Guild Wars 2

I’m looking for a melee/magic class that isn’t an ele or mesmer.

I’m looking at the Necro and the Guardian, but I only want to pick one.

I LOVE melee casters. I love hitting people with weapons and shooting them with spells when they get farther away it just makes me giddy.

Most of my time will be spent melee or mid-ranged/melee, but I want to still be able to kill things from ranged if I can.

Question is: What should I be? Necro or Guardian? PvE? PvP?

It is of my knowledge that (in PvE at least) the necro has a bunch of survivability because of high base health + life steal + death shroud, and it has the range……but can a necro survive as a dagger necro in melee range in PvP?

It is also of my knowledge that the Guardian is labeled as the “melee caster” but can a guardians still effectively play ranged? (I like to be ranged and shoot things on big boss fights and stuff, but melee while questing and killing a bunch of little guys)

I’ve spent most of my time in gw2 on a necromancer, mainly using the dual daggers setup. I don’t really use conditions, but still deal respectable amounts of raw damage while boasting very high survivability, all while in melee range. I don’t do quite as much damage as a warrior, for example, but playing a necro is still very fun and definitely feels like a melee-caster. My experience has mostly been in PvE, however, so I can’t really tell you how they fare in PvP. They’ve got plenty of way to inflict chill, if that helps any.

As for range, the only 1200 option is the staff (though I believe the focus can be traited to reach 1200 as well). If you’d just like to sort of hang back while dealing some damage, you could try the axe or the scepter (scepter revolves mostly around conditions though). I usually just use spectral grasp or dark path to get into melee range.

I haven’t actually tried the guardian, but apparently they suffer a bit at range. I think their scepter has ranged abilities though. They’re also very survivable, what with their frequent boons, blocking etc… Aesthetically, they fit the melee-caster theme as well, seeing as their melee attacks create blue, glowy effects.

I don’t know much about D/D necro, but I know firsthand and from others in my guild that guardian is extremely weak at range. Also, necro is a condition-heavy, damage-over-time class while guardian is angled toward support (but can be built for damage).

I leveled a Guardian to 80 and they are pretty fun, reminds me of a paladin if you do melee. They are kind of weak at range though. You can be melee and ranged as a ranger and be pretty good. I haven’t played Necromancer enough to tell you much about them.

If it counts any, I made a conditionmancy necro about a month ago. Played him to 30, and he was incredibly survivable compared to ele and mesmer at the same level. I was able to solo my personal story five levels above me and wander in areas where I shouldn’t have gone by sticking conditions and slows on mobs and kiting them around until they died. The class has one of the highest HP pools, and Death Shroud on top of that. Cloth is not always squishy here.

However, this was with a scepter/dagger and staff build. As I said prior, I have no experience with D/D or 30+ necro.

Guardian is about as survivable as it gets, imo. I use scepter/focus on mine, with sword/shield for variety. My dps isn’t huge but with my traits and utilities it’s very hard for me to go down let alone be defeated. I can support my friends and save myself even in really long fights. Outliving the opposition is the key in GW2, hey?

Guardian is 80; I have a Necro at 27 or so and she does tend to melt faces and recover her health easily mostly using staff at that level. I’ll have to see what happens in dungeons.

My Thief is 80 and is my main, yet while he can live through a lot when I dodge and stealth a lot (and is super for flitting through Orr), I don’t think I have him spec’d out right or maybe I just don’t play him that well. He can live a lot but everyone else seems more effective in the dungeon fights. Otoh when I have to go into WvW for the monthly he’s my choice. Running away is a useful skill there! And shortbow gets me aoe.

I can’t answer to Rangers and Engineers, I tried them in beta and found them to involve too much micromanaging for my tastes.

Lucky Charmz.5089:

domxnik.1453:

I leveled a Guardian to 80 and they are pretty fun, reminds me of a paladin if you do melee. They are kind of weak at range though. You can be melee and ranged as a ranger and be pretty good. I haven’t played Necromancer enough to tell you much about them.

I have looked at Ranger a bit too…but I don’t like having a pet.

Then again…I don’t like the necromancer being “squishy” because of it’s armor…and I don’t like that the guardian doesn’t have range…so there’s at least one thing I don’t like about each.

Would the ranger be better than both? I’m not incredibly fond of having a pet, but if it means I can be effective in both melee range and long range, sign me up!

I suppose that would add the Engineer and the Thief into the field as well.

I just want someone who has high survivability (in solo PvE can handle a lot) but can be viable in melee and long range in PvP. Guardian…Necro…Engineer…Ranger…Thief.

Don’t say Ele, Mesmer, or Warrior because I don’t want to be any of those..

I wouldn’t say any profession is better than one another since this game is based more around player skill. Most professions start off worse than others, like the elementalist, but at level 80 with the right build it’s unstoppable.

Back on topic with the ranger: The ranger is know for ranged (obviously…), but can do some good damage at melee range, too. I’m level 77 with mine right now and have been messing around with the sword. Only problem with the sword is that is has short cast times, so when you’re attacking it’s hard to move. If you run into a problem though, Hornet Sting can get you a fair distance from the enemy, then you can use the ability again to activate Monarch’s Leap to get you back into battle. If you choose ranger and run with a one-hand, my advice is to run with a torch. Most people recommend the war horn, but I don’t since I have Signet of the Hunt (10% run increase).

Greatsword is another option for melee. I haven’t used greatsword much, so I can’t say how good it is. Here is the ranger weapon list if you haven’t seen them yet. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/List_of_ranger_skills

The ranger is a nice class. But don’t start the profession and not expect any challenges. That goes for any profession.

I play both guardian and necro and can tell you you’ll probably be happier with necro. I do D/D in pvp sometimes and while you’re not gonna hit the top of the board often, you can do fairly well, especially when everyone expects you to kite them constantly and swing a little scepter around, but instead you get in their face and slice em up. And whether you choose staff or axe for your ranged (or even scepter, which isnt bad but its slow to build up the damage) you’ll find they both pack a pretty decent punch if done right. However, for guardian you might do more melee dps but you’re not gonna get anywhere near ranged compared to necro. Ranged on a guardian is mainly to stall for time (not really counting staff which actually does decent damage but has short range and not always viable). So according to your original post, I can say with fair certainty you’ll be happier on the necro. As far as survivability, it’s about the same honestly if you get good enough with the DS on necro.