Guild Wars 2

My buddy and I will be playing a lot of 5s and 8s hotjoin play and we both have a competitive gaming background.

I’ve decided to focus on Necromancer (some sort of condition build) and he is open to playing any other profession so long as it works well in conjunction with mine.

My question is this – what profession would be best as a complement to the necromancer in hotjoin pvp and WHY?

Thanks!

Guardian works well, they’re both sturdy, and while Necros have an abundance of combo fields, Guardians have an abundance of combo finishers (certain weapon types of course).

Mesmer also works very well, Necros can lay down AoE conditions while the Mesmer lays down AoE direct burst damage, they complement each other pretty well. And the Mesmer clones can distract the enemy from the Necromancer since currently they are a high value target.

Ranger Spirit builds combined with minion Necros are hilarious, the number of targets/distractions you can put out in a fight is too kitten high, this kind of combo limits what sort of builds you can run ofc, so I’d say this is a reach and the above 2 will be better.

Since atm necro is good, I would recommend some support or some extra Condi class(in this case you proboly would like to take epidemic skill). There is no easy answer to you question. I would take Engi (condi) or Ele (support thru combos).

But it really depends on build of both.

I love how condition thief will never be suggested as a viable choice.

Jesiah.2457:

I love how condition thief will never be suggested as a viable choice.

You are right,because he is not.In competitive scene you don’t play a class spec that another class can do better.

I realize this question has no correct answer, so we’re just looking for which profession has a lot going for it in terms of complementing the Necro.

I have heard that Necros usually need some help from a “peeler” since they lack some mobility – is this a big concern when picking the other profession?

The combos sound great for guardian and the fact that they support well, since it sounds like Necros are FotM.

Mesmer is what he is trying out now and that seems to be alright.

The Ranger + Necro pet domination combo sounds like a lot of fun but probably not the “best”.

Really looking for a reliable way to win the most games possible – any build combo suggestions welcome.

Quickhit.3620:

Jesiah.2457:

I love how condition thief will never be suggested as a viable choice.

You are right,because he is not.In competitive scene you don’t play a class spec that another class can do better.

Which is why I wonder why Arenanet pretends thief can pull it off by having weaponsets like Pistol Mainhand, D/D, and Shortbow, all which have conditions in them, then traits / utilities that also seem to follow that trend. But realistically, they’re quite sub-par. And it doesn’t matter how you spec into it, how well you play it … performance compared to burst is just sub-par and considered nothing but trolling trash.

So really my reason for saying this is don’t choose a thief for partner. =p

Engi I’ve heard is quite possibly the best combination, if not a nightmare, to run with. But as for hotjoin, mesmer is pretty good and generally facerolls a lot of newer players who don’t know how to chase after the dodge rolling “clone”. Also they can immobilize them in your wells, while shatter bursting them at the same time.

Jesiah.2457:

So really my reason for saying this is don’t choose a thief for partner. =p

Engi I’ve heard is quite possibly the best combination, if not a nightmare, to run with. But as for hotjoin, mesmer is pretty good and generally facerolls a lot of newer players who don’t know how to chase after the dodge rolling “clone”. Also they can immobilize them in your wells, while shatter bursting them at the same time.

I’ve heard Engi who stacks Might (for Power and Precision?) can be quite effective at dealing condition damage. Can anyone speak more to this?

As for the Thief – it sounds like condition Thief builds would be a poor choice at the moment, but what about other Thief builds? Burst?

Get a hammer warrior to perma stun your target, paired with fear, oh my god!

Engie or Guardian.

Psylem.1529:

Jesiah.2457:

So really my reason for saying this is don’t choose a thief for partner. =p

Engi I’ve heard is quite possibly the best combination, if not a nightmare, to run with. But as for hotjoin, mesmer is pretty good and generally facerolls a lot of newer players who don’t know how to chase after the dodge rolling “clone”. Also they can immobilize them in your wells, while shatter bursting them at the same time.

I’ve heard Engi who stacks Might (for Power and Precision?) can be quite effective at dealing condition damage. Can anyone speak more to this?

As for the Thief – it sounds like condition Thief builds would be a poor choice at the moment, but what about other Thief builds? Burst?

Burst thieves do kill fast and can pick their battles, especially in hotjoin. But as for a duo it wouldn’t bring a whole lot to the table that you can already do. Nothing against your friend, but if you don’t know all the little nuances of how to survive as a thief you may end up doing more defending of your partner than actually fighting.

However … a thief running runes of lyssa with shadow refuge can stealth you and heal you while in stealth and running stability / protection to give him greater odds of bringing you back up. However … Guardians can just push everyone back and revive you much the same way, which is actually even safer. So I’d have to vote Guardian over Thief. Even if the Guardian were burst.

Both of you would be extremely annoying to try to stomp. If they down Guardian, you can spam wells on top of him and fear or even spectral wall someone trying to stomp, then go for your rez.

Engi also has some extreme pressure on downed opponents, too, much like a necro. So really, I’d vote Guardian first (For sake of easier to survive / support the necro) then Mesmer, because it’s a little more forgiving if you don’t play it right, and then lastly Engi, while extremely strong, takes a good bit of practice and a good build to get used to.

Jesiah.2457:

Quickhit.3620:

Jesiah.2457:

I love how condition thief will never be suggested as a viable choice.

You are right,because he is not.In competitive scene you don’t play a class spec that another class can do better.

Which is why I wonder why Arenanet pretends thief can pull it off by having weaponsets like Pistol Mainhand, D/D, and Shortbow, all which have conditions in them, then traits / utilities that also seem to follow that trend. But realistically, they’re quite sub-par. And it doesn’t matter how you spec into it, how well you play it … performance compared to burst is just sub-par and considered nothing but trolling trash.

So really my reason for saying this is don’t choose a thief for partner. =p

Engi I’ve heard is quite possibly the best combination, if not a nightmare, to run with. But as for hotjoin, mesmer is pretty good and generally facerolls a lot of newer players who don’t know how to chase after the dodge rolling “clone”. Also they can immobilize them in your wells, while shatter bursting them at the same time.

Tbh but I don’t feel you at all.
The only real condi’s D/D has is death blossom spam and a poison no different from D/P. As far as Condi’s go thats super shallow, physically? it’s not bad.
P/D? Good fun as a physical set though underwhelming, juvenile as a condi set. Thieves don’t have the tools for condi’s but all of our sets scale very well with physical damage.
The real thing being Anet never really stated wanting condi thieves, outside of a slight nod in the Sotg. We get poison but that helps us kill off targets by the debuff and bleed is just some side damage that doesn’t make Trickery’s bonus damage completely wasted.

epidemic spreads conditions right?

HGH engy then. 3 HGH engies 5 necros should work, only travel in zerg.

-Caltrops Utility skill does 2x stacks of bleed per second standing in the field.
-Caltrops Trait, in the trickery tree. Smaller field, shorter duration, 1 stack per second.
-Deathblossom does 3x stacks of bleed (main damage source) and trivial physical damage even specced into heavy damage. You get more damage from 1.
-Sneak attack from Pistol, 5x stacks of bleed.
-Pistol 1 out of stealth has 1 bleed stack per shot.
-Shortbow clusterbomb is one bleed if undetonated, and up to 3 stacks if all detonated bombs hit the target.
-Utility Skale Venom now with Torment instead of Weakness.

Many sources for condition damage stacking, yet if specced into it, you suffer the consequences of being sub-par comparatively speaking. Perhaps the way they’re … I don’t know … pigeonholed into scaling only with physical damage is a large part of the problem.

Not to mention how strong burst really is in this game.