Favorite alternate professions

[Anchoku.8142]

Necro mains, which professions are your favorite alternate to play and why?

Or, if Necro is not your current main, is it a favorite alternate and why?

• List as many as you like.
• State game mode(s) you like it in.
• State specialization, if one stands out.
• Is it power, condi, support or some hybrid?
• Does a weapon stand out?

This corner of the forum has gotten boring and a discussion about what you like may offer clues to the next elites.

Also, feel free to quibble about other people's choices as long as it is constructive or instructive.

[LucianDK.8615]

The only other class Ive played to a significant degree is Revenant. PvE and power dps herald and minor dabbling in renegade.

I played the revenant because of the simplicity of it and ease of play without having to delve into lenghty guides about setup possibilities.Having locked skills. Trailtlines devoted to each legends, instead of too much mixing and matching.I ended prefering Herald as the Renegade rotation was painful to do right, though I found the Revenant to be quite fragile. And knowing how the Renegade spirits are so terribly fragile, it made me first look into the Scourge due to the unkillable shades, which was in the heyday of the uberscourge. Which soon got steadilly amputated till its a shadow of itself.But I am currently playing Reaper, which is doing a far bit better than dps scourges. A pity really that Scourges got nerbatted this hard in pve even.

[Axl.8924]

hmm I play a lot of reaper as main thing because yeah its the best power version and i really like reaper. I like tempest from ele quite a lot and quite enjoyed the mobility moveset. I think after necro and ele i played some on mesmer, but mostly dabbled with chronomancer. I did like chronomancer quite a bit, since it has a lot of things going for it.

For pvp: Well my most played is still nec, but i got a bit of thief too. a bit of ranger but not much and pretty much a bit of all.

Least favorite class in pve: Thats pretty easy for me. Ranger. I didn't like where ranger went. The class is kinda boring in pve.

[Dadnir.5038]

My heart is on the mesmer, to be honest, even destroyed, underpowered or anything else, I just love the feel of this profession (which is my first character created).

Otherwise, I enjoy thief and elementalist. Thief, because it's a very convenient profession to move around be it in PvE or WvW. Elementalist because it's fun to play and you can make quite a few fun builds with it (who care if it's effective or not when it's fun?).

Guardian and ranger feel dull to me. My opinion on both is that they are convenient, even quite strong to use, but I don't really enjoy playing them.

Engineer, revenant and warrior are my black ducks. I just can't get a hold of engineer and revenant, engineer thematic don't call to me and that doesn't motivate me to try harder, while revenant thematic call to me but I just can't bring myself to like the gameplay. Warrior... I just feel it's theme and gameplay boring.

Edit:My profession ranking (in regard of enjoyment): Mesmer, Necromancer, Elementalist, Thief, Ranger/Guardian, Warrior, Engineer/Revenant.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

Warrior and Necro have always been my preferred classes no matter the MMO in question.

While Warrior is my main in GW and GW2, my necro is always my second most played class. I actually prefer to WvW more on my Necro as a Reaper to be honest.

Guardian is my next favorite, though I've put him aside for a while. Burn DH is so OP right now that I felt guilty playing it.

You would think that my Reaper and DH would have problems with Rangers, but I find that I am able to kill them easily with the builds I run on those classes.

Firebrand and Scourge feel too weird to me so I don't touch those especs.

Ele I want to like but I don't feel like giving myself carpel tunnel.

Mesmer is okay, just not my jam.

Ranger is fine, I do like it, I just wish there was an option to never have a pet out, Soulbeast kind of does that, but not fully. I want an espec with absolutely no pet at all.

Rev I am still getting used to and I see its potential, I just prefer Warrior and Necro more.

Engineer I am still getting used to, and while Holo is supposed to be omg OP, I find that I like Scrapper the most of the Engineer options. My Scrapper may very well become a staple in my WvW stable.

[The Boz.2038]

Necro main, with Revenant a very recent character that I actually play a whole lot of, and have better gear on. I guess Ranger 3rd place. Trying to make myself like Engineer recently. Warrior 5th place, and Elementalist dead last. Don't have the other three at all.

[silent killer.5732]

@Anchoku.8142 said:Necro mains, which professions are your favorite alternate to play and why?

Or, if Necro is not your current main, is it a favorite alternate and why?

• List as many as you like.
• State game mode(s) you like it in.
• State specialization, if one stands out.
• Is it power, condi, support or some hybrid?
• Does a weapon stand out?

This corner of the forum has gotten boring and a discussion about what you like may offer clues to the next elites.

