Guild Wars 2

Why the hell didn’t I pick a freaking guardian >.<

PvE is super mega annoying as hell,

water terrible healing terrible damage
Air Okay movement still terrible damage
earth okay survivability terrible damage
fire great damage, paper thin defense

I’m just rerolling guardian. They’re better in every single aspect of the game. And ranged attackers doesn’t mean almost certain death for them as it does elementalists.

Guardians aren’t as amazing as you may think either. Like a professions they too have weakness.

I’ve played nearly every profession to at least 10, and it just seems that elementalists have more weakness or at least more glaring ones then others. Ranged attackers mean almost certain death if I get more then one. My defense is just so super low when I can’t kite it’s not funny. I’m even rolling with toughness whenever I can get it, and the added toughness signet. I still end up losing a ton of health quick.

I just don’t see the logic in the profession at all. It’s like the purposely designed it so nobody on the planet can be perfectly happy with any weapon. Every single weapon combo has at least one element that just completely blows.

heartless.6803:

water terrible healing terrible damage
Air Okay movement still terrible damage
earth okay survivability terrible damage
fire great damage, paper thin defense

I’m assuming that all your items are the glasscannon types(power/prec/condOrCritDmg)

My ele has a full exotic +healing gear and with full 30 water trait; i manage to heal a warrior at least 10k hp everytime i do the water-3-5 combo.

heartless.6803:

I’ve played nearly every profession to at least 10, and it just seems that elementalists have more weakness or at least more glaring ones then others. Ranged attackers mean almost certain death if I get more then one. My defense is just so super low when I can’t kite it’s not funny. I’m even rolling with toughness whenever I can get it, and the added toughness signet. I still end up losing a ton of health quick.

I just don’t see the logic in the profession at all. It’s like the purposely designed it so nobody on the planet can be perfectly happy with any weapon. Every single weapon combo has at least one element that just completely blows.

Try swapping attunements frequently and learning the various situations in which the numerous skills are useful. All the attunements can’t be really good with minimal weaknesses or the ele would be OP. If you swap attunements more depending on the situation you can switch strength’s and weaknesses to suit your needs for a particular point in time of an encounter. Ele’s are very unforgiving compared to other professions, they’re not as easy to play but they are very effective when used with a high degree of mastery.

I would try playing beyond lv10, myself. Opening up all your utilities and your elite slot and expanding your trait progression may start to help you see some synergies you’ve previously missed.

Although, if you honestly expected a light-armor profession to be just as durable as a heavy, I might wonder about you a tad. ^_^;;

You guys, this game is about builds. If your elementalist can’t do much, it’s because you haven’t set it up properly.
Your healing isn’t supposed to be amazing unless you spec heavily into it
Your air give GREAT damage. heavy air is all about stacking heavy power/prec and knowing how to avoid damage.
Earth damage is totally OP if you set it up right and know how to use your bleeds
Fire has great damage, yes, but you have to know how to avoid attacks

Finally, you are NEVER supposed to stay in one attunement. If you stay in one, yes, you will be terrible.

I’ve never had a problem with PvE. My friend is always going crazy trying to figure out how my elementalist can solo so much PvE content without a problem.
A couple days ago, I tried sPvP for the first time and I was the top player in the match 60% of the time and in the top three the rest of the time. I could run into groups of 4 opponents and get them all down at least to half health and downing at least one of them before they could kill me, giving my team enough time to show up and clean house.
The trick is in building properly. Just like GW1. If somebody didn’t know how to build their character/heroes in GW1, they did terribly. If they did know, then they could solo nearly any content.
Toughness is key if you’re running daggers.
Healing power is a big one for staff. Even if you’re not going heavy water!
I’m not super familiar with scepter or focus since I don’t use them, but I’m certain there are certain things to keep in mind with building for those weapons as well.

The most important thing to know with Ele is what the advantages of each attunement are and swapping properly at the right times.

