Guild Wars 2

Hey everyone. Let me start this by saying in most games I have ever played I am drawn to the necromancer/warlock archetypes (death and decay/a horde of minons/whilting down my opponent over time to deliver that death blow). Saying that, I just bought this game (and know very little about it other than what forums have said) and have interest in making a necromancer.

However, reading the forums I see that necromancers are in a really bad place right now. My main interests are about 80% PvE – Dungeons, Fractals, Soloing / 20% WvWvW. I know MMOs are a buff nerf roller-coaster but I have also read necromancers where kind of in the same position in GW1 with medium to low damage.

Would my quality of life just be better if I made a mesmer like everyone else in this game?

Unhygienix.2834:

Hey everyone. Let me start this by saying in most games I have ever played I am drawn to the necromancer/warlock archetypes (death and decay/a horde of minons/whilting down my opponent over time to deliver that death blow). Saying that, I just bought this game (and know very little about it other than what forums have said) and have interest in making a necromancer.

However, reading the forums I see that necromancers are in a really bad place right now. My main interests are about 80% PvE – Dungeons, Fractals, Soloing / 20% WvWvW. I know MMOs are a buff nerf roller-coaster but I have also read necromancers where kind of in the same position in GW1 with medium to low damage.

Would my quality of life just be better if I made a mesmer like everyone else in this game?

Necromancer can be a fun class to play. Mine tends away from minions (whose AI is terrible; the melee minions will sometimes not attack at all, sometimes will Leroy onto something you had no interest in going near — and of course if they are “in combat,” so are you) and from conditions, because I find them unsatisfying. I am using a variation of the necro bunker build and the character is hard to kill while still taking mobs down with reasonable speed. Conditions are viable in dungeons and Wv3, but not if there are more than 1-2 characters using them.

I find mesmer to be very squishy and tedious to solo early on (the first 30-40 levels, say) whereas necro I soloed from the start with ease. However, once I got the hang of mesmer and enough trait points I was able to solo the class effectively — and you apparently already know mesmers are viewed as more effective in dungeons and in Wv3.

Quality of life? It really depends. If you plan to dungeon and Wv3 solely with a guild who build around each others’ characters, the class may not matter. If you are going to PuG, then mesmer is going to be more widely accepted.

I’ve been trying to settle on one character for over a month. Necromancer has the edge right now. I read a lot of forums, and I’ve come to a conclusion. There is little to no correlation between what actually happens in the game and the doom-and-gloom scenarios spouted on every class board. When someone says “not effective or wanted in PVE content”, what they really mean is that they are not as efficient as another class. They can and do complete all the content just fine, and only the tools are going to reject a class from a PUG just for being that class. Unless you intend on speed-running with the l33t of the l33t, you don’t need to worry about that part.

Even engineers can find dungeon/fractal groups, and they totally suck.

That was a joke.

“quality of life”…
I do know that people are generally much happier to see a mesmer show up in their party than a necromancer. so in that sense, life will be easier
but a lot of people like to excel in non-popular professions just to show others who’s boss.

necro: most people simply don’t recognize the giant contribution these professions make. they are certainly useful in the right hands. but they don’t directly affect other players. I’ll example:
Mesmer can Time Warp, and people can see it and know that they do a lot more damage when in it. also portal to make moving around easier, plus multiple other skills that boost a party. Then with my mesmer, I use Superior Rune of Lyssa, so when I TW, I also get 5s of every boon, which I then give to the rest of the party with Signet of Inspiration. I’m sure everyone notices that just when they can attack much faster, they also get like 10 boon icons.
Necromancer is also useful. I haven’t actually played as one, so I can’t even say how useful, which just goes to show that they are useful in ways others can’t directly see. Things I think I’ve seen: apply fear to nearby enemies is nice, lots of minions to take aggro.

Necros can be great against bosses and in dungeons because they have ready access to blinds, chills etc that can slow the enemy down. But as Mystic said, people aren’t going to notice it as much as the mesmer stuff. Anyway, I think you should play what you want to play and you will be happier.

Seems like Necromancer should be your choice as it fits your playstyle more. Plus contrary to what many people think they are not in a really bad position, Necromancers can do as well as just another class. actually we are one of the few classes that have quite a variety of builds, we have power builds, condition builds, minion builds, fear builds, bunker builds, and they are all just as effective in the right hands, specially in PvE.

Mesmers have great utility, but they are more of a Illusionist type of player, players that like clones, confusing, stealth, blinks and etheral spells. It’s actually quite fancy and I don’t think that’ll please your dark style.

I have a Necromancer and a Mesmer, they are both great classes but you’ll see me playing my Necro more because well, I love the playstyle more.

Play whatever you feel like playing, IMHO, classes in general are well balanced when it comes to PvE (can’t say PvP since I haven’t done much of it). In my experience when, of course with some exceptions, you read in forums thing like “X class is unplayable!!!” it usually really means “that warrior killed a mob in 10 seconds and took me 12 seconds to kill it!!! NERF NOW!!!”. And to be honest, a rule I’ve seen working in every single MMO I’ve played so far, personally if a group kicks me or avoids me because I’m playing X class or build instead of Y (excluding, of course, things like needing a tank or healer in other games), then chances are it isn’t a group I’d be interested in playing with in the first place, but then again I’ve never been interested in speed runs or things like that.

Start out with a necromancer, they are quite a bit easier to solo (and not die) in the beginning, especially when you are still getting used to the gameplay. You have 5 character slots, nothing will stop you from making a mesmer once you are comfortable with fighting, dodging, enemy mechanics, etc.

With the right spec, necros gan give quite a bit of support btw – regen, outright healing, protection, redistribution of conditions and boons, blind, chill, fear, …
Mesmers are just a lot more flashy at it