Guild Wars 2

I’m a returning player and I’m looking for some insight. My buddy just started playing and he’s maining necro, so I was wondering what class would go well with his. I’m figuring it would be better to focus around a duo for roaming and some pve stuff. We are pvp players mostly, and spvp seems like anything could be viable when played right. Just wondering what synergizes best in a two man team with necro for things.

I have played a few classes and have taken them out of my choices. Guardian is one that I don’t really enjoy. I realize this is one of the best classes to team with pretty much anything, but i just couldnt enjoy it. I also played Thief. This class is okay to me but it seems super squishy. Lastly, another necro is something I am avoiding. I want some variety.

I am currently playing Mesmer, and it is okay. It is fun, but I die very easily. Not just in pvp, but basic pve mission content. I am probably playing the mesmer incorrectly for leveling, but even so, if it is a class that won’t provide much in terms of synergy with necro I would rather stop early.

Thank you everyone in advance

Engineer

Engineer, guardian, Ele all work well when teamed with necro.

Being that I’m no pro, I’m nervous to take up engineer. It seems like possibly the most complex class in this game.

Engineer isn’t complicated, if you really have no idea what you are doing you can honestly press all the buttons in order and do a pretty decent job. Remember that it only has 14 skills total without kits equipped, and eat kit adds 4 skills, this is compared to other professions which have 16-19 skills (10 weapon, 5 utility, 1-4 profession), Elementalist which has 25+attunements, and Necromancer which has 20+Death Shroud entry/exit. Overall, unless you are running a full kit Engineer, they will be average to slightly higher than average as far as number of skills to remember, and due to the low CD of kit swapping a “bad” swap into a kit only puts you behind by 1s, so unlike other professions messing up a swap isn’t that big of a deal.

People just tend to think kits = tons of extra skills and that they won’t be able to keep up, but the reality is unless you are running a 100% kit build (which doesn’t happen, you rarely have more than 2), you don’t have much more than average.

Well from a PvE perspective Engi rotations are far more complex than Ele rotations.

Its not the amount of skills. But the order and how you have to kit swap constantly. With ele its really just cycling through attunements in a set order. Engi is a bit more confusing.

That said. If you can stomach it then its worth learning. I dont really know about engi in PvP but it should be easier as Bhawb said. Still i think its worthwhile to learn everything about a class even if only using it in one gametype.

For pvp you’d struggle pairing with a necro. Getting jumped on by a thief really hurts if you’re a mesmer. If your necro is godmode in theory he would instantly fear the thief off and then you’d take him down together, but if he’s just a little too far, or reacts just a little too slow, or is out of life force and his weapon swap is on cooldown the thief will get you before you can do anything. In WvW I’ve had success roaming with a mesmer though, there’s more space to run there and not all wvw thieves run the ultra-bursty d/p build, so usually the mesmer can back off and leave me to take care of the thief. As a mesmer in pvp you’d do best with a thief of your own, or an ele or engi.

In terms of what can cover the necro’s weaknesses, I find shoutbow works quite well. Warhorn 4 can get immobilise off you, which is a real problem for necros, and the fury from that one shout is always useful too. I’ve also had fun teaming up with a zerker medi guardian. Their teleports are invaluable for getting close to those power rangers, which I find to basically be a hard counter against necros, and the chill, blind, and burning they do synergise tremendously well with the necro’s own condition spam, overloading most enemies’ cleanses. Engi, as others have said, also works well for the same reason, between your bleeds and poisons and their, well, everything else, most enemies will be struggling to cleanse themselves. Eles too, to a lesser extent (plenty of burning and a few bleeds), and, like engis, they can heal and grant boons to help if the necro gets in trouble. The necro’s corrupt boon covers the one thing these classes have no access to, which is boon removal.

If you’re enjoying mesmer I reckon you should stick with it though. In PvE you can make anything work, and if you’re still learning the class you shouldn’t be blaming it for losing in pvp, you’ll get better with practice Plus the real benefit of playing with a friend in pvp is having voice comms and knowing what’s going on in different parts of the map, so you won’t necessarily end up in the same fight much of the time. (Though, if you don’t, who better than a mesmer to quickly portal his way to the necro’s fight?)

Personally, I consider Mesmer to be one of the best partners for Necro. Which is ironic considering they also tend to be a Necro’s worst enemy but, opposites attract.

Good guardian remove most of necromancer weaknesses.

Yeah a guardian with stability for the necro is a godsend and he can just lock down most targets for the necro to do his work.

In pvp engi+necro is the strongest pairing because engis can spam out enough conditions to cover your bleeds, and together you have enough cc to make it difficult to remove all of the conditions while also preventing the glassy necro from getting focused. Support guard isn’t really good 2vs2 because it lacks damage, so the other team can just focus you first then kill the guard. Mesmers are the opposite end of the spectrum in that they don’t provide enough support to a necro to be as effective. Either through cc on the enemy, healing, or stability a good partner will provide the necro with a way to mitigate damage on them.

Just to prove the point, engi/necro went undefeated for ages in the 2v2 weekly tournaments.