Guild Wars 2

After trying out several builds in PvP, since the last balance patch, I’ve come to the conclusion that the nerfs to elementalist back in the d/d “meta squared” meta have hurt the profession really bad, and that it became pretty much bottom tier without them, especially without the celestial amulet (which was an excellent decision to remove from PvP).

The only “viable” build at the moment is fresh air, and it’s underpowered against half of the professions/builds. Staff is a gimmick unreliable build that is very strong in WvW, but can easily be countered in PvP and high level matches.

• Skip this part if you already understand why the old d/d cele meta^2 build worked so well

First let me explain why the old cele meta was so strong, for those that didn’t know the build. The water specialization provided acess to vigor+regeneration in cantrips (all of the utilities that were used with this build) and whenever regen was used a condition would be cleansed. This would provide near immunity to conditions if you knew which skills to use. Regeneration would in turn provide a lot of sustain due to the celestial’s amulet healing power, along with the healing signet.

Vigor, along with the sigil of energy, would fit the elementalist’s playstyle really well due to the arcane specialization grandmaster trait (evasive arcana), that would provide healing on water attunement, CC on the air attunement (blind), damage + condition damage on fire and earth attunements, and increased survivability through dodges. Arcane would also provide extra boon duration, and a strong baseline trait that provides a boon specific to the attunement used (on swap).

Along with these traits, by using the * fire specialization*, blinding ashes (a grandmaster trait) would blind enemies when burning was used, which in turn would increase the survivability even further.

The d/d weaponset, along with one of the cantrips (lightning flash) and the fire GS elite skill, would provide this build with very good mobility.

It was perfect survivability with no tradeoff, except for power. This is what made this build overpowered: Elementalist had access to 3 might stacks whenever a cantrip was used, access to blast finishers and fire fields. This would compensate for the lack of power that the celestial amulet didn’t provide to other professions/builds, and would fit the elementalist hybrid condition+power based damage like a glove. This extra raw power + access to the strongest condition in the game (burning) would be further enhanced by the condition the extra condition damage provided by the celestial amulet and permanent 15-25 might stacks (which increase power+condition damage) during a battle, especially due to the Rune of strenght/hoelbrak that everyone used with this build.

By removing/nerfing blinding ashes , aura duration, might on cantrips, increasing cooldowns on defensive traits that provided vigor/frost aura when crit damage was used on you, along with d/d condition duration/stacks, made the d/d build a lot more in line with the rest of the builds. When HoT was released, a lot of elite specializations + revenant made it to top tier, but elementalist still not being the preferred in “meta” compositions was still viable and new builds like Staff Tempest emerged and were still viable.

Then the bunker meta estabilished, and everyone used the celestial amulet on lots of builds which made Arenanet remove all of the “bunker” amulets for the health of the game. Which was a great decision and refreshening for the PvP meta. I loved that they made this decision, and that we’d have a chance to make/theorycraft a whole new meta again.

Along with the new profession balancing patch, came a buff to fresh air. The balance team purposely buffed fresh air, because they knew (if they understand how elementalist works, which contrary to “popular” belief I do think that they know their professions) that would make elementalist have 0 “viable” builds in PvP against all of the other professions, especially agains the new elite specializations.

Which brings us to the conclusion to this wall of text: the fire specialization nerfs have to be reverted. Outside of fresh air there is no other viable build. Elementalist has no viable condition builds, weak support builds when compared to other professions, no bunker builds, nothing.

Please analyse from a balance stand point what does the elementalist have right now. If we chose an offensive amulet (paladin/marauder for example), we’ll lack sustain because we’ve got no healing power to sustain our regen/healing signet. If we chose an amulet with healing power we’ll lack damage and we won’t be better than other professions supporting our allies. We have no reliable offensive condition build even with the “expertise” stat. Warhorn is in a weak spot in PvP at the moment, as we have to support our allies in melee range and with a slow casting offhand weapon we sacrifice our survivability a lot (it works fine in WvW and it’s great for PvE raids, but has no place in PvP).

If a profession is locked to stats to be viable, then there’s something wrong with the way it works. The only unique mechanic on this profession is Auras. Mesmer has clones/phantasms, Thief has stealth/mobility, Necromancer has condition application/boon corruption, Ranger has pets, etc. Elementalist could be redesigned to be based on auras, this would be a great way to start. A profession viability shouldn’t be tied to stats.

