Guild Wars 2

I can’t decide which one I want to play, and would like you help.

I am looking for people who have both at or near 80 and give me the pro/cons of each one in a pve and wvwvw setting.

Which one kills faster and which one has more survivability etc.

Thanks

Nautika.5376:

Which one kills faster

Ha, good one. Like you’ll be killing anything as either of those classes.

/sarcasm

I’m gonna be that guy. Start both, play em to level 10-20 (doesn’t take long) and you’ll have a basic feel of the mechanics and style. Don’t go for whichever one is currently less underpowered than the other – that’s subject to change, possibly sporadically. Just go with whichever is more fun (relative term) to play.

Out of the two I’ve only played the elementalist so I can’t comment on the necromancer, and even then I didn’t get particularly close to 80. However, I can tell you that the elementalist has some great versatility if you “stance dance” (or attunement dancing as it’s sometimes called, swapping from one attunement to another multiple times within a fight). It will take skill to play either class really well since you won’t have much survivability depending on your build and play style, but those I know who have played these classes seem to think they’re both rewarding. Sorry I can’t help more. I suggest you take Sion’s advice and try both for a little while to see what style of combat you’d prefer between the two.

The two classes you listed in OT only get crippling nerfs every single patch, like the one they just did today.

Stay FAR away from these two classes if you are wise.

Go with the ‘pet’ classes who get huge buffs even if they don’t need it like warriors.

Neither for PvE. Game was balanced for sPvP, as caster as really light on damage. Play Guadian, its got a mix of caster and melee…with better survability and damage.

Don’t know what fixit and Sir Morgan are talking about. In PVE probably Necro but for WvW and the like Ele are more survivable with more burst potential. The issue with Ele is that you either spec for burst (while being immensely squishy) or for survivability. I prefer Necros atm.

roll a warrior.

If you like very active game play, roll an Elementalist. To get the most out of an Elementalist, you really need to master all four attunements and know when to switch to which one.

Necros are a bit less complex. I like the profession well enough and sometimes it suits my mood, but I personally prefer Ele.

Now, that’s just my perspective. I’d strongly support the poster who recommended trying each to at least level 20. Each Profession/build has a particular play style and you really want to find a match to your personal play preference. Also, even though the GW2 professions have obvious stylistic similarities to other classes in other MMOs, they don’t always play the same way as their apparent counterparts in other games. Liking Mages in other games doesn’t guarantee you will like GW2 Elementalists. The same can be said about most of the GW2 professions. Trying a couple or a few professions out in order to try to identify a good personal match is well worth the effort for most players.

Fiontar.4695:

If you like very active game play, roll an Elementalist. To get the most out of an Elementalist, you really need to master all four attunements and know when to switch to which one.

i.e. if you like pushing lots of buttons in order to perform worse than every other class, if you want to make every encounter an unnecessary challenge whereas other classes rip through content with 1 button, then elementalist is your class!

seriously. roll a guardian, thief, warrior or mesmer. they aren’t broken.

Nonlinear, you are completely missing the point here. The poster of this thread obviously doesn’t want ot roll a Guardian, Thief, Warrior or a Mesmer. He/she wants to roll a Necromancer or an elementalist. Telling him/her to roll something else than what he/she wants to roll is quite inconsiderate here.

On the point of which to roll, I’ve not tried the elementalist. But I find Necromancer a lot of fun. In PvP, the staff marks when properly used can spread a ton of conditions to multiple people and fear and slow them. You got a large AoE slow on the Scepter, and a single target slow on the focus. Unfortunately the Focus one has a long cast time. Also, if you play staff and Scepter, there is a combo possibility I find fun. Stack all the conditions from the staff on a target and change to Scepter. The scepter 3 ability does more damage the more conditions there are on the target.

Why choose when you can have both?

Anyway, I have lvl 80 necromancer and a lvl 23 elementalist. Therefore my experience is a bit limited. I like them both.
I haven’t tried the Ele after the new patch yet, but I’m sure I’ll be ok. The nerfed thing isn’t something I have ever (at least consciously) done. The necromancer was a tiny bit more challenging to play this morning than last night, but still surviveable against three risen at Cursed Shore.
Both classes kill things, just not as fast as some others. If you are looking for something that kills in 3-4 hits, these may be the wrong choice. In 30 seconds most single, normal mobs are dead or dying. Groups or Veterans take longer and Champions I won’t tackle alone.

Tjihyana.2536:

Nonlinear, you are completely missing the point here. The poster of this thread obviously doesn’t want ot roll a Guardian, Thief, Warrior or a Mesmer. He/she wants to roll a Necromancer or an elementalist. Telling him/her to roll something else than what he/she wants to roll is quite inconsiderate here.

