Guild Wars 2

There is nothing that Elementalists excel at, their crowd control is sub par to other classes, their damage is ridiculously low even with the best gear. They feel so incredibly weak and underwhelming and the trait abilities are jokes, 5% damage here and there that is barely noticeable.

Their mobility is stupidly low unless played with double daggers which will just result in being blown up.
They don’t feel rewarding in any way whatsoever and considering that most of their abilities are made to do damage it’s pretty strange that they deal the least damage among all classes, even guardians hit harder.

I would have to disagree with you on the damage part. My main is an ele and it does a decent amount of damage with staff. Of course d/d does dish out a bit more overall.

It’s unfortunate that you feel that way. I believe that elementalist has the potential to deal tremendous amounts of damage. If you go digging into the elementalist forums I’m sure you’ll find posts with builds that deal excellent damage. Survivability… that rests upon your ability to time skills and dodges.

I think OP just has pretty bad gear/runes to call it’s damage “ridiculously low”

No, I’d argue I have the best possible set up available. But in comparison with other full geared out classes the elementalist feels very underwhelming.
And also, that the spells are some kind of mix between aoe damage and ultility support bullocks. It’s just an entire mix without any damage.

It’s really sad to almost never see a single elementalist these days, it’s all just mesmers with their ridiculous mobility and damage that makes it possible to solo everything.

The point I’m trying to make is that elementalists are USELESS. There is asolutely no reason whatsoever to pick them unless fancy aoe that looks cool means anything to you.

If you truly meant what you said in the last line from above then you have to be playing the class wrong or just have the wrong armor/trinkets.

I like fancy aoe, granted. But I’d also like it to do noticeable damage and not just some useless dot that does nearly nothing.

Arenanet needs to buff elementalists because they’re in a really bad spot and good for nothing.

You should try fresh air scepter. It’s not only insanely fun to play, it also does a LOT of burst damage with low cooldown.

I agree though that staff is an atrocious weapon for anything but pure support (which IMHO is boring as hell).

Autumn Man.6852:

their damage is ridiculously low

Eles may not have stealth or clones but high almost instantaneous damage(when chained quick enough with arcane spells) that auto crits has to count for something.

Edit.: Dagger main hand is sustain/control damage

Random Edit (To help you consider scepter): Phoenix IMO is one of the BEST skills in the game. The utility and damage it provides cannot be overlooked.

Autumn Man.6852:

The point I’m trying to make is that elementalists are USELESS. There is asolutely no reason whatsoever to pick them unless fancy aoe that looks cool means anything to you.

I disagree entirely.

Not every definition of “effective” is based around damage numbers. If pure damage output and/or seeing 10k+ numbers is yours, then you are correct that the Ele is not the profession for you.

Frankly, I think you need to do more investigation, because even going by direct damage numbers, Eles are far from useless if played properly.

Ele are good for dodging (so great for 1vs1), as we keep switching element with a Sigil of superior energy. The others classes could also use it, but i don’t think they switch weapon as often as we do with elements. We also have easy vigor access.

Until a thief kills you in one hit with stealth due to Elementalists ridiculously low health pool, yes.

Autumn Man.6852:

It’s really sad to almost never see a single elementalist these days, it’s all just mesmers with their ridiculous mobility and damage that makes it possible to solo everything.

Mesmer mobility? I haven’t played one, but I thought they were one of the slower classes to move around on.

As an aside, I agree that many of our individual skills are lacking big numbers but we do have access to more of these skills at a time than other classes. I’ve been a long time staff ele but I’m considering moving to d/d because I’m finding it evermore difficult to rely on PUGs to get things done while I back-line.

I suppose I accept sub-warrior dps because I love being loaded with condi removals, heals all over the place, perma swiftness, and just being able to zip around maps in general. A certain Ele was invincible before recent nerfs—now it’s just nearly invincible. I don’t tend to involve myself with the LFG 4warr 1mes 7 minute COF crowd so IMO,

invincibility>warrior dps

xbaunx.6438:

Autumn Man.6852:

It’s really sad to almost never see a single elementalist these days, it’s all just mesmers with their ridiculous mobility and damage that makes it possible to solo everything.

Mesmer mobility? I haven’t played one, but I thought they were one of the slower classes to move around on.

they don’t have passive swiftness like the guardian, but other than that they have no real problems unlike the ele.

I feel that the class has conflicting design issues.

Each element is set up to serve a different function for the class; fire for offense, earth for defense, water for healing, air for mobility. But rather than attuning to each element uniquely as a situation dictates, the skills themselves seem balanced around manically switching between each element and just jamming every button as quickly as possible, before switching to the next.

