Guild Wars 2

I need a bit of help and am a bit torn. I have played all three scholars up to at least 15 – 20 and find things I love about them all. That said I would like to really buckle down and pick one or two (thief being my 2nd) classes to focus on so I don’t keep doing the same zones again and again. I have read the forums for all three classes but some threads are vague on if they are talking about PVE, PVP, or WVW. My questions are these…

1) which of the three scholar classes has the easiest time soloing (for those times when no one else is around or you have a personal quest)
2) which of the three are able to get golds and “tag” well for DEs?
3) Do any of the three stand out to you as more fun or have some utility that you find beyond useful?

Thanks for any insight as my brain is getting a bit tired of 2nd guessing this question.

I haven’t much experience with them all, and have played very little with/nearly none with a Necromancer, but from all three, I prefer the Elementalist – one I’m leveling right now.

Necromancers probably have the easiest time soloing because of their minions.
Mesmers are second with their clones and lots of distortions and such.
Elementalists are last with a lack of survival – but I think they make up for their support.

For tagging, Elementalists first, Necros second, Mesmers dead last.
Tagging events in Orr can be a bit frenetic – especially now since mobs die before they even load – but aside from that area, Elementalists have a wide range of AoE spells you can choose to tag a huge area at once (and probably get aggro from everything and die).
Necros are second in the AoE, and Mesmers are last with only one or two AoE skills (but none really reliable for damage).

All three have their utilities beyond useful, each one has it’s strengths after all…
Elementalists shine in versatile support/damage, and AoEs.
Necros, as far as I know, shine in condition management and sustained damage (though they complain about burst and the ramp up time) and minions, lots of minions!
Mesmers seems to have a weaker damage in my opinion, but they have a… really… unique support. Being able to melee, tank, stealth, grant any boon to everyone, deboon enemies, among lots of other useful things, plus the confusion element with clones… I find them really fun to play with.

For PvP, I read alot of complaints about Necromancers (saying they’re underpowered at the moment), but Elementalists and Mesmers are in a nice spot (despite the regular QQer complaining he died with his Elementalist because he couldn’t take on 4 on one, or the Warrior who kept killing clones for 3 min before the real Mesmer killed him).
All three are great for WvW, which is why I’m leveling an Elementalist – being a heavy melee in large group fights is not healthy for your gold pieces.

Anyway, if you’re in doubt, pick one that you think it’s more appealing to you, since you’ve enjoyed all three already from the gameplay experience, now go for the looks!

For clarity, the OP is referring to the Ranger, Engineer and Thief.

With the correct weapon and utilities, all three professions have sufficient AOE capabilities. And assuming you don’t run into Orr with full glass cannon expecting to tank Risen Acolytes and Wizards, all three can run solo just fine.

I have tried all three as alts (including all other professions but Warrior) and have decided to stick with my Engineer as my first alt. The main reason for this decision was the interesting mechanics of each Kit available. I was never a person who like pet classes, and I just didn’t click with the resource mechanics of the Thief’s Initiative system.

I should have been more specific, sorry for any confusion. The scholar classes are Necro, Elementalist, and Mesmer.

Well I haven’t played necro much, but between Ele and Mesmer, I definitely find Mesmer to be more survivable, though they both have their strengths and weaknesses. necro and ele have more aoe’s for dynamic events, but mesmer does have a few bouncing skills that help make up for that. necro has the largest health pool and ele the smallest. Mesmer I find great for soloing just because of the clones, it makes it easier to keep the damage off of you. Though necros have minions that can fill that role as well. The mesmer does have a weakness in having speed whereas and ele can keep up swiftness pretty much constantly and the necro has a signet that gives a speed boost as a passive. Mesmer is my personal favorite and I have a great time playing it. I think it comes down to style and how you like to do things. Best of luck on deciding.

Thank you Danicco for such a perfect answer.