Guild Wars 2

HI@
PLS buff Ele. Its just horrible annoying getting flamed like “dude, your cripling your Team because you Chose Ele in Tpvp”… and ist kinda true. The Risk/Reward is rediculous on Ele compared to ALL other classes who just can faceroll you to death without being even a little skilled…..

Good post, very informative. If I worked for ANet I’d give you guys +2% damage to Bleeding Foes on your Burning Retreat just for this.

Amaya.1483:

HI@
PLS buff Ele. Its just horrible annoying getting flamed like “dude, your cripling your Team because you Chose Ele in Tpvp”… and ist kinda true. The Risk/Reward is rediculous on Ele compared to ALL other classes who just can faceroll you to death without being even a little skilled…..

Can we get a build or something? If it was D/D cantrip then that was the problem.

It’s more that anyone even moderately experienced has learned to focus the ele before doing anything else. It’s somewhat stupid but that is what most of the problem is, you are just a higher priority kill.

just stop playing the game. The incredible drop-off rate of elementalists is apparent. This is the only way to get them to give us that +2% damage to burning and bleeding foes.

Is there some kind of inside joke going on with this “+2% damage to burning and bleeding” o_O

iknow righ? how about bleeding and burning to damaged foes
and some torment on downed, so they know how we feel

It’s all about skills.. If you have them you’ll do really well, but some builds in TPvP will naturally counter you.

But about those skills, you can have them on any class, and many are easier to learn and do well on.

All I can say: yes it’s super annoying to play tPvP as an ele. You get discredited alot of times. When your team wins, it was the others carrying you. When you lose it’s clearly the eles fault because he was to “selfish” to bring a “viable” class.

Still I don’t want to see this class becoming the next warriors. There is a reason I play elementalist: it’s the competition. The feeling of joy when you showed those ignorant people what a well played ele still can do.

I’m all in for some small buffs, but please ANet, don’t overdo it. I would instantly leave this game when ele would get to the same absurd level warriors are right now.

I personally would like it more if other classes were toned down a bit to a similar level. This balance rollercoaster we had since launch is just not healthy in the long run, worsening up balance even more.

silvershadez.8421:

All I can say: yes it’s super annoying to play tPvP as an ele. You get discredited alot of times. When your team wins, it was the others carrying you. When you lose it’s clearly the eles fault because he was to “selfish” to bring a “viable” class.

Still I don’t want to see this class becoming the next warriors. There is a reason I play elementalist: it’s the competition. The feeling of joy when you showed those ignorant people what a well played ele still can do.

I’m all in for some small buffs, but please ANet, don’t overdo it. I would instantly leave this game when ele would get to the same absurd level warriors are right now.

I personally would like it more if other classes were toned down a bit to a similar level. This balance rollercoaster we had since launch is just not healthy in the long run, worsening up balance even more.

That’s what people have been suggesting from the start, nerf the ridiculous cheese builds like spirit rangers and the 1 button wins like signet of spite. It’s absolutely stupid things like that even exist in the game.

and yet they majorly nerfed Ele in last patch, and buffed phantasm mesmers…

silvershadez.8421:

Still I don’t want to see this class becoming the next warriors. There is a reason I play elementalist: it’s the competition. The feeling of joy when you showed those ignorant people what a well played ele still can do.

I’m all in for some small buffs, but please ANet, don’t overdo it. I would instantly leave this game when ele would get to the same absurd level warriors are right now.

Did you make your Ele at the start of the game or recently?
Because for the first several months Ele’s were VERY strong, basically a top-tier PvP class. A well-played D/D Ele was almost unstoppable due to crazy sustain/healing, high mobility and decent damage output.

I played Elementalist from day 1. I got any class on 80 right now but I can barely enjoy any other class then my elementalist or my engineer for a longer period of time. I kind of play any aspect of the game but I would say I’m more of a PvPer playing tPvP and WvW in equal parts. I enjoy tPvP more currently because of the blobbing in WvW and the almost not existing roaming community (I don’t enjoy zergs)-

I was using the so famous auramentalist build and even some builds that represent the current ele meta like 1 month after release allready. I was aware back then allready that those kind of builds, especially our mobility would be nerfed badly. So I tried to play around.

