Guild Wars 2

So, frankly, my Mesmer is driving me crazy. I always feel like I am missing a trait I need for my build, no matter what I do. The general concensus is that I’m not good at helping out the team except for my ability to portal them through dungeons. I am a monster in PvP (which I don’t enjoy all that much), but I suffer for it in PvE (which I like more) to “balance” my profession. And if I have to run from one end of a zone to the other, I am just gonna go ahead and dig myself a grave and fall into it rather than slowly meander across at my slow running speed.
Of course, then I rose again as a Necromancer, and am enjoying it nicely. You guys are fast across the map, your weapons are totally fun, and your builds are fully-formed. I am only sad that your summons are utilities because I really like summons, but also want to do more than DPS.
So, did any of you come from other professions and decide to stick with Necromancer after you tried it? Why did you stay and what did you like about it over your previous profession?

I was given a free weekend to play by my friend and I liked the look and feel of the Necromancer so I started playing it. Once I reached 80 and have decided on a final fully exotic gear. I decided to make alts. Guardian for me was my second choice but as soon as I reached level 60, I found it being too easy for me. Which is good when I want to relax and face roll. I also made an Engi but had to delete it twice it’s just not for me. Some of the better damaging ones like warrior bores me. Ele is good, and I agree mesmer takes ages to finish and solo events and is good in PVP, but it doesn’t give me the satisfaction in winning compared to my necro.

So in the end. I’m sticking to Necromancers. I don’t have the mindset of long time MMO players because this is my first MMO. I usually play single player games where the hardest classes would make you more BA if you conquer it.

I always pick dark themed casters, Necromancers or Dark Mages. I played a mesmer in Beta and I actually liked it a lot, but when the game launched I picked necro and never looked back. I like evil characters with a mean attitude even though my necro is pre-wired to be a goofball.

I always end up playing either healer classes or dark/denial/debuff/support magic users in MMORPG’s, and since GW2 has no healer class I started out as a mesmer. I got my mesmer to level 80 and came to the conclusion that they were not what I was looking for. So I tried the necromancer and have been playing him since. I’ve dabbled with every other class except ranger and I keep coming back to the necromancer.

I leveled an Elementalist to 80, loved the class, hated that it was so squishy unless you run the “One True D/D Build.” I was also frustrated that most of the cool looking armor looks really awful on Asura. Finally, I generally like DoT style classes and there isn’t really a viable Burning/Bleeding build for Elementalist like I’d hoped. So, I made a Norn Necro and never looked back.

I played a Ranger in beta and played him up until about 2 months ago. I finally gave up on him when I would frequently be turned down in pugs because the class didn’t bring much to the table. And frequently being forced to run with a dead pet in high level fractals was the breaking point for me.

I played a warrior and a thief up to 80 but didn’t really like it that much. Then I made a charr just to complete parts of their story, made a necro and fell in love with them. I admt that necro was the LAST class I wanted to play but their utility, their AoE, the look and feel of their spells and DS all matched a play style I’ve been looking for all along. I like the Necro so much I leveled my charr to 80 and since I wanted my main to be a necro and didn’t care for the charr I remade him into a human and started all over again. I couldn’t be happier.

Many naysayers claim the class is broken but I think we are sitting pretty good if you follow any of the popular builds that are out there. I’ve done damage, tanky hybrid and condition and have had gobs of fun with them all.

Started as necro with ega.. never bothered with anything else. Oh yeah I do have a lvl3 ele that I use for spvp sometimes… Mostly just to force people to rage explode. Can’t really thing of anything more aggravating then a squishy clothie with least health/armor/toughness that is pretty much unkillable 1v1… and depending on situation/oposition I’ve had times where I held entire 8 man party at their spawn point just causing an entire train to burst into verbal flame war on me when the regular methods fail.
If i had to say I probably enjoy ele pvp… but its so generic and the fact you are forced into a singular one true way to do anything doesn’t exactly help. I would only play spell casters/ranged because melee with big bad clubs bores me into submission but mesmer on other hands is definitely not my cup of tea… too annoying and too limited into being a 1 trick pony.
Necro offers variety. Granted most of it is creaky and at times just broken and only usable in one situation and no other… but I appreciate the variety more then anything else. When you can adjust things by putting a little thought in and using other means to your advantage… is more fun for me then endlessly swinging some kitten giant trunk and screaming loudly “ME SMASH!1!”.
Anyhoo… Started with necro…never left it really… and probably will quit before I ever bother to change.

