Guild Wars 2

I’m in the process of picking a new WvW main, I’m not too experienced with WvW as I have previously spent most of my time pvping or pveing.

I think I have narrowed it down to ele or necro (maybe guard) as from what I gather their abilities scale the best with large fights thanks to all the aoes, fields and boons. I don’t rate mesmer highly (my pve/roaming main) because even though veil/portal is nice the actual in combat abilities (aoe capability) just feel lacking.

Advice would be much appreciated <3

Mesmers are some of the best skirmish fighters in the game. They can do outstanding damage and clones can make them very difficult to manage. They also offer high mobility, stealth and pulls. As you mentioned they have the highest level of utility in the game which can be a blessing or a curse depending on who you ask.

Elementalists (of the dagger variety) are a force when played well. They can offer great group buffs, high mobility, outstanding bunker capability, tremendous DPS (of the AoE sort) and generate a ton of fields. Pick up a staff and they siege with the best of the classes. They aren’t the easiest class to play but can be highly rewarding and almost impossible to kill with even numbers when bunkered.

Necros are an interesting lot. They are becoming/have become a strong force in zergs thanks to their ability to strip/invert boons. They also have one of the highest hitpoint pools in the game. They can be pretty cagey with blink capability as well. I view them as the natural counter to the Guardian class.

Of those, I find the mesmer and ele to be the better all around classes (considering skirimish and zerg) because of their high mobility and their ability to produce high levels of DPS. Admittedly I don’t know a lot about necros though except on average they seem easier to kill than the other two classes in skirmish fighting.

I use my Necro as a Lich zerg breaker.I time my runs just right in spectral armour and walk,lay down all my aoe’s, and just crash in through an enemy zerg in Lich form.If the rest of our players are following behind they benefit from the chaos I am causing.And I sweep in and out,and finish up in death shroud around the edges draining life force.

9 times out of 10 I have sent zergs running with a good push of players behind me.Even if I die it is an adrenalin surge steaming in,and watch my corpse get surrounded by loot bags.Also helps being a pink haired fluffy Asura,turning into a 20 foot Lich.

Anyone playing on EU Desolation lately can vouch for this.

Roll a ranger, and experience a real challenge trying to deal with the nerf bat that just came from nowhere.

White Raven.4368:

I use my Necro as a Lich zerg breaker.I time my runs just right in spectral armour and walk,lay down all my aoe’s, and just crash in through an enemy zerg in Lich form.If the rest of our players are following behind they benefit from the chaos I am causing.And I sweep in and out,and finish up in death shroud around the edges draining life force.

9 times out of 10 I have sent zergs running with a good push of players behind me.Even if I die it is an adrenalin surge steaming in,and watch my corpse get surrounded by loot bags.Also helps being a pink haired fluffy Asura,turning into a 20 foot Lich.

Anyone playing on EU Desolation lately can vouch for this.

You’re playing a WvW (zerg) necro wrong.

Mesmer with Null field is very good to WvW parties too.
I think Null field is one of the best skills in the game.

Null field, feedback, veil and portal are nice I agree, but on such long cds and ofc you can only pick 3 (even if you deny yourself anything useful like blink). Once the groups crash into each other and you have blown veil, possibly portal/feedback/null the actual combat feels pretty bad on my mes… really lacking in aoe compared to guard/nec/ele which is why I’m asking for opinions.or anything else you guys can suggest.

Both Necros and Eles are great in WvW. I personally found playing an ele was harder. I always had a lot of success as a Necro solo roaming and 1v1 thieves and even 1v3, but most solo roaming necros seem to fail for some reason. Eles are generally better players from my experience. Both Ele and Necro contribute a lot to a zerg.

A better question to ask yourself before you narrow down your class choice is what is your play style?

Will you be running in Zergs with Pugs?
Will you be in an organized group or guild?
Do you want to focus on solo or small skirmish play?
Do you want to be in a dedicated havoc squad?

When you know better what role you want to play your choice regarding which class becomes a great deal easier.

Necros have received some love with the recent patch but they still continue to be a weak mobility class. Therefore if your game style is going to revolve around being highly mobile a Necro might not be an ideal choice.

I assumed ele would be the better of the two for roaming due to the movement skills. Was I wrong? What are the main differences between the two in zerg setting? I haven’t written off other classes like guards if there’s a good reason to play them in large group fights.

Chefdiablo, for solo roaming I will probably keep my mes. This character is mostly for running with either the zerg or my guild which is fairly big at times but not the ‘blob’, we are decently organised but not on the level some hardcore guilds are because we are kinda casual.
Thanks for the replies all

In large scale fights, a staff ele is a thing of beauty.

