IYO Best Profession Combo?

xcriticalx · June 2006

In your opinion.. What's your favorite profession combo?
I was looking at either W/Mes.. R/Mes.. or E/Mes

Oh, and yes.. I am a noob ;p

Tigercha · June 2006

Ehm that would have too be in no particular order

R/Wa - Hammer Ranger with Pet Build - very funny

R/Me - Trapper - Very Funny no god this one must be the funniest when your playing Newb's and they dont spot you till its too late, also a good farming build when there are enough of you

R - my HoH build he is my spiker, and we have spent 100's of hours PvP'ing together over the last 13 or so moths the game has been out. (he's bonded, find the bonder, on my target 3...2..1...., next, PMSL)

Ne/Me - favorite is my MM Build, but SS Build ok for meaty area's, and the Blood is the Build I use most too help out when the monkie is having one of his special days.

W/Ra - Tigers Fury Warrior with 5 Adrenaline skills and Troll ect..

W/Mo and Mo/W - I use these for Farming the Mo/W is a very specific build that Anet has tried to nerf but is a great running around getting toys build, (Shields UP)

Depends on what Mood I am in and who exactly I am grouping with as to what Build I use, but all of these are a laugh in the HoH or in PvE

Serling · June 2006

Depends greatly on how you play. Since I hench most of my quests and missions, anything with a Monk secondary is best, because you have the unlimited ability to res dead henchies with Rebirth. Find I need to use it frequently in the higher level areas of the game (Sorrow's Furnace/Fire Islands).

N/Mo specializing in minions (Death Magic) is great because you can keep your minion army healed longer and take the healing burden off the monk with self-heals. Can't really think of another secondary I'd like better with Necro. My main Nec has 67 skill points and almost 600k XP. I've never changed his secondary, I like my minion build that much.

Ran a new build tonight with my Ranger/Mo. I called it my "quick-killing team" build. Took an Assassin (lvl 20), a lvl 12 henchie Ranger and 2 henchie Warriors (also lvl 12) against a horde of level 17 Wind Riders (Mesmers). I took Choking Gas, Barrage, Distracting Shot, Favorable Winds, and Winnowing (to buff my team's physical damage). We tore through them like hot knives through butter.

E/Mo is a good fill-in healer if your team needs 2 Monks and you only have one. With as much as 90 energy on an E/Mo, you can do some fill-in healing quite nicely.

For sheer fun, try an Me/E or Me/N (fast-casting Elementalist or Necro). Domination Mesmers are great, but too "supporty" for my taste, but the ability to spam nukes on fleeing foes or out-summon Stone Summit Gnashers is a blast, even if your minions don't last very long. (It keeps them from using corpses against you). Another fun build (great for taking down bosses) is a fast-casting "degener", which is an Illusion Mesmer with 12 aps on Curses. Fun to watch a foe's health drop like a thermometer in the Yukon.

I personally have never liked melee builds of any kind, though I do have a level 20 W/Mo. I took my first W/E to level 16 and deleted him out of sheer boredom, recreating him as a W/Mo. A little more fun to play but not much.

If I had to rank my favorite professions in order, with 1 being my favorite and 8 being my least favorite, here's how I would stack them:

1. Ranger. Always been my favorite because of their versatility. My R/Mo is the only character I have that stood toe-to-toe with a level 28 Fire Drake boss on Perdition Rock and beat him solo.

2. Necromancer. Weak until they get a minion or two, then watch out. Will own a whole map once you get them rolling.

3. Mesmer. Hated the "supporty" feel of my first Me/Mo and deleted him once I got him to 20. Recreated him as an Me/N, and played him as a fast-casting MM early, and a degener later. Major-league fun either way. Was so impressed with fast-casting, I created a second Mesmer in Factions and made her an Me/E using Water magic. Also very fun to play.

4. Elementalist in order of their abilities:

A. Fire (major AoE offense)
B. Water (good mix of offense and defense)
C. Air (good offense on individual targets, weak in AoEs)
D. Earth (excellent defense, better offense with a few new skills added recently).

E/*'s are very powerful, but very squishy, unless you're playing Earth. Still fun to play though.

5. Ritualist. Go damage with Channeling or healing with Restoration. Versatile but not as much fun to play as my Mesmers or Elementalists. Casting times are too long for what spirits provide and for how long they last. It's hard to get rest of team to wait for you to finish summoning before the Warriors attack, and if you have an Elementalist or Necro on the team, summoning them is usually just a waste of time. Foes are dead before you're done. Most teams want healing Rits, and Rits are not as good at healing as Monks. IMHO, Rits need some tweaking, but not as much as Assassins.

