Guild Wars 2

Hey there. Doing solo pve going for map completion. I doing know which to decide maybe help?

I understand mesmer is slow, and I read shatter builds aren’t as good for open world pve and mesmer is much more squishy. I’d mainly want sw/sw.

I heard necromancer is good but minion a I is so bad hard to be minion master. Would a d/d combo still work well without minions? Or should I still use minions with that combo. Can anyone recommend which would be better for open world pve?

As long as you don’t plan on doing dungeons, I’d definitely go necro. I use a soul reaping build which can be varied quite a bit, but it’s definitely the way to go.

When I do mesmer in the open world, I have both, I use a phantasm build.

Both are rather blah for dungeons. But no one will complain if you use their meta zerker builds that you should research.

For necro I recommend dagger/warhorn for exploration but OH dagger works too. And use wells, spite signet and max DPS gear and traits.

Mesmer needs runes to fix their speed.
And in dungeons you run around like a headless chicken while fractal bosses kill your only dps source with aoe. But have fun!

nearlight.3064:

Both are rather blah for dungeons. But no one will complain if you use their meta zerker builds that you should research.

For necro I recommend dagger/warhorn for exploration but OH dagger works too. And use wells, spite signet and max DPS gear and traits.

Mesmer needs runes to fix their speed.
And in dungeons you run around like a headless chicken while fractal bosses kill your only dps source with aoe. But have fun!

The only thing I say to that is the necros are, for some people, less accepted in dungeons. Mesmers at least have decent reflect, which people seem to like. And sometimes portals can be useful too.

If you look at what people have said in other threads, the only profession there’s really no place for in the current dungeon meta is necro. Now I’m not saying I agree with this, or that it’s right. I’m saying that’s what some people are saying.

Well I’m not doing any dungeons actually

Vayne.8563:

nearlight.3064:

Both are rather blah for dungeons. But no one will complain if you use their meta zerker builds that you should research.

For necro I recommend dagger/warhorn for exploration but OH dagger works too. And use wells, spite signet and max DPS gear and traits.

Mesmer needs runes to fix their speed.
And in dungeons you run around like a headless chicken while fractal bosses kill your only dps source with aoe. But have fun!

The only thing I say to that is the necros are, for some people, less accepted in dungeons. Mesmers at least have decent reflect, which people seem to like. And sometimes portals can be useful too.

If you look at what people have said in other threads, the only profession there’s really no place for in the current dungeon meta is necro. Now I’m not saying I agree with this, or that it’s right. I’m saying that’s what some people are saying.

I’m well aware of what people say. While mesmers are accepted readily by most dungeon groups, most mesmers running the meta build hate it for its impracticality, which leads to so much greatsword abuse. I mean reflects are great and all, but they’re only really needed in arah, fractals, and a few other situations in the easier dungeons, and rangers, guardians, engis, and eles all get smaller amounts of reflects.

I’m just speaking from experience, that mesmer isn’t fun for me to play in PvE, but to each his own.

The whole “Meta” philosophy is pitiful, and the “Meta” builds aren’t even that good, my own builds are more effective then this non-existant “Meta” people ramble on about.

Just play what you want, use what build you want. If you want to walk into a dungeon with Minion Master Life Siphon Condi Necro running Magi’s gear with Altruism runes, do it.

As for the actual question, D/D Necro is very survivable, so i’d say you could pair anything with it and still work. A lot of Necro’s utilities work well in PVE, so just pick whatever you enjoy. Ive seen people use all sorts of things in PVE and still work. Even if your Utilities are a bit iffy, your weapons are effective, balanced and survivable, so it doesn’t really matter.

Argon.1563:

The whole “Meta” philosophy is pitiful, and the “Meta” builds aren’t even that good, my own builds are more effective then this non-existant “Meta” people ramble on about.

Just play what you want, use what build you want. If you want to walk into a dungeon with Minion Master Life Siphon Condi Necro running Magi’s gear with Altruism runes, do it.

As for the actual question, D/D Necro is very survivable, so i’d say you could pair anything with it and still work. A lot of Necro’s utilities work well in PVE, so just pick whatever you enjoy. Ive seen people use all sorts of things in PVE and still work. Even if your Utilities are a bit iffy, your weapons are effective, balanced and survivable, so it doesn’t really matter.

The meta does exist, and while you can use anything you want for anything other than a speed clear, why wouldn’t you do everything you can to make the dungeon go as fast or smoothly as possible? And lets not forget that some higher end dungeon content are basically DPS checks (Dwayna I’m looking at you). To me, running anything inefficient, regalrdless of class is selfish and inconsiderate to other people. I would never bring a ranger to a dungeon without spotter and traited frost spirit, because its a significant DPS-wide buff for the whole party, and frankly I wouldn’t have a good enough reason not to use it.

