Guild Wars 2

I frequently use Fire as an Elementalist because it has such high damage. I also prefer the dagger’s move set as it fit my play style best.

One thing I’ve noticed about the dagger’s main attack is that nine times out of ten, two of the three flame lines that project from the dagger will miss the enemy completely, unless I am right up in their face. This means I must take heavy damage or risk death to optimize my most basic attack while using fire. I’m not sure if this is purposely balanced like this or not, but either way, here is my suggested attack pattern for the daggers when using fire. (I’ve attached a simple image to illustrate my idea.)

Simply put, the middle line moves forward (towards the enemy), the two outside lines curve out (like they do now), but then back in. This simple change gives you two points during the attack for all three lines to hit the target instead of just one. (As shown by the green lines in the picture.) It also gives the Elementalist a little bit more range when using fire with the dagger, but not so much that it feels broken or wrong.

*Sorry for reposting, but my last attachment was messed up, needed to delete and fix.

I believe this is working as intended. Dagger is the Elementalist’s melee option, you’re supposed to be in melee range, and accepting the same risk/reward that other melee professions and their respective weapon sets have to: more damage, but more open to enemy attack.

It’s a similar (though less pronounced) situation for Vapor Blade (the water auto attack), you don’t get the full benefit unless you’re close enough to get both hits (if you’re too far you only get the outgoing hit).

So, as much as I’d like for it to be this way, I’m reasonably sure ArenaNet wants you to make use of those gap closers in a D/D weapon set.