Guild Wars 2

I played ele in team queues and solo arena and apart from being literally chased by 2-3 guys the whole game (which usually costed them to lose the game) I enjoyed it a lot and thought it wasn’t just fun but also extremely useful. I believe elementalists are in an OK spot right now, the only issue I had was 1v1s with decent necros and holding points solo against multiple players especially warriors and thieves.
What I found is that I was really efficient at killing thieves and mesmers, bursting opponents in team fights and using fiery gs to get around the map with a team mate. I believe that if the rumours are true about the new upcoming elites and nerfs then eles will be in a decent spot but necros will always counter them as they have low health pool and limited condi removal if not played with ether renewal or if it’s interrupted (easiest skill to interrupt ingame).
Note: I picked up playing ele a few days ago after a long break. Mapchat flame is guaranteed if you play this class however good you may be on it. :P

What’s your opinion about eles for arena?

Is ele really that terrible…?

For 90% of players who are not skilful piano players or have not spent $$$ on a fancy keyboard…yes

For the 10% who bought a fancy keyboard or are excellent piano players…no, they are completely OP

Meglobob.8620:

For the 10% who bought a fancy keyboard or are excellent piano players…no, they are completely OP

Haha that explains a lot. Does it work the other way around? I always wanted to play the piano.

Played a few solo q games the other day with the same 2 ele’s , both against and on my team. If they weren’t immediately focused something died; i had to lol as I watched 2 opposing team warriors die in under 4 seconds to either 1 of them. Playing against them on my condition engineer, I think it was 1 for 3. 1 win 2 losses (The win was in stupid skyhammer room and it was still difficult to down it). Most people would argue that they dont have enough survivability, probly true, but in my experience at least, seems to be somewhat dependant on the proff they are facing. They probably need to reduce crazy burst, increase sustain/survivability of the proff.

Its not that ele is useless, its just that anything you want to do with an ele, you are better off with another class:

bunker – just play guardian
burst – play thief (which hard-counters ele)
tanky/sustained dps – play warrior or spirit ranger

Combine this with the fact that, to be effective, you have to perform at a high-level with very little margin for error. You will find yourself saying: why I am playing a high-risk/high-reward spec, when that guy is getting better results playing low-risk/high-reward.

Also, if you play a dps build, you have the dilemma:
- If you don’t have a zerker ammy, you CANNOT out-dps healing signet. If you do have zerker ammy, thief will eat you alive, with ease. If you play valks so that you aren’t completely nullified by thieves, you are hard-countered by warriors.

Its a difficult problem, but if you are having fun then its the best profession for you.

BlackBeard.2873:

Also, if you play a dps build, you have the dilemma:
- If you don’t have a zerker ammy, you CANNOT out-dps healing signet. If you do have zerker ammy, thief will eat you alive, with ease. If you play valks so that you aren’t completely nullified by thieves, you are hard-countered by warriors.

I don’t find myself having massive issues against thieves in 1v1s focus offhand makes it easier to fight them but takes longer. With scepter/dagger I need to be lucky to hit them between 2 evade frames to burst. The problem is that with scepter against backstab thieves I need to waste my water attunement to clear a blind for my knockdown to connect but it’s incredibly hard to hit dragon’s tooth without an actual target.

Meglobob.8620:

Is ele really that terrible…?

For 90% of players who are not skilful piano players or have not spent $$$ on a fancy keyboard…yes

For the 10% who bought a fancy keyboard or are excellent piano players…no, they are completely OP

Yeah that’s why every team has an ele in it because they’re completely OP.

Oh wait.

Meglobob.8620:

Is ele really that terrible…?

For 90% of players who are not skilful piano players or have not spent $$$ on a fancy keyboard…yes

For the 10% who bought a fancy keyboard or are excellent piano players…no, they are completely OP

Well I’m a semi pro musician and have used a g13 gamepad since launch…

Still get no love on ele compared with other profs

personally i love playing glass staff ele!
if you can get a nice position to rain death down on the point without getting noticed you WILL melt everything.

and the most hilarious times are when the enemy try to revive eachother and all end up going down too!

but yes, if you get targeted, you’re pretty much dead.

its high risk/high reward, which would seem so worth it if there wasn’t classes like warrior with low risk/high reward…

as has been said before, the problem isn’t ele being bad,
its other classes having everything far too easy.