Knowing how to build is only half of it, you also have to understand attunement juggling, something I believe 75% of current ele players may not quite grasp. They key to any good ele build is getting boons from attunement swapping based on the ever changing battlefield.

Shumney.3958:

Knowing how to build is only half of it, you also have to understand attunement juggling, something I believe 75% of current ele players may not quite grasp. They key to any good ele build is getting boons from attunement swapping based on the ever changing battlefield.

Actually is more about accessing the right abilities at the right time and not putting an attunement on CD when you’ll need it later. Taking Elemental Attunement isnt necessary, however it is probably one of the best T1 traits! haha

I too gave up, you pretty much need to put 30 in water just do be able to do anything in dungeons and not get down the fastest because for some reason we have lower life pool than any one else. D/D is amazing but why do I have to go sigils/auras or water traits just to take more than 1 hit? It feels like the WD in d3 having to get the mana passive and 4 useless cds just to be able to do what other classes can do.

Also, everyone always compares ele to spvp…. Anyone can be top in spvp

yeah i know that did run in ascalon story with lvl 80 was so annyoing to be constandly dead if you fight an close area and get 1 shot for evade in the wall and get stuck there -.-, then i switched to healing was no really difference in the suvivabilty of my teammates and me -.- so i just gave up and only moved max distance and stayed in fire so i can set of some aoe attack from far far away, and there i just presst 1 2 3 … not very funny -.-

Vesper.8359:

I too gave up, you pretty much need to put 30 in water just do be able to do anything in dungeons and not get down the fastest because for some reason we have lower life pool than any one else. D/D is amazing but why do I have to go sigils/auras or water traits just to take more than 1 hit? It feels like the WD in d3 having to get the mana passive and 4 useless cds just to be able to do what other classes can do.

Also, everyone always compares ele to spvp…. Anyone can be top in spvp

Thieves and Guardians actually have the same exact size health pools as we do. I only have 10 in water and I can take a reasonable beating. But taking a beating is not how you play this game. You dodge, avoid, and use conditions. You have to watch enemies for the tells associated with their attacks. You can’t just tank and spank like in other, less interesting MMOs. Once you’ve figured out how an enemy works, you can survive any encounter.

Pinkerton.5643:

You guys, this game is about builds. If your elementalist can’t do much, it’s because you haven’t set it up properly.
Your healing isn’t supposed to be amazing unless you spec heavily into it
Your air give GREAT damage. heavy air is all about stacking heavy power/prec and knowing how to avoid damage.

There goes your posts credibility, soaring out the window. It is my sole wish that I could stack air through the wahzoo and have D/D lightning hitting like a truck, but it doesn’t, no matter how hard you stack it. (Yes, I know. I run a very heavy power/prec sPvP build at the moment)

Tell me how good your condi builds synergizes with the MF gear that you need to use to farm for mats at level 80 in Orr.

I, too, think, that a Guardian is the Better Elementalist. Sure, Guardians are bad at long-range, but they don’t even need it for PvE. Generally, you can do everything with a Guardian you could do with an Elementalist, for half the skills, with better passive defense, with better traits, and much smaller skill recharges.

I will admit that I am one of those that is not quite comfortable juggling attunements. I got to level 40 mostly staying in fire while running around in the world in air. Between 40-50 I’ve made an effort to use all of my attunements and things are going much better.

I remember 5 years ago I went from being a clicker/keyboard turner in wow to binding all my keys and using the mouse to turn. It was hard at first, but now I can’t even remember what it was like. I’m hoping that attunement swapping will be more comfortable for me as time goes on.

Windowlicker.6019:

Pinkerton.5643:

You guys, this game is about builds. If your elementalist can’t do much, it’s because you haven’t set it up properly.
Your healing isn’t supposed to be amazing unless you spec heavily into it
Your air give GREAT damage. heavy air is all about stacking heavy power/prec and knowing how to avoid damage.