On the point of which to roll, I’ve not tried the elementalist. But I find Necromancer a lot of fun. In PvP, the staff marks when properly used can spread a ton of conditions to multiple people and fear and slow them. You got a large AoE slow on the Scepter, and a single target slow on the focus. Unfortunately the Focus one has a long cast time. Also, if you play staff and Scepter, there is a combo possibility I find fun. Stack all the conditions from the staff on a target and change to Scepter. The scepter 3 ability does more damage the more conditions there are on the target.

Telling someone not to make a mistake by rolling a kitteny broken class is not inconsiderate. OP will just regret leveling it once it plays a not-bad class.

encouraging someone to play bad classes is not considerate.

Necromancer is not a bad class. Not in my opinion at least. When it comes to soloing packs, it’s maybe the strongest thing in the game. Single target damage is not the best yes, but no class is “bad” in it’s own right sir/ma’am.

fixit.7189:

The two classes you listed in OT only get crippling nerfs every single patch, like the one they just did today.

Stay FAR away from these two classes if you are wise.

Go with the ‘pet’ classes who get huge buffs even if they don’t need it like warriors.

ROFLMAO you talking about the Ranger class? They still suck harder than any other class.

I don’t believe I read in the OP anywhere asking about any classes besides Ele and Necro. He obviously knows he want’s to play one of these two classes, probably because he enjoys being a caster class. There are way to many counterproductive posts in this thread.

To the OP, I would go with Necro based on personal preference. The “stance dance” mentioned for Ele is a real turn off for me. That alone null and voids any other arguments between the two of them for me.

Excuse us for trying to make the OP less miserable. Because he will be miserable if he plays an ele or necro, especially if he ends up playing a GOOD class later on.

I say go to the mists at lvl 2 on both and try them out. Don’t let other people decide what you should play!

If I did that, I wouldn’t be playing my ranger whom I love.

I have a lvl 2 Ele and Necro. I personally am going to level my necro as it seems really fun and I like the death shroud mechanic.

Ele is a very complex class as attunement swapping is usually very important. it is like swapping between 4 weapon sets.

Play both for awhile and make up your own mind. But…word of caution…it takes a lot longer to open up the Ele’s full abilities on all the weapon sets. Since you have to do each 4 times / per set…one for each element.

LithePanther.5027:

Excuse us for trying to make the OP less miserable. Because he will be miserable if he plays an ele or necro, especially if he ends up playing a GOOD class later on.

I have one of each profession and none of them are “bad”….its just that all have strengths and weaknesses that a player has to learn.

Clothies in any game have always been squishy. They are in this game too. If you equate dying a lot to being miserable, then by all means choose another profession.

I will add that Necros & Ele’s seem be much less powerful than similar classes in other games. Can’t say the same for Mesmer though, lol.

There are no “bad” professions, anyone who says otherwise obviously has no clue what they’re doing. These self proclaimed “experts” started playing the profession, became frustrated, and gave up before figuring out the intricacies of the profession. With that being said it all boils down to your preferences and your play style.

Elementalists:

-Can deal condition damage, but seems more prone to burst and AoE damage.

-Strong options for medium and long range attacks.

-Lots of ground targeted AoE attacks.

-Access to 20 weapon based skills at any given point in time due to the ability to swap between attunements.

-Cannot weapon swap during combat: Once you engage an enemy in combat you have access to 20 weapon skills, but one weapon.

-Their strength lies in the players knowledge and understanding of combo fields/finishers.

-Prone to group support through the use of combo fields which provide a wide range of offensive and defensive effects for yourself and surrounding players.

-Can become specialized for either damage or support, but are lacking the control options of classes like the Mesmer.

-Survivability in prolonged combat is based mostly on twitch gameplay (executing dodge rolls at appropriate times and kiting enemies).

Necromancers:

-Wide range of dps options: Use of minions, heavy condition damage, manipulation of conditions on both friendly and enemy characters.

-With traits, vampiric builds are common: Dealing damage and stealing life in the process makes the necromancer more stalwart in face-to-face combat.

-Deathshroud, if used opportunistically, can provide a significant boost both damage and survivability.

-Combo fields mostly come in the form of “wells” which are caster centered (not ground targeted) and are limited mostly to “dark” type combo fields which provide lifestealing effects when combined with the appropriate finishers.

-Lacking in combo finisher abilities, self combos can be difficult to pull off but are rewarding.

-Combining these abilities with the correct gear can make the necromancer a bit more “tanky” than the elementalist.

-Has access to weapon swapping making a larger number of personalized weapon combinations.

-Can convert boons on enemies into conditions (take that guardians!).

-Can provide moderate group support with talents and wells.

-Has access to fairly potent control abilities such as blind, chill, and fear.

-Minions often work correctly, but may sometimes be summoned right off the “short bus” and forget exactly what you summoned them for….

This is a very basic summary of both classes. I did my best to sum up their strengths and weaknesses to some degree, but ultimately the best advice you could have been given was given several posts up- Level both of them to 20, make a decision based on your play style. You may be surprised by which one you prefer.