Guild Wars 2

I feel like the elementalist class is strongly lacking. Nearly every class can do something better than the elementalist, so then why play one? The class to me seems like it simply isn’t viable anymore. The only thing the elementalist has that other classes don’t is bending the elements at their will (Obviously) and cool animations.

On the professions definition page you (Anet/NCsoft) have this, “What they lack in physical toughness, they make up in versatility and the ability to inflict massive damage in a single attack.” Where is this? Our class keeps getting nerfed into the ground. I love the class so much and that is why I continue to play it and I keep trying to find a setup that can hold its own against other classes; which is extremely tedious.

Also, can you please change Diamond Skin? It doesn’t work. 90% is too high. How about like 80 or 75% health?

I figured I’d add this. I heard some other people that play elementalists talking about this. The trait Elemental Attunement should only make boons on attunement swap apply to nearby allies. Elementalists should have the buff as a standard on attunement swap without needing to trait for it. Much like the Guardian always has access to its virtues.
So without needing to trait,
Earth → Protection
Water → Regeneration
Air → Swiftness
Fire → might

Elemental Attunement should take this base and grant these boons to nearby allies upon attunement swap. Also, for switching to fire, you should make it more than a single stack of might. I think two would be fine simply because all the other boons stack in duration and might does not.

The only reason i STILL play ele for WvW is, perma swiftness and aoes and healing. Nothing more. I dont use ele for other things.

i finally found one fairly viable spec, based on air mostly. however the damage is slightly below average, but surviability is good. For damage i tried to zerker fire, but you get owned in 2-3 hits. every other specs i tried are no good, either you die to fast, or you do absolutely no damage.

I’ve heard Ele is severely lacking in PvP compared to ALL of the others, but I found a nice PvE one. I use two daggers, keep water attuned for the regen, then cycle through conjured weapons for massive damage (frost bow AoE is even better than the firestorm from the elite fire blade because it slows too) or if I need protection I equip a stone shield. Doubt that style would fly in PvP though.

Agreed, there is simply no reason to play Elementalists over other classes aside from the cool animations.
It’s ridiculous that Anet claims that they have high damage, their damage output is nonexistent in comparison with a mesmers, guardians, rangers, warriors or thiefs.

I don’t understand why they can’t buff the damage as well as the efficiency of the utility spells? Elementalists are so squishy with low mobility unless d/d.
It’s literally all they have.

Meanwhile warriors have 20k hp with ridiculous damage output.
Anet’s balancing blows.

Eles CAN be incredibly strong, if played well (I am a bad ele, so don’t ask me how)

How? Every class can get ascended gear.
Elementalists are simply outclassed by pretty much every other class.

My point was that I suppose the Elementalist does have versatility in that it’s the jack of all trades. But it’s hardly the best at anything useful. It’s simply good at everything. But every class can do something better than the ele.

I found a setup that works nicely. My traits are as follows:
Fire-20-10=Spell Slinger 20=Internal Fire
Air-10- 10=Zephyr’s Boon
Earth-10= Stone Splinters
Water-30- 10=Cantrip Mastery 20= Soothing Disruption 30=Cleansing Water
Arcana-0

For Armor I have a PVT with full PVT accessories and such. Power is the primary and Vitality and Toughness are the secondary attributes.

For the Heal skill I have Glyph of Elemental Harmony.
Utilities can be any cantrip.
Elite is Fiery Greatsword.

I feel this build works well, but I run into serious issues when I’m fighting a condition heavy enemy, an enemy that regenerates too fast, deals too much damage, or stealths frequently. If conditions are an issue, you can swap out the heal for Ether Renewal. But that elite doesn’t heal for very much.

The build works well, I can bring someone to nearly half-health or downed with the fire bursts. If they run, I use Ride the Lightning, Lighting Flash, and my greatsword to catch them. I guess I should have mentioned using dual daggers. The build also has pretty good mobility and survivability, as well as speed.

But I feel that I need to work too hard to have an output similar to what another class can accomplish easily. Try out the build and let me know how it works for you.

By the way, I’ve been using the above build for PvP, PvE, and WvW. I like well-rounded builds like that.

I’ve ran my d/d ele like that before, and it worked all right for PvE. THEN I leveled a warrior, the difference between the two was staggering. The warrior killed things just as fast, if not faster, and never died against mere veterans unlike the elementalist.

Then again, I could just be bad at playing an elementalist. It’s also sad that the only viable ele seems to be d/d, especially since they have the health and armor rating of tissue paper to be forced into such close proximity.