Also, feel free to quibble about other people's choices as long as it is constructive or instructive.

I only play necro if I got bored with my scourge I change to power reaper if I don't want to play dps I play heal scourgeEver since I created my necro I fall in love with it pretty much

[Cynz.9437]

I wouldn't say favorite but i do grab necro when i don't play my thief for dps and for pvp. Why? Because for pvp it offers probably best boonstrip on top of some point control. For raid dps because rota is relative simple and gets the job done. I guess scepter/staff have been main weapons i have been using for years.

Otherwise than that i play a lot of mesmer not because i like it (i actually hate it with passion, i neither enjoy the mechanics nor the idea, pink is also yikes) but because it is basically a free ticket into raids (and to WvW squads as well). You want to find groups quickly? Always get a spot in raids even if you possibly don't have enough required KPs? Get Anet favorit pve child - the mesmer!

[Shroud.2307]

I play both Necro and Engi almost exclusively at this point, although I've never been an alt-a-holic either. I have only 4 3 characters; Necro, Engi, Ranger, Warr.Pre-HoT instead of Necro/Engi it was Necro/Ranger, but I got very bored of Ranger and pretty much never play it anymore. I've always had a love hate relationship with Warr, and it is by far and long my least played of the 4, but I do still like it sometimes.

I consider myself a Necro main at heart, but I think Engi and Necro are pretty evenly tied for my two favorite classes. I love everything about both of them, and nothing I've played is as fun or satisfying to me. I also enjoy all of their elite specs and a variety of builds on each, which is nice because it keeps the classes feeling fresh if I'm starting to get burned out.

• Game mode: WvW
• Specialization: Core Engineer, core Necromancer
• Power for both Engi and Necro
• Weapon: Engi, Shield. Necro, Staff.

Why do I enjoy Engi? Hard to say, but, I think the driving force is how much fun I have with it compared to anything else. I have a lot of fun on Necro as well, but Engi is consistently exciting and enjoyable no matter what I'm doing. I find Necro can be a bit bland at times, especially in PvE (which I don't do much of anyway, but I get bored of Necro real quick if I am). I have also always enjoyed that I feel like I have an answer to every situation with Engi. It doesn't matter what I'm fighting or dealing with, I'll have a trait, utility, or combo field, or something to help me out, and I really love that. I never feel outgunned.

One thing I have to say about Engi when compared to Necro is that Engi is the only class in the 8 years I've been playing that I don't seem to get bored of. I tend to rotate mains in such a way that I'll play something almost exclusively for a few weeks, then get bored of it, move to something else, and the cycle continues. Engineer is the only class I can do that with and never feel like I want to swap to something else.

EDITOkay 3 characters only now. Deleted my Warrior because I just straight up don't enjoy it anymore. I don't touch my Ranger often either, but it's not a character I'll ever delete because of it's age and play time. My Warrior was relatively old as well, but not even 1k hours.

!

[Lily.1935]

Engineer: Probably my number 2 class after necromancer. I love the chaotic nature of their kits and their condi application as well as their healing builds. It was close to replacing necromancer as my main at one point. And the favorite weapon has to be pistol pistol. Power engi doesn't quite do it for me, although sword is kinda fun.

Guardian: Guardian is a cleric by another name. They are versatile like a cleric in D&D offering buffs, healing and heavy damage. They're a lot of fun with their virtues and party support along with their almost burning hands type attacks from the firebrand's tombs. Favorite weapon on them has to be Sword and shield, although I use axe and shield a bit more since I prefer burn guard to power dragonhunter. For me, its like playing a light domain cleric with firebrand. Which I just love.

Revenant: Revenant has the themes and mechanics where it COULD surpass even necromancer as a main but its also its mechanic that holds it very far back. I love the energy mechanic but the legend swapping is a bit more of a flow breaker than anything. And their utility, which they were advertised as being all about, is the absolute most limited of any class without question leaving them in 4th and sometimes 5th for me. There lack of weapons also holds them back. Other than that, I do love the Revenant and its my martial class of choice most of the time. I love their mace and axe weapons and I would gladly steal the mace from them for necromancer if given the chance. Mallyx is also extremely fun for me and even their swords. Revenant has a lot of cool utility and offers a lot of mobility in combat making them the most agile heavy class. Which I quite enjoy. It takes a lot of elements from assassin from GW1 that I enjoyed and refines them in a way I can get behind.