The end result is that while the class does have a lot of utility built into their various skills, they are for the most part wasted to just eek out a bit more dps.

Autumn Man.6852:

I like fancy aoe, granted. But I’d also like it to do noticeable damage and not just some useless dot that does nearly nothing.

Arenanet needs to buff elementalists because they’re in a really bad spot and good for nothing.

Since your talking about gear i’ll assume your referring to WvW. First off are you using superior sigil of bloodlust and getting 25 stacks. also do you use food that increases either power/crit dmg/ crit chance. if not then you are not even close to being in optimal gear.

I play scepter/dagger with power/vit/tough armor. runes of the scholar zerk/valk rings cavalier accessories and a zerk backpiece

stats with bloodlust/food:
3,402 attack
49% crit chance
98% crit damage
2,360 armor ( not exactly glass but definitely not a bunker)
16,836 health

I do stupid amounts of damage. the only classes i can’t instantly kill are 3000 armor bunkers. But condition damage builds can be hard to deal with( but not impossible), mesmers especially. The good thing is though is that mesmers can’t actually chase anyone and they are incredibly easy to get away from.

Solkard.5136:

I feel that the class has conflicting design issues.

Each element is set up to serve a different function for the class; fire for offense, earth for defense, water for healing, air for mobility. But rather than attuning to each element uniquely as a situation dictates, the skills themselves seem balanced around manically switching between each element and just jamming every button as quickly as possible, before switching to the next.

The end result is that while the class does have a lot of utility built into their various skills, they are for the most part wasted to just eek out a bit more dps.

One of the things that got me interest initially about the elementalist was that each attunement was for something. Fire for Aoe, water for more support, air for single dps and earth for defense. Now however it seems the class is mostly about spamming a lot of buttons.
if you look at all those guides they most talk about spamming a button of skills to maximize damage aka “combo” especially in the scepter dagger, the goal seems to be just getting things off as soon as possible and not necessarily playing smart. I mean if you are going to play like that you might as well just get yourself a macro and let it do the for you because that isn’t really playing.

silvermember.8941:

Solkard.5136:

I feel that the class has conflicting design issues.

Each element is set up to serve a different function for the class; fire for offense, earth for defense, water for healing, air for mobility. But rather than attuning to each element uniquely as a situation dictates, the skills themselves seem balanced around manically switching between each element and just jamming every button as quickly as possible, before switching to the next.

The end result is that while the class does have a lot of utility built into their various skills, they are for the most part wasted to just eek out a bit more dps.

One of the things that got me interest initially about the elementalist was that each attunement was for something. Fire for Aoe, water for more support, air for single dps and earth for defense. Now however it seems the class is mostly about spamming a lot of buttons.
if you look at all those guides they most talk about spamming a button of skills to maximize damage aka “combo” especially in the scepter dagger, the goal seems to be just getting things off as soon as possible and not necessarily playing smart. I mean if you are going to play like that you might as well just get yourself a macro and let it do the for you because that isn’t really playing.

scepter/dagger is about dealing burst combos to your opponent at the right time. the “skill” is more about positioning and timing. being able to burst someone down to 20% doesnt mean anything if they can heal right after back to 70% then kill you.

Nothing we excel at? In 15-20 seconds I can:

- Apply swiftness, might, protection, soothing mist, and regeneration to a large area and heal everyone up to full and remove all of their conditions.

- Inflict burning, bleeding, blindness, cripple, chill, immobilize, and stun to a large area with lots of DoT spells, which do plenty of damage I assure you.

- Manually burst any field I want.

- Create constant combos with other players.

I can do all of that at the same time. And you’re complaing about feeling ineffective? What?

silvermember.8941:

Solkard.5136:

I feel that the class has conflicting design issues.

Each element is set up to serve a different function for the class; fire for offense, earth for defense, water for healing, air for mobility. But rather than attuning to each element uniquely as a situation dictates, the skills themselves seem balanced around manically switching between each element and just jamming every button as quickly as possible, before switching to the next.

The end result is that while the class does have a lot of utility built into their various skills, they are for the most part wasted to just eek out a bit more dps.

One of the things that got me interest initially about the elementalist was that each attunement was for something. Fire for Aoe, water for more support, air for single dps and earth for defense. Now however it seems the class is mostly about spamming a lot of buttons.
if you look at all those guides they most talk about spamming a button of skills to maximize damage aka “combo” especially in the scepter dagger, the goal seems to be just getting things off as soon as possible and not necessarily playing smart. I mean if you are going to play like that you might as well just get yourself a macro and let it do the for you because that isn’t really playing.

