Guild Wars 2

I have tried and tried.. I have used every spec I find. I have practiced the flow of the rotations and working between my attunements. I just can not find the payoff. It is much harder to keep track of and harder to work with and yet I can not even get on par with most other professions.

I can switch over to my thief, guardian or ranger and have a blast. I get just as much payoff for much less work (often much more). This class just bothers me. I worked on it hard, because even in beta I had issues with it. Yet now.. In live, it seems much weaker than ever before. I’ve waited to come here with this. I lvled to 80 in pve and made sure I had a firm grasp as to what is going on.

With the other classes.. I can spec exactly how I want and make it work.

-sad and frustrated-

WvW is fine… cause I can sit back and aoe with a staff, defend and attack with aoes.. but I am overly dependent on the zerg to keep me safe.

Go 2 X D and have a blast.

When I tried ele it seem to me the one class that you really had to “feel” more than any other. If your not completely at home with it you will fail.

Malakree.5912:

When I tried ele it seem to me the one class that you really had to “feel” more than any other. If your not completely at home with it you will fail.

Yeah I have extensively tried this and I think its horrible. I can use several other classes and be superior in melee, while having a better armor rating and more hps.

It felt good back in the early beta weekends. Not so much now.

I have only played Ele the whole time. My best recommendation would be dag/dag combo and max out earth and vitality, so at least you are not getting destroyed in 10 seconds. you do give away a fair amount of damage.
But it all pays off in the fact that you actually stay alive long enough to deal the damage. and the thunder 345 switch to earth 345 fire 345 combo when you sneak up on a group seems to work rather well, as long as you have back up. But if you are ever out numbers , may as well just get the violin out.

if you can’t make it work, dont play it. Ele is a class that requires alot of finesse and skill and if you cant nail down a build youre comfy with, chose another class to sPvP with

Nova.1857:

if you can’t make it work, dont play it. Ele is a class that requires alot of finesse and skill and if you cant nail down a build youre comfy with, chose another class to sPvP with

You know I agree with you about the finesse part. Part of this is.. Even with finesse I do not feel like I am getting the payout that another class gets. I can find higher single target dps with other classes. I can find better healing, support and survival skills with other classes. The only thing I keep coming back to as being truly unique is the ability to lay down very impressive aoe, but that AOE only comes into play with WvW. In Spvp you are going to be found and stopped in very short order playing staff.

Ok here are some things that ele does better than any other class

1. They are by far the best roamer in tpvp due to their ability to disengage a fight whenever they choose with ride the lightning and huge mobility

2. as far a direct healing and support goes they are right at the top with staff

The ele is much more difficult than some of the other classes but a lot of people find this rewarding. As a sceptor/dagger ele in pvp when well played they cannot be beaten by most classes 1v1 mesmer/guardian is the hardest but all classes have a weakness. If you truly want to get better at ele I suggest watching phantaram from team paradigm NA, he streams daily at twitch and you will learn a lot just watching him for a while although there are others you can watch also.

Most people think elementalist is underpowered because they expect the same results from pressing one button as you get with some other classes like shortbow power ranger or heartseeker/pistolwhip/backstab thief. After playing 300 games with elementalist so far and more than half of them in tpvp I can say right now ele is equal or sometimes even a lot stronger than most of the flavor classes right now it just requires more skill.

I might give a try to the Elementalist.
I love challenge and I see one here.
Thank you for sharing!