Choosing profession (Ele, Mesmer, or Necro)

[Mik.3401]

Necro and Mesmer are really easy, especially considering the new specs. Elementalist requires more work in all game modes. So if you want to click many buttons go for ele, if you want to have easy time and be viable everywhere then go for necro, if you want easy time and be mostly viable in PvE only then go for Mesmer.

Edited May 6, 2022 by Mik.3401

[SourPatchBruhs.5142]

So a buddy and I have been leveling together. We both have a boost, I have two. Not sure how many he has. Am I better off just boosting to 80? We would still need to explore the map and all that stuff so I'm not sure I'd be losing anything experience wise by doing that. I have the skills I'm going to use unlocked...the only thing I don't is all of the specializations you unlock while leveling up. 

[SeTect.5918]

1 hour ago, Matt.1938 said:

So a buddy and I have been leveling together. We both have a boost, I have two. Not sure how many he has. Am I better off just boosting to 80? We would still need to explore the map and all that stuff so I'm not sure I'd be losing anything experience wise by doing that. I have the skills I'm going to use unlocked...the only thing I don't is all of the specializations you unlock while leveling up. 

If you both are sure that you like your profession, I see nothing wrong with that.

You get Celestial equip by boosting, which is the best sustain-dps option for open world for lots of e specs, its also very strong in wvw.

Also I heard you chose ele? even better.
All ele e specs work very good with Celestial equipment.

However you shouldnt use Celestial equipment in group content like fractals, raids, strikes. But for everything in open world, feel free to use it.
If you need a good Elementalist Celestial build for an ele e spec, feel free to ask me.
I d suggest you to use your Celestial equip on Weaver or Catalyst tho, not on tempest. Tempest works good with Celestial too but its the worst one that works with cele of the 3 ele e specs.

A short summary:

• WvW:
  Celestial is the best equip type for both Catalyst and Weaver (maybe same for tempest but never played it in wvw).
• PvE:
  Celestial is the best equip type (for open world) for Catalyst.
  For weaver Celestial equip and trailblazers equip are on par in open world.

Since you are fairly new (or returning):

Celestial = equipment with all stats. Its basically giving every stat but for a smaller amount than other stats.
Trailblazers = Toughness + Condition damage + Vitality + Expertise

Edited May 6, 2022 by SeTect.5918

[SourPatchBruhs.5142]

37 minutes ago, SeTect.5918 said:

If you both are sure that you like your profession, I see nothing wrong with that.

You get Celestial equip by boosting, which is the best sustain-dps option for open world for lots of e specs, its also very strong in wvw.

Also I heard you chose ele? even better.
All ele e specs work very good with Celestial equipment.

However you shouldnt use Celestial equipment in group content like fractals, raids, strikes. But for everything in open world, feel free to use it.
If you need a good Elementalist Celestial build for an ele e spec, feel free to ask me.
I d suggest you to use your Celestial equip on Weaver or Catalyst tho, not on tempest. Tempest works good with Celestial too but its the worst one that works with cele of the 3 ele e specs.

A short summary:

• WvW:
  Celestial is the best equip type for both Catalyst and Weaver (maybe same for tempest but never played it in wvw).
• PvE:
  Celestial is the best equip type (for open world) for Catalyst.
  For weaver Celestial equip and trailblazers equip are on par in open world.

Since you are fairly new (or returning):

Celestial = equipment with all stats. Its basically giving every stat but for a smaller amount than other stats.
Trailblazers = Toughness + Condition damage + Vitality + Expertise

 

So a few questions:

 

1) If I don't use Celestial, where do I get other PvE gear from?

2) Is there a list of builds for each type of content that are best suited? Trying to get an idea of how it would be played before I boost. I like support if it's an option as long as it's pretty viable.

2) To follow up on question #2, how do those compare with Mesmer/Necro? I have to boosts so once I boost one and do the exploration I'd probably boost one of the other two professions. Just trying to see if I can basically where/when to use which builds for which class. For example, okay if I want to do fractals I can use xxxx ele build or xxxx necro build as my two best bets. Hope that makes sense. Just want to understand where the 3 stack across the board. My buddy has a necro too that he may play (the one that's currently playing thief that I'm leveling with now) but not sure if he's going to boost that one also so may want something that plays alongside that too.

