Guild Wars 2

I’m stuck trying to decide between elementalist or guardian. I like the survivability of guardian but the versatility of ele. My only concern with ele is everyone talks about the learning curve is extremely difficult. Can someone elaborate on that. Is it just switching btwn attunements or is it having to hotkey everything. Switching attunements I can handle… however hotkeys I’m not so good at, I could learn though. Guardian seems very basic….I mean extremely to the point of repetitive. It might just be that I haven’t leveled him up far enough yet. ( currently ele is 30 and guardian is 25). Thanks in advance for the help!

Pro’s and Con’s would be helpful as well!

Elementalist is the master class.

Lol ty! Any advice for leveling up and tips for ele that you wish someone would have told you at the beginning?

For leveling an ele I found S/d and D/D the better options as the cast times for staff can be a bit clunky.
In general S/d has the higher single target spike damage and D/d has better Aoe cleave damage. (Also a good idea to keep a focus in you’re inventory as obsidian flesh comes in handy for harder targets/skillpoints).
As for traits I would aim to open unlock the air, water and arcane trees first (earth VI is also good) … just skip the fire tree for now lol.

I found myself drowning in a sea of skills with ele … weapon skills are not only weapon based but also element based. On top of that there is conjured weapons which are too good to not use. There is ALOT more to know getting that versatility from the ele.

Picking weapon skills is more straightforward on Guardian. I believe Guardian is also easier to play.

While I love my Guardian, there will come a time during a protracted fight when all or most of my skills are on cooldown. At that point, I am quite easy to take down.

An Elementalist never has to worry about that as they have access to nearly double the skills that any other class does with the exception of the Engineer.

You will always have spells to spam with an Elementalist. They simply never run out of skills to use.

Thanks.

Ele = carpal tunnel
guard = boring

Eles may have more buttons to push, but you’ll still be stuck as short range, mid range, or long range… and as far as options go, that makes ele the most limited class in the game.

Roll them both and fool around until after the next class balance patch. Anet may have some major changes coming for both classes.

Ezeriel.9574:

Ele = carpal tunnel
guard = boring

Eles may have more buttons to push, but you’ll still be stuck as short range, mid range, or long range… and as far as options go, that makes ele the most limited class in the game.

Roll them both and fool around until after the next class balance patch. Anet may have some major changes coming for both classes.

I’m pretty sure having 1200 range does not prevent you from staying at 1199 range from your targets, let alone 300; and last I checked the attacks of the dagger had 240 to 600 range, which is not melee nor that limited.

I only have an ele…the two heavy classes bore me from the start. Ele is very versatile and you will never be without something to do in a fight. They are wanted/needed in all aspects of the game but with this comes a price. You will be locked into builds and you will be forced to learn how to properly stack might for a whole group and how to keep that up. You will also find out how stupid other players can be when they are dropping useless light/dark/poison fields in the way of your fire/water ones. In the larger WvW area, you will be running a staff while in the zerg for the water fields and spammable fire field. If you are up for learning what each skill does and how it will interact with each attunment, then give Ele a shot. They really are a fun to watch class and I found, aren’t boring.

Hey Bel,

I just want to offer my Devil’s Advocate opinion.
Personally, I’ve 80’d an ele and spent quite a bit of time on it — PvPing, Dungeoning, Open World, WvW. To be honest after some time I found it pretty kitten boring, and really not all that difficult to maneuver. Don’t get me wrong the Ele has an answer to most situations and is extremely versatile and useful across the board — but it didn’t mesh well with me.

To be honest, I find guardian a more difficult and rewarding class than ele. Yeah, sure, early on the guardian is all hack and slash in Greatsword. But really, later on, playing Guardian is borderline artistic and it’s really a very difficult class — it’s a lot about perfect timing, positioning, keeping constant track of what’s going on in the field — not only dealing with enemies knowing what skills do what what to block, what to blind — but also allies — knowing when someone is going to go down when to cleanse their conditions when to give THEM aegis / protection / regen — .

Personally, I enjoy guardian far more than ele and actually find it more difficult so there are my two cents!

what is your play style? this is a question only you can decide.

ele is rewarding when you master it. The most fun class for me, when you know the combos and all the builds possible.

guardian is easier to play. it is still fun.

both ele and guard are always welcome in wvw. pvp wise I’ve only ever play my ele, it is very versatile. You can go bunker, healer, or dps. pve they both stands the same, in my opinion.

pho.9412:

what is your play style? this is a question only you can decide.

ele is rewarding when you master it. The most fun class for me, when you know the combos and all the builds possible.

guardian is easier to play. it is still fun.

both ele and guard are always welcome in wvw. pvp wise I’ve only ever play my ele, it is very versatile. You can go bunker, healer, or dps. pve they both stands the same, in my opinion.

Guardian can also play bunker, healer, or dps. In fact, they bunker and heal simultaneously.

Id say give em both a proper whirl. If you want opinion (and that’s all people are giving you) I’d go ele. Key role in every game mode, high skill ceiling and reasonably active playstyle makes em a fun choice.

PvE:
Ele:
http://www.dtguilds.com/forum/m/6563292/viewthread/12515254-dnt-elementalist-builds
Look at the videos, and try to do the skill rotations in the HotM (you’ll be level 80 there) yourself. You’ll see if you find it manageable and enjoyable.

Guardian:
http://www.dtguilds.com/forum/m/6563292/viewthread/12501056-dnt-guardian-build-5914
The skill rotations are written down in the guide under “Builds”. Again, you can try them in the HotM.