I see many complaints that eles are weak, but I wasn’t sure if it was PvE or PvP… Or both. I really want to play this class cause it looks fun/challenging. Thanks.
They are fine in PvE. Please do not let anybody tell you otherwise. I know at least 3 builds that are more than viable in PvE, including dungeons. Personally on my level 80 ele I enjoy condition damage, using a scepter/dagger in earth, as it can spam bleeds like no other, and you are actually fairly durable. Wear Carrion armor or something for the added condition damage as well as vitality. Obviously you want runes that add condition damage/bleed duration. 30 points in Earth/30 points in Fire/10 points in Air has work exceedingly well for me (The 30 points in fire I use to do more damage to burning foes and 30% burn chance on crit since I use signet of fire as well)
Just yesterday I ran a dungeon with some alliance members and we had 3 elementalists in the party, one of which was a pug, as well as a thief and necromancer (No heavy armor at all). The dungeon was Sorrow’s Embrace Story Mode for those of you that might try to say we did something easy. We only wiped completely one time and that was to the golems because they kept coming and we weren’t ready for them.
A side note: You CANNOT take damage. With the rock barrier on scepter earth and your traits you can take a bit more of a beating than most Elemenalists, but you cannot take prolonged damage at all. Make sure to learn to dodge, and make use of your utilities and such to keep mobile at all times, pay very close attention to your enemies movements. Also, I suggest Ether Renewal for healing against any form of condition damage since it removes conditions like nothing I’ve ever seen.
Level 80 Elementalist/Warrior/Ranger/Mesmer
Leader and founder of [BIO] on Sea of Sorrows
A lot of people missunderstand what people mean when they say the ele is weak, in PVE the proffesion is not weak in terms of being able to do content. The ele is weak compaired to other proffesions as they can do the same content BUT a lot easier along with less work (less button presses etc).
So it’s a case of, in PVE you’ll do just fine as an ele – however if you pick a different proffesion you’ll be able to do the same content a lot quicker and a with a lot less buttons.
Same goes for PVP really, you can do it just fine as an ele – but with other proffesions it’s just easier.
Ele isn’t weak, but it is harder to play than other classes. I play full MF gear and the damage numbers are still pretty good, though I die in 2 hits from bosses.
If you don’t make the mistake you use the Staff in solo PvE or stay in Fire the whole time to deal damage (hint: Earth does more damage and has far more protection) you’re fine, but not great.
But still, at lower levels Eles are a pain to play compared to some other professions.
It is viable, but weak, and overdesigned. Anything it can do can be done better and more easily elsewhere.
I got mine to 80 and then switched over to a warrior and the difference is incredible so far as pve goes. (I still like the ele better in WvW however.)
The profession needs an across the board increase in single target damage. But even if it gets one, at a basic level it is probably broken and unfixable due to the fundamental design choice of attunement swapping. It will be impossible to streamline the class and get it to perform like others due to the Rube Goldbergesque constraints of this design choice. Some people will enjoy this needless complexity, but I predict that will be a minority choice.
I really dont understand where this fascination with “underpowered elementalists” comes from.. yes I have played other professions (thief, warrior and guardian mostly) and yes, they do have stronger per swing damage, but I still prefer my elementalist, and will probably out damage my own other toons.
I havent had a time where I really felt weak, although there are plenty of times when I am 2-3 shotted pretty quickly, usually on my personal stories thanks to crap AI (stupid Trahearne just stands there sometimes doing absolutely nothing)
So your other characters do more damage and then you say you get 2-3 shot pretty quickly. Other than that elementalists are totally fine? Good to know!
Way to actually read what I wrote there. I said that yes, they do have strong per swing damage (meaning they tend to hit harder per individual swing of their weapon), however I still will out damage my other toons.
and yes, I do tend to get 2-3 shotted if im not paying attention.. but what do you expect from a class wearing light armor?
but you arent really looking for a differing opinion, neither are the majority of the people crying about how they get killed so fast when playing an ele… So, meh, whatever
Actually, I expected to die near instantly when I chose the light armor class that flings fireballs. I expect to die instantly when I gear out totally for power/precision/crit damage.
