Having played a few characters to the early 20s, I decided to stick with the elementalist, mainly because I like the animations, the gear, and the 4-part attunement switch. But, holy hell, this class seems useless. Less survivability than any of the other classes, less control than the thief, and less damage than anything I have played, including the guardian (toss a greatsword on my guard and the ele can’t compete). And, yes, I have tried D/D, S/D, and switch to the slow staff for tougher fights. I attunement dance quite a bit as well. My gear is up to date and I run only on-level quests. Either the elementalist’s dmg needs to be increased, by around 100%, or ANet needs to find a different angle for this class: any angle would do.
With that said, story missions are making me put down this class, perhaps for good. Perhaps I will even put down the game. This is not a threat; I am just let down. Unless I roll guardian or warrior, I don’t feel I am playing this game as intended. It seems that content is tuned for these classes alone. If my warrior has higher toughness and 3x the HP, why doesn’t my ele do 3x the damage? In fact, my ele does less dmg, noticeably less. Butkitten I don’t want to play warrior and be one more face in an ever-growing crowd of plate-wearers.
But the story missions, oh god, the story missions. If I take my time, carefully exploit pathing and AI limitations, and die repeatedly as I learn the map, I can usually make it through, but it is NO FUN AT ALL to play this way.
For instance, I am on the level 16 story quest, “Darkness at Drakentelt.”
First run: pull some mobs, leopards jump in and two shot me; restart quest.
Second run: carefully pull each leopard one at a time, using trees as roadblocks as I kite; begin to pull Svanir carefully and my NPC companion pulls a different group; stunned; 2-shotted; I die; restart quest.
Third run: do the above; get lucky, no NPC shenanigans; kill svanir; run to the green star; zerged without warning by elementals suddenly appearing in melee range; I die; restart.
Fourth run: do the above, except I know the elementals will spawn; baby step towards the star with air attunement on, ready to cast swiftness; after major kiting and stance-dancing like a boss, I beat them; story time and veteran appears; unseen, a couple of elementals spawn out of sight behind me; I notice the explosive shards conjured at my feet just in time and dodge; then I am out of endurance, pop earth shield, get pounded by the elementals while I am being chased by the vet whom I have entirely ignored in a vain attempt to lose aggro; he hits me, twice; I die.
Fifth run: quit elementalist and perhaps the game.
What frustrates me the most is that I know that could steamroll this quest on my warrior or guardian while eating dinner and doing my taxes at the same time. Hell, if I put down my fork, I could do it on my thief, too.
Anet, I do not ask that you change the difficulty of the story mode. I simply ask that you justify the existence of the elementalist. The number of hoops you have to jump through to be below par, but at least playable, is ruining the game for many players.
From what I heard, the class was once balanced, but some exceptional players played this class so well it was OP. You then nerfed the elementalist so that these players had to use all of their leet skill to be simply mediocre. Can’t we find a happy middle? Let the leets be a little OP. Many games thrive on the concept of a difficult to play but rewarding character/class. As of now, a blind monkey punching the keyboard would still make guardians OP. Why can’t exceptional players make the ele OP?
Just play an elementalist through the story, and tweak the class until the story mode is at least close to as easy as it is for ranger, thief, or, if you are feeling generous, guardian. Use the story as a baseline for class competency.
(edited by biggerthanthesun.2397)