Guild Wars 2

After 2 years building and wielding my Ele as a Main, crafting Legendaries and spending God knows how much gold on different armor stats and skins, leveling up 3 different Ele races to 80 and gearing them, I finally realized that I’m done crying over the fact that I don’t have a single usefull durable Elite that can make an impact to the match. If anything using my Elite will speed up the process of killing me and I just have to accept that ANet doesn’t know how to Balance out Eles. I think the whole 4 Attunement was a big catch for them and I’m now ok with it.

And it’s not just the Elite issues, don’t get me wrong. This break-up has been building up for some time now. Fixing unintended effects is great but I gave them 2 years to fix the core of Eles and yet they only care about the superficial, most popular stuff that gets posted on reddit and pvp guides. So I’m done.

Why should I struggle learning, already complex Ele mechanism, when I can roll a Guard and be so much more useful in any game mode.

Ditching out mats for Incinerator and crafting a Sunrise this week was the greatest choice I ever made in this game.

So bye bye Elementalist we had an amazing 2 year relationship. I choose a better GW2 experience that you’ve offered me in the last 2 years.

Hmm, up to now we had at least one elite for each game mode that was somehow viable.
GS for PvE and mobility in WvW
Tornado for WvW (Meteornado)
Elemental for PvP

Still, the impact of the spells has always been kinda “meh” in all of these areas (taken aside the unintended functions that are “fixed” now – tanking bosses against walls to kill them in seconds is both boring and unintened and should’ve never been a thing in my opinion; but PvE is a joke anyways).

Tornado does basically nothing: the damage is ridiculous, it doesn’t block or reflect projectiles, you can even be CCed while transformed when stability is stripped (CCing a tornado … lol …), the CC itself is clumsy with a quite low range and last but not least you only have 3 different “spells” to use while transformed (they could’ve at least given it 5 spells like sucking in all enemies within a certain range or active projectile-block). This makes Tornado useless in WvW and in PvE it’s even more crappy since you knock away mobs from melee-range of your mates and therefore harm your group rather than helping. In PvP tornado just transforms you into a large, helpless whirl of wind with a “hit me” sign on it.

Elemental dies within seconds in WvW and also high level fractals and most dungeons which makes it useless in these game-modes. Even in PvP it can die really really fast and due to the randomness of its spells it doesn’t have a large impact on the fight (especially in team-fights). At least we can now control some of their spells to actually make them usefull.

FGS was the only usable thing in PvE, yet it required the target to stand next to a wall to pay off. Otherwise normal weapon-spells (staff 1 and 2 spamming) deal more damage. Besides that it can only be used for mobility which is nice but not really “elite” in my eyes.

However, ele isn’t the only class that has crappy elites, so I don’t think that this is a reason to quit ele. Still I’d love to see some drastic changes to tornado for example or a completely new elite (there are enough good suggestions all around the forum).
An elite should be something that makes your enemies flee in panic or pop their CDs and not something that makes you a target that is easier to kill (FGS and Tornado).

Gorni.1764:

However, ele isn’t the only class that has crappy elites, so I don’t think that this is a reason to quit ele. Still I’d love to see some drastic changes to tornado for example or a completely new elite (there are enough good suggestions all around the forum).
An elite should be something that makes your enemies flee in panic or pop their CDs and not something that makes you a target that is easier to kill (FGS and Tornado).

Yeah it’s not just the Elite issue it’s thet lack of interest for Eles. I can’t say it’s lack of interest but more that they don’t know what to do with them. And I guess issues have been building up for me since they started with Ele “adjustments”. It’s hilarious that everyone is rolling the same build Celestial+Cantrips. There’s no imagination for a complex playstyle like Ele anymore. They simpled it way too much.
The issues have been building up for a while now and the lack of ELites (“powerful skills designed to be used infrequently and have a dramatic effect on the tide of a battle”) is just the tip of the ice berg.

I guess I had a good roll with the Eles, ever since GW Factions came out.

EDIT: Non crappy, usefull Elites:
1) Guardian – all 3 are usefull in different situations and are party wide as well as self-support
2) Mesmer – all 3 are used in all 3 game modes. (Mass Invisibility – WvW, MoA – sPvP, PvE against Forms, TW – speed dungeons)
3) Necro – all 3 usefull (Golem – good PvE tank, even better in WvW against gates and knocking palyers, Lich Form – just amazing, and even Plague is used with condi necros)
4) Rangers – (RaO – speedbuff, stability and fury. enough said. Entangle – in WvW is great, haven’t seen in sPvP but there is some use to it, Nature Spirit – I dunno bout this one, I never used it)
5) Warrior – (Warbanner, a free slot for a res and team buff in all 3 mdoes, Signet – dps boost in all 3 modes, Rampage – don’t find it usefull)
6) Thief – (Guild – mass spike damage in PvP and PvE, Storm – reflecting projectiles and damage in WvW/Pve and even PvP, Basilisk Venom – seen some nice work with this in PvP)
7) Engi (Supply Crate, mass AI targets down best out there against a single target used in all 3 modes, Elixir X and Mortar – not that great.)

So out of all the Elites the only useless Elites imo are: Rampage, Nature SPirit, Elixir X, Mortar. All of the others have uses.

Now compare Ele Elites to the usefull Elites of other professions. We don’t even make a splash, let along turn a tide.