It’s just my personal taste but I don’t like D/D. It’s way to predictive and repeative and makes it easy for your enemy to read you.

I honestly believe that there won’t be any major changes soon enough that bring us up the ladder, either by nerfing the other classes down to an acceptable level or by buffing the elementalist. ANet didn’t prove balance was a high priority yet. And alot of decisions and fixes went the wrong way.

I won’t last long in this game anymore anyway, since a very promising AAA title is just around the corner (no not TESO).

To bring me back here ANet should better have some work done, not by creating and promoting new living events, but by actually making the PvP part of this game enjoyable again.

Mbelch.9028:

It’s all about skills.. If you have them you’ll do really well, but some builds in TPvP will naturally counter you.

But about those skills, you can have them on any class, and many are easier to learn and do well on.

I love PvP, and played into the top 10 in arenas while I played WoW. I’m not a pro by a long shot, and WoW is a different game than GW2. That said, I do know my way around PvP.

I just got back into GW2 after a very long break, but from what I’ve seen so far ele’s are in an awful spot. Whenever a class is struggling, there are always a handful of players who want to stroke their ego and say “it’s just a lack of skill, the class is fine”. It is an attitude you see in every game in every genre. Someone, through skill and a lot of luck, takes a class to a slightly above average spot and thinks they’ve vindicated the entire class.

Really, you’re just the guy one standard deviation above the class’ horrible mean. It’s nothing more than statistics: the odds of there being a few of you are near 100%. It doesn’t mean ele’s are ok.

Take an ele into competitive pro or near-pro play, succeed, and then tell us ele’s are just fine. We still won’t believe you, but at least your “trust me, I know more than you” attitude will carry more weight.

All I see are ele’s who have played at a near-pro level telling everyone else to just reroll. Top PvP players do tend to be trolls, but when they literally all agree on something they have a tremendous track record.

At r31, the only successful eles I ever see are running s/d and staff. Some use icebow. You can do bunker d/d, but you can’t solo hold a point with it anymore. Everyone else’s cc and damage just craps all over you if you’re solo somewhere. You can’t take guardians off a point ever.

It’s a go-burst-or-go-home scene where you have to tag along with your teammates or perish. It’s a horrible state, imo.

Also, s/f is probably the best defense you can get now that still pumps out ranged damage. You don’t want to be in melee range anymore unless you’ve got burst and immunities.

My perspective is all solo queue/hotjoin. I’ve never had a full 5-man tpvp team where I could actually rely on/vocalize with.

Hey guys.
I actually tried tournaments for the first time a few days ago with my guild mates.
I don’t know if that’s tpvp or not. But our group had 2 Elementalists, myself and one of my guild members. The rest of my group did not carry us. In fact, I’d say we were top players. We won 6 of 9 games against some good, great, and terrible opponents.

My argument on the Elementalist is never that it isn’t good. The Elementalist is extremely tough. My argument is that people who play the Elementalist need to work much harder than people who play other classes to get roughly the same or better output.

katniss.6735:

My perspective is all solo queue/hotjoin. I’ve never had a full 5-man tpvp team where I could actually rely on/vocalize with.

It only gets worse because any smart team will coordinate to blow-up the Ele first.

Tom.8029:

Hey guys.
I actually tried tournaments for the first time a few days ago

Having only played 9 tournaments in your GW2 history I dont think you understand the situation with the class. You can play your best and have a ton of luck but you will still be at a huge disadvantage with the Elementalist.

This is coming from someone who spent a month theorycrafting in sPvP for the class and trying to make it viable but the truth is its not worth it. You will stress yourself out when you start playing against truly decent players. In the end I made an engi and ran around feeling like a god, after which I made a meditation guardian and wished that d/d or s/d arcane ele was as powerful as that, because it simply isnt.

Wintel.4873:

katniss.6735:

My perspective is all solo queue/hotjoin. I’ve never had a full 5-man tpvp team where I could actually rely on/vocalize with.

