Guild Wars 2

IndigoSundown.5419:

Servanin.5021:

10805 base HP: Guardian, Thief, Elementalist
15082 base HP: Mesmer, Engineer, Ranger
18372 base HP: Warrior, Necromancer

Theres no different in armor between classes of the same armor-type, and even between them it isn’t that significant. IIRC, the difference between full exotic light and exotic heavy at 80 is somewhere around 294 toughness.

One thing I saw recently surprised the heck out of me. I was checking stats without armor for info to respond to another thread. My 80 ele’s base power (no traits, no gear at all) was 916. I then checked my 80 Necro in the same fashion. With no gear, the Necro was at power 1306. Traits were 30 points, for plus 300 Power. Assuming the trait is adding just 300, that would make power = 1006, 90 higher than the Ele’s.

Has anyone else noticed this, and does else anyone think it’s odd?

double check you dont have a trait on your necro that’s giving you additional power.
Same for any food buffs you may have had on you

Lifeson.4352:

Also I suggest getting a Sigil of Battle in one of your weapons, since every attunement change counts as a weapon switch, you get alot of might stacks this way.

Wow, I had no idea! That could be helpful, even if there is an internal cooldown. I didn’t use these much with my mesmer, since I stuck with the staff all the time, but switching attunements is like breathing, so I know I’ll get the benefit at least once per fight.

I run a more offensive gear set and build, so I have a sigil of energy in. The extra dodges are particularly useful when running with my poor ring luck in fractals and tend to make up for my lack of defensive stats.

if i have two superior sigils of battle, will i gain 6 stacks of might when i attune? i haven’t had the time nor the money to mess with sigils in my weapons yet, and they’re quite expensive, so i wouldn’t want to buy 2 unless they give me 6.

lol, I ran into this thread since I was seeking some advice on how to deal with d/d elem.
You guys whoever think elem is weak should really youtube up. Elem is by far probably the only class that can fight zerg, down a bunch and get away in a shiny blaze. (well, a permastealth theif might be able to do that too but it’s more behind the zerg’s back)

A good elem will do a lot of attunement swap and that’s a lot of keyboard and mouse action. If you want to stand still, stick to one element ,or play with one hand, consider you are not up for it.

JohnJSal.8634:

I just started an elementalist and I really enjoy pretty much every skill they have, but I’ve noticed a little more recently (I’m level 12 now) that once the mob closes to me (if they do), I barely have time to glance down at my health before it’s nearly half gone.

I’ve played a mesmer (to 57 so far) and I don’t recall losing health that fast. Is there something inherently weak about the elementalist, or does it just have that much less health than other classes? Or am I just doing something wrong? I haven’t settled into a groove yet, because I enjoy swapping weapons and attunements, but even still, I seem to get hurt fast and die often if I’m not extremely careful.

(I do tend to run around and stay mobile, so it isn’t that I just stay put and let the mobs beat on me.)

Thanks.

I’m feeling this too, and got much worse at lv 23, i effectively gave up playing ele they are just so incredibly weak and the damage is not great (at least at lower levels).

I was dying from mobs 5 levels below me, i moved around as much as possible, i switch elements as best i could (why should we no other class is forced to do this why is ele?)

I gave up trying to kill stuff my own level then after multiple deaths on lower level stuff and not being able to do events and skill points solo i completely gave it up…unless Anet decide to revamp them or add more defense/damage i guess she’ll sit in my selection for a long time to come.

I’ve leveled Ranger, Warrior, Guardian and Engineer with no issues all to level 80, i’m now currently leveling a Mesmer and must say its a lot more fun than elementalist, not sure why Guildwars 2 Ele was so bad i really loved GW1 ele and had no issues with it..

Zenyatoo.4059:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Servanin.5021:

10805 base HP: Guardian, Thief, Elementalist
15082 base HP: Mesmer, Engineer, Ranger
18372 base HP: Warrior, Necromancer

Theres no different in armor between classes of the same armor-type, and even between them it isn’t that significant. IIRC, the difference between full exotic light and exotic heavy at 80 is somewhere around 294 toughness.

One thing I saw recently surprised the heck out of me. I was checking stats without armor for info to respond to another thread. My 80 ele’s base power (no traits, no gear at all) was 916. I then checked my 80 Necro in the same fashion. With no gear, the Necro was at power 1306. Traits were 30 points, for plus 300 Power. Assuming the trait is adding just 300, that would make power = 1006, 90 higher than the Ele’s.

Has anyone else noticed this, and does else anyone think it’s odd?

double check you dont have a trait on your necro that’s giving you additional power.
Same for any food buffs you may have had on you

I hadn’t thought of traits, but when I did check, no +power from traits, and I know I had no food buffs.

Dante.1508:

JohnJSal.8634:

I just started an elementalist and I really enjoy pretty much every skill they have, but I’ve noticed a little more recently (I’m level 12 now) that once the mob closes to me (if they do), I barely have time to glance down at my health before it’s nearly half gone.

I’ve played a mesmer (to 57 so far) and I don’t recall losing health that fast. Is there something inherently weak about the elementalist, or does it just have that much less health than other classes? Or am I just doing something wrong? I haven’t settled into a groove yet, because I enjoy swapping weapons and attunements, but even still, I seem to get hurt fast and die often if I’m not extremely careful.

(I do tend to run around and stay mobile, so it isn’t that I just stay put and let the mobs beat on me.)

Thanks.

I’m feeling this too, and got much worse at lv 23, i effectively gave up playing ele they are just so incredibly weak and the damage is not great (at least at lower levels).

I was dying from mobs 5 levels below me, i moved around as much as possible, i switch elements as best i could (why should we no other class is forced to do this why is ele?)