Liewec.2896:

personally i love playing glass staff ele!
if you can get a nice position to rain death down on the point without getting noticed you WILL melt everything.

and the most hilarious times are when the enemy try to revive eachother and all end up going down too!

but yes, if you get targeted, you’re pretty much dead.

its high risk/high reward, which would seem so worth it if there wasn’t classes like warrior with low risk/high reward…

as has been said before, the problem isn’t ele being bad,
its other classes having everything far too easy.

Yup, one mistake and you are gone, meanwhile warriors run around facetanking everything.

Liewec.2896:

personally i love playing glass staff ele!
if you can get a nice position to rain death down on the point without getting noticed you WILL melt everything.

and the most hilarious times are when the enemy try to revive eachother and all end up going down too!

but yes, if you get targeted, you’re pretty much dead.

its high risk/high reward, which would seem so worth it if there wasn’t classes like warrior with low risk/high reward…

as has been said before, the problem isn’t ele being bad,
its other classes having everything far too easy.

I agree with this. Compare ele with say decap engi. Ele is incredibly hard to play in order to be good. Engi you can just run around spamming bombs/grenades and be good.

GC staff ele have the highest burst in the game. I literally saw a guardian get melted in about 3 seconds yesterday. Of course the flipside is that same ele died if someone looked at him.

style.6173:

I agree with this. Compare ele with say decap engi. Ele is incredibly hard to play in order to be good. Engi you can just run around spamming bombs/grenades and be good.

GC staff ele have the highest burst in the game. I literally saw a guardian get melted in about 3 seconds yesterday. Of course the flipside is that same ele died if someone looked at him.

I cant see what staff rotation would produce more burst than s/d or s/f tbh .Glass staff is a pretty masochistic thing to imo just cause its so unreliable to do damage.Even the autos appear to miss more than hit :O
In fact i say that the biggest burst i managed to produce is actually with s/f and not s/d
Its 3 attunement rotations and unleashing 2 arcanes and all instant spells of 3 attunements while bypassing global att cd of the last att rotation of air using fresh air proc.Essentially you switch to earth back to air all before a phoenix lands

But otherwise saying ele is incredible hard could as easily mean its just incredible weak compared to what is being used. Remember the ele meta and how everyone said how faceroll the class was? Mechanic wise there isnt that much change since then to say that the gameplay has changed .
Back then warrior was considered a pretty hard class to perform decent as well and now its considered the worst faceroll.
Imo the truth is in the middle..It definately needs some buffing either by direct buffs or by relative buffs by nerfing other stuff.Of course the best case would be to make it appear weak of a class but “scale” extremely well with player skill and game knowledge..But we know this wont happen with the upcoming patch

style.6173:

Liewec.2896:

personally i love playing glass staff ele!
if you can get a nice position to rain death down on the point without getting noticed you WILL melt everything.

and the most hilarious times are when the enemy try to revive eachother and all end up going down too!

but yes, if you get targeted, you’re pretty much dead.

its high risk/high reward, which would seem so worth it if there wasn’t classes like warrior with low risk/high reward…

as has been said before, the problem isn’t ele being bad,
its other classes having everything far too easy.

I agree with this. Compare ele with say decap engi. Ele is incredibly hard to play in order to be good. Engi you can just run around spamming bombs/grenades and be good.

what lol

style.6173:

Liewec.2896:

personally i love playing glass staff ele!
if you can get a nice position to rain death down on the point without getting noticed you WILL melt everything.

and the most hilarious times are when the enemy try to revive eachother and all end up going down too!

but yes, if you get targeted, you’re pretty much dead.

its high risk/high reward, which would seem so worth it if there wasn’t classes like warrior with low risk/high reward…

as has been said before, the problem isn’t ele being bad,
its other classes having everything far too easy.