It only gets worse because any smart team will coordinate to blow-up the Ele first.

yep ^^ set focus-mark on squishy S/D-ele and he’s dead within 2s…

zilcho.7624:

Mbelch.9028:

It’s all about skills.. If you have them you’ll do really well, but some builds in TPvP will naturally counter you.

But about those skills, you can have them on any class, and many are easier to learn and do well on.

I love PvP, and played into the top 10 in arenas while I played WoW. I’m not a pro by a long shot, and WoW is a different game than GW2. That said, I do know my way around PvP.

I just got back into GW2 after a very long break, but from what I’ve seen so far ele’s are in an awful spot. Whenever a class is struggling, there are always a handful of players who want to stroke their ego and say “it’s just a lack of skill, the class is fine”. It is an attitude you see in every game in every genre. Someone, through skill and a lot of luck, takes a class to a slightly above average spot and thinks they’ve vindicated the entire class.

Really, you’re just the guy one standard deviation above the class’ horrible mean. It’s nothing more than statistics: the odds of there being a few of you are near 100%. It doesn’t mean ele’s are ok.

Take an ele into competitive pro or near-pro play, succeed, and then tell us ele’s are just fine. We still won’t believe you, but at least your “trust me, I know more than you” attitude will carry more weight.

All I see are ele’s who have played at a near-pro level telling everyone else to just reroll. Top PvP players do tend to be trolls, but when they literally all agree on something they have a tremendous track record.

Look, buddy. I get this response from a lot of people, but there are others who agree with me.

Am I an elitist who thinks he is quite good at the game? Oh yes, I’ll admit that. Would I overstate my class, especially since I feel like it at times limits my skill? No, I’d like to see it buffed.

I’m mostly a WvW player, as I see that as THE game mode. Silly e-sports have very little point in my mind. SPvP is good for dueling server mates and getting a decent team together to play a few TPvP matches.

I DO play TPvP, and have played competitively, but let me correct you right now, there is no such thing as a pro-level community. Produce it. There are hardcore players, but nobody is truly a PROFESSIONAL gw2 player. That’s sad that you’d even ask me to try playing at that imaginary level to try to appease you.

And I’ll repeat, just because SOME people are having a hard time making the class work — you admitted you are — doesn’t mean the class doesn’t work. I said it has natural counters, look at terrormancer necros. But the ability to beat other classes with skill alone is most definitely there.

I don’t need to prove myself to you, nor that I can make the class work, but if you want to have some duels, ring me up in the game, I really do love dueling.

Any other class is designed to be effective even when in the hands of mediocre players. So why is it wrong to demand the same effectiveness for eles? Just because SOME players are kinda successfull in certain situations doesn’t mean that the class is ok. A class is ok when it’s on par with other classes and that’s simply not the case. Everyone that’s denying this fact has either never played other classes or is trolling.
I congrulate you if you seriously think ele is ok, but 99% of the rest of the pvp-community thinks otherwise. Numbers speak for themselves. Ele is unpopular and that’s for a reason.

Can’t really buff an entire class based on it’s performance in tPvP. You’d simply be asking for a PvP only buff. The problem with buffing classes across the board for it’s underperformance in one area of the game isn’t good balance.

Elementalist does well in both roaming/dueling and zerg play in WvW and does fine in PvE as well so buffing the class entirely on tPvP could make them overpowered in the areas they’re already doing alright on. Is the d/d elementalist a hard build to play? Yes. But due to it’s incredible skill ceiling once it is mastered you will not only have alot of fun with the class but you’ll be dominating as well. Also, most elementalists on the forums purely talk from a 1on1/roaming stand point. Let’s get this onto the table right here and right now, there is going to be classes that will have builds that are going to be extremely good and almost unstoppable in 1on1 / roaming situations like condition thief / condition mesmer and some classes have builds that will completely counter the elementalist gameplay style (terrormancer necros, etc). That’s just the way it is.

I’ve played the Elementalist since I picked up the game in October of the year of it’s release. I think I understand it.

Tom.8029:

I’ve played the Elementalist since I picked up the game in October of the year of it’s release. I think I understand it.

