Guild Wars 2

In light of listening to Izzy talk about elementalists and how every stat effects them ect ect. Would a Conditimentalist with something like 30/0/30/10/0 be viable at all? I speaking mostly from a PVE/WvW concept. Rabid gear and or divinity runes…Full Celestial style. Probably grasping at straws atm I know.
If not what would a balanced ele, like he seems to want us to be? What would be our goal to aim for? Mediocrity in everything?

Aydain.5012:

In light of listening to Izzy talk about elementalists and how every stat effects them ect ect. Would a Conditimentalist with something like 30/0/30/10/0 be viable at all? I speaking mostly from a PVE/WvW concept. Rabid gear and or divinity runes…Full Celestial style. Probably grasping at straws atm I know.
If not what would a balanced ele, like he seems to want us to be? What would be our goal to aim for? Mediocrity in everything?

I’ve been playing a build that’s close to this mentality for a while. I go 20/0/20/0/30, use Arcane Power, Arcane Blast, and Arcane Shield. The key trait that makes the whole thing work is Elemental Surge. With that I can stack either Burning or Chill easily, and have a 5-chain of Blind or Immobilize for scary moment.

My gear is all Carrion, with Elementalist runes and Celestial jewlery. I also use a Rampager staff for a bit of extra Precision.

The verdict?

The damage is mediocre. The burst is nonexistent. The tankiness is mediocre. The ability to escape is mediocre. The ability to support allies is mediocre. The control abilities are pretty good unless there’s an excess of Shout guardians on the other team. The overall mobility is mediocre.

Why do I run this build if it isn’t good at anything? Because it isn’t BAD at anything.

I also run a Power Necro and a Healway Guardian. The Power Necro does great damage and is very tanky. It’s really good at those things. It has no group support, the control abilities are pretty awful. It’s got mediocre mobility with Swiftness and Dark Path, but the ability to escape is pretty bad unless I can just out-tank stuff while running away.

The Healway Guardian does great group support and is insanely tanky. It does mediocre damage, mediocre mobility, and bad escape ability. Control abilities are also pretty bad.

Both my Necro and my Guardian are terrible at range, and only excel at AoE damage when in melee.

Now, compare that with my Ele.

It does more damage than my Guardian, but less than my Necro.
It does more group support than my Necro but less than my Guardian.
It does more AoE damage than my Guardian, and at long range.
It offers more control effects than either.
It tanks worse than either other class, but since it spends most of its time at 1200 range that doesn’t matter as much.
It has more damaging condition output than either, but less than a Condi Necro.

In short, it’s ok at most stuff and fun to play. I’ll never burst stuff down like I will on my Necro. I’ll never tank 5 guys like I will on my Guardian. But I’ll do ok, and can switch gears quickly if circumstances change. There will never be a YouTube video of someone running my build pwning 20 newbies in a row. That’s what “Jack of All Trades” means. It’s always going to be better at what the other guy is bad at.

PinCushion.7390:

Aydain.5012:

In light of listening to Izzy talk about elementalists and how every stat effects them ect ect. Would a Conditimentalist with something like 30/0/30/10/0 be viable at all? I speaking mostly from a PVE/WvW concept. Rabid gear and or divinity runes…Full Celestial style. Probably grasping at straws atm I know.
If not what would a balanced ele, like he seems to want us to be? What would be our goal to aim for? Mediocrity in everything?

I’ve been playing a build that’s close to this mentality for a while. I go 20/0/20/0/30, use Arcane Power, Arcane Blast, and Arcane Shield. The key trait that makes the whole thing work is Elemental Surge. With that I can stack either Burning or Chill easily, and have a 5-chain of Blind or Immobilize for scary moment.

My gear is all Carrion, with Elementalist runes and Celestial jewlery. I also use a Rampager staff for a bit of extra Precision.

The verdict?

The damage is mediocre. The burst is nonexistent. The tankiness is mediocre. The ability to escape is mediocre. The ability to support allies is mediocre. The control abilities are pretty good unless there’s an excess of Shout guardians on the other team. The overall mobility is mediocre.

Why do I run this build if it isn’t good at anything? Because it isn’t BAD at anything.

I also run a Power Necro and a Healway Guardian. The Power Necro does great damage and is very tanky. It’s really good at those things. It has no group support, the control abilities are pretty awful. It’s got mediocre mobility with Swiftness and Dark Path, but the ability to escape is pretty bad unless I can just out-tank stuff while running away.

The Healway Guardian does great group support and is insanely tanky. It does mediocre damage, mediocre mobility, and bad escape ability. Control abilities are also pretty bad.

Both my Necro and my Guardian are terrible at range, and only excel at AoE damage when in melee.

Now, compare that with my Ele.

It does more damage than my Guardian, but less than my Necro.
It does more group support than my Necro but less than my Guardian.
It does more AoE damage than my Guardian, and at long range.
It offers more control effects than either.
It tanks worse than either other class, but since it spends most of its time at 1200 range that doesn’t matter as much.
It has more damaging condition output than either, but less than a Condi Necro.

In short, it’s ok at most stuff and fun to play. I’ll never burst stuff down like I will on my Necro. I’ll never tank 5 guys like I will on my Guardian. But I’ll do ok, and can switch gears quickly if circumstances change. There will never be a YouTube video of someone running my build pwning 20 newbies in a row. That’s what “Jack of All Trades” means. It’s always going to be better at what the other guy is bad at.

Engineers are WAY better jack of all trades than eles, and they have higher base health, higher armor AND higher damage than us.

Therein lies my dilemma, if you want us to be “jack of all trades” why is even that concept outperformed by others. I am at a total loss as to goal of a elementalists atm.
Do we specialize or go generic? Ty for some responses I hope to get more feedback and hear other elementalists opinions.

I am probably better at playing chess than a top wrestler, and I am probably better at wrestling than a top chess player. Everyone can think this way, and feel pretty good even if he/she fails. Following this logic, we can say most if not all builds are going to be better at something that other is bad at. This is the mentality elementalists need to survive/“adapt” to the monthly update.

Aether McLoud.1975:

Engineers are WAY better jack of all trades than eles, and they have higher base health, higher armor AND higher damage than us.

In the recent SOAC tournament, the all engineer team lost to the all elementalist team despite arguably much better play. anecdotal evidence sure, but ele’s and engis are pretty on par, and ele’s are certainly the more intuitive/less clunky class of the two to play.