I agree with this 100%. Our biggest weakness is that we can’t do reliable damage other than using some kind of rotation through all attunements. While that play-style will stay viable as long as the “elemental attunement” trait exists (we can dish out boons while doing our rotations), it makes us very predictable and completely destroys our versatility. If auto-attacks weren’t so worthless (except in air), and there were more fresh-air type traits to allow specialization (like the few builds that use fresh air to get back to and stay in air, rather than just proc air-15), we might actually be able to use our attunements tactically.

I hope it happens someday.

Kalarchis.8635:

Nothing we excel at? In 15-20 seconds I can:

- Apply swiftness, might, protection, soothing mist, and regeneration to a large area and heal everyone up to full and remove all of their conditions.

- Inflict burning, bleeding, blindness, cripple, chill, immobilize, and stun to a large area with lots of DoT spells, which do plenty of damage I assure you.

- Manually burst any field I want.

- Create constant combos with other players.

I can do all of that at the same time. And you’re complaing about feeling ineffective? What?

I suppose you are talking about staff. In PvE and in WvW anything goes I suppose. IN PvP that extremely slow and obvious attack certain wont work, then you got the problem most of the things they supposedly offer doesn’t really benefit the team compared to your extremely squish, slow skills and easily avoidable skillls (staff).

The point being they offer nice thins in a game mode that requires barely any competency (PvE), they are great in Zerg v Zerg but in a zerg they are standing on the back and the opponent isn’t focusing on them. They start to fall apart the moment they are the center of attention.

Ozx.5683:

silvermember.8941:

Solkard.5136:

I feel that the class has conflicting design issues.

Each element is set up to serve a different function for the class; fire for offense, earth for defense, water for healing, air for mobility. But rather than attuning to each element uniquely as a situation dictates, the skills themselves seem balanced around manically switching between each element and just jamming every button as quickly as possible, before switching to the next.

The end result is that while the class does have a lot of utility built into their various skills, they are for the most part wasted to just eek out a bit more dps.

One of the things that got me interest initially about the elementalist was that each attunement was for something. Fire for Aoe, water for more support, air for single dps and earth for defense. Now however it seems the class is mostly about spamming a lot of buttons.
if you look at all those guides they most talk about spamming a button of skills to maximize damage aka “combo” especially in the scepter dagger, the goal seems to be just getting things off as soon as possible and not necessarily playing smart. I mean if you are going to play like that you might as well just get yourself a macro and let it do the for you because that isn’t really playing.

scepter/dagger is about dealing burst combos to your opponent at the right time. the “skill” is more about positioning and timing. being able to burst someone down to 20% doesnt mean anything if they can heal right after back to 70% then kill you.

I totally agree there is some “skill” in coming into range to unload your heavy hitters. except that in tPvP you have to sacrifice your combat reset to close in to unload your heavy hitters then you to the possibility that one of those hitters misses due to the fact the skill is somewhat uncontrollable.

Kalarchis.8635:

Nothing we excel at? In 15-20 seconds I can:

- Apply swiftness, might, protection, soothing mist, and regeneration to a large area and heal everyone up to full and remove all of their conditions.

- Inflict burning, bleeding, blindness, cripple, chill, immobilize, and stun to a large area with lots of DoT spells, which do plenty of damage I assure you.

- Manually burst any field I want.

- Create constant combos with other players.

I can do all of that at the same time. And you’re complaing about feeling ineffective? What?

The issue is did you intend to do all that at the same time, or did most of that just happen as a side effect of you going through a rotation that a macro button on a gaming keyboard/mouse could have done?

Doing a bunch of a stuff is cool, but being able to do something when and where you actually need it, is better. In most instances, inflicting conditions is better than not inflicting conditions, but how many of those stuns, blinds, cripples were actually used at max potential and how many were tossed out “just because”?

If ever there was an encounter that required you to not inflict blindness, chill, or dropping a combo field, could you manage it without severely crippling your performance? The class has effective variety, it lacks controlled versatility.

I find that with a staff I feel the Elementalist does feel underwhelming, but thats just my playstyle. However when Im rocking my d/d ele, I’m continuously tossing might stacks and heals out like candy and most of the time I’m the last one to go down in wvw or dungeons. (not including the thief’s that run and hide).

After watching me play, i’ve inspired a guildmate to try out ele, he runs a scepter dagger build thats completely different from mine, he does more damage and more boons but can’t survive like I can, regardless he’s totally digging the ele vibe.

