Choosing a secondary profession

[nkuvu]

As Armin Saberlin said in pre-searing Ascalon: "There is no right or wrong choice. Every combination of professions has unique benefits and possibilities."

This is, however, one of the most common questions asked. So here are some quick benefits to each secondary profession (arranged alphabetically). (Note that this was created before the introduction of the Sunspear and Faction PvE skills, I'll add that information later.)

Assassin:
Using daggers with Avatar of Lyssa and Heart of Fury, shadow stepping, melee interrupts.

Elementalist:
Conjure <element> combines with elemental scythe damage, enchantments that increase armor rating, wards, and glyphs for energy management.

Mesmer:
Hex removal and prevention (i.e., Hex Breaker), stances to reduce damage, energy maintenance, skills such as Epidemic to spread conditions, Illusionary Weaponry [E].

Monk:
Reusable resurrection spells, condition removal, a number of Protection Prayers enchantments which can help with Dervish skills like Mystic Sweep or Mystic Regeneration.

Necromancer:
Plague touch for condition removal (works well with Wearying Strike), Orders spells and curses such as Barbs or Mark of Pain.

Paragon:
Shouts, echoes and chants, specifically "Go for the Eyes!" to increase damage or Soldier's Fury [E] to increase attack speed. Reusable resurrect skill, condition removal signets.

Ranger:
Pets, skills such as Apply Poison, stances, Antidote Signet to remove conditions.

Ritualist:
Weapon spells (notably Splinter Weapon), reusable resurrection spells, condition removal.

Warrior:
Defensive stances, shouts. Wild Blow and melee interrupts.


This synopsis was compiled from multiple threads in this forum, but if you have additional notes, I will update this post.

[Supa Hunta]

cool, i'll keep this in mind as i make a new dervish

[Karn the Betrayer]

I agree I'm effective as a ranger as well as a monk secondary. As a ranger i provde cover fire for other team members as a monk I'm more like a medic lol

[I R Kazi]

I personally love Shadow Prison its such a fun skill for derv

[Rym Of Melandru]

Sorry if there's a rule against posting a thread relating to a stickied thread that I don't know about, but what was stated there isn't working for me for two reasons:

1) It's mostly stuff I'm already aware of after debating the subject for days.
2) I don't have Prophecies, thus ruling out some nice options with quite a few secondaries (Mesmer, Necro, and Warrior come to mind).

However, I have a general idea of what I want; something that can do moderate-to-high spike damage easily (or just good damage while forcing the opponent into a situation where they can't fight back, like a knockdown) without sacrificing (too much) defense. From what I've seen, these seem to be my main options;

D/E: Grenth's Fingers + Conjure Frost means a decent amount of extra damage that I can slap on without even using a cold-based scythe Other uses could be snares and/or Gust from Air (although I don't think knockdown's worth Exhaustion >.>), or ice enchants like Armor of Frost or the magic reflection spell (forgot the name >.<)

D/Mo: Judge's Insight for armor penetration, Bane Signet/Stonesoul Strike for knockdown, and possibly even Signet of Rage for a ranged, efficient and Energy-free Warrior/Para killer. And let's not forget the bounty of hard res

D/N: Barbs & Wells. I'd say Plague Touch too, but as you can probably tell from my name, I'm a fan of the avatar that's already condition-resistant.

D/W: Drunken Blow, Wild Blow, possibly Bull Rush, and maybe some other Tactics skills like Healing Signet. I've seen D/W as a pretty common choice, so I'm guessing it'd be good >.>

D/Rt: Weapon spells, namely Splinter Weapon. Oh, and FomF = hard res.

So, considering that I don't have Prophecies, which'd be the best choice for my secondary? (And I can actually use "best" in this instance since I actually have expectations from it:P)

[nkuvu]

Sorry if there's a rule against posting a thread relating to a stickied thread that I don't know about, but what was stated there isn't working for me for two reasons:

1) It's mostly stuff I'm already aware of after debating the subject for days.
2) I don't have Prophecies, thus ruling out some nice options with quite a few secondaries (Mesmer, Necro, and Warrior come to mind).

No rule against posting more questions on the info -- but I did merge your thread with the sticky. After all, if you have questions on choosing a secondary profession, someone else may come along later and have the same questions.

