Guild Wars 2

Hi guys. It’s been a while.

I stopped playing sometime around October I think, don’t remember exactly (The fractals things were brand new). I plan on coming back on the special weekend to play with a friend and maybe stay.

I remember back then Elementalists were complaining because they had to do so much more effort than the other professions just to be “okay” and sometimes underpowered. Has this changed?

Thank you for your answers.

In an ironic twist of fate, the elementalist has mostly been hit with nerfs, and is currently considered one of the, if not, the most powerful class.

That said, it’s really only great if you spec heavily into arcane and water traits, and use D/D.

Edit: In PvP mainly, though they’re also in a good place in WvW.

i’ll translate better.

From a recent post of devs:
They are considered uneffective in PvE
OP in PvP
And OK in www

I hope they just don t nerf us again because somoene thought it is fun to use a hammer with an elementalist :|
personally the day when i ll be forced into that i will completely quit this profession.
They already made staff unviable in PvE.

Its unfun to be forced in those silly builds…i mean if i wanted to play hammer i would’ve played a warrior.

Unfortunately the developers of GW2 don’t know much about balancing. We’ll have to see if they get better at it over time.

Elementalists have the lowest health and armor in the game. People will find their weaknesses and strengthen them. Give an Elementalist Vitality and Toughness and they’re very powerful. Why? Because their healing, condition removal and mobility are second to none.

Why the developers believe that they can balance classes with base health and armor disparities is beyond my understanding.

Play DnD

in WvW we still kick kitten , but gone are the days when 4vs1 was easy. Now most 1v1 are easy but 2v1 is becoming much harder.

Folks are getting better in wvw

But every spank /gank grp needs an ele for effectiveness

Many folks have gone from

0/10/0/30/30

to

10/10/0/30/20

with the same boon duration gear but now have increased their crit with crit stacks.

i.e. I have with full stacks, 47% crit and 2000 pow 20316hp , 30% boon duration bonus, 40% attuenment recharge bonus.

Cantrips vigor regeneration has also been nerfed.

Pls post build for this

How does putting 10 points in fire increase your crit?

haviz.1340:

How does putting 10 points in fire increase your crit?

It doesn’t. I’m assuming they changed their gear and runes, plus maybe used food, to that effect.

with the same boon duration gear

Rottaran Owain.6789:

In an ironic twist of fate, the elementalist has mostly been hit with nerfs, and is currently considered one of the, if not, the most powerful class.

A small addition: in PVP ONLY, in PVE they need a lot of work/buffs and cannot do what a lot of other profs can do, or achieve similar results with a LOT more trouble, that makes the effort put into them not worth it. Fortunately with the upcoming WvW/PVE skill split they might start buffing Elementalist numbers to make them perform better, because it is fairly obvious that the reason Eles are in that (not so good) position is WvW.

maddoctor.2738:

A small addition: in PVP ONLY, in PVE they need a lot of work/buffs and cannot do what a lot of other profs can do, or achieve similar results with a LOT more trouble, that makes the effort put into them not worth it. Fortunately with the upcoming WvW/PVE skill split they might start buffing Elementalist numbers to make them perform better, because it is fairly obvious that the reason Eles are in that (not so good) position is WvW.

I do not see how Ele are weak in PVE. I’ve run the past few month/weeks with 4-6 differnt build (staff, d/d, hammer) and can only confirm that we are affective in damaging and support at the same time.

Ofcourse if you try to say it to prevent nerf…yeah, buff ele plz they are too weak!!

maddoctor.2738:

A small addition: in PVP ONLY, in PVE they need a lot of work/buffs and cannot do what a lot of other profs can do, or achieve similar results with a LOT more trouble, that makes the effort put into them not worth it. Fortunately with the upcoming WvW/PVE skill split they might start buffing Elementalist numbers to make them perform better, because it is fairly obvious that the reason Eles are in that (not so good) position is WvW.

I haven’t been following news much, but when/where did they state they’re going to split skills for WvW and Pve?

On pvp most have gone with the bunker/heal/deal mediocre dmg build making them unkillable on 1v1 against any profession unless they are really really bad. hopefully this build gets nerf with the heals to the point where most elementalist realize there are successful dps/defense build.

Milennin.4825:

maddoctor.2738:

A small addition: in PVP ONLY, in PVE they need a lot of work/buffs and cannot do what a lot of other profs can do, or achieve similar results with a LOT more trouble, that makes the effort put into them not worth it. Fortunately with the upcoming WvW/PVE skill split they might start buffing Elementalist numbers to make them perform better, because it is fairly obvious that the reason Eles are in that (not so good) position is WvW.

