Guild Wars 2

Hey, just looking for some advice from Elementalist mains.

I joined Guild Wars 2 around the beginning of October, and it’s great. I started out as a Ranger but it’s kind of boring and pretty frustrating to play in sPvP (I’ve been using s/t + a/d condi since lb is considered cheesy) I just feel like I don’t have enough options in combat, since I have a playstyle where I like to try and do a lot of things by myself.

I wanted to play a new class and Elementalist looks exciting, but I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t have much of a talent for games even though I love PvP.

I hear the Skillcap for elementalists is pretty high, is it something that can be learned with dedication and practice, or is it a class that I’d need to have an affinity for skill-wise to get anywhere with? Sorry if the question is a bit odd, I just want to find something to main and master since Ranger has been a disappointment so far. I do love this game though, it would be nice to play at a competitive level with a class I enjoy.

Celestial D/D is probably the easiest and most effective ele build currently, it’s easy to pick up but hard to master, I’d recommend that for beginners. Watching top streamers also helps a lot – there are plenty of streamers listed below the build on the page I’ve linked.

But if you really want a diverse class that feels like a puzzle at times, you might as well enjoy playing engineer too.

Thank you, I’ll give Elementalist a try then seems like a good fit.

DD ele skillfloor is incredibly low and the meta spec as it is is the most overpowered cheesiest build in the PvP meta. The skillcap is also comparitively low as I can beat all “pro” elementalists 50% of the time and I barely play ele. If you really thought LB ranger was cheesey, I would advise against playing DD ele. Go play engi, its not quite as faceroll and is actually balanced while still being complex and fun to play. The meta for engineer is 60044 with rifle and hoelbrak runes. You can probably find a more in depth build if you go on the engi forums.

inb4 ele is hard and not cheesey

DF 06602 ftw =3

New player had some sort of issue! INCOMING NERF, NOW 2 BUTTON CLASS.

Yeah, don’t listen to all the people whining about D/D celestial ele. If you want a complex class, ele or engi is your best bet. Both are viable in pretty much all game modes in some way or another and honestly after playing both you’ll find it hard to go back to other classes.

Anyone can slap on strength runes and use D/D to hunt random people in hotjoin, but as stated above, truly mastering D/D will take some time. There’s a reason you see tons of LB rangers in hotjoin compared to D/D eles. D/D ele is probably a stronger build, but it is active play and it is a lot more skill intensive than other builds like Turret Engi or LB ranger. Played improperly, you’ll either have trouble dealing lethal damage or trouble staying alive, usually not both as new players tend to over focus on one or the other and neglect either damage or survivability. But you’ll still be pretty effective against people who don’t know how to fight you. When mastered however, your combos will become almost second nature. You won’t setup to stack might, you’ll just stack might during the course of attacking. Probably the most dangerous mistake you can make is switching to another attunement just because it’s off cd. With Air and Fire this isn’t so much a problem, but switching to water at the wrong time can leave you open to condi-burst while switching to earth at the wrong time wastes your protection to stop power burst.

Long post but the gist is: Play ele or engi if you want a complex class. Just know that people will complain no matter what because active play trumps passive play(most of the time) so naturally the class with a lot more actions available will be even more powerful than people relying on passive means assuming you use everything to its full effect.

Dude what are you talking about? DD ele has an incredible amount of passives. Passively gain 12 might just from swapping atunements, passive soothing mist, passive heal, passive boons when attuning to an element. Sure they’re less passive than a necro’s nightmare runes, but pressing F3 to get regen and a 2k heal isnt difficult. Dodging in a fire field with earth isnt hard. There are no combos on DD ele that are hard… And LB ranger is passive now? LOL. OP does not equal passive, and only low level players think LB ranger is OP. Ele isnt hard to play. I literally watched Phantaram’s stream for 30 mins and became a master ele.

Elitist.8701:

Dude what are you talking about? DD ele has an incredible amount of passives. Passively gain 12 might just from swapping atunements, passive soothing mist, passive heal, passive boons when attuning to an element. Sure they’re less passive than a necro’s nightmare runes, but pressing F3 to get regen and a 2k heal isnt difficult. Dodging in a fire field with earth isnt hard. There are no combos on DD ele that are hard… And LB ranger is passive now? LOL. OP does not equal passive, and only low level players think LB ranger is OP. Ele isnt hard to play. I literally watched Phantaram’s stream for 30 mins and became a master ele.

actually ele defences r active not passive

dont listen to this guy(elitist) btw, he just seems to hate eles for an unkown reason

(check his post history)

Elementalist skill floor for a totally new player is a bit higher than other classes, especially if you haven’t played other MMOs before. Lower health and armor and more buttons to press means it won’t be quite as easy as the other classes for a completely new player.

