Guild Wars 2

Sorry for wall of text
TL:DR is at the bottom

Basically I’m here to make a valid point to every pvp focused player on GW2.
I’ll start by saying that it’s common thought that Necromancers and Elementalists are weak and less viable in spvp. now this may be true in 8v8 situations where its completely unorganized and usually unbalanced teams.

I’m here to tell you that in tpvp Elementalists can still be very effective. Here are what they bring to a team regardless of build:

*AOE Burst Damage
*AOE Interupts/knockdowns
*High Mobility aka swiftness/lighting flash/ride the lightning
*Some sort of healing be it direct healing or regeneration
*Might
*Protection

now that I have outlined what they bring regardless of how the Elementalist has set up for their build I will tell you that the Elementalist is deceivingly not a class that has several viable trait options. This is due to how the traits were put together and the current meta(which is bunkers/roamers/ and zerg rushing objectives as a team).

Why is that Elementalists don’t have many viable builds is because, the ARCANA tree which is the support tree for Elementalists is NECESSARY for the Elementalist to stay competive. be it the CDR on the attunements or the fact that Evassive Arcana is just so good that it makes every other option seem dumb.

If you max out a tree other than ARCANA or WATER, you have officially kittened yourself as an Elementalist. the Cost/Reward factor for each of the other traits don’t justify themselves.

WHY ARE OTHER TRAIT LINES BAD?*

*Fire is bad because the only thing useful out of it is the ability to gain might on cantrip use.

*Air is bad because you sacrifice higher burst damage for lower Hit Points/condition Removal or you Sacrifice the CDR that ARCANA gives you.

*Earth – what can I say about earth that won’t make me seem like an Idiot? hmmm idk
well basically Toughness although it is important to have a certain amount you wouldn’t devote more than 10 points to this tree because every other slot/per 5 points invested buff are lame and not beneficial enough and unfortunately for the Elementalist, it has very low base Hit Points ( I believe it is the lowest in the game by a large margin).

TL:DR -
I have done all of this to basically make it known that Elementalists can succeed but, after alot of play time and experimentation and experience. I can tell you that cantrip builds for the Elementalist are the ONLY way to stay competitive with the class.

please don’t flame me or troll this thread please :P
I would like to know your opinions on the matter please

Not sure i get the title/body….are you saying you can roll Ele dps or not. Because your TL;DR is what everyone already knows…

Inval.3248:

TL:DR -
I can tell you that cantrip builds for the Elementalist are the ONLY way to stay competitive with the class.

Mistform is invaluable. The others … not so much. Most S/D Eles run any combination of arcane utilities now.

my opinion is that , with roster 2eles ,guard,mes,thief we’ve won already like 90% of paid’s. Even vs Mace Stun,Super Squad,Five Alive,Team Tsunami. The key to success is communication and indyvidual skill of players.

Evassive Arcana is just so good that it makes every other option seem dumb.

Not necessary at all. If the actual abilities listed on the tooltip were what actually fired, I’d go back to it in a heartbeat, but until then, spending 10 extra points in arcana just to waste my endurace for 6 extra stacks of might that you can get elsewhere can be a waste, depending on how much power/condition damage you run before buffs, and what the rest of the build looks like.

Aside from that, DPS Ele’s can work, but bunker/support Ele’s are still going to be more useful with the metagame in it’s current state.

Inval.3248

I have done all of this to basically make it known that Elementalists can succeed but, after alot of play time and experimentation and experience. I can tell you that cantrip builds for the Elementalist are the ONLY way to stay competitive with the class.

Yeah, this is false. As an example, Phantaram (Team Paradigm’s Ele) plays a Scepter/Dagger burst build with Mist Form as his only Cantrip. He runs Arcane Wave and either Arcane Blast or Arcane Shield as his other utilities.

Cantrip builds are certainly good, and can be very helpful when you’re playing solo, but if you’re playing with a team that can support you and peel off you in group fights, they’re absolutely not a requirement to do well.

and I agree Mathiuzz with your statement about the key to success being communication and individual skill of players, but I am more about trying to balance the game. If it takes one class at a time to do so.. So be it

and to Weapon X I am saying that yes you can roll a dps ele, but I’m saying its gotta make use of the cantrips because the only way the class can survive is via cantrip builds…. all one would have to do is grab an offensive Amuelet and your now running a “DPS” variation of said build.

