Ele or Necromancer? For a better story experience?

I decided with the update finally to the 7 heroes, it is time I created a new Prophecies character for the purpose of simply enjoying the storyline from start to end. I am left with a difficult decision however: My last character slot can only go to Necromancer or Elementalist.

Assuming the only heroes I will have access to will be mercenaries until I can clear the campaigns in order of Prophecies and Factions, which profession would you say would be a better choice for a casual story experience? Note that I will be playing in NM, but not have access to Eye of the North and Nightfall skills until I have progressed to those campaigns.

In other words, which profession should I choose in NM with mostly Henchmen for a heavily "lore-based" playthrough with lots of questing?

Both would be very good for a heavily lore based playthrough. If you are going to play through prophs just for the "purpose of simply enjoying the storyline from start to end", and play it in nm, then I would go for the ele, as they are quite fun when their damage isn't mitigated so much. Normal modes the only place they can shine nowadays. Both are good choices though, and each has some good skills in prophs, so it's really up to you. If you are going to do hard mode stuff, go necromancer.

Ditto instancekiller. I went through Prophecies with an Ele/Mo back when the game was new, just released in fact. Ele Ward Against Elements is going to come in very handy in Ring of Fire. Secondary Monk can keep Alesia alive and later Mhenlo and if hench monks are not spending all their mana on themselves, they do a good job of keeping the rest of the group alive. Then too, in NM the Ele was just a lot of fun.

Elementalists are straight up damage dealers with nothing subtle about them, and are useful in pretty much every circumstance. As a necro you generally have to do some thinking/research as to the foes your facing to be effective and then it's mainly about debuffs and subverting enemies. So the question is do you want to be a damage slinger or would you prefer to crack enemies more gradually, playing the cracks rather than the hammer.

It seems to me that necromancer and elementalist are fairly equal in power in the early stages of the game and all through Prophecies, but I feel that the necro gets much more powerful near the end of things.

Near the end of the first campaign, you can pick up Aura of the Lich and SS, which are both elite skills that you can gear good necro builds around. AotL will be especially helpful once you hit Cantha and would like to have a MM for missions like Vizunah Square. It only goes up from there as you get AP from Cantha, Necrosis from Elona, and FH! from the North to round out yourself an AP caller build for Discordway.

Meanwhile, if you had chosen elementalist, you will probably hit your peak power once you get SH or SF from Elona, but you must also consider that once you start fighting Destroyers, you won't be doing as much with your high damage Fire magic.

Personally, I'd go with a necro.

Necro 110%.

The first skills you have access to are minion skills and barbs, enfeebling blood and friends (curses line).

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