This Can't be Right

I've been playing for a few days and so far am very impressed with Guild Wars.
But I can't shake the feeling I'm doing something terribly wrong. I've tried a few characters but my Necromancer/Monk so far is my favorite. That being said, his damage output just seems, well, not very impressive. I've done my Attribute allocation over and over again, and just can't seem to hit upon a combo of spells that doesn't result in me being totally out of energy and the mobs still breathing.

This has been pretty much the case on every character I've tried. Cast 3 or 4 spells tops, and I'm pretty much spent, while the mobs just continue to pound happily away on me. What am I doing wrong? I have a hard time believing that the game is meant to be 4 spells and you're done.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Ok, here a few helpful hints

Bring a full party.

You need to make sure your skills don't have too high of an energy usage. For example, you shouldn't really be using anything with more then 15 energy. Avoid spamming any skills that require more than 5 energy.

Depending upon what character you use, it's roll may or way not be damage output. Here are some examples:
A necromancer, (generally) isn't used for direct damage output. It is meant for things such as hexes and conditions. If you use a minion master, you wont be doing damage directly, your minions will.
A warrior is normally a Tank, it absorbes damage
A monk is normally used to heal, not fight, the exception is specific builds such as ray of judgement
An elementalist is used primarily for mass damage output, they have Area of Effect spells, that deal lots of damage, but most of the really good spells cost 10 energy+ They do however have a very high energy cap, from memory it's possible to get the upto about 150 energy, but that is ridiculous.
A ranger is used for conditions and interupts, again, not a huge damage dealer.

All proffesions deal a good enough amount of damage to take out a fair sized group, and it doesn't have to be a specific team build (for example, the Domain of Anguish is currently using a Destructive was Glaive build, which uses area of effect, this is because of many enemies at once, if they are bunched and you use area of effect, it is highly effective).

You also need to look at your play style, the main reason you will be failing to eliminate an enemy party in PvE is because you haven't killed their monk. That is the most important thing to do first, kill the monk, then they have no way of being healed.

I hope this helps a little, if you have other questions feel free to PM me, my IGN is X Dervashah X

if you are not level 20 yet you dont have all your points yet nor all the skills. I also noticed that if you play necro at low levels you seem to always need more energy, this will change as you level up and put more points into soul reaping, and get more skills.
Ele's have pretty good energy pool so if you are playing one then you should not have much of an energy problem just remember to put points into energy storage!

Most character classes have some skills for energy management. You might want to check out the official wiki to see which ones you can get, etc:
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Main_Page

Unless you are lvl 20 and did both quests to get extra attribute points you won't shine as a necro.

IN the beginning you are probably doing ok with blood magic, when you are lvl 20 + the extra points I would suggest setting all points to curses and soulreaping.

OP post a bit about what level you are so we can better help.

Overall the main good spells you get early on a necromancer are in blood magic and curses so use those, also since you're a monk secondary do use Bane Signet it's rather good at low levels.

Guild Wars is a team game, besides the tutorial you'll rarely travel on your own.

Max energy is rather irrelevant in Guild Wars, more important is your energy managment. Rangers, necros and paragons are nearly unplayable at lower levels because their e-managment relies heavly on their primary attribute and at lower levels you don't have enough attribute points to raise the attribute to an sufficient level. Luckily you'll reach max level quickly in GW.

Also the roles of the classes are fundamentally differnt compared to most other RPGs. Physical fighters (i.e. the warrior) are the main damage dealers, monks (the "healer" archetype of GW) keep their team alive mainly by short lived protection buffs, not heals, and also removes debuffs from allies. Casters in general support the monks by debuffing the enemies (i.e. Enfeebling Blood) and/or increase the damage of the physicals (i.e. Mark of Pain); casters deal rather bad direct damage by themselves.

I'm still rather low level. I've only gotten to 8 on my Necromancer, largely due to the problems I've mentioned. I admit I haven't been trying to find teams much, largely due to being so new. I've been trying to learn the mechanics of the game so that when I do team up, I don't embarrass myself. From the replies I've gotten so far, it sounds like this is actually my problem. I guess I've been trying to "go solo" too much.

Just to point this out again, warriors are (or will be in the long run) the damage dealers. The difference with assasin (the "rogue" archetype) or casters is that they can more easily take the damage instead of avoid it.
And casters are generally support characters, some will play damage dealers.
As you near lv 20, check the necro playstyle a bit, that'll give you an idea of the role where your class shine.

But, yes, post your build, campaign. And don't forget you can take henchmen with you, the game is balanced to be played with them.

You seem nice. If you PM me with your IGN I'd be glad to help you. ^^

You can play "solo" if you mean with henchmen but if you mean entirely on your own that isn't possible.

