Guild Wars 2

Note: I play PvE exclusively, no PvP

I keep trying to play other classes but I rarely play for more than 30 minutes on anything but my Elementalist. Why? Well… most of them are just too… easy? I tried a warrior and got bored. My ranger, I love, but there’s so little effort when I can switch between long and short bow. Mesmer I need to work on more and for thief, the resource system doesn’t restrict the buttkicking in the slightest.

As for guardian:
- Aw yeah! Gather up all the mobs!
- DODGE ROLL- oh… they’re already dead.
- Pull more
- DODGE RO- oh they’re already dead.
- Stays still and spams greatsword skills.
- Woo?

What do you all think? Have trouble getting into other classes where you don’t have to fight tooth and nail against anything much tougher than a deer? (Exaggeration, please no “LOL NOOB” comments…) I started out as an elementalist and was shocked that almost everything else doesn’t have the same fast paced, dodge heavy crazyness. I stick mostly to D/D (with staff for any tough elites I stumble on to be group support).

I was talking with a guildie yesterday about this and he feels the same way about Necromancer (which I haven’t tried). How we see it, it’s not quite as fun if you don’t come out of a good fight by the skin of your teeth.

I don’t want to come across as an elitist that thinks that ele is only for the best. I’m, in general, not a very good player, I’m fairly clumsy and die a lot, but I really enjoy the be-quick-or-die nature of this class. Most other classes just don’t seem to come close to that feeling. (This isn’t a criticism of other classes, not at all, this is just personally what I enjoy. )

Agreed. This is why I’m so militant about those players here who want to “buff” (aka simplify) the Elementalist class.

The only reason I can’t play any other class is because of the Attunement system and how used to it I am.

I think a lot could be done for ele in terms of making atunement switching and combos a bit more fluid. Right now it still feels rather clunky but overall I’m not displeased with the class. Again, though, I only PvE and don’t PvP so I can’t speak much for damage where it matters.

I love the elementalist from a style standpoint. The spells look cool. Also, the permanent swiftness you can attain truly is hard to give up.

However, it’s a bit loopy to say that you want it to be kittened in order to provide ‘challenge.’ You could accomplish the same thing with a warrior or thief. Simply play with half your gear slots empty, or perhaps tape all your fingers together.

Every game has a small minority of gamers who prefer to play in some kind of “impossible level/ hardcore” mode. That’s a legitimate playstyle. It doesn’t makes sense to say that certain classes are restricted to people with such particular taste, however

I wouldn’t say that it’s really the challenge that appeals to me Oghier, but the necessary fast pace of the class. Like I said, I’m not that good. I play most of my games on easy mode. Playing some other classes as they should be played just takes a lot of the bit of leveling to me. Not much really feels like a threat and purposefully shooting myself in the foot to get the same experience is not what I’m after. I like the guardian skillset, it’s really really fun, but I just don’t get much time to use it.

I have a hard time saying I’m in that small minority that just likes the game to be hard. This is just what I started with so now the rest of the game just doesn’t feel right to be able to faceroll over waves of risen with little problem. I’m really really not trying to sound like one of the hardcore people that want everything as hard as possible, there are a lot of times I’ve gone to chill in the Grove and talk to NPCs because leveling was getting so frustrating.

The playstyle of ele itself is just so different from everything else I’ve tried, it feels like a completely different game to breeze through everything on a warrior or thief.

Amnon.4769:

Agreed. This is why I’m so militant about those players here who want to “buff” (aka simplify) the Elementalist class.

Buffing does not necessarily mean simplifying. Be a bit more open minded please. Eles could benefit a great deal from simply having their cooldowns reduced as their current combos can’t be repeated more than once every 30s or so. That wouldn’t make the profession any simpler but it would go a long way to improving their current situation.

All other classes seem slow and boring in comparison to ele.

Amnon.4769:

Agreed. This is why I’m so militant about those players here who want to “buff” (aka simplify) the Elementalist class.

I very much agree with you here, although I vehemently disagree with your tone and how you handle those people asking for buffs in some other threads. You’d do far better explaining to them how you like the complexity of the class and that you’d prefer if OTHER classes were made to have to do the same complex stance dance, cooldown juggling, and higher thought that this class has to in order to be effective. Don’t just tell them to “L2P.”

In addition, I apologize for my tone in Arheundel’s thread (although my rant was moreso directed at him), I was fired up, i’m calmer now

Agreed. I always end up coming back to my ele. The playstyle is just so dynamic and varied compared to what anything else can offer (although some engineer specs come close).

It’s not so much that I want my game to be hard, but that my Warrior and Ranger are pretty boring.

For example, my Ranger on the shortbow has shoot stuff (1), shoot a group of things (2), evade if they’re in your face (3), cripple to keep them away (4), and interrupt (5). She mainly opens with 5/4 and then just kills things with autofire. 3 is reactive, and 2 is fairly pointless (as I’d switch to axe/horn shortly after when dealing with a group).