P.S.: I’ve been having fun with s/d and s/f fresh air (either with vanilla elementalist or tempest), and I can win a lot of fights. But against players that have 3000 hours invested in one profession like I do, it’s impossible to win with the elementalist’s current state in PvP. The only place where I can actually have a chance is in WvW where I can mix my stats and making it less weak. I’ve been in a couple of PvP matches where my teammates say we’re handicapped because I’m using elementalist: this is how far it has become bottom tier in PvP (but yeah, they are right to a certain extent).

Dibaryon.7469:

The only “viable” build at the moment is fresh air

Stopped reading here.

Edit: Don’t mean to be rude… but reading the forums, apparently either I am playing another game or the opinion is very subjective to the playing style, so I will stop advocating/attaking the elementalist as a class… which I find great and fun to play, over everything versatile and adaptable…

If you think I’m wrong or if there’s something else to discuss feel free to do it, it’s what forums are for. I don’t mind being wrong at all, everyone is welcome to agree or disagree if they have constructive criticism. “Stopped reading here” does not bring anything to the discussion unfortunately.

I should add that any build works well against inexperienced players. So if you read that there was this one guy with a certain build that won a 1v2, that’s not representative of the current situation and should be interpreted as an exception to the rule. I can easily make a video and put it on youtube with a condi elementalist in PvP (just showing the wins), and just because I can do that it doesn’t mean that it’s viable.

Dibaryon.7469:

If you think I’m wrong or if there’s something else to discuss feel free to do it, it’s what forums are for. I don’t mind being wrong at all, everyone is welcome to agree or disagree if they have constructive criticism. “Stopped reading here” does not bring anything to the discussion unfortunately.

I should add that any build works well against inexperienced players. So if you read that there was this one guy with a certain build that won a 1v2, that’s not representative of the current situation and should be interpreted as an exception to the rule. I can easily make a video and put it on youtube with a condi elementalist in PvP (just showing the wins), and just because I can do that it doesn’t mean that it’s viable.

Totally agree with this, what I don’t agree with is claiming to know “the only viable build” unless you try every single possible combination on every possible scenario in order to be able to say so.
A more humble approach would be… I tried this builds and only succeeded with this one.

Playing several hours on previous metas can hinder a more global view of the class because, first attempt would be to try old proven to work meta builds in order to short the limited testing time… which I think is fine, but due to all changes not only in classes but also mechanics there’s new factors that count into place, even the general vigor could be life changing.

Edit: Also I think it’s safe to put into consideration, failing with a build alone is not a reason to discard it. In my personal limited experience, if I find a build that I am comfortable with that adapts to my play style, I give it several chances, tunning it changing things here and there on what I consider is failing. Sometimes it’s not even the amulet or the utility skills… it’s the rotations that needs to be tunned. Sometimes there’s no miracle formula againist certain class, because for example sone rangers transfer conditions to pets, some doesn’t, so the rotation I found doesn’t work as well…. to master a build takes several days …. I wouldn’t try a build and say it doesn’t work. There is of course builds that simply require so much changes that turn out to be a whole different build… but I think it’s a process that cannot be trivialized and that many players won’t experience since they wait until metabattle posts what’s popular and addapt to them.

Sorry if I sounded arrogant, but you’re very welcome to prove me wrong. I’d be thankful for that.

I haven’t been playing this game much anymore but off hand dagger doesn’t seem to be meta anymore, D/F mercenary tempest seems pretty kitten strong though.

Dibaryon.7469:

Sorry if I sounded arrogant, but you’re very welcome to prove me wrong. I’d be thankful for that.

Just found another build that is viable, gets complimented sometimes by both friends and foes randomly.

Grimreaper.5370:

I haven’t been playing this game much anymore but off hand dagger doesn’t seem to be meta anymore, D/F mercenary tempest seems pretty kitten strong though.

Offhand Dagger was IMHO the by far best choice in the last meta, cuz we had almost no powerspikes abd at least in the later half of the season, very little projectiles. Offhand Dagger offered more mobility, burst and sustain.

