User:Xasxas256/Secondary Profession Guide

Warrior
Warriors are best known for their tanking ability but a secondary Warrior won't get a primary Warrior's powerful armor or damage absorption runes. A secondary Warrior can still be useful though, their many stances can compliment many situations and their skills have low energy requirements. Some of their skills use adrenaline though, so be wary as not all classes will be able to successfully build up enough adrenaline to use those skills. Rangers and Monks can try their hand at using a melee weapon, often with much success and Mesmers can use a Warrior secondary and Illusionary Weaponry as part of a specialised build.

Ranger
The Ranger class is quite flexible and can compliment any other class. The Ranger's primary attribute is Expertise, which reduces the energy cost of mainly Ranger skills and may not be missed by many, their excellent armor against elemental damage may in fact be missed more. But a Ranger's many utility skills can be very useful. For example Storm Chaser can be used for running, Troll Unguent is a good cheap heal, Tiger's Fury increases attack speed and you don't need to be a primary Ranger to take a pet into battle. They also have many spirits which can help in a variety of situations.

Monk
There is no primary profession that won't benefit from having a Monk secondary, being able to heal and protect yourself, minions and party members is always useful. However you won't have access to Divine Favor so a primary Monk will normally be able to heal more effectively. Monks also have a Smiting line of skills which could be used for some extra damage, particularly as holy damage works wonders against the undead. A Monk's damaging auras can also be useful up close.

Necromancer
If you want to be a Minion master then you might be better off with a primary Necromancer, the energy obtained from Soul Reaping is a huge advantage. But if Curses or Death Magic have appeal then a secondary Necro may be a good choice. Curses are generally used to weaken the enemy whereas Death Magic can be very useful for healing. Offering of Blood is also a very popular way to quickly boost a character's energy level.

Mesmer
Secondary Mesmers are more common than primary Mesmers, perhaps because Fast Casting is not held in high regard by many. Or maybe it is because Mesmers have a wide variety of skills that can used for a multitude of different strategies, although they largely revolve around counter attacking. For example Echo is a useful skill which mirrors another spell. Mesmers also have good energy management for a spell caster, Mesmer skills have lower than usual energy requirements as well as having the most ways to keep energy levels up. Mesmers are not only good as putting Hexes on enemies, they can also effectively remove them from themselves.

Elementalist
Taking an Elementalist secondary means you miss out on Energy Storage which gives the character more energy. So some of an Elementalist's harder hitting fire magic spells might be difficult to use effectively but the good thing is that an Elementalist has a wide array of skills and many of them don't use enormous amounts of energy. Wards can be used to negate damage taken, you could use Earth armor enchantments, Ice hexes or some Air Spiking spells. Elementalists also have Conjure Flame, Conjure Lightning and Conjure Frost, which can be very helpful to a Ranger or Warrior.

There are no useless profession combinations in Guild Wars, just as there is no ultimate combination either. Some combinations simply do certain things better although you might not immediately be able to effectively combine your two professions, you may have to wait until you learn some skills later in the game. That said, all profession combinations have skills and abilities that compliment each other and the dual profession system in Guild Wars means that every character has a multitude of possible playing styles.