Guild Wars 2

Hi all,

Prologue:
I’m still fairly new to GW2 – I’ve been playing for about a week now. I’m currently sitting on a level 17 thief which I’m kind of doodling on. Anyway, I feel like trying out a light armor prof – possibly to use as a main – however I’m not really sure what to choose from. In GW1 I mained an Ele which was fun I guess, I only dipped a little into the first expansion and had tried thief or whatever it was called back then.

Playstyle:
My playstyle in previous MMO’s has been mostly tactical. I enjoy setting up mobs for big final attacks – though in WoW my main was a holy priest. High damage is tempting so long as its not simple. In short my playstyle would favor skill. I want to feel rewarded by my knowledge of what needs to be thrown and when.

The question:
So with that said, I’d like to pick the brains of players who main Mes / Ele / Necro for each prof’s strengths / weaknesses. Overall playstyle and I guess their opinions on “skill level” each prof requires.

I know this question has been asked before, but from my searches I can only find older results so I want to get a more up to date response – given that I guess the game has changed alot since day one.

Thanks all

Peace.

Elementalists can be amazing when fighting large mobs. I toss down a few aoe’s and watch the damage before my eyes. If you are looking for a tactical class, I suppose that Ele’s fit in that category. If you like rounding up huge mobs, laying down an aoe, and then bringing the big hit damage with meteor strike, then this is the class for you. I’ll give you some strengths/weaknesses of the Elementalist.

Strengths: -Pretty decent dps.
-Aoe damage can be good for single target and multiple targets.
-Use ice bow in dungeons to take down mounds of gravelings quickly and efficiently.
-People in dungeons will like you.

Weaknesses: -Incredibly wimpy. You’re like paper if you build a glass cannon build. (Or you could use Dagger/Dagger build and survive everything with bad damage.)
-Scepter/any is useless. The DPS is more than mediocre.
-The armor until you hit level 80 is complete and utter garbage.

Other than that, I like the Elementalist, but it just doesn’t do as much DPS as a warrior and doesn’t survive like a warrior does.

In short, if you want pure pwnage, play a warrior. If you want to be tactical and play awesomely, play an Elementalist or a Thief.

Oh, and if you’ve played other mmorpg’s as a mage or a warlock, than you’ll be fine playing as an aoe Elementalist. It’s not too difficult to learn at all.

I have a mesmer, my main, lvl 80. I’ve done nearly everything with her. Having done a handful of mmos before I can say a mesmer is really interesting to play, especially if you want something new. We hit hard, but not without some quirks:

Mesmers are not condition people, we have a staff that is very useful but relies on conditions (don’t discredit it though, that staff has saved my butt multiple times). That said, it won’t deal high dps. We’re not direct damage either, however. There are zerk mesmers but as of late we don’t do as much damage as we have in the past (certainly not the damage of a well traited elementalist). That said, we can still be tons of fun.

Mesmers are about deception, but that’s not how it turns out. Instead I like to think we’re thorns. We’re about getting in and then out but never leaving – our illusions are there to continuously lay on the pain. A mesmer cannot tank damage and certainly cannot stay in the front lines, we’re constantly mobile getting in and getting out (although I find myself staying in more and more XD). Our shatters can wreak havoc, our illusions can keep the dps coming. We won’t blow the dps charts, but we’ll get the job done and do it kitten well. We also provide highly sought after utilities (feedback, time warp, portals).

If you want a new experience a mesmer is for you. You can’t sit as a mesmer and just auto attack, you have illusions to maintain and shatter at the right time, you have damage to be dodging, utilities to be using, and carefully timed attacks to execute. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to play one, but you can’t expect to be good if you can’t focus.

IMHO, I think you’d love a mesmer. You really need to be actively playing, and the more skilled you become, the more tricky you’ll become to your foes!