Played Elementalist to 80, learned there was one true build which I didn’t like and that one or two element builds weren’t viable, so abandoned that. Played a Mesmer to 47 and lost interest. I then played warrior to 80 and still find that occasionally fun. My Necro is 53 now and its easily my favorite class so far; it has its warts, but the variety of viable builds has been nice and I like being able to do some of everything. I just wish we healed a little more effectively.

I usually play tank type characters in MMOs so that’s what initially made necro attractive as a prof. After leveling to 80 I decided to try some others; warrior and mesmer both leveled to 80. I do really enjoy the mesmer in pve and wvw but decided to revive the necro and make him vit-tank to be more effective in wvw. So far it’s working out pretty well, and I find myself playing the necro more often. One necro can definitely turn the tide on zerg v zerg situation, help on walls whether attacking or defending, protect siege, chase down runners, and move about the maps pretty quickly. Tankiness also helps you get out of some sticky situations. PvE is usually a breeze. Being tanky and still putting out massive amounts of damage is a great sweet spot. I think that what makes the necro odd is the wide variation of traits that can absolutely kill a wanted play style or make that necro shine. It’s a prof that can be hard to trait and understand…but once you get it it’s golden

I find that if I don’t play my necro I like to log with my mesmer. If you want to work on your mes and try some really nice builds I recommend the ones created by pyroatheist.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-The-Immortal-Mesmer-Build

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-PvE-Supporting-Phantasm-Build/

I usually play battle mage type characters in RPGs so decided that Necromancer was closest to this when I started playing Guild Wars 1. Although I did play every other class in GW the Necro stayed as my main. When I started GW2 I stuck with the class and so far have been enjoying it thoroughly.

I have rolled an Engineer and a Guardian but have barely played them so far.

Went back and forth between necro and thief since the first beta weekend, only leveled them to like 15 or so. I spent the entire time playing every profession in sPvP as that’s what I was most interested in and it gave me the chance to try them all out at 80 with everything unlocked.

At launch, I leveled the necro to 40 and then ended up leveling the thief to 80 (I always like leveling the stealth class in MMO’s first) then going back to level the necro to 80. Eventually the mind-numbingly simple thief play in pvp got too boring, and I started to not enjoy the game anymore. Once I realized all I was doing was spamming something in every build I played (Heartseeker, Death Blossom, Pistol Whip, Shadowy Assault underwater, 1115 1115 1115 P/D ugh), I started to hate Initiative. I hated how forgivable the class was; if you couldn’t instantly kill your target, you could just leave easily. If you miss with your attack, you can just try again and again ie HS or CnD. It was fun seeing huge backstab numbers but eventually I just felt cheap like the dude who abuses Eddie Gordo in Tekken and keeps you airborne the entire fight. I went back to necro and have been obsessed with the class ever since. I’ve played every possible build I could, generally switching them after every match or two, and I love that they’re all pretty well rounded and fun to play. I’ve played necro to rank 40 and still haven’t become remotely bored with the class.

My Ranger was my main, however not being a fan of bunker builds she is now being forced into manual labor on Cursed Shore until a later date(farming duty for my Legendary). My Necro I just got to 80 the other day and it feels pretty natural to me. I have a 80 Guardian, 80 Ele, and 75 Thief and none feel natural to me. So I believe I am sticking with him for a bit whenever I WvW or PvE.

As a guy with both an 80 necro and 80 mesmer, I really don’t think you’ll be satisfied if you switch. Mesmer is a much better profession for dungeons. You say they’re just useful for portal, but I greatly disagree. Mesmers put out quite a lot of damage, and that damage doesn’t suffer much from playing at range. Offhand focus pull is one of the best utility skills in the game if you know where and when to use it, and time warp is always very welcome even after the nerf. Mesmers also have a ton of active damage mitigation with skills like decoy, blink, distortion, perma vigor, etc.

The only thing necro really has over mesmer is some more health and better condition removal.

