Guild Wars 2

My name is Joe and I’m an Elementalist.

Well, at least it seems this way. My main is a double dagger elementalist, although I don’t shy away from staff. I don’t care much for PvE and I find sPvP (hot-join) pretty boring in the long run. I focus on WvW while doing some free tournaments as a random (no team unfortunately). I’m not exactly the best player in the world but I think I’m doing just alright with my ele. I make a lot of mistakes but I have my small victories too.

What makes the ele so fun to me is the challenge that can be very rewarding paired with the profession’s absolutely insane dynamics (I’m talking pure visual / motion aspect here). There’s no skill spam here, which is something I try to stay away from. You can stay in the heat of the battle for pretty much as long as your concentration and skill will allow you. Although there is some run-n-gun-like gameplay involved it’s not about unloading your burst and getting the hell out of there. All in all I feel sturdy, mobile and never out of ideas. It’s a fresh, dynamic (can’t stress this enough) and rewarding experience.

What’s the problem then? Well, I’ve been trying to level some alts lately and I just can’t stomach any of them. Everything feels so static and uninspired compared to D/D ele it just blows my mind. Granted, your experience with a given profession is only as good as your knowledge about it, especially that we’re talking WvW / tPvP here. Still, it’s hard getting into all in and outs of a profession if you just don’t enjoy it.

So the question here is this. Is there any other profession / build combo anyone thinks I might enjoy? There’s myriads of possibilities here, I’m probably not familiar with every single (viable) build in the game. Could there be something out there that matches the ele’s dynamic and challenging gameplay? You know, something that can stay in the fight pretty much forever while not being a bunker? Something that’s engaging and takes more than 2 buttons to be effective? Or should I just stick to the ele and stop even trying to play anything else?

PS. I’m posting this here because if someone hasn’t played D/D ele extensively they won’t really grasp what I’m talking about here.

Same as you D/D main focused on WvW – got an 80 guardian and my other slots are fillers. Played a Ranger to 40, Mesmer to 35, Warrior to 30 and recently ditched my Ranger for a thief at 17. Also played a Necro to 15.

For me personally the closest match so far regarding speed and fluidity is the thief, found the rest boring and didn’t feel comfortable without two daggers and a microphone. Maybe the thief will grow tiresome but so far I’m enjoying it and look forward to being able to cross over to the dark side when I feel like it.

From what I’ve tried of it, Mesmer seems like it’s a pretty neat and fluid class to play with the illusions and teleports and whatnot. As an 80 Ele, I also totally understand where you’re coming from with D/D, tried to make a warrior alt and it just doesn’t feel the same. It’s funny, really – the Evasive Arcana nerf-fix is what actually pushed me to try D/D, and now I can’t see myself going back to anything else.

I have a 80 necro/guardian and engineer. Honestly this class is not much different in gameplay. It’s just more buttons to push to get similar results. I think it’s the cohesiveness of the skills that makes it fun. Fairly logical order to trigger them. The escape skills make this class in wvwvw.

Ranger is my second main; working in sync with your pet is very engaging and highly rewarding when done correctly, even though rangers/pets need a lot of work.

Going by your original post, Joe, I’m almost certain you’re not going to find a class you like half as much as you like Ele. I’m the same way. D/D Ele has such fluid gameplay and such a strong ability to adapt to any given situation that every other class feels slow and clunky by comparison.

JoeVertigo, I wholeheartedly know how you feel.

Up until a month ago, my main had been a mesmer. It’s tough to measure how much time I spent in WvW, but by the end, I had two stacks of badges. I thought mesmer was my true love.

That is, until I tried D/D. A month later, I’m throwing all of my gold, all of my time, and all of my effort into ele. I’m fairly certain that I won’t leave D/D or elementalist. I had an 80 guardian, 80 mesmer, and 50 thief, and nothing felt even close to the fluidity, speed, and complexity of elementalist gameplay. It’s almost like an entry-way drug. You’re irrevocably changed afterwards.

Mesmer is still fun. It’s direct, powerful, and more complex than the other classes. However, it’s now what I play when I want a simpler and more direct game play without falling asleep on my keyboard (the non-snooze requirement automatically rules out warrior and ranger).

That said, I’ve never tried the engineer or necro.

p.s. To the designer(s) who were responsible for D/D, if I continue to play this game 2 years from now, it will probably be 70% due to this beautiful, brilliant, and incredibly addictive play style you created.

I have actually parked my Elementalist for a while and am playing a Necro. (Tried one for a few levels and found them boring, but then picked one up recently and love him.) Feels Elementalist-like to me, though different: not nearly as mobile as a D/D Elementalist which is arguably the most mobile character in the game, but lots of fast-casting options.

Hint: the class isn’t obvious. I’d recommend not using minions for now (AI issues), though you’ll find that one thing you’ll need for WvW for mobility is the Frost Wurm (teleport to his location, blowing him up in the process).