Guild Wars 2

I’m looking to transition to a caster as I’m not a fan of how much kiting/ranged the melee classes require. I want to try something new as well and casters in mmo’s are a new thing to me

That being said, most of the posts on here are regarding the broken state of Necro’s in pvp.

I’m only interested in PVE and i’m curious whether to roll with this class or an elementalist. Mesmer doesn’t interest me, only these two.

Any feedback or suggestions regarding either classes would be much appreciated as this is a new space for me and I want to roll something that is going to be fun and viable in PVE, regardless of its state in PVP

Thanks much!

I’d go ele if you are looking for more of a caster. My understanding (I have not played one yet) is that they are better for that. Necros tend to be coined “conditionmancers” or can be used in a support spec (fast on their feet, and quick to heal). I personally am experimenting with conditionmancer. One thing is for sure, everyone’s got their own opinion as to what is what. Based on your initial query, though, I’d go for ele.

I just created a mesmer the other day, and leveled it to 5. Such a fun profession.

If you don’t like kiting you should really stay away from the necro. The class has some survivability but still can’t afford to get hit due to the lack of block and dodge skills. Especially in higher levels necros tend to run around a lot while trying to take down mobs, you can’t afford to stand rather still and burst down something since you can’t burst at all.

In a sort of odd contrast, the necromancer is surprisingly weak in PvE. Much of this has to do with the extremely poor AI and vulnerability of the pets, and the lack of a dependable way to heal pets between fights – it’s alot of irksome resummoning for things other classes can just mow through.

This changes slightly when you get your golem at level 30, and leveling becomes a bit more manageable with a pet that doesn’t die in 1-2 hits and allows you to tackle content above your level.

Poor solo PvE is just something you’ll have to suffer with, sadly.

Get a dagger and a focus or warhorn
Get a build that consists of 30 points in Blood magic,20 points in death, and 20 in spite , play a build with Wells skills and your necro is going to be the 2nd best tank in the game.
No kitting, just stand there and be like a wall of bricks healing all the way and having multiple protection abilities while you aoe your enemies down to 0.

GL & HF.

Know that every build you run in the game benefits from kiting. You might not need to do it to win a fight but it’s a lot more efficient if you do. Just keep that in mind.

For melee characters you can circle strafe without losing DPS. For casters you can do the same but getting hit is more punishing due to lower survivability (generally… there are tanky builds that out tank a damage-oriented melee class, for example).

generally speaking you will be kiting no matter what class you play. Like AuraofMana said, you will need to be light on your feet no matter the situation as the enemy will kitten down your throat if given the chance. The necromancer also happens to have the fewest ways of out right avoiding damage, so you have to be even more careful with your positioning and dodge’s vs other classes.

In necros case we have this so called support role which provides no buffs/heals/cc. Our condition damage is 117 for bleeds in best case scenario. Also don’t forget bleeds dont stack past 25… so if you run with warrior… you aren’t doing anything at all. Your damage is insignificant compared to all other classes. Minions spend majority of time afk. And… well just look at the bug list. You don’t even need to know how bad our traits are… just look at plain bugs. That should be more then enough.
Do your self a favor and enjoy a class that is actually working. Elementalist has a ton of utility and fairly good aoe damage. Its not warrior/thief as damage goes. And very fragile until you start swaping attunments properly for healing/protection but after that its the most versatile class.

Besides all the bugs and negativity, if it looks fun then try it.

Necro, 80 lvl. Using minions for PvE I did solo whole leveling and 90% of all skill challenges. Can solo veterans and some champions. Solo personal story to lvl 76, got bored of this piece of feces and quit.

The hard part.
Bosses with strong AoE. Some of them can 2-shot you. Dungeons.

The annoying part.
Minions’ AI is broken at the core level, so very often they’re just standing while you getting hit. Sometimes they run across the map just to bring you some troubles.
But you can use at least one bug as you advantage. Golem of meat can regenerate it’s heath while out of fight, so it can be an infinity shield for you.

Bugs. There’s a ton of bugs. In fact, we have a book of them. We didn’t get fixes whatsoever. Anet are hating our class for some reason, so all that we can hope for – another nerfing.

Best part of being necro.
In group of 30 players there’s 5 thieves, 7 warriors, 4 guardians, 4 rangers, 3 ele, 3 mesmers, 3 engineers and only one necro – you.

natsos.3692:

Get a dagger and a focus or warhorn
Get a build that consists of 30 points in Blood magic,20 points in death, and 20 in spite , play a build with Wells skills and your necro is going to be the 2nd best tank in the game.
No kitting, just stand there and be like a wall of bricks healing all the way and having multiple protection abilities while you aoe your enemies down to 0.

GL & HF.

I love being able to do that, also use a staff for swap just to get even more damage and regen from the 2. Mobility means nothing when your only true reliable mobility is dodge, which as a necro you get 2 of. Standing in your wells with tons of healing and toughness and a bit of power you can just stand still drop your aoes use the 2 on dagger (may not be much but it helps) and just eat whatever beating they dish out. Not to mention, plague form blinds and poisons them all constantly for 20 seconds, almost doubles your hp pool and at level 80 gives about 2k toughness, and grants stability for the duration. With the spec I have crap gear because I decided to have fun in PvP instead of grind for mats or grind for gold to pay for mats to level a profession, I was tanking 5 undead on the last airship in the level 80 instance. Broke or not, necros have this amazing ability to survive and annoy the hell out of enemies, not to mention 15 sec upkeep on dark combo area and 10 sec upkeep on light combo area

Exactly what Sjach said, necro all the way for PvE.you might not have the best damage out there, but you have DEFINITELY the best tanking/support.
My 2nd dagger MH ability can heal my up to 4k specced to 30 blood 20 death 20 spite,waiting for a fix on siphon life i expect to see 6k heals out of this skill.
Every well gives you protection(-33% dmg) when pulses
Every well heals you when pulses you have skills for regen,kite,life siphon,DS,plague that doubles your HP/Toughness.
kitten you want more ?

I don’t want more just traits to you know, do what they say they do xD lol. Also why kite when I can just stand still and be a beast, i do the same thing with the same build in tPvP, even when my team loses they don’t complain about me, only thing i uses get is “kittenyou are hard to kill,” from enemy players trying to take my point. With the exception of mesmers. They usually see me and just immidiately hit the OMFG MOA button lol.

MOA has 2 sec cast time and can be dodged. Learn to dodge it and watch them cry. Also any mesmer who takes moa in tpvp is making a fairly questionable choice seeing as time warp is so overpowered too.

I’ve always been able to take on multiple mobs a few levels above me, through heavy use of wells, Blood is power and Epidemic, condition/power gear, pop into DS for more AOE if things get tight. Lich or Plague for fun.

Start with staff, then switch to Scepter/Dagger, transfer self bleeds back onto the mobs and spread it around….lots of bleeding numbers ticking away all over the place. At least its worked very well so far into the mid 50s.

PvP is another story. I’m sadly, too used to WOW, where every animation and spell cast was so easily identifiable and counterable….INTUITIVE!!!. I have yet to see how skills in GW2 can be identified so you can react, since I can’t see the “tells”. Mostly everything seems instacast so you’re just reacting after the fact…for now. Need more practice.