Mass cripple, mass chill, mass stun, mass aoe damage, mass aoe bleeds, mass healing, mass condition removal, and when you get in trouble, range reflecting shields and mist form.

Add in the fire fields for might buffs, the air fields for swiftness and the water fields for healing.

What more could you want?

Mesmers have some tricks. Ranged-attack reflecting domes, Temporal Curtain, aoe damage dealing phantasms, Temporal Curtain, portals, Temporal Curtain, group invisibility skills, Temporal Curtain….

…Did I mention Temporal Curtain? As skills go that one is so fun it should be illegal.

Necros… friends-don’t-let-friends roll necro. There’s numerous reasons why it’s one of the least played classes. First reason is that condition damage is almost worthless in zerg fights.

If you get four ticks of damage on five people you did maybe 600 damage to each person, and with all the condition cleansing going on that’s about all you can hope for.

Other classes routinely do aoe damage ranging from 1000(ele fireball)-7000(warrior arrow bombs) Yeah the mage is spammable and the warrior has an 8-10 second cooldown… but in comparison the necros Mark of Blood has a 4 second cooldown when traited… for 600 whole damage… realistically..

If the other team drops rams on your gate, all you can do is stand there looking stupid. Your conditions will do no damage, and your wells are mostly useless if spec’d for condition damage. The players on the other side of the door will be sitting in water fields.. so any marks you put on the door will be meaningless

You can do a power build, but power necros are basically thieves without stealth.

….and the last patch will have no real impact on the sad state of necros.

Necros are very useful in a zerg or GvG fight, as long as you play them right. People who don’t understand them or know what they do usually think they are poor.

A power based build utilising wells and now spectral wall can be used to boon strip through WoC, apply darkness (and chill if traited) with both well of darkness and plague form number 2. Well of power converts conditions on allies to boons and also removes stun now. All the time doing decent damage and decent survivability.

Dont underestimate them. If you do, you probably don’t know much.

1v1 – Dagger / Dagger Ele wins
1v2 – D/D Ele wins
Small group – D/D Ele wins
Small zerg – All are on Par
Large zerg – Staff Ele and Necro are on Par

Fuzzion.2504:

1v1 – Dagger / Dagger Ele wins
1v2 – D/D Ele wins
Small group – D/D Ele wins
Small zerg – All are on Par
Large zerg – Staff Ele and Necro are on Par

I mostly agree with this summary. Necros stripping boons (stability, might, etc) is just a massive zerg breaker but they are mostly good in zergs only. An ele is just good everywhere. There is no part of the game they cannot play well but as stated above good eles have to put in the work because it takes a lot more effort to be good at D/D than most other classes. Eles caught with the staff outside of a group, ouch!

I plan on almost always being with a group on this character (solo/small roaming will remain my mesmer) unless i am running somewhere. I assume if i am running somewhere and get ganked the ele will have more chance to escape than the necro even if caught with a staff? If they are both pretty kitten good in zerg fights i think i am leaning more towards the ele just because it seems better in other areas as well as zergs. How do they rate compared to other top wvw classes? (I’m guessing ele/nec/guard/war are the main classes for top in-combat usefulness) in both zergs and escapes/running places?

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I plan on almost always being with a group on this character (solo/small roaming will remain my mesmer) unless i am running somewhere. I assume if i am running somewhere and get ganked the ele will have more chance to escape than the necro even if caught with a staff? If they are both pretty kitten good in zerg fights i think i am leaning more towards the ele just because it seems better in other areas as well as zergs. How do they rate compared to other top wvw classes? (I’m guessing ele/nec/guard/war are the main classes for top in-combat usefulness) in both zergs and escapes/running places?

If that’s the case, then you probably should decide what role do you want to play in the group? More support or more offense?

I can’t speak for everyone, but my experience is staff ele’s tend towards support (water fields for regen etc.) and necros towards offense (blinds, boon corruption, fears, DS damage).

I know in our group play, if we have a skilled necro with us (which we are lucky to have), it really ups our performance. Plague Form with blind especially just shuts other groups down.

(I also believe staff eles are a top thief target, as they don’t have many escapes to my knowledge. Necros don’t either, but they are much tankier).

Thanks for the replies. I think as long as I have some decent aoes I will be okay, I’m more interested in reliably being able to aoe often and provide support. I won’t be zerker anyway so dps is never going to be anything to shout about.

I tried a staff ele yesterday but it felt kinda clunky. Like randomly swapping attunements and firing all aoes not recharging was optimal.. maybe I was doing it wrong.

how are guardians compared to eles/nec? I see a lot in wvw videos.

