Guild Wars 2

As title says, is there a viable way to enjoy this class in PvP or PvE without having to rely on swapping attunements and doing 39823 combos a second and just sticking with 1-2 Elements? Or even a build that uses Conjured weapons a lot instead?

Even if I could master the attunement thing to it’s fullest it’s just not entertaining to me~
I enjoyed GW1 Ele where people generally just used and built around their favorite Element and ran around calling themselves a Fire Ele/Mage or Water Ele/Mage and so on and not having to rely on all 4 all the time.

Ele was my 3rd favorite in GW1 and I liked pvping a lot as full Water (Which seems impossible as it does no damage in GW2 ;/ ) or Air but I can’t seem to make a build that’s more fun than overly complicated and just too much unnecessary effort for me to want to do all the time. .-.

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/85568-lh-is-the-new-bearbow-the-real-staff-dps-build-for-manly-men/

In PvE with more organized groups I guess you could focus on fire, but other than that there’s not much functionality without using all four elements.

in pve there is only 1 attunement anyway

lightning hammer

LH builds all stack might before LH in order to get that good dps. OP wants the staff build linked above. Spam staff fire 2 and 1 forever and ever.

For pvp don’t even think about it. You’ll be a liability in teams and be frustrated sticking to 1 or 2 attunements.

Given that the elementalist’s profession mechanic is attunement swapping, you’ll be hard pressed to make a single element build that will be as effective as swapping at least some of the time. However, that doesn’t mean you cannot make single element builds work

You wrote that you enjoy water magic. The main reason water deals so little damage is because the water auto attacks are generally weak. The only exception to this seems to be Vapor Blade (the dagger auto attack), which deals ok damage and hits everything in a line twice. It also causes vulnerability. You could build on that, taking the Piercing Shards trait from Water Magic and the Stone Splinters trait from Earth Magic to significantly boost your damage. You’ll want Aquamancer’s Alacrity as well. As for your utilities, you could pick up both elemental glyphs so you can summon 2 ice elementals to boost your dps and utility a little. Ice Bow as a conjured weapon is a good pick in PvE because of it’s AoE attack that deals massive damage. Finally, to complete the theme, Mistform seems appropriate.

It won’t be optimal, but maybe with some condition duration added to the vulnerability, you could have a build that works well enough. For PvE and dungeons at least.

Imho, if you arent going to attunement swap you arent utilizing the class. I run a Staff ele in dungeons, fractals, wvw, etc and I find that while I use certain attunements to initiate combat, I will still cycle and blow my cd’s unless I need to be in water for heals, earth for reflect etc.
You could make a fire build and get big numbers no doubt but I find that giving boons as I cycle thru during combat just too good to pass up.

If you’re not using all 4 elements, why are you playing an elementalist?

Name me what role you want to do, I can name you a class better at doing that role than a non-switching elementalist.

Hayashi.3416:

If you’re not using all 4 elements, why are you playing an elementalist?

Name me what role you want to do, I can name you a class better at doing that role than a non-switching elementalist.

Providing 100% fire field uptime and top tier DPS in PvE.

Only the staff ele camping fire and spamming 2 can do that.

LH build or fire staff. with LH you aare not bored cuz 8-8-12k crits make you feel good. but fire staff…just spam 222222.

I can vouch for staff fire ele, I’m kinda new to ELE but I have been playing engi and war sense beta and IMO a full glass cannon staff ele is the best AoE dps in the game right now.

But you asked if it’s enjoyable, not viable and I don’t think it’s very fun. I mean atunement swapping and all of the different skills/combos ele can do is kind of what the class is all about. Playing ele without attunement swapping is like buying a dirt bike and only riding on the street, I mean sure it works… But dirt man, DIRT!

I’m standing before the same issue. I want to get back into this game but this button smashing I used to do kinda holds me back right now. I tried watching some good pvp/pve videos that show/explain some skill comboing up that doenst involve 10 keyinputs per second. I havnt found a video yet.

Hayashi.3416:

Name me what role you want to do, I can name you a class better at doing that role than a non-switching elementalist.

I’m basically looking for a class that can do 1v1 and 1v2 pretty good without using as much cooldowns as ele. I don’t like attunemnt swapping while executing your combo cause that means i.e. you may not have earth ready when you need that refelct. I want to to damage with 3 abilitys tops and use the rest depending on the situation cause I need a stun/knockback/blind just that moment. You can’t do that with ele cause you use those skills for damage. Something that has a strong autoattack and good CC.