If you have a build that outperforms a meta build in terms of damage or group utility I’d be glad to see it. Maybe you’ll make a new meta.

Anyway, the OP is not concerned with dungeons at this time. In the open world anything you want works, but keep in mind if you do start running dungeons later on, that won’t always be the case depending on what groups you join.

I have a Mesmer main and recently just started up a Necro and all I keep thinking is how easily mobs die on the Necro and how I never seem to die.

I love my Mesmer and have spent a long time tweaking her to be as good as possible, but I was surprised how well the Necro seemed to play. So for solo map completion I would recommend Necro. Also they get a better speed boost.

Sylent.3165:

Well I’m not doing any dungeons actually

Then there is no right answer here…..it’s all about what you “like” and how you want to play the game.

As I state in every one of these “which one?” threads, you can play BOTH!

Penarddun.6827:

I have a Mesmer main and recently just started up a Necro and all I keep thinking is how easily mobs die on the Necro and how I never seem to die.

I love my Mesmer and have spent a long time tweaking her to be as good as possible, but I was surprised how well the Necro seemed to play. So for solo map completion I would recommend Necro. Also they get a better speed boost.

Ended up with my necro thanks. Thanks everyone else to

Sylent.3165:

Hey there. Doing solo pve going for map completion. I doing know which to decide maybe help?

I find both profs to be relatively slow, so I like using Runes of Speed for map completion. Minion Master necro allows you to roll through most anywhere without thinking about it too much. Prismatic Understanding mesmer allows you to sneak into vistas/SPs, but it requires paying attention to cool downs. The portals and blinks are also handy.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Sylent.3165:

Hey there. Doing solo pve going for map completion. I doing know which to decide maybe help?

I find both profs to be relatively slow, so I like using Runes of Speed for map completion. Minion Master necro allows you to roll through most anywhere without thinking about it too much. Prismatic Understanding mesmer allows you to sneak into vistas/SPs, but it requires paying attention to cool downs. The portals and blinks are also handy.

Fancy meeting you here.

It’s true both professions are slow, but the necro does have a signet that gives you a passive 25% speed buff. With the mesmer you’re dependent on swiftness from the focus, which is limiting and doesn’t have 100% up time.

OP, I have both of these, so here is my take

If you are looking for a class that will be easier to get 100% world completion, then go with necro. Necros have a high health pool, and can be built to be almost indestructible.

Personally I do not like minions, since the AI is even worse than ranger pets, if you can imagine that … Despite this, necros are still a decent solo exploration class.

However, you need to think what you want to do after lvl 80 and world completion. In PvE, your options are limited, because no one wants a necro for dungeons, and the main role in PvE for a condition necro is killing husks at the THW event. Necros are more effective in PvP and WvW, if you want to play these game modes.

As for mesmer, solo exploration is not as easy as with some other classes. You can do it, but it will take you longer than using a necro. Many players level mesmers though crafting and various tomes. Where mesmers shine is at lvl 80.

You have more build and play style option with a mesmer than you do with a necro. Plus, dungeon groups often want a mesmer along for support skills, like portals, invisibility, reflection, and for crowd control. However, to be most effective in dungeons, you will need to play a phantasm build and run with sword/xxx. For open world PvE, you can play a ranged shatter build quite effectively.

Why are necros not wanted for dungeons?

Ardyth.9286:

Why are necros not wanted for dungeons?

Because their autoattacks don’t cleave, meaning most of their damage is single target save for a few cases where you can pierce life blasts.. but that’s generally not optimal DPS. Necros have high AoE spike damage from Wells but those are longish cooldowns.

They also have the issue of not offering useful or unique group support through dps buffs or reflects or things like that. But if you don’t do speed clears you can still do necros in dungeons more casually.

Mesmer’s have a ton of reflects and theoretically some of the highest sustained damage in the game but it’s impractical right now because phantasms die so easily and sustained damage is less useful when most bosses can be FGSed against a wall. Also guardians outclass them for reflects and can even give quickness with their elite.

High power-crit specced builds on power generally cross the 6000 dps mark with cleave (ie >18,000 dps total). High condition specced builds generally get stuck at about 4500-4900 with AoE abilities (ie >22,000 dps total), but not everything can be conditioned, the highest stackable conditions of bleed and torment still get stuck at 25 stacks regardless of how many people apply it, and fury/banners of discipline/spotter/frost spirit etc all do not apply to any condition builds in any appreciable way.

The necro does not possess any cleave, making conditions the only viable option, but condition overwriting makes that viable option not-so-viable. That’s why the problem is pretty bad for necros in general in dungeons.

We’re still waiting for Anet to give daggers a cleave option and possibly a slight boost to the multiplier.