Post Massive Nerf/Tweak Whatever Profession Choice (Elementalist, Mesmer, or Necromancer)

Hello everyone,

As the title says, I'm looking for advice regarding what clothy to play. I don't like the look of plate and leather is meh at best. I really like the clothing options I have available for cloth and that's what I'd like to stick with.

The problem is, I'm not really sure what to play that actually has value in the open world pve, story, fractals, raids, and wvw after the massive overhaul. I've never tried the pvp/arena matches in this game and have never been any good at pvp in other games, but I can follow a zerg or group of guildies easily enough (once I get the warclaw anyway).

I don't want to be a hinderance to other players though, so I'd rather play something that is not only fun (otherwise what's the point) and can bring something to the table.

I prefer ranged, but I know melee will be necessary for boon-sharing, healing and the like. Ideally, I'd like to be able to solo things as I will spend most of my time doing open world and story. I have yet to finish LW2 and I've never done HoT, LW3, PoF, LW4, LW5? with the exception of gettting the glider, raptor, bunny, jackal, skimmer and some mastery points. I have a lot to do.

My ascended gear is limited:Full set of Marauder cloth armorFull set of Celestrial Trinks with infusionsFull set of Zerker Trinks without infusionsMarauder Scepter

I'm not very good at piano play despite how much I dabble, so I'm a bit wary of Weaver.

I wouldn't consider myself a talentless hack, but I'm not good at this game either. I guess I might be average at best? I don't know.

Anyways, if anyone can offer some suggestions of things that might work for a mediocre player like me who will spend most of her time alone but doesn't want to drag others down, I would appreciate it.

-Jenny

Play dps tempest. Super easy, just take fresh air and air overload everything. In wvw you could go full support with minstrels and still give value to the group through condi clear and heal.

Also necro is good for normal pve content

Use your marauder gear for fresh air tempest (scepter+warhorn) with the berserker trinketsReally want to avoid running marauder on necro as the damage is lower to begin with ; necros/ mesmers can't use scepter as power weapon.

For WvW (as far as light armor) it's mostly celestial or trailblazer scourges or power reapers with minstrel tempests for healing via auras and shouts. You could try running power weaver but if you're new to WvW , good positioning is essential to not implode. Necro is much more forgiving and heal tempest should be tanky enough to not die instantly.

Thank you for your responses.

For the past several weeks, what little I play, has been spent on my Tempest. I crafted a set of Dire gear to try a burn build, but I find staying with power seems more efficient. I tend to have a little easier time surviving because things die faster.

That said, I've been having trouble surviving things my old Mesmer handled a lot better. Since the update though, power GS Chrono seems to hit like a wet-noodle and it's not particularly fun. GS4 used to hit twice and it was really satisfying when I lined things up correctly and the group of mobs got hit twice. The loss of cripple hurts. Maybe things have improved since the update? I tried it the day of and haven't touched it since.

Power Mirage, well, that was fun too but it faces the same issues mentioned above because A-nerf had to make it less fun.

I haven't tried condi-Mesmer. I suppose I could create another set of Dire armor/weapons along with torment runes and see if it's any better.

While the one dodge thing is crap, I haven't touched WvW in months so it wouldn't really be an issue for my primary game mode.

I'm not married to my Marauder Scepter, it's simply the first ascended weapon I've made and it was for a power Tempest. Probably not something I would use on a Mesmer, condi or not.

For the trinkets, I have sufficient laurels and guild commendations but I'm lacking the fractal relics. Also, looking at the list I didn't see any that I would want to use for what I was trying to do. I don't want to jump ahead to LW3 either. I figured my Celestial ones would suffice for the time being.

I have Trailblazer (exotic) unlocked, but the thought of spending over 100g to make it is incredibly off-putting. I'm 500ish currency short of the ascended version. Those Lilies are horribly expensive... Guildies mentioned something about using Karma of which I have 1.15 million of, just don't know where I might be able to buy it, if I even can. Bladed Armor I believe was mentioned as well, but I don't know anything about that either.

Another question, is Trailblazer even worth it for a condi-Mirage or would I be better off with Viper's? (Squishiness aside, something I do have an issue with but I'm trying to plan for long-term.)

Biggest question of all, will I enjoy it. I know that is not something anyone but I can answer. All I know is I have little interest in playing these days due to indecision, squishiness and seemingly weakness on account of my Tempest and the uncertainties of a condi-Mesmer...

I couldn't even finish leveling a Necro, whereas I could easily the Ele and Mesmer, so I don't think Necro is realistic for me.

-Jenny

@Jenny.4831, This might be a little offtopic, but here is what I suggest. Get one set of everything with berserker stats ascended gear. Put +9 agony infusions in it and you can use it on all 3 of those specs in fractals. Thing is if you do t4 fractals daily you will get tons of gold and many ascneded chest drops hopefully so you can make new sets for other builds..Bear in mind that you can change stats on an ascended armor with a recipe on mystic forge. In your place I would change marauder for zerk. Marauder ascended light set is a little bit of waste to me, while it could be good in open world pve, it is not in fractals or raids, where squishiness isn't that important. In wvw marauder set should be ok on ele maybe, but I am not much into wvw, so can't say for sure. Normally vitality stat in pve in general is not a very important stat. And you shouldn't bother about your squishiness much. Know that ascended armor and weapons are not much better than exotic ones. Ascended sets become important when you need infusion slots or your enemy is so very tough (raids) where even a little bit of dps is a lot of damage because of the time factor. If it is for open world I'd say going for ascended armor and weapons is a luxury. If you can afford it, why not. I myself use mostly exotics for open world content.

