Guild Wars 2

The one overwhelming outstanding issue I’m still having with my Elementalist at the moment is underwater combat. I’m just really, really really bad at it. I picked up a rare trident of my level to try and mitigate this but I still find all of my attacks do nothing. Water is allegedly one of the strongest but I find it knocks barely a sliver off enemies around my level. To make matters worse pretty much every single utility of any worth, all my traits, and all the elites (until I can muster 40 trait points to buy whirlpool) seem to be barred from me. Has anyone found anything that helps?

Whirlpool? I’m sorry, I’m completely lost, where is whirlpool? boggled
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/List_of_elementalist_traits

Water is strongest because nearly all the abilities have a heal tied to them. Then you have the wall which you can blow up and blast enemies, your aoe stun which is also an aoe heal ..very strong indeed.
Personaly my biggest gripe is that our water abilities do not have any fields or finishers…what’s going on there?

Underwater attacks don’t do as much damage as the land ones do but you have a ton of CC and other control methods underwater. Use those a lot, switch attunements as needed, and never stop moving. You can dodge underwater just like on land and when combining that with the many movement abilities we get underwater, it helps to avoid damage a lot. I also use Arcane Wave underwater because its damage underwater seems significantly higher than weapon skills so it gives me a little bit of burst that underwater Elementalists are otherwise lacking. Armor of Earth or Arcane Shield or Mist Form all work underwater and are great for helping with survivability. Things take a while to kill but with as much CC as we have underwater (almost twice as much as other classes) we can survive a lot.

Efaicia.3672:

Whirlpool? I’m sorry, I’m completely lost, where is whirlpool? boggled
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/List_of_elementalist_traits

Whirlpool is what the Tornado elite skill becomes when you go underwater.

Aerian.2751:

Efaicia.3672:

Whirlpool? I’m sorry, I’m completely lost, where is whirlpool? boggled
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/List_of_elementalist_traits

Whirlpool is what the Tornado elite skill becomes when you go underwater.

haha! >.< I guess that shows how much I use that one =X ..the right side is for defense on my build =/ owell!

Underwater needs a serious buff when solo. Ever tried a Guardian underwater? You’ll tie a brick to your Elementalist’s heel and just sink her for eternity afterwards.

Our underwater skills suck compared to other classes

@Aerian When you go into water, you slot the skills you want for water and they can be different than the ones you slot on land. When you leave and reenter the water they will automatically switch.

I have played a Guardian underwater, they’re amazing. Our CC amounts to 4 seconds of stun every minute, far far worse than what we can manage on land, even excepting there’s no way to leverage it. Maybe if I get hold of some +healing I’ll have a chance. The other problem is I have so many considerations for utility skills. I need Arcane Wave, Arcane Blast and Signet of Fire to get some semblance of damage, but I also need Armour of Earth, Mist Form and Arcane Shield to get some kind of defense. But they’re so ill designed for what I’m using them for they all of them put together aren’t as useful as Glyph of Storms.

I actually find elementalist strong underwater. Whirlpool is an “I win” button against packs of mobs so enjoy it while you can before they nerf it. Also, wind is really strong for single target damage if you’re willing to stand toe to toe in melee range so all three bolts hit the target, but if you need to kite then earth is great since it has a skill where you could stack up to 9 bleeds so they get damaged while you stall them. It’s great vs. veterans because they have higher HP or anything with a high armor rating.

Rack.4930:

Our CC amounts to 4 seconds of stun every minute, far far worse than what we can manage on land, even excepting there’s no way to leverage it.

Water #4, Air #4, and Earth #4 are all floats/sinks which basically act like a short term stun. Plus the Lightning Cage (Air #5) is an actual stun. That’s a lot more stun than we can do on land. The Water #4 tooltip doesnt actually say that its a sink but it is an extremely short range pbaoe sink in addition to the healing/regeneration it does.

Because of having so much CC underwater, I just use Arcane Wave, Arcane Blast, and Arcane Shield or Armor of Earth for underwater combat and Arcane Wave, Armor of Earth, and a situational utility on land. The CC combined with the mobility of the Elementalist underwater makes surviving relatively easy without needing to fill my utility slots with survivability abilities. Use Water 2 to dash away and do damage, use Water 5 to create distance and do damage and healing by dashing through an enemy, use fire 5 to get vigor so you can dodge more, Earth 3 if you want to pull yourself close to the enemy to make sure the ice wall or undercurrent hit on the enemy, or use Air 3 to move either away from or towards an enemy.