Guild Wars 2

So, I guess most people who play the elementalist have come to a similar conclusion as I have; the elementalist elite choices are lacklustre.

I should say at this point I think the class overall is fine in terms of balance from my experience (which I would say is extensive at this point). But when I look into other classes and see the power and application of their elite abilities, I feel a little let down with the elementalist.
My suggestion at this point isn’t a drastic one; we don’t need a complete rework or anything so severe. The one elite we have that most people are using is the summon elemental. This is a pretty powerful elite, but it’s greatest shortfall is the amount of control we have over it. If, for example, the ice elemental would use it’s aoe heal or frozen ground when we actually wanted it to, well, the effect would make it a great addition to any situation. Why not put a pet UI bar for summon elemental, both lesser and greater? A simple fix like this could fix the problem and give the player a greater sense of control with using the class.

Just my thoughts, Ceptz

the only good elite is the underwater elite, which literally destroys things

the tornado should act more like that, glyph of elemental is flat out useless in pve and WvWvW because of aoe damage sometimes killing it instantly, its decent in sPvP because players generally dont focus pets unless they chase them

greatsword like all conjured weapons is not amazing but probably the best world pve elite due to the fact during dynamic events with lots of players its great at damaging large groups of charging mobs, not recommended for dungeons however

the issue with giving eles a pet bar is we already have so many more things to pay attention too then any other class in the game

There is a simple solution for that however, if you find you have many buttons to press already: just enable auto cast, but add in the option for those who want it to be able to manually cast the elemental’s abilities.

I was utterly shocked to see how devastating our underwater elite is (for underwater combat, at least). I really hope they don’t change it because right now, it is the ONE “oh holy kitten” skills that elementalists have.

I remember one time I did SEE an ele bring tornado in a tournament. I 1v1’d him at a point and he just tossed me around like a rag doll for a few seconds. A good play on his part but since it doesn’t last very long the damage I dished out using my air elemental far exceeded his using tornado and I won the fight with more than enough HP to spare.

I agree with OP, though one change I would like to see is either a longer duration for the elementals, or for the elite skill to start it’s CD the moment you summon the elemental. Anything outside of Earth elemental can go down very, very easily, so frequency could balance out fragility.

Give the elementals more hp.
As they currently are, you might as well never use any of them besides earth and fire. Earth can actually take more than 2 hits before dying (sometimes… im looking at you 20k massive AOE dungeon bosses) and fire at least does some damage before it dies.

Give all the elementals earths hp that it has right now. Then double earths. Then it might actually be worth using in dungeons.

Better yet, make the ele invulnerable in tornado/whirlpool. Then I might actually consider using it against things. Otherwise im literally a sitting duck with no utility for its entire duration.

I find that our elites are great for what they are, conditional abilities. Tornado is currently my favorite, but that is because I play with a team. When you can punt everyone around you down to the ground constantly, your team can easily dominate larger numbers.

The pets are fun, but I have found them to be less useful.

Conjure Fiery Greatsword is also very powerful and a great tool for dishing out high damage while having awesome maneuvering and chase down abilities. I love using this with a boon build because I can switch attunements constantly and keep the sword going. If you get low on health, you can switch to water for heals, earth and lightning for knockdowns, and then pick up your second sword fore more fun.

Hate to keep comparing to Thieves…. but the thief gets 2 amazing elites (as well as amazing downed abilities, amazing survival abilities, and highest burst dps in the game, nah… they’re not overpowered at all).

The first one is the one that spawns two thieves to fight alongside. The second one is that twirly crap that they do (dagger storm).

Now, in my mind a tornado is rather twirly. So they should be rather similar?

But here’s the rub… just compare the two…
Damage, dagger storm does 2x the damage – FURTHER, dagger storm does 5s of bleed which makes it far superior in damage
Duration, Tornado lasts 2x as long
Range, dagger storm is 3x the range (240 to 900)
Stability, both get it
Recast, dagger storm is 90s, tornado is 180

Oh… and while you can’t knock down, stun, etc… either one (because of stability), that makes your number 1 defense to run away. Well, that’s great for people facing tornado because you can run at full speed (assuming u r not knocked down which doesn’t seem to happen very often in WvW)… but the dagger storm, you’re crippled making you move slower making it easier to die to.

Easy fix to Tornado? Grant ele invulnerable. shrug

would swap elite for utility, thats how kitten is is.

i think it would be nice if summon elementals skill would behave the same way as necromancer’s summons. when you press the summon button, it would be replaced with the pet’s skill. when you press summon bone fiend, it will summon the creature and replace the skill with rigor mortis (bone fiend’s skill). so you can tell your summons when to use a certain skill.

but then that would make necromancers less unique.

i think its pretty pathetic that thief daggerstorm is so much better than elementalist tornado its not funny. Arent elementalists meant to be good at AOE? kitten theives have a better aoe elite than we do.

Yeah daggerstorm is insane. 90seconds cooldown for that much utility and damage? Insane!

I second that our elite skills aren’t that great. Yes, spawning an elemental or phoenix may be useful, but there’s another glyph for that already. The tornado is useful underwater, less for non-water combat. The rest of the skills are too situational or lack luster. I feel we should have a few elite skills that better round particular builds. Such as one that’s a massive aoe and small heal, another that’s applys conditions based on what element we’re in for dot dmg (or add a heal over time). I would even love to see a further trait that adds a specific time bonus to stats. Given we’re so squishy, our hp, armor, and toughness are at the low end, and our damage doesn’t compensate, something like arcane power, but with the ability to buff for X time, like +200atk power for 2 minutes or something of that sort.

All this is true in sPvP. That said, Sylvari PvE/W3 elite skills are great. The plant turret skill is tremendously useful if not overpowered. In sPvP, though, I have enjoyed using the Fiery Greatsword. It seems to work pretty well.