Guild Wars 2

We all know that any profession can command just fine, but we also know that there are many different commanding styles, and that different professions bring different advantages to groups.

I’m looking to explore the differences in commanding style of Necro vs. Mesmer, and I welcome anyone reading this to brainstorm w/ me.

Off the bat, we know that the most important traits a commander needs to have are survivability, control, and support — in combat mobility / raw damage not so much.

So here are some of my thoughts:

Necromancer:
- Incredible personal survivability through regeneration, protection, chill + fear + blind + cripple, and of course life force/death shroud.
- Up-front battle style (If you use death shroud and plague form with retaliation)
- Access to stability through Death Shroud trait
- Excellent enemy control

I think the overall playstyle of the necromancer commander will be far more aggressive — in your face — taking on zergs / controlling and defending keeps and towers. In zerg fights, the necromancer commander strategy will be to just rawly overwhelm the enemy zerg through AoE control and conditions. Access to excellent zone control through wells, plague form, and marks.

Mesmer:
Also very good survivability through nearly constant uptime on boons (protection, regeneration, aegis), access to many stun breaks, and clone confusion. Access to distortion (extremely powerful).
Far far more team utility and access to tricky maneuvers (group invisibility and portal).
More evasive and tricky battle style — perfect for unorthodox plays and strategies.
Access to stability through mantra.
Excellent team support.

I think the overall playstyle of the mesmer commander can of course still be up-front, but is better suited for leading unexpected plays, approaches, strategies, etc. I see issues however with using portal because PUGs tend to mindlessly follow the commander. Access to time warp on command is a powerful tool for taking down keeps/towers and getting the turning hand on zeros — since PUGs will ball near the commander.

These are my thoughts — I’m not claiming either is better or worse overall, just better or worse for certain niches as the class demands. I do think the mesmer can be a far sturdier class than most people let them on to be — and I do thing that the necromancer can provide far more massive control then most people let them on to be.

Give me your two cents! Agree? Disagree? Added thoughts?

Thanks!

I’ve seen both mesmanders and necromanders. Necromancer is by far better.
Necromanders can be tanky enough to roll with the melee train. Mesmer’s only real job is to drop a veil on engage. Furthermore, mesmers have terrible personal survivability.

I would say necromancer.

Your tools as a Mesmer do not fit well with wearing the arrow. You want to portal bomb something? It’s gonna be hard, because all the zerglings will follow you. Blink around and whatnot? You’ll disorient your zerglings. Even in an organised group, you’ll have a lot more work communicating to make sure that your tricks are understood by your own team. While these tools are very nice to have, they are not very nice for you to have while you’re wearing a dorito.

Necromancers don’t do fancy movements and they don’t do anything tricky.

Necro with life siphon traits and plague and wells can actually play a frontline, mesmer doesn’t have a useful frontline role. Setting veils and portals and null fields and focusing ppl down with gs is a backline role.

Mesmer commanders can be useful with well placed veils, portals, etc. However they are too squishy in evenly matched zergs and heavy fire. GWEN is currently the dominant model and even though that design has necros in the back line, they still hold up better than Mesmers under strong AoE fire.

If I had to pick a non-heavy, it would be a Necro.

Necro commander for dummies. Use plague, spam button 2, plague ends tag off.

Personally, I think you should go for the Necromancer commander.

In my experience, mesmer’s high in-combat mobility makes it extremely difficult for someone who is not used to how YOU play to follow you. As the commander it is your job to drive the front line. Not only does the necromancer class offer more protection, it also gives you more opportunity to absorb the damage that will be coming your way ( Deathshroud and Plague form).

with the mesmer, one Blink, phase retreat, or sword leap/swap, and you could easily disorient your heavies, which could potentially spell disaster for you .

Personally i would not follow either in to battle but out of the 2 Necro for commanding pug zergs

Howdy,

I have happily commanded small groups and huge zergs on a Necro for the past year and have enjoined every minutes of it. The added health, toughness, and stability in plague is quite helpful. Also, Necro’s have many more utilities for survival that work in zerg combat.

Neuroticgrim.8769:

Howdy,

I have happily commanded small groups and huge zergs on a Necro for the past year and have enjoined every minutes of it. The added health, toughness, and stability in plague is quite helpful. Also, Necro’s have many more utilities for survival that work in zerg combat.

Hey this sounds amazing.

Would you be willing to share your build with me?
Can I pester you in game with questions some time?

I use to command on my mesmer and I was able to frontline with it no problem but that was before a lot of wvw’ers learnt how to play melee trains properly. Also I was an early adopter of melandru runes and lemongrass poultry soup (thanks to a friend who recommended it). Times change.

I don’t see how you can lead a melee train on a mesmer. Maybe someone better than myself could. Other than running a karma train or maybe a havoc group mesmers are just too squishy. I haven’t spent a lot of time on my necro but it does seem to be able to tank a lot better than mesmer. Warriors and guardians are still the best picks for commanding.