What I don’t expect is my friend who plays next to me to play his warrior, be able to take a good number of hits, and then hit a few buttons and his giant greatsword of doom makes my elementalist look like he’s shooting fireworks.
The Ele is good for PvE if you want a more challenging and involved playstyle. You have to switch between the elements to be effective. I usually carry a staff for when I get in a group but when I’m soloing I prefer two daggers which I think is good if you prefer a more aggressive style.
Actually, I expected to die near instantly when I chose the light armor class that flings fireballs. I expect to die instantly when I gear out totally for power/precision/crit damage.
What I don’t expect is my friend who plays next to me to play his warrior, be able to take a good number of hits, and then hit a few buttons and his giant greatsword of doom makes my elementalist look like he’s shooting fireworks.
Ele – kite kite kite, get hit by some kind of ranged necro attack ,loose 50% of your health, get slowed, kite some more. adds. your dead
A lot of people missunderstand what people mean when they say the ele is weak, in PVE the proffesion is not weak in terms of being able to do content. The ele is weak compaired to other proffesions as they can do the same content BUT a lot easier along with less work (less button presses etc).
So it’s a case of, in PVE you’ll do just fine as an ele – however if you pick a different proffesion you’ll be able to do the same content a lot quicker and a with a lot less buttons.
This is the heart of the matter and what it’s really about. People will bicker back and forth about ‘learn to play’ and other nonsense that contributes nothing. But the -fact- is the person I quoted speaks truth. That is the core issue. At a certain point having to play so much better for equal (more likely lesser) results tends to get a bit frustrating and that’s what most people are upset about.
As far as I remember from beta, all ranged focused professions are intentionally more squishy and do less damage, compared to melee focused classes. This is to compensate for melee being forced to be closer to mobs and as such more subject of being mauled on, especially in WvW zergs and against hard hitting PvE event bosses.
But in practice, this creates the situation that melee seems to be able to just farm away mobs in no time with no effort in simple 1v1 PvE. Compared to Elementalist, using Daggers does not seem to close this gap substantially enough either. My experience is mostly based on what I see in the higher level zones like Orr and maybe 10-15 levels lower.
I think they should just remove the different armor classes, and all professions already have different ranged options anyway. Together with removing the trinity, wouldn’t this make sense in order to have a better time balancing the professions?
More straight on topic: It is fun enough or me, as long as I don’t pay too much attention to how fast and effortless other professions annihilate stuff in PvE.
Ok, I see a lot of complaint about the complexity versus the simplicity of other classes. I guess I don’t see this as an issue. I think the attunement is an excellent mechanic and when mastered, can be very rewarding to play. I have spent a lot of time on my ele just trying to master the staff, and switching out elements mid fight etc. Instead of ragging on the class mechanics, why not learn to exploit the nuances of the class. What I am really seeing is a lot of folks basically admitting they are too lazy to push more buttons. Guess I can’t fault them for it. WoW probably made them that way.
Ok I jest…a little. I personally like the fact that I have to pay attention to where I am in proximity to my enemy if I want to survive. Attuning is not a burden to me, I like the versatility. It’s why I picked the class. However, I am also not hyper-fixated on dos numbers and am content to sacrifice some to be able to protect myself and have some control over enemy encounters. The elementalist is well suited to this.
Elementalist is not weak in the sense that it is not viable. It is perfectly viable as a class.
Elementalist is weak in the sense that it requires far more effort and proficiency at the game to get the same results as other classes get with less of both.
Leveling from 1 to 80 and then playing at 80 pretty much entirely with a close friend of mine that plays warrior, our situation has been the same throughout the entire game. I work my butt off switching elements and planning out combos two and three element changes in advance… he spams For Great Justice and hundred blades. We get similar results. He can take hits like a champ, I have to evade for my life as soon as something looks at me funny (yes I use Carrion gear and Earth traits with defensive utilities, it’s not for lack of survivability in the build).