I don’t know other classes well but Engi’s Rilfe seems nice. You have 2 damage abilitys (1 and 2) and the rest is some kind of utility with a short cooldown. Maybe add 1 kit for heavy AoE, Condition-Dmg or whatever.
I don’t mind having a lot of abilites but you can’t use them when you want with ele cause they are all used in rotations you have to execute for your “normal”/auto damage output.

Though those thoughts only go for D/D, I recently read about that 2-fire-staff-spam and that sounds really nice at first glance. You basicly do damage while in fire and switch to water if you need some healing. Or you can easily switch to earth and refelct anytime cause you dont attuenment swap anymore.

Ele is basicly the only class I know so I might get what I want from any other class, but I’m still downloading the game so I might ask you guys here. What class has this gameplay/combat?

2 fire staff spam is only going to work in pve and maybe zergs. In 1v1, it’s such an obvious effect that very one will leave it.

Doggie.3184:

As title says, is there a viable way to enjoy this class in PvP or PvE without having to rely on swapping attunements and doing 39823 combos a second and just sticking with 1-2 Elements? Or even a build that uses Conjured weapons a lot instead?

Even if I could master the attunement thing to it’s fullest it’s just not entertaining to me~
I enjoyed GW1 Ele where people generally just used and built around their favorite Element and ran around calling themselves a Fire Ele/Mage or Water Ele/Mage and so on and not having to rely on all 4 all the time.

Ele was my 3rd favorite in GW1 and I liked pvping a lot as full Water (Which seems impossible as it does no damage in GW2 ;/ ) or Air but I can’t seem to make a build that’s more fun than overly complicated and just too much unnecessary effort for me to want to do all the time. .-.

play warrior. should be the right for you

Simc.9235:

Doggie.3184:

As title says, is there a viable way to enjoy this class in PvP or PvE without having to rely on swapping attunements and doing 39823 combos a second and just sticking with 1-2 Elements? Or even a build that uses Conjured weapons a lot instead?

Even if I could master the attunement thing to it’s fullest it’s just not entertaining to me~
I enjoyed GW1 Ele where people generally just used and built around their favorite Element and ran around calling themselves a Fire Ele/Mage or Water Ele/Mage and so on and not having to rely on all 4 all the time.

Ele was my 3rd favorite in GW1 and I liked pvping a lot as full Water (Which seems impossible as it does no damage in GW2 ;/ ) or Air but I can’t seem to make a build that’s more fun than overly complicated and just too much unnecessary effort for me to want to do all the time. .-.

play warrior. should be the right for you

Already have 80 Warrior, and yeah it’s easymode OP and all.
I have one of every class (Thief being main) and I’m pretty much just left with, Ele that I haven’t played too much of and Engi and Mesmer that I’ve worked on but aren’t 80 yet (use them more spvp than anything).
I want to like my Ele character as I do all of my alts so far. It’s the only class that just feels bleh to me. Engi can swap and use a lot of skills too but it doesn’t feel like overkill and gets faster results and low CDs.
Going to try out some of the things mentioned though. Thanks for suggestions.

maxinion.8396:

Providing 100% fire field uptime and top tier DPS in PvE.

Only the staff ele camping fire and spamming 2 can do that.

Purpose of fire field uptime? If might, the s/f ele and staff guardian can do both better, where the earlier has much higher DPS and the second has much higher heal. If burning, the Renewed Justice type builds with the guardian can do that just as well in PvE, and add in blindness, retal, might and vulnerability to boot.

lumpY.9087:

I’m basically looking for a class that can do 1v1 and 1v2 pretty good without using as much cooldowns as ele. I don’t like attunemnt swapping while executing your combo cause that means i.e. you may not have earth ready when you need that refelct. I want to to damage with 3 abilitys tops and use the rest depending on the situation cause I need a stun/knockback/blind just that moment. You can’t do that with ele cause you use those skills for damage. Something that has a strong autoattack and good CC.

Ele is basicly the only class I know so I might get what I want from any other class, but I’m still downloading the game so I might ask you guys here. What class has this gameplay/combat?

Phantasm/Glamour mesmer. Reflect is [Feedback] on utility, you can proc it any time you want. Null field is an on-demand condition (from you) and boon (from enemies) remover; both are on very low cooldown when traited. Your main role is to use these skills at their proper time. Your main damage skills are phantasm summoning skills, such as Focus 5, Sword 5 or Staff 3, after which you can kind of forget about them once they’re summoned. Staff 2, Sword 4, Sword 2 are your personal protective skills. Personal DPS is highest with autoattack, so you don’t need to care about ability spam.

