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Returning player, trouble deciding on Engineer, Mesmer or Necromancer


Xruptor.3965

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I played GW2 since launch on and off. I did play at the start of POF (briefly) but had to stop due to me finishing up schooling and earning my degree. I have some spare time and would like to return to the game. I played Charr Engineer pretty much as my main for YEARS. Yes even during the period of time people ridiculed it and called it useless. I understand that isn't the case now with Scrapper and Holosmith. I put a lot of time and effort on that toon, especially in story and unlocks. It would be nice to try something else for a change. I do have a maxed out Mesmer and Necromancer.

I always did enjoy my Charr Mesmer (yes you heard me Charr, I know there aren't many Charr mesmers lol). It's quite hands on and always did feel very strong. Though when I returned, I noticed it feels very clunky now. Not sure if it's the abilities or what not but it feels like I'm striking with a wet noodle sometimes. Which is odd as I remember it playing a bit differently in the past. I also remember the shatters being a bit more engaging. So I looked it up on the web and apparently the class is absolute trash now? Something to do with patches or what not. Which is a shame because I was going to give it a try and unlock map completion on it and even story stuff. I don't know how viable it is in PVP and WVW and even in PVE stuff. So don't know if I should invest all my time into something that is extremely lackluster and doesn't play as I remember it. I totally don't know if I'd be wasting my time on this class and should just shelf it.

I also have a Charr Necromancer (see a pattern here lol?). I always did enjoy this class. It seemed pretty sturdy and DPS was okay but not great. I recall them being terrible in certain aspects of the game but this was ages ago. I don't know how they fair now and I remember there being a stigma with the class. People calling it a noob class or something and that it's garbage for PVE or was it PVP? Can't recall honestly but I do remember folks hating on the class. I cannot recall why I didn't put much effort into the class, I guess I was just more focused on my Engineer. Is the Necromancer garbage? Not entirely sure if its viable anywhere or that it's even wanted? I don't know if I would be just wasting my time and should just put more of it on the Engineer.

So my dilemma is, stick to the Engineer and just keep unlocking stuff and story related stuff and put more effort into him (He has a lot of completion stuff done). OR Try a different pace by switching it up with either Mesmer or Necromancer. Not knowing if I'm wasting my time in either of them as they viability endgame is wobbly at best. What suggestions or advice, would you give?

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Engineer:OW PvE greatGroup PvE greatSPvP greatWvW not sure but it is at least okay

Necro:OW PvE greatGroup PvE mehSPvP greatWvW great

Mesmer:OW PvE greatGroup PvE decentSPvP badWvW I think it is still good for roaming

If you are looking for top performance, engi is better. Also, engi has been consistently good, so that is not likely to change. Necro, as always not good in group PvE, but good in everything else. Mesmer is the weakest of the three currently, but it is still pretty solid in PvE.

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@otto.5684 said:Engineer:OW PvE greatGroup PvE greatSPvP greatWvW not sure but it is at least okay

Necro:OW PvE greatGroup PvE mehSPvP greatWvW great

Mesmer:OW PvE greatGroup PvE decentSPvP badWvW I think it is still good for roaming

If you are looking for top performance, engi is better. Also, engi has been consistently good, so that is not likely to change. Necro, as always not good in group PvE, but good in everything else. Mesmer is the weakest of the three currently, but it is still pretty solid in PvE.

Great summary without needing to go into details of elite specs. Regarding engi and wvw - it’s great there too. Zerg usually dps or heal scrapper and roam is scrapper or holo

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Thanks for the responses, it gives me something to think about. I've narrowed it down Necro and possibly me returning back to Engi. It's a bit discouraging reading that Mesmer is underperforming according to quite a number of people. Since I've come back it just doesn't play the same. I used to enjoy it quite a bit. Necro though I'm afraid people are going to hit me with the noob stick as it's a very popular class and extremely saturated in the population. Since it's very beginner friendly. So that's something also I have to think about.