In the current meta, this might change though, even though I really don’t like offhand focus.

@Topic: It’s hard t say if the old fire traitline from the D/D-ele heyday will be strong in the current meta, since after HoT-release, builds just got so much stronger than before and there were some pretty big changes to the meta in general. But my concern would be that it’s gonna be too weak, definitely not too strong, so why the hell not? :P

PowerBottom.5796:

Grimreaper.5370:

I haven’t been playing this game much anymore but off hand dagger doesn’t seem to be meta anymore, D/F mercenary tempest seems pretty kitten strong though.

Offhand Dagger was IMHO the by far best choice in the last meta, cuz we had almost no powerspikes abd at least in the later half of the season, very little projectiles. Offhand Dagger offered more mobility, burst and sustain.

In the current meta, this might change though, even though I really don’t like offhand focus.

@Topic: It’s hard t say if the old fire traitline from the D/D-ele heyday will be strong in the current meta, since after HoT-release, builds just got so much stronger than before and there were some pretty big changes to the meta in general. But my concern would be that it’s gonna be too weak, definitely not too strong, so why the hell not? :P

This would help the profession a lot, because if the objective is to have tradeoffs within certain builds, then having the old fire specialization line would be good for an elementalist that wants to spec for raw power, with minimal melee sustain.

For a light armor profession that has the smallest HP pool (the same as thief’s), it’s hard to sustain without healing power or sheer thoughness stats if we don’t have access to evasive mechanics/invulnerabilities as strong as other professions have.

The old blinding ashes+might on cantrips would be a great way to bring back the fire specialization and bring the elementalist more in line with the rest of the professions. At least that’s my opinion, I’m just sharing this to see what everyone thinks about it.

Dibaryon.7469:

PowerBottom.5796:

Grimreaper.5370:

I haven’t been playing this game much anymore but off hand dagger doesn’t seem to be meta anymore, D/F mercenary tempest seems pretty kitten strong though.

Offhand Dagger was IMHO the by far best choice in the last meta, cuz we had almost no powerspikes abd at least in the later half of the season, very little projectiles. Offhand Dagger offered more mobility, burst and sustain.

In the current meta, this might change though, even though I really don’t like offhand focus.

@Topic: It’s hard t say if the old fire traitline from the D/D-ele heyday will be strong in the current meta, since after HoT-release, builds just got so much stronger than before and there were some pretty big changes to the meta in general. But my concern would be that it’s gonna be too weak, definitely not too strong, so why the hell not? :P

This would help the profession a lot, because if the objective is to have tradeoffs within certain builds, then having the old fire specialization line would be good for an elementalist that wants to spec for raw power, with minimal melee sustain.

For a light armor profession that has the smallest HP pool (the same as thief’s), it’s hard to sustain without healing power or sheer thoughness stats if we don’t have access to evasive mechanics/invulnerabilities as strong as other professions have.

The old blinding ashes+might on cantrips would be a great way to bring back the fire specialization and bring the elementalist more in line with the rest of the professions. At least that’s my opinion, I’m just sharing this to see what everyone thinks about it.

The Problem I see is that ele won’t be able to compete with other damage-dealers if you want a “raw damage-dealer”, because the strength of ele lies in it’s sustain. I’m talking about full dps with marauder/zerker or viper amu. Ele just has too few evades/blocks/stealth or other mechanics like that.

But maybe it can work in 1v1’s when using merc/pala amu or sth. similar.

Mightstacking won’t ever be as good as before though, since commonly used 1v1 classes like reaper and to a lesser degree condi-rev, use heavy boonstrip. Also, the amu’s you’d likely use inherently have more dps (can I change mightstacking for healing power stacking)? ^^^

I can see blinding ashes being decent in 1v1’s at a 5 seconds CD.

But it’s a good topic to bring up; the fire nerf was warranted in a completely different meta, but now, I see absolutely no problem in reevaluating it.

