Guild Wars 2

Around lvl 50 right now on my Ele and it seems like im completely outclassed by every other profession besides maybe the Mesmer in PvE and Dungeons. Does it get better?

Short answer. Yes.

Longer answer. Player better.

Long answer. They are fine, you still don’t have all the skills yet, don’t have the right gear yet, and unless you have another elementalist at 80, you know nothing about your class yet. Elementalists is Cold War diplomacy, you need to know when to push the limit and when to back off. Get to level 80, do more dungeons.

What’s wrong with Elementalists in dungeons?

To me they feel like the best dungeon class except good heavy armor players.

Elem has some of the best deffensive and supportive skills.

Elem has the best AoE offensive skills

So yes.

Elem only problem is L2P…

Had one in my party when we beat simon for dungeon master title.

evolverzilla.2359:

Elem has some of the best deffensive and supportive skills.

Elem has the best AoE offensive skills

…

Actually no.
You can read since forever elementalist quoting class description talking of releasing huge damage…..

We simply lack DPS (<===i.e. damage per second).

expecially considering how rotation and cooldows works (means you cannot choose any of those 20 skills whenever you want……you’ll need to wait more than their loooong cooldown).

yes they are.
unfortunately ele is one of the classes that is harder to master. and if you don’t have understanding about gw2 combo mechanics, or ele’s attunement rotation, then you are going to have a bad time.

P.S. as a mesmer i don’t feel outclassed by any other professions in dungeons.

EDIT: agree with LordByron.8369 about dps. but overall because of supporting abilities eles are viable. DPS would matter only if you join exploit runs, where you want to kill something fast w/o getting any damage back

@LordByron
Where I write about DPS??? I write AoE skill. Elem has 2 big AoE skills, with a good amount of DPS and one of them can even be shared with more dps oriented class. If you don´t know what I´m talking about you don´t know nothing about elem.

And I don´t remember of another BIG AoE skill that do more damage than elem. Sorry if I´m wrong about this.

Yeah ele has the biggest AoE….
Its not like it does damage to everythink in it.

Often it hits few times….there is a reason if many players don t trait for larger AoE…..
Those 2 AoE have a long cooldown and a long cast time.

churning earth is a decent AoE/cast time unfortunately being centered on a light class makes it not so good in many dungeons as the D/D weaponset itself.

Ele are vaible…..but damage is not their strong point.
Also they are far behind best dungeon professions…doesn t matter wich weaponset you use.

So its not a L2P issue is a “ooh look its flashy…it will deal so much damage” that is exactly what lead many players to use elementalist to be then deluded.

@saulius DPS matters in many LEGIT dungeons like:
-Arah
-Fotm lava 30+

for example….

Easier dungeons are just fine with any class….even if heavy are way ahead any other.

Properly traited ele is absolutely amazing as a support (long duration of boons, a lot of fire fields so a lot of might, perma fury etc etc), good damage dealer, good cc.

Best combo fields in the game, as a guardian myself that is running with a hammer i wouldnt take any other class over ele (pref D/D).

So ye, long story short, you (elementalists) guys are fkin awesome in dungeons.

At Fractals 30+ and for Arah, our guild group has 2 Eles. I would never let them go.

The fact that you said you are outclassed by every class except Mesmers really shows you have no clue about dungeons…

But answer is, yes they are viable, not the best, but alot better then some other classes.

T1: Guardian, Warrior, Mesmer
T2: Ele, Thief, not sure where to put Engi after Grenade nerf
T3: Necro, Ranger

I felt the need to show you this video

Elementalist Solos dungeon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llHO8EFnGlE

Stigma.7869:

I felt the need to show you this video

Elementalist Solos dungeon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llHO8EFnGlE

Ascalonian Catacombs Path 1 doesn’t really count.

Lictor, you can’t really get a full opinion being lvl 50…eles are so good trust me.

Play with the traits/weapons/skills and find your way to play it, then get the right set for that way and you will love your ele.

Strifey.7215:

T1: Guardian, Warrior, Mesmer
T2: Ele, Thief, not sure where to put Engi after Grenade nerf
T3: Necro, Ranger

There are no tiers…each class have their advantages and disadvantages, btw necro T3??? You don’t have one, don’t you?