If you played elementalist truly for that long then you should also know that ele don’t need buffs but other classes need nerfs. I don’t want this game to turn into a condi/(power) creep fest even more then it already is, our heals are very limited the way they are currently and if they would buff other classes even more then it would serve us no use at all anymore.

Gorni.1764:

Any other class is designed to be effective even when in the hands of mediocre players. So why is it wrong to demand the same effectiveness for eles? Just because SOME players are kinda successfull in certain situations doesn’t mean that the class is ok. A class is ok when it’s on par with other classes and that’s simply not the case. Everyone that’s denying this fact has either never played other classes or is trolling.
I congrulate you if you seriously think ele is ok, but 99% of the rest of the pvp-community thinks otherwise. Numbers speak for themselves. Ele is unpopular and that’s for a reason.

I really have no problem with Ele being more difficult to play than other classes. In large part, that is why I picked Ele. I wanted a class that is challenging but rewarding to play and, for the most part, Ele fits the bill. I did not want to pick a class that I could faceroll to win with…if I did, there were plenty other options.

When you balance things, I don’t think you can look at “well this one is harder to play than that one!” You just need to look at how a skilled Ele performs vs. a skilled whatever. And I don’t mean a straight fight between the two, there will always be some builds that just counter others. I just mean how well each class performs in different situations.

That said, I think that Ele’s are not terrible, but they definitely have a weakness toward condition builds. I’ve noticed that I can beat most classes in duels, but when it comes to condition necros or engies, I normally get wiped out. I only have so many cleanses, and these guys apply conditions so fast that the cleanses hardly matter…I spend all my time trying to survive with the insane condition damage that I can hardly even take the offensive against them.

ANet tried to add the Diamond Skin trait to help with this…but that is 30 points into earth and for most Ele’s, it just isn’t viable to take. What I would like to see is something like this…

1. Make Elemental Attunement a class feature. Almost EVERY Ele takes this, and now this REQUIRES a 20 point investment into arcane. ANet tried to make more Ele’s spec away from arcane with the attunement cooldown change (which was great!) but since Elemental Attunement is more or less required, we are STILL stuck with a 20 point investment into arcane.

2. Make the fire trait line better!!!! This doesn’t have much to do with making Ele better in general…just giving us some more options. I hate that we have a trait line that is almost NEVER used.
I know ANet is trying…but fire just seems like it has never been up to snuff. Fresh Air was a great trait that made Air a very viable trait line for 30 points…fire needs something just as good.

3. Give us some more defenses against conditions. A year ago, the 0/10/0/30/30 D/D Ele was one of the best condition purgers bar none. With the water talents, arcane evasion, and ether renewal → mist form, we could reliably get rid of tons of conditions and escape with ease. And admittedly, this was a bit much.

However now, I feel like I am terrible at purging conditions. I don’t have as many purges, and other classes seem to be able to put conditions back the second they come off so it doesn’t even matter.

Diamond Skin is a good effort, but it’s too all or nothing for me…you either are god against condition builds, but really sacrifice a lot generally, or are decent generally but get destroyed by condition builds. I would like to have a build that has a decent chance of competing against most builds instead of being god-mode against one and subpar against the rest.

Creslin.1758:

I really have no problem with Ele being more difficult to play than other classes. In large part, that is why I picked Ele. I wanted a class that is challenging but rewarding to play and, for the most part, Ele fits the bill. I did not want to pick a class that I could faceroll to win with…if I did, there were plenty other options.

I 100% agree with you, but even a well played ele is at most as efficient as any button-spamming warrior. I want to be rewarded for good play … and that’s not the case.

The class needs an HP/eHP bump at the least.

It would be nice if we could also have an effective condition damage spec.

I dont play ele a lot, but I know how hard it is.
Its one of the few classes I dont mind getting rolled by. Imo eles dont need a buff every other class needs a higher skill ceiling.
Its not your class its theirs.
Blah blah.