6. Monk. The most thankless job in the game. I solo healed a whole team of eight in Thunderhead Keep mission, and had one death through the whole thing (because the Necro thought he was a tank). Didn't get one word of thanks for keeping the team alive through the mission, and actually got bitched out by the one idiot that got himself killed. I bring my Monk out once-in-a-great-while to help new players, but being taken for granted and getting dumped on is no fun.

7. Warrior. Takes a licking and keeps on ticking. Prefer a profession that takes a little more strategy than just rushing in and beating things to a pulp.

8. Assassin. A melee profession without the strength or the armor to stand with the tanks (Warriors) and last very long. (Think of a Ranger with a sword and you'll get the picture). Trouble is, most Assassins think they're tanks and are usually the first in a fight to die, taking valuable healing cycles away from the team's real meat shields before they do. Add to that the micro-managed button mashing you have to go through just to be effective (lead attack, off-hand attack, both hand attacks...arrghhh!) and Assassins are the closest thing to "twitch fighting" you have in Guild Wars. Trouble is, if I wanted that kind of combat, I'd play Halo on the XBox.

So there you have my rundown. Bottom line though is that you should try everything once just to see what suits your tastes. Experiment and have fun! That's what really important.

VGJustice · June 2006

To fly in the face of Serling, my favorite class combination is a R/W with a sword. :P

I've learned that for many situations, it will never be able to take the abuse of any primary Warrior, but I've learned ways around that. Like, adding a shield that reduces damage taken, taking along armor that's best suited for that type of work, and brining along the proper skill setup. Hundred Blades with Riposte makes an excelent defensive base. Also, it takes a deep understanding of how to strip aggro off of yourself, and having a Warrior standing next to you (or leading the charge) makes this build a heck of a lot more fun to play.

I also like the concept build that I and some others are working on: Assassin/Ranger with a bow, Barrage, Critical Eye, and Sharpen Daggers. I've only slightly tested it, but the damage potential is immense.

I also really enjoy playing Monk (when my connection allows for it). I end up taking a pure Healing role usually, and I enjoy doing that quite a bit.

My Elementalist is also pretty fun to play as, but sometimes I wonder about how much damage they really can deal. This class was hit hard by an AoE AI balance a while back, so many of their skills end up doing more harm that good (read: Don't use Firestorm, for the love of God).

I also seriously enjoy my Necromancer, and I never even use minions with her. Hexes can be powerful when used correctly, and with the right setup I've heard of MM's with hexes clearing whole mobs in seconds. Respect the Necromancers.

Raevun · June 2006

I like N/Me, but the Me can be replaced. I like to run a blood and death build, and it can be very self-sufficient even without Mesmer Inspiration skills. Kill something off with Blood, summon a pair of minions, kill something else, repeat. When the minions die your energy goes back up, and with that energy you can summon more minions or attack enemies with spells to heal yourself when hurt. If you keep Taste of Death and/or Soul Feast you can have good damaging Blood spells then big healing spells just in case. If you can't summon up some minions before you die, use Soul Feast to buy some time. The only problem is if you get stuck with no corpses you may not be able to keep your health or energy up for long. Still, a very basic but useful build that's gotten me out of a lot of sticky situations.

serapispa · June 2006

I have to say my favorite build for Random Arena's is a Mo/Me. I generally spec healing/divine/dominataion.

I generally use healing breeze, heal ally, orison of healing, restore life, backfire, diverson, energy burn, and some other spell depending on my mood (some cure condition/hex usually). This gives me good healing and the ability to completely shut down enemy casters/healers when needed.

I also really like this spec because I'm usually in random arenas. Not having a monk in your group sucks... if you're the monk then that never happens.

k2y2k4 · June 2006

Well if your new to the game I would definitely start out with some PvE first. Level up to 10 and get a feel for your character. Level 10 is the Max level for the arena connected to Ascalon City. There you will join random teams and get your PvP mini-school of hard knocks figured out and earn some faction. The character build is completely up to you I have seen every combo possible work in the game. Be inventive. One of my favorite builds is a Me/N cause I like blackin out healers and cursing them. And always bring rez to a pvp fight. If you want a good starter toon I would go with W/any. Put points into strength , tactics, and a weapon. use cripple, bleeding styles with axe. Use healing signet to heal yourself but hopefully you have a monk avail lol. also bring rez.

paranoidpvp · June 2006

In general R/Anything is what I enjoy playing, rspiking, trapping, bunny thumping you name it and if it involves a ranger I'll probably enjoy it. The R/Me faction farm in Zaishen Challenge and Zaishen Elite is a hoot and what is more fun than pickin of prey one at a time, "spike in 3...2...1... next target" Gotta love the rangers!