My Elementalist takes more effort to accomplish the same thing, but it’s more fun cycling through elements and casting various spells. Still, I’d expect that if I’m rotating 10-20 skills instead of just using autofire, I’d be able to go through content faster… but she actually goes slower than my Ranger just using autofire, so that’s kind of disappointing.

I don’t mind living by the edge of my teeth, what I mind is that I’m not similarly rewarded for living by the edge of my teeth as that Guardian lawl spamming GS skills 20 feet away. Chewing through mobs at twice the speed.

Really, the class being hard and taking a lot of effort to learn isn’t the problem. Its the pay off you get for your effort. Whereas if you go apply that level of skill and effort to Mesmer or Guardian or something, you get rewarded twice over. Thus is the issue.

Ele doesn’t need to be simplified, it just needs to be more reasonably effective compared to its peers for a similar level of effort.

Xhaiden’s point exactly!

I think the only buff Elementalist needs is one that accurately reflects the disparity in skill input/output as compared with other classes.

I’ve been having a really hard time finding interest in Thief and Warrior. Ele is fun to play because it can be pumped by putting more thought and effort into it. And I agree that it would be great if the level of thought and effort required would cause us to excel moreso than we do now.

Yeah I know what you mean, my guardian is almost 80 now and while it’s easy mode I got extremely bored when compared to the experience I had levelling my Ele up to 80, although I still stick to my guns saying we need a retuning.

There are issues in traits and utiliy skills mainly… and anyway Ele is much more enjoyable than any other profession :j

Can’t wait to see how fun it would be when they fix this few issues

@Amnon

Nothing personal, but your preference is yours, not others. Until you gain the power of prescience, you can’t suppose to know the intended goal of Anet for the elementalist or what other plays think/feel about the current state of the class. Please keep this in mind with respect to your posts, okay?

Try a Mesmer in PvE if you want a challenge >_>

@Tolmos

You’re doing it wrong. I roll with a sword/focus mesmer in PVE and she does great. I guess I must be lucky. :S

Amnon.4769:

Agreed. This is why I’m so militant about those players here who want to “buff” (aka simplify) the Elementalist class.

This is a false dilemma, a red herring. “Buff” does not mean “simplify”. The vast majority of those calling for a buff enjoy the complexity. The problem is that the complexity has little returns.

I have a Ranger, Warrior, and Elementalist.

Near-simultaneously landing Eruption, Lava Font, Static Field, Frozen Ground, and Ice Spike requires 8 button presses, but has roughly the same results as my ranger using Barrage (if solo) and then switching weapons. That’s not right.

Hehe, I agree with this. I want Guardian as my secondary main, but it’s so easy to play. I jump into a group of enemies, spam skill 3 on Greatsword and stuff dies. There’s no challenge whatsoever. Elementalist gameplay keeps me on my toes and promotes action-y combat.8)

I’m having the opposite problem. I really want to finish my elementalist but ever since I hit the mid 40s it’s really hard to play when the other classes do things faster and easier (exception: combo fields). Not asking for a buff, just feel like it’s not worth the effort.

Kinda agree elementalist are so much fun compared to others characters in pve imo.

Agree with Amnon, i don’t want the class to be drastically changed in a simplified way.

Tweaking and balancing the class is not the same thing as simplifying it. People asking for tweaks to the class are not generally asking for it to be simplified or dumbed down. I love the core mechanic and playstyle and fortunately I doubt ANet will make any radical changes here.

I would dearly love, however, to see them take a hard look at our traits and provide some more interesting, synergistic options, particularly more choices that rewards attunement swapping instead of limiting it.

I also think there’s nothing wrong with doing a balance pass on the core stats and ability stats to help our class reach a better damage/survivability ratio and build risk vs. reward outcomes.

I also think they ought to change the #2 downed state root to some kind of interrupt.

Yeah, people don’t understand that elementalists require more skill to be played right

Regarding the “reward” for mastering an Ele – If I’m fighting a Warrior or Ranger or some other low skill cap class I kinda feel like not only should I kill them the first time through my combo rotation, but the damage should be so devastating that there’s nothing left of them but a whole in the map that every one has to walk around for the rest of the match.

Also, the killed player should not be downed but just straight up dead.

Maybe even just blown out of the match entirely and sent back to the mists.

I dunno. Just my .02

No, I just fight higher level mobs. I don’t like the Guardian because he lacks tricks but I enjoy all the other classes, I just have to fight enemies a few levels higher, or with old weapons.