This may be a bit selfish and unreasonable, but I’ve had this idea lately that they should allow the Elementalist to have more trait points than the other classes(professions). Maybe like 5 or 10 more. I always feel like my build is incomplete in some way. For example I have this really good vulnerability build and it literally needs 5 more trait points to be perfect. I feel like a lot of the builds for the Elementalist are like this. For most builds, you would need around 5 or 10 trait points to get that last buff in the trait line that would just be the icing on the cake. I figured I’d just throw this out there. haha.

But I’m not sure if I think it would even the playing field or if I’m just being biased towards the Elementalist.

Stand The Wall.6987:

I dont play ele a lot, but I know how hard it is.
Its one of the few classes I dont mind getting rolled by. Imo eles dont need a buff every other class needs a higher skill ceiling.
Its not your class its theirs.
Blah blah.

Thats because you know that they played flawlessly and you probably made several mistakes depending on the class.

Personally I think those who QQ about diamond skin haven’t played it. It’s useful for the first 5s of a duel and that’s about it.

I would love the skill to be reworked since as a GM trait it’s nowhere near worth it and kitten many people mentioned, a hard counter doesn’t make anyone happy, even if the 90% was lowered it would still be a cheesy build to troll with at best, at worst it would make 30 earth a required build to become viable.

Tom.8029:

This may be a bit selfish and unreasonable, but I’ve had this idea lately that they should allow the Elementalist to have more trait points than the other classes. Maybe like 5 or 10 more. I always feel like my build is incomplete in some way. For example i have this really good vulnerability build and it literally needs 5 more trait points to be perfect. I feel like a lot of the build for the Elementalist are like this. For most builds, you would need like 5 or 10 trait points to get that last this in the trait line that would just be the icing on the cake. I figured I’d just throw this out there. haha.

But I’m not sure if I think it would even the playing field or if I’m just being biased towards the Elementalist.

I think this just shows how much reworking elementalist trees need to make other lines actually viable.

Wouldnt mind seeing some additions in the trait portion of things. Some complexity would be nice. Talking about the system as a whole here.

I’m not understanding why Ele’s have the lowest health, and the lowest armor, but not the highest damage to compensate?

In comparison, Warriors have the highest health, highest armor, and the highest damage, and their trade off is the lowest healing.

Malganis.7468:

I’m not understanding why Ele’s have the lowest health, and the lowest armor, but not the highest damage to compensate?

In comparison, Warriors have the highest health, highest armor, and the highest damage, and their trade off is the lowest healing.

Ele has “highest damage” with Lightning Hammer and FGS (into wall), but in that regard it’s highly specific to PvE.
As for PvP…well if grossly disproportionate amounts of attention that PvE content gets compared to PvP wasn’t obvious enough, ANet really don’t care about PvP all that much.

Malganis.7468:

I’m not understanding why Ele’s have the lowest health, and the lowest armor, but not the highest damage to compensate?

In comparison, Warriors have the highest health, highest armor, and the highest damage, and their trade off is the lowest healing.

False, warrior healing is insane as well. With heal sig, adrenal health, and all those shout heals if they trait for them. They probably can heal even better than eles not sure exactly what the numbers are over time though.

2/10 would not read again

Warrior has the highest passive regen in the game and overall the best healing next to only bunker guardian.
With the more bunker/balanced Ele builds (lower damage) if you don’t apply CONSTANT damage pressure to the warrior, he’ll simply out-heal your damage without even doing anything.

Think pre-nerf Signet Of Restoration, then make it even stronger and completely passive and you get Healing Signet.

Yet another reason to buff Ele’s then. Are there any downsides to being a warrior?

ArthurDent.9538:

False, warrior healing is insane as well. With heal sig, adrenal health, and all those shout heals if they trait for them. They probably can heal even better than eles not sure exactly what the numbers are over time though.

Warrior healing is pretty good, but here are the numbers:

Healing Signet is ~400hp/s with relatively low +heal scaling.

Adrenal Health ticks every 3 seconds and isn’t affected by +heal, so 120hp/s at max.

Shout heals are a grandmaster trait in a tree that doesn’t provide much offensive capability and shouts are also not the most desirable utilities.

