Guild Wars 2

Hey, people,

So I just got GW2 a couple of weeks ago, and in that time I’ve been having trouble deciding on a “main” profession. I’ve tried pretty much all of them, and I’ve narrowed it down to either a Necromancer, Elementalist, or Mesmer, but I just can’t decide which of them I like the best. So I thought I’d ask here.

I do have an idea of the kind of playstyle I like. In any game, my favourite classes/systems are the ones that have a high ramping system (i.e. they get stronger the longer a fight goes on). This kind of mechanic is what I’m looking for the most. Also, I’m not huge into PvP, although I’m sure I’ll dabble in it at least occasionally, but I’m going to focus on PvE. So I guess what I’m asking is, of the scholar professions which one performs best in long, drawn-out fights against huge bosses or in dungeons, whatever.

As for the professions themselves, here’s what I like and dislike about each of them.

Elementalist

What appeals to me:
-Their style of more natural magic is a stylistic pro to me.
-The mainhand dagger’s ability to perform combos and gain Might stacks seems to fit with the ramping playstile I’m looking for.
-Their adaptability is pretty neat. The fact that they can switch to a healing style to help an ally before turning back to full damage and blowing everything up is very cool.

What makes me hesitant:
-Everyone seems to play one. I’m not a huge fan of doing what everyone else is doing.
-They seem to kill things really quickly. I know this is nitpicking, but I like to enjoy my fights before they end. Elementalist seems to be more of a “kill it and get out” thing.

Mesmer

What appeals to me:
-Aesthetically pleasing. Of all the scholars, Mesmer spells look the coolest to me. Them pink butterflies!
-Their ability to build an army of Phantasms rolls in to the ramping style I’m looking for at first glance.
-Mainhand sword makes me think of a magical fencer, which is just awesome.

What makes me hesitant:
-Their fragility. Of all the scholars, I’ve died more as a Mesmer than any other.
-Illusions are easy to kill. Phantasms may hit hard, but I find that they die almost instantly. If I don’t die first, that is.

Necromancer

What appeals to me:
-Their general style of “I won’t kill you, I’ll just outlive you”. Every guide I’ve read about Necromancers seems to say that even power builds are designed to wage wars of attrition in combat.
-Mainhand dagger’s life stealing abilities. While using your opponent’s life to refill your own isn’t the most traditional style of ramping, I really enjoy it.
-Death Form is just ridiculous. I get way too much fun popping into it and laying waste to everything around me with its 4 and 5 skills. It also kind of fits in with a ramping style.

What makes me hesitant:
-Every guide I’ve read about Necromancer’s has said that they’re not popular in groups (especially dungeons), since they’re a very self-interested profession. I don’t want to get kicked from groups just because I’m a Necromancer.
-At first glance, they don’t seem to really have a mechanic that helps them ramp up their strength besides Death Form, which while amazingly fun is a very temporary situational boost.

So those are my thoughts on what I’m looking for, and how I feel about the three scholars. I know that the general advice on threads like this is “Play them all and see which one you like best” but I’ve been trying them all and I like and dislike all of them. So I’m turning to the community for a little slice of advice. Thanks for the help!

I’ll just give one bit of advice…

LoudIntrovert.5372:

-Every guide I’ve read about Necromancer’s has said that they’re not popular in groups (especially dungeons), since they’re a very self-interested profession. I don’t want to get kicked from groups just because I’m a Necromancer.

With the game evolving as it does, I don’t know that this should be a big concern for you if you’re looking to the long run. There will be patches, there will be updates, there will be changes to the game and its balance. When the game launched, the Elementalist was viewed as being a very weak class. After some balance patches, there were complaints that it was too strong in World vs. World with supreme mobility. After some of those aspects were nerfed, people discovered the effectiveness of wall traps in conjunction with some special skills, and Elementalist became the king of dungeon DPS and highly desirable there. That was nerfed too, but Elementalist still wound up in a good spot overall and is still an important part of high-end dungeon speed runs. That might wind up changing depending on what happens with Ice Bow and Defiance/Break Bars, of course..

Most people will agree that Necromancer is not in a good place right now, in group PvE at least. That means that the class is more likely to be buffed than nerfed going forward. Is that a guarantee that things will get better? It’s not, but it’s likely, even if it might take a while. So if you enjoy playing Necromancer, go for it. Won’t you look like the smart one once the buffs come!

I find my method of mesmer play does “ramp” slightly, though I’m not a theorycrafter and am probably doing things wrong. But the longer the fight is going, the more hits your clones and phantasms get in before they shatter on foe death. Alternatively you can get in a lot of repeated planned shatters with different effects (I’m partial to Confusion as I see enemy health bars melt once that’s applied).

I do not feel at all squishy on Mesmer. I helped some people through LS Ch 8 recently, mostly on a mesmer, and generally they went down and I kept going thanks to my army of me. It could just be I got lucky on my build and preferred utilities.

Now, I have read quite a few comments that Mesmer is in a bad place until it unlocks the traits. All my mesmers were made before the current trait system came in, so they have them all other than the very top 5 traits. For all three of the professions, you need to consider whether traits can alter the less fun parts of their play for you.

*all comments from a casual PvE perspective

It’s difficult for me to pick a specific profession that fits your criteria for PvE, since most dungeon builds focus more on constant high dps from the start of the fight (including the use of preemptive might stacking) rather than the “ramping” you’ve described. From a PvP perspective, though, I’d say that a dagger/dagger elementalist would be fairly close to what you want. D/D elementalists are currently very strong in PvP, as their numerous heals, high mobility, and wide range of skills give them excellent survivability, allowing them to fill a variety of roles ranging from bunkering capture points to 1v1ing other players. Furthermore, through the consistent use of might-stacking rotations, they can build up and maintain around ~20 stacks of might over the course of a fight, translating to a +600 increase in power and condition damage. Though D/D specs lack major damage bursts, they make up for it by using sustained damage output and healing to grind down other players in battles of attrition.

With that said, the elementalist is a very mechanically demanding profession. Personally, I got tired of playing it after a few months; until you get really used to utilizing the skills strategically, it might feel a bit like you’re just spamming skills off cooldown. Most elementalist players end up using custom keybinds, as having to stretch all around the keyboard with the default setup will more than likely limit the fluidity of your gameplay. Also, the D/D elementalist is more of a PvP or WvW roaming build – while you can take it into PvE and apply everything I’ve mentioned there, you still won’t have the flat damage output of other classes and builds, which is what most parties look for in dungeons (you will, however, be able to survive pretty much anything PvE throws at you, and maintain some might stacks for your party).

If you’re interested in a D/D elementalist, here are some links:
Build: http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Elementalist_-_D/D_Roamer
Video guide by Phantaram: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAtDKypiS5M

Necros have the most obvious ramp up Especially when it comes to conditions. A stack of bleed then another then poison then more bleed then chills, weakness more bleeds some torment more bleeds Maybe throw some burning in as well. In pve you’d be fine roaming solo. In dungeons, you’d aim to go for flat out damage so pumping lots of might with life blasts and keeping the enemy at bay with cripples and chills. Problem there is that the raw damage output just doesn’t compare to the other classes and you don’t give anything to them either while you can sit there and soak up the might and healing. That’s not to say that they’re unwelcome but they do come with baggage

Thanks for your input, everyone! I think I’ve decided on a Mesmer. Something about its aesthetic just resonates with me, and building a Phantasmal army sounds pretty neat.

Thanks again for helping me out, guys!