I agree that some fire nerfs should be reverted now. Especially the blinding ashes one. Also the ICD of burning precsion to 3sec. One with fire needs a buff too.
I disagree with the might on cantrips. Don´t want this back to have a cantrip only meta again. But i know blinding ashes will get some complanis. Anet often nerfs skills when a lot of players feel bad because of them regardless of them being meta. Skills that show a clear effect like invul popping or a well placed blind chain including some traits will get complains from bad to average players just because they can´t handle it. After i learne to play my character i can handle most. 4s invul or shield blocking for 3s is no problem. Adapt fast. If he pulls the shield, don´t attack pull a defence up and put down a field or delayed burst and 2sec later you have the advantage … The “Normal” player will see ahh i can´t hurt him and this is ridicolous… And if a lot of people feel bad nerf comes regardles of balance. I understand this psycological nerfing, but it´s bad in the long run for PvP and build diversity.

Wolfric.9380:

I agree that some fire nerfs should be reverted now. Especially the blinding ashes one. Also the ICD of burning precsion to 3sec. One with fire needs a buff too.
I disagree with the might on cantrips. Don´t want this back to have a cantrip only meta again. But i know blinding ashes will get some complanis. Anet often nerfs skills when a lot of players feel bad because of them regardless of them being meta. Skills that show a clear effect like invul popping or a well placed blind chain including some traits will get complains from bad to average players just because they can´t handle it. After i learne to play my character i can handle most. 4s invul or shield blocking for 3s is no problem. Adapt fast. If he pulls the shield, don´t attack pull a defence up and put down a field or delayed burst and 2sec later you have the advantage … The “Normal” player will see ahh i can´t hurt him and this is ridicolous… And if a lot of people feel bad nerf comes regardles of balance. I understand this psycological nerfing, but it´s bad in the long run for PvP and build diversity.

No, blinding ashes is complained about because it is frustrating to play against. There are so many better option. At the top of my head “inflict blind when you use a utility skill”.

No, blinding ashes is complained about because it is frustrating to play against.

This is basically what i said. Frustrating can still mean its balanced.

Yeah but the thing is if we look at what the elementalist has at this moment, it just sucks at melee range against other professions. The only way for a melee build to work is if we rely on stats and choose a build based on toughness or healing power. But if we do that certain profession builds are unkillable, if you’re playing against similar skilled players (either because they outsustain ele or because you’ll just lack damage). I mean a paladin druid outsustains an elementalist anytime, a scrapper can outsustain an elementalist (and any profession for that matter), even a viper reaper, which is a very offensive build, can outsustain us with sheer life force + damage output.

If we were talking about thief or mesmer than this discussion wouldn’t make sense, but in the case of the ele we have no evasive mechanics like 1,2k range teleports that break stun or stealth, so we need more than a mist form (that we can’t attack with, unless we use evasive arcana or half overloading an attunement and having it on CD for 20sec).

The old blinding ashes could provide that sustain, not from stats but from profession mechanics, which elementalist really lacks at the moment. Either they rework how auras function, since it’s a mechanic unique to the elementalist, or they rework protective boons on traits/utilities. I think the easiest way to do it is through boons though. Elementalist biggest strength was always relying on boons, which is great because boons are can be stripped/corrupted, so we’d always have a counter no matter which stats we’d chose too. Auras on the other hand, may be a lot more difficult to balance since we can share them with allies and other profession mechanics can’t affect them (and there are counters to stealth, so that wouldn’t be fair either).

Wolfric.9380:

No, blinding ashes is complained about because it is frustrating to play against.

This is basically what i said. Frustrating can still mean its balanced.

I think a trait where timing actually matters is better though; we really don’t need more passive no-skill traits. Maybe sth. like AoE blind a 240 radius around you after weapon-swap with 9s CD? I think the fact that you could actually time it would more than make up for the higher CD.

You something that could work just for the sake of being different? Having blinding ashes work on signets when activated (for a certain period of time, like 7(?) seconds with non stackable duration). This way we could have a decent alternative to cantrips.

*And have great sinergy with the earth specialization at the same time.

I agree if it triggers active it would be diffrent. But please not on swap ….
Rework.

like:
5sec blind, poison and slow all in a 600 radius when using an elite skill.

I agree with not making it on swap as it promotes mindless gameplay. Having fury on swap is good on ele, because we can change attunement before we finish casting an attack so we can get the attunement bonuses + effects of fury.

Getting a specific boon tied to the attunement is also a good idea (as it already exists with the arcane specialization), as it can actually be played to react to certain situations.