Warrior self-healing is quite good, but eles can provide healing to a team.

zilcho.7624:

Mbelch.9028:

It’s all about skills.. If you have them you’ll do really well, but some builds in TPvP will naturally counter you.

But about those skills, you can have them on any class, and many are easier to learn and do well on.

I love PvP, and played into the top 10 in arenas while I played WoW. I’m not a pro by a long shot, and WoW is a different game than GW2. That said, I do know my way around PvP.

Whenever a class is struggling, there are always a handful of players who want to stroke their ego and say “it’s just a lack of skill, the class is fine”. It is an attitude you see in every game in every genre. Someone, through skill and a lot of luck, takes a class to a slightly above average spot and thinks they’ve vindicated the entire class.

This. The “I don’t have any problems with this class, you just lack skills. Go roll another class” attitude is prevailing in the Ele forums which is why it’s so depressing.

Nobody cares if you’re good or not in playing the class, but when OTHER classes gets the general consensus of elementalists being underpowered and crippling to the team, isn’t it enough to prove that not only elementalists see the class underpowered but the GW2 community as a whole?

People can claim they can 1vX others easily but the question is the skill level of your opponents. By no means I consider myself a pro, tbh I consider myself your everyday average player but I can tell tales that I easily fought 1v3 and won. By no means I was good but rather my opponents were bad enough to make me look good.

I remember “talking” and “asking” to an Elementalist Dev (I don’t remember the name but he was standing next to another AFK Warrior Dev) in HoTM regarding the future of the class a few weeks ago… but he was always AFK. Devs always claim that they are listening to the player base but how are we supposed to know if they just keep quiet in the shadows.

Wintel.4873:

Did you make your Ele at the start of the game or recently?
Because for the first several months Ele’s were VERY strong, basically a top-tier PvP class. A well-played D/D Ele was almost unstoppable due to crazy sustain/healing, high mobility and decent damage output.

Not really. Bunker ele was basically unkillable at the beggining of the game, but only because of how many escapes it had combined with good mobility. Ele was a mediocre point holder and could be forced to run from most classes. An ele who stuck around too long would run out of escapes, get hit with CC and just instantly die. They could never kill decent players because the damage was just laughably bad. A bunker ele’s fire grab did less damage than a balanced ele’s lightning whip.

Everything other than pure bunker was below average or flat out bad.

Kyon.9735:

Nobody cares if you’re good or not in playing the class, but when OTHER classes gets the general consensus of elementalists being underpowered and crippling to the team, isn’t it enough to prove that not only elementalists see the class underpowered but the GW2 community as a whole?

Not sure…the thing is, once something gets stuck in peoples’ heads, it’s hard to change their opinion. There have been several threads in the past 2 months that showed how to deal dps equal to or greater than that of warriors (both with and without lightning hammer) but somehow those threads are drowned by the huge amount of cries of players who aren’t satisfied with their performance. The elementalist has a poor reputation, and if that’s not the whole problem, it’s certainly half of it.

ThiBash.5634:

There have been several threads in the past 2 months that showed how to deal dps equal to or greater than that of warriors (both with and without lightning hammer) but somehow those threads are drowned by the huge amount of cries of players who aren’t satisfied with their performance.

Players who aren’t satisfied with their performance in what? SPvP or PvE?

It’s still a fact that Ele’s can deal some of the highest DPS in PvE, especially with bosses cornered into walls.

The crying is coming from players of SPvP (mostly) and the occasional newbie who is finding the class hard to play. It’s unrelated to PvE.

When players of other classes are saying they have no issues stomping 90% of the Ele’s they run into, and that they would literally prefer having any other class in their team over an Ele, you know there is a problem. I’ve seen it from their perspective when playing as Engineer or Mesmer.

i got hit for 8600 arcing arrow in pvt gear. gg. keep buffing warriors.

CallousEye.5018:

ArthurDent.9538:

False, warrior healing is insane as well. With heal sig, adrenal health, and all those shout heals if they trait for them. They probably can heal even better than eles not sure exactly what the numbers are over time though.

Warrior healing is pretty good, but here are the numbers:

Healing Signet is ~400hp/s with relatively low +heal scaling.

