After Necro, now what?

[arcade.5209]

Before we start, I have a confession to make: I have been playing games like WoW and ESO for about 3 years now, I know all about the idea of rotation and buffs and de-buffs, but when it comes down to it, I happy mash my keys and hope for the best. I personally think game developers could improve on getting players to get used to a rotation in the very early levels of the game so it becomes muscle memory. The games I have played so far only ever require mastering a rotation right at the end stages, where the bad habits have already been ingrained.

 

I picked up GW2 about a month ago and I am fascinated by the game. It is by far the best of the main MMORPGs out there. So, being the diligent 'gamer' that I am, I researched which character type was the best to play for someone starting out, and the Necro had by far the most votes. I have now played the character past the 80 levels, have solo'd HOT (with the exception of the last fight, because the system bounced me out of the zone in the last fight when using the kite) and had an overall fun time of doing things.

 

For me the best part of an MMO is the grouping with other players, so my question is what type of character do I roll after my necro. I believe that necros are not really welcome in end-game scenarios. I want to play an easily manageable character that does decent DPS and can hold himself in a Fractal, Dungeon type of environment.

 

Any Suggestions?

[DragonSlayer.1087]

Mesmers. They are the master of EVERYTHING in this game.

[Okami Amaterasu.9237]

Mesmers are a'ight, but if they're not quite to your taste then try something simpler like Warrior or Guardian. They can hold their own in group-scenarios quite often. To add a bit more challenge, try Revenant or Thief. For the most challenge, try Engineer or Elementalist. Almost every class can hold their own in a group content (except maybe all-damage Necros and Thieves) so I'd just recommend experimenting with all of them until you sink your teeth into one you really enjoy. Then try it in a dungeon to see for yourself if you want to keep 'em or try something else - all up to you.

[Pentafunk.3145]

Well yeah Mesmers are nice, but not for everyone.

To say that Necros are not really welcome in end-game scenarios is not necessarily true though in my opionin, a good Condi Scourge hybrid build works wonder in fractals and dungeons alike, also if we are talking "end-game open world" a scourge minion hybrid is stupidly strong with nice group support aswell.

Also a tip: if you've bought the addons and didn't use the lvl80 boost yet, you can try it out on characters, so just make lets say a lvl 1 mesmer, boost it to 80, try it out in the silver wastes and if you dont like it dont spend the boost and try another character.

You can also look up popular builds on reddit or metabattle, to see if any of the recommended playstyles suit you.

 

Also: Since you are somewhat new, maybe a class that can share an ascended gear with your necro, since you probably won't have much more than 1 set for a while, that would be other cloth wearing classes (Mesmer / Elementalist), so you could go for a condi + Axe Mesmer along with a Condi Scourge necro, or maybe you like playing some kind of power necro and then go for a power mesmer / ele.. It really comes down to your personal preference here, but if you haven't tried a Condi (Minion) Scourge on your necro (requires Path of Fire expansion) you really should!

[Shikigami.4013]

A "rotation" is not something that a game is asking of a player, thus I strongly disagree with your mindset of

>

> I personally think game developers could improve on getting players to get used to a rotation in the very early levels of the game so it becomes muscle memory.

 

The game offers you skills which have various effects, to use at your leisure and how you like or consider useful. Just because one of them is bound to be the most effective one DPS-wise does not mean that you as a player are required to, or even expected to know/use exactly that one "rotation". It basically is for elitists who are not satisfied unless they have reached the best possible outcome, even if the difference in time spent to kill a mob differs only by half a second.

 

About "muscle memory": With balance patches and changes to the game, skills may get buffed, nerfed or even completely changed. Encouraging any player to develop a "muscle memory" for a rotation that at one specific time will result in the highest dps is a strange idea. If they did that, inevitably people would complain about "First you tell me to develop a muscle memory to this rotation, and now you change the skills and my muscle memory becomes obsolete!!" You seem like someone who plays to have fun with others, instead of playing to win or to kill a boss 10 seconds faster than other groups. My suggestion would be to keep playing with people who accept how you play, and not to change how you play to cater for elitists who look at their dps meter and judge you for not using the one and only best rotation :)

 

(Disclaimer: Before anyone jumps in and accuses me of telling people to buttonmash or just use random skills, that is not what I am saying. There are skills that work well with each other and there are skills that make no sense in various situations. There are also skills that are very beneficial sometimes, and not beneficial at all at other times. To know your skills and use them wisely should be good enough for almost all situations though, even without memorizing which skills in which order pressed repeatedly will result in the highest dps the character can reach. To expect people only to use their skills in the one current "this-is-the-best" manner is what I call elitism)

[Schnuschnu.9857]

> @"arcade.5209" said:

> ~snip~ but when it comes down to it, I happy mash my keys and hope for the best. ~snip~

 

First you should get rid of this habit. To do this you should read all your skills carefully and sort them in your mind. What kind of skill is this? Is it a damage skill? Is it a movement skill? Is it your "Oh kitten"-button (every build should have one unless you are confident enough to kill everything in a short time or dodge near flawless)?

Sort your utility skills in this manner. For example on nearly all my characters my "Oh kitten"-button is number 9 (It's e for me, but this doesn't matter). After you have sorted your skills you should look for combos. Do you have a ranged CC? Maybe pair it with an engage skill (movement skill/teleport etc.). Is your CC melee... how do you get into melee range etc. Try to perform this basic combos whenever possible and train them. You will develop a muscle memory which can get you out of most bad situations. Also: positioning. Positioning is key in GW2. If you are in a bad situation it is mostly due to you positioning yourself poorly. If you have to get into a danger zone always have means to get out or negate damage to get a second look at the situation and reevaluate your positioning. Therefore classes with good damage negation and mobility would be in general a good pick.

Mesmer, especially boon support chrono has enormous damage negation. It allows you to facetank bosses most people can't even take two hits without dying (or being close to dying) while pushing the damage of the whole group. Sadly the damage is meh at best. Mirage offers much more offense with more movement. So positioning is rather easy.

Warrior and Guard both have good damage negation and stability. So you won't get ragdolled all over the place. Both offer decent dps and can support the group. Dragonhunter for Guard and Spellbreaker for Warrior also offer good CC.

 

I personally prefer mesmer (boon support chrono) as I can carry a group, tank all kinds of encounters and boost there performance through the roof. It makes life easy and you are always wanted.

 

[Evil.1580]

For raid/fractal/dungeon go Thief - Deadeye

For roaming WvW go Thief - Deadeye

For PvP go Thief - Deadeye

 

Not so hard to master (but a little harder than scourge/reaper)

Stealth and mobility will compensate its lower HP and also will give you some fresh, different gameplay style than the necro.

[Ephemiel.5694]

_**I want to play an easily manageable character that does decent DPS and can hold himself in a Fractal, Dungeon type of environment.**_

 

Get Mesmer, use Mirage. There's almost nothing more easily manageable than that and Mirage is currently one of the best.

[CeNedro.7560]

Jup, Condition Mirage is a buttonsmashing high Dps-build. Though you might struggle when enemys insta-explode(he really shines in longer fights). Also people are expecting mesmer to play chrono in some areas(like fractals).

GS-Mirage is great for farming.

Playstile: Spam some skills on cooldown, autoattack and spam-evade.