I still stand by the old blinding ashes coming back in signets (if traited in the fire specialization), so we can have a competitive alternative to cantrips. We currently have conjures, signets, glyphs, cantrips,arcane and shouts. More than half of them only have use in PvE or certain niche PvP situations in WvW. Signets have started to have some in PvP (excluding the healing signet), and this would be a great addition that doesn’t really break the game.

Another thing that can work is having reduced attunement swap as baseline. I keep coming back to the arcane trait line just because of that. It would be a lot better to have the reduced attunement swap as a base profession mechanic. This way we’d only use arcane specialization for the extra boon duration + elemental attunement + evasive arcana (which would still be a strong combination) and it would also make builds without the arcane specialization a lot more viable.

Fresh Air is still inferior to support Auramancer in conquest.

Fresh air is not a support build, and druid far outshines support in PvP when compared to an auramancer (that’s my experience anyways).

I think eles support is a boon. If you try to do a full support ele, others might take over and it doesn´t feel good to play for me.
I always played a bit strange ele. No water. Pre HOT i used arcane. Tempest substituted it. I want to have agressive support. So hindering oponents to hit my team and me hard while i do preasure that can´t be ignored.
I quickly swapped to wanderers and soldiers in PvP (I akitten i only play PvP since Hot. Did 90% WvW roaming but maps were to empty). I tried cele but i did´t need it. Yes it had slighly more sustain but not damage and utility and was not needed for my playstyle. Now i tried the new amulets and the strange thing is it doesn´t feel better. I got used to play low health (only the 175 vit from soldiers). I thought it will make a huge diffrence if i take Mercenary or Sage.
Wrong. Its barley noticeable. The only thing i can´t realy drop annymore is the soldier rune. 4 shouts on the bar and soldiers is so solid and the type of utility i want that i always come back (only arcane shied and brilliance felt good). I also enjoy the + condi duration (even use giver weapons in WvW). It´s a blast in team support and 1:1 damage. Much more damage mitigation then having healing power. You can´t heal your dead mate but blinding and halfing damage lets him fight. The regeneration is nothing against the missed or halved true shot. All those short duration conditions get also buffed. The most tempting amulet for me was viper. But this goes over the squishy threshold. The 560 toughness is the sweet spot for me. 13k Health and no armor gets to deadly. Also i did expect a lot more punch with viper. But it wasn´t. The tradeoff was bad. Maybe sometimes i could shoot someone off the pants fast, but generally not. The 54% crit from wanderers is a nice chunk aditional damage and reliable proc trigger and the armor much more valuable. So thers no toughness/healing amulet except cleric which is meh in damage. So i stick to my wanderers.
Many say rabid over wanderer but i don´t think so. Also Ele is not the best condi class so rabid is outperformed by wanderers because of the nature of our condies. More crits and duration hit harder and hinder oponents.
Before the amulet changes the amulet i had some fun with was settlers ;-). Too low damage for me, but very funny with its sustain capabilities.
It might not be the best, but it´s what i like to play. An agressive support that plays tactial from range and close. I can take out most 1:1 and add noticable to a teamfight.
The only thing i have a real problem is 3+ focus fire unless i can reflect. 13k and medium armor is fast death. Mostly i die in a few seconds if i get locked in spot and focused. Positioning, battle awareness and moving is the key.
Ele builds can be adapted and so even with cele gone its not so bad.

honestly i never used cele ammy
and i never used diamond skin

i still have yet to run into a scenario i cant handle on any of my eles
im an altaholic w/ 36 chars and i have 7 eles

i swap based on map and team comp
one with burn staff (balth/merc ammy) just tried this out today, worked awesomely melted everyone w/ good survival
marauder s/f
pladians? (drawing a blank) d/w
etc. i have a ton of variations

sorry you cant run d/f or d/d and be invincible. we are ELEMENTALISTS
we adapt elements in every situation based on what we need
learn how do that with builds

So you used a condition build with a power weapon and everyone melted and you had good survival? I’m sorry but I feel very skeptical about this. Maybe my MMR is too high for these kind of builds to work(? idk).

S/f with marauder is a decent build . Doesn’t stand a chance with 4/5 of the most used professions in PvP at the moment though.