I haven’t been following news much, but when/where did they state they’re going to split skills for WvW and Pve?

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/It-s-time-to-balance-PvP-apart-from-PvE-WvW/page/2#post1801535
You can also find some talk about it during this interview http://www.guildwars2guru.com/news/1109-qa-with-jonathan-sharp-and-jon-peters/

Turkashi.4502:

maddoctor.2738:

A small addition: in PVP ONLY, in PVE they need a lot of work/buffs and cannot do what a lot of other profs can do, or achieve similar results with a LOT more trouble, that makes the effort put into them not worth it. Fortunately with the upcoming WvW/PVE skill split they might start buffing Elementalist numbers to make them perform better, because it is fairly obvious that the reason Eles are in that (not so good) position is WvW.

I do not see how Ele are weak in PVE. I’ve run the past few month/weeks with 4-6 differnt build (staff, d/d, hammer) and can only confirm that we are affective in damaging and support at the same time.

Ofcourse if you try to say it to prevent nerf…yeah, buff ele plz they are too weak!!

I never said Eles are weak, because they aren’t, you can do anything with an Elementalist and be good at it, there is no denying that. However that doesn’t mean that they are the best either, or even tied at the top, or close to the top. There are other professions that outperform the Elementalist in any possible scenario and sometimes the difference is very large, not to mention that to achieve similar results, the Ele player has to put a lot more work than others.

LightningBlaze.4913:

On pvp most have gone with the bunker/heal/deal mediocre dmg build making them unkillable on 1v1 against any profession unless they are really really bad. hopefully this build gets nerf with the heals to the point where most elementalist realize there are successful dps/defense build.

for every one ele that can play this build effectively, there are 10 that can’t and they are the easiest targets to take down. The nerf bat should not be based on the top players, but rather the average players…..not to mention it would make ele’s even more useless in PvE.

majortato.7125:

LightningBlaze.4913:

On pvp most have gone with the bunker/heal/deal mediocre dmg build making them unkillable on 1v1 against any profession unless they are really really bad. hopefully this build gets nerf with the heals to the point where most elementalist realize there are successful dps/defense build.

for every one ele that can play this build effectively, there are 10 that can’t and they are the easiest targets to take down. The nerf bat should not be based on the top players, but rather the average players…..not to mention it would make ele’s even more useless in PvE.

That sort of build is so easy to play that I’d say the ratio would be the reverse; also, I’d say balancing based on the highest level of play is wiser, as it helps keep gameplay interesting for more experienced players.

majortato.7125:

LightningBlaze.4913:

On pvp most have gone with the bunker/heal/deal mediocre dmg build making them unkillable on 1v1 against any profession unless they are really really bad. hopefully this build gets nerf with the heals to the point where most elementalist realize there are successful dps/defense build.

for every one ele that can play this build effectively, there are 10 that can’t and they are the easiest targets to take down. The nerf bat should not be based on the top players, but rather the average players…..not to mention it would make ele’s even more useless in PvE.

. I am not sure where you got this ratio. I can tell you from experience of seeing so many beginners at pvp with Elementalist started using this build and instantly became great. Then I gave them another build that skillful players are good with and they get slaughter so easily. Also since I started playing this game on first week of beta till now I never considered Ele to be “useless" at pve. however, I do see players not knowing how to be useful with the profession.

LightningBlaze.4913:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/It-s-time-to-balance-PvP-apart-from-PvE-WvW/page/2#post1801535
You can also find some talk about it during this interview http://www.guildwars2guru.com/news/1109-qa-with-jonathan-sharp-and-jon-peters/

This’ll be nice. I so hate it when skills are being balanced for one part of the game, and then screws over the people using the same skills that were just fine in the other part of the game.

A:
D/D water/arcana as strong as ever.

Everything else, nerfed to the ground to the point of barely viable. There is no working ranged specc that doesnt involve only being able to kill golems or perma CCed targets (aka, you need a lot of support) Unfortunately traits in anything but water/arcana means you will have no survavility at all, and the damage that you should have gained doesnt make up for it….at all.

Overall the class has boiled down to one trick pony, and that is D/D

(except for the occasional WvW, where staff still can hold its ground only in big zergs and wall raiding)

I second not playing elementalist since last fall due to how horrible they felt. I don’t want to say they didn’t feel like a caster, but they surely felt very underpowered. I ran staff and full exotics then and still have now. Have they balanced the class any further from what it was? Are they more viable for pve than they were in october/november 2012?