I agree with this. Compare ele with say decap engi. Ele is incredibly hard to play in order to be good. Engi you can just run around spamming bombs/grenades and be good.

GC staff ele have the highest burst in the game. I literally saw a guardian get melted in about 3 seconds yesterday. Of course the flipside is that same ele died if someone looked at him.

If he’s got bombs and nades, that engi is not decap. Not trying to derail, just tired of every engi build with a knockback being called decap.

A decap engineer does not use bombs/nades. That is the condition spam spec.

As for ele, I think the fresh air spec is in a decent spot, it’s just overshadowed by thief’s mobility. It certainly doesn’t need any more damage. I’d like to see more variety and specs though.

Just a simple example:

- As a d/d elementalist, probably my biggest burst damage comes with Burning Speed/Ring of Fire/Fire Grap skills. At best, I can drop a bunker guardians hp like %20-25. You need to place every single skill to the face of your opponent and most of the time you will fail because you are playing against a human being not a wood.
- A warrior (hammer/bow) just hit me 6k with one button using bow. Which is approximately %25 of my total. Yeah most of the time you can evade it, but endurance is not infinite.

I don’t even wanna give example about thieves because their 2 button equals to > 8k damage on me everytime.

i see ele’s beating engineers in duel arenas all the time. i dont think they are that bad given they played the class long enough.

Yes and no.

The spot eles took previously was the spot that warriors currently take up. D/D was a hell of a spec and in need of a good nerf, but it was sadly over nerfed (the change to their heal sig proccing multiple times was the last nail in the coffin). Currently, as far as DPS/roaming specs go, fresh air s/f is underrated. A good fresh air ele can destroy people and keep himself alive to a decent extent given how squishy he is. People won’t even try it though, nor will they be good enough at it to actually make it work in team queues.

More than likely the most “viable” spec would be a bunkerish support ele. This is especially the case given how tanky the meta has become.

Until heal sig gets an actual nerf really don’t see eles coming around without being boring support/bunkers. People aren’t man enough to try to get good at fresh air and will stick to their warriors and rangers.

Also, engis are harder than eles. JUST SAYIN

I really feel as if Ele’s would be in a better spot if they weren’t shut down so hard by Chill or Spite/Corrupt Boon.

People always say Eles are bad, and in sPvP I’ll admit they certainly don’t seem all that strong. They seem to either be very tanky but with no real DPS, or extremely glassy with high burst but kittenty survivability.

In WvW however they seem to be both at the same time. I don’t see how they can ever be considered underpowered there. The amount of damage they can put out despite having extreme survivability with constant boons is pretty ridiculous really.

It seems like two different worlds.

Dee Jay.2460:

People always say Eles are bad, and in sPvP I’ll admit they certainly don’t seem all that strong. They seem to either be very tanky but with no real DPS, or extremely glassy with high burst but kittenty survivability.

In WvW however they seem to be both at the same time. I don’t see how they can ever be considered underpowered there. The amount of damage they can put out despite having extreme survivability with constant boons is pretty ridiculous really.

It seems like two different worlds.

It’s because of a few reasons.

1) Stat Inflation. In WvW, stats are higher which minimizes the large difference in base stats. You notice this a lot more in SPvP.

2) Food buffs. Some food buffs help make up for shortcomings of Ele’s. Like Cond reduction.

3) SPvP only nerfs. Some Ele skills have major nerfs that only show in sPvP. Examples: Their Healing Signet is 20% less effective in only sPvP. Their heal when swapping to Water is reduced in half. EA’s Water Roll is cut in half as well.

4) Conquest Game-play Style. In WvW, a lot of Ele’s survivability relies on kiting people around to give them time to heal up. You can’t do that in Conquest and still hold a point.

I’m vaguely sure there’s at least one more reason.

I don’t think they’re terrible, just outclassed in their team position by warrior atm (like ostrich mentioned).

Fresh air is deadly, but I’d take a thief instead.

“Is ele really that terrible?”

Several Ele buffs are on their way in the next patch. There have been multiple ANet posts agreeing that Ele needs help.

Why are people still asking this dumb question?

