Good solo (with henchmen) professions combos?

Hello,

What are good, fun professions that could be used to solo the most of Prophecies with henchmen? I have a new child and so cannot reliably group with other players, mostly playing in fits and starts.

I'm just looking for ideas and not necessarily for the "best" (there probably isn't one). I just want to be able to experience as much of the game as possible while not having an exercise in frustration.

Also, would you say that being part Monk is fairly required if just for the rez, or is that just my misconception?

Thank you

Any profession is fine, although I find it easier with an elementalist or a monk.

About the thing with being part Monk, thats a misconception you will much more usefull with another profession that has more synergy.

That's great. Thanks.

Which seconds would you recommend for an elementalist?

I would recommend mesmer secondary for elementalist personally because I think they go well together. I wouldn't recommend a monk if you are going to be using hench/heroes mostly because I found it difficult to be staying back and healing while positioning them to hold aggro and stuff complicated, unless you go smiting.

I was thinking of mesmer as well.

Monk would be mainly for the rez I think, which I'm sure would be very nice to have, and backup healing for when hench has an aneurysm. But it sounds rather boring by comparison. Mesmer adds some pizzaz.

Any thoughts on E/R or E/N? Thinking pet/undeads would be nice for providing some safety and extra damage, but mostly safety.

pets are pretty useuless in general unless you have a high level pet and hgh level beat mastery (theyll hit about 5 otherwise). youd be much better off spending your attribs on energy storage and one of the magics. I tend to find that minions only really work with a necromancer unless you put a large chunk of attribs into death magic, theyll be really low level , have 0 armor (i think 0 armor) and take loads of damage, aswell as have the standard degeneration. Id say itd be best to stick with e/me and just rol one of the major magics and energy storage with an interrupt or similar skill to shutdown casters. empathy and backfire COULD work if you really wanted them. but as i say, id try to stay away from pets and minions unless u have the correct primary profession. hope that helps.

E/Me is the way to go IMO, Arcane Echo works great.

If you ever consider buying factions go E/A take Assassins' Promise | Glyph of Sacrafice | Meteor Shower. gg PvE.

No it wouldn't, If you wanted a res you would take FoMF or Res Chant on an ele or mes.
The reason for taking a monk is the fact you can pre-prot targets, unlike henchmen who wait untill your half dead to throw up prots, and the fact that a human actualy knows how to manage their energy.

While Prophecies is great for the sheer learning aspect of the game, it can be a bit tedious when compared to the other add-ons. With the addition of heroes from Nightfall and with the upgrade of Eye of the North, you can fairly easily "solo" with hero/hench anything. The most used/abused builds being Sabway, Discordway or ArkFenway. By using any of these three builds at various times, I have completed all chapters multiple times with a variety of different characters. Prophecies as a stand alone was great when nothing else was available, but compared to what is available now, almost no one starts there except to get either of the two pre-searing titles available only through Prophecies.

In our Campfire section you will find subforums on the different professions. Each one has a stickied basics thread. The threads discuss the pros and cons of each secondary. Many of the subfourms give you builds for beginner characters who only have skills from one campaign available.

I can't comment on an ele/me, but I can say that a necro is very easy to play. Mine is not my main character and is about the 7th character I created (ele was 8th). But she now is the furthest along in the game except for my warrior.

And do not let the fact that you can only play casually stop you from finding a guild. Most guilds do not expect you to be on constantly and understand that Real Life is more important. Check out the Guild Connections section for "guilds looking for" or post in "looking for guild".

Congratulations on the baby.

All good info. Thank you very much, esp. on setting me straight regarding pets.

Sorry about posting in the wrong forum. I'll go check out the Campfire now.

Thanks again.

Oh and I already own Prophecies but not the others, so that's why I'm stating there.

Nightfall is very tempting, though. I'll think about that some more.

I say Ele. If you ever get factions, get an assassin. They can farm a lot of locations and do massive melee damage.

A bit off-topic advice - seriously consider get also Nightfall or Eye of the North and get heroes. If you play most of time solo, heroes are a must.

How does that work exactly? Start a character in Nightfall and then move them to Prophecies at some point? And then you can bring the Heroes with you to Proph?

What about skills? Will the Nightfall character get the Proph skill, incl. quest skills somehow?

To be honest all of them. It’s harder as a monk… the reason I say this is they hench/heros attack what you attack. And if you are targeting players they go spastic. Just a FYI you can get masters on all campaigns solo with hero Hench. Flags make this possible

Yes, after a few Nightfall missions you can move over to Prophecies and your heroes go with you. Heroes you have unlocked in PvE are always available to you no matter where you are.

Skills you have unlocked are always available in PvE too. You just won't find, for example, Nightfall skills in the Prophecies campaign

As for personal preference...just try different combos till you find one that you like and suits your playstyle.

That is very much worth considering then. Thank you.