Guardians, eles, warriors are good buffers, offensive or defensive, necro = best condition profession, ranger just have a lot of dmg (bows way), mesmers are versatile, i don’t know much about thiefs or engi but i figure thiefs = tons of dmg and engi = mixed dmg with some support.

Nagorn.2307:

Strifey.7215:

T1: Guardian, Warrior, Mesmer
T2: Ele, Thief, not sure where to put Engi after Grenade nerf
T3: Necro, Ranger

There are no tiers…each class have their advantages and disadvantages, btw necro T3??? You don’t have one, don’t you?

Guardians, eles, warriors are good buffers, offensive or defensive, necro = best condition profession, ranger just have a lot of dmg (bows way), mesmers are versatile, i don’t know much about thiefs or engi but i figure thiefs = tons of dmg and engi = mixed dmg with some support.

Necro can stack the most conditions by default, but it’s not the best condition profession. It lacks access to the hardest hitting condition of all, burning. I also don’t recall Necros being able to apply confusion.

I disagree slightly with Strifey’s tiers, but there /are/ tiers of effectiveness both in pve and pvp. Necro usually falls pretty low down the list sadly, as do Ranger and Engineer. Until the balances and bug fixes are completely ironed out (which could take years to finalize) there will always be the profession/build that outshines the others.

am i the only to prefer a good ranger to a good ele in the party?
expecially if ele uses staff.

Also because despite what anet says 99% of times single target burst >>>> aoe in dungeons.

You need to get rid of targeted mob asap.

Sarcasmic.6741:

Nagorn.2307:

Strifey.7215:

T1: Guardian, Warrior, Mesmer
T2: Ele, Thief, not sure where to put Engi after Grenade nerf
T3: Necro, Ranger

There are no tiers…each class have their advantages and disadvantages, btw necro T3??? You don’t have one, don’t you?

Guardians, eles, warriors are good buffers, offensive or defensive, necro = best condition profession, ranger just have a lot of dmg (bows way), mesmers are versatile, i don’t know much about thiefs or engi but i figure thiefs = tons of dmg and engi = mixed dmg with some support.

Necro can stack the most conditions by default, but it’s not the best condition profession. It lacks access to the hardest hitting condition of all, burning. I also don’t recall Necros being able to apply confusion.

I disagree slightly with Strifey’s tiers, but there /are/ tiers of effectiveness both in pve and pvp. Necro usually falls pretty low down the list sadly, as do Ranger and Engineer. Until the balances and bug fixes are completely ironed out (which could take years to finalize) there will always be the profession/build that outshines the others.

As all above is true but there is few thing that need to consider, necro can add confusion only i its asura (asura racial utility), all classes can add burning via combo field OR with utility item Something coctail. I know its not necro skill but its possible still. (at least my necro friend is using them)

Sarcasmic.6741:

Necro can stack the most conditions by default, but it’s not the best condition profession. It lacks access to the hardest hitting condition of all, burning. I also don’t recall Necros being able to apply confusion.

I disagree slightly with Strifey’s tiers, but there /are/ tiers of effectiveness both in pve and pvp. Necro usually falls pretty low down the list sadly, as do Ranger and Engineer. Until the balances and bug fixes are completely ironed out (which could take years to finalize) there will always be the profession/build that outshines the others.

Just tell us what prof does more cond dmg, more types of conditions(7/11), aoe and can spread them!. Burning hit’s like 6-8 stacks of bleed and with nec you reach 25, bleeds are the highest cond dmg. What’s the point of confuse a mob for one tick? Anyway this is kind offtopic ^^, eles are so good!!!

Strifey.7215:

The fact that you said you are outclassed by every class except Mesmers really shows you have no clue about dungeons…

But answer is, yes they are viable, not the best, but alot better then some other classes.

T1: Guardian, Warrior, Mesmer
T2: Ele, Thief, not sure where to put Engi after Grenade nerf
T3: Necro, Ranger

Pfft, rangers as the worst in dungeons. Have you seen the DPS a bird can do? OK, well neither have I – they are always dead. But if they could do DPS you’d be running scurred.