So their is versatility to the class, there are different builds but I think its because as a whole the clsss is so versatile you don’t really get the specialization that other classes get.

On the flip side of that… I don’t need to change gear, or traits to do this or that. I’ve done dungeons after some WvW…. and I’m good to go while others are needing to change utility skills, traits and or gear to get ready for a dungeon run.

As for raw power, its not that we don’t have it, its more like its spread out, over 75% of my skills are AoE… so instead of doing 2500damage to 1 enemy Im doing 500damage to 5 enemies, the same damage is inflicted, but its just spread out over a wider number of people, but instead of having 1 crit chance I have 5, thus in the end im more likely to do say 500 500 600 600 500, so 2700 total. (these aren’t real numbers, i just made them up for simplicity sake)

So unlike other classes where you set up your character to operate in one or two specific ways elementalists have the ability to do whatever depending on how you use the abundant amount of skills, you can chain skills together that stack conditions, or stack abilities to give boons, or chain them for maximum damage output.

So no… I don’t think Elementalist is underwhelming, its just not as set in stone as other classes and as a whole I think its way more flushed out than your typical “mage” class of other MMO’s, I’m not stuck in the back flashing out High DPS spells hoping you don’t get one shotted by 80% of everything around you, instead I’m usually the first ones running into battle going blow for blow.

Cortalia.5467:

So unlike other classes where you set up your character to operate in one or two specific ways elementalists have the ability to do whatever depending on how you use the abundant amount of skills, you can chain skills together that stack conditions, or stack abilities to give boons, or chain them for maximum damage output.

So no… I don’t think Elementalist is underwhelming, its just not as set in stone as other classes and as a whole I think its way more flushed out than your typical “mage” class of other MMO’s, I’m not stuck in the back flashing out High DPS spells hoping you don’t get one shotted by 80% of everything around you, instead I’m usually the first ones running into battle going blow for blow.

The problem what you said is that in practice what you said isn’t really true. we are so substandard at everything we do that it is better just to bring someone else and don’t have to worry about it.

A lot of the time we don’t provide enough to justify our existence in most teams in PvP, PvE and WvW almost any class can be effective.

Solkard.5136:

The issue is did you intend to do all that at the same time, or did most of that just happen as a side effect of you going through a rotation that a macro button on a gaming keyboard/mouse could have done?

Doing a bunch of a stuff is cool, but being able to do something when and where you actually need it, is better. In most instances, inflicting conditions is better than not inflicting conditions, but how many of those stuns, blinds, cripples were actually used at max potential and how many were tossed out “just because”?

If ever there was an encounter that required you to not inflict blindness, chill, or dropping a combo field, could you manage it without severely crippling your performance? The class has effective variety, it lacks controlled versatility.

You just described the problem of massive attunement swap cooldowns perfectly.

1v1 wise Elementalist are fine in Spvp, since it’s more regulated, no oil/food and you don’t gears are more specific. But in WvW it’s entirely different, as roamers our power have been greatly nerfed since our AOEs are OP where in a 5 person party or in a zerg. It’s more to fact that we can’t take direct player focus fire rather than mob focus fire. I can solo (as in agro everything) a camp and KO all npcs with in 70 to 110 seconds. I can dash in a wvw 4v4 and crush the opposition in 2-3 chain combos. However, when alone in wvw I can beat mediocre builds that are not specifically designed to crush some one in 1v1. Most of those videos are Spvp or Eles in groups with little support or geared to fighting inexperienced enemies. Or Ele’s soloing non spike class with rather high survivability. For example: after 2-3 mins of fighting I can down Guardian at Legend rank in tier 3-4 servers with lots oils and food buffs vs ele bunker build and a 5 copper bun. Necro condtion tank spikers and Mace and Shield /Great sword can face roll me in wvw. So I believe this underpowered concept is in wvw and it’s hard to fix. Don’t go at it alone in some circumstance and know when your build can’t defeat the opponent’s meta build and run like a bunny. This is purely my observation in WvW as a solo roaming ele.

Ele’s have good burst, but low overall damage since arcane skills have long cd.

+1 this thread.

Benji.9203:

Autumn Man.6852:

their damage is ridiculously low

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MlXskSmfpI

Eles may not have stealth or clones but high almost instantaneous damage(when chained quick enough with arcane spells) that auto crits has to count for something.

Edit.: Dagger main hand is sustain/control damage

Random Edit (To help you consider scepter): Phoenix IMO is one of the BEST skills in the game. The utility and damage it provides cannot be overlooked.