[SeTect.5918]

45 minutes ago, Matt.1938 said:

1) If I don't use Celestial, where do I get other PvE gear from?

Farming gold and buying from tp.
Or Crafting it yourself.
Or sometimes letting it drop.
 

46 minutes ago, Matt.1938 said:

2) Is there a list of builds for each type of content that are best suited? Trying to get an idea of how it would be played before I boost. I like support if it's an option as long as it's pretty viable.

https://metabattle.com/wiki/MetaBattle_Wiki there you can look up builds for different content.
Sometimes they are not the perfect builds but most of them work well.

Quickness Catalyst is a viable support for Ele atm. Other than that sadly nothing else.
Tho there is still Heal Tempest. But since something happened with all boons (all boons went 5 target instead of 10), you need basically double supports in 10-player groups, this means that there is often no room anymore for support builds that have no access to quickness or alacrity. But I heard an update at the end of june should change some things, but not sure what exactly, so it can also be they fully ignore Tempest, Druid, Herald and so on.
 

51 minutes ago, Matt.1938 said:

2) To follow up on question #2, how do those compare with Mesmer/Necro? I have to boosts so once I boost one and do the exploration I'd probably boost one of the other two professions. Just trying to see if I can basically where/when to use which builds for which class. For example, okay if I want to do fractals I can use xxxx ele build or xxxx necro build as my two best bets. Hope that makes sense. Just want to understand where the 3 stack across the board. My buddy has a necro too that he may play (the one that's currently playing thief that I'm leveling with now) but not sure if he's going to boost that one also so may want something that plays alongside that too.

The support builds i guess?
The support builds that Ele has compare actually pretty good to mesmer and necro.
They are all no great support classes tbh but all 3 classes have 1 viable support build basically.
Mesmer: Alacrity Mirage
Necro: Quickness Harbinger
Ele: Quickness Catalyst

If your plan is to go into fractals, then you ll have to play full dps ele.
The fractal meta is since years: 1 hfb (heal firebrand), 1 alac (mostly alac renegade, but now also often alac mechanist), 3 dps or 1 bs (bannerslave) and 2 dps.
So if you play fractals, you most likely have to play all 3 of the mentioned professions as pure dps (ele, necro, mesmer).

So I d say it doesnt matter what you play but u should keep in mind:
Ele: Squishy, good dps, difficult to play
Necro: (mostly) tanky, good dps, fairly easy to play
Mesmer: (mostly) squishy, good dps, some builds are easy and some are difficult to play

Keep in mind that with the squishy and tanky, i mean their dps builds, not their open world builds.

[SourPatchBruhs.5142]

37 minutes ago, SeTect.5918 said:

Ele: Squishy, good dps, difficult to play
Necro: (mostly) tanky, good dps, fairly easy to play
Mesmer: (mostly) squishy, good dps, some builds are easy and some are difficult to play

Keep in mind that with the squishy and tanky, i mean their dps builds, not their open world builds.

 

Is that pretty much the same in sPvP and WvW?

 

And with ele, since it's more difficult to play than the other two... does the work pay off? Like I'm not trying to be busting my a** on ele for example just to get smashed DPS wise by mes/necro. I know it's not a competition but I think that mainly applies to PvP. If I'm playing well, I want it to show it.

[SeTect.5918]

1 hour ago, Matt.1938 said:

 

Is that pretty much the same in sPvP and WvW?

 

And with ele, since it's more difficult to play than the other two... does the work pay off? Like I'm not trying to be busting my a** on ele for example just to get smashed DPS wise by mes/necro. I know it's not a competition but I think that mainly applies to PvP. If I'm playing well, I want it to show it.

for wvw theres a difference bc u run other builds and equip so i d say all 3 classes are the same there.

if u mean that ele does better dps, no it doesnt.
Tbh it even does less, well not than every e spec but yea.
harbinger, virtuoso and mirage deal more dps than catalyst, weaver or tempest.
Chrono deals slightly lower dps than catalyst and scourge a bit lower than weaver. 
Reaper deals lowest dps of them but also has the easiest rota of them. 

