Guild Wars 2

Thank you everyone. I actually figured out that Focus 4 wasn’t healing my minions on my own, so that was ok. I still like Axe/Focus way more than anything else I tried. Right now I’m Axe/Focus with Bloodpet, Shadow Fiend, and Bone Fiend out and my survivability and damage for single targets is much much better. The only thing it really can’t do is AoE, but I can switch to staff to at least somewhat mitigate that. I do miss the explosions of Bone Minions, but so far it’s been outweighed by the durability of Bone Fiend. It’s not like it’s suddenly become the most powerful setup, but at least it can do some stuff well now and that’s enough for me to enjoy the class again.

It’s fun switching between classes now that I feel like I can sort of figure out their niches. Even without having to build them perfectly my Guardian plays very differently than my Necromancer plays very differently than my Ele, even at very low levels. Keeps things fresh.

No need for PvP advice since I never do that. WvW sounds interesting and I might try it out eventually, but it sounds like a sub-optimal build there isn’t the end of the world, and I might just use one of my other characters anyway.

Thank you for everybody’s assistance.

Hm, I’ll try Axe/Focus – I don’t think I had really experimented with that. You’ve both given me at least a bit of renewed interest, so thanks for that very much – already put a fair amount of time into the character exploring all the human surroundings and whatnot, and I really don’t want to have to repeat that.

So I take it the first thing I should be going for trait-wise is the minion damage trait?

I had been experimenting with staff a little bit, but I guess I just couldn’t really figure out where the damage is going to come from, since the staff seemed more utility-ish, and the minions don’t deal much at all, even spamming the bone minion explosions. Maybe Shadow Fiend will change that? I’m one skill point away from being able to unlock it. Hope so – the other three classes I’ve really been playing are Ranger, Guardian, and Elementalist, which I understand to all be fairly popular/easy classes, but they all feel light years ahead.

So I’m new to GW2, and not terribly experienced with MMO’s in general. I’ve spent about ten hours or so experimenting with all the classes, leveling them up to about 7-8, trying out their weapons, etc.

One of the classes I was most interested in was Necromancer, for the minions. So the character I’ve spent the most time on is a minion focused Necromancer, whose at level 11 right now. Thing is, in so far as I can tell, it sucks. The minions don’t seem to do anything worthwhile. Their damage and health is abysmal, and while their abilities are ok-ish, they seem a lot worse than if I just used those slots for other real abilities. I also can’t figure out what weapons I should be using to complement my minions – in general the Necromancer weapon setups just seem really poor for anything other than conditions, which I was sort of avoiding because I didn’t think it would be the best fit with minions.

So two questions. Am I just underwhelmed by the class because I don’t know what I’m doing? And if not, do the minions get better? Because right now I feel like I’m pulling teeth.

Go to bed, and wake up to all sorts of good input. Thank you!

Aeleniel, that was why I didn’t post in one of the class forums, although I did read through some stuff there.

I usually play magick-y characters, although since those roles tend to be more fluid in MMO’s I’d say I like playing characters that require some thought, as well as characters that allow for some tinkering and experimentation – i.e. I don’t just want to bash face ASAP, I want to have fun doing it.

It sounds like from what you all have been saying that I was right, and that necromancer and mesmer are the two classes for me. I will admit I sort of shied away from Elementalists because I couldn’t quite figure them out – maybe when I understand the game a little better they’ll have more intuitive appeal.

I had been planning on a sylvari necromancer, but I hesitated because I couldn’t quite figure out how that would work from a lore perspective (which does matter to me if I’m going to spend so much time with one character; I want their identity in my head to make sense). It seemed to me like the character I was envisioning would have fit in more with the Nightmare guys, who seemed like the Opposition.

So now I’m thinking maybe human Necromancer, and Sylvari Mesmer after. Or both off and on, to give me some perspective. I think I’ll still go Minions with the Necromancer – I don’t mind if my first character winds up a little underwhelming, and I just like the idea better. But maybe I’ll get in game and conditions will really wow me.

Anyway, thank you for the conversation. I’ll be finally starting tomorrow – today is football day.

Oh good – no one had responded, so I had just about decided to pursue that anyway.

Hello. I’m brand new to GW2, and not exactly a veteran MMO player. Usually I hate MMO’s, but GW2 was on sale, and I decided to risk the money and try it.

Anyway, I wanted to ask for a little advice (hope this is in the right sub-forum). I’m having a hard time figuring out where to get started. There are quite a few races and classes to choose from, and although I’ve done some research, I’m still not sure.

I know the races that interest me to begin with are the Humans, the Asura, and the Sylvari. The other three races are also interesting, but I intend to save them for later.

I know the three classes that don’t interest me are the Warrior, Guardian, and Ranger.

I know that I want to focus almost solely, if not solely, on PvE content, and given that I’m usually a loner in these types of things, I will probably be soloing most of that content.

I don’t particularly care at all about being the “best” or most optimal character; all I want is a level of power enough to not make the game actively frustrating.

I suppose the two classes I’ve spent the most time thinking about are a Necromancer focused on Minions or a Mesmer focused on Illusions. I have no idea if either of those would be effective.

Anyway, I don’t exactly have enough time to try out them all in depth, so descriptions of how you found them to play, from a gameplay and personal affection standpoint, I would greatly appreciate. Just to get a sense of the things people like and dislike.

Thank you all very much, to the extent you want to contribute.