When it comes to DPS rangers can do already, their utilities and traits are pretty boring and I don’t think anything they can do changes the flow of a battle as much as Feedback or Wall of Reflection (maybe Healing Spring).

Back to eles, I haven’t played mine much since getting it to 80, but I really enjoyed a staff support build. It offers a style of play that felt unique to the elementalist (I have a ranger, elementalist, guardian, engineer and mesmer at level 80). The kind of play elementalists offer with the staff feels very unique to the class, with so many support skills and buffs to play with, lots of combo fields and handy control skills. I’m not sure where I stand on D/D. Obviously, more than any other build I think any class has, it’s the popular one. It just feels cheap to me. I like how many choices it gives you, but it just feels cheap the way you have access to everything without significant trade offs.

I think eles are definitely viable in late game dungeons, how viable certain classes are with high-end content (FotM lvl 40+) is another story, never mind whether or not they are optimal.

Did u just say that D/D ele has more than others in dungeons?

really?

Can you show me how efficient are you with D/D ele in dungeon?
Also can you start counting how many D/D you see in dungeons comparing to ANY other class/build?

LordByron.8369:

Did u just say that D/D ele has more than others in dungeons?

really?

Can you show me how efficient are you with D/D ele in dungeon?
Also can you start counting how many D/D you see in dungeons comparing to ANY other class/build?

I use D/D eles in dungeons with great efficacy. Literally my teammates never die due to the ridiculous amount of group support I throw out. I’m not the highest DPS on the team, but that’s not my job. My job is group support.

The fact that you said you’d take a ranger over an ele really shows you have no idea what you’re talking about.

Seems to me like a typical case of “difficult to master”. Their mechanics are quite intricate compared to a Warrior for instance and they have WAY more choices to be made. 4 Elements, 2 weapon sets active and then theres the weapons you might have in your bag.

Takes time to get everything, but once you do the Elementalist is great. Guildy of mine plays it and he’s really solid in dungeons.

LordByron needs to take a break all he posts about is how bad the class is….. reroll or take a break man.

Smth.9140:

Properly traited ele is absolutely amazing as a support (long duration of boons, a lot of fire fields so a lot of might, perma fury etc etc), good damage dealer, good cc.

Best combo fields in the game, as a guardian myself that is running with a hammer i wouldnt take any other class over ele (pref D/D).

So ye, long story short, you (elementalists) guys are fkin awesome in dungeons.

running D/D ele with a hammer guardian is amazing.

already exped a mesmer….astonished in difference of dmg…..
only downside is i have more issues at ressing downed players.

But when i see people talking of damage from an ele…

That IS math…..
Unless you put some absurd reasoning like if my ranger does 10.000 Single target, your ele has to do 2500 max with aoe….

but you are right, i have a mesmer so i’ll let anet destroy even this PvE build like they did b4 with other.

I still wonder why in higher lvl fractals i NEVER find any D/D ele…..
being almost the only.

And this when you pro were still talking about how bad ele was….

Now that is fotm PvP it seems everyone is suddenly an expert ele player…..
Clearly a problem of L2P….also of don t speak of something you don t know mostly….

LordByron.8369:

already exped a mesmer….astonished in difference of dmg…..
only downside is i have more issues at ressing downed players.

But when i see people talking of damage from an ele…

That IS math…..
Unless you put some absurd reasoning like if my ranger does 10.000 Single target, your ele has to do 2500 max with aoe….

but you are right, i have a mesmer so i’ll let anet destroy even this PvE build like they did b4 with other.

I still wonder why in higher lvl fractals i NEVER find any D/D ele…..
being almost the only.

And this when you pro were still talking about how bad ele was….

Now that is fotm PvP it seems everyone is suddenly an expert ele player…..
Clearly a problem of L2P….also of don t speak of something you don t know mostly….

I have a D/D ele friend who is at fotm 50. Not only this, but they even run a 5 ele party with no issue. When recruiting pugs, I see a fair few eles at the higher levels still. If you’re not seeing them I’m guessing it’s because pugs don’t want them. They are there though. Sometimes when recruiting I get whispered by other pugs in the group to kick the eles and rangers that join, which is just awful really.

The short answer is that every class is viable in end-game dungeons. It depends whether or not the class user understands the class well enough to actually use it properly.