The Elementalist is a great class, BUT you have to figure out a good play style for you and I really believe, everyone is different. I’m level 60 and certainly not weak at all and haven’t been since day 1. I can take multiple enemies on with AoE attacks and my damage over time or conditional damage can really work, especially if I am running around trying to avoid enemies.
The thing is, you can’t just stand there and “pew pew pew” and like other people are saying you must use strategy and think about how to evade and best use your spells. Of course EVERY class and EVERY player dies and you know I find it funny that people proclaim the Elementalist weak when I’ve been among the last players standing, helping downed Warriors and other heavy hitters. We are not tanks, we are not meant to be tanks nor are we meant to melee our way into mobs.
Ele is my first char and the question to ask is, “Am I viable to be an Elementalist?”!
There are other classes for single-target spike damage: play those if that’s what you want to do. Always remember: your DPS is ZERO when you’re dead.
If you want more variety, options, complexity, try ele. The few times I played my wife’s ranger, I got bored because its a lot less demanding.
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When I was your age, I could outrun a centaur…until I took an arrow to the knee
Elementalist is hands down my favorite profession in this game, are they viable in pve, hell yes. I loved wow, then it got old and i stopped playing it but when i did play i played a shaman and ele are a bit like them just not as forgiving. u have utility designed to be enacted in situations that, if u r playing right, u create and or have to work out of. my idea of a good time. Elementalists are hands down balls to the walls edge of your seat execute or die profession. You know what u will not see, elementalist bots, u want a 3 button class with range and mindless play roll something else. u want a 1 button roll warrior. stop trying to play elementalist. I hit 80 about a week after the game went live, and have been end game pve’ing since, before i trun my attention to wvw and spvp. initially it was hard, a hell of alot harder than every other class, is that fair no, but whocares i like blowing kitten up and if u have an inkling of skill than elementalist do it like no other class. staff for pve is fun conservative and less hardcore then scepter/dagger (focus sucks unless u spec aura or …) then there is last but sure as hell not least dagger/dagger. as soon as i got my head around the fact that the profession played like a situational execute on time playstyle it got easier, as soon as i tasted the immense damge possible with daggers there was no looking back. no other class can out damage elementalist, that i have seen except maybe a good mesmer, and even then if u bring your a game u will litterally be doing the work of the whole dynamic event zerg group before they even get close enough to hit the mobs. its dmg is nuts, and its aoe which makes it even crazier. ride the lightning to updraft to stance dance attunement swap to fire burning speed back in to ring of fire/arcane blast/fire grab/drakes breath and if placed right (this is where skill is involved) everything is dead. attacking wave of risen dead to the veteran who has 1/2 his health and by this time everyone else is arriving. dodge away to the back of the pack and let someone else actually hit the mobs. its crazy and i deffinatley would suggest trying it. the day i hit 80 if someone told me exactly what type of build to use to do that there is no way i could have executed it. so practice, skill knowledge (when to burn cd’s when not to), and an understanding that you are a melee glass cannon will get u on your way to not sucking. U will die alot, overextend, burn cd’s when u shouldn’t, have a stupid parrot pet with a death wish, or go afk for 3 secs open field and death awaits. sorry for the winded reply but i thought maybe a bit of this might inform someone who by chance read it. peace and go hard or go home, want easy roll something else.
Elementalists are totally viable in PvE. sure, you might have a harder time than if you played warrior, and you can’t just hundred blades everything to death or spin-to-win, but with proper attunement swapping, even dual daggers is rather survivable, as you can easily heal for 70% of your HP within 5 seconds.
the only thing you’ll have problems with might be soloing and in 1v1 fights, but nowadays, there are enough people even in the high level areas to avoid many of these.
Really, don’t worry about what people are saying about elementalists being weak. they’re only RELATIVELY weak, but they’re still perfectly viable. heck, before i learned about the other classes, i thought everyone else had as hard a time as i did getting to lvl 80!