Fortus.6175:

D/D water/arcana as strong as ever.

Everything else, nerfed to the ground to the point of barely viable. There is no working ranged specc that doesnt involve only being able to kill golems or perma CC targets (aka, you need a lot of support) Unfortunately traits in anything but water/arcana means you will have no survavility at all, and the damage that you should have ain doesnt make up for it….at all.

Overall the class has boiled down to one trick pony, and that is D/D

(except for the occasional WvW, where staff still can hold its ground only in big zergs and wall raiding)

You don’t know about “everything else”. There are some other reliable builds for the ele that doesn’t involve d/d, water/arcana and still have plenty of survivability and deal above average dmg. (way more than the mediocre dmg 30 on water & on arcana deals). Of course, these other builds require more thinking and different play style than the all popuplar 0/10/0/30/30 build does.

LightningBlaze.4913:

Fortus.6175:

D/D water/arcana as strong as ever.

Everything else, nerfed to the ground to the point of barely viable. There is no working ranged specc that doesnt involve only being able to kill golems or perma CC targets (aka, you need a lot of support) Unfortunately traits in anything but water/arcana means you will have no survavility at all, and the damage that you should have ain doesnt make up for it….at all.

Overall the class has boiled down to one trick pony, and that is D/D

(except for the occasional WvW, where staff still can hold its ground only in big zergs and wall raiding)

You don’t know about “everything else”. There are some other reliable builds for the ele that doesn’t involve d/d, water/arcana and still have plenty of survivability and deal above average dmg. (way more than the mediocre dmg 30 on water & on arcana deals). Of course, these other builds require more thinking and different play style than the all popuplar 0/10/0/30/30 build does.

Please enlight all of us. Before you say something along the lines of “support”, let me tell you that while we are a good support role, we are nowhere near guardians or mesmers when it comes down to passively and actively supporting the groups if they do decide to do so, and even without traiting into it they offer a lot more support than we do in keeping the party alive. Yes, staff has some good supportive stuff but it is too limited to fields for combos. The only thing saving the class on the supportive role is water #5 and #4 and air #4, because water #3 is impossible to land on a moving battle, and if you do, one tick for 8xx is not enough to save anybody, and all other last too little/too hard(impossible) to land. Damage staff is a joke (not damage wise, but whats the point of having a strong weapon when you can only hit golems?)

Scepter is another joke, good luck landing something of fire unless blowing all your CDs just to have them glued for a few seconds. As for everything else, I feel like many skills on the ele set are just fill-up skills to justify the mechanics of attunement swapping with only one weapon. Skills like scepter earth #3, as hard to hit like air staff #3, they were put there as strong skills but because Anet though the kit was too hard, they made it impossible to land unless point blank and rooted enemy shot.

Once again, D/D is the only one that can hold their ground vs others, as for everything else is underwhelming at best, thinking other than is being delusional. Granted, it isnt as bad as you would think, but I would rather have a guardian/mesmer support than an staff ele any day. I would rather have a rifle warrior or shortbow thief anyday as any spinoff ranged ele (staff/scepter) for ranged DPS, specialy for sPvP and tPvP where you need to be able to 1v1 or 2v2 with no problem given that in 5v5 most of the time you are alone.

0/20/0/20/30 with 2 arcanes roamer, no cantrips traits.

haviz.1340:

0/20/0/20/30 with 2 arcanes roamer, no cantrips traits.

I run that with scepter/dagger, with 30 in Water instead of Arcana, and it’s okay.

I’m more upset that my only good ranged damage comes from my Electric Discharge-Lightning Strike-Arcane Blast combo when switching to air.

LightningBlaze.4913:

majortato.7125:

LightningBlaze.4913:

On pvp most have gone with the bunker/heal/deal mediocre dmg build making them unkillable on 1v1 against any profession unless they are really really bad. hopefully this build gets nerf with the heals to the point where most elementalist realize there are successful dps/defense build.

for every one ele that can play this build effectively, there are 10 that can’t and they are the easiest targets to take down. The nerf bat should not be based on the top players, but rather the average players…..not to mention it would make ele’s even more useless in PvE.

. I am not sure where you got this ratio. I can tell you from experience of seeing so many beginners at pvp with Elementalist started using this build and instantly became great. Then I gave them another build that skillful players are good with and they get slaughter so easily. Also since I started playing this game on first week of beta till now I never considered Ele to be “useless" at pve. however, I do see players not knowing how to be useful with the profession.

