Guild Wars 2

So I just came back to guild wars 2 today. Before I left I had a level 43 thief. I am looking to make a caster type character.

Need some help deciding between necro and ele. Which is better for PvE, PvP. I remember a lot of people complaining that necros were really bad before I left. Has there been any buffs to the necro?

Thanks for your help.

Yu shal chose ele.
Last time engi get buffs , and now necro is last clas in pvp :P
Ele get some nerf but its still in top 3.
So i am sure for 100% yu shal chose ele.

Getting to know your character is key and you will be successful with either one. I run both and depends on the game play to decide which one to play. The necro is still my main for wvw and pve.

KlausKNT.9302:

Yu shal chose ele.
Last time engi get buffs , and now necro is last clas in pvp :P
Ele get some nerf but its still in top 3.
So i am sure for 100% yu shal chose ele.

have to disagree, war. ist last class in pvp.
I recommend Ele as well, as it ist bit easier .
Don’t get this wrong, both classes is hard to master, but to play necro successfuly
you need to have good class understanding. Same time you can make ele and be successful without it [in case you are not a total noob]

Note: As I only play tPvP at this point, understand that my comments are specific to that part of the game which I know.

@KlausKNT – Perhaps you have never played in tPvP. Necro is definitely not last. See Warrior. After that, see Thief. Then Necro can enter the discussion, but most would probably put it somewhere 3-5.

@OP – Depends on if you want a challenge or not. Necro has (in my opinion) the highest skill floor of any profession in the game. This means that in order to be remotely decent with a necro you need to have more skill than with any other profession. Ele on the other hand has a low skill floor at the moment. Playing a tPvP bunker Ele somewhat effectively requires 3 things.
1) Get a build off the web of a D/D or S/D bunker ele
2) Get into a match and periodically roll your face accross your keyboard spamming all skills on rechage and swapping attunements.
3) If you get in trouble use RtL, heal, then go right back to the point you were harassing

Now granted, they have threatened to nerf ele in the near future, but that is the current state of the profession.

Both ele and necro are good in PvE. Usually staff ele and either scepter/dagger&staff necro or daggadagga powernecro, both work totally fine in dungeons.
Ele is king in tournas atm, but necro is still very strong as a bunkerbuster/midsupport in a condibuild. Necro can also play powerbuild in tournas, but it requires good shrouddancing and knowledge within the profession.

Don’t listen to the trolls above. Here is what you should do:

Create both and try them out in Hot Joins. Depending on which one you like better you should choose your next character.

Unless you are playing on a high tPvP level it doesn’t matter which profession you are playing. Any profession can be successful in Hot Joins/WvW (yes, even warriors) as long as you know how to play your build and how to counter the other builds.

When it comes to PvE they are both good and welcome in most groups.

I wouldn’t post this thread in the necro or ele forum. Necro players will tell you you need more skill to be able to play a necro and ele players will do the same for eles. Instead you should use this forum:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players

For necro guides I really like this Youtube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Iamoneandiamlegion/videos?view=0

For eles I can’t find any good Youtube channels but here are some other useful links:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Guide-Rating-Elementalist-traits/first (A short guide about the ele traits)

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Guide-Mastering-the-D-D-ele-3-29-12/first (A really nice guide about the popular D/D bunker build)

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Maximum-PVE-DPS-Lightning-Hammer-Build/first (Something I personally enjoy a lot in PvE )

Blackhat.4016:

Don’t listen to the trolls above.

After I post I will just go back under my bridge.

Blackhat.4016:

Unless you are playing on a high tPvP level it doesn’t matter which profession you are playing. Any profession can be successful in Hot Joins/WvW (yes, even warriors) as long as you know how to play your build and how to counter the other builds.

That is 100% accurate, and I agree wholeheartedly.

Blackhat.4016:

Necro players will tell you you need more skill to be able to play a necro and ele players will do the same for eles.

You assume too much. I gave my honest assessment having played both. The debate about skill cap could be had, but I don’t think and honest ele would even try to challenge the statement about skill floor.

Elementalist is far better in S/T pound for pound than Necro.
Myrmidion has it right.

Necro takes skill just to live any length of time much less be successful because they are comparatively a much weaker class than Ele.

What’s this about Ele nerfs? Do you have a link to a quote?

Blackhat.4016:

Necro players will tell you you need more skill to be able to play a necro and ele players will do the same for eles.

This.

The truth is they’re both decent classes, and that good players will demolish bad players most of the time. Even good players die a lot to bad players that just happen to run a build that counters theirs.

At the end of the day, however, D/D Elementalist is a very strong build that brings a lot of tools to the table. If you’re comfortable with swapping attunements quickly and all the button mashing, it’s just easy to play. If you are not terribly nimble on the keyboard you’ll die a lot.

Necro is very much a “build” oriented profession. You have builds that are good vs. certain other builds, and if someone is running a build that counters yours then you’ll probably lose because we don’t have a lot of skills that let us reset fights or run away when we’re losing. If you know what kind of builds you’re going to be facing, and can build to counter them, then Necro is a monster. That means it takes a ton of meta knowledge about game mechanics and how other classes work. That means it takes more skill to not be terrible.