This discussion has made me realize why I love my elementalist. In WoW I played an affliction warlock, and that was a complicated class that needed skill just to be on the same level as the other classes. Some people do like professions that require a bit more work. Honestly, I have a harder time killing stuff with my thief than my elementalist. Love changing between elements, having to dodge and outwit whatever it is I’m killing. And there have been plenty of times where I was so busy pressing buttons that I didn’t notice I’d killed the four things that were attacking me (because all that dodging means I ran into other stuff, ya know?)

I don’t think elementalists need to be buffed, but perhaps some other classes are a bit on the powerful side. Also, for some people having problems with this class, it really might just be the play style that’s holding you back. I’m terrible at most melee classes, even if they’re supposed to be faceroll. Just some thoughts.

I somewhat agree. Playing a dual dagger Ele really gets your adrenaline going. High Risk/Reward and very fast paced.

Either you end up wiping out the mob really fast or you die.

I do like my Ranger though when I want less stress on my heart.

If they would make other classes (read warrior/ranger/guardian) a bit more complicated to play, I think I would be able to play them aswell. I have ~250hours played on my ele atm if I my memory serves me right, and only ~+40hours played on other classes.
I've played every single class on this game after launch, and on BWEnds so you cant say I have not tried
Other classes just seem way too simple to play, it gets boring after first ~20levels.
But this is just my opinion ofc

As I leveled my elementalist I got to constantly try out new combinations of skills and ways to improve my efficiency and potency, and ways to maximize my damage and survivability as well as team support.

As I leveled my warrior I spammed Hundred Blades over, and over, and over, and over, and over.

Pretty much same effect. The difference being my elementalist was significantly more fun.

I have to say, i’m the same, and i haven’t finished leveling mine yet…

I started out with an Asuran thief… which was fine, I was the tiny kneecapper of death.

But the elementalist is just so… Fun. You’ve got to be on the edge of your seat for every fight. I also use double daggers, and I just love the combat system. It’s really challenging.

d/d is just about the coolest thing I’ve ever played in any online game both from a gameplay pov as well as an aesthetic pov

this thread is funny as all get out you must love being in a constant downed state with abilities that do nothing and spending TONS of gold to fix your items every second. Ele is ruined for me I loved it is GW1 but they screwed us hard core in GW2

vampiregoat.4763:

this thread is funny as all get out you must love being in a constant downed state with abilities that do nothing and spending TONS of gold to fix your items every second. Ele is ruined for me I loved it is GW1 but they screwed us hard core in GW2

I rarely properly ‘Die’ to the point that my items need to be repaired…. When i start to drop health, I switch to my ice attunement and heal myself, or use some of my skills.

Elementalist is challenging. But the abilities certainly do damage. I think they raised the skillcap ball in Guild Wars 2.

Nevare.8657:

vampiregoat.4763:

this thread is funny as all get out you must love being in a constant downed state with abilities that do nothing and spending TONS of gold to fix your items every second. Ele is ruined for me I loved it is GW1 but they screwed us hard core in GW2

I rarely properly ‘Die’ to the point that my items need to be repaired…. When i start to drop health, I switch to my ice attunement and heal myself, or use some of my skills.

Elementalist is challenging. But the abilities certainly do damage. I think they raised the skillcap ball in Guild Wars 2.

I think he was talking about downed state abilities, which, yeah, if you haven’t got Lava Tomb traited then if you haven’t applied enough bleeds or summoned an appropriate elemental then your odds of getting up are slender at best.

Fortunately I’ve gotten to the point where I’d actually be looking at getting the monthly survival ability on my Elementalist if it wasn’t bugged. That’s using Earth state as a defensive rather than Water though, I find Water is only worth a quick stop no matter what weapons I have equipped. In Earth? Blind everything, add armour of earth and protection and my hp actually go UP in a semi-protracted fight against multiple enemies. Even my Guardian can’t manage that.

this thread is funny as all get out you must love being in a constant downed state with abilities that do nothing and spending TONS of gold to fix your items every second. Ele is ruined for me I loved it is GW1 but they screwed us hard core in GW2

Majority of playing experience > the occasional times I’m downed. Most of the time I die it’s because I’ve fallen off a cliff/bridge/annoying high place. Yeah it’s easier to get downed as an Elementalist but I hardly spend “tons of gold to fix my items.” I will say that that aspect of Elementalist is somewhat of a skill issue.

Not able to quote for some reason, but i’d like to reply to something Rack said in his post.

I totally agree with the earth utility, and I do not stay in water attunement for long. I switch to it, pop my AoE (I use D/D, so that’s my 3) for a chilled, 4 for my frost shield, and 5 for my healing ability. Then i go to earth for it’s defence. I also get the healing mists for 9 seconds for being in water.

Elementalists have Survivability – You just need to work your kitten off for it.

