Guild Wars 2

Alright, so, I really have fallen in love with Guild Wars 2. That does not, however, mean that I’m above pointing out some pet peeves of mine. Case in point, the Elementalist. Now, I set up my human Elementalist as being geared toward earth; a rather burly fellow with a green and brown theme going on with his outfits. I was under the reasonable assumption that by choosing earth in character creation, I was communicating that I wanted to have my man start with earth. I find out, however, that I have to unlock earth by mastering all four elements, which meant a lot of game-breaking time grinding up my skills in fire, water, and air so I could finally get my characterization right. I know it’s small in the grand scheme of things, in fact, some Elementalists that choose water and fire will never encounter this problem, and I ended up getting what I wanted, but it still seems a bit unintuitive. Why have us able to gear our player towards a certain element if we have to play with other elements first?

Just some food for thought.

If you’re expecting an elementalist to be able to stand alone in one attunement, you’re kittening yourself and your party. My lvl 80 ele is the only profession I’ve leveled past 10, the only one I’ve done dungeons with. It is my bread and butter. You NEED to learn all your attunements and utilize them for their full effect on every weapon set. Otherwise, you’re standing around mashing the same 5 weapon skill while your team carries your weight.

“Why have us able to gear our player towards a certain element if we have to play with other elements first?” Like I alluded to above, you should never spec towards one element. I sincerely hope you can break this mindset or you wont find the class fun to play whatsoever.

Ender.3508:

I sincerely hope you can break this mindset or you wont find the class fun to play whatsoever.

Ah, okay then. Thank you for the heads up. In most games like this, I’ve leaned toward the melee, so, a mage-like class is admittedly virgin territory for me. I’ll keep what you said in mind, then.

By the way, earth element is unlocked when reaching a certain level (I think it’s something like 7 or 10), and not when unlocking the other elements.

Attunements are an elementalist class mechanic, and they unlock gradually similarly to utility skills. You start with the first two, then gain the other two as you gain the first couple of levels.

Also, the earthy stone thing you chose at the beginning doesn’t really matter, as you’ll probably get a better item before even leaving the starter hearts area. I don’t really know what the point of that choice is, yet.

Gaianus.5324:

Ah, okay then. Thank you for the heads up. In most games like this, I’ve leaned toward the melee, so, a mage-like class is admittedly virgin territory for me. I’ll keep what you said in mind, then.

In many other games, the “mage class” will choose a single element and stick with it (for example, in Wow you’re either a fire mage or frost mage, rarely both). This has been the traditional archetype for the mage class.

In this game however, that is far far far, from the case. As was already stated, you will need to learn all 4 attunements and switch between them frequently in order to be fully effective. Generally, fire is your aoe/damage element, air is a control (e.g., blinds, knockdowns, kiting) and damage, earth is toughness/defense and bleeding, and water is chill control and healing. While this isn’t strictly true in every case (i.e., you’ll find a bit of utility and damage in every attunement), if you think of the class like this and switch attunements as necessary to accomplish what is needed in the fight, you’ll be very effective and become a skilled GW2 gamer. In addition, learn to dodge early and often, it’ll literally save your life

Best of luck with the elementalist class, I personally love it and I hope you do too. It may be foreign at first, but stick with it, and you’ll find it’s a fulfilling class. Enjoy!!

Ah, okay then. Thank you for the heads up. In most games like this, I’ve leaned toward the melee, so, a mage-like class is admittedly virgin territory for me. I’ll keep what you said in mind, then.

Part of learning the class is to realize that elementalists are way more similar to WoW feral druids or other MMOs “monks” than mages.
Only time you really play mage is in WvWvW and some PvE, where you can sit on the back and spam with staff. All the rest of the time you’ll have to madly swoop in, apply CC, hit, swoop out, eventually heal and then do it again.

It’s really sad you can’t focus on one style in build around it that would be pretty neat and would create more diversity among the class -.- but alas it isn’t instead where given each ele and where not particularly powerful at any single one -.- life of the ele

You get fire and water first because they are the DPS and healing attunements, which are by far the easiest to master.

Also, it takes all of 15 minutes tops to master both weapons, it’s not like you can’t fire before you “ding” five.

Truga.5897:

Also, the earthy stone thing you chose at the beginning doesn’t really matter, as you’ll probably get a better item before even leaving the starter hearts area. I don’t really know what the point of that choice is, yet.

Cosmetics.