I disagree with that video whole-heartedly. I have careered a glass mesmer main since I have started back in October and not once has an Ele done that to me or even came close. It is great that one ele was able to do it, but that one ele doesn’t represent even a 1/10 fraction of eles in pvp; not even by a long-shot.

Although I suppose it is anecdotal evidence vs. anecdotal evidence in this scenario. I do feel eles need a boost. Controlling the elements has never felt so underwhelming considering I can conjure an imaginary image to hit 8.9k with my number 4 skill.

Solkard.5136:

The issue is did you intend to do all that at the same time, or did most of that just happen as a side effect of you going through a rotation that a macro button on a gaming keyboard/mouse could have done?

Doing a bunch of a stuff is cool, but being able to do something when and where you actually need it, is better. In most instances, inflicting conditions is better than not inflicting conditions, but how many of those stuns, blinds, cripples were actually used at max potential and how many were tossed out “just because”?

If ever there was an encounter that required you to not inflict blindness, chill, or dropping a combo field, could you manage it without severely crippling your performance? The class has effective variety, it lacks controlled versatility.

This is a false dichotomy. “Using my skills with meaning and intent” and “using my skills because they’re available for me to use” are not mutually exclusive Sure, I could just mindlessly roll through attunements and drop everything without a care, but I get a lot more satisfaction (and success) out of being strategic with the choice and order of my spells.

Way to beg the question at the end too.

No fight will EVER require you not to drop a field. That’s counter-intuitive to game design and how Anet makes bosses. Sure…some bosses are harder than others to drop fields on…but none punish you for dropping one. Maybe in the wrong place at the wrong time…but that’s your own fault

Kalarchis.8635:

This is a false dichotomy. “Using my skills with meaning and intent” and “using my skills because they’re available for me to use” are not mutually exclusive Sure, I could just mindlessly roll through attunements and drop everything without a care, but I get a lot more satisfaction (and success) out of being strategic with the choice and order of my spells.

Way to beg the question at the end too.

I have really slowed down my game and tried playing in a less spammy way (i.e. more auto-attacks and save some key skills), but it always ends up being very underwhelming and often less effective than using your best skills off of cooldown. The only skills worth “saving” are updraft and earthquake so that you can support/peel.

However, when not spamming your skills, your damage goes from par to very sub-par as our autos are worthless. I have taken on many warriors in wvw, and if I just try to kite/position well for a bit and auto-attack, their base signet actually out-heals our auto-attack. I had one actually start /laugh at me while I was doing this. Of course I unleashed all of my burst when I got help from another 2 people, but I knew it was pointless to burst him with my CDs before I had additional help as I wouldn’t be able to fight his healing rate. This is entirely caused by out completely under-whelming auto-attacks that make spamming skills the only way to keep up with other classes autos even. We just happen to get some variety in added effects during that rotation, and can slightly change the rotation as the fight progresses.

I can’t, however, just sit out of earth waiting to be bursted or for when I need control, as my damage will suffer badly. Same with water. If I want great damage 1v1, I have to spam through all my attunements rather than sit in air and use my skills intelligently.

I have to say I really disagree with the fact that Elementalists are underwhelming. I bought gw2 for the first time 12 days ago. Already a full d/d spec’ed elementalist in full knights of divinity gear with 2 exotic weaps, bloodlust and force sigils on it…Working on my ascended gears atm, etc…And I gotta say…I love it. I’m dishing out good damage and I rarely get downed in dungeons. I just did a fractal run today with my guild…Got downed once the whole time while they got downed like 10-15 times…

I’m dishing out 7-8k aoe crits with number 5 earth skill and teleport combo…and my build isn’t nearly done. Doing 4-5k crit fire grabs, 2.5k-3k lighting whips…This is in dungeons btw…Haven’t tried wvw roaming but my gears pretty much matches Lady Sayrah and he does that much in wvw roaming so…I’m following Lady Sayrah’s skypirate build atm…And it’s doing wonders for me…And whenever my hp drops, all I do is dodge on water attunement, cast number 6, then 5, 3, then 2, then dodge again, bam easily full hp. Not to mention if you crit, you regain vigor…So you could constantly dodge to heal yourself and remove conditions. I’m loving my dd ele lol. I picked it b/c it’s “apparently” the weakest class and I always love picking the weakest because it’s more challenging…And I would say this class is more for quick thinkers who can adapt rather than people who want to faceroll a win.

I would just say play smarter overall…Realize that if you spec into glass cannon…Just think of hit and run tactics…Go in with large aoes, back out, heal yourself, go back in…etc. We are support zerg damage types. Once we embrace it, we’ll love dd eles.