There goes your posts credibility, soaring out the window. It is my sole wish that I could stack air through the wahzoo and have D/D lightning hitting like a truck, but it doesn’t, no matter how hard you stack it. (Yes, I know. I run a very heavy power/prec sPvP build at the moment)

Dude, pay closer attention. lightning whip is THE hardest hitting 1 ability of any dagger attunements. And going heavy air doesn’t mean that you get to sit in air attunement for the entire fight. The stats there also help your fire, water, and earth attunement abilities. Find a way to make your elements synergize in a way that works for your playstyle.

Pinkerton.5643:

Dude, pay closer attention. lightning whip is THE hardest hitting 1 ability of any dagger attunements. And going heavy air doesn’t mean that you get to sit in air attunement for the entire fight. The stats there also help your fire, water, and earth attunement abilities. Find a way to make your elements synergize in a way that works for your playstyle.

Who uses the ele’s auto-attack skills, anyway? They are clearly underpowered, and their only purpose is to be auto-casted inbetween other spells, when you’re not being fast enough.

Air is a control or burst support element in this game. Outside of fire, earth is usually the second attunement in choice for damage.

DiogoSilva.7089:

Pinkerton.5643:

Dude, pay closer attention. lightning whip is THE hardest hitting 1 ability of any dagger attunements. And going heavy air doesn’t mean that you get to sit in air attunement for the entire fight. The stats there also help your fire, water, and earth attunement abilities. Find a way to make your elements synergize in a way that works for your playstyle.

Who uses the ele’s auto-attack skills, anyway? They are clearly underpowered, and their only purpose is to be auto-casted inbetween other spells, when you’re not being fast enough.

Air is a control or burst support element in this game. Outside of fire, earth is usually the second attunement in choice for damage.

That’s nowhere close to the truth with any attunements but fire. And it’s hardly true with fire because drake’s claw does almost as much damage as lightning whip. Vapor Blade inflicts vulnerability stacks very quickly (super useful, especially in group setting), impale inflicts bleed, and lightning whip is the brunt of d/d air attunement damage. You might be surprised how spamming that with the right build can tear through an enemy’s health.

Pinkerton.5643:

That’s nowhere close to the truth with any attunements but fire. And it’s hardly true with fire because drake’s claw does almost as much damage as lightning whip. Vapor Blade inflicts vulnerability stacks very quickly (super useful, especially in group setting), impale inflicts bleed, and lightning whip is the brunt of d/d air attunement damage. You might be surprised how spamming that with the right build can tear through an enemy’s health.

Honestly, I never have time to spam auto-attacks, because there’s always stronger skills available for me to use.

As a DD ele, I almost always have Drake’s Breath available for fire, and I’m always bursting with the known air+ fire/ earth bursts. This kills almost anything, either immediatly or over time. I then quickly move to water or air for their defensive skills (auras, air’s 2nd that causes weakness, water’s 2nd that heals while damaging, etc) to survive in the meantime, before I quickly dance back to fire/ earth and start bursting again.

Usually, auto-attacks are accidental. Something that happens automatically while I’m kiting, observing the field, etc. They are not “bad” for that, but I don’t think they’re worth spending time on.

The exceptions would probably be Staff’s earth. While you’re controlling your opponent’s movement, keeping them weakened with your auto is effective. Or Scepter’s air, because it was built around it, or something. And maybe a few autos for condition builds.

Ok. You sit there at a hands breadth away from the enemy using your decent lightning whip. I’ll sit in the back with a small bag of popcorn once they feel the tickling going on and find you within sword reach of them. Too bad there isn’t a butter attunement, this popcorn is kinda dry.

Pinkerton.5643:

Vesper.8359:

I too gave up, you pretty much need to put 30 in water just do be able to do anything in dungeons and not get down the fastest because for some reason we have lower life pool than any one else. D/D is amazing but why do I have to go sigils/auras or water traits just to take more than 1 hit? It feels like the WD in d3 having to get the mana passive and 4 useless cds just to be able to do what other classes can do.