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@Xruptor.3965 said:Thanks for the responses, it gives me something to think about. I've narrowed it down Necro and possibly me returning back to Engi. It's a bit discouraging reading that Mesmer is underperforming according to quite a number of people. Since I've come back it just doesn't play the same. I used to enjoy it quite a bit. Necro though I'm afraid people are going to hit me with the noob stick as it's a very popular class and extremely saturated in the population. Since it's very beginner friendly. So that's something also I have to think about.

Just play all three for a bit and see which sticks. Anything works casually but if you want the class that is “most” meta in end-game content, engi I think has most diversity there as necro simply lacks end game group pve “viability”

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I have a Charr engineer from launch day and sylvari mesmer & necro as well.I would say only play mesmer if you truly enjoy it, it's a lot more work than other classes. Engineers are decent in every game mode now, although before holosmith they suffered in damage. Necromancers are okay in every game mode except elitist raiding (i.e. not casual ones).

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@Xruptor.3965 said:Necro though I'm afraid people are going to hit me with the noob stick as it's a very popular class and extremely saturated in the population. Since it's very beginner friendly. So that's something also I have to think about.

It's not more beginner friendly than any other profession. People are gonna give you the noob stick whenever you play a profession that work well in sPvP in general.Also, the necromancer is almost there is PvE group content. Technically it finally got the dps, what he lack is the little extra that make other profession welcome because it's niche cannot be exploited due to PvE group content design (Defiance is the biggest barrier to the necromancer in PvE group content, while ANet's inability to create environments with slow ramping condi pressure prevent the necromancer from realising it's potential. The day they fix that, the necromancer become meta in PvE group content, and get number of thread asking for necromancer nerf).

The mesmer had it's quality of life hit hard which is why it's not really a good choice (unless you take joy and pride in playing crippled professions). The engineer is a good option right now which mean that you might get the noob stick from some players.

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@"Xruptor.3965" said:I played GW2 since launch on and off. I did play at the start of POF (briefly) but had to stop due to me finishing up schooling and earning my degree. I have some spare time and would like to return to the game. I played Charr Engineer pretty much as my main for YEARS. Yes even during the period of time people ridiculed it and called it useless. I understand that isn't the case now with Scrapper and Holosmith. I put a lot of time and effort on that toon, especially in story and unlocks. It would be nice to try something else for a change. I do have a maxed out Mesmer and Necromancer.

I always did enjoy my Charr Mesmer (yes you heard me Charr, I know there aren't many Charr mesmers lol). It's quite hands on and always did feel very strong. Though when I returned, I noticed it feels very clunky now. Not sure if it's the abilities or what not but it feels like I'm striking with a wet noodle sometimes. Which is odd as I remember it playing a bit differently in the past. I also remember the shatters being a bit more engaging. So I looked it up on the web and apparently the class is absolute trash now? Something to do with patches or what not. Which is a shame because I was going to give it a try and unlock map completion on it and even story stuff. I don't know how viable it is in PVP and WVW and even in PVE stuff. So don't know if I should invest all my time into something that is extremely lackluster and doesn't play as I remember it. I totally don't know if I'd be wasting my time on this class and should just shelf it.

I also have a Charr Necromancer (see a pattern here lol?). I always did enjoy this class. It seemed pretty sturdy and DPS was okay but not great. I recall them being terrible in certain aspects of the game but this was ages ago. I don't know how they fair now and I remember there being a stigma with the class. People calling it a noob class or something and that it's garbage for PVE or was it PVP? Can't recall honestly but I do remember folks hating on the class. I cannot recall why I didn't put much effort into the class, I guess I was just more focused on my Engineer. Is the Necromancer garbage? Not entirely sure if its viable anywhere or that it's even wanted? I don't know if I would be just wasting my time and should just put more of it on the Engineer.

So my dilemma is, stick to the Engineer and just keep unlocking stuff and story related stuff and put more effort into him (He has a lot of completion stuff done). OR Try a different pace by switching it up with either Mesmer or Necromancer. Not knowing if I'm wasting my time in either of them as they viability endgame is wobbly at best. What suggestions or advice, would you give?