Edit: I rotate a lot through attunements as I go through dungeons, storylines, etc…So the damage seems pretty consistent to me.

Lettuce.2945:

I have to say I really disagree with the fact that Elementalists are underwhelming. I bought gw2 for the first time 12 days ago. Already a full d/d spec’ed elementalist in full knights of divinity gear with 2 exotic weaps, bloodlust and force sigils on it…Working on my ascended gears atm, etc…And I gotta say…I love it. I’m dishing out good damage and I rarely get downed in dungeons. I just did a fractal run today with my guild…Got downed once the whole time while they got downed like 10-15 times…

I’m dishing out 7-8k aoe crits with number 5 earth skill and teleport combo…and my build isn’t nearly done. Doing 4-5k crit fire grabs, 2.5k-3k lighting whips…This is in dungeons btw…Haven’t tried wvw roaming but my gears pretty much matches Lady Sayrah and he does that much in wvw roaming so…I’m following Lady Sayrah’s skypirate build atm…And it’s doing wonders for me…And whenever my hp drops, all I do is dodge on water attunement, cast number 6, then 5, 3, then 2, then dodge again, bam easily full hp. Not to mention if you crit, you regain vigor…So you could constantly dodge to heal yourself and remove conditions. I’m loving my dd ele lol. I picked it b/c it’s “apparently” the weakest class and I always love picking the weakest because it’s more challenging…And I would say this class is more for quick thinkers who can adapt rather than people who want to faceroll a win.

I would just say play smarter overall…Realize that if you spec into glass cannon…Just think of hit and run tactics…Go in with large aoes, back out, heal yourself, go back in…etc. We are support zerg damage types. Once we embrace it, we’ll love dd eles.

Edit: I rotate a lot through attunements as I go through dungeons, storylines, etc…So the damage seems pretty consistent to me.

congratulation on buying guild wars 2 and playing it for ONLY 12 days. I am sure 12 days is enough time to form an opinion. I mean it is not like some of us have been playing since the first beta in april 12 but congratutions.

Oh btw, I am sure PvE is a great place to talk about how awesome the elementalist are, i mean it is not like PvE is mindlessly ez because PVE in guild wars 2 definitely not stupidly ez and anything with buttons can work.

I’ve played tons of mmorpgs and have dominated in pvp in them. Again, it’s my opinion and from what I’ve witnessed based on my gameplay experience and other eles WvW roaming videos…Smart eles do great in BOTH pve and pvp. I’ve seen some eles already dominating on youtube. Sure, you have to work harder to achieve the same results as other classes would (easily do). I like a challenge, keeps you on your toes and makes you think sharper. If you can dominate on an elementalist, surely you can dominate in other classes easier. Guess you aren’t one of those quick thinkers to attack a new player like this.

Lettuce.2945:

I’ve played tons of mmorpgs and have dominated in pvp in them. Again, it’s my opinion and from what I’ve witnessed based on my gameplay experience and other eles WvW roaming videos…Smart eles do great in BOTH pve and pvp. I’ve seen some eles already dominating on youtube. Sure, you have to work harder to achieve the same results as other classes would (easily do). I like a challenge, keeps you on your toes and makes you think sharper. If you can dominate on an elementalist, surely you can dominate in other classes easier. Guess you aren’t one of those quick thinkers to attack a new player like this.

They are always players that can make anything mediocre seem great but that is usually less than 5%. Most of the WvW videos only show things that the movie maker wants you to see, it doesn’t show the full picture or the reality of the class.

in Pve and WvW they are a lot of factors that allow certain classes to perform better than their tPvP counterparts. For example till recently the Warrior was a boss in PvE but in tpvp was practically useless and that is because certain things only work in certain settings.

To your last point about challenge, if you want a challenge take out your gear. BUT in a team based (tpvp) game which guild wars 2 (supposedly is since it is supposedly balance around 5v5), having a class that requires 2-3 times the work for 1/2 the result other classes provide doesn’t give a compelling enough to bring the elementalist into the team.

added: btw I have pvp in other games blab blah, played the elementalist in guild wars 1 off and on for 6 years (sadly the elementalist had a similar problem for years and it was only a couple of years ago Arenanet decided to redo the class). played mages for most of my mmorpg career and blah blah.

Elementalist in PvE does have the theoretical highest DPS in the game with Fiery GS 4/3 plus wall and no target. My friend got firey whirl to hit for 50K once. As far as pvp goes I vastly prefer scepter dagger air builds over the washed up bunker dagger builds, as the S/D lightning strike burst comes very frequently and enemies cannot easily predict or dodge it.