Let me put this into perspective when I mentioned the problems I believe that exist with the profession atm. By using either s/d or s/f either with paladins or marauder I really have a hard time focusing on defending a cap as I have to coordinate all of my CCs and heals so I don’t get beaten by the currently preferred compositions.

So the next step for me was: let’s understand the new elite specs better by playing them for a while, so I can survive better and counter them a bit better. So I went to metabattle, grabbed a druid build and on the first couple of times I played with it in PvP I went 1v2 with 0 problems sustaining. I can support my allies and hold a cap without even thinking about positioning. I can spam my CCs, heal at the same time while my pet crits enemies for 5-6k. This is where I realised I was really trying hard to survive on elementalist (which I’ve played for 3k hours in hardcore/semi-hardcore WvW guilds, speedruns in PvE, and more than 80% of my PvP matches), while I had absolutely 0 experience with druid and I was effortlessly playing better.

It could just be me though, but I still feel it’s very underpowered against a lot of builds.

What exactly is the purpose of having SEVEN of the same class?
36 characters? Why?

Dibaryon.7469:

Fresh air is not a support build, and druid far outshines support in PvP when compared to an auramancer (that’s my experience anyways).

1. I know, and it’s one of the reasons why it’s inferior to auramancer.
2. Not really, auramancer is a better teamfight support build.

For what it’s worth, I tried to make fresh air work post-patch, but it just wasn’t good enough.

mercenary amulet – d/f – doom/geo – A/W/T – balthazar runes – SoE/FtB/CleansingFire for the win.
don’t talk about fresh air like it’s the only build we have.

This build is one I’ve seen a lot in competetive play and after asking some ESL-players about their ele builds:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJAodn0XCFYi9XCWYCcYilNAjYFkCGBDPgAQB0dv+XPsA-TJRIABAcCAm9BAYUZAc2fAA

It’s supposed to be pure bunker/support, the dmg is really low, but it can hold against any build in a 1v1 and survive quite a while against 2 players if they aren’t both high-dps.

I personally prefer going offhand dagger when it’s not completely necessary or beneficial to go focus (either tons of physical burst or projectiles).

Might be the smartest way to go currently on ele, cuz in terms of DPS, I don’t really kill the more sustainy specs like druid or engi in a 1v1 anyways and against the more offensive oriented builds like rev/reaper/thief, I think I have good chances with this build as well.

If you really want to focus on teamfights, you can also go for aura-share of course and against certain comps, stoneheart can be better than DS, but the build above is probably the most well-rounded for what it needs to do.

Dibaryon.7469:

So you used a condition build with a power weapon and everyone melted and you had good survival? I’m sorry but I feel very skeptical about this. Maybe my MMR is too high for these kind of builds to work(? idk).

I think you are right about the skill level i play. I play GW2 less than a year and not so much as many here. But i got a lot better and can position, play reactive and use skills in advance depending on situation. So i guess i made it clearly above average.
I moved from WvW roaming to PvP after HOT ankitten ow above 200 matches. So not comparable to top level ;-).
The build i use works well for me and i can beat top players if they run some classes/builds i counter. In the matches i get scheduled it feels like i can handle 90% of my oponents well. Losses come from the team not working.
Using a power weapon with a condi buid. Its not a full power weapon, its a burst weapon able to do sustained condi damage while being tanky waiting for cooldowns. Thats why i wanted to use viper but it got too squishy. I would need a power, condi, precision, toughness amulet :-).
I wrote it´s my personal build and its a more agressive support that can 1:1. It was built with arcane to counter the last years zerker meta and evolved with tempest to a build that fits me very well. I have no clue how it will perform in a top tier teammatch. I can imagine that i will fall to CC + focus fire within seconds but might beat some 1:1.

Fresh air is viable? That’s a new one. At least if you talk about marauder/zerker fresh air. It can maybe work in unranked, but once you face decent people you’ll be better off with anything else. That might be the issue for the whole class, not just one build, though.

Fresh air was never viable in the first place to the point it was competitive. Then it got nerfed and other stuff buffed.

EDIT: Yeah, FA got buffed, but it still didn’t solve the core issues of the spec.