Also... little secret of mine but I'm working on an anti-spike monk build, 105 or 55 total health, Full tats

Skills-

-Life Sheath (For the next 20 seconds the next 30-126 dmg target ally would take is negated) and

-Protective Spirit (For 5-19 seconds, target ally cannot lose more than 10% max Health due to damage from a single attack or Spell)

The rest is a secret, sorry! At first I didn't think they would work together but I was wrong, lucky break for me! Basically meaning that if you only have 55 health and you can only take 10% dmg you only take 5 dmg per hit, and that 5 dmg is negated until 125 dmg has been done... Rinse and repeat, throw in a healing breeze just in case (as well as some other skills) and good luck trying to get anyone to kill you!

Serling · June 2006

A follow-up to my previous post regarding professions:

I converted my Rt/Mo to a healing Ritualist (16 aps on Restoration/13 on Spawning Power) and - IMHO - it's a significant improvement over trying to play her as a spirit-summoning damage-dealer. As alluded to before (and in other posts) summoning takes too long, groups usually move quickly out of range, spirits aren't very robust, and they don't deal enough damage to make a difference unless you carry Painful Bond.

Of course, the trouble now is that if I wanted to heal I'd log my Mo/Me and be a lot more effective in that role.

So here's the issue I have with both of the new Factions professions:

Assassins are too squishy to be on the front line with tanks and Ritualists are all show and no go (great casting animations, but aren't good enough at healing to take over a Monk's role or damaging enough to take over even a Ranger's role.) At least, however, an Assassin can carve out it's own unique role. Unless the devs make some changes to Ritualists, they will always be nothing more than support players on teams filling in - like a henchie - with unimpressive damage and/or meager heals. I'm sure that's the way the devs designed them, but neither profession - IMHO - is as good as the original six.

One last note in the form of a feature request (if any of A-Net's devs are reading):

Can we please get an in-game large size preview of the various armor types to see how they look on a character before we buy it? The really tiny thumbnails when you click on armor at an armorer doesn't give you ANY idea of how the armor really looks on a character! I wasted a lot of platinum buying Kurzick armor for my Rit that looked like absolute CRAP once I put it on her!

Please consider upgrading this piece of the UI for everyone's sake.

Cirtur · June 2006

My favourite proffesion combo is E/A. The elementalist provides the damage and the assasin provides the means of running away from everything that starts to chase you. Return has got to be on of the most useful skills in the Guild Wars universe.

So assasins aren't good for nothing. The people who play them are just 11 years old and want to play a Ninja!
Also another proffesion combo I like is W/E. This is used for knockdownd and is very good agaisnt other warriors.

AlienEntity · June 2006

All combinations are good professions as well as all professions are good combinations. THERE IS NO SINGLE COMBINATION OF PROFESSIONS THAT ARE THE BEST IN ANY GAME, PEOPLE NEED TO STOP THINKING THAT. You just need to learn how to play them effectively. I myself have a W/Mo, sure it's common and a lot of people think that it's not very clever. But since there is only 8 professions, what profession hasn't been played to death. Check out Guild Wiki for a list of combinations and their strengths and weaknesses. I use the resource all the time.

Tigercha · June 2006

I was quite jealous when I saw this guys screen shot

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h255/Azure_Photos/NecroActionPose.jpg

I have tried to take a screen shot of this when it pulls off right but I am always so busy spamming I never actually get the shot.

this is a standardish SS N/Me build and in the right hands against groups of tightly packed warriors, assasins and archers it does this sort of damage.

EDIT.

and for my favorite primary I chose Ranger, and so did most others so far, must be the pets or the cool dance :-)

VGJustice · June 2006

Arcane Echo, Awaken the Blood, Spiteful Spirit, and a 55 Monk holding down the Smite Crawlers. Heck yes.

I've seen similar things when I do Ranger trapping groups in that same area, but when only one person is doing that much damage, it's pretty sweet.