You can see it here: https://snowcrows.com/benchmarks

So no, u dont really get a benefit for being extra squishy. Virtuoso and Chrono are also pretty squishy tho.

For pvp no clue bc i dont play pvp.

Edited May 7, 2022 by SeTect.5918

[SourPatchBruhs.5142]

8 hours ago, SeTect.5918 said:

for wvw theres a difference bc u run other builds and equip so i d say all 3 classes are the same there.

if u mean that ele does better dps, no it doesnt.
Tbh it even does less, well not than every e spec but yea.
harbinger, virtuoso and mirage deal more dps than catalyst, weaver or tempest.
Chrono deals slightly lower dps than catalyst and scourge a bit lower than weaver. 
Reaper deals lowest dps of them but also has the easiest rota of them. 

You can see it here: https://snowcrows.com/benchmarks

So no, u dont really get a benefit for being extra squishy. Virtuoso and Chrono are also pretty squishy tho.

For pvp no clue bc i dont play pvp.

I ended up boosting a necro to 80. I have another boost I’ll use at some point but going to do the map exploration and such with the necro first. I guess having the extra survivability was the difference, although the base necro build seems boring as hell. I’m hoping once I get the elite specializations unlocked it gets better and more interactive. I’d go ahead and boost another if they’d make the map progress account wide 

[SeTect.5918]

58 minutes ago, Matt.1938 said:

I ended up boosting a necro to 80. I have another boost I’ll use at some point but going to do the map exploration and such with the necro first. I guess having the extra survivability was the difference, although the base necro build seems boring as hell. I’m hoping once I get the elite specializations unlocked it gets better and more interactive. I’d go ahead and boost another if they’d make the map progress account wide 

Ah okay and yea base necro is boring but it gets better with the e specs. 

[SourPatchBruhs.5142]

13 hours ago, SeTect.5918 said:

Ah okay and yea base necro is boring but it gets better with the e specs. 

 

So I'm working on unlocking the elite specs. For general open world, am I better off unlocking a specific one first? I've seen builds using all 3 but wasn't sure if I'm better off focusing on one first while I unlock the other 2.

Edit: I'm running alongside a thief, not sure if that changes the answer any. I was thinking Scourge but not sure if that would be a good choice.

Edited May 7, 2022 by Matt.1938

[SeTect.5918]

7 hours ago, Matt.1938 said:

 

So I'm working on unlocking the elite specs. For general open world, am I better off unlocking a specific one first? I've seen builds using all 3 but wasn't sure if I'm better off focusing on one first while I unlock the other 2.

Edit: I'm running alongside a thief, not sure if that changes the answer any. I was thinking Scourge but not sure if that would be a good choice.

Scourge is a good choice for this. 

[SourPatchBruhs.5142]

43 minutes ago, SeTect.5918 said:

Scourge is a good choice for this. 

 

A condi scourge? I know there's support scourge also but figured the condi would be better for open world. And what's that playstyle of the condi one like? I got the reaper fully unlocked and playing it feels like a snooze fest lol. Not gonna lie it bores me out of my mind

I really freaking wish they'd make the map progress and such account wide because I'd love to use my other boost and be able to swap back and forth between characters

Edited May 8, 2022 by Matt.1938

[SeTect.5918]

3 hours ago, Matt.1938 said:

 

A condi scourge? I know there's support scourge also but figured the condi would be better for open world. And what's that playstyle of the condi one like? I got the reaper fully unlocked and playing it feels like a snooze fest lol. Not gonna lie it bores me out of my mind

I really freaking wish they'd make the map progress and such account wide because I'd love to use my other boost and be able to swap back and forth between characters

Yes condi scourge.
you can also support your thief friend with pure condi scourge because some attacks share barrier with your allies.