@Jenny.4831 said:I couldn't even finish leveling a Necro, whereas I could easily the Ele and Mesmer, so I don't think Necro is realistic for me.Leveling up shouldn't be an issue normally.. Just bear in mind that Necro is played quite differently with elite specs (like anything else actually)I would actually advise you to train elite spec for the reaper put full zerk stats on it and do some fractals with reaper. Mesmer and ele are not the beginner friendly professions, you can always go back to them when you get more experience.@Jenny.4831 said:

That said, I've been having trouble surviving things my old Mesmer handled a lot better. Since the update though, power GS Chrono seems to hit like a wet-noodle and it's not particularly fun. GS4 used to hit twice and it was really satisfying when I lined things up correctly and the group of mobs got hit twice. The loss of cripple hurts. Maybe things have improved since the update? I tried it the day of and haven't touched it since.No you are wrong, quite the opposite after patch greatsword on mesmer became stronger in pve, check your build, they changed traits reduced cds added bounces to gs2 etc. Run 1 2 1 on domination traitline on mesmer if you use greatsword. The boomerang part wasn't the strongest part of gs4 anyway, they just removed it so it is not too op, damagewise greatsword is just better overall after the patch.Power Mirage, well, that was fun too but it faces the same issues mentioned above because A-nerf had to make it less fun.No nerfs have been made to power mirage. Power mirage is not a very good class anyway. Mirage was nerfed only in pvp. Pve hasn't changedI haven't tried condi-Mesmer. I suppose I could create another set of Dire armor/weapons along with torment runes and see if it's any better.I'd say Viper stats are better for condi mirage, and go for Superior Rune of the Nightmare, not Torment.For the trinkets, I have sufficient laurels and guild commendations but I'm lacking the fractal relics. Also, looking at the list I didn't see any that I would want to use for what I was trying to do. I don't want to jump ahead to LW3 either. I figured my Celestial ones would suffice for the time being.Yea, you need lws3 or lws4 maps for those.. Or if you do many fractals you could get the fractal ones (Mist Pendant, Mist Talisman and mist band) which cost 100 prestine relics, but are quite handy as you can change stats easily when you want.Another question, is Trailblazer even worth it for a condi-Mirage or would I be better off with Viper's? (Squishiness aside, something I do have an issue with but I'm trying to plan for long-term.)Nope. If you ask me it is not worth it. Viper's is better for long term. If you are a very hardcore player and want to try to solo some legendary bounties: it would be the only place where tanky stats could be somewhat useful in pve. But even there, I'd personally go with viper's.Biggest question of all, will I enjoy it. I know that is not something anyone but I can answer. All I know is I have little interest in playing these days due to indecision, squishiness and seemingly weakness on account of my Tempest and the uncertainties of a condi-Mesmer...I donno. I quite enjoy playing all those three classes. Power chrono is my favorite class to play. Condi mirage is an easy class to play, I don't enjoy it as much as power chrono though but it is just personal preference.. Weaver is... it is not difficult to play power weaver and it is even less piano than chrono..Condi weaver is quite difficult though. Tempest is fun.. actually if you are not doing CMs in fractals, you'd rather go Tempest than Weaver imo. Or you could go tempest in between bossfights and change build template to weaver on boss fights where it excells... The difficulty with weaver is paying attention to not interrupt aa chains... Not my favorite class either, never got into weaver, but I play it quite often. Necro is a very easy class. When you just wanna chill and just destroy every trash mob you see with ease it is Power Reaper time. In the end just remember you can use ascended set on all those 3 as long as they are ascended (I hope you know that ascended gear is accountbound and not soulbound, no need for 2nd dire set, just pay attention on armor type: light armor classes can't use medium or heavy, but ele, mes and necro are all light armor so you're good). So going for 1 zerk full set should be a good long term investment espeially when you can share it between those three.

Update:

I decided to give the Weaver another chance and I'm so glad I did. I've been having a lot more fun lately playing sword/focus Weaver. Every once in awhile (as recent as last night), I dabble using dagger offhand instead of focus for a more aggressive playstyle and to help offset my defensive heavy gearing.

As things stand right now:Full Ascended Celestial Armor and Trinkets with Vampiric RunesExotic Marshall Sword main hand with ?? and Sigil of EnergyExotic Marshall Focus or Dagger offhand with Sigil of EnergyExotic Marshal Staff on switch with ?? and Sigil of Energy

?? I think Sigil of Night or something like that is in there now, not sure really what I should be using. My crit chance is not very high (~35%) so I wouldn't want to use anything based on crits.