If you’re looking for a more plan-oriented, action-reduced class type they would probably be the best fit.

Additional characteristics: very high direct dps against small numbers of targets. Not as useful in AoE, but can still do some using staff bouncing autos, staff 5, traited glamours for Confusion. Best gear type – Rampager or Assassin, depending on how much Confusion you intend to proc. If you want CC specifically, Sword/Sword, Staff would probably be the most appropriate set.

If you want MOAR cc than that you’ll probably need to run a hambow warrior, but you lose utility skills and behaviour controlling skills to gain more cleave DPS.

Hayashi.3416:

Purpose of fire field uptime? If might, the s/f ele and staff guardian can do both better, where the earlier has much higher DPS and the second has much higher heal. If burning, the Renewed Justice type builds with the guardian can do that just as well in PvE, and add in blindness, retal, might and vulnerability to boot.

I heard from several sources now that lafa fontain is the biggest dps + Meteor and Fiery Greatsword you can get in dungeons if the target is not moving much.

Hayashi.3416:

Phantasm/Glamour mesmer…..

That sounds good.Though was that for pvp or pve? And yesterday I looked into Thief and found out that they play similiar too what you just described in PvP. With Sword/pistol you basicially have 1 and 3 for damage and 4,5 for CC and 2 for extra mobility. I like that if you manage you initiative well you can actually do anything at anytime. You can easily interrupt enemies , dodge/blind attacks, get in/out of combat. Additionaly you could swap to Shortbow if I can’t get close. And then 3 Ultity Skills that can save your kitten like that invisible/healing AoE! I have 5 main skills I can use accordingly to the situation, much less button input required than Ele! It’s more of an “reaction”-playstyle rather than an “I-will-try-to-land-1-out-of-my-10-5-button-combos-I-have”. Don’t get me wrong, I like chaining up skills to land extra damage. But Ele has to chain up 5 skills spread over all attunemnts just to do “normal” damage cause their auto attack is kitten. (I remember playing D/D S/D that way.)
Though I haven’t played Thief yet and even testing that a few hours wouldnt really help me understand it to the fullest. What do you think about all this and how would you compare that to your Mesmer Build you mentioned?

And are you sure that there is no way to play Ele like this?

Hayashi.3416:

maxinion.8396:

Providing 100% fire field uptime and top tier DPS in PvE.

Only the staff ele camping fire and spamming 2 can do that.

Purpose of fire field uptime? If might, the s/f ele and staff guardian can do both better, where the earlier has much higher DPS and the second has much higher heal. If burning, the Renewed Justice type builds with the guardian can do that just as well in PvE, and add in blindness, retal, might and vulnerability to boot.

Smarter folks than me have shown the dps of spamming staff fire 2 is comparable to LH (see the manly men build above). 100% fire field uptime is for other eles to blast with LH aa, gets you to 25 might easy.

lumpY.9087:

Hayashi.3416:

Purpose of fire field uptime? If might, the s/f ele and staff guardian can do both better, where the earlier has much higher DPS and the second has much higher heal. If burning, the Renewed Justice type builds with the guardian can do that just as well in PvE, and add in blindness, retal, might and vulnerability to boot.

I heard from several sources now that lafa fontain is the biggest dps + Meteor and Fiery Greatsword you can get in dungeons if the target is not moving much.

Hayashi.3416:

Phantasm/Glamour mesmer…..

And are you sure that there is no way to play Ele like this?

It’s not that there’s no way, it’s that the mesmer does it much better. To have utility skills you’ll need the focus on the ele, but its cooldowns are much longer; also, its dps is low so you’ll be forced to use the Lightning Hammer to be viable. For the Lightning Hammer to work well it must be Mighted, which sticks you into a very rigid Might stacking combo involving a lot of skills per second again.

lumpY.9087:

Hayashi.3416:

Purpose of fire field uptime? If might, the s/f ele and staff guardian can do both better, where the earlier has much higher DPS and the second has much higher heal. If burning, the Renewed Justice type builds with the guardian can do that just as well in PvE, and add in blindness, retal, might and vulnerability to boot.

I heard from several sources now that lafa fontain is the biggest dps + Meteor and Fiery Greatsword you can get in dungeons if the target is not moving much.

Hayashi.3416:

Phantasm/Glamour mesmer…..

