Guild Wars 2

When I play characters I typically look for theme the most. Which is why I liked when in GW1 you could choose to play as a air elementalist, or water elementalist, etc. I never played Fire or Earth because I simply don’t like the theme of it.

I’ve read that in GW2 you pretty much need to swap out elements. That you can’t just play as an air or water elementalist. I’ve only played a little and I really prefer to just use air and water. Do you really need to swap to fire and earth when doing pve or spvp?

In most PvE scenarios you can probably get away with only using 2 attunements. People have done with only one. However, the moment you want to become more competitive in any of PvE, PvP of any form, then you will need all 4 attunements. Otherwise, prepare to get your butt handed to you.

Not sure about spvp or pve But, in WvW, you need to rotate all four attunements.

I can get away with just 2 in PVE but as soon as i get in WvW I switch around like a mad man.
Once you learn the system it can really pay off tho.
Embrace the 4 attunements XD

In PvE you can get away with it. Conjures will be ideal though to make up for the long swapping times.

For PvE, it all really depends on who you play with and how it affects what you’re doing. If you’re by yourself in the open world, you could fight with a staff and no armor if you wanted. If you’re playing with other people, in something like dungeons, you’re affecting their progress and not just your own.

My personal opinion is that neglecting half your elements is like neglecting half of your profession’s capabilities. Every element has its purpose, offering you a wide variety of abilities. Whether or not you like them does not change the fact that they are useful.

Why would anyone want to “stick to two”? You would be giving up 50% of your fighting capabilities, like fighting with “one arm tied behind your back”. People say it but none actually do it.

Ele’s don’t define their builds in terms of which Attunements they specialize in but in terms of their weapons (staff, d/d, etc…), traits, and play style (tank, cleric, etc..)

Open world pve, yes. Dungeon pve, no. sPvP, nononono.

You can get away with doing whatever you want in open world but you’re playing at 50% effectiveness unless you’re going for very niche builds in pvp and dungeons.

I guess if you really want to go water/air at least they both have direct damage.. and lightning hammer/frost bow seem to be the best conjures atm…

Well good luck, There’s probably some build you can make “work” and have fun. Though eventually you’ll probably want to be effective

Meosuke.8167:

I can get away with just 2 in PVE but as soon as i get in WvW I switch around like a mad man.
Once you learn the system it can really pay off tho.
Embrace the 4 attunements XD

Remember not to switch too fast. If fighting another ele, always take time to hit w4,w3,w2,w5 before going to fire or whateva next.

Chill affects attunemnt swap rates!

Edit : also hitting the last spell, does not require it to finish before u can swap. So w5 is last because it takes some time

I feel for you OP. I love the idea of having an elementalist specializing in a certain element and have a theme to them. This was great in GW1 because you were basically expected to stick to one element, but as an ele in GW2 you are expected to master them all and constantly switch between the four attunements (I’ve grown to accept it though and I switch between attunements quite often). I guess that’s why the ele isn’t split into four classes called ice mage, fire mage, etc. It’s like weapons swapping for other classes: I hated the idea at first but after a while I just accepted that it’s part of the game and learned to embrace it.

If you don’t use all elements regularly, frequently, and competently …and don’t learn and understand how they work together, then you will never be a good elementalist in any situation.

No, you can not use only 2 or even 3.
Bad design are forcing you to jump around in all 4 atunemens.. all the time..
doing all kinds of things.. for very little reward.
UNLESS. you play DD (Dagger/dagger).

for the moment. there is only 1 realy working weapon set. and its DD.

if you learn to play DD a little. you can start to troll a whole group of people in wvw.
They cant kill you. but you can still kill them.

how ever. dont try trolling a group if you use any other weapon tho,
you will die in seconds then.

DD is THE strongest and thoughest specc right now.

good luck

It’s great that we have all the elements available all the time but I personally hate that you can’t specialize in one or two. That’s why I propose that EVERY elemental trait line should have a grandmaster trait that will allow you to weapon swap but lock you out of other elements. It’s crazy, I know, but if I could swap between D/D and Staff while in water, I could easily fill a support role while doing decent damage. It would give Eles the ability to change their range mid-battle, something that is seriously lacking because of poor skill design. Also, focusing more on weapon swapping instead of attunement swapping would give Eles a reason to stop focusing on Arcana and branch out into other trait lines. Having traits that are “only in fire” would make more sense if you have more than 5 fire-based attacks available. Being that these are Grandmaster traits, it would be possible to specialize in 2 elements with 10 skills in each so Eles would still have the same amount of skills available. If nothing else, such a simple change would open up a lot more build potential.

No, some enemies are more vulnerable/stronger to certian elements that’s why it’s good to have all of them. Not only that, but ele skills have long cooldowns so it’s nice to be able to have something to cast.

Irena.1062:

No, some enemies are more vulnerable/stronger to certian elements that’s why it’s good to have all of them. Not only that, but ele skills have long cooldowns so it’s nice to be able to have something to cast.

can you explain that please.

whould be cool if heavy armor users was weaker against air(lightning)
or fire. but they are not.

Yes; Underwater I only stay in Water and Air huehuehue!

The less you attunement swap, the more you’ll be using our crappy #1 attacks on weapons, so I don’t recommend it.

Can you? Sure, the game is easy enough that you can handicap yourself and still succeed in most things. It’s a bit like asking “Can I play GW2 if I only equip one utility skill and no elite?” though.

i play my elementalist as norn.

so the elite skill is kinda crap anyways.
when i think of it.. i have never. ever used my elite skill.. thats how bad it is.

It’d be nice if our “favorite” element that we choose in character creation actually had some effect on our skills rather than just deciding what headpiece we get at the beginning which is gonna be dumped pretty fast anyway. Like, say if you picked water as your character’s favorite element, then maybe you get certain perks when using that element like more damage, faster skill recharge, faster spell cast, or SOMETHING. I know this is sort of off topic but something like this would allow certain players to stick more with one element over the others.

actually. thats a good idea.. and it cant be that hard to implement.
We already have items with +10 % condition durations.

So it cant be hard to tweak that into what you said. dmg, skill cd, healing
or what ever when you are in your specified element.