I gave up trying to kill stuff my own level then after multiple deaths on lower level stuff and not being able to do events and skill points solo i completely gave it up…unless Anet decide to revamp them or add more defense/damage i guess she’ll sit in my selection for a long time to come.

I’ve leveled Ranger, Warrior, Guardian and Engineer with no issues all to level 80, i’m now currently leveling a Mesmer and must say its a lot more fun than elementalist, not sure why Guildwars 2 Ele was so bad i really loved GW1 ele and had no issues with it..

Unfortunately, this is about where I am again. I kept giving my ele a chance but I just wasn’t having that much fun taking so much damage and balancing on a knife’s edge during every fight. Do I want to one-shot everything? Of course not. Like I said, all the element swapping is fun, but I can’t believe eles are just so WEAK that an extra pull has a very good chance of killing you.

I’ve seen a lot of “it gets better” comments, but I’ve also seen some “it gets worse,” so all I can really go by is how I feel playing it. It’s a mixed feeling, because I love the play style itself but I hate the fragility.

I got him to 20, but I think he’ll sit there for a while. I just made a necro and I’m going to see how that is. In fact, I already am noticing quite a difference. I was level 2 and I fought a level 5 skill challenge mob, and it was rather easy since I can deal decent damage and restore my health at the same time. I even had some trouble with this mob on the warrior I created, so the necro seems pretty sturdy so far. Hopefully it won’t take ages to kill something!

John please mate, stick with your Ele man! I know it can be frustrating but seriously mate, it does get better and learning to play the Ele well will teach you how to play your other classes even better.

Seriously mate, playing an Elementalist is like having the game stripped down to the bare neccesities of survival, once you’ve mastered that and apply what you’ve learnt to your other characters you’ll notice a drastic improvement in your personal abilities. Heck mate, you’ll even be better at other games.

cznrhubarb.5946:

Lifeson.4352:

It was the same for me, at the start I was just amazed at all the cool skills (“I can pound stuff with a giant fire spike and send a fiery pheonix to blow’em up!”), then I started dying.. alot.

I would suggest dagger/dagger, when you get to level 30 respec into 20 arcana. The reduced cooldown on attunement swapping makes everything just smoother. My “rotation” for mobs is something like: (air)Ride the Lightning -> updraft -> Shocking Aura ->(fire) Burning Speed -> Flame Breath -> Ring of Fire -> (earth) Earthquake(combo with Ring of Fire for might stacks) -> Ring of Earth. I improvise in other spells but this is my bread and butter for just killing hoards of mobs. :P Fire Grab is a nice bonus whenever of cooldown. Ligthning Hammer is also good for just killing stuff with almost perma-blind, though very faceroll-ish.

You can take on alot of mobs at the same time like this if you pay attention to when to dodge and when to go into water to slow them down, kite around and heal yourself. You can pretty much solo any melee champion, constantly kiting around. Churning Earth with it’s long cast time is good to use with Lightning Flash(teleport, 900 range). If you see a bunch of mobs, initiate combat with a Churning Earth, teleporting into them just before the spell goes off.

Also I suggest getting a Sigil of Battle in one of your weapons, since every attunement change counts as a weapon switch, you get alot of might stacks this way.

You can’t spec 20 into anything until you are level 40.

As a side note, are you serious though about attunement swapping counting as weapon swapping for sigils? I thought we just couldn’t use those sigils because we couldn’t weapon swap. If that’s true, you have just made my night.

Yes we get the benefits when we change attunements.

We probably have the best uptime on these boons because we have to switch attunements, we utilize these sigils to the max, allowing us to really see how powerful these abilities are, put a sigil of energy in a dagger and see how amazing your endurance is.

Haven’t tried battle yet but I am going to today.

cznrhubarb.5946:

Lifeson.4352:

It was the same for me, at the start I was just amazed at all the cool skills (“I can pound stuff with a giant fire spike and send a fiery pheonix to blow’em up!”), then I started dying.. alot.

I would suggest dagger/dagger, when you get to level 30 respec into 20 arcana. The reduced cooldown on attunement swapping makes everything just smoother. My “rotation” for mobs is something like: (air)Ride the Lightning -> updraft -> Shocking Aura ->(fire) Burning Speed -> Flame Breath -> Ring of Fire -> (earth) Earthquake(combo with Ring of Fire for might stacks) -> Ring of Earth. I improvise in other spells but this is my bread and butter for just killing hoards of mobs. :P Fire Grab is a nice bonus whenever of cooldown. Ligthning Hammer is also good for just killing stuff with almost perma-blind, though very faceroll-ish.

You can take on alot of mobs at the same time like this if you pay attention to when to dodge and when to go into water to slow them down, kite around and heal yourself. You can pretty much solo any melee champion, constantly kiting around. Churning Earth with it’s long cast time is good to use with Lightning Flash(teleport, 900 range). If you see a bunch of mobs, initiate combat with a Churning Earth, teleporting into them just before the spell goes off.

Also I suggest getting a Sigil of Battle in one of your weapons, since every attunement change counts as a weapon switch, you get alot of might stacks this way.

You can’t spec 20 into anything until you are level 40.

As a side note, are you serious though about attunement swapping counting as weapon swapping for sigils? I thought we just couldn’t use those sigils because we couldn’t weapon swap. If that’s true, you have just made my night.

Sorry, of course level 40. And yes, attunement swapping counts as a weapon switch, so you can get 3 stacks of might every time you swap attunement, or 50% endurance. They don’t seem to work together though, I have both right now and only get the might stacks, no endurance.

Lifeson.4352:

cznrhubarb.5946:

Lifeson.4352:

It was the same for me, at the start I was just amazed at all the cool skills (“I can pound stuff with a giant fire spike and send a fiery pheonix to blow’em up!”), then I started dying.. alot.

