranger at the minute and do love them both.

So I’m looking at putting something different together. Just wondering what are the pro’s and con’s to both the above classes. I not really tried either and would like too.

Mesmer = pro, necro = con
IMO
I’m sure others have more to add though, too late for me to go into detail.

I leveled my mesmer first and now am leveling my necro. To be honest, both have been fun. I find the necro easier to play at lower levels than the mesmer was. Once I unlocked all the mesmer traits and skills, she is easy to play.

It would help if you would say where you want to play them. PvE? WvW? sPvP? Dungeons? I have ones I prefer for different places.

Mainly pve and dungeons. I have not even looked at wvw yet.

Even though Mesmers don’t get easy to level until you’re 40+ I hear, Mesmers are still better for solo roaming in WvW, helps a lot in zergs, as a Mesmer you bring more support than a Necromancer in dungeon groups, and a higher single target dps I believe.

Not sure about spvp though. Basically Mesmers are ArenaNets golden child, while Necromancer is that red-headed step child that no one wants to talk about.

With dungeons, it depends on which dungeon/path and what the other group members are bringing. For example, in some dungeon paths you would be better with two elementalists in your group, for some dungeons you would really want a mesmer along.

Personal preferences that you have will come into play, but if it were me, I would chose to level a mesmer first. Not only due to their usefulness, but because they have skills that are entertaining and fun to use. And actually that’s what I did, my mesmer is 80, my necro is being leveled now and is in the 50’s.

I herd that mesmer do not really start showing its true colours till 40+

Pretty hard to decide as I like to mix my play style up. Sometimes I like to get range on my weapons and sometimes I like to get in the thick of it.

jknrich.1549:

I herd that mesmer do not really start showing its true colours till 40+

Pretty hard to decide as I like to mix my play style up. Sometimes I like to get range on my weapons and sometimes I like to get in the thick of it.

What you say about true colors is true. Mesmer doesn’t shine until 40+, but it isn’t awful right away. Though you need to learn to kite and you need to learn fast or else a veteran/champ will eat you alive.

But if you’re interested in a mix between melee and range, I really suggest trying a phantasm build using Greatsword and Sword/Pistol.

Basically you start off with the greatsword at a long range (with decent AoE) and when the range cuts to medium, you swap to Sword/Pistol, fire off a few shots, then use the sword to teleport beside the enemy and melee him while invulnerable, then rip some boons off with the sword auto attack. And if things get sticky, you teleport or portal away, swap back to the greatsword and start back up the cycle.

I find it’s a lot of fun in PvE, PvP, and WvW.

And like a lot of people said, you can bring a lot of utility to the table with teleportation, reflection, and boon/condition removal.

My advice

1. make a necro
2. spec fully into minions
3. get a commander icon and lead a group in either SoR or JQ, T1 WvW.

I feel like Necro AoE definitely outshines Mesmer AoE, but that might just be me (also, I don’t like the staff much on my mesmer). Mesmer does have better single-target dps though, and its class mechanics are quite fun.

Necro is quite a bit easier to play in the beginning, and I adore its survibability. Mesmer is more of a ‘favourite child’ though, so you’ll probably have an easier time finding a random dungeon group on a mesmer.

I have both a level 80 Mesmer and Necro, and almost exclusively do PvE and dungeons. I still love them both and would have a hard time choosing if I could only play one.

I play the Necro maximizing Curses and Soul Reaping, so it specializes in Condition DoT and Death Shroud mode. Main weapon set is Sceptor/Dagger with Staff as the alternate.

I maximize Illusions and Chaos with the Mesmer and use a Phantasm/Clone mix. Main weapons are Greatsword and Sword/Torch.

Necro:

Pros – great survivability because of Death Shroud; great AoE spells; great DoT; Death Shroud mode does amazing damage; Lich Form elite does amazing damage; Spectral Walk adds mobility/speed

Cons – not much burst DPS; average group abilities

Mesmer:

Pros – nice damage output with weapon skills; clones/phantasms are both offensive (shatter) and defensive (decoys); second only to Thief in stealth; great group abilities like Time Warp, Feedback, and Portal; tremendous fun once you learn the profession

Cons – somewhat difficult to learn/master; no speed/quickness skills; survivability can be tricky

For me, I prefer the Mesmer in dungeons because Feedback and Time Warp are nice group skills. I also think the Mesmer is more fun to play in general. I prefer the Necro for Cursed Shore farming because the AoE wells and AoE weapon skills take down multiple foes in tight mobs, not to mention the Death Shroud Life Transfer skill and Lich Form elite skill that absolutely trash mobs.

Biased opinion probably but i find mesmer more useful at end game. Between timewarp, portal, null field, blink and feedback among other things you will be useful at almost every dungeon. Weapon wise you can go condition, direct damage, melee or range though not all at the same time. Survival wise, you have mid hp, clones and stealth. Of course it is not without its cons. Mesmer have poor aoe and its swiftness uptime is poorer. In other words, it is not as good for farming. Low level is also harder to play until you have access to the better skills and traits.

Necromancer on the other hand is easy to play from the start. It had high hp and excellent aoe and effects. I don’t play a MM necro but supposedly that is also a easy way to play. A bulk of a necro arsenal is conditions. If you decide to go for a power necro, then you have to go either dagger or axe which are more or less melee weapons.

Depends what dungeons you want to do. If you want money fast, I suggest Mesmer. Needed for COF P1 farm.