The playstyle if condi scourge is a relatively tanky mid range mage that plays scepter/torch and x/dagger.

And yes the reaper also isnt my taste because imo it feels extremely slow.
But scourge gameplay is a bit faster.
Harbinger gameplay is again faster than scourge.

Harbinger is by far squishier than scourge tho.
But also deals more damage.

So I would say in fast playstyle its (fast to slow): Harbinger -> Scourge -> Reaper
In tankiness (best sustain to least sustain): Scourge -> Reaper -> Harbinger
In support (best support to least support): Harbinger -> Scourge -> Reaper
In damage (best dmg to least dmg): Harbinger -> Scourge -> Reaper

Its on you what you play, from fun factor (my opinion is that) harbinger is the best.

[SourPatchBruhs.5142]

6 hours ago, SeTect.5918 said:

Yes condi scourge.
you can also support your thief friend with pure condi scourge because some attacks share barrier with your allies.

The playstyle if condi scourge is a relatively tanky mid range mage that plays scepter/torch and x/dagger.

And yes the reaper also isnt my taste because imo it feels extremely slow.
But scourge gameplay is a bit faster.
Harbinger gameplay is again faster than scourge.

Harbinger is by far squishier than scourge tho.
But also deals more damage.

So I would say in fast playstyle its (fast to slow): Harbinger -> Scourge -> Reaper
In tankiness (best sustain to least sustain): Scourge -> Reaper -> Harbinger
In support (best support to least support): Harbinger -> Scourge -> Reaper
In damage (best dmg to least dmg): Harbinger -> Scourge -> Reaper

Its on you what you play, from fun factor (my opinion is that) harbinger is the best.

So harbinger is good at support and dps both? How do they support? And would that be better than scourge with the thief? And what’s the play style like?

 

And if I’m working on hero points, map completion, etc is there any reason to not use my other boost now instead of waiting? I mean I know the hero points you get on each character but map wise it doesn’t share progress so seems like I’m better doing 100% on one then doing the needed hero points on alts 

[SeTect.5918]

2 hours ago, Matt.1938 said:

So harbinger is good at support and dps both? How do they support? And would that be better than scourge with the thief? And what’s the play style like?

They support with boons. Quickness is the best if these boons.
I d say it would be better but u have to keep in mind that you are squishier than with reaper or scourge.
The playstyle is...a mid ranged pistol or scepter mage, its playstyle is fast due to 1. its quickness and 2. because the cast times are low.
You can also watch a random harbinger gaming video on youtube tbh.
 

2 hours ago, Matt.1938 said:

And if I’m working on hero points, map completion, etc is there any reason to not use my other boost now instead of waiting? I mean I know the hero points you get on each character but map wise it doesn’t share progress so seems like I’m better doing 100% on one then doing the needed hero points on alts 

it really doesnt matter if you do 100% on your chars tbh.
I m playing since years and just 2 of my characters have 100% map completion.
Tho i m not sure if i know what u mean.

[SourPatchBruhs.5142]

2 hours ago, SeTect.5918 said:

it really doesnt matter if you do 100% on your chars tbh.
I m playing since years and just 2 of my characters have 100% map completion.
Tho i m not sure if i know what u mean.

I mean like if I’m doing map completion but I’m like meh I’m tired of necro wanna play something else, I can’t just swap and continue where I am. I’d have to start all over. I mean story wise and mastery and such im guessing is account wide so at least I don’t have to do that on all characters 

[SeTect.5918]

1 hour ago, Matt.1938 said:

I mean like if I’m doing map completion but I’m like meh I’m tired of necro wanna play something else, I can’t just swap and continue where I am. I’d have to start all over. I mean story wise and mastery and such im guessing is account wide so at least I don’t have to do that on all characters 

Story isnt account wide (the achis for them are (and all other achis too)) but mastery is acc wide

[SourPatchBruhs.5142]

58 minutes ago, SeTect.5918 said:

Story isnt account wide (the achis for them are (and all other achis too)) but mastery is acc wide

Meaning I'd need to complete the story missions but I'd essentially already have gliding and such?

