Starting a necro/???

New to the game and I've played lots of necros in other games, I like them and am generally familiar with the play style.

What should I go with for a 2nd? I'm leaning towards Mesmer. I prefer a more cerebral style of play. I like having various combinations of spells to mix together - lots of utility so I can manipulate what I have into what I need.

Depending what campaign you have started in, might determine what build u lean towards

Also checking out pvxwiki on guildwarswiki may help, look up pve (player vs environment) builds to give yourself a good idea.

Most commonly necros are used as minion masters, to summon undead allies to fight alongside.

Also curses is very popular, along with blood, i suggest at the beginning collecting what skills u can, playing around with them and chosing a build from what works best for u

Second profession shouldnt matter too much, id stick to a pure build when u start playing the game, but monk might be ok if you like to heal yourself more rather than relying on hench.

If there are any other questions just post back, or dont be afraid to add me in game "Minime The Shadow", im always willing to help. Take Care

Mesmer is actually a very good choice. There are a lot of illusion magic hex spells that combo well with curses hex spells.
Monk can also be useful for some expensive support stuff (removing conditions with extinguish, casting aegis) since you'll have plenty of energy with soul reaping.
Ritualist is also very good and has a lot of skills that combo well with necros.

Those 3 are the most popular choices. Keep in mind that later in the game you can change your secondary if you want to experiement. I'd say go with mesmer, it is fairly popular and sounds like it fits your playstyle.

I'd say avoid ranger, warrior, paragon, and elementalist secondaries. They generally don't go well together with a necro. Dervish is okay, but only because of mystic regen.

I was N/Me for a long time. It's nice if you like to hex up people with curses and blood magic. One of the most useful mesmer skill sets are the echoes...Arcane, and plain old Echo (elite). You can then cast the same spell on different foes (particularly nice for long-recasting spells, or use Arcane Echo before your elite (a not uncommon strategy)).

Minime is right about the minion masters: very handy, easy to learn.

Curses works like the mesmer lines...it affects how quickly enemies attack, how well they get healed, how much damage they take, and more.

Thanks mate, glad to see someone agreeing with me, especially as im very new to Gw guru.

All the best, Mini

Welcome to GW & the Guru.

Check out the Necromancer forum.

I have Proph and EoN. I will be all PvE for quite a while. I want to enjoy the content and go from there. Nice to have a game w/o the monthly fee.

I usualy use Mesmer as a secondary due to the simple arcane echo. It can help create minions faster and when combined with Spiteful Spirit...MASS DESTRUCTION AND CHAOS RUNNING ARIOT THROUGH THE ENTIRE CONTINENT OF TYRIA!

I've played tons of characters and I find that the necro is the most fun due to the variety of things you can do. Depending on where you start out, you might want to use different approaches. Minions are great, but when you are in prophecies at lower levels they lack the punch that they do when you advance in the game. Necro/monk to start so you can heal yourself and then later on switch to Necro/mesmer. I used a lot of blood spells early on in Prophecies, and then switched to minions, finally getting into curses. Arcane Echo and Spiteful Spirit are probably one of the most powerful combinations you can put together for PvE massive damage. SS necros are very much in demand, along with effective minion masters, in a lot of parts of this game.

Prophecies has some excellent necro curse, the most well-known being [skill]spiteful spirit[/skill]. Blood magic is probably not as cerebral as you may like, but given that you have EotN as well, you can put together some interesting, if not effective, blood builds. For instance, combining:

[skill]dark pact[/skill][skill]blood renewal[/skill][skill]masochism[/skill]

I also would suggest mesmer but to use domination magic instead of illusion to compliment what you do with your necro primary. I don't have any solid reasons to back that up, just seemed that domination magic was along the same lines as curses spells and the better blood magic.