So how I see the thread, its quite hard to pve and pvp by an ele, nearly impossible to solo, but its ok.. lol : P
Way some ppl think, that just they have the rights to try all classes in this game? All of us made rounds in pvp and in pve as well with all classes and its not a secret how its like when you switch to ele.. pve slows down and you should investigate 100 times more energy to stay alive in pvp.
It is not hard at all to solo (I’m doing it and can take on multiple mobs with NO problems), but as everyone has said you have to practice and figure things out! For the person who is impatient, who doesn’t like investing time in their class, of course it is hard to solo with an Ele, but what do you expect? PvE slows down? Hell no! I can’t stop leveling so fast! People are making assumptions based on individuals who cannot handle complex classes where you don’t just mash one or two buttons and call it a day. Is it hard? NOPE, but that is MY experience because I LOVE playing an Elementalist and classes like that so I’m used to something more than mindless button mashing!
I think ele is harder to pve than other warrior but I am having a blast and just broke 40.
Sure my warrior could take out veteran stuff while my ele can’t but I just wait for someone else who needs the same skill challenge and then help out. I rarely have to wait more than a few mins.
Some of it may have to do with this being my highest lev toon and everything I do is new. It is way underequipped for it’s level as I am just not getting light armor drops but part of what got boring as a warrior was mowing everything down. Ele makes me think abit more.
Stumbled across pvp the other night and had a blast there as well. Doubt I’d ever find myself in a 1v1 situation. It’s either a mob v 1 or mob v mob, hehe. TBH, I know I damaged a ton of opponents but I couldnt say if I had the killing blows or if that even matters in pvp. I haven’t seen any statistical boxes yet of kills vs deaths. I wish we didnt suffer armor damage in pvp but I had to leave after my repair bills started dipping into my level 40 training skill book fund
I’d say viable yes, strong solo not so much but add in anyone else and stuff dies very fast
Always upgrade your gear. I’ve seen Warriors struggling to take down enemies and when talking to one, after I helped him out, it turns out their gear was like 10-12 levels below where it should be. I think he upgraded and I saw him later mowing everything down haha. Upgraded gear greatly changes things and I personally learned this around level 11 when I finally could use the Trade Post and upgraded everything (big difference in DPS and gameplay). So I evaluate my gear ever 5-10 levels and right now I feel it is a little weak and I need to upgrade. I don’t have problems taking down Veterans, not at all, two is a challenge ,but doable with some effort.
problem is lack of funds, world pvp is fun but expensive for repairs and I always forget to pick up little bags of loot. Jumping off of castles in pvp world also doesn’t carry over to pve world and have accidentally died due to that as well, lol. Can’t wait till I hit 80 for real and have all the skill/trait slots available.
No, don’t start ele. You’ll have fun up until level 20, maybe 30, then some warrior will come by, autoattack a mob for the damage produced by your entire chain, and you will reroll.
i think ele got hard to play for me around lev 25ish. all of a sudden things started hitting me real hard. I don’t know if it was a patch but suddenly I started trying to take on only one mob at a time and veteran stuff smacked the heck out of me but thats what made it fun and why I left warrior.
Eles are excellent in PvE & WvW. Sure we can’t gather up mobs and mindlessly press 100b to clear them, but it’s not like a Lava Font + Eruption + Arcane Wave won’t clear most trash mobs anyway. In addition, with our permanent swiftness from the moment we get Arcane Wave on we’ll be running circles around said warrior.
In a dungeon, Eles bring a lot as well, very high AoE damage, a lot of AoE CC, group swiftness, minor healing, by far the highest damage to static things (very useful in runs like Magg CoF). The warrior will bring more single target dmg and FGJ.
Anyone crying about the class in PvE is delusional. Our main faults, the squishiness, and the worthless downed state are negiligable in PvE where it is easy to avoid damage if you use your brain and mobs rarely focus or are even able to kill you before Mist Form is available.