Laraley.7695:

Fresh air is viable? That’s a new one. At least if you talk about marauder/zerker fresh air. It can maybe work in unranked, but once you face decent people you’ll be better off with anything else. That might be the issue for the whole class, not just one build, though.

Fresh air was never viable in the first place to the point it was competitive. Then it got nerfed and other stuff buffed.

EDIT: Yeah, FA got buffed, but it still didn’t solve the core issues of the spec.

Fresh Air isn’t bad, but on a competetive level it has too many disadvantages:

- Good Interrupts pwn it.
- Mobility isn’t high enough.
- Can be trained down too easy.
- Doesn’t do well in too many 1v1’s.
- Rev simply is a better choice as a DPS-class in almost every aspect.

Dibaryon.7469:

So you used a condition build with a power weapon and everyone melted and you had good survival? I’m sorry but I feel very skeptical about this. Maybe my MMR is too high for these kind of builds to work(? idk).

Maybe he was talking about mercs. Merc staff is ok, but really heavily outclassed by most condi and power builds. Im still grappling with how to play staff good enough to make it to the middle mmr levels.

Tempest is fine in spvp. It’s a buff bot that stalls on point and team plays only 2 vet players can focus condifire it to death after it’s cds are gone. Ele main on the other hand is not viable in rank spvp. You can still hot join hero some fight with no issues but hot join is only build testing. Also fresh air ele is bad you can do more damage as a fire ele with rotations but the zero heals is painfull. Time to up the base healing for water trait or up the might and burns in fire trait line. You kittened air so let’s just ignore that for now.

Fire ele was nerfed June 23 2016 before hot came out. If someone didn’t cave to pressure that build would been viable to kill the reapers, scrappers, chronos, druids and tempest that just bunk.
They made that buff to early and players kitten so hard. Anet rarely reverses their judgements, but if you can force anet to separate tempest from ele buffs like cough cough fire and core skills that reward rotations thinks could work out.
Tempest and Core elementalist are different please remember that.

Then again once everyone buys the expansion, I’m sure the elite specs and core spec will rebalance again, buff/ nerf. Until the next expansion good luck

You are intended to have an elite spec equipped at all times as every class in every situation.

I would love to revert the fire nerf from summer (exept might on cantrips!) After all the changes and power creep. So especially the nerf on burning precision and blinding ashes CD´s. This would not help the bunker ele in now, because they have to leave water or earth wich will lower their sustaiain greatly. (It helped only cele dd because it was a bruiser that could use fire damage well and get a bit defence from ashes on top and that´s gone).

If you’re not earth/water/tempest auramancer from Metabattle’s spec, you’re going to get anihilated in rated. And that’s why elementalist isn’t fun anymore. Sure it’s funny to laugh at overpowered reapers struggle to kill you, but you are still the weakest, most targeted squish in the game right now. You are not even the best healer with a 100% support spec. A druid with a berserker amulet on is a better healer, and that’s a fact.

Complaning about damage this variant might help a bit.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJAodn0XC9XiVYCmNAcYilNAjYFkCGBu31/6hd4BEAKgA-TJBBABFt/wYlBg+EAAwDAAA

Shure you will miss soldiers but thats the tradeoff.
Can go for more aura share then the shouts or cleanse.

I don’t really understand some of your choices there : changing the runeset is indeed going to give you more DPS vs less personal/team sustain, but why in the hell would you choose those traits on Water and Tempest ?

Not only are they not complementary but those choices destroy the build synergy without giving anymore DPS. So it’s kind of a lose/lose tradeoff… Not really worth it when you could just have changed the runes for it to be ok.

Anyway, you can also try to play the traditional D/F Aurashare build and swap Cleric for Mender’s amulet to be more offensive without sacrificing any support. Only con of the Mender’s variant is that you’ll be more susceptible to Thieves and hard hitting DPS if you don’t know what you’re doing !

well its a varaint. It can fully keep aurashare synergy, but it looses cleanse. As option it can use lyssa or leadership.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJAodn0XC9XiVYCmNAcYilNAzdv+XPsErgUQFY4BEAKgA-TJBBABjVGA6TAQ/7PAwDAAA

Yo, are you a high ranked in pvped? I’d like to share a build with a skilled ele and get feedback. But I want to keep it off metabattle