Adrenal Health ticks every 3 seconds and isn’t affected by +heal, so 120hp/s at max.

Shout heals are a grandmaster trait in a tree that doesn’t provide much offensive capability and shouts are also not the most desirable utilities.

Warrior self-healing is quite good, but eles can provide healing to a team.

I’d trade all of my ele’s team support for just half of warrior’s survivability. I don’t like playing in groups, i prefer to be alone most of the time. If i could sacrifice all my team support to purely focus on my own self survival, i would. But they won’t allow us to do that. Things like elemental attunement and all our aoe healing stuff should be made stronger and inherent to the class, but ONLY affect the elementalist. If you want team support, you’d still be able to spec for it. But we suck if not in a team and i don’t like being in a team. I just want a fraction of the survivability i have on my warrior.

Wintel.4873:

When players of other classes are saying they have no issues stomping 90% of the Ele’s they run into, and that they would literally prefer having any other class in their team over an Ele, you know there is a problem. I’ve seen it from their perspective when playing as Engineer or Mesmer.

Yet apparently there’s 10% that can play the elementalist to such a degree that they are challenging. Which can also indicate that a large part of the problem is learning how to play them properly, rather than actual power.

Nikkinella.8254:

I’d trade all of my ele’s team support for just half of warrior’s survivability. I don’t like playing in groups, i prefer to be alone most of the time. If i could sacrifice all my team support to purely focus on my own self survival, i would. But they won’t allow us to do that.

Eles have one of the best self survival elites in the game, in the form of the elite earth elemental summon. I cannot think of any solo content you couldn’t do with the earth elemental as your tank.

If you’re referring to WvW or sPvP however, then I can understand. However, that’s technically not solo content and playing solo there is actually going against the game design and then demanding things are adapted to suit that.

@ThiBash
I don’t agree. I have ele as my main that I play 80% or more and 6 other classes lvl80. I’m sure my skill lvl is quite higher with ele than other classes, but it’s funny how I feel/am stronger in pvp and PvE on quite some other classes, that I do quite some mistakes with or forget to use some skills that I have. Not saying that when faced 1vs1 on ele, you have no chance and automatically die, but there is a noticeable difference.

About surviving elite, what solo content is there that can’t be done with or without the elite anyway and that goes for ele and other classes.

Facing 1vs1 is part of the game in wvw and tpvp, what are you talking about. It happens and is not against the design of the game lol. Still if ele is weaker than other classes in this area something is not ok.

I see you are a staff ele and i like to play staff as well, but also s/d , d/d, focus I used just a bit. Nothing wrong with staff in group and you can even do good 1vs1,but it is seriously lacking still against good player. But try some other class and you will see how it compares in damage and defense compartments. Specially I don’t think you will mind facing ele :-) which says something….

ThiBash.5634:

Wintel.4873:

When players of other classes are saying they have no issues stomping 90% of the Ele’s they run into, and that they would literally prefer having any other class in their team over an Ele, you know there is a problem. I’ve seen it from their perspective when playing as Engineer or Mesmer.

Yet apparently there’s 10% that can play the elementalist to such a degree that they are challenging. Which can also indicate that a large part of the problem is learning how to play them properly, rather than actual power.

Nikkinella.8254:

I’d trade all of my ele’s team support for just half of warrior’s survivability. I don’t like playing in groups, i prefer to be alone most of the time. If i could sacrifice all my team support to purely focus on my own self survival, i would. But they won’t allow us to do that.

Eles have one of the best self survival elites in the game, in the form of the elite earth elemental summon. I cannot think of any solo content you couldn’t do with the earth elemental as your tank.

If you’re referring to WvW or sPvP however, then I can understand. However, that’s technically not solo content and playing solo there is actually going against the game design and then demanding things are adapted to suit that.