I would suggest dagger/dagger, when you get to level 30 respec into 20 arcana. The reduced cooldown on attunement swapping makes everything just smoother. My “rotation” for mobs is something like: (air)Ride the Lightning -> updraft -> Shocking Aura ->(fire) Burning Speed -> Flame Breath -> Ring of Fire -> (earth) Earthquake(combo with Ring of Fire for might stacks) -> Ring of Earth. I improvise in other spells but this is my bread and butter for just killing hoards of mobs. :P Fire Grab is a nice bonus whenever of cooldown. Ligthning Hammer is also good for just killing stuff with almost perma-blind, though very faceroll-ish.

You can take on alot of mobs at the same time like this if you pay attention to when to dodge and when to go into water to slow them down, kite around and heal yourself. You can pretty much solo any melee champion, constantly kiting around. Churning Earth with it’s long cast time is good to use with Lightning Flash(teleport, 900 range). If you see a bunch of mobs, initiate combat with a Churning Earth, teleporting into them just before the spell goes off.

Also I suggest getting a Sigil of Battle in one of your weapons, since every attunement change counts as a weapon switch, you get alot of might stacks this way.

You can’t spec 20 into anything until you are level 40.

As a side note, are you serious though about attunement swapping counting as weapon swapping for sigils? I thought we just couldn’t use those sigils because we couldn’t weapon swap. If that’s true, you have just made my night.

Sorry, of course level 40. And yes, attunement swapping counts as a weapon switch, so you can get 3 stacks of might every time you swap attunement, or 50% endurance. They don’t seem to work together though, I have both right now and only get the might stacks, no endurance.

Yeah sigils of the same “type” either do not stack, or share a cooldown so you cannot use them together. This applies to sigils that add attrib points on kill (bloodlust) or sigils that give bonuses on weapon swap…could be more, not sure.

Dante.1508:

I’m feeling this too, and got much worse at lv 23, i effectively gave up playing ele they are just so incredibly weak and the damage is not great (at least at lower levels).

I was dying from mobs 5 levels below me, i moved around as much as possible, i switch elements as best i could (why should we no other class is forced to do this why is ele?)

I gave up trying to kill stuff my own level then after multiple deaths on lower level stuff and not being able to do events and skill points solo i completely gave it up…unless Anet decide to revamp them or add more defense/damage i guess she’ll sit in my selection for a long time to come.

Something to remember, fighting lower level mobs doesn’t work well in this game. You get downleveled in lower level zones. So in effect, even though you were trying to make things easier on yourself, you were probably downleveled and didn’t help yourself out at all.

The best way to make things ‘easier’ so you can learn without the harsh learning curve is to do things in a group. Even just one other player can make this game SO much easier it isn’t even funny. Just remember, a group can make things a bit too easy and you need to solo from time to time to see if you are really improving.

IndigoSundown.5419:

One thing I saw recently surprised the heck out of me. I was checking stats without armor for info to respond to another thread. My 80 ele’s base power (no traits, no gear at all) was 916. I then checked my 80 Necro in the same fashion. With no gear, the Necro was at power 1306. Traits were 30 points, for plus 300 Power. Assuming the trait is adding just 300, that would make power = 1006, 90 higher than the Ele’s.

Has anyone else noticed this, and does else anyone think it’s odd?

What about this? http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Deadly_Strength

Or you had only 30 points in power line and nothing else?

Well, the 10 second cooldown on the sigils makes the news slightly less exciting, but completely understandable.

Still that gives me a lot more options on my sigils, so thanks for letting me know about it. I guess my question now would be: Is 3 20s stacks of might every 10 seconds better or worse than just using a +5% damage Sigil of Force. Does anyone know the math on this?

cznrhubarb.5946:

Still that gives me a lot more options on my sigils, so thanks for letting me know about it. I guess my question now would be: Is 3 20s stacks of might every 10 seconds better or worse than just using a +5% damage Sigil of Force. Does anyone know the math on this?

That´s very hard to tell I think, because the Might also increases the Condition dmg (which is commonly used even by Direct dmg eles), bt the +5% dmg sigil doesn´t.

Actually, if I think about it for more than a few seconds, I realize that the Sigil of Battle has to be better. Once I start rolling through attunements, I should effectively have 6 stacks of might constantly going (due to them being 20s duration and 10s cooldown on the sigil). Additionally factor in any +boon duration and it could probably be 9 stacks most of the time.

I think I’d have to have something like 4k power for the sigil of force to be a better choice, and that’s only considering 6 stacks of might. Does that sound right?

EDIT: My math:
6 stacks of might at level 80 = 210 power
210 power * 20 (1/0.05) = 4200 power needed to get an equivalent 210 power boost from a 5% damage increase

STRanger.5120:

cznrhubarb.5946:

Still that gives me a lot more options on my sigils, so thanks for letting me know about it. I guess my question now would be: Is 3 20s stacks of might every 10 seconds better or worse than just using a +5% damage Sigil of Force. Does anyone know the math on this?

That´s very hard to tell I think, because the Might also increases the Condition dmg (which is commonly used even by Direct dmg eles), bt the +5% dmg sigil doesn´t.

Also a good point I completely forgot about. I’m fairly new to using my blast combos to get might. I managed to get all the way to 80 in PvE without learning how to use combo fields…

cznrhubarb.5946:

STRanger.5120:

cznrhubarb.5946:

Still that gives me a lot more options on my sigils, so thanks for letting me know about it. I guess my question now would be: Is 3 20s stacks of might every 10 seconds better or worse than just using a +5% damage Sigil of Force. Does anyone know the math on this?

That´s very hard to tell I think, because the Might also increases the Condition dmg (which is commonly used even by Direct dmg eles), bt the +5% dmg sigil doesn´t.

