Classes that make more sense as secondaries than primaries

The past few weeks I have been thinking about making either a mesmer or a necro. It seems to me, however, that it almost makes more sense making a E/Me or a E/N. The only downside to doing this, of course, is the runes. Elementalists energy storage is great for both professions....IMO, it is probably a better energy management than the necro primary (although i havent tested this)...and the mesmer fast casting doesn't really seem at all necessary or effective for PvE. Of course, for me personally the only reason to make a necro, besides for runes, would be because i have none of the skills available for my character, and it costs 1k each to buy at this point. Are primary Mesmers and Necros really that much more effective than E/Me's and E/N's? Thanks!

Yes, they are.

Soul reaping > Energy Storage

The Great Al:

Go play Random Arenas with a high energy storage E/N and see if it's any fun.. probably isn't fun enough to log hundreds of hours playing it in PvE. Fast Casting Me/N is fun and a good option for what you're looking for. However I enjoy necro for pve, whereas my mesmer just collects dust.

~HI

Here are your options really based on playing Me or N skills:

E/N - High Energy storage Necro? **
E/Me - High Energy storage Mesmer - ***
N/E - Primary Necro / Ele Secondary - ***
N/Me - Primary Necro / Mes Secondary - ****
Me/N - Fast Casting Necro - ****
Me/E - Fast Casting Ele - ****

how could a fast casting ele get 4 stars? is mesmer energy management that good that a me/e could really be effective with high cost elementalist skills?

yes it can, dual attunements, and fast cast fireball, OMG H4XX0R5 4 Man Spike team. I've done it before and had it done to me, when I did it I rolled everyone until we hit a Spirit Spam Ray of judgement camping Mo/Rt group. The group that did it to me rolled my group..

Me/E can use dual attune, which allows you to use as many spells as you want(except a lot of exhaustion) aslong as your enchants dont get stripped.

its still a matter of preferance.. i started a Me\E, didnt really enjoy it, so re-rolled to Me\Mo, and am having way more fun.. playing primary mes skills only, just using orisen for healing atm. Makes you think more carefully about your build.. FYI i have a level 20 ele.. and well, she's just collecting dust now, i bring her out now and then, but she is probably not my most favourite character

You've gotta remember that the benefit of a Me/E is the fast cast, not energy management. You can just as easily do dual attunes on a primary elementalist, and deal more dmg at that. Eles can get 16 in an element where a secondary can only get 12.

The ability to raise your attributes above 12 is something you have to take into consideration as well when deciding on the primary class. Just judging by the primary attribute won't always give you an accurate look at the best option.

Like the poster above noted though, a primary ele in PvE usually ends up collecting dust and a Me/E in PvE just ends up not doing quite as much dmg as you would like it to. Now I'm learning how to be a real mesmer , but my ele...well he's got cool armor that I like to look at sometimes, but that's about it :/

the reason fior the dual attunes on a Me/E is for energy manage while spamming skills like fireball, flare, and immolate

mmh, it all depend what you play style is (or what it'll be you enjoy more)

I have a E/Mo that I play as E/Me now and still switch according too the one I need; and trust my Ele never ever collects dust I've spent 3/4 off my play time on it and I'm well over 1000 hour of playtime on my account.

ex. You want a quadruple meteor shower and I'll give it to ya, and I can do even a few off those after one another (in Urgoz Warren that is a blast - and many people already whisper me multiple times from: "wtf how do you do that so often" or "man just amazing the amount of shower you can keep dropping") before the exhaustion gets to much to regen enough.

Or I use the not so common ele "magikz" like earth or water, Or even the E/Mo 55hp can be fun to play with, try to maximize you play experience with all styles then you'll now what you like best (I have E/Me - Mo/N - Rit/Me - Me/N - W/R and it seems I'm more in the caster world then into a melee char but that just my taste tho)

I'll all depends on what your play style is and sometimes you know it very well beforehand, or you'll know it later after you played for a while what is the thing you enjoy most, and in what combination

Reduce casting time is not the only benefit. There is couple fast casting skills too which are useless with any other professions. Mantra of Recovery was my favorite skill in PvE when using mesmer. Power return + Mantra of Recovery = you can disable tons of spells.