I’m speaking about WvW. Ele is severely lacking there. Any player who is good on ele, will be fantastic on any other class, that is a fact. If you can play well with complete crap, of course you’re going to be good when you switch to a class that’s actually decent. Hell, i even feel more survivable on my recently created necro, and shes only level 29 and i’m still facerolling in WvW. I have yet to run into an ele that i cant effortlessly stomp into the dirt on my uplevel necro. And no, im not even using all the cheesy condi bomb crap. i’m using a d/d life siphon build so far and still destroying them.

silvershadez.8421:

I played Elementalist from day 1. I got any class on 80 right now but I can barely enjoy any other class then my elementalist or my engineer for a longer period of time. I kind of play any aspect of the game but I would say I’m more of a PvPer playing tPvP and WvW in equal parts. I enjoy tPvP more currently because of the blobbing in WvW and the almost not existing roaming community (I don’t enjoy zergs)-

I was using the so famous auramentalist build and even some builds that represent the current ele meta like 1 month after release allready. I was aware back then allready that those kind of builds, especially our mobility would be nerfed badly. So I tried to play around.

It’s just my personal taste but I don’t like D/D. It’s way to predictive and repeative and makes it easy for your enemy to read you.

I honestly believe that there won’t be any major changes soon enough that bring us up the ladder, either by nerfing the other classes down to an acceptable level or by buffing the elementalist. ANet didn’t prove balance was a high priority yet. And alot of decisions and fixes went the wrong way.

I won’t last long in this game anymore anyway, since a very promising AAA title is just around the corner (no not TESO).

To bring me back here ANet should better have some work done, not by creating and promoting new living events, but by actually making the PvP part of this game enjoyable again.

Same feel here, dude. I was investing tons of time in elementalist to be “viable”. After I leveled up two warriors and mained a mesmer I couldn’t believe my eyes what gap and build variety exists between the elemetnalist and other classes.

Every other professions have meta builds and feature of the month rotation builds while every patch promises new builds while old builds are still viable while you don’t have to invest that much time.

I’m working a lot and I’m not willing to invest that much time into the elementalist compared to other professions. I’m not playing 7hrs a day anymore which would give me a lot of time to train myself with my character. Its too easy to look for a meta build as a warrior, mesmer, thief, engineer or whatever. Its too much time.

Speaking about “skill” I have enough if I have enough of time to invest. GuildWars 2 is meant to be a casual MMORPG from the begining. They said it and every content looks like this. A profession which needs a lot of time-investment does not fit here since there is no “warning” when reading the profession description or anything else.

Honestly, I think that the balancing-rollercoaster will go on anyway. Everything will stay the same after the next patch, whatever it might be.
The thief will onehit or twohit elementalist who don’t want to play D/D or S/D bunker builds while still being not bound to the combat due to tons of stealth. Warriors will faceroll anybody with current metabuilds. Mesmers won’t be bound to the combat either due to too many illusions and stealth while still having tons of damagespikes.

Why isn’t the elementalist able to do something special? Obviously ArenaNet thought that 4 element stances would be enough to justify the low damagespikes and sustain of an Elementalist.

Frankly. Thats enough. I already played and enjoyed games which will be released in some weeks. Those are something completely different than GuildWars 2’s “special profession treatment”. No offense, but … I don’t know if ArenaNet is smoking too much pot or whatever when I’m looking at the “promissed big balancing patches”.
When I want challange I can play Baldur’s Gate and goold old MMORPGs as Dark Age of Camelot. But this is a bad joke.

When GuildWars 2 was developed ArenaNet always said that they “want a game which they also want to play”. Patch after patch I’m asking myself if ArenaNet is really playing PvP content at all if they are not streaming on twitch.

Malganis.7468:

Yet another reason to buff Ele’s then. Are there any downsides to being a warrior?

Nope. This is why so many are warriors in WvW now. Mobile RegenTankPower warriors are the new D/D eles of yesteryear, tbh. 3.9k armor, 1.9k power, high crit, always on adrenaline regen, fast weapon swapping. Rush in, damage and CC burst, rush out, heal, reset the fight, then rush back in and mop up as other classes are stuck with long cooldowns on their skills. Run away when it looks bad with only a few few class builds that can catch up to them (less a chance if they use GS, Sword+Shield, and Bulls Rush).

So I decide to take a break from tpvp because everyone it’s just randoms roaming… join hotjoin and it’s all necros.