Guild Wars 2

Ok, rather than come here and whinge about how squishy and weak my elementalist is, I’m going to do something constructive and ask other elementalists how they combat the problem of being the squishiest and lowest DPS profession in the game.

I don’t like using a staff, scepter dagger isn’t much better. Dual daggers is how I would like to play, however it just seems like it’s impossible and impractical to play in this manner. There are only so many stuns I can use, there are only so many dodges I can do. The squishiness of my class makes it ridiculously hard to survive in close proximity to my enemies.

The story quests are a dead giveaway, most professions breeze through them, a lot of the time I spend half the fight kiting just so I don’t die almost instantly. It is not a gear or spec problem, as I am currently heavily defensive specced and my gear is all within 3 levels of my level. On top of this all of my gear is gemmed and has toughness and vitality on every piece.

It is not a skill issue, I have been high rated in BG’s and Arenas in other MMO’s consistantly.

If anything has worked for you I would like to know. I would prefer not to reroll another class to 80.

Thanks.

If we were to use an anology to math, playing an elementalist is like having to do Calculus, while playing a thief for the same results is like counting numbers. The amount of difficulty and skill that is invovled is so much higher on the elementalist, just to get the same results. I have played Ranged DPS Caster since DAoC (War/Aion/Rift) and tried to make Ele work, but they simply pale in comparison to the potential of the other classes when putting a skilled player behind the wheel.

The staff is the way to go. It was very easy to quest/do my story, whatever, with a staff. Just stick yourself in fire attunement, open with a 2, pop a 3 then auto attack. The fireball auto attack iskittenpowerful (Crits for 2.1k~ for me at level 80, which is a lot more than most other classes auto attack)

I stopped playing my Elementalist for a Guardian, However…

I did put points into Earth and went with condition dmg using Spector / Focus. Stacking Earth attack 1 to 13 stacks does some nice single target damage and you get a reflect / invincibility. I then use Elite skill for summon Elemental pet… Earth Pet. Utility skills the AEO poison and the 2 DMG arcane skills. Could solo skill challenges / story content with ease.

The only thing that sucks about it is… the condition dmg is really bad on structures and you will have to switch to fire. You will find yourself wishing you could swap to Staff for AOE when your around other people.

Dagger damage needs to be increased. Why does range do more damage? Using daggers With the amount of micromanagement needed and as squishy cloth wearing melee, we should be on par with thief dps. I feel penalized for being melee, when in fact we should be out dpsing range for the risk of being in close combat. Pve is ok but far lacking in pvp compared to other classes in melee combat.

I feel your pain.

I tried the whole d/d(too close range) and staff(too slow and aoe oriented) routine, but the one I found was best was scepter/dagger as far as pve, purely for the blinds. They’re lifesavers while your endurance regens if you come to an end of your kiting routine. It has decent damage and is really the one I found to be the most survivable as well, with the earth shield. I’m also fully traited into Earth and Fire, with a bit in Air. I found full Earth trait, as well as switching to it more often than the other aspects, to really be the only way to survive well enough. With this, I don’t find myself in too much danger, unless I get unlucky or sloppy.

Frankly, I’m just really disappointed in the profession I chose. It’s extremely fun switching between all of the elements and having to strive to survive, but I was really hoping to be able to do massive damage, not be the jack of all trades master of none support role I’ve always been in all other MMOs. It’s just really disheartening when I tourney on my warrior and our team just laughs and celebrates when they see an ele on the opposing team. =/

Thanks for the input guys.. I figured as much. I honestly think i’m just going to WvWvW level a thief for the moment and do my PvP that way. I’ll keep the Ele on the backburner and wait for the first content patch. cheers dudes. Appreciate it.

Been playing elementalist since the release. PvP wise she sucks a lot and I’m about to switch to some other class. We have 25 skills, so what? My keyboard has 104 keys so I still got 79 keys left for some more useless skills. I will call here on aNet sweet talk that player should feel and enjoy the class their playing. Explain to me how you can enjoy your class if 30% of time I spend checking which attunement I am on and which one isn’t on cooldown, plus which skill got how much cooldown left, next 30% I waste on running and dodging enemies, last 30% I waste on thinking which skill to cast now because most of them are on COOLDOWN and my opponent is still standing. That leaves 10% of time for actually casting the skills and enjoying the game. Where all other classes can kill me with pressing from 2(Thief) to 7(Mesmer and others) buttons. LOL

lol

What has worked for me:

Retired my Elementalist at Lv 62 because if was sick of kiting and dealing pathetic damage no matter what I specced into. I’ll leave him parked until an update comes and buffs the class.

Meanwhile, created a Warrior and having a good time in PvE. He owns face in melee, great for soloing. For DE’s and some risky encounters, good ranged options with Longbow and Rifle. 1200 range, decent damage, with high HP and armor, and if anything comes close swap to melee weapon andkittenit? Sign me up.

Agree FGM.

I’ve played many mmo’s / classes and there’s just something that doesn’t “feel” right about the elementalist. It’s like the abilities / weapons / stances don’t synergise well.

Choosing a weapon combo restricts you to single target / AoE in either long range, middle range, and short range. It’s like you have to plan your approach before you engage EVERY battle – if things change then you’re stuck having to improvise somehow (in both PvP and PvE).

Staff’s for example – if you use one you’ve decided (technically) your ranged and playing an AoE role (with lower single target dps). I just don’t get it, are we supposed to change weapon sets every encounter? We’d be better off with a weapon swap than attunement dance the way the weapons are classified.

Attunement timers – you switch out and then decide you need to switch back 14s timer to see out. Not to mention each one is different. It forces you to look at your action bar too much.

Land on target abilities? – how pointless, almost everything moves and it misses. Its only use is some stationary PvE mob on the pull. Or maybe something being “tanked”.

There just always seems to be something lacking in every spec, gear setup combo I’ve tried. It’s like because I cant set it up optimally its frustrates me.

In gank PvP or support PVE its fun. In solo PvP or sole PVE its painful (to play well) for long durations.

I too like Mariah above settled on Sceptor/Dagger with full Earth, Fire and some Air/Arcane – it gives good survivability and reasonable damage thru bleeds/burns however I sill find myself in situations thinking “wish I had my staff on” “wish I had my dual daggers on” etc.

60 levels of circle straifing / changing stances 3 times every encounter and I’m nearly done – much rather jump on a Guardian some nights and smash stuff while having a beer. I don’t want to fly a jet fighter every night – I like some down time.

Yeah, consider this… You can cast vulnerability from the water attunement but then have to switch to earth to stack bleeds, of which you don’t have time to stack before the vulnerability wears off. If you stack bleeds then stack vulnerability it is an identical situation.