Guild Wars 2

Hello,

I played the game for some time when it released but put it down for a bit and am coming back. I played a Ranger, and enjoyed it leveling, but at 80 I felt very under powered and the pet AI was….less than desirable.

I am looking at rerolling either a Thief or a Necromancer, but cannot decide which.

I will mostly be doing PvE with some WvW so I do want something that works well with other classes (or has a purpose/role in a group). Any insight on these two professions would be greatly appreciated!

Az

I have 250 hours on my thief and close to that on my necro, so hopefully I can give an opinion that doesn’t favor one or the other.

PVE
Thief: Decent in dungeons. Not a part of the warrior/guardian/mesmer trinity that currently fits the criteria for the optimal group, but not bad. Good for bursting against single targets, and stealth allows you to res teammates. Groups also love the thief’s Shadow Refuge stealth skill because it allows them to skip trash mobs that are a waste of time.

Necro: Not too bad. If you’re focused mainly on conditions another condi necro in the group is bad because bleeds get capped at 25 stacks, lowering the groups overall DPS. Decent at support through condition removal, boon removal, blinds, AoE damage/debuffs. Fairly “tanky” if you time your dodges since necro has no Vigor.

No class really has it bad in open world exploring, most of it is really easy. Your thief will seem really squishy at low levels, but once you get the hang of stealth and get more traits it gets a lot better. For necro conditions aren’t great when leveling. Minions make a joke out of enemies, if you can deal with their AI. Most minions regen health now outside of combat too since the recent patch.

WvW
Thief: Thieves are notorious for their “perma-stealth” and they are effective roamers, contributing to their server by taking out sentries, dolyaks, supply camps, and stragglers. Most thieves don’t travel with the zerg, since they specialize in 1v1 fights due to their high burst combined with stealth as well as their ability to escape nearly any fight should they start losing because of their mobility.

Necro: By no means a roamer, because it arguably has the worst mobility out of any class and no disengage abilities, relying on naturally high health, death shroud, and things like Plague form to soak up damage. Very good with the zerg with the AoE it has if you use a staff and wells (with ground targeted traits). Conditions are also useful (cripple, chill, fear, immobilize), but damaging conditions (bleed, poison, burn, torment) aren’t as much because of all the cleansing going around. I’d recommend a power focused build since two out of the four wells (and the ones with lowest cooldowns) scale with power and staff does mostly power focused damage. Good for havoc squads, a necro that isn’t focused by the enemy can cause a lot of pressure on the enemy when gone unnoticed.