DarkWolfy · June 2006

My favorite classes are necro and ranger. One of my necro, because I have 2, has ranger second class and she uses a pet as well as a blood build. My second necro is fun as well, he is a meleemancer (N/W) and I mix between axe and sword. I had a W/Mo but found it boring to death so I deleted her to make my N/W, which is more fun, it's harder to play, more tactical, I use a 70 armor with him of course. I use blood magic with him as well, put degen on all mobs and reverse conditions put on me. My ranger (R/Me/Mo) is full ranger and I'm mostly beastmaster with him, I like trapping as well. I have an E/Mo too, plus an A/R and a Rit/Mo. I like very much the ritualist as well, it's a fun and diverse class to play.

Serling · June 2006

I also like the concept build that I and some others are working on: Assassin/Ranger with a bow, Barrage, Critical Eye, and Sharpen Daggers.

I have Barrage for both my Rangers, but I'm not terribly impressed with the damage output I get from it (I carry 12 aps on Marksmanship and 14 on Wilderness Survival).

My preferred damage attack is Ignite Arrows combined with Poison Arrow (elite). Ignite gives you less AoE than Barrage (3 vs. 6) but you get more damage vs. the 3 you hit with it, and PA degens health. In fact, even if your arrow attack misses with Ignite Arrows, you still get the bonus damage IA provides. More importantly, PA doesn't replace all your other preparations the way Barrage does, so I can actually use an elite and non-elite preparation together. This is a great combo against bosses, especially when you throw a couple of interrupting attacks in the skill bar. Trapping works well with this combo against big groups. Often I use Dust Trap and Flame Trap with IA and PA and really ramp up the damage.

hadz · June 2006

I think Ranger is one of the best primarys because of the armor (stats), primary expertise skills & the expertise energy reduction. All these combined make them ultra long lasting and almost impossible to kill if played well and with the right skills. It can combine amazingly well with almost any secondary, and has the added bonus of a fun pet. (Which, with the Factions and patches, has actually become a huge dmg dealer if specced right)

Unfortunately...nearly everyone else also thinks Ranger is the best profession too...which means you're totally non-unique. (The good thing is that not many seem to play their Ranger often, possibly because they're so boringly easy to play)

Next best is Necro for obvious reasons. (Funnily enough Ranger and Necro were the 2 professions I noobishly ignored for my first 6 months in-game)

Serling · June 2006

I think Ranger is one of the best primarys because of the armor (stats), primary expertise skills & the expertise energy reduction. All these combined make them ultra long lasting and almost impossible to kill if played well and with the right skills. It can combine amazingly well with almost any secondary, and has the added bonus of a fun pet. (Which, with the Factions and patches, has actually become a huge dmg dealer if specced right)

Just for fun, I took my R/Mo into Lornar's Pass alone just to see how long I'd last against some of the foes there. To my surprise, I was able to take down several groups of Pinesouls and Ice Imps before the Avicaras mobbed me. It was a fun challenge, and made me appreciate my Rangers even more.

Serling · June 2006

Ooops...meant to edit and hit reply...my bad.

gnerd · June 2006

A very interesting character profession combo that I enjoy playing is a bunny thumper, its a ranger/warrior mix. Having the ranger amount of energy rather then a warrior, as a ranger you can also have a pet to do extra damage, also equip a good hammer. so basically you knock down your oppenant. heres the build...

Expertise- 6+1
Beast mastery- 11+3+1
Hammer- 12

Hammer bash
irrisistable blow
crushing blow
tigers flurry
ferocious strik (elite) or apply poison
charm animal
comfort animal
rez sig

check it out

DuraheLL · June 2006

In my opinion, and I have not played Factions.

W/E (Axe + Earth)

Because it makes you a living armor if you aim for it and I love it

Tigercha · June 2006

Originally posted by AlienEntity
All combinations are good professions as well as all professions are good combinations. THERE IS NO SINGLE COMBINATION OF PROFESSIONS THAT ARE THE BEST IN ANY GAME, PEOPLE NEED TO STOP THINKING THAT. You just need to learn how to play them effectively. I myself have a W/Mo, sure it's common and a lot of people think that it's not very clever. But since there is only 8 professions, what profession hasn't been played to death. Check out Guild Wiki for a list of combinations and their strengths and weaknesses. I use the resource all the time.

I would just like to reiterate the origional question In your opinion.. What's your favorite profession combo?
I was looking at either W/Mes.. R/Mes.. or E/Mes

He didnt create a thread called give me your ubberistist build for PvP, he simply asked what our favouite was, and as you rightly pointed out WaMo is not a clever build but its a good newbie build to get a hang of the Game, and I dare say a few peoples favouite, god help them :-)

Howdy, Stranger!

IYO Best Profession Combo?

Comments

Howdy, Stranger!

Quick Links

IYO Best Profession Combo?

Comments