Xialoh.7261

Trying out the necro profession today. Just got this skill and it seems extremely useless, contrary to what you read about it in past posts. Just a speedbump on the way to Oakheart's Reach now unless I'm missing something..

I have been thinking I'm going to have to just try both Guardian and Engineer, so this might be the way to go. After my post yesterday I went and did some testing to conclude that I can make exactly 1 look that I like with heavy armor. It's not really enough, but it'll have to do. But...then I started reading about how there's a major balance patch happening a little over a month from now, which leaves me wanting to just wait. Waiting nearly 40 days to see where the great nerf hammer falls (other than on Ele) isn't exactly appealing though, since Mirage isn't able to hold my attention so much with these other possibilities sitting there. Grinding for that second set of armor really seems like the only thing to do, much as I'd rather get it right the first time.

I am essentially persuaded at this point, been watching videos and I really like Guardian. I'm also definitely seeing Celestial gear pop up in a lot of build vids for Guardian, sometimes with the same runes. This doesn't change that there's some builds for Mechanist that really want that Celestial gear, but I take your point that it's frequently and best utilized by Guardian apparently. Unfortunately I still hate all of its armor looks, and this single point has put the brakes on this operation. Can't really get advice on this problem - I'm just going to either have to accept playing 100% of the time with outfits, or refuse to and write off heavy armor professions in this game entirely. For the time being, I'm going to continue things as Mirage while I let these ideas roll around in my head.

Not clear on the Celestial thing here, as I am seeing a conflicting opinion. I will say that I can't afford those desirable stat sets like Viper's or Berserker's either way right now. I could drop some cash and gear up I suppose, but I'd rather do that when I need 250g later on to get a Griffon. I have been watching vids on Guardian, and kitten if it doesn't look almost as fun as Mirage at times (Lord Hizen Willbender in particular). It's got one thing going against it, and that's the fact that I like absolutely none of the Heavy Armor sets in this game. Not one. Not unless the wiki's list of armor with pictures is incomplete, anyway. I can use outfits, but that's pretty limiting, and it seems most things are usually off the shop until the end of the year and go away in March for some reason. At the same time it feels weird to ignore this powerful and fun looking profession over fashion, essentially. I do like the Medium armor sets, so still kinda leaning Mechanist. Had hoped to make a decision in time for HP trains today, but I guess I'll end up choosing by tomorrow now.

I was afraid of that. Given that I don't currently have easy access to Celestial and I've been seeing very strong Mechanist builds for Celestial gear as well, that means I'm going to have to choose. Off to do a day of Guardian research.

Well, I'm about sold on Mechanist now. I did decide to give Ranger another look, and it looks better/more fun than I thought it would be. It does seem that it's not quite on the level of Mechanist or Guardian though, and I like the Giant robot more than the pets conceptually. I'll probably make a Ranger somewhere down the line still. That said, I am left wondering about Guardian now. Almost certainly going to toss that boost to the Engineer, but I have heard that Anet shows something like obvious favoritism towards Guardian. Nerf immunity just might be more appealing than anything else.. I do have level 60 boost scrolls and 20+ tomes of knowledge anyway, so I can get two 80s, but only one gets the free Celestial stuff.

Well my biggest concern is more survivability than big DPS output. Mirage doesn't seem super durable, but I can just prevent things from touching me 80% of the time. If I switch off this class to do all this solo content, I basically just want to be sure that what I switch to is very good at surviving anything I throw at it (within reason). Not to say I want it to be slow at killing, but it doesn't have to be the fastest thing out there. "Good enough to win" is fine. So I suppose it's just that I'm not sure anything else can achieve what a Mirage does with clone and dodge spam? Mostly thinking of when I walk into a pack of like 10 enemies with mixed in elites and such in Domain of Kourna (I've done some skipping to acquire mounts..). I did this on my Elementalist and died in about 10 seconds. Mirage I just kept killing them for about 3 minutes while they respawned until I got bored. + I'm trying to determine if anything on this list would fare better than Ele did in that sort of situation.

Mechanist Guardian Thief Ranger So basically I'm newly returning to the game after ~4 years. Never did much when I did play but I do have 2 80s (Mesmer/Elementalist). I'm about to play through all the story starting from Living World S1, and I've found that I can manage mostly anything as Staff / Axe+Torch Mirage (packs with vets, champions, etc.). Literally a breeze, as everyone knows I suppose. Tempest works too and I enjoy it, but it takes much more effort and there's a real risk of dying to large groups, where Mirage just ports around until everything is dead. But, I have this level 80 boost occupying one of my shared inventory slots, and I figure I might want to try out something new (also this single dodge in WvW thing for Mesmer is bugging me). I've been eyeing Mechanist since I started back here, but I can't imagine it's as effective as Mirage. Is it? Like would it struggle with large groups or anything? If not, are any of the other 3 professions on the list as strong (or stronger) than Mirage for open world/story soloing? I intend to really invest in whatever character I pick here and use it to get a lot done for a long while. I'm kind of at a standstill, because I don't want to start anymore progression/map completion until I solidify this choice... Excluded Necro/Revenant/Warrior because I hate the theme of Necro, don't care too much for the theme of Rev either, and Warrior is generally uninteresting to me in all games.