Flaws with necromancer: The necromancer as a class is weird. Its mechanically very similar to the Druid from Dungeons and dragons, which is a great class but its not quite like the necromancer I hoped for when starting GW2. Necromancer in GW1 was the most fragile class as well as one of the primary support classes for groups, even if it didn't seem like it played like it. So I've always seen them as a support class and coming over to GW2 where they have a lot of support but that support is frequently underwhelming along with them being one of the bulkiest classes around I've always had an unsolvable conflict with the class. Although I like druids and I love control since Mesmer was my second favorite class in GW1 it has stuck with me because it still fills a lot of roles I really enjoyed from the first game. Those roles being Dervish, Ritualist and Mesmer. Mesmer was far more controlling than supporting in GW1 and I'll argue that Necromancer is the stronger control class in GW2.

[Mungo Zen.9364]

I started as a Necro Chill Reaper main around HoT. My backup at the time was Ranger Druid.

After leaving the game for a couple of years I came back and Mesmer Chrono has become my main.

I still use Necro as my secondary character, primarily for Fractals but also story completion and OW stuffs. Revenant if I ever WvW, Elementalist if I want something different.

Necro is really the hardest hitting character I have, definitely more of the srsbsns toon. A lot of fun but, Mesmer is just right for my play style.

[DeceiverX.8361]

I only play necro for Reaper. I still preferred it as it was prior to the SR/R reworks with SoS on 7s shroud cooldown and better shroud mobility, but it's easily the spec I enjoy most as of today. Simple, but with great depth of gameplay, and most importantly, a lot of damage with committed engages. I find core and scourge absolutely incredibly boring for long-term play. Especially Scourge.

Thief, then ranger, then warrior. Thief is my former main with thousands of hours over reaper and the class I enjoy most when my preferred styles are even somewhat viable, but I dislike Daredevil, D/P, and SA because I dislike running from fights and chipping away at people slowly (I'd rather just blow them up and focus on surviving at a disadvantage and then repeat the process), so it's basically no fun these days if I want to win at anything except cannibalizing other thieves that I can't catch on my reaper.Ranger's alright but soulbeast feels like a dumbed-down thief for its DPS builds, and its superior boon build is a rotation-based snooze-fest which is why I hate engi and ele.I'd put warrior which has my most PvP wins across all classes above ranger if the builds I enjoy were viable like HF GS wombo combo or S/S condi parry. It's just too dependent on shield and chaining defenses right now that I don't really enjoy aesthetically and from a playstyle perspective. I like to be aggressive as hell on the field.

Probably mesmer, guard, and rev next, though I'm not particularly good at any of them due to lack of practice hours, and nothing about them really stands out as "awesome." I used to play S/S mesmer and warrior a fair amount years ago, but the riposte builds just don't deal the damage or provide the defenses they need to in order to succeed in the modern powercreeped game. It's a middle-ground between rotation-heavy gameplay from the below classes and the above, which is why I'm indifferent.

Ele, then Engi dead last, and by a lot. I absolutely suck on both of them, hate rotational play patterns, dislike the theme and patterns of both, and am fine never seriously touching these professions ever again as they are after my initial attempts at playing them. I get some people like these play patterns, but I just don't enjoy them at all, and am almost always looking to find ways to NOT play them as intended, which usually results in me dying. They're very strong classes, but I'd rather go play another game than play them, and I'd rather focus on what my enemy is doing than a rotation that I have to uphold.

[Methuselah.4376]

I like Tempest as an alternate character. And for raids as far as a power option is concerned, I favour Soulbeast.

[jpsssss.7530]

I used to be a necro main. Then Anet killed wells for absolutely no reason and gave is a GM trait to replace the well trait that is useless in 99.99% of situations and then made scourge a joke.

Now I main Weaver and Renegade. Weaver is an awesome duelist which is something that I had going on reaper pre-well nerfs (yes I played well reaper for dueling). Power renegade is also really fun and survives longer than I expected.

[necromaniac.7629]

too bad i'm not a "necro main" anymore as I thought I would be coming from a previous game, but its still one of my side specs

[Crystal Paladin.3871]

Necro is not my main but I chose to try out scourge coz of its condi spewing... Applies all types of condi within seconds... Except confusion. And epidemic skill was so cool... it feels so satisfying to Look at those green globs of condi splitting and flying towards nearest targets

[Dadnir.5038]

@Crystal Paladin.3871 said:Necro is not my main but I chose to try out scourge coz of its condi spewing... Applies all types of condi within seconds... Except confusion. And epidemic skill was so cool... it feels so satisfying to Look at those green globs of condi splitting and flying towards nearest targets

Confusion isn't out of reach, spectral ring is an etheral field. Not sure it's worth uwing it for that, thought.