However, I have a general idea of what I want; something that can do moderate-to-high spike damage easily (or just good damage while forcing the opponent into a situation where they can't fight back, like a knockdown) without sacrificing (too much) defense. From what I've seen, these seem to be my main options;

D/E: Grenth's Fingers + Conjure Frost means a decent amount of extra damage that I can slap on without even using a cold-based scythe Other uses could be snares and/or Gust from Air (although I don't think knockdown's worth Exhaustion >.>), or ice enchants like Armor of Frost or the magic reflection spell (forgot the name >.<)

D/Mo: Judge's Insight for armor penetration, Bane Signet/Stonesoul Strike for knockdown, and possibly even Signet of Rage for a ranged, efficient and Energy-free Warrior/Para killer. And let's not forget the bounty of hard res

D/N: Barbs & Wells. I'd say Plague Touch too, but as you can probably tell from my name, I'm a fan of the avatar that's already condition-resistant.

D/W: Drunken Blow, Wild Blow, possibly Bull Rush, and maybe some other Tactics skills like Healing Signet. I've seen D/W as a pretty common choice, so I'm guessing it'd be good >.>

D/Rt: Weapon spells, namely Splinter Weapon. Oh, and FomF = hard res.

So, considering that I don't have Prophecies, which'd be the best choice for my secondary? (And I can actually use "best" in this instance since I actually have expectations from it:P)

At this point, though, it's hard to choose. You will, of course, be able to change secondary professions once you complete the Hunted quest, which is very soon after reaching the mainland. And before you reach the mainland, the foes are not particularly difficult -- so even a mediocre build can go through the island fairly easily (not counting some Master level quests).

[Rym Of Melandru]

Alright, sorry, wasn't sure if I should make a new thread or post it here, but thanks for being understanding about it. And hearing that I'll be able to change secondaries that early in's great news to me, I didn't think that was an option until much later on I think I'll be ruling out D/N for sure, though, since scythes can hit multiple targets while Barbs only targets one foe, making it a worse choice vs mobs in comparison to Splinter Weapon, Conjure x, or JI.

Hm...wait, it just occured to me...if I'm using, say, Avatar of Melandru, and then use Grenth's Fingers, will GF override AoM's effect and change my attacks to cold damage, or will I still do Earth? Because if it doesn't, then there's really no sense in going D/E for Conjures...

[Akirai Annuvil]

1) It's mostly stuff I'm already aware of after debating the subject for days.
2) I don't have Prophecies, thus ruling out some nice options with quite a few secondaries (Mesmer, Necro, and Warrior come to mind).

Wild Blow, Frenzy and Rush are all very good choices for a Warrior secondary. I'd recommend Warrior especially if you're into PvP. /E for Shock is also nice for PvP (and possibly for Storm Djinn's, and a conjure when not using AoM). /A for shadow steps and Disrupting Dagger.

D/Rt: Weapon spells, namely Splinter Weapon. Oh, and FomF = hard res.

Splinter Weapon and FomF are what make D/Rt a good PvE profession, especially if you don't have access to those on a rit primary.

[laugm]

Alright, sorry, wasn't sure if I should make a new thread or post it here, but thanks for being understanding about it. And hearing that I'll be able to change secondaries that early in's great news to me, I didn't think that was an option until much later on I think I'll be ruling out D/N for sure, though, since scythes can hit multiple targets while Barbs only targets one foe, making it a worse choice vs mobs in comparison to Splinter Weapon, Conjure x, or JI.

Hm...wait, it just occured to me...if I'm using, say, Avatar of Melandru, and then use Grenth's Fingers, will GF override AoM's effect and change my attacks to cold damage, or will I still do Earth? Because if it doesn't, then there's really no sense in going D/E for Conjures...

a good assumption would be whatever is last on the enchant, hex, condition (form) list would give the damage effect (or maybe form > enchantment so it'll still be earth)
but anyway avatar of melandru's duration is quite bad and costs a ton of energy (and it only gives you +100 max health and invulnearability to conditions, whats to stop an ele boss from hitting you with 308 dmg liquid flame? the fire ele boss in dasha vestibule)

[TheChosenDervish]

D/W is good, with wild blow. But there is also another skill that is overlooked:
Whirlwind Attack. It is a sunspear warrior skill, and AMAZING for the dervish because if there is 5 adjacent foes than you will hit like 200 to each (due to scythe's inherent AoE)