I don't remember the exact numbers, but they're something along the line of: 2,100 power, 1,500 toughness/2,400 armor, 22,300 health, 35% crit chance, 200% crit damage (using air line instead of arcane), 800ish condi damage, 800ish healing.

Under this setup, I don't feel nearly as squishy as I have in the past. Since it's a very 'in your face' sort of play style, I appreciate the fact I can go toe to toe with mobs and not feel like I'm going down. The additional toughness, healing power, and heal from kills has been very helpful keeping my average at best skilled posterior generally alive.

I briefly considered switching to a different stat to speed things up, but realized I would lose too much survivability and I'd be back to my original problem, finding something I can enjoy and survive on.

Before last night, I was running Fire, Arcane and Weaver. Last night I switched out Arcane for Air. I like the results so far, as it doesn't really feel like I've given up all that much survivability (though I will miss Final Shielding) and have more firepower so things don't take as long which was why I was considering switching armor/trinkets stats to begin with.

Then again, the nice thing about traits and specializations is that they can be changed. If I start having problems again, I can simply go back to my more defensive setup. That or actually get good at playing my class which would be preferable.

As far as progress, I've been going in order and am in the Lake Duroc (sp?) section of season 3. It was partially because of some trouble I'd been having with the White Mantel folks that I was considering a more offensive stat setup. Though now I'm not so sure...

-Jenny

@Jenny.4831 said:Update:

I decided to give the Weaver another chance and I'm so glad I did. I've been having a lot more fun lately playing sword/focus Weaver. Every once in awhile (as recent as last night), I dabble using dagger offhand instead of focus for a more aggressive playstyle and to help offset my defensive heavy gearing.

As things stand right now:Full Ascended Celestial Armor and Trinkets with Vampiric RunesExotic Marshall Sword main hand with ?? and Sigil of EnergyExotic Marshall Focus or Dagger offhand with Sigil of EnergyExotic Marshal Staff on switch with ?? and Sigil of Energy

?? I think Sigil of Night or something like that is in there now, not sure really what I should be using. My crit chance is not very high (~35%) so I wouldn't want to use anything based on crits.

I don't remember the exact numbers, but they're something along the line of: 2,100 power, 1,500 toughness/2,400 armor, 22,300 health, 35% crit chance, 200% crit damage (using air line instead of arcane), 800ish condi damage, 800ish healing.

Under this setup, I don't feel nearly as squishy as I have in the past. Since it's a very 'in your face' sort of play style, I appreciate the fact I can go toe to toe with mobs and not feel like I'm going down. The additional toughness, healing power, and heal from kills has been very helpful keeping my average at best skilled posterior generally alive.

I briefly considered switching to a different stat to speed things up, but realized I would lose too much survivability and I'd be back to my original problem, finding something I can enjoy and survive on.

Before last night, I was running Fire, Arcane and Weaver. Last night I switched out Arcane for Air. I like the results so far, as it doesn't really feel like I've given up all that much survivability (though I will miss Final Shielding) and have more firepower so things don't take as long which was why I was considering switching armor/trinkets stats to begin with.

Then again, the nice thing about traits and specializations is that they can be changed. If I start having problems again, I can simply go back to my more defensive setup. That or actually get good at playing my class which would be preferable.

As far as progress, I've been going in order and am in the Lake Duroc (sp?) section of season 3. It was partially because of some trouble I'd been having with the White Mantel folks that I was considering a more offensive stat setup. Though now I'm not so sure...

-Jenny

Lake Doric came out during a time when condi was the meta for a lot of PvE (it was during HoT). I still find condi better for that map over power in general.

As for ranged combat in PvE I'd recommend scourge (necro) or mid-range condi Mesmer. If you're enjoying weaver still there's no need to swap, I just listed these two because they are lower APM/easier to play than ele.

Since you are considering WvW, you'll also need to ask yourself whether you will prefer to play alone or with a group. I've listed a few things regard the 3 classes within that armor type for there:

Mesmer: self sufficient and actually excels in solo play, and can function in small group roaming. It falls off heavily in zergs due to its reliance on clones (damage wise at least). If you ever plan to command someday though, mesmers make one of the best choices for commanding since you can self place veils/portals, and have access to evades/distortion among other things. Conclusion: strong solo artist, decent for small groups but tapers off and becomes weaker the more enemies it fights. Has niche abilities that once in awhile can make huge impacts (portal/group stealth/pulling enemy defenders off walls). Easy to pick up and defeat newer/solo players.

Elementalist: currently has strong support builds with tempest. Able to zone areas with staff/meteor on glassier builds, and AOE CC, but is heavily reliant on team support and vulnerable to being focused fire's and AOE damage, very high risk build. In general, ele is great for both small group roaming or zerging but not the greatest option for solo play. Conclusion: strong defensive support, really only viable for team play, solo play is not recommended (not impossible, just it's better in groups).

Necro: part of the meta composition for zerg play. Scourges are in demand for corrupting enemy boons among other things. They have a strong core build that's very tanky for duo+ roaming or small group play and reaper is also a viable option. A good all rounder but you'll again enjoy this more if you have people to play with. Conclusion: great offensive support and recommended for team play, with a couple viable solo builds.