Also, everyone always compares ele to spvp…. Anyone can be top in spvp

Thieves and Guardians actually have the same exact size health pools as we do. I only have 10 in water and I can take a reasonable beating. But taking a beating is not how you play this game. You dodge, avoid, and use conditions. You have to watch enemies for the tells associated with their attacks. You can’t just tank and spank like in other, less interesting MMOs. Once you’ve figured out how an enemy works, you can survive any encounter.

The D/D was an example, never said we could tank and if you don’t know what I’m talking about there, that’s another problem for you later on.

Pinkerton, I am starting to wonder if you even passed level 30 yet. That is the first time I am seeing an argument for lightning being best damage. The only thing significant about our class is the amount of might stacking we can bring with our own combos.

Pinkerton.5643:

Dude, pay closer attention. lightning whip is THE hardest hitting 1 ability of any dagger attunements.

Not in my experience.

My fingers are sore from playing my ele lol. I feel like all I do is swap elements. I have 30 Arcane , 20 water and 20 earth right now. the 15 trait abilities are really awsome when you use elemental attunment with them. Every 8 sec you can give protection to all , heal and give regen to all every 8 sec. I use staff and can easily kill 4 level 80s at once. Dancing around with protection and heals. it takes a while , but I feel much better than I did in my full power . perc build where I spent more money on repairs than I seemed to farm. Buy the dodge trait from arcane that casts spells if you dodge .
you can do the fire retreat roll , then throw lava font into it and dodge forward and create double might for 6 stacks , then use arcane wave and get even more. I have given myself 15 stacks of might doing that wich helps when you dont have fire traits.
I am currently wearing clerics gear , but might try to swap some out for a little perc.
I do admit I feel like I am pushing ALOT of keys to take down the same mob a ranger seems to kill before I even get 2 auto attacks off on before it dies. But i enjoy the class.

The Elementalist is trash. I’ve leveled 3 other characters up to 50, but needed to take a break from that awful grind, so I started working on my Elementalist. Now I just want to delete him. He spends most of his time dead. The damage is weak, the healing is weak, all 3 of his healing abilities are a joke, and he has absolutely no survivability whatsoever. Kite? Yes, kite… into more enemies. And sometimes you can’t kite, because someone thought it’d be cool to have thin ledges and a drop that kills you. Try dodging and it’s over for you.

TBH, one of my true main issues with the elementalist is the downed state. None of the abilities really give the elementalist any advantage.

And frankly, why even give the elementalist any downed state spells with how useless they are at the moment. The only one that one may say makes a difference is mist form, and yet you’ll quickly get chased down soon after it wears off.

Not to mention, why give such a high cooldown for the down states for the elementalist? Already at a disadvantage so the least that could be done is give the elementalist faster cooldown for the downstate so that way a teammate could help or you could escape from a mob during PVE

@Pinkerton: I always see you using the dagger/dagger elementalist as the reason that Elementalists are fine.

Have you ever considered that most Elementalist players don’t want to play a melee game, and ranged weapons instead? And that maybe those skills are the ones where the problem lies?

Ele’s get kitten all rewards in WvW as stated and it’s really starting tokitten me off.

Heavy armour 80’s bragging about their kill count in guild just send me through the roof. Note to braggarts: 75% of your kills came as a result of me throwing everything I have to support your lazy and ignorant arses.

I’ve stuck with me Elementalist since BWE1 but I’m slowly becoming extremely demoralized. Three more levels to 80 then back to my 40 guardian for some faceroll.

i will never regret to pick my ele, in WvW i dominate the dance floor. in dungeon im the most bad@zz in dps, cc, and i can survive more easy than the kamikase guardians. so far i will never regret it…intead im getting bored from my guardian and hes just level . i cant be attached to 10 skill, i need my 20 elements skill. IM IGNITED, TIME TO GET CLEANSED, AIR, GEOLOGICAL POWER AT MY COMMAND!!