I should say that my experience and opinions are limited to PvE. I expect that a lot of the PvP criticisms are entirely valid.

Nova.8021:

I disagree with that video whole-heartedly. I have careered a glass mesmer main since I have started back in October and not once has an Ele done that to me or even came close. It is great that one ele was able to do it, but that one ele doesn’t represent even a 1/10 fraction of eles in pvp; not even by a long-shot.

Although I suppose it is anecdotal evidence vs. anecdotal evidence in this scenario. I do feel eles need a boost. Controlling the elements has never felt so underwhelming considering I can conjure an imaginary image to hit 8.9k with my number 4 skill.

The problem is that the mesmer in the video wasn’t paying attention; the ele left stealth at a location where he could have been spotted. Despite being a fairly quick spell to cast, Earthquake is pretty obviously telegraphed. The spike being used MUST be executed instantly, meaning if you fail to land Earthquake your one-trick-pony has died and you must wait the 45 seconds for your full burst to come back. That build also devotes its entire utility bar to spike assist, leaving survivability in the dust.

Long story short: had the mesmer been paying proper attention, there’s absolutely no way he would have died to that spike.

silvermember.8941:

Lettuce.2945:

I’ve played tons of mmorpgs and have dominated in pvp in them. Again, it’s my opinion and from what I’ve witnessed based on my gameplay experience and other eles WvW roaming videos…Smart eles do great in BOTH pve and pvp. I’ve seen some eles already dominating on youtube. Sure, you have to work harder to achieve the same results as other classes would (easily do). I like a challenge, keeps you on your toes and makes you think sharper. If you can dominate on an elementalist, surely you can dominate in other classes easier. Guess you aren’t one of those quick thinkers to attack a new player like this.

They are always players that can make anything mediocre seem great but that is usually less than 5%. Most of the WvW videos only show things that the movie maker wants you to see, it doesn’t show the full picture or the reality of the class.

in Pve and WvW they are a lot of factors that allow certain classes to perform better than their tPvP counterparts. For example till recently the Warrior was a boss in PvE but in tpvp was practically useless and that is because certain things only work in certain settings.

To your last point about challenge, if you want a challenge take out your gear. BUT in a team based (tpvp) game which guild wars 2 (supposedly is since it is supposedly balance around 5v5), having a class that requires 2-3 times the work for 1/2 the result other classes provide doesn’t give a compelling enough to bring the elementalist into the team.

added: btw I have pvp in other games blab blah, played the elementalist in guild wars 1 off and on for 6 years (sadly the elementalist had a similar problem for years and it was only a couple of years ago Arenanet decided to redo the class). played mages for most of my mmorpg career and blah blah.

I just did sPvp random queue (and my stats are lower in sPvP instances than outside), but did really great and my survivability and dps was good. So, idk man…Just be constantly on the move…I’m still not seeing it lol.

Anyways, the elementalist I study does livestreaming every time he pvps in wvw. So no, he doesn’t edit out the parts. Check out JetstormTV channel on youtube if you have time. That’s the playstyle I copied exactly with the exception of the number 6 skill. I just copied his movements in pvp and attunement rotations/combos and it’s doing wonders for me. Maybe study him?

I have yet to try WvW pvp but if I’m doing this well in sPvP, I can only imagine it would be better in WvW scenarios where I actually have good stats.

nearlight.3064:

Elementalist in PvE does have the theoretical highest DPS in the game with Fiery GS 4/3 plus wall and no target. My friend got firey whirl to hit for 50K once. As far as pvp goes I vastly prefer scepter dagger air builds over the washed up bunker dagger builds, as the S/D lightning strike burst comes very frequently and enemies cannot easily predict or dodge it.

It’s true. In this video I got 180k Fiery Rush (2.6k x 70) against the opponent with much higher armour than typical boss. Problem is, it’s very situational and it’s a burst. In pve you often need sustained damage where ele can only brag about lightning whip which is still bad compared to other profession potentials – even guardians with a sword deal more dps by about 2%.

Lettuce.2945:

silvermember.8941:

Lettuce.2945:

I’ve played tons of mmorpgs and have dominated in pvp in them. Again, it’s my opinion and from what I’ve witnessed based on my gameplay experience and other eles WvW roaming videos…Smart eles do great in BOTH pve and pvp. I’ve seen some eles already dominating on youtube. Sure, you have to work harder to achieve the same results as other classes would (easily do). I like a challenge, keeps you on your toes and makes you think sharper. If you can dominate on an elementalist, surely you can dominate in other classes easier. Guess you aren’t one of those quick thinkers to attack a new player like this.