Also a good point I completely forgot about. I’m fairly new to using my blast combos to get might. I managed to get all the way to 80 in PvE without learning how to use combo fields…

Also as someone calculated, the approx value of one might stack is +-1% in pure dmg increase at lvl 80, so I will go for the might stacking sigil, couse you can maintain 6 stacks permanently with it, with about 2 secs of 9 stacks (if you are switching perfectly).

MarzAttakz.9608:

John please mate, stick with your Ele man! I know it can be frustrating but seriously mate, it does get better and learning to play the Ele well will teach you how to play your other classes even better.

Seriously mate, playing an Elementalist is like having the game stripped down to the bare neccesities of survival, once you’ve mastered that and apply what you’ve learnt to your other characters you’ll notice a drastic improvement in your personal abilities. Heck mate, you’ll even be better at other games.

I get the feeling that he will call to me again, since I still enjoy the element switching aspect. Maybe right now I just needed to take a break from the frustration. As I was playing him, I kept telling myself “Alright, don’t just give up because it’s annoying to take so much damage and die often,” but also I was thinking “Yeah, but I shouldn’t force myself to play something that just isn’t fun and has me screaming at the screen sometimes.”

Like I said, it’s a weird relationship I have with my ele, but I think I’ll probably be drawn back to him at some point.

JohnJSal.8634:

I get the feeling that he will call to me again, since I still enjoy the element switching aspect. Maybe right now I just needed to take a break from the frustration. As I was playing him, I kept telling myself “Alright, don’t just give up because it’s annoying to take so much damage and die often,” but also I was thinking “Yeah, but I shouldn’t force myself to play something that just isn’t fun and has me screaming at the screen sometimes.”

Like I said, it’s a weird relationship I have with my ele, but I think I’ll probably be drawn back to him at some point.

The Ele has a really, really rough time in PvE, especially early. You’re going to have to get Vitality/Toughness gear, spec heavily into Arcana and Earth/Water, take a lot of defensive Utilities, hide behind your summoned Elementals most of the time, and kite like crazy. My Ele is level 80 with mostly-exotic gear, and I’m just now finding it possible to solo groups without every moment being a struggle.

I’d say the watershed moments for the Ele are when you get your Glyph of Lesser Elementals and your Glyph of Elementals. Those are a paradigm shift since they let you spend some time sitting and attacking rather than running and tossing ground-targeted effects behind you. If you can stick it out until 30, you should have an easier time. In the meantime, Cantrips and Arcane Shield are excellent survival options. If there’s one thing Ele’s do tremendously well in PvE, it’s escape from sticky situations.

While I’m entering the conversation a little late…

John, enjoy the necro! My guildmate just started one last night, grabbed a minor sigil of corruption, and is running a nasty condition damage build at level 5! He has been taking on mobs 3-5 levels higher than him with no problem (after he builds some stacks).

The elementalist does require patience and deeper pockets I think. You’ll end up dying more often just because some enemy sneaks through (or throws a ranged attack at you when you’re out of endurance) and then it’s game over. Staff (my favorite) is probably the hardest to level with. D/D is a completely different playstyle (practically all melee) but has enough mobility to do damage and get away when needed. S/D I’ve never been good at but maybe I’ll try it again since Dragon’s Tooth got maybe fixed.

I stuck with Glyph of Elemental Harmony for my elementalist from level 1-80. Maybe the signet is better, but I never missed it. I think it’s more important to save your skill points and use them to unlock your 3 point and 6 point skills ASAP, then start saving for your ultimate skills.

For traits, I’m going to cause an uproar and suggest you go for water 5 first for regen while attuned to water (negating the need for the healing sigil). Then aim for arcane 10. If you feel slow, slap on signet of air or learn what moves give you swiftness.

And learn those combos from the wiki!

JohnJSal.8634:

MarzAttakz.9608:

John please mate, stick with your Ele man! I know it can be frustrating but seriously mate, it does get better and learning to play the Ele well will teach you how to play your other classes even better.

Seriously mate, playing an Elementalist is like having the game stripped down to the bare neccesities of survival, once you’ve mastered that and apply what you’ve learnt to your other characters you’ll notice a drastic improvement in your personal abilities. Heck mate, you’ll even be better at other games.

I get the feeling that he will call to me again, since I still enjoy the element switching aspect. Maybe right now I just needed to take a break from the frustration. As I was playing him, I kept telling myself “Alright, don’t just give up because it’s annoying to take so much damage and die often,” but also I was thinking “Yeah, but I shouldn’t force myself to play something that just isn’t fun and has me screaming at the screen sometimes.”

Like I said, it’s a weird relationship I have with my ele, but I think I’ll probably be drawn back to him at some point.

How is your gear compared to your level? And what stats are you focusing on? I leveled tailoring alongside my ele so I almost always had a source of decent gear for my level.

cznrhubarb.5946:

Well, the 10 second cooldown on the sigils makes the news slightly less exciting, but completely understandable.

Still that gives me a lot more options on my sigils, so thanks for letting me know about it. I guess my question now would be: Is 3 20s stacks of might every 10 seconds better or worse than just using a +5% damage Sigil of Force. Does anyone know the math on this?

Actually mate in a regular D/D fight, I was able to maintain 10 stacks of might from the battle sigil. Just going through my normal rotation. So It is definitely a big help. I personally prefer the energy one more though. I’m 30 in arcane though for the increased boon duration, and the lower attunements cd swap.

Vayra.3290:

JohnJSal.8634:

MarzAttakz.9608:

John please mate, stick with your Ele man! I know it can be frustrating but seriously mate, it does get better and learning to play the Ele well will teach you how to play your other classes even better.