And are you sure that there is no way to play Ele like this?

It’s not that there’s no way, it’s that the mesmer does it much better. To have utility skills you’ll need the focus on the ele, but its cooldowns are much longer; also, its dps is low so you’ll be forced to use the Lightning Hammer to be viable. For the Lightning Hammer to work well it must be Mighted, which sticks you into a very rigid Might stacking combo involving a lot of skills per second again.

And while the FGS’s stacked skill 4 plus skill 3 are without a doubt the most damaging attacks in the game without exception, the Lava Font isn’t that good. It’s only 0.9 power coefficient per second, not to mention the Staff weapon type cannot maintain perm 25 might alone. The Lightning Hammer, which CAN be used with perm 25 might, has power coefficients of 1.1, 1.1, 1.8 for an average of 1.33 power coefficient per second.

Not to mention the 3rd hit is both a Blast finisher and an AoE blind.

maxinion.8396:

Smarter folks than me have shown the dps of spamming staff fire 2 is comparable to LH (see the manly men build above). 100% fire field uptime is for other eles to blast with LH aa, gets you to 25 might easy.

I was under the impression we’re talking about single builds. If we’re adding in party effects the list becomes VERY complicated due to the number of possible combinations, but the ele that can buff 25 might alone is pretty much on the top by a far margin as it allows for the strongest possible combination (Boon ele + GS warrior + Phantasm mesmer + Condition Ranger + Permaburn/Vuln/Blind/Retal Justice Guardian) to stack 25 vuln, 25 might, 25 bleed, perm burn, perm blind, perm… heck, perm everything. By relying on a second elementalist to blast for you, not only does it not work well if there isn’t a second elementalist… in maximal conditions you cannot have all five max synergy builds together in the same party.

The dps of a staff ele is 0.85 mult per 1.4 seconds, and 0.9 mult per second for 5 seconds every 4.8 seconds with a 0.3 second cast time. In spamming mode your average mult will be (0.85/1.4) +0.9 = 1.5 per second.

A S/F ele, in 4 seconds, hits the following: [Dragon’s Tooth – 2.25 mult, Phoenix, 3.2 mult, Magnetic Wave, 1.0 mult, Arcane Wave, 2.5 mult, Evasive Arcana Earth, 3.25 mult for an average of 2.4 power mult per second] before moving on to Lightning Hammer at 1.33 mult average per second. Since the S/F stays in LH for 25 seconds and the mightstack combo for 5 seconds, the average multiplier overall is 1.5 per second.

They have the same overall damage multiplier, but when you factor in that the S/F version has additional utility, can heal, can boon protect, can condi remove AoE, can 25 might alone… and the lightning hammer summon itself adds an additional 5% crit damage and 180 precision… it’s not much of a fight at all.

The staff build is meant for nuking large mobs AoE in WvW. In PvE where every fight that matters can be stacked in a melee range, it is not possible for it to ever match a boonstacking build for damage by the way the skills are programmed.

Hayashi.3416:

The dps of a staff ele is 0.85 mult per 1.4 seconds

Where do you get all those power multiplier numbers from? I found different ones for the Lightning hammer, 1.0, 0.5 and 0.33! Though this is the first time I see this, so I’ve got no idea where they come from.

And what about stuff like Burning or more 10% more damage against burning targets, do you keep those in mind and how would you add them to this calculation? I don’t really know what a LH build looks like, but this would be the Staff one!
http://de.gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWhEmKbsR3wjFAkCoEeQADFMK0hogFlC7A-jgxAYfAqAQyrIasF3ioxqrxUuER1A-e
Swtich to the new heal if you need more fury!

EDIT:
Oh wait I kittened up with those lightning hammer skills. 0.5 and 0.33 are the wrong abilites.

@Hayashi: we should not be debating the overall merits of this build (though if you want more information on it, please see the link above, Anierna’s stickied guide, or DEKeyz’s guide. I personally do not run the build, but just am pointing out that it provides exactly what OP wanted— a viable (perhaps not completely optimal) build that uses one attunement.

Unfortunately no. Ele has been balanced around need ing to swap attunements. Quite a limited design IMO, the class would have been so much more interesting if you could choose to specialise in 1-2 elements as well as being able to generalise in all 4.

That said, PVE is so easy (and boring) I usually just autoattack in fire while semi-afk as it’s not worth the effort to do otherwise IMO.

The fire staff build works great for pve and wvw, and even pvp but only while you’re with a group. It doesn’t work solo.