The problem is that they shouldn’t keep the elementalist as a “only for the skilled” class. I love the style of the elementalist and I love a challenge, but it’s just like when they tried making the dungeons harder by giving every enemy more hp. Sure, it is harder, but it isn’t any more challenging and the fun factor is very short lived. The elementalist will get some buffs. Buffs can mean a lot of things though. I personally hope that the first thing they do (besides fix all of our breaking bugs) is to redo the traits to synergize better.

Personally I was having a problem finding another class to play after ele. warrior is fun for like 5 levels until you’ve hundred bladed yourself to boresville. Ranger was fun but incredibly too simple and and I’ve always hated energy so thief was out of the question. I really am liking Guardian though. most of the weapon sets have great buffs that they give out, and there are distinct defensive and offensive sets. Plus its alot more fluid switching between weapon sets to maximize dps than switching attunements, mostly because of the attunement cds. Plus the torch skills are just BA.

Honestly, I use guardian as a relief when I get frustrated about being so squishy as an ele. I can kitten near tank same level champs lol.

Oy, let’s keep the whining about Ele problems to a min in here! There are a million threads for that!

And to Albrizz, Guardian is pretty fun… it’s just really simple with a greatsword. I do tend to go to my little guardian for a break sometimes though. X)

I have a 62 Elem which I love and would never stop playing but I decided to try another class after kitten the fact that I couldnt really kill anything in the water without an epic battle. I made a hunter which is currently 20 and I have to say… all classes need to be like the Elem… I seriously walked out with crappy gear and killed 4 monsters 3 lvls higher than me with my hunter and didnt even take damage. It really takes the fun out of playing but I must say it would be nice to even kill 4 monsters my lvl as my Elem lol. I think they need to adjust at least the underwater damage for Elems and maybe make them have a little more output on land. I mean casters are by nature glass canons… if you spec for glass canon kitten it you should hit like an angry god! lol But I also feel the monsters should be made harder for all classes once the Elem are balanced. Every fight should be hard if not epic for every class… Not, run around collecting monsters… attack skills… monsters dead.

I couldnt, I have a mesmer, a necro, a gaurdian, and a ranger, …the necro is a close second to the elementalist, but really..I can’t stay off my elementalist long enough to give any of them a fair chance =X

So what, exactly, makes an elementalist “challenging”? Switching your attunements? I’m confused.

Keep in mind everyone, a guardian can wield more than a greatsword.

Maybe the reason you’re having trouble with other professions is because you’re attached to your elementalist. I know I’m having a hard time playing anything other than my engineer; I switch my kits just as much as an elementalist switches their attunemenets, and it’s not that hard.

No, it is playing combos with yourself that makes it interesting for me, see how many stacks of a buff you can build then switch to blasting and seeing how much you can hit for ;P
with chain pulling i’ve had a stack of might up to 22-ish

So what, exactly, makes an elementalist “challenging”? Switching your attunements? I’m confused.
Keep in mind everyone, a guardian can wield more than a greatsword.
Maybe the reason you’re having trouble with other professions is because you’re attached to your elementalist. I know I’m having a hard time playing anything other than my engineer; I switch my kits just as much as an elementalist switches their attunemenets, and it’s not that hard.

Just attunement switching? Not in the slightest. The class is insanely squishy and basically requires good knowledge of the four attunements and their use back to back to be at their best. Switching weapons on another class does not even come close, especially on Guardian. Basically each attunement is less effective than a weapon kit or weapon so switching attunements doesn’t mean new set of skills that work just as well, it means a set of skills you have to combo with the other three sets to be effective. It’s not switching so much as juggling.

(You can get away with just fire if you’re just wandering around and PvE leveling but anything harder makes that pretty ineffective. )

I found engineers to be playable after having started as an ele : )

No longer do 5 people zerg me halfway across the map for 5 points, so its far more relaxing to grind glory with.

I started out with Ele, as it was my main in GW1 too. I played up to lvl36 with her and then i decided that i need to play another class, i got too used to the ele and it became a tiny bit tiresome.

Now i have a mesmer and at first it was confusing to use the class mechanics and i missed the attunement swapping, but overall i enjoy it so far…. Althrough the Mesmer definitely feels harder to down than my ele… weird as both are light classes.

Efaicia.3672:

No, it is playing combos with yourself that makes it interesting for me, see how many stacks of a buff you can build then switch to blasting and seeing how much you can hit for ;P
with chain pulling i’ve had a stack of might up to 22-ish

I honestly believe that the combos are the key to this. I also like having an additional number of skills at my disposal, but the amount of combos you can start or trigger with other players, not to mention the ones you can execute all on your own, is fun, adds complexity, and somewhat addicting.

After I discovered combos, going back to my ranger was such a disappointment. I read all my skill tool tips and couldn’t believe how few combos I could accomplish with them. Strategic, cooperative play is so much more rewarding as an elementalist due to the combos (in my opinion).