Seriously mate, playing an Elementalist is like having the game stripped down to the bare neccesities of survival, once you’ve mastered that and apply what you’ve learnt to your other characters you’ll notice a drastic improvement in your personal abilities. Heck mate, you’ll even be better at other games.

I get the feeling that he will call to me again, since I still enjoy the element switching aspect. Maybe right now I just needed to take a break from the frustration. As I was playing him, I kept telling myself “Alright, don’t just give up because it’s annoying to take so much damage and die often,” but also I was thinking “Yeah, but I shouldn’t force myself to play something that just isn’t fun and has me screaming at the screen sometimes.”

Like I said, it’s a weird relationship I have with my ele, but I think I’ll probably be drawn back to him at some point.

How is your gear compared to your level? And what stats are you focusing on? I leveled tailoring alongside my ele so I almost always had a source of decent gear for my level.

I keep my gear within 5 or so levels of myself, and right now it’s all toughness and vitality, with the same for the upgrade slots. So maybe that’s helping me not die a fifth or sixth time in a row, but I’m still dying often enough to find it annoying.

I guess the thing is, while I enjoy the element switching, I don’t want to HAVE to switch to water to heal in every fight, even in a one-on-one fight. I shouldn’t have to rely on it that much, except for when I get into more trouble than that.

Also, I don’t want to have to build myself up to be tough, with toughness/vitality gear, Earth/Water traits, etc. I feel like too much time and energy (and gear and traits) are wasted on just making the ele be able to survive, and not on making the profession more FUN to play, e.g. with power/condition/precision upgrades.

In other words, every profession should have a bit of survivability independent of their gear and traits. We shouldn’t be forced to make ourselves playable at the expense of all the other gear/trait options.

STRanger.5120:

IndigoSundown.5419:

One thing I saw recently surprised the heck out of me. I was checking stats without armor for info to respond to another thread. My 80 ele’s base power (no traits, no gear at all) was 916. I then checked my 80 Necro in the same fashion. With no gear, the Necro was at power 1306. Traits were 30 points, for plus 300 Power. Assuming the trait is adding just 300, that would make power = 1006, 90 higher than the Ele’s.

Has anyone else noticed this, and does else anyone think it’s odd?

What about this? http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Deadly_Strength

Or you had only 30 points in power line and nothing else?

Had just 10 points in Toughness, with just the 5 pointer :p, Reanimator, and Greater Marks. None of the traits chosen say they boost power.

I did find the issue, though. I retrained, and all stats defaulted to 916. When I retrained the power trait, it went to 1216 w/out gear, as I would expect, not the 1306 I saw when just doffing gear. There is an error in the tooltip. Thanks, off to bugrep.

Ele has a few different ways to mitigate damage.
As an ele noob i always did better with more HP.

For PVE at level 60 i have 30 water, 20 air, and then the rest will go into arcane.
at level 40 i had 20 air and 10 arcane. this was still a pretty effect pve setup. the dagger dagger ele deals with most damage by simply not taking it.

The combination of mistform/ ether renewal is a huge part of my play style.
I went through the other two heals for a long while but i dont think they compare to what that combination is capable of in terms of staying alive for general usage.

I use dagger dagger mostly but at lower levels i was using scepter/focus. the invulnerability offered there helpped me quite a lot. what i could take on level 15 mobs at 10.

I have an 80 warrior that can pretty much can not be killed by a single at level mob so i understand how fragile the ele feels… however the ele kills things way faster than my warrior does.

This has been an issue with our profession from the beginning. Our stat allocation is pretty much dictated to us from creation. Low base health and lowest armor forces eles to either trait defensively or gear defensively. I don’t know any eles out there running 10-12k bad health build/gear set ups. You have to take some vitality or toughness gear or traits somewhere. IRS just limiting which isn’t really fun. For me I just decided I may as well go all out defensive so I’m bunkering in tourneys and I love it. This is another reason why I feel eles complain about their damage and being weaker, we cannot slot for all damage traits and gear like a warrior because our glass part of the cannon is just insurmountable. (Yes I know there’s glass cannon eles out there, but they either trait for vitality/toughness or at least have some vital gear. Glass cannon with 10-12k health and 900 toughness is pretty much unplayable. Most damage specced classes auto attacks are critting for 1.5-2k (like my warrior) I keep using warrior as an example because I also play a warrior, so in 5-6 auto attacks they would be dead.

Anyways it funny because low base health and low armor and we can still but one of he best tanks in the game if you spec completely for it and gear accordingly, but my lightning whip auto lattack hits for 400-500 damage every swing (lol)

BlueprintLFE.2358:

This has been an issue with our profession from the beginning. Our stat allocation is pretty much dictated to us from creation. Low base health and lowest armor forces eles to either trait defensively or gear defensively. I don’t know any eles out there running 10-12k bad health build/gear set ups.

I tested a 30/30/0/0/10 build in Orr the other day, just to see how it would play out. Even with my mixed-stat gear, it ended disastrously. Against ordinary mobs I was kinda ok, but as soon as I tried to help fight the Priest of Melandru I just got myself two-shotted over and over.

BlueprintLFE.2358:

cznrhubarb.5946:

Well, the 10 second cooldown on the sigils makes the news slightly less exciting, but completely understandable.

Still that gives me a lot more options on my sigils, so thanks for letting me know about it. I guess my question now would be: Is 3 20s stacks of might every 10 seconds better or worse than just using a +5% damage Sigil of Force. Does anyone know the math on this?

Actually mate in a regular D/D fight, I was able to maintain 10 stacks of might from the battle sigil. Just going through my normal rotation. So It is definitely a big help. I personally prefer the energy one more though. I’m 30 in arcane though for the increased boon duration, and the lower attunements cd swap.

That’s good to know. I was thinking of only going 10 in arcana though.

