Guild Wars 2

Reading some threads with people having trouble dieing a lot as elementalists forcing them to go long range staff made me wonder. Why should anyone take the effort to get good close range gear like scepter and especialy dagger since u can’t use them in any part of the game other than to farm mobs on ur own. And since short range’s waaay more fun for some that’s pretty depressing. After all u don’t have 3x 4 × 5 skills anymore as it should be but only ur staff/attunement spells becouse staff’s what u get 1st and ALL u use for PvE ( mostly for PvP too)

Suggestion: as closer one getts in combat as elementalist the tougher he should get. Example: wielding dagger/dagger gives u -30% dmg taken from melee attacks -_- or something like that…

Other than that everything beside staff’s useless

If short range is more fun for you, be a warrior. You can’t be a magic class and expect to tank like a guardian. The lighter your armor is, the further away you have to be/the more stealth skills you’re given. Reducing damage for people who choose to be melee defeats the purpose of having different kinds of armor.

I’m coming up to level 64 in game on my elementalist. My weapons of choice are by far scepter/dagger and dagger/dagger for most situations. I only ever use my staff in WvW. I’m not much of a PvPer but from what I read and see, scepters and daggers are a good choice there too.

You’re not forced to choose the staff, but you do need to be careful to keep a constant distance between you and your target (for scepter) or learn to dance around them, hopping in and out of melee range (daggers). Use skills like burning speed and updraft (daggers #3 and #5) to get away quickly.

Use your attunements wisely to slow, interrupt, knock down or otherwise keep your target in place. Be sure to time your dodges by looking at the animations of the enemy, you can learn to see a hit coming

For practice, I’d suggest taking these weapons and gear and just going to a starter area. You’ll have an advantage against enemies even though you’re scaled down and it gives you a little more leeway to get used to the playstyle!

I said dagger /dagger is good as is scepter. what im saying is that u can’t and there’s no way to go dagger/dagger in an explorer instance. tried it and it can’t be done. I’m talking about lvl 80 “advanced” playing not solo

hey yoshi if you are going to run with that theory then why is elementalist staff and long range sub par to any other class then? Either their kiting range needs to have higher dps or they deserve a bonus to armor up close besides that cheesy 33% reduction from 10 pts in toughness. This class needs love , the mesmer got a ton of it last patch before launch . The only good pvp a ele can do right now is tower defense and utility support for the rest of your team in pvp and wvw.

Ever been in an dungeon in explorable mode? Magnetic Wave and Swirling Aura can really save teams and PUGs who can’t dodge something like that ranger boss with the aoe pull → dagger storm. Sure Staff is hands down the easiest but even in zergfests the dagger main-hand is hands down the best weapon to tag monsters with once you get comfortable with.

I haven’t thoroughly played an Elementalist, but from the sounds of it their long range does have sub-par DPS. And that’s fine, I sympathize. But the solution isn’t to make them close range beasts. If you’re really having such a tough time playing the class, try another class until they get fixed. They’re a casting class, and i’d much rather see their spells get buffed, not their armor.

they’re also a close rangle casting class..There’s 2 types of casting.Close range – long range.
U ARE A CLOSE RANGE CLASS if u go dagger/dagger.
As a close range class u need sustain to take the hit if the boss or whoever u’re fighting makes an AoE cleave or something. Saying i should go long range cuz that’s what elementalist’s are is crap. 75% all skills are close range.

If you’re dying a lot in close range then you’re doing it wrong. I’m simply telling you that long range might be better suited for someone who dies a lot in close range. It’s common sense really. Didn’t mean to upset you.

Gizzox.7491:

I said dagger /dagger is good as is scepter. what im saying is that u can’t and there’s no way to go dagger/dagger in an explorer instance. tried it and it can’t be done. I’m talking about lvl 80 “advanced” playing not solo

You CAN if your utilities are mist form, arcane shield and obsidian flesh :P

The main problem is the bosses’ defiance stacks that disables the usefulness of Updraft and Earthquake i.e. the only useful skills on the dagger off-hand since the others e.g. Frost Aura and Churning Earth are a joke leaving you with a mostly redundant off-hand.

Okay it does suck.

But that’s the thing; you don’t need to take the hit you can avoid the hit, you can avoid the AoE if you see it coming, you can quickly get yourself out of range from high powered attacks.

Dude, seriously… FACT: u cannot awoid being hit by close range AoE attacks when u’re close range. U’re either dead or u’re not close range. Telling me to use dodge + 3 in fire to close range or 4+5 in air ussing dagger/dagger every single time is not realistic.
What about the Eye of Zhaitos making the shards go all directions. u take 2 of those and u’re dead, 2 more and u’re defeated. U can’t avoid that. The only thing u can do is go staff and back off which is not that horrible but if that’s the case they should also give us weapon switch

Oh and as for sPvP, if you are forced to face an necro 1v1 switching to scepter/focus before engaging is your best since Phoenix and Magnetic Wave can remove those condi stacks better than Healing Rain could.

Gizzox.7491:

Dude, seriously… FACT: u cannot awoid being hit by close range AoE attacks when u’re close range. U’re either dead or u’re not close range. Telling me to use dodge + 3 in fire to close range or 4+5 in air ussing dagger/dagger every single time is not realistic.
What about the Eye of Zhaitos making the shards go all directions. u take 2 of those and u’re dead, 2 more and u’re defeated. U can’t avoid that. The only thing u can do is go staff and back off which is not that horrible but if that’s the case they should also give us weapon switch

In the end, melee is not the problem, the niche-ness of the off-hand dagger is. With a dagger/focus you can reflect/nullify those shards. If you choose to forgo utility for a dagger off-hand then of course some other team members gonna have overcome that weakness for you.

I’m a little confused with the complaint. What I’m reading is situations that demand awareness and preparation. You used the Zhaitos fight as an example to being an obsolete class, but in that situation you’re saying it would be better to use Staff. I feel like you’ve answered you’re own question.

Guild Wars is less about weapon stats and GearScore and more about boss mechanics and preparation. If you need to pull out the staff to be useful for a tricky boss fight then you’re option is to suck it up and give it a shot or keep dying. The class is built fine you just have to adapt to situations.

IN MY OPINION