Guild Wars 2

I’ve mained an Elementalist since the BWE1 and I have to agree, it does take a lot of time to learn to play the Ele successfully, but it definitely pays off.

When this game released and I hit sPvP I felt like I could own anyone 1v1, and I did, but like now, I had problem with Mesmers. I had this thought that I was invincible. I came to this game with one intention, to become a high end player, and at that moment I felt like I was ahead of everyone, but then everyone else started getting better with their professions and it felt like I hit a bump on the road.

I started struggling, and even when running into thieves I had the mindset that I might lose, which I never had before. I started losing some 1v1s, mainly vs Mesmers, sure, some of the fights were never fair but in my mind I lost because I was bad, and not because that Thief jumped me when I was at 50%. In my world, my skill would carry me through that. I started getting mad, I thought that Elementalists sucked, that we were way behind the other professions in terms of damage and survivability. I tried rerolling some other characters, only to find that I had hit what was close to the skill cap A LOT faster. I got really bored so I switched back to Elementalist.

I started working on my rotations and on situational acting, it went a lot better. I figured out that, yeah, we might not have that insane damage of a Frenzied TB Warrior with a knockdown, and we might not have the survivability of Guardian, provided you stand still.

I kept playing and these players that had caught up to me with Thieves, Warriors and Rangers, they hit a bump in the road too. Their skill curve got flattened basically, mine is still static and I understand that the Elementalist would be WAY too strong if buffed, provided it’s played by the right person. I feel I would wreck ANYONE if the Elementalist was buffed.

True that. There’s some streams out there that other ele’s should be watching. With fast attunement switching and knowing what to go to and at what moment leaves certain ele streaming players godlike on the field, nigh unkillable and tearing people apart with great abandon.

Try playing d/d as a melee caster. There’s no way we have the survivability nor the burst to go head to head with other classes. Light armor with less burst damage is kitten. Even specced out with 30/30/0/0/10 we do less damage. It’s. Joke.

I’m really curious to hear which weapons and attunements you favor, if any.

I myself am playing Elementalist and feel like I’ve hit a bump. I haven’t done much with mainhand dagger, but here’s where I’m at:

1) My heavy damage builds do pleanty of damage, but I am too easy to kill, making this build little fun. The enemy either pays attention to me early in the fight or loses.

2) My survival/support builds are tough, but Guardians do it better and can bring real hurt to the enemy — my survival builds do little else.

3) My control builds are cute, but the best ‘utility’ in the game is a thief who can stealth + stomp, or stealth themselves and their ally to rez. I can’t actually say I like the Elementalist as a controller.

So I’m at that slump you were at. I fear all 1v1s.

I play a steady S/D roamer build with 17.5k HP, 0/25/0/15/30.

Pretty high survivability, 4 heals all in all, I very rarely die, actually, some games I seem to be unkillable. Great escape, great damage. I do a knockback combo, I start casting the knockback in Earth and instantly use Lightning Flash next to the enemy, he gets knocked down, I switch to fire and use 2>4>3>5, or 4>3>5, depends. Then I switch to air before he manages to rise up and use Ride The Lightning and then Updraft, and then I keep nuking. Something like that, great damage, great survivability with the heals.

I don’t know why, but forums are always filled with QQs and nerf posts…
And in the end theses posts are always wrong.
But for elementalist, the forums are filled with Elem are fine posts. And guess what… THEY ARE WRONG.
Put it in any ways you want. Elem can only play 3 builds right now. D/D Fire/Earth. Staff Water/Arcane. S/D Fire/Earth.
And theses 3 builds are more then subpar. With our 10k base health and light armor. It’s so easy to kill us it’s stupid. If we get thoughness we get no health and die in seconds. If we get vitality we get no thoughness and die in seconds. If we get both, we get no damage.
Our base HP needs to be increase by 50% (15k) and our damage need to be buffed on MANY abilities. Missile speeds and cast time for many abilities need to be increased. We need less delayed spells and more instant hits.
You can be as skilled as you want on an elementalist, you’d do much better on every other classes with the same amount of skills.

The only actual way to play an elem to be on par with other professions is support staff water/arcane. But you need to hope your team is not filled with dumbarses.

The problem isn’t whether or not they are fine when played flawlessly. Everything has the potential to be viable because of how the game is designed. The problem is that some classes require top level micro and flawless play in order to be competitive, while others can Hundred Blade/Heartseeker you to the face.

Can they be countered? Dodged? Sure. Where’s the elementalist skill that you ALWAYS have to be aware of or else you will insta-die? Forget elementalist, where’s the CASTER ability that you have to be aware of. Mesmer’s Moa.. a CC. And that’s about it.

They are fine if you LOVE the GTAOE mechanic. Otherwise they are just finger excercise and just about as fun as it.