Edited May 9, 2022 by Matt.1938

[SeTect.5918]

16 minutes ago, Matt.1938 said:

Meaning I'd need to complete the story missions but I'd essentially already have gliding and such?

Yes. 

But inside the story instances u cant use gliding. Except if it hot story or something after hot. 

Same for mounts. 

Well there is no need to do the story twice tbh except if. You can do it twice, but u neednt. 

[SourPatchBruhs.5142]

1 minute ago, SeTect.5918 said:

Yes. 

But inside the story instances u cant use gliding. Except if it hot story or something after hot. 

Same for mounts. 

Well there is no need to do the story twice tbh except if. You can do it twice, but u neednt. 

Ah yeah that makes sense so on an alt you'd just not even worry about it. Same really with map completion unless you need more legendaries or whatever. Now just gotta figure out which class I would boost... I know the ele playstyles and how the elite specs kinda play, but are the viable in PvE and PvP? Seems I don't see many of them

[AliamRationem.5172]

On 5/7/2022 at 5:06 PM, Matt.1938 said:

 

So I'm working on unlocking the elite specs. For general open world, am I better off unlocking a specific one first? I've seen builds using all 3 but wasn't sure if I'm better off focusing on one first while I unlock the other 2.

Edit: I'm running alongside a thief, not sure if that changes the answer any. I was thinking Scourge but not sure if that would be a good choice.

All of the ele elite specs have effective open world builds, but I'd say in terms of ease of playing effectively with them it's probably tempest > catalyst > weaver. 

Tempest because it's a bit slower-paced and more straightforward due to reliance on overloads (4-second channeled casts).  Catalyst is a bit more complicated because a lot of your offense and defense comes from effectively managing various short-term buff effects.  Weaver is the least similar to the other elementalist play styles because it adds the dual attunement mechanic which changes attunement rotation dramatically.  This usually requires more practice to get the hang of.  But if you run celestial gear you should find the damage and sustain on all of these builds is pretty solid for open world PvE and WvW roaming.

Here are a few build suggestions for weaver:

Trailblazer. Best damage and passive sustain.

Dire.  Similar to Trailblazer, but inexpensive and easy to acquire.  Less armor, more health.

Celestial.  Lower damage and armor, more of everything else.  Highest potential sustain via recovery and a fair amount of power burst.  Good all-arounder for WvW roaming and open world PvE.

Here are a couple of video clips of weaver in action:

WvW (1v2).  Celestial weaver is extremely evasive with strong barrier and healing, but it can still pack a punch at close range.  This makes it a good pick for dismantling bursty glass power builds like my opponents in this video.

PvE (champion + veterans solo).  Strong damage, but also high sustain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SourPatchBruhs.5142]

21 minutes ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

All of the ele elite specs have effective open world builds, but I'd say in terms of ease of playing effectively with them it's probably tempest > catalyst > weaver. 

Tempest because it's a bit slower-paced and more straightforward due to reliance on overloads (4-second channeled casts).  Catalyst is a bit more complicated because a lot of your offense and defense comes from effectively managing various short-term buff effects.  Weaver is the least similar to the other elementalist play styles because it adds the dual attunement mechanic which changes attunement rotation dramatically.  This usually requires more practice to get the hang of.  But if you run celestial gear you should find the damage and sustain on all of these builds is pretty solid for open world PvE and WvW roaming.

Here are a few build suggestions for weaver:

Trailblazer. Best damage and passive sustain.

Dire.  Similar to Trailblazer, but inexpensive and easy to acquire.  Less armor, more health.

Celestial.  Lower damage and armor, more of everything else.  Highest potential sustain via recovery and a fair amount of power burst.  Good all-arounder for WvW roaming and open world PvE.

Here are a couple of video clips of weaver in action:

WvW (1v2).  Celestial weaver is extremely evasive with strong barrier and healing, but it can still pack a punch at close range.  This makes it a good pick for dismantling bursty glass power builds like my opponents in this video.