Sorry for double posting but, I wanted to thank those who decided to at least read what I had to say.

and to Mouse, I think I would have to specifically look at the build your talking about.
The one Im familiar with that is used competitively is the Bunker Build using Arcane Wave while using Staff. for the often considered “OP healing”

but yeah Ill check it out

Gratz on your victory.

Running with soldier amulet i have to max air to get a decent crit chance, and i also like the traits best. But I also have arcana maxed, that to me is a must. I do like the synergy in water but I find I havent needed that degree of condition removal.

Mathiuzz.4760:

my opinion is that , with roster 2eles ,guard,mes,thief we’ve won already like 90% of paid’s. Even vs Mace Stun,Super Squad,Five Alive,Team Tsunami. The key to success is communication and indyvidual skill of players.

wow no way you still won with the 3 required classes and 2 pick any class slots? /sarcasm

go play without a thief, guard and mesmer then post your win % along with the statement of skill > comp

Inval.3248”

and to Mouse, I think I would have to specifically look at the build your talking about. The one Im familiar with that is used competitively is the Bunker Build using Arcane Wave while using Staff. for the often considered “OP healing”

Phanta runs a group skirmishing/roaming S/D build.

His Twitch channel is here: http://www.twitch.tv/phantaram
And his two S/D builds are here:
Elementalist Build Scepter/Dagger Valkyries Amulet
Elementalist Scepter/Dagger Glass Cannon Build

We run :

Roaming Warrior
Nek
Roaming Ele
Mesmer
Guardian

3 classes that are considered “useless” and no freakin Thief and we still win 95% of all paids.

so you replaced a glass thief with glass warrior, huge gamble there…. drop the mesmer and guard for a ranger and engi and have a go, post your results here

and I’m happy to see that there are other’s running successful roaming builds as an ele
but so for what I have noticed is that they are all extremely low hp. even the build I run is low hp. and I know this is due to the low base hp of an ele. 13k hp however is pretty low and I have to ask myself if having 500 more armor = to 4k more health. still not sure at the moment.

to mouse – I watched quite a bit of Phanta’s streaming and did enjoy his valkyries S/D build. however I couldn’t help but notice the several times that Phanta gets instagibbed despite him being a very player.

all in all I think this game is still new and builds have not yet been maximized to their fullest potential but, I am again glad to see working builds :p

Sprawl won’t be happy unless you force your teammates to not run 3 of the 8 classes

Inval.3248:

and I’m happy to see that there are other’s running successful roaming builds as an ele
but so for what I have noticed is that they are all extremely low hp. even the build I run is low hp. and I know this is due to the low base hp of an ele. 13k hp however is pretty low and I have to ask myself if having 500 more armor = to 4k more health. still not sure at the moment.

to mouse – I watched quite a bit of Phanta’s streaming and did enjoy his valkyries S/D build. however I couldn’t help but notice the several times that Phanta gets instagibbed despite him being a very player.

all in all I think this game is still new and builds have not yet been maximized to their fullest potential but, I am again glad to see working builds :p

Here’s my answer to the low hp problem. (copy past link)

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-k33;2B2-V0z4sMFZ0;9;5E9ET;10;04;04;045ASJ;4rRYCqcW58BE

-20735 hp with 100% uptime on protection for 27.6k effective health (protection counts as roughly 900 toughness but achieving that much toughness results in majorly kittened damage output)
-100% uptime on fury for 67% crit rate with + 20% crit damage.
-Possible 100% uptime on 25 stacks of might, though 16 is more realistic for an average encounter
-100% uptime on vigor and swiftness
-good cond removal and decent heals

I use many variations on this build but I believe this one to have a very ideal balance between survivability and damage.

Really?

Elementalists are really strong atm in certain spec lines and almost qualify as a faceroll class?

You just stated something which absolutely anyone who has pvp’d before already knew?

You win matches with guardian/mesmer/thief???

Well shiver my timbers son, that is a revelation. I think i’ll have to lay down now.