I get the feeling that you are playing prophecies and you just left the starting area, am I right?

Instead my feeling is you are still in pre-searing (prophecies starting area). If it's true, it's normal you go around alone, unless you find some other himans, cause there the biggest party you can have is of 2 and tehre's no henchmen. If you already left that area just ignore what I said please.

As others said, at low levels you'll always feel a bit awkward for you have very few skills and low attributes, even if you don't spread them. Don't worry.
If you never used henchmen before, they usually are near the outpost exit, you can recognize them for being disposed in a line. You can take them with you to have a full party. Another useful thing, not sure everyone has it but you can try, is typing /bonus while in an outpost. Between the weapons, it gives you a summoning stone with unlimited uses (as long as you're under lvl 20) to summon a fire imp at your own level. I've always found him to facilitate things a lot.

Visit this thread for info on playing a necromancer http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/d...t10241271.html and the Campfire section has a sub forum for each profession and each has a stickied basics thread to help you understand how each one functions.

Other than that, leaving the pretty world of pre-searing is a shock to every new player. You have gone from being a powerful solo player to dying quickly.

1. Bring henchmen - they are lined up near an exit in each town and can be added by clicking on one and accepting into your party. As you are a caster, always bring a warrior to take the aggro, so you can hang back. You can target using Ctrl-Shift-click. (You can also add by using the Search function in your Party panel.)

2. Run away if necessary. If you get far enough from the monsters, they will break off and let you regen.

3. Get a bow - any longbow, damage doesn't matter. And use it to pull foes, so you don't get rushed by too many at once. Then back away so you are not the primary target.

You are exactly right.
I got all my armor pieces from the collectors and finished all the quests I could find, then went into what I've come to find out is called the "Post Searing" world. I did a couple quests then ran into a rock elemental of some sort that I absolutely could not kill because it kept healing itself. I did have 3 henchmen with me. This was what prompted me to come here and post. I felt like I had to be doing something terribly wrong to have that much trouble with a single mob and 3 henchmen in tow.

Being a newbie ( or noob as others will tastelessy put ) no1 should expect you to be like a veteran player.If you do join a team explain your a new player and see what their reply is - if they are cool with it they will help you but if they are total idiots and call names just leave them and join someone else.
There are quite a few players in gw who sit in la etc who offer help freely to new players with quests.
Also join a guild - find one that is fine with newbies , offers help in some way eg armor setups/builds and some quest help ( only ask for help on quests after you tried a few times yourself - some guilds have probs where players want them to do everything for them so they can be a bit wary ) as the best way to learn is by our own mistakes/failures and then call in the guildies :P.

Keep at it as gw isnt a game you learn in 5 mins - most players will say its a continous learning curve and even after 2 years ( 3 1/2 in my case ) players are still learning new tricks.

It sounds like you ran into Cobble Poundstone, since the regular Hulking Stone Elementals can't heal themselves. Cobble is a warrior boss, which means his level is higher (level 6) than the normal elementals (level 3) in the area.

There are a couple of tricks that help with Cobble. First, he uses the skill Endure Pain, which temporarily raises his health and makes him look stronger than he really is. At some point you will reduce his health below the addition he gets from Endure Pain, and when Endure Pain wears off he will suddenly die.

Second, Cobble heals using the warrior Healing Signet. This has a slow cast (2 seconds) so it is easy to interrupt. Since n/mo are lacking in interrupt skills, bring a henchie that has them if you can (Dunham). Also, while Cobble is casting it, his armor is lowered by 40 during those two seconds. If you can't interrupt, hit him as hard as you can while he's using that signet, because he's much more vulnerable then.

I understand you may be having trouble. I have a solution. Since you are still in the Tutorial (Presearing) I suggest you go over to Presearing.com and create an account there. http://www.presearing.com/forum2/index.php

There are many helpful people there that will take the time to show you what to do and how to do it BEFORE you dump deep in the game. At least by the time you post, you will have met some good people, gotten the skills down, and begin to understand what you are generally doing right and wrong.

Peace and good luck

misunderstanding I think

Thank you all for the help you've given me. The replies in this thread clarified a few things for me.

Just to clarify, Dunham isn't available as a henchman until (slightly) later in the game, so it's unlikely he'll be able to use him against Cobble (not without running a fair way back, anyway). And unfortunately Reyna does not come with any interrupting skills, either.

But once you do see Dunham, the above advice still applies to future enemies; interrupts do come in handy against anyone with skills that take a second or two to cast.

Belgos, if you need any more help, feel free to PM me with your IGN and we can chat.