My favorites are Thief and Necro. Very opposiste in feel for me. The Thief is extremely unforgiving, 1 mistake and you are in trouble (not glass cannon either!), so it is a fun challenge and the need to dodge/evade like mad is really a fun play style for me ( stealth is just meh, a few seconds of nothing really, I rarely use it).

But the necro is like a juggernaut, and just tears through things while being (for me) a whole lot more interesting than the warrior. Though the trait lines are bit wonky, I am happy with it.

In the end, I think much depends upon what activities one prefers, and individual preferences in play style. Some classes just seem much better suited to certain areas of the game.

But I gotta say, the Necro has a lot of appeal for me, and in the end may be my main.

I started out as a necro on the early access and still play the class. Just going through the class list before I played the game told me that I will really only enjoy guardian and necromancer and my only two level 80 characters are those two. Although I’m on the fence atm and want to see how anet addresses some issues with the class, I’ll be a necro main till I move on from this game.

My level 3 necro I made just then because of this post… The staff abilities I already knew were a kitten because they just drop constant and annoying conditions but also the range of it… OMG someone once hit a 3k on me from a tower… I was on a treb that not even an ele with D/D would get to, and a necro killed me. I was impressed so I made the necro. ITS SO FUN!

HeNkitten8913:

My level 3 necro I made just then because of this post… The staff abilities I already knew were a kitten because they just drop constant and annoying conditions but also the range of it… OMG someone once hit a 3k on me from a tower… I was on a treb that not even an ele with D/D would get to, and a necro killed me. I was impressed so I made the necro. ITS SO FUN!

What’d he hit you with? Staff 4 in full zerker while you were on the verge of death? LOL!

Thought it looked cool. Played it.

You do know the minions have actives right? Theyre not dps machines. They all provide some other utility other than just being there. For instance Shadow Fiend gives a blind, Bone Fiend immobilizes, Flesh Golem knocks them down.

They are MUCH more than dps machines. In fact if youre not using theyre actives…

Are those minion secondary abilities really very effective, though? If they are, holy cow it’s even better than I thought. I just didn’t think, for example, that a short blind on a 20 sec cooldown that has a slight charge up after I push the button was all that great. I will be happy to be proven wrong, though.
And as far as Mesmer being more versatile, I actually think that may be my problem. I don’t really get to do what I want on my Mesmer. People expect certain things all the time and, according to them, by golly if I’m not running the build they expect or playing the way they want, I have no business being on their team. I like being a staff conditions/shatter mesmer. I don’t mind porting, etc, but for the love of all that is good, let me play the build I like and stop demanding I have certain weapons with me to satisfy whatever you think I should have.
As a necromancer, I get to decide: would I like to have a swarm of undead, or perhaps circles of pain and blinding/cleansing/stripping goodness? Works in dungeons OR roaming OR PvP? Fantastic.

@Ramiah, it depends on the minion. Bone Minion explosion for 2k+ (per explosion) is a very strong way to surprise people with burst, Flesh Wurm port is just plain awesome when you need to get the heck out (and in certain dungeons and PvP it is a very good way to move), and Flesh Golem charge is very strong (although it gets stuck too often). I will definitely agree that the other two are slightly lackluster in feel.

I’m a huge pvp fan, in fact the only reason I bought GW was to pvp because even thought only two guys balance the PVP they do a fairly decent job. I played an Ele first and while I liked it I just found it to much work for less or equal to other classes in terms of dmg in pvp.

So I looked at necro, I generally play classes that have lightning or frost magic (I know geeky xD) And I found out the necro does have some frosty dps so I made me a norn necro and I gotta say the pvp is more fun and I don’t feel as kitten in having to be one type of build. Plus who doesn’t like turning into a Lich chilling your foes to death?

I love the build diversity. almost every time I log in I switch traits and play something different with my necro. its great fun and not such a hectic pace of play that you dont know whats going on.

options for necro are huge and I love it.

I have an 80 guard warr and thief and necro is by far my favourite class. without a doubt.

I play several of the professions so…not sure this applys to me, but what i like about my necromancer is the feel of it. The focus on lifestealing and weakening my enemy. I do wish summons were on weapon abilities the way phantasms are for mesmer. (even if they were really short duration summons that quickly die). But other than that…generally happy.

They have some of the best under water weapon skills. (still pushing for spear to be made a land weapon for necro….it should be a master trait in spite instead of axe mastery)