Ostricheggs.3742:

Yes and no.

The spot eles took previously was the spot that warriors currently take up. D/D was a hell of a spec and in need of a good nerf, but it was sadly over nerfed (the change to their heal sig proccing multiple times was the last nail in the coffin). Currently, as far as DPS/roaming specs go, fresh air s/f is underrated. A good fresh air ele can destroy people and keep himself alive to a decent extent given how squishy he is. People won’t even try it though, nor will they be good enough at it to actually make it work in team queues.

More than likely the most “viable” spec would be a bunkerish support ele. This is especially the case given how tanky the meta has become.

Until heal sig gets an actual nerf really don’t see eles coming around without being boring support/bunkers. People aren’t man enough to try to get good at fresh air and will stick to their warriors and rangers.

Also, engis are harder than eles. JUST SAYIN

With Fresh Air the risk is NOT worth the reward. Maybe 0.001% of the playerbase (like you) can pull it off in high-level play, but I am absolutely sure if you applied your level of performance to any OTHER class like Thief/Engi/Guardian you would be more effective.

It’s like using an underpowered gun in a first person shooter and doing well with it. That only means you’ll do much better with a properly balanced gun.

Ostricheggs.3742:

A good fresh air ele can destroy people and keep himself alive to a decent extent given how squishy he is. People won’t even try it though, nor will they be good enough at it to actually make it work in team queues.

Its still sub-optimal. Every time you play your s/f ele in team-queues, you ALWAYS end up switching to your engie because it is just way more effective.

Also, engis are harder than eles. JUST SAYIN

The current iterations of decap and bomb/nade are easier to play on-point by far. They both have a MUCH HIGHER margin for error, and are less punished for their mistakes.

Ostricheggs.3742:

The spot eles took previously was the spot that warriors currently take up.

I would rather fight an ele than hambow warrior.. JUST SAYING.

Ele is currently the most unforgiving class to play. U have to know all of ur skills and when to use them, or u will be in downstate within seconds. It’s just that simple.

The next squishiest class, Thief, is so much more forgiving than Ele. Ele is true YOLO.

And I think fresh air s/f is a bad kitten spec and super fun to play, however if ur timing is off u will be nullified completely.

Like, have fun fighting a double endure pain warrior with a shield, with berserker’s stance to nullify your blinds. The warrior is free to do whatever it wants for most of the fight, whilst the Ele gets to play a waiting game to use its skills, and that is only if they survive the 1:30 of an unharmable warrior runnin loose.

The more I play other classes, the less I place any type of recognition for players who say, “Class A is no risk, while Class B (conveniently the class I play the most) is the most high risk.”

Except Warriors and Spirit Rangers. No matter what iteration I play of those classes/specs, it’s mind-numbingly boring to play.

I honestly cannot understand how Tany or Deku Scout plays such a braindead spec. I guess someone has to do it, but… I just… nope.

Hotjoin – Yes, run a zerk amulet and make sure you hit things before they hit you and things might die as long as they dont see it coming. That or run d/d full bunker spec and annoy people while your highest crits from a kitten cd ability will be like 3k.

Other modes dont bother if youre new. A really experienced one in the s/d burst spec can do ok in team/solo que but its still easy to counter and most of the ones ive watched put out burst every 40 seconds and spend the rest of their time respawning, doesnt matter how “skilled” he is at it.

Its not so much that the class is terrible its just that wars/thieves/engies/necros outclass them by a pretty big margin. New patch in march might change it though so if they become fotm again (lets hope not), now would be a good time to get some experience in before all the warriors reroll eles and youre past the point where you can say “I played an ele before it was cool yo”

Eviscera.9703:

Ostricheggs.3742:

The spot eles took previously was the spot that warriors currently take up.

I would rather fight an ele than hambow warrior.. JUST SAYING.

Hambow is easier to outplay IMO and also to counterbuild

Mind you I was playing warrior back then. Lel.

Dee Jay.2460:

People always say Eles are bad, and in sPvP I’ll admit they certainly don’t seem all that strong. They seem to either be very tanky but with no real DPS, or extremely glassy with high burst but kittenty survivability.

