Please advice: E/R or E/Me?

Hi,

I'm a first time player (and newbie to these forums - hi!) and can't choose if I want ranger or mesmer as 2nd profession for my elementalist.

Mesmer seems like the smart thing to do, from what I've read it comboes very well with elementalist.

But I love pets. Every game I've ever played I've ended up (if possible) with a pet. But in this case it'll take up 3 skills slots (charm animal, comfort animal, call of protection) which seems like a very hefty investment.

So does anyone here have experience with good E/Me or E/R builds? What would you advice? Do the smart thing, or go for the kittykat (a "something" stalker)?

Btw, I know that near the end of the game I can change my 2nd profession but that's, well, near the end of the game and it'd be nice to have a viable build before then .

I'm playing Prophecies btw.

Thanks.

I'd go with ele mes. Ele ranger with pets are usually just to look pretty. So if you wanna look pretty by all means go ele ranger. The pet won't be of much use to you though.

You could also just use minipets just to have pet and have whatever propfession combo you want

Pets are a pretty big investment in terms of skill slots and it'd really hamper your ability to be an el. Assuming you bring a res and an attunement spell, that'll leave you with only 3 skill slots.

Mesmer the better secondary choice of the two.

Mesmer. Arcane Echo really helps.

I don't think you should pressure yourself with the secondary prof though. My ele started first with a necro secondary (for I never played a necro before), and yes, nothing really worked for in synergy, but I still had fun trying to combine skills from the two professions. Just experiment and enjoy.

Thanks for the advice!

Mesmer in my opinion. Personally though, I started out with an E/Mo.

e/mo for hard rez.

E/Me because the ranger doesnt offer much for the ele, especially in the beginning of the game where you cant change professions.

Mesmer skills you might want:
Arcane Echo
Mantra of Resolve
Channeling

Your secondary doesn't matter too much at the beginning of the game, especially in prophecies.

Quote: Originally Posted by Thom Bangalter

Ele monk, cause a year and a half back, after a monk dropped out of THK (I still didn't run proper builds back then), I kept the team alive along with another monk solely with heal party heal other, and healing breeze.

[skill]energizing wind[/skill][skill]quickening zephyr[/skill][skill]serpent's quickness[/skill]

Quote: Originally Posted by Snow Bunny

Quote: I'm playing Prophecies btw. Quote:

[skill]death pact signet[/skill]

a fire ele that can pack their own winter. most of the time im E/R, for FoW and UW i will do E/Mes for echo nuking and if im doing an area in hard mode or with people i dont know i do E/Mo depending if i know the monk.

Thanks for the advice. I agree that Mesmer is the better choice by far but there's a chance it's gonna be Ranger anyway.

I've based the character on a tabletop RPG where I play a sorcerer whose familiar (a giant cat) is a big part of her identity. I've explained to the other players (4 of them; Me/Mo, Me/E, W/E, N/W) that mesmer will work better than ranger, but they said they're fine with me being less effective than I could be. One of the other players even said it wouldn't be the same without Teyr (the familiar). If I didn't already have a group supporting me I would probably go for E/Me, but I guess this is as good an opportunity as ever to try the E/R combo. At least, I hope so. :S

It's a game, you play to have fun. Go with whichever secondary profession you think you'll enjoy most. If it doesn't work out, you can change up later.

IF you are going to roleplay, dnt ask about efectiveness of build, just roleplay :]

just make sure you unlock other secondaries later in game so that you can use effective builds that wont annoy general population if you are even gonna play with random people.

I'll do that . I was actually undecided between R or Me, which is why I asked. But since then the group has been pretty vocative about wanting the familiar in the game. But for my next character I'll definately keep in mind that E/Me and E/Mo work better.

If you go ele monk, please dont try to be a monk.