Elementalist takes just as much skill as Necro to be “good,” but takes far less skill to not be terrible. That’s because the standard Ele build comes stock with 3 stun breaks, a mountain of condition clears, loads of healing, and several decent options to shake melee and run away. You can start an Ele with the attitude of “If I start to take too much damage I will knock the guy down and run away to heal up” and do fairly well knowing nothing about how other classes work. You’ll be a really mediocre PvPer, but you’ll do okay because you won’t be dead all the time. Necro doesn’t really work that way. You either breeze through a fight and end it with 80% life, or you lose/barely win (get lucky).

Some will argue about which class has the highest “skill ceiling,” but I think that’s a red-herring. It’s an argument that only ends with a bunch of “No True Scotsman” answers, where people say the only reason you win is because your opponents were terrible.

@Myrmidian Eudoros.4671

“After I post I will just go back under my bridge.”
Ok, you are a good troll I gotta give you credit for that one. xD

@Otaking.4675

I am not sure which nerfs you are talking about but maybe this one:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Analysis-of-Cantrips-Eles/first

Very well written Symbolic.

Great write-up. Just so you guys know, we’re trying to bring down the cantrip Ele, while also being careful to let other Ele builds work. We don’t want to just take all Ele’s out of play, but we do need to bring a few things down (traits/skills) in efficacy.

@PinCushion.7390

“Elementalist takes just as much skill as Necro to be “good,” but takes far less skill to not be terrible.”
This is basically true imo. If you use the bunker build you can be pretty strong by just using all your skills once they are off CD. If you use any other build though it is the complete opposite.

Myrmidian Eudoros.4671:

Note: As I only play tPvP at this point, understand that my comments are specific to that part of the game which I know.

@KlausKNT – Perhaps you have never played in tPvP. Necro is definitely not last. See Warrior. After that, see Thief. Then Necro can enter the discussion, but most would probably put it somewhere 3-5.

@OP – Depends on if you want a challenge or not. Necro has (in my opinion) the highest skill floor of any profession in the game. This means that in order to be remotely decent with a necro you need to have more skill than with any other profession. Ele on the other hand has a low skill floor at the moment. Playing a tPvP bunker Ele somewhat effectively requires 3 things.
1) Get a build off the web of a D/D or S/D bunker ele
2) Get into a match and periodically roll your face accross your keyboard spamming all skills on rechage and swapping attunements.
3) If you get in trouble use RtL, heal, then go right back to the point you were harassing

Now granted, they have threatened to nerf ele in the near future, but that is the current state of the profession.

This is so ridiculously wrong. You try to play a noob ele and come across any decent mesmer or necro or ranger, and you will get torn apart.

Blackhat.4016:

D
For necro guides I really like this Youtube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Iamoneandiamlegion/videos?view=0

For eles I can’t find any good Youtube channels but here are some other useful links

At least give true kudos to Nemesis… i mean just saying this yt channel doesnt mean much.
AIso woodenpotatoes used to do some Ele videos.

I am not sure if the OP even knows who Nemesis is but yes, it is his channel.

Of all the classes in the game, elementalists feel the most “done”

Necromancers leave a person wondering if they are every going to “finish” designing the class, or have they just given up.

…engineers seem to be a class they just gave up on. I don’t think a single dev plays that class, and they seem truly surprised by the backlash from the last patch.

We aren’t that bad, but the bleed cap isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, and 90% of the time the only condition someone needs to cleanse when fighting a condition-necro is bleed. No class has a hard time cleansing just one condition, and when they start seeing the red numbers flying, they know it’s time to cleanse it off and nullify all the work the necro did staking all those bleeds.

If a single stack of bleed is 1000 damage, and a person repeatedly dodges and then cleanses 9 stacks of bleeds…. yeah.. it’s that bad playing against a competent player.

Direct damage is a bit of a mystery to me, as I geared for conditions at 80, but the one or two times I’ve come across a DD spec’d necro in WvW. I just ran them over.

Wells are easy to see, and even easier to avoid. ‘Look at the melee guy standing on the big black poisonous spot (is that a skull?), I think I’ll just range him" You really need a lot of strategy there, lol.

And wells have a long cooldown, and when they aren’t up, the class falls to pieces.

“No one knows how to properly use death shroud, and when they figure it out they will be much better players.. blah blah blah..”

What a load of s***! Yeah it’s a secret! Only the best, of the best, know how to properly use death shroud! You suck, because you don’t know the super secret of playing the necro class! …and I don’t want to tell you how awesome it is because then we might get nerfed!!! If Anet only knew how awesome we really are they’d have to nerf us!!

A load of s*** that big requires hip-waders and a forklift to clean up.

Roll an ele, they can do everything but tank.

Ezeriel.9574:

Roll an ele, they can do everything but tank.

I dunno, pure bunker eles are pretty ephing ridiculous too.