Also, I’m probably ‘doing it wrong’™, but I don’t actually dodge all that much. I actually have 25 in Earth at the moment for the +10% damage at 100 endurance because I pretty much just use the weapon skills to change up my distance and keep knockdowns/stuns/chills going.

That being said, I have also been primarily been playing PvE. I’m about to start transitioning to PvP and I will probably have to learn to start dodging. I’m going to drop Earth traits anyway, so I won’t be using the full endurance buff anyway…

JohnJSal.8634:

Vayra.3290:

JohnJSal.8634:

MarzAttakz.9608:

John please mate, stick with your Ele man! I know it can be frustrating but seriously mate, it does get better and learning to play the Ele well will teach you how to play your other classes even better.

Seriously mate, playing an Elementalist is like having the game stripped down to the bare neccesities of survival, once you’ve mastered that and apply what you’ve learnt to your other characters you’ll notice a drastic improvement in your personal abilities. Heck mate, you’ll even be better at other games.

I get the feeling that he will call to me again, since I still enjoy the element switching aspect. Maybe right now I just needed to take a break from the frustration. As I was playing him, I kept telling myself “Alright, don’t just give up because it’s annoying to take so much damage and die often,” but also I was thinking “Yeah, but I shouldn’t force myself to play something that just isn’t fun and has me screaming at the screen sometimes.”

Like I said, it’s a weird relationship I have with my ele, but I think I’ll probably be drawn back to him at some point.

How is your gear compared to your level? And what stats are you focusing on? I leveled tailoring alongside my ele so I almost always had a source of decent gear for my level.

I keep my gear within 5 or so levels of myself, and right now it’s all toughness and vitality, with the same for the upgrade slots. So maybe that’s helping me not die a fifth or sixth time in a row, but I’m still dying often enough to find it annoying.

I guess the thing is, while I enjoy the element switching, I don’t want to HAVE to switch to water to heal in every fight, even in a one-on-one fight. I shouldn’t have to rely on it that much, except for when I get into more trouble than that.

Also, I don’t want to have to build myself up to be tough, with toughness/vitality gear, Earth/Water traits, etc. I feel like too much time and energy (and gear and traits) are wasted on just making the ele be able to survive, and not on making the profession more FUN to play, e.g. with power/condition/precision upgrades.

In other words, every profession should have a bit of survivability independent of their gear and traits. We shouldn’t be forced to make ourselves playable at the expense of all the other gear/trait options.

Hmm, I don’t remember having that much trouble when I was leveling. I geared almost completely for power and magic find with the odd vitality or toughness rune added. You could try going for a bit more offensive stats to see if you can’t kill stuff before they have a chance to take too much of your life away.

Blaine Tog.8304:

BlueprintLFE.2358:

This has been an issue with our profession from the beginning. Our stat allocation is pretty much dictated to us from creation. Low base health and lowest armor forces eles to either trait defensively or gear defensively. I don’t know any eles out there running 10-12k bad health build/gear set ups.

I tested a 30/30/0/0/10 build in Orr the other day, just to see how it would play out. Even with my mixed-stat gear, it ended disastrously. Against ordinary mobs I was kinda ok, but as soon as I tried to help fight the Priest of Melandru I just got myself two-shotted over and over.

The boss mobs seems to cause me the most problems. the regular and veteran mobs i just fight and not get hit but the boss mobs… even one hit is a down, death, or just out of the fight to heal.

Hp’s just do not scale well. The difference between 21k and 13k HP in this game is pretty drastic. Still….
i played some old school DAOC and casters suffer the same issue there only worse as they could not cast while being hit.

I think the ele is just weak like a caster but fights like a light tank. I dont think that is a bad thing. Dagger dagger ele is pretty cool play style.

cznrhubarb.5946:

BlueprintLFE.2358:

cznrhubarb.5946:

Well, the 10 second cooldown on the sigils makes the news slightly less exciting, but completely understandable.

Still that gives me a lot more options on my sigils, so thanks for letting me know about it. I guess my question now would be: Is 3 20s stacks of might every 10 seconds better or worse than just using a +5% damage Sigil of Force. Does anyone know the math on this?

Actually mate in a regular D/D fight, I was able to maintain 10 stacks of might from the battle sigil. Just going through my normal rotation. So It is definitely a big help. I personally prefer the energy one more though. I’m 30 in arcane though for the increased boon duration, and the lower attunements cd swap.

That’s good to know. I was thinking of only going 10 in arcana though.

Also, I’m probably ‘doing it wrong’™, but I don’t actually dodge all that much. I actually have 25 in Earth at the moment for the +10% damage at 100 endurance because I pretty much just use the weapon skills to change up my distance and keep knockdowns/stuns/chills going.

That being said, I have also been primarily been playing PvE. I’m about to start transitioning to PvP and I will probably have to learn to start dodging. I’m going to drop Earth traits anyway, so I won’t be using the full endurance buff anyway…

10 in arcana can definitely still be a good spec. I actually kept 10 points in earth for armor of earth at 50%, stability in pvp is just too good, but then again I’m bunkering so it’s most likely going to be a different playstyle than you also. Yeah as you integrate more into pvp (which is a lot of fun on an ele) you will start dodging more often. In fact pvping has made me a better Pve’r. I’m so used to fighting players that dodge moves, cc and react to me that I blaze through dungeons haha.

How are you liking the extra damage at 100% endurance? Is it noticeable? I’m kind of against traits like that as dodging can be a lifesaver, but I’m not saying the trait is bad just my personal opinion.

When you start spvp’ing, if you have any questions or need any help or advice on anything shoot me a pm and we can meet on an empty server and go over some things. Same for anyone else.