In WvW however they seem to be both at the same time. I don’t see how they can ever be considered underpowered there. The amount of damage they can put out despite having extreme survivability with constant boons is pretty ridiculous really.

It seems like two different worlds.

This is true. No one can complain about eles in WvW or PvE. In WvW, they are one of the 3 most important classes. In PvE, they do well. It is only in PvP where they struggle.

style.6173:

Dee Jay.2460:

People always say Eles are bad, and in sPvP I’ll admit they certainly don’t seem all that strong. They seem to either be very tanky but with no real DPS, or extremely glassy with high burst but kittenty survivability.

In WvW however they seem to be both at the same time. I don’t see how they can ever be considered underpowered there. The amount of damage they can put out despite having extreme survivability with constant boons is pretty ridiculous really.

It seems like two different worlds.

This is true. No one can complain about eles in WvW or PvE. In WvW, they are one of the 3 most important classes. In PvE, they do well. It is only in PvP where they struggle.

I agree, having played 1.5k hours on my ele in WvW; however WvW fights are like deathmatch where the team that wipes the enemy wins. In conquest however all viable classes are tanky-dps which ele does not seem to be. This just means you need to sacrifice dps for survivability.
The thing that annoys me the most is the constant chase… everyone is like"ewrmahgewd eleeee keeeel" and chases me no matter where I go. Examples are thieves which I turn around and burst before they start flaming and warriors which I can essily kite while doing enough damage to pressure them. (Except for soldier’s which I can’t seem to outburst).

eles seem to do quite well in solo q in particular because they are fast.

daydream.2938:

eles seem to do quite well in solo q in particular because they are fast.

But they are not compared to other roamers.

Overshadowed by some meta builds, and hard countered by thieves.

The nerfs/ buffs incomming will help at addressing the first issue, but I’m not sure if it’ll fix the second.

Other than fresh air, are any of the things they added in patches being used by eles?
They definitely don’t make up for what was taken away from the class.

I’ve completely lost faith in patches as a whole. Looks good on paper> Theorycraft new spec> Try it out: Garbage.

I think support staff ele currently is pretty underrated. The condition clear + heal is very strong, it has a good range, does good AoE CC, and on zerker amulet targets does a good bit of damage.

The other builds that involve zerker amulet are a lot less forgiving, but it’s a fun class to play, so I don’t really care if they nerf or buff it.

If you run a mid-range ele build with soldiers/valk amulet it’s a bit more forgiving, but not by much, but you’ll be doing mediocre damage which imo at that point you should just get a thief/mesmer.

I love ele play style. We were just over nerfed, while other classes got much needed love. Now they out perform us in every aspect of play.
Ele requires a team to be built for it to be in.

I’ve found D/F to be decent bunker vs current meta. Staff Bunker is the same.
Also Staff Zerker is decent vs Hambow heavy teams. but someone has to be willing to peel and stick to any thieves/mesmer on other team.
S/F hybrid is good dps/sustain/support
S/X Burst is good, play like a thief, hide until you can burst someone with low hp.
D/D kinda gave up on, but i’m sure old bunker build is good and can do good burst with a build for it, very risky though.

I personally think elementalist is in a fine place. It’s other classes that need to be toned down. Healing Sig warriors, MM necros, Decap engi, Spirit rangers, S/X thief, PU mesmer.

Eviscera.9703:

Ostricheggs.3742:

The spot eles took previously was the spot that warriors currently take up.

I would rather fight an ele than hambow warrior.. JUST SAYING.

you def don’t know what you are talking about.

Ostricheggs.3742:

Also, engis are harder than eles. JUST SAYIN

Engi is easy to play, so does thief, guardian, ranger, mesmer, nerco, and warrior
Stop protecting your own class, the only class that is a little bit hard to play right now is ele. But, ele is going to be easy after March patch, that’s how this game is.

Really sick of watching people protecting their own class and stating “my class is da hardest” when they never even experienced how hard warrior was in the past.

Engi, is same level as warrior and thief, they all “easy” to play, JUST SAYING.

Regards.