Edit: a bit of clarity:

Pros:
-sustainable dps (which can be a large burst damage if you shatter)
-engaging, no auto attacking!!
-our skill sets are versatile. We can be ranged, melee, or a medley of the two. Success will not come from the perfect build but the proper skill (trust me I’ve tried countless builds until I made my own and finally found success). It’s about how you use you’re weapons, not necessarily their individual dps.
- we provide really useful utilities

Cons:
-we’re fairly squishy, not nearly as bad as an ele though.
-dps is solid but not on par with a well traited ele or a warrior.
-wvw roaming or taking on Orr can be a solid challenge without a buddy. Having 1 person with you makes a really solid combination. On you’re own, however, can get very tricky (but fun if you’re up for a challenge!)

Thank you both for replying with such detail, I think after reading both replies I’m going to have to try out both Ele and Mes as you made them both sound very tempting. If I end up liking both then thats just a bonus.

Thanks again.

Basically, if you run glass cannon for either of the three classes you will get:

1. Alright DPS, but actually quite bad when compared to others (mesmer)
2. Solid DPS but lacks enough group utility (necro)
3. Some of the best DPS in the entire game but you need to know how to dodge (conjured weapon elementalist)

Necros can take the most hits, elementalists and mesmers favour more active defense rather than just sponging damage. Mesmers generally tend to set up burst damage by pulling mobs to where you and your team can just AOE and cleave them down. If you want a playstyle that favours skill, probably mesmer or elementalist, fully geared for damage and ignoring defense would be your best bet, it gives you as little room as possible to slip up while rewarding your “squishiness” (to be honest you’ll be fine once you play with it a little while, I don’t even feel squishy anymore I’m that accustomed to it) by being able to max out your damage.

The healing tank necro is the way I play my necro but it’s quite dull and you are worthless with out a team, but : your heals are insane, your F1 is insane, your elite “epidemic” makes you nearly unkillable with the AoE blind + double your toughness and add a big chunk of hp, close to 3000 heal/sec AoE with all your procs, AoE debuff converter, AoE debuff transfering…
Neat but a bit dull whereas the El where you have to handle the affinities to do the right combo at the right time, or the Me where you have to know what procs when and when to shatter to maximize output.

Of the three light armor professions, I would say a Lighting Hammer Elementalist would require the most APM. Setting up fire fields and then blasting them can take a lot of fancy fingerwork, which is what it sounds like you want.

Necromancers do good single target with daggers or Life Blast, but in either case you’re 1111111ing things to death. Mesmers have nice AoE and utility, but its very straightforward; reflect when you need to reflect, timewarp when something has a lot of HP, shatter before the anchor dies, etc.

Hello,
I’m a level 80 Elementalist(Main)
Weapon: Staff (PvE,WvW), Dagger (sPvP, tPvP)
Elementalist is the King of AoE it is one of the most useful class in WvW you can provide decent support with Elemental Fields that you can Blast for Boon/Heal/Aura or to just CC the enemies to defend a certain objective or choke point even a big zerg can be disrupted by a well placed fields and don’t forget the damage that you can provide with AoEs. It will be a bit tricky at start with all the attunement swapping(20skills) timing for different situations but you’ll get used to it, if you want a tactical scholar profession you can go for this one.

Pros: Good Survivability, Good Support(AoE Heal/Boon/Aura), Good Damage(AoE)
Cons: High Learning Curve, Limited Trait Line(nothing beats 0/10/0/30/30 overall atm)

Necro’s are quite good at farming, btw – tagging stuff with a staff/scepter+dagger and wells combo coupled with deathshroud 4 is ridiculously easy

Group support is decent too, in my humble opinion, if you do it right.

I have a level 80 Elementalist and a level 80 Mesmer. My necro is only lvl 25, so I really can’t speak to that yet.

I think the biggest thing I can add to the posts above is that the Mesmer can be frustrating to level until you get to 60 and unlock your grandmaster traits. I found that Elementalist relies less on its grandmaster traits for its effectiveness, and was therefore more enjoyable at lower levels.