Guild Wars 2

Or does everyone who I asked on /map chat quite a few times is?

As I’m coming from another MMORPG, I’m used to the holy trinity system that’s out there. Pretty early in the game I decided that I’d want to roll an elem, not only because it’s super fun to play but also because it provides amazing party support.

A few times I asked what it’d be a good build for a support elem and 95% of the answers that I got were stating that support elem “sucks”. Okay then, since this is a game and we all chose how to play, I’m not bound to be following the obviously popular dagger/dagger build so instead I went with the standard for mages staff. Before the patch I went on and checked my traits and skills and I eventually figured out that the water and arcana combo would work great due to the larger AoE and superb healing. Now, after the patch it seems that this is even improved.

As I couldn’t know for sure if support would work, I went on and joined the train and a dungeon run. During the first few train runs I had fire att on with the only idea to deal damage. Once we reached Troll in Queensdale, half the train got destroyed by his nukes and conditions. I changed to water and although the 3 and 5 skills (sorry, I’m not good at remembering names) have relatively long cooldown, I was still able to deliver a nice amount of healing.

So my question is – after the latest patch, should I still focus on the celestial gear or I should go for something different?

Thanks!

The problem doesn’t come from the Queensdale train, nobody should really die in that train if you know how to play.

The problem comes when you play dungeons and fractals. A lot of the bosses are really tough and will easily kill you in 1-2 hits (especially as an ele). Your healing isn’t effective enough to prevent this from happening and once you’ve used your skills once then the chances are he’ll attack again before yours have chance to cooldown. This is why zerker has become so popular, because the idea is to kill the boss before it kills you.

So that leaves you with a problem, do you stick with staff and play a more DPS build with occasional support instead or do you look for something different? Now I can’t speak for after the patch but Staff has always been a bit iffy to play DPS-wise. The damage is okay and it’s a pretty easy setup to play but other than the couple of healing skills and some decent AoE attacks you don’t really bring a lot to the party. You don’t stack much Might, your attacks are pretty slow and most events in dungeons are single target.

I personally play Scepter/Dagger or Scepter/Focus with Lightning Hammer as my key skill. I stack Might easily to 15+ which benefits the whole party, I provide Fury with Persisting flames meaning the party has a better crit chance = more damage = things die faster = we don’t die as much. Once I’ve stacked Might I conjure the hammer and bash the boss to death. It’s a fantastic build for dungeons and you can also use Fire Greatsword when stacking etc for good effect.

It’s not a typical ‘elementalist’ way to play but most people would agree that it’s one of the most effective builds in the game at the moment. Obviously with new traits being released, etc then this build might change slightly but I genuinely enjoy playing it so will probably stick with it.

So basically, sure you can be a ‘healing’ elementalist. But realistically you’ll be more of a burden than you think and really what people want in dungeons is damage > support. Most people have their own skills to stay alive anyway and at the end of the day the bosses you’ll be facing will kill you regardless of your healing skills. Plus as soon as you focus on healing more than attacking your party has lost at least 20% of its DPS (probably more as we’re one of the best DPS’ers at the moment).

Please don’t base your build on what happens to noobs in Queensdale.

P.s. Dagger/dagger is probably the least popular class to play so I’m not sure who you’ve been asking advice from? It’s fine for levelling but end-game you really need to be using something like D/F, S/F, S/D, Staff.

Celestial would still be best for what you want.

You can absolutely build a healing focused Elementalist if that’s what you want to play, but as Grimezy pointed out, the only place in PvE where having such a specialized build is of any consequence is in dungeons, and because of how players chose to run dungeons, a healing build is not in demand.

In the open world, it pretty much doesn’t matter what build you have, so you can go to town with your crazy healz!

Okay, you shouldn’t go support unless you’re in WvW
If your dungeon team has that hard of a time healing themselves they need a babysitter; you need a new team.
But a few heals here & there never hurt either especially if it’s aoe heal. But going full support if that’s what you plan I don’t recommend. (take it from an ele who used to run full support in dungeons)
Even in full PvE/ champ trains -
more people say:
PvE = DPS
WvW = Support

The only ele’s who suck are the ones who don’t understand the concept of switching attunements & the advantage/disadvantage of each attack— those are basic A, B, C’s of the ele. Ele’s do not suck it’s just we have to work a little harder to get the results that a warrior or guardian can get in just 1 second.

Just use scepter/dagger for your heals- damage + heals right there.
I’ve played 2 eles since gw2 launch & only used staff 100% all the time at 1st but now I use s/f almost all the time, s/d, d/d, d/f(dagger/dagger is kinda rare) & only use staff in Arah (rarely only if needed) & WvW

IMO you cripple yourself going all support with any class. But that’s just me!
You play how you want, if support is what makes you happy & keeps you happy then by all means go for it.

There is no problem in playing supportive Elementalist – and staff is fine.
First off… get out of the kitten QD train- you learn nothing from it.-
So many new players get to around lvl 10 and hit the QD- cause its there, and lots of players do it…
Problem is they stay in it- thinking that’s how to play…
Go out and solo—- in your support set… and lvl up like that past 80- and into Orr. – Continue.
You will die a lot—- you will need EVERY single skill and some kitten good reflexes. But you learn how to play well.
Ele properly has the highest learning curve and very tricky to use powers, compared to other professions.
So go solo some champs. Learn how a well placed Earth Staff 4 can save you. – Move on and learn how to make your own combo fields.
Learn the – many – useful elites and when to use what —- Fiery Great-sword is very liked by many, but using summoned elemental- the right one -for the right content, is also useful.

And you do not have to be full water/arcane to do well as support.
I’m what used 6fire and 4water arcane (or what ever the new numbers are..)
Staff user and staff-lover from day one..
Traits to look for are Cleansing wave and Arcane atunement.
switch atunements for the right powers at the right time in all fights and learn that way.
Sadly now with so many players out there you will not be able to be a small 1-4 man against most world champs – temples etc. But supporting while doing your share of dps there is a very good training..
Making a group where your job is to keep NPC alive at Grenth Temple in Orr while still needed as dps. – 3 man Fire Shaman etc.. that’s the sort of thing you want and the challenges you will feel proud doing.

As for gear… celestial is good. I mix a lot. have some celestial. some soldier, some zerker, and some rampager.- tbh it is not the most important part.- learning exactly all your powers is the key.

and expect to do well in groups… and be molested by thieves on the way solo -> to the zerk in wvw.

Complaints here in the forum is simply – Mostly pvp small group.. and that we are measured by devs based on our FGS as an integral power- and that we are jack of all trades- masters of none.

In PvE you provide “support” by going full zerker and killing things as fast as possible to finish the fight, and provide rally sources for yourself/teammates if they go down.
Yes I’m serious.

You can also provide the occasional blast-finisher heal (if you’re playing staff).

those queendsale trains NEED your healing!