Secondary advice needed

Heya folks, long time reader, first time poster

With that out of the way, I just got back from a small hiatus and am getting back into GW and as of right now, only have Factions. My favorite profession of course, being mesmer. Now I have a soft spot for illusion degen / melee hate which will get me through PVE later on in most spots, my question for you folks would be what to take as a secondary that would help me get through the portions of Factions where using degen one by one wont work as there are just packs and packs of mobs ( missions like last stand, capson, Vizunah Square just to name the first few. This has been my personal take on the choices thus far;

Ele : Fire of course is the mother off all AoE damagers while Air would be slightly more unique and would work well for striking down the heavy hitters early to leave the fodder to be cleaned up, though if i pick this i run the risk of people inviting me thinking i'm a FC nuker

Necro : LOVE the synergy here with many of the mesmer skills, unfortunatly where i just have Factions , much of the heavy hitters for both profs come from prophecies. Plus, even though there is loads of synergy here, not sure how this would help my AoE dilema.

Monk : Access to survival spells and good rez's a plus, and the smite line has some nice early AoE DoT spells, always been attracted by the smite line but also know that taking smiting skills is a very easy way to get labeled as a noob in GW heh.

Ritualist : Big fans of rits, some decent AoE early and spirits are always nice, sadly i dont see alot of synergy or late game effectiveness, also gives access to a decent rez.

Yes AoE damage will be the main reason i'll be picking my profession, but i'm also hoping to keep my survivor title going as long as possible so additional survivability is always a plus.

Anyways i appriciate any and all input and i've already got some awesome ideas from scouring these boards.

AoE is your biggest pick, then choose either E or N.

Elementalist Advantage:

Big damage and AoE is a big part of their spells.
Good defenses (spells and wards)
Can cause burning

Elementalist Disadvantage:

Sadly, their healing is poor. Mix that with a Mesmer's healing ability, and you get very bad healing period.
No conditional removal - so you are subject to health degen, weakness (use the ele's glyph to counter daze)
Exhaustion (some spells cause this, thus limits your already limited energy pool)


Necromancer Advantages:

Can cause weakness, poison and disease
Remove conditions
Enfeebling Blood + Oppressive Gaze = Small AoE Lifesteal
Hex synergy
Good self healing

Disadvantages:

Limited AoE abilities
Not good defensively (Factions only)

Now, I'm biased towards Necros (I'll admit that), so I'd suggest a Necro. If you wanted good AoE, then E/Me would be better for you.

Just my opinion.

ya i was leaning towards necro as well just because of better self healing and such. I just need an extra push during those missions where you just get swamped with mobs and there really isn't just a few big ones you can pick off and let the henchies duke it out with the rest. The problem i'm having with necro is the fact that their skills are so spread out, there are a few in blood, a few curses and a few death. I'm thinking for the early levels just running like illusion / death (as inturrupting isn't that vital yet) and going with putrid explosion, swarm ect.

Then later on maybe going with dom / curse, and having the ability to go blood in case you need to use spoil victor or something.


So necro it is