I tend to win, but i am for shure not top tier. I play GW since last year and PvP since HOT.
I traind in WvW roaming before. I play nearly only ele to get at least good with one class.
I tend to be very good in building an try to play non meta and construct good new things an develop my build. I also don´t go metabattle. So i can beat top players but don´t play each day for hours to reach some esl level. I just don´t have the time in RL and i am 46 ;-). But i gaming in diffrent forms was always part of my life. I developed myself bordgames, had been 1,5 yeary Nr. 1 in Magic the Gathering in my country over 20 years ago and did beat a GM in chess and so on. My focus is more on strategy games and i use tactical play and building in Gw2 to compensate the lack of reflexes.

katniss.6735:

If you’re not earth/water/tempest auramancer from Metabattle’s spec, you’re going to get anihilated in rated. And that’s why elementalist isn’t fun anymore.

Lol?

Ok so I didn’t read the whole thread but if u think Ele is in a bad spot u don’t know what ur talking about. Shout auramancer is almost un killable except by boon corruption builds and pumps out tons of team support. It is the new shout bow only better

Valik Shin.9027:

Ok so I didn’t read the whole thread but if u think Ele is in a bad spot u don’t know what ur talking about. Shout auramancer is almost un killable except by boon corruption builds and pumps out tons of team support. It is the new shout bow only better

And it takes a way above average ele to pull that off, under no circumstances current support ele is as easy as shoutbow was…..like bad shoutmancer get instakilled by anything, so don’t go talking non-sense, playd with several shoutmancers lately and they all insta die the second they get focused

Supreme.3164:

Valik Shin.9027:

Ok so I didn’t read the whole thread but if u think Ele is in a bad spot u don’t know what ur talking about. Shout auramancer is almost un killable except by boon corruption builds and pumps out tons of team support. It is the new shout bow only better

And it takes a way above average ele to pull that off, under no circumstances current support ele is as easy as shoutbow was…..like bad shoutmancer get instakilled by anything, so don’t go talking non-sense, playd with several shoutmancers lately and they all insta die the second they get focused

Yeah, nonsense. It’s an easy build, one of the easiest ele has had.

Valik Shin.9027:

Ok so I didn’t read the whole thread but if u think Ele is in a bad spot u don’t know what ur talking about. Shout auramancer is almost un killable except by boon corruption builds and pumps out tons of team support. It is the new shout bow only better

At least read the OP. Ele is in a bad spot because it is not even remotely possible to play anything but max-bunker healbot. Burst ele doesn’t even have enough burst anymore to dent other builds with all their instant-proc defenses and natural tankiness, yet gets hit like a truck by even the “weakest” build seen nowadays. Bruiser ele is not possible to make b/c ele “defenses” are stacking prot + healing, meaning you NEED toughness and healing power…yet no proper dps amulets exist as such. The class is healbot or gtfo.

Now, I know many other classes only have 1 viable (or optimal build), but the problem with ele is that the drop off between the 1 build it has and every other is SO HUGE that MAJOR (defensive) reworks will be needed if it will ever be anything but a healbot. At least back in the day when guardian was stuck as a bunker, it had built in mechanics (invulns, lots of blocks/aegis) that make a dps build possible. Eles have only obsidian flesh.

Unless the last 50-60 pvp matches I’ve done were against all weak or noobs that don’t know their “natural” tank builds/procs… I’m still rolling people as a nuke ele.

i play scrapper , but in solo , i switched to cleric ele becouse in my opinion it is one of the best class for going solo … can do everything and can fight everything. Low damage, but not so low with tempest and great survivability. in my opinion it is one of the strongest class at moment

You know, if you switch the amulet from cleric to mender…you’ll notice a nice different in damage. Worth while. You lose a little toughness..but not that noticeable to be honest.

Agree. Menders is a more offensive option. But its much weaker to focus fire. So if you are not targeted you shine in support and do damage, if 3 target you to remove support first you die fast …. I tested it with sage and while i like the combination it can be blown off the feet a bit too easy for my taste …

What if blinding ashes turned the fire auto atk into an ability that let you instantly blind every 5 seconds and after it was used the fire auto atk reverted back to a normal aa until blinding ashes was ready again? I like the idea of more manual use and less passive play.