They are always players that can make anything mediocre seem great but that is usually less than 5%. Most of the WvW videos only show things that the movie maker wants you to see, it doesn’t show the full picture or the reality of the class.

in Pve and WvW they are a lot of factors that allow certain classes to perform better than their tPvP counterparts. For example till recently the Warrior was a boss in PvE but in tpvp was practically useless and that is because certain things only work in certain settings.

To your last point about challenge, if you want a challenge take out your gear. BUT in a team based (tpvp) game which guild wars 2 (supposedly is since it is supposedly balance around 5v5), having a class that requires 2-3 times the work for 1/2 the result other classes provide doesn’t give a compelling enough to bring the elementalist into the team.

added: btw I have pvp in other games blab blah, played the elementalist in guild wars 1 off and on for 6 years (sadly the elementalist had a similar problem for years and it was only a couple of years ago Arenanet decided to redo the class). played mages for most of my mmorpg career and blah blah.

I just did sPvp random queue (and my stats are lower in sPvP instances than outside), but did really great and my survivability and dps was good. So, idk man…Just be constantly on the move…I’m still not seeing it lol.

Anyways, the elementalist I study does livestreaming every time he pvps in wvw. So no, he doesn’t edit out the parts. Check out JetstormTV channel on youtube if you have time. That’s the playstyle I copied exactly with the exception of the number 6 skill. I just copied his movements in pvp and attunement rotations/combos and it’s doing wonders for me. Maybe study him?

I have yet to try WvW pvp but if I’m doing this well in sPvP, I can only imagine it would be better in WvW scenarios where I actually have good stats.

WvW pvp depending on the server to allow one abilities to reset and a lot things that work in WvW WILL not work in tpvp. Solo PvP, given your the that it is the first time you are playing means your MMR is super low. which alos means you are more likely playing with other inexperience players.

BtW spvp (8v8), solo (5v5) (new and lot of people just trying it out) and tpvp.

Anyways, if you are doing good in solo pvp that’s cool, but generally speaking tpvp is a lot different because it requires more coordination and working together and elementalist doesn’t bring a lot that other class don’t bring and do better at.

@Silver
I was even doing a private guild sPvP room with people who played beta since it started. They all were impressed by how I moved as an elementalist and by the dmg especially considering how low my stats is in heart of the mist compared to wvw or pve maps. One even said he’s never seen an elementalist move like that. So honestly…I really think it comes down to the player’s skills themselves. I participated because I wanted to learn how the other classes worked in pvp.

And I was complimented several times last night during my sPvP queue up so…I must be doing something right. Even had a 17 kill streak at one point. Again, I just think it all boils down to how you rotate out your attunements both defensively and offensively and how you move.

We can agree to disagree but all I can say is I love elementalist and I’m often told that I’m gg at it. Not trying to have an ego trip here but I’m just basically saying if some elementalists are struggling, might just wanna look at how you play instead of blaming it on the class. As I said in an earlier post…I do acknowledge we have to work twice as hard to perform well in pvp/pve than most classes do…But that’s what makes it fun for me and not dulling. It keeps me on my toes instead of just facerolling an easy win.

I can 100% say I’m sticking with my ele all the way and I will EXCEL at it in a month or less. Best of luck to everyone else. Hope you figure out a way to compensate. I would suggest taking a look at this guy’s build.

That’s the build I’m rolling with, and the gears as well. He also has an updated build that looks risky but has a high reward. You could check that out as well. If you have time, watch his wvw videos. My playstyle closely imitates his.

I love pvp, and i have pvped in a lot of games. Also watch daphoenix’s videos if possible but he traited more on the defensive side. The video I linked is more of a glass cannon but I can survive pretty well with that build thanks to the vigor restoration on crit and the water heal combinations (especially on dodge). I personally use glyph of harmony as my number 6 skill. (It does remove a condition as the signet would but heals more…And it’s nice to have the option to buff might or speed with it if you need it).

Autumn Man.6852:

The point I’m trying to make is that elementalists are USELESS. There is asolutely no reason whatsoever to pick them unless fancy aoe that looks cool means anything to you.

I’m gonna quote a very respected and veteran WvW commander here. He said this while our guild was forming up.

’ We are a little low on eles tonight, expect the run to be harder than usual. ’

Now, you may have your opinion, but elementalists who have mastered their class are parts of a team who simply can’t be replaced by any other class.