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Thanks for the replies. I think as long as I have some decent aoes I will be okay, I’m more interested in reliably being able to aoe often and provide support. I won’t be zerker anyway so dps is never going to be anything to shout about.

I tried a staff ele yesterday but it felt kinda clunky. Like randomly swapping attunements and firing all aoes not recharging was optimal.. maybe I was doing it wrong.

how are guardians compared to eles/nec? I see a lot in wvw videos.

Both D/D (solo and zerg) and Staff Eles(for zerg only) take some time to get used to play. D/D Eles need to learn their rotation and Staff Eles have to be able to switch attunement and drop the right field quickly.

Guardians in zergs provide boons, heal and CC the enemy from the frontline.

Necros in zergs remove boons, apply blind/chill/weakness/poison/fear with AoE marks and wells. Necros also are great for collecting loot bags. Plague Form is a mobile AoE zerg killing skill. Necros, however, still have few stunbreaks and rely on others (Guardians) to deal with CC.

Since you are already familiar with the Mesmer playstyle it may be easier for you to adapt your Mesmer to the zerg and still collect the rewards. Even though Null Field, Veil and Portal are utilities that don’t damage, each one can tip the balance from winning and losing a fight.

Malkithe.2084:

Necros are very useful in a zerg or GvG fight, as long as you play them right. People who don’t understand them or know what they do usually think they are poor.

A power based build utilising wells and now spectral wall can be used to boon strip through WoC, apply darkness (and chill if traited) with both well of darkness and plague form number 2. Well of power converts conditions on allies to boons and also removes stun now. All the time doing decent damage and decent survivability.

Dont underestimate them. If you do, you probably don’t know much.

With the new way blind works it’s so strong right now. It’s helpful to have one or two eles, but that’s it. Necro is so much stronger now than people realize. The fear bombs were already strong, but they are just crazy powerful right now.

It’s cool if the OP likes ele more, but useful it would have to be the necro.

Based on some of your responses I would say necro fits you better. The build you choose becomes important. I use a condition necro now when in WvW. The aoe and range is great for zerg vs zerg, you can place some very strategic marks/wells, survivability is very good, the new torment is handy when you are in the middle of enemy. One of my favorites however is dropping well of corruption on those guardians/eles who are charging in to break up your zerg, and watching them melt.
truthfully either toon will work fine, just need to spec for what your play type is going to be
On a side note, health, toughness and tons of aoe makes those pesty thieves look for easier targets (not one on one but the thieves that sneak in for the quick kill in zerg fights)

GSSBlunaspike.4153:

It’s helpful to have one or two eles, but that’s it

Could you expand on this please? I assumed the more eles the better due to the aoe dmg.

Once again thanks all for the insightful replies.

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GSSBlunaspike.4153:

It’s helpful to have one or two eles, but that’s it

Could you expand on this please? I assumed the more eles the better due to the aoe dmg.

Once again thanks all for the insightful replies.

my guild ran a night of staff ele only raid. ~15 staff eles doing meteor shower and glyph of storms all at the same time is an incredible sight to behold. At other times we switched to water and all healed the token warrior who charged the enemy by himself. Co-ordinated actions by a group of eles turns out to be a most effective unit.

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how are guardians compared to eles/nec? I see a lot in wvw videos.

Guardians are the premier group class and are group buff machines. Standing next to one often yields a big spike in damage, healing and overall survivability. In skirmish settings they also shine for the same reasons. The two knocks against them is they have almost no offensive range and their mobility is weak. Don’t like to tank? They still have a good damage output and remain somewhat tanky.

I also like to think of them as one of the better designed classes in GW2. They have good build diversity, most weapons are actually useful and they have big upsides with a nice counter balance of weaknesses in almost every build.

They also rarely see a nerf and occasionally see minor bumps in the patch notes. Lastly, the Norn race is a good choice because it has the Become the Snow Leopard which gives a quick stealth and high mobility. The cooldown is ridiculously high but Guardians usually cannot run away when they are caught by superior numbers and this ability adds another dimension to the class. Not saying that is the elite you should pick but for skirmishing it can be better than the Tomes or possibly the best guardian elite Renewed Focus.

Oh man… decisions decisions! To be honest it sounds like the most succesful groups just stack necro/ele/guard/war so I should be able to contribute nicely as any of those.. just gotta find which one suits me I guess.

The thought of getting caught in a small skirmish by myself on my way somewhere or with the wrong weapons equipped and not being able to run away quick enough or 1v1 well really annoys me.

I use Necro, for the AoE (With staff) when I am out in WvW, but when I am in JPs, or want to pull people off a tower/keep. I use Mesmer (Sword/Focus).