Guild Wars 2

Dungeons/PvE are important, as they’re all my friends do, but I also really like WvW.

So, I’m wanting to choose one of these based primarily on the appearance of their weapons and armor. I’ve got builds in mind for the Necromancer and Ranger, but I’ve only just recently taken Elementalist into consideration, so I don’t know what I’d do build-wise there. That said, the build’s not set in stone beyond the fact that I want Dagger/Dagger on Necromancer or Elementalist, or Greatsword+Sword/Dagger on Ranger.

My intention with Necromancer was a lifesteal tank, with 0/0/30/30/10. The traits and utilities could be switched about, either going all-out Minions, or an oddball Well/Flesh Wurm/Spectral something or other that I can’t remember/Well of Power/Flesh Golem setup that I think would be enjoyable.

The Ranger was going to be 0/10/0/30/30, a Regeneration Ranger that focuses on the pet dealing damage. I like this one also because I’m able to give permanent Swiftness to my poor Guardian/Mesmer friend. :P

Elementalist, as I said, I’ve just barely started considering. I like the variety of attacks offered by attunements, though I don’t know that I have the skill, patience, or internet connection sometimes to make it work.

Thankfully, being super effective offensively for dungeons/PvE isn’t a big deal. I only ever go through them with a group of close friends who really don’t care one way or another HOW we get through so long as we do in the end. In fact, being able to survive well so I can run about on revival duty would be preferable, as only one of them is really all that adept at dodging. :P

WvW-wise, I’ve seen that Regen Rangers can be pretty effective at roaming when played well. I-… DON’T play well, but I’m hoping I can get better. I’m not sure how successful Necromancer Tanks can be, but I’m pretty sure I’ve read that D/D Elementalists are amazing at it. From what I understand, what Minion Master Necromancers ARE amazing at in WvW is breaking down doors, and it looks incredibly fun to run around with an entire MM Zerg. Don’t know that I’d ever actually be able to find one, though, admittedly. XD

So, yeah, basically what I’m after is word on which of these classes can stay alive in melee easily while in dungeon scenarios, that can also perform well in WvW.

(Anyone know if it’d be alright by the forum rules for me to post this topic to the Ranger and Elementalist boards as well? I’d like insight from mains of each, but I don’t know if it’d qualify as spamming.)

I have all three of the classes you’re looking for and I dungeon on all of them. From strictly a weapon perspective, I’d say their survivability goes from rangers to ele and finally necro in that order. Reason being ranger great sword auto has a Dodge on every third hit, gs 2 (maul) has good burst, gs 3 can leap you away from danger, gs 4 is a block and gs 5 can daze/stun. However, the gs is not optimal for damage as much as sword is, but it is more durable. Ranger sword auto is a little tricky with the third hit but sword 2 and sword 3 give an evade each.

Ele is second since dagger in lightning has the highest rage of all melee attacks at 300. Aside from being able to cleave you can also stand at a reasonable distance while still being able to do damage. As well dagger dagger eles have a lot of cone attacks that are useful in dungeons such as fire 2 and water 2 that can do damage at range, although the skill cap for ele will be highest (yet most rewarding)

Necro is last in survivability from a weapon standpoint since dagger cannot cleave and the auto requires you to be in the closest range to a mob possible. The good news is that dagger auto attacks pretty quickly so with the right gear you pump out a lot of damage.

From a class mechanic perspective necros are potentially the most tanky since their death shroud saves them from high dmg hits (when used properly). Rangers have their pets to res them and have higher base armour than light armour classed. Ele again require the highest skill cap to stay alive since they have low armour and require active maintenance to stay alive.

Hope this helps and sorry if I went on tangent lol. I typed this from my phone and kinda forgot the initial question :P

The ranger build you listed won’t work well. Go with x/x/30/30/10 or x/x/30/x/30 one of those would be better.

