Caster Class Recommendation?

I've just picked up Guild Wars and I'm excited to play. I enjoy playing caster classes in RPGs, and prefer to do lots of damage, rather than serving in a healing or a buffing role. I'm thinking about the Elementalist, because they have a ton of high damage spells that look like they can kill foes quickly. The Mesmer also looks interesting because it has a variety of damage options, and it also has utility with condition spreading and weakening the ability of mobs. (I also like their armor better.) I plan on soloing with AI aid most of the time. Which class seems like it would be good for me?

Well, not Ele. Once you get into the later parts of PvE/Hard Mode the armor levels of foes reduce your damage to crap and you're better off with armor ignoring damage spells like those from the Mesmer or Necromancer. Ritualist may also be of interest.

From the strongest to weakest in current meta I'd say Ritualist > Mesmer > Necro/Elem. Not too sure about necro to be honest, I guess the SS nuker build is alright though. Might be better than elem. Ritualist is certainly the strongest for PvE and especially solo PvE, being able to move the spirits at will(and also heal them) lets you do a lot of stuff that you can't do through heroes, and spirits do ridiculous damage. Mesmer is also good though, but I'd say you generally want heroes and their incredible AI handle mesmer since they can interupt basically everything. Elem definitely bottom of the barrel, but in the current game and as some people will say, you can play with an empty skill bar and still do content with 7heroes, so if you want to play Elem you could go for it and do fine.

Well its difficult for anyone to make that decision for you as it is important that you are happy.

Any of the caster classes is more than capable of being a major damage dealer throughout all the game.
Once the game has been completed you can do it again in hard mode for greater rewards and challenge.
At this point the armour level of opponents means many skills become less effective and armour ignoring damage becomes the way forward.

This is a problem with the Elementalist but not a great one, firstly because you can simply use your secondary class skills more and also because this is a team game.

Each of the classes has a prime skill line that is unique to that class.
Elementalist can have a very large energy pool.
Necromancers Gain energy upon the death of a creature
Mesmers can increase their casting speed "important because they use interrupts a lot"
Ritualists can have much stronger Spirits.
Monks have a line that increases their healing skill.
They all have runes that can be added to their armour to boost skill lines ie Fire Death Healing etc though you can only use runes of your primary class.

So an elementalist/Monk can be a very effective healer but will never be able to heal as well as a monk while a Monk/Necro will not be able to make as strong an undead as a pure necro.

You have several character slots make a few likely characters and see what appeals to you.

Quote: Originally Posted by Marty Silverblade Well, not Ele. Once you get into the later parts of PvE/Hard Mode the armor levels of foes reduce your damage to crap and you're better off with armor ignoring damage spells like those from the Mesmer or Necromancer. Ritualist may also be of interest. "Not Ele" . Energy pool doesn't mean jack squat when you can use an energy swap. The only skill in Energy Storage that is rather impressive is Ether Renewal; Ether Prism is more or less PvP only (mitigates heavy damage for a few seconds).

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Combine a wand with a focus for a "high energy set" with two +15 energy /-1 energy regeneration upgrades. (This combination is usually used as a secondary set, which a caster can swap to when they need extra energy. This avoids the drawback of -2 energy regeneration since you swap back immediately after casting the spell.) -http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Caster_weapon Also http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Energy_hiding is painful on an Ele against a Energy denial Mesmer or anything with Energy Burn, Energy Surge, Ether Feast, Guilt, etc. The only advantage Elementalists have is using AoEs against caster mobs less than level 20 (due to the armor adjustment to below 60 armor targets). The only place you get to do this is the first 1/2 of normal mode Tyria (up until Maguuma Jungle, roughly) and the beginner islands in Factions (Cantha)/Nightfall (Elona). The best thing to play if you are lazy is Ritualist (you just plop spirits more or less), followed by Mesmer (much more micromanagement). Necros are great as minionmasters or AP sin spam (http://www.gwpvx.com/Build:N/A_Mark_of_Pain_Nuker). With the buffs to Ritualists and Mesmers and everything else, SS (Spiteful Spirit) is too reactive to do much unless you're in an area with tons of mobs and don't target the same mob. Orders is a pain to use unless your group is coordinated. The strongest caster in Hard mode in terms of AoE damage is either the Keystone mesmer http://www.gwpvx.com/Build:Me/any_Keystone_Mesmer or the AP sin spam (http://www.gwpvx.com/Build:N/A_Mark_of_Pain_Nuker). The Mesmer version of the AP sin spam has 2x the sin spam but more energy restraints. Panic mesmers are popular but they are shutdown rather than damage, so in normal mode it isn't particularly useful when you can just stomp everything in your way, more or less. If you're starting out, most skills won't be unlocked, so a Keystone mesmer is not possible. For Ritualists/Necros though, the skills are rather easy to obtain. If you like mesmer armor, play mesmer. Guild Wars doesn't take long to figure out (even if mesmer is not a beginner class due to the conditional nature of most skills). Just read up on the mesmer guides. (http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Guide...ng_as_a_mesmer)

Ele's don't start feeling slighted until late in prophecies or hard mode. And then all you need to do is change gears to elements other than fire. It's then that they move from being primary damage dealer to more utility roles.

Mesmers are fun and have some variety. They're also very useful to have around.

Necros are possibly the most versatile class out there. Minions, curses, and lately I'm seeing blood builds. There are so many options available it's tough to be bored.

Rits are good too. As was said before, not hard to play. And there are a few ways to play them. I find the other casters more fun, but YMMV.

The Necromancer has the highest damage potential and some very easy to use builds that are quite effective.

If we are looking at the classes from a pure efficiency PoV, Elementalist does trail behind the other offensive caster classes in higher level PvE. Mesmers, Necromancers and Ritualist are all pretty equal though. They just have different ways of dealing damage.

If you want to focus on damage (speaking from an elementalist primary for thousands of hours), avoid the elementalist. They have some very strong damage in certain areas, particularly Air in late game, but it's lackluster compared to the variety of power and potential there is in other classes - there's about 3-4 skills to use, and there isn't any others to compare.

A mesmer and necro have many more options for dealing significant damage, and Rit's have the potential for the most direct single-target damage, though not always the most fun (unless you enjoy being lazy). My personal favorite is the mesmer, and I've been playing one in PvP. I enjoy my elementalist (love it, honestly), but if you run a straight damage role, it's fairly repetitive. There's a lot of utility in the ele late-game, though, if you ever want to go that route.

Ritualist is Overpowered.
Ele is fun and easy to learn.
Mesmer is fun to play, but not so recommended for begginers.
Necro - some people like it, some don't.
Monk - if you play with people.

Necro. You will never have energy management problems, and can play as a rit, ele, mes or nec in HM and still be effective.

I'd say Mesmer. Great Dmg output, tons of utility with rupts on spells and attacks, good variety of builds. Only problem is that you'll have to take care of your ene (unlike a Necro), but that's all.
Other option is Nec: lol energy with SR, nice builds to toy around. You'll have to know how to take the best out of it tho.
Monk if you want to play with other ppl or enjoy support/heal. Great to find PuGs, lol.

Rit is both OP and "Fire and forget" compared with Nec or Mes. Put up spirits, draw them in mobs, gg. There is good build variety if you want (and generally less boring than spirit spam) but SoS is kinda standard i fear.

Ele. Well..till you do nm, is golden. When AR goes up, AI scatter and blablabla, his weaknesses comes out. And are HUGE.
Build variety is Invoke or AP. Anything else is just supbar.