However, if you play an easy build in PvP such as the 0/0/2/6/6-DD-Cele-Strength Rune Ele, once you get the hang of the idea (basically, mash all your buttons and swap attunements a lot), it’s pretty much as faceroll as almost every other class in the game.

I have played every weapon set an Ele can use and D/D is far and away the most fun i have had with any weapon set of any profession. Pick what you like. Play a class and weapon set that feels right.

As an Ele, you will have 25 skills instead of 15 that most other classes have access to but that means you have a ton more cool downs to manage throughout a fight.

D/D ele defenses are all active and require some timing. You have to manage your buffs/boons. If you are fighting a boon stripper then you are already at a major disadvantage.

A lot of what has been said here is very true, but ignore elitist (he is a thief and incessantly complains because he can’t ezmode eles anymore, as many thief builds classically could). Ele has more things to juggle, and lots of skills that have small defensive capabilities that you need to learn over time to be truly effective. You can be o.k. if you run the meta d/d build and follow a basic rotation, but good players will wreck you.

One note, ele can be harder for new players to level, as many of the popular builds really lean on some important traits for survivability. Don’t just quite the class if you are having some trouble at lower levels, as it gets better once you get some of the master and GM traits. It also can be pretty squishy if you don’t know how to dodge well yet, but that means it will also teach you (the hard way) better dodging practice!

BlackBeard.2873:

A lot of what has been said here is very true, but ignore elitist (he is a thief and incessantly complains because he can’t ezmode eles anymore, as many thief builds classically could). Ele has more things to juggle, and lots of skills that have small defensive capabilities that you need to learn over time to be truly effective. You can be o.k. if you run the meta d/d build and follow a basic rotation, but good players will wreck you.

One note, ele can be harder for new players to level, as many of the popular builds really lean on some important traits for survivability. Don’t just quite the class if you are having some trouble at lower levels, as it gets better once you get some of the master and GM traits. It also can be pretty squishy if you don’t know how to dodge well yet, but that means it will also teach you (the hard way) better dodging practice!

Expanding on this a little bit-

You can level fairly easily with staff (fire) and ice bow conjures for AoE damage. Throw down Fire Staff 2 and 5 and then conjure the ice bow and use 3 and 4 to burst down just about anything.

I agree with Elitist. D/D celestial elementalist is the strongest spec in the game and has a very low skillcap. Any1 who thinks celestial D/D is hard to play probably dosent PvP or dosent know what he is talking about.

The amount of sustain this spec has is insane and allows alot of mistakes compared to other classes. IF you are new to PvP, D/D cele ele is a good spec for new players

D/d is a strong class for both team fights and 1vs1 on point in conquest mode. It offers offensive power, mobility, and sustain but lacks the burst of a true spiker, the mobility of a thief and the tankiness of certain bunkers. It is not very difficult to play but still offers alot of variety ( which I enjoy). In contrast Ele spiker builds however are very difficult to play, and require a very good team, if you can get a Ele to spike though, he will wreck the enemy team .

Engineers also have alot of options and by simply picking another utility skill ( different kit or elixer) they open up a whole set of solutions. Once you get the muscle memory down for the different set ups they are stronger for a beginner though.

ele is pretty easy to play tbh just about running the right builds and even if you just randomly click your skills you’re actually able to do some decent damage while maintaining high surviveability. If you’re afraid for the skill lvl being to high i’d suggest to go d/d if you’re going pvp and staff if you’re going wvw other options are possible for both pvp and wvw but will require to put a lillbit more effort into it.

(btw by saying that you can just randomly click skills i’d definitely not encourage that, you’re missing alot of potential :p)

the krytan assassin.9235:

(btw by saying that you can just randomly click skills i’d definitely not encourage that, you’re missing alot of potential :p)

You shouldn’t click your skills to begin with :P Use keybinds.

yea ofcourse, but i was just using it as an example :p

Elitist.8701:

DD ele skillfloor is incredibly low and the meta spec as it is is the most overpowered cheesiest build in the PvP meta. The skillcap is also comparitively low as I can beat all “pro” elementalists 50% of the time and I barely play ele. If you really thought LB ranger was cheesey, I would advise against playing DD ele. Go play engi, its not quite as faceroll and is actually balanced while still being complex and fun to play. The meta for engineer is 60044 with rifle and hoelbrak runes. You can probably find a more in depth build if you go on the engi forums.

inb4 ele is hard and not cheesey

If the skillcap was low you wouldn’t see some Eles dominating the crap out of all other Eles running the same build. You sure do like to over exaggerate don’t you.