PvE (champion + veterans solo).  Strong damage, but also high sustain.

Thank you for this! I ended up boosting a necro (unlocked Reaper first due to the gear being easy to get and it's basically a snooze fest for me in PvE). I played some sPvP as Harbinger earlier and did okay so I don't mind it there at all. I just have another boost and I'd like something that plays different just to give me some flexibility since I have the extra boost laying around. It would either be elementalist or Mesmer. I'm leaning ele since it seems viable in all kinds of content, where it seems mesmer builds are limited in some areas? Maybe I've found bad information, I'm not sure. I wouldn't mind running a support build with the thief where we can run together and stay alive easier. He's running a daredevil build iirc. We're doing hero point unlocks and such and I know it's probably just the reaper playstyle and I'm sure it will get better as I unlock Harbinger and Scourge, but just trying to see for ele or mesmer which I'm better off boosting.

[AliamRationem.5172]

1 minute ago, Matt.1938 said:

Thank you for this! I ended up boosting a necro (unlocked Reaper first due to the gear being easy to get and it's basically a snooze fest for me in PvE). I played some sPvP as Harbinger earlier and did okay so I don't mind it there at all. I just have another boost and I'd like something that plays different just to give me some flexibility since I have the extra boost laying around. It would either be elementalist or Mesmer. I'm leaning ele since it seems viable in all kinds of content, where it seems mesmer builds are limited in some areas? Maybe I've found bad information, I'm not sure. I wouldn't mind running a support build with the thief where we can run together and stay alive easier. He's running a daredevil build iirc. We're doing hero point unlocks and such and I know it's probably just the reaper playstyle and I'm sure it will get better as I unlock Harbinger and Scourge, but just trying to see for ele or mesmer which I'm better off boosting.

The mesmer elite spec mirage is very strong for open world play, too.  It also works well with stats like Trailblazer and Celestial.  Staff mirage is one of the easiest builds to pick up and play because most of its damage, defense, and utility comes from spamming dodge and auto-attack.  But you can swap to axe for some fast, fun melee play using the same build if you prefer a little more danger and complexity to your play style.

Here's a clip of mirage doing a champion solo in Celestial gear.

[SourPatchBruhs.5142]

5 minutes ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

The mesmer elite spec mirage is very strong for open world play, too.  It also works well with stats like Trailblazer and Celestial.  Staff mirage is one of the easiest builds to pick up and play because most of its damage, defense, and utility comes from spamming dodge and auto-attack.  But you can swap to axe for some fast, fun melee play using the same build if you prefer a little more danger and complexity to your play style.

Here's a clip of mirage doing a champion solo in Celestial gear.

Comparing that video with the ele one earlier, it seems the mesmer is more sustain? You seem to be very knowledgeable on both classes, so I appreciate the help a lot. Thank you. Any reason you'd recommend one over the other? Just trying to get a full game perspective. I will be doing all content pretty much.

[AliamRationem.5172]

26 minutes ago, Matt.1938 said:

Comparing that video with the ele one earlier, it seems the mesmer is more sustain? You seem to be very knowledgeable on both classes, so I appreciate the help a lot. Thank you. Any reason you'd recommend one over the other? Just trying to get a full game perspective. I will be doing all content pretty much.

I wouldn't say that mirage has better sustain.  They sustain in different ways.

The main differences are that mirage has range capability while weaver does not, but weaver has significantly stronger healing capability.  A lot of damage can be avoided simply by being at range, but weaver can absorb a lot more damage than mirage can via healing and barrier.

Edit:  As for recommendations, I think either are great options.  However, mirage is definitely the easier pick, especially with staff since so much of your ability to deal damage, avoid damage, and upkeep critical boons is rolled into just dodging and auto-attacking from long range while generating a constant stream of clones to distract enemies.  

Weaver has to get up close to deal damage and there is really nothing straightforward about it.  So, until you practice with it you'll probably find it's the weaker option.

Edited May 9, 2022 by AliamRationem.5172