Blaine Tog.8304:

BlueprintLFE.2358:

This has been an issue with our profession from the beginning. Our stat allocation is pretty much dictated to us from creation. Low base health and lowest armor forces eles to either trait defensively or gear defensively. I don’t know any eles out there running 10-12k bad health build/gear set ups.

I tested a 30/30/0/0/10 build in Orr the other day, just to see how it would play out. Even with my mixed-stat gear, it ended disastrously. Against ordinary mobs I was kinda ok, but as soon as I tried to help fight the Priest of Melandru I just got myself two-shotted over and over.

Haha yeah it can definitely be rough, I could imagine in Orr too.

I ran a glass cannon build in SPVP the other day just to mix it up, went 20 30 0 10 10 with a zerkers amulet. It was fun blowing people up with some heavy hitting moves, but wow was the survivability bad lol. It was pretty much kill or be killed and 1v1 possibly 1v2 or gtfo. It was nice being able to hit hard for a change, but wasn’t worth it in my opinion.

BlueprintLFE.2358:

10 in arcana can definitely still be a good spec. I actually kept 10 points in earth for armor of earth at 50%, stability in pvp is just too good, but then again I’m bunkering so it’s most likely going to be a different playstyle than you also. Yeah as you integrate more into pvp (which is a lot of fun on an ele) you will start dodging more often. In fact pvping has made me a better Pve’r. I’m so used to fighting players that dodge moves, cc and react to me that I blaze through dungeons haha.

How are you liking the extra damage at 100% endurance? Is it noticeable? I’m kind of against traits like that as dodging can be a lifesaver, but I’m not saying the trait is bad just my personal opinion.

When you start spvp’ing, if you have any questions or need any help or advice on anything shoot me a pm and we can meet on an empty server and go over some things. Same for anyone else.

I do pretty good damage, but I still wish I was doing more. It’s part of the reason I’m going to change my build. I’m currently 30/0/25/5/10, working on my soldier exotic armor set with Flame Legion runes, and a lot of the +damage traits (Ember’s Might, Internal Fire, Stone Splinters), sigils of force, etc.
I’m in this sort of half glass cannon state. I don’t die a ton, but I also don’t burst super awesome. I’m a plexi-glass cannon.

Based on the break down Creslin gave in the other threads about traits, I was thinking about switching to Air/Water spec and focusing on spike damage over going straight up power.

cznrhubarb.5946:

BlueprintLFE.2358:

10 in arcana can definitely still be a good spec. I actually kept 10 points in earth for armor of earth at 50%, stability in pvp is just too good, but then again I’m bunkering so it’s most likely going to be a different playstyle than you also. Yeah as you integrate more into pvp (which is a lot of fun on an ele) you will start dodging more often. In fact pvping has made me a better Pve’r. I’m so used to fighting players that dodge moves, cc and react to me that I blaze through dungeons haha.

How are you liking the extra damage at 100% endurance? Is it noticeable? I’m kind of against traits like that as dodging can be a lifesaver, but I’m not saying the trait is bad just my personal opinion.

When you start spvp’ing, if you have any questions or need any help or advice on anything shoot me a pm and we can meet on an empty server and go over some things. Same for anyone else.

I do pretty good damage, but I still wish I was doing more. It’s part of the reason I’m going to change my build. I’m currently 30/0/25/5/10, working on my soldier exotic armor set with Flame Legion runes, and a lot of the +damage traits (Ember’s Might, Internal Fire, Stone Splinters), sigils of force, etc.
I’m in this sort of half glass cannon state. I don’t die a ton, but I also don’t burst super awesome. I’m a plexi-glass cannon.

Based on the break down Creslin gave in the other threads about traits, I was thinking about switching to Air/Water spec and focusing on spike damage over going straight up power.

Hmm in my experience the air spike damage is a bit better. I put 20 in fire mainly for the cd reduction on fire grab and extra damage on fire. I picked up 30 in air for 20% damage to knockdownsd/cc’d foes which to my surprise came up more often than I thought. I real good spike damage combo that I was working on (this is nothing unknown, just regular combos) was Ride the lightning, Updraft, burning speed like normal and Ring of Fire arcane wave for the might stack (the Point Blank AOE one) then firegrab… All of these attacks these benefitted from 20% extra damage to cc’d, as well as 10% damage to burning foes. Burning speed was hitting like a truck which surprised me. Arcane wave hits hard with the extra 20% percent damage (not sure if 10% to burning foes applies for this). It produced laughably good results against glass cannon thieves who are so used to insta killing other players that they are completely lost when it happens to them, especially if you RTL from a good distance off, you can unload this combo in an extremely quick amount of time and be stomping immediately after.

BlueprintLFE.2358:

Hmm in my experience the air spike damage is a bit better. I put 20 in fire mainly for the cd reduction on fire grab and extra damage on fire. I picked up 30 in air for 20% damage to knockdownsd/cc’d foes which to my surprise came up more often than I thought. I real good spike damage combo that I was working on (this is nothing unknown, just regular combos) was Ride the lightning, Updraft, burning speed like normal and Ring of Fire arcane wave for the might stack (the Point Blank AOE one) then firegrab… All of these attacks these benefitted from 20% extra damage to cc’d, as well as 10% damage to burning foes. Burning speed was hitting like a truck which surprised me. Arcane wave hits hard with the extra 20% percent damage (not sure if 10% to burning foes applies for this). It produced laughably good results against glass cannon thieves who are so used to insta killing other players that they are completely lost when it happens to them, especially if you RTL from a good distance off, you can unload this combo in an extremely quick amount of time and be stomping immediately after.

Have you tested the damage difference if you have Grounded or not in combination with Updraft? Someone was saying in another thread that Grounded’s extra damage didn’t affect Updraft since it was a launcher and not a knockdown (or something to that effect).