So, I don’t know if I can actually qualify as someone who can reply to this, but I am looking for a similar playstyle to you and have done a lot of research as well.

I’ve mained a necromancer for a long long time, and just love outlasting, outtanking, and allowing for some burst damage when needed. I find that in small groups you are actually the “tankiest” in a solo/minigroup aspect with 30 in soul reaping and bouncing back and forth between DS and Staff/DD. If you focus on Viatality and Power, you can reach 28k health and using certain traits get 3% DS per mark, and you have 4 from the staff and onefrom dodging (traited), therefore gaining “health” very frequently. Then going for Dhumfire and the 50% crit in DS, you have a lot of on demand burst, shooting for 2500 Life Blasts once they leave you alone, due to tankiness. You have 2 on demand condi removals, a blind, a weakness, a chill,2 fears, an immobilize, and practically permanant regeneration (although you wont heal whilst in DS) with getting free condition duration in the power trait line. Also, my favorite part about this build is that you can use any utilities, and i recommend well of power, corruption, or darkness, spectral walk, and whatever else. then using Lich for more damage in a small party, and plague for everything else in WvW (especially zergs).

I’ve found through playing that going full tank necro is kinda…. meh… in all aspects because all you get is a bunch of health and nothing to do with it. Conversly to proffs like Guardians and Warriors who have invulnurabilities and Blocks and easy stability, we get minor health regen and very very little Crowd control in WvW and still get smacked for a hell of a lot more than we can heal in PvE. Although, if you want to focus specifically on wells or Minions, you can go full tank, but i’d try to persuade you away from attempting to vampire yourself unkillable.

To talk to Minion Master in WvW. You’d prolly survive ok, but with lack of utilities, and the massive amount of AOE in zergs, you’d really only be useful at killing a door, and only so good at that.

All in all, Necromancers are durable and survivable simply by virtue of their death shroud, as it is a second health pool. As this is balanced for a 1v1 situation (so as not to be broken) the more people wailing on you, the less tanky you are, unlike blocks and invu which block 100% of damage. I’ve found that it makes less sense to focus on survivability ignoring the Death shroud, and rather focus on death shroud, or dip into death shroud, as that bar regenerates the fastest.

Elemantalist! I’ve played a bit of ele, and really like the playstyle because of its insane mobility with D/D. You have so so so many things at your disposal including large heals, CC, conditon removal, extreme movment, and versatile skills. They are squishy, but can mitigate so much damage and survive brutal assaults. The important thing to understand is that all of these options require you to know your class very well, and swap between attunments frequently and know your cooldowns. So, putting skill and time aside, its about using a lot of abilities and combos to achieve everything. I can’t talk about how they work in a zerg, but they are required to be melee if you stay as D/D and Necromancer (wells/plague form)/warr/guard are really the only classes that can last any time in melee so you wont do much, but in small skirmishes you can practically go in and out of battle and support your teammate whilst haveing burst waiting in your pocket to open up and massacre someone.

I cannot speak about rangers, but i assume pets would get lost in zergs, but be decent or good in skrims.

ALSO! it’s important to note that traits are coming up very soon, as well as a lot of class balances are coming soon! So… tbh…. look at the flavor of each proff, look at the weapons themselves, and go from there. Recognize that Necro will use Death Shroud very often and those skills don’t change as well as the highest base health. Recognize that Ele will ALWAYS have 20 skills per weapon set and the lowest base health. Ranger will be quircky, have split power, and have the ability to be tricky and survivable.

I hope this was informative and/or helpful, I didn’t read back through it, so please question or critizite whatever you want :P

P.s. This is mostly from a WvW perspective due to your stance on PvE being mute as my arguemnt for you is to play whatever is the most flavorful and fun due to your lucky group of friends actually enjoying the game! haha

Oh… and the build i recommended as necro was 30/0/0/10/30

Amazing answers, thank you. Can’t say I’m any closer to a decision, but it’s at least food for thought. X)