In regards to Mesmer: the sPvP forum has become a lot more whiny in recent years than ever before. I wouldn't base the overall class on that. It's still a very strong roamer in WvW. In PvE I can't disagree with you in regards to chronomancer being clunkier than it was previously. Damage wise however it's still doing good and brings 5 man quickness support without any investment in boon duration. If you enjoy the class investing your time in it won't go to waste.

Necro: necro now has great survivability and solo DPS (reaper self provides might/quickness while being resilient - scourge has great condi DPS with aoe and some support) for open world PvE and dungeons. For strikes and raids there's also the option of healscourge which offers amazing support through barrier and pulling all downed allies to you for fast ressing - however outside of that and when running DPS it is mediocre and no useful support while dosing other than boon corrupt. The other downside is necro is one of if not the most popular class and stacking lots of them is not the greatest when the same slot can be reserved for another class that outputs similar DPS while providing some sort of support to allies that raises overall group DPS (i.e. banners on warrior, frost spirit/spotter on ranger, etc). The biggest benefit on its power build is little to no ramp up time on its AOE DPS, but it trails off very fast.

Engineer: has complex rotations for some of its raid builds, brings decent aoe CC, and has tools to fit every situation. Holosmith offers great damage/CC, scrapper offers amazing support with one of the strongest traits in the game allowing you to covert conditions into boons with no cooldown, and offers the option to play either heal support or power damage with support. If you like to theory craft builds, this is a good class overall for you. My personal opinion on its downsides is that the kits need a refresher, some of them have outdated and weak utilities in comparison to today's gameplay - and haven't changed much since pre-hot other than numbers tweaking.

Overall, all of these choices are good there isn't a class I wouldn't recommend in this game to focus on as they all have their strengths and weaknesses. As for being considered a "noob" class, like you mentioned in regards to necro.. the reason people are drawn to certain classes outside of its theme is ease of play. It's instantly gratifying to log onto a reaper for example, blow things up with a few button presses and face tank incoming damage that would send most other classes into rally state. There is a huge difference between someone who has invested time in mastering it though. I've personally fought a couple really good power reapers in the past who had excellent abilities to "juke" using flesh worm, spectral walk, and very tight rotations combined with knowing when to enter death shroud etc. Having an easy entry doesn't mean that you will be a low skilled player too. For inspiration and I'm not sure if the videos will still be up, but one I fought a long time ago you can look up on YouTube, named Methane (spelled with alt code characters). There was another one I met in a duel arena that was memorable from a guild called FEAR, can't remember his name though.

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@"Strider.7849" said:In regards to Mesmer: the sPvP forum has become a lot more whiny in recent years than ever before. I wouldn't base the overall class on that. It's still a very strong roamer in WvW. In PvE I can't disagree with you in regards to chronomancer being clunkier than it was previously. Damage wise however it's still doing good and brings 5 man quickness support without any investment in boon duration. If you enjoy the class investing your time in it won't go to waste.

Regards to this there is a reason why it has become "a lot more whiny" just look at the history of the patch notes for mesmer. I think its the opposing side of people complaining how strong mesmers are without knowing how the class works.

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@Salt Mode.3780 said:

@"Strider.7849" said:In regards to Mesmer: the sPvP forum has become a lot more whiny in recent years than ever before. I wouldn't base the overall class on that. It's still a very strong roamer in WvW. In PvE I can't disagree with you in regards to chronomancer being clunkier than it was previously. Damage wise however it's still doing good and brings 5 man quickness support without any investment in boon duration. If you enjoy the class investing your time in it won't go to waste.

Regards to this there is a reason why it has become "a lot more whiny" just look at the history of the patch notes for mesmer. I think its the opposing side of people complaining how strong mesmers are without knowing how the class works.

Want to 1v1 me on my Mesmer? (NA). Use any class/build you'd like.

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