There’s a big difference between something being viable and something being top tier.

Well I am an ele and I finished Simin and am on Fotm lvl 49 (planning to group w/ same group for 50 2morrow). Let’s just hope we don’t have to 4 man it again.
What I can say is that besides wars/guards/mesmers eles are quite useful for support.
They at least have constant healing support and aoe (especially frost bow). Also they can freeze/root/slow/interrupt enemies which I think many ppl underestimate.
So for instance frozen ground + meteor + shockwave + ice storm. So by the time the whole Zerg got to us they would lost something b/t 15-30% health.
I prefer staff over d/d in fotm b/c for one they have a slight better healing support (in terms of area and distance) and second they have reflect skill. I do use scepter/focus but I think in some fights it is better to have some range.
D/d fights are viable, but better in single target dps than in zergs (except for the interrupts which I think is awesome). but for instance in underground dredge fractal there will be like 15 dredge zerging u and it is wise not to be in the thick of battle.

Funny part is that I have a ranger friend and he hates his class.

swiftpaw.6397:

LordByron.8369:

already exped a mesmer….astonished in difference of dmg…..
only downside is i have more issues at ressing downed players.

But when i see people talking of damage from an ele…

That IS math…..
Unless you put some absurd reasoning like if my ranger does 10.000 Single target, your ele has to do 2500 max with aoe….

but you are right, i have a mesmer so i’ll let anet destroy even this PvE build like they did b4 with other.

I still wonder why in higher lvl fractals i NEVER find any D/D ele…..
being almost the only.

And this when you pro were still talking about how bad ele was….

Now that is fotm PvP it seems everyone is suddenly an expert ele player…..
Clearly a problem of L2P….also of don t speak of something you don t know mostly….

I have a D/D ele friend who is at fotm 50. Not only this, but they even run a 5 ele party with no issue. When recruiting pugs, I see a fair few eles at the higher levels still. If you’re not seeing them I’m guessing it’s because pugs don’t want them. They are there though. Sometimes when recruiting I get whispered by other pugs in the group to kick the eles and rangers that join, which is just awful really.

that vid with the PVT ele?
my comment is: “awesome guardian”……the difficult part of the stage being saving hostages explain itself…..so suggest to watch it.

Note: i am a D/D ele……so if they accept myself they won t refuse Others…..
Never been refused by a pug party…..

I play almost only FOTM and dungeons

I saw 2 till today

Those 2 i met were possibly a second character because they didn t use a SINGLE combo.

I see some with staff (not impressing btw).

Its possible all D/D eles are on US servers…..or just i never met one for any other reason.

P.S. despite i m not at fotm 49 it seems so strange to me that in this forum there are so many awesome ele and i cannot meet any…..
Also people seems to like how i play and tell me i m good (that i know doesn t mean i am but that suggests they don t find many good eles either around…..).

LordByron.8369:

swiftpaw.6397:

LordByron.8369:

already exped a mesmer….astonished in difference of dmg…..
only downside is i have more issues at ressing downed players.

But when i see people talking of damage from an ele…

That IS math…..
Unless you put some absurd reasoning like if my ranger does 10.000 Single target, your ele has to do 2500 max with aoe….

but you are right, i have a mesmer so i’ll let anet destroy even this PvE build like they did b4 with other.

I still wonder why in higher lvl fractals i NEVER find any D/D ele…..
being almost the only.

And this when you pro were still talking about how bad ele was….

Now that is fotm PvP it seems everyone is suddenly an expert ele player…..
Clearly a problem of L2P….also of don t speak of something you don t know mostly….

I have a D/D ele friend who is at fotm 50. Not only this, but they even run a 5 ele party with no issue. When recruiting pugs, I see a fair few eles at the higher levels still. If you’re not seeing them I’m guessing it’s because pugs don’t want them. They are there though. Sometimes when recruiting I get whispered by other pugs in the group to kick the eles and rangers that join, which is just awful really.

that vid with the PVT ele?
my comment is: “awesome guardian”……the difficult part of the stage being saving hostages explain itself…..so suggest to watch it.

Note: i am a D/D ele……so if they accept myself they won t refuse Others…..
Never been refused by a pug party…..