I’m probably the only Ele out there who loves scepter/focus. The focus gives you lots of defense from projectiles (swirling winds), a reflect projectiles that also cures conditions (magnetic wave) and a 4 second immunity to damage(obsidian flesh). In water you get a 2 second daze and a flamewall when in fire that adds some nice burning if switch quickly to earth and charge in and set off magnetic wave (projectiles reflected, cure 3 conditions, damages foe if close AND its a blast finisher for the flame wall.) I’m running a 10/0/10/30/20 build and heavy on the cantrips (Mist, armour of earth and cleansing fire). I don’t know how I would fair in sPvP but for PvE and WvW it is effective both with a group or by myself. TBH, I don’t drop anything quick. For me its all about staying alive while my conditions wear them out and while I can often win 1v1 I usually lose out to 1v2 but its a heck of a fight and they both leave hurt.

ogreatbeardedone.1953:

I’m probably the only Ele out there who loves scepter/focus. The focus gives you lots of defense from projectiles (swirling winds), a reflect projectiles that also cures conditions (magnetic wave) and a 4 second immunity to damage(obsidian flesh). In water you get a 2 second daze and a flamewall when in fire that adds some nice burning if switch quickly to earth and charge in and set off magnetic wave (projectiles reflected, cure 3 conditions, damages foe if close AND its a blast finisher for the flame wall.) I’m running a 10/0/10/30/20 build and heavy on the cantrips (Mist, armour of earth and cleansing fire). I don’t know how I would fair in sPvP but for PvE and WvW it is effective both with a group or by myself. TBH, I don’t drop anything quick. For me its all about staying alive while my conditions wear them out and while I can often win 1v1 I usually lose out to 1v2 but its a heck of a fight and they both leave hurt.

Haha it’s funny you said that mate, I was testing the focus just kind of kittening around today in some duels. I actually enjoyed the focus a bit, but 2 things turned me off. 1) the kitten cooldowns. Holy kitten 50 second cool down for a knockdown in water!? The cool downs are very long. Some like obsidian flesh (50 sec) I understand, but a 50 second knockdown nope! Number 2) I can’t stand losing cleansing wave, ride the lightning, updraft, earthquake, fire grab, and churning earth lol.

cznrhubarb.5946:

BlueprintLFE.2358:

Hmm in my experience the air spike damage is a bit better. I put 20 in fire mainly for the cd reduction on fire grab and extra damage on fire. I picked up 30 in air for 20% damage to knockdownsd/cc’d foes which to my surprise came up more often than I thought. I real good spike damage combo that I was working on (this is nothing unknown, just regular combos) was Ride the lightning, Updraft, burning speed like normal and Ring of Fire arcane wave for the might stack (the Point Blank AOE one) then firegrab… All of these attacks these benefitted from 20% extra damage to cc’d, as well as 10% damage to burning foes. Burning speed was hitting like a truck which surprised me. Arcane wave hits hard with the extra 20% percent damage (not sure if 10% to burning foes applies for this). It produced laughably good results against glass cannon thieves who are so used to insta killing other players that they are completely lost when it happens to them, especially if you RTL from a good distance off, you can unload this combo in an extremely quick amount of time and be stomping immediately after.

Have you tested the damage difference if you have Grounded or not in combination with Updraft? Someone was saying in another thread that Grounded’s extra damage didn’t affect Updraft since it was a launcher and not a knockdown (or something to that effect).

Hmm yes I actually just read that in the trait thread. It may not benefit then I might be wrong, but either way with the air build Crit damage and that combo was still hitting hard as hell. 8.8 Crit on churning earth on glass cannon thief!

MarzAttakz.9608:

John please mate, stick with your Ele man! I know it can be frustrating but seriously mate, it does get better and learning to play the Ele well will teach you how to play your other classes even better.

Seriously mate, playing an Elementalist is like having the game stripped down to the bare neccesities of survival, once you’ve mastered that and apply what you’ve learnt to your other characters you’ll notice a drastic improvement in your personal abilities. Heck mate, you’ll even be better at other games.

Just wondering but how is any of that fun to play?

I came to Guildwars 2 for a fun experience not a “white knuckle hand eye coordination must be top notch 24/7 i could die to anything at anytime” thing…

Ele is just not fun at all…

Different people have different definitions of what they find fun, and that’s fine.

My ele was my first character, and I got her to 80 before really spending time on anything else. To be honest, I didn’t use her full potential, and stuck with a staff during leveling, and almost always fire. I rarely died, once I learned to move around more. Now, I’m still not at a point where I change attunements very often, but do sometimes, and play mostly D/D, switching to staff when I’m coming up on an enemy that I know I don’t want to be in melee range for.

Spending time on other professions seems to help with my elementalist play-style. It also helps when a random person comes to you and says “Holy cow, you do a lot of damage in PvE. I’m going to roll an ele.” (paraphrased) If you’re frustrated, spend time with another profession, but give ele chances whenever you learn something new. And take advantage of sPvP to try out different trait builds and skill abilities.

There may be some apparent disadvantages compared to other classes, but I wouldn’t describe them as “weak.”

@Dante: I guess it a personal thing, some people enjoy a challenge and I got bored extremely quickly with how easy other classes are (got a ele, guardian, mesmer, ranger and warrior and deleted my necro and thief alts).

With that said though I did want to quit due to frustration at times. However once I had the tools and skills neccessary to play really well I hardly ever play my other characters.

The biggest compliment I received was after doing a few WvW runs with a new guild one guy piped up with the following in Teamspeak – “Hey man, what class are you playing?” I responded “I’m an Elementalist for life mate” he responded “Holy kitten I thought you were a Guardian”. Muted my mic and had a good laugh because they’d never been exposed to a D/D Ele playing aggressively.