You didn’t see beginners playing PvP ele…you saw how bad the ele was without the D/D bunker build. What do you mean, you gave them that build? Did you go around teaching bad players how to play D/D ele?

Where do I get this ratio? Just from playing pvp. Pretty much every time I see an ele, it’s a free kill regardless of their build…..once in awhile, I run into one that knows what they’re doing and they’re hard to take down…but still less annoying than some mediocre mesmer and thieves.

“uneffective” in PvE? o,O are we playing the same class?
“ok” in WvWvW? no it’s not okay: RTL has been nerfed way too much and boon duration suffered a critical hit from nerf hammer, it’s still pretty decent if you ask, but nothing compared to thief and warrior. It’s a wonderful support class tho if you focus on keeping alive your team.
Scepter and focus can’t find a place in my playstyle :\

LordByron.8369:

i’ll translate better.

From a recent post of devs:
They are considered uneffective in PvE
OP in PvP
And OK in www

I hope they just don t nerf us again because somoene thought it is fun to use a hammer with an elementalist :|
personally the day when i ll be forced into that i will completely quit this profession.
They already made staff unviable in PvE.

Its unfun to be forced in those silly builds…i mean if i wanted to play hammer i would’ve played a warrior.

You couldn’t possibly be any more wrong. I play a staff ele and, with all my fire aoes going on at once, I am hitting 4000 damage every second while the aoes last. Which is about 6/7 seconds. After those aoes disappear, it’s only like a 2 second wait before I can spam the aoes again. ( this is in CoF by the way). Eles are fine.

majortato.7125:

LightningBlaze.4913:

majortato.7125:

LightningBlaze.4913:

On pvp most have gone with the bunker/heal/deal mediocre dmg build making them unkillable on 1v1 against any profession unless they are really really bad. hopefully this build gets nerf with the heals to the point where most elementalist realize there are successful dps/defense build.

for every one ele that can play this build effectively, there are 10 that can’t and they are the easiest targets to take down. The nerf bat should not be based on the top players, but rather the average players…..not to mention it would make ele’s even more useless in PvE.

. I am not sure where you got this ratio. I can tell you from experience of seeing so many beginners at pvp with Elementalist started using this build and instantly became great. Then I gave them another build that skillful players are good with and they get slaughter so easily. Also since I started playing this game on first week of beta till now I never considered Ele to be “useless" at pve. however, I do see players not knowing how to be useful with the profession.

You didn’t see beginners playing PvP ele…you saw how bad the ele was without the D/D bunker build. What do you mean, you gave them that build? Did you go around teaching bad players how to play D/D ele?

Where do I get this ratio? Just from playing pvp. Pretty much every time I see an ele, it’s a free kill regardless of their build…..once in awhile, I run into one that knows what they’re doing and they’re hard to take down…but still less annoying than some mediocre mesmer and thieves.

I’ll answer your question. I tutored 4 friends that wanted to play ele only for spvp and couple of others that have seen me on s/tpvp and wvw and considered me good enough to teach them. It is an awesome starter build but there are a few others that many don’t know or don’t even bother to try that are successful as well in all aspects but requires a different play style.

Galtrix.7369:

LordByron.8369:

i’ll translate better.

From a recent post of devs:
They are considered uneffective in PvE
OP in PvP
And OK in www

I hope they just don t nerf us again because somoene thought it is fun to use a hammer with an elementalist :|
personally the day when i ll be forced into that i will completely quit this profession.
They already made staff unviable in PvE.

Its unfun to be forced in those silly builds…i mean if i wanted to play hammer i would’ve played a warrior.

You couldn’t possibly be any more wrong. I play a staff ele and, with all my fire aoes going on at once, I am hitting 4000 damage every second while the aoes last. Which is about 6/7 seconds. After those aoes disappear, it’s only like a 2 second wait before I can spam the aoes again. ( this is in CoF by the way). Eles are fine.

if you think that ele is fine or 4000K per second (against an immobile target) is fine (despite DPS is not for sure 4K per seconds) i think you should play more dungeons……

you can t deal 4000 per second as sustained damage…..

Mesmer, thieves, warriors, guardians, rangers can do a minimum of double that amount of SUSTAINED damage (reason why i now play a mesmer).

Warrior can 1HB for 100.000 .______. (arah/fotm 38….obviously food, might and vuln were involved but try it with ANY other class)

Ele dps is just bad….you can get some decent numbers with D/D but only for short bursts stacking 25 might.

LordByron.8369:

Ele dps is just bad…

I want to shake your hand…