I play almost only FOTM and dungeons

I saw 2 till today

Those 2 i met were possibly a second character because they didn t use a SINGLE combo.

I see some with staff (not impressing btw).

Its possible all D/D eles are on US servers…..or just i never met one for any other reason.

P.S. despite i m not at fotm 49 it seems so strange to me that in this forum there are so many awesome ele and i cannot meet any…..
Also people seems to like how i play and tell me i m good (that i know doesn t mean i am but that suggests they don t find many good eles either around…..).

I just started doing fractals, just for the monthly though. Am working on my D/D elementalist and just switched over to the european server Piken Square.
I’m specced into healing and in most boss-fights I can keep my team alive. Problem is the light armor, some boss-spikes instantly kill me. I figure this could end up being a problem at higher fractal lvls but I won’t know till I get there.

I can honestly say that as a staff and (especially in later fotm) scepter/focus ele, I’ve pugged my way to fotm 54 with just a moderate amount of difficulty. And by pug I mean I’m usually grouped with people I’ve never met – not a static group.

Eles have a place, I promise you. It can be hard to find your niche… And I think we benefit the most from having different sets of gear to fill your groups’ weaknesses.

If you’re having a hard time, try finding a group of people to run with together, that way you’ll learn what they need and you can fill that role.

In general I tend to either be an aoe glass cannon, a tanky/self healing scepter/focus meat shield, or a staff/range heal/supporter. I just swap gear sets depending on what the group composition is. My reccomendation is , if you can, build a few gear sets/trait builds and learn how to handle each one equally well. That way you can adapt to the groups’ needs.

(there are other roles eles can play too, those are just the ones I seem to fall into the mot).

Nagorn.2307:

Lictor, you can’t really get a full opinion being lvl 50…eles are so good trust me.

Play with the traits/weapons/skills and find your way to play it, then get the right set for that way and you will love your ele.

Strifey.7215:

T1: Guardian, Warrior, Mesmer
T2: Ele, Thief, not sure where to put Engi after Grenade nerf
T3: Necro, Ranger

There are no tiers…each class have their advantages and disadvantages, btw necro T3??? You don’t have one, don’t you?

Guardians, eles, warriors are good buffers, offensive or defensive, necro = best condition profession, ranger just have a lot of dmg (bows way), mesmers are versatile, i don’t know much about thiefs or engi but i figure thiefs = tons of dmg and engi = mixed dmg with some support.

Necro was my first 80, I have 6x 80s. For efficient dungeon running Necro doesn’t bring anything that other classes can’t do better.

I played Necro through all 3 BWE and rolled it as my first class, I really wanted to like them but after leveling up multiple classes and doing literally 1000+ dungeon runs in guild and organized speed run groups, it’s painfully obvious certain classes don’t offer as much in PvE. Interesting part is, alot of the weaker PvE classes are actually really good in PvP. I pretty much only run my Thief, Necro, and Mesmer (who is really good in everything) in WvW.

These are PvE Tiers related to what the class brings to the group to quickly, efficiently, and easily run dungeons in guild/organized groups that actually build groups around all 5 classes.

Every game is going to naturally gravitate to certain metas as the playerbase learns what is efficient, and certain classes are going better at certain things. It is extremely difficult for any game to balance all classes for each aspect of the game, especially with sPvP, WvW, and dungeons. The current meta for dungeons is high direct damage through berserker gear and using omnomberry pies for survivability, with easy access to key 100% uptime on boons such as protection and fury, and using things like skale venom for 100% weakness uptime on harder bosses/events, with some utility like reflection, stealth, and boon stripping thrown in for key bosses/encounters. This allows you to melee dps which has natural cleave and higher dps since melee is balanced since it is more risky.

The classes that allow you to do these things are naturally high tier for PvE dungeons. Which is the reason that most groups run guard/war/mesmer groups because they offer everything you need to speed run dungeons and fractals with very little trouble. Things like Ele and Thief can be substituted and still do fine, although they aren’t as good as their counterparts.

That’s not to say certain classes are not viable at all, obviously any group comp can complete a dungeon. But it’s a matter of how fast and easy, that’s how tiers work in games. You can play with characters from any tier, it just won’t be as ideal or efficient at lower tiers.