Nature spirit useless, yeah, sure…

Maybe you’ll get bored of guardian (it’s my main, i love it, but after trying ele i find it so static)

But, yeah, the elites are a bit… underwhelming

Yeah, I too will no longer main this profession because, in my opinion, Elementalist aren’t
as balanced as the other professions. I mean, out of ALL of the professions, this one seems to be the least balanced. This is just my opinion.

Is it that hard for some people to perform great with this profession even after spending 2 years? even as a bunker 25 stacks might dps spec? really? I guess the class is not meant for everyone. Probably they are first timers playing a mage type of profession on a mmorpg. The ele is not beginner friendly that’s for sure.

Good for you. No class is for everyone. Sometimes a simple class switch is all it takes to really enjoy this game.

LightningBlaze.4913:

Is it that hard for some people to perform great with this profession even after spending 2 years? even as a bunker 25 stacks might dps spec? really? I guess the class is not meant for everyone. Probably they are first timers playing a mage type of profession on a mmorpg. The ele is not beginner friendly that’s for sure.

Update: I am once again playing Elementalist as my primary.

Something about this profession is hard for me to walk away from lol.

Oh I almost forgot. I bet op will return as well lol

Welcome to GW2. You either play the classes that are actually fun with little rewards for high skill investment or the braindead, boring classes with high rewards for little skill investment (-> warrior).

Some people like the boring classes as long as they ZOMG OLOLOL the kitten out of their opponent, some cannot stand boring classes and APM the kitten out of their keyboard to be able to keep up with them. I think this is what Devs mean when they say the player can choose a class according to his “playstyle”.

cursE.1794:

Welcome to GW2. You either play the classes that are actually fun with little rewards for high skill investment or the braindead, boring classes with high rewards for little skill investment (-> warrior).

Some people like the boring classes as long as they ZOMG OLOLOL the kitten out of their opponent, some cannot stand boring classes and APM the kitten out of their keyboard to be able to keep up with them. I think this is what Devs mean when they say the player can choose a class according to his “playstyle”.

Haha, this is the best description of the game I’ve read so far. I’d replace “boring classes” with “boring builds” though.

GuildWarsPlayer.5608:

LightningBlaze.4913:

Is it that hard for some people to perform great with this profession even after spending 2 years? even as a bunker 25 stacks might dps spec? really? I guess the class is not meant for everyone. Probably they are first timers playing a mage type of profession on a mmorpg. The ele is not beginner friendly that’s for sure.

Update: I am once again playing Elementalist as my primary.

Something about this profession is hard for me to walk away from lol.

Oh I almost forgot. I bet op will return as well lol

I have no idea how LightningBlaze came to the conclusion that I’m not doing good with my ele, but ok.

Yeah it’s extremely hard to not login to the Ele, or 3 of them for that matter but I found guardians to be very similar to Eles as they need active play and I’m actually enjoying it. Timing blinds, timing blocks it’s very proactive even with swapping weapons. But Guardian’s WvW mentality is completely different then what I did with my Ele and that’s the part I gotta work on. So much more then Lootsticking!

As a d/d ele we only use elemental elite to help solo camps 10 -15 seconds faster. Or FGS to spaz out in a zerg to kill steal from allies. In most direct fights as a D/D ele, 20 v 20 you can dance away unhurt while plowing frontline, mid and stun breaking to safety. I played ele since alpha this nerf does nothing spvp or wvw wise. Guardians at best 1v1 can almost never beat a d/d ele in wvw. In spvp based on mechanics and yes due to armor limitations 33% win rate. You better role warrior if you want an easier win, but then again you’ll notice the same limitations in that profession as you fight better players or servers.

@OP:

Nice post. You made me laugh. Ele has gone from average, to completely OP to complete garbage, and now back to one of the top classes. If you are looking for more consistency, play a guardian.

Ele’s are still above average if played with skill. Guardians are free loot for me.

i’m surprised you didn’t reroll earlier ._.
i thought this was going to be the typical waahmbulance q_q quitting thread
but the opening poster seemed to hit the nail on the head

arena net really seems to be at a loss when knowing what to do with the elementalist
since launch i’ve only seen a handful of well thought out useful patch notes.. i know plenty of players who think on a more complex level than i do who’ve seen some of the blaring issues of this game’s un-balance a mile away.. some of them still play, but most of them quit or budget their time on this game to sidestep the many broken aspects of it..
i’m more habitual and will continue to main an elem.. it’s sad though to resign yourself to a game that caters to a checkers crowd when we could all be playing chess

Waisenpai.6028:

As a d/d ele we only use elemental elite to help solo camps 10 -15 seconds faster. Or FGS to spaz out in a zerg to kill steal from allies. In most direct fights as a D/D ele, 20 v 20 you can dance away unhurt while plowing frontline, mid and stun breaking to safety. I played ele since alpha this nerf does nothing spvp or wvw wise. Guardians at best 1v1 can almost never beat a d/d ele in wvw. In spvp based on mechanics and yes due to armor limitations 33% win rate. You better role warrior if you want an easier win, but then again you’ll notice the same limitations in that profession as you fight better players or servers.

Are you telling you don t use elemental or grenth with DD?
If so you are giving up a lot of potential.

Also maybe is true a guardian can’t beat an ele in 1vs1.
Its almost true that they will ignore and outrun you in WWW (yes even guardians can).
And if you find some guard roaming WWW builds you change your mind.

I playe also Ele since release and i don t agree with anything you say.
The differences between WWW and PvP that makes some strong builds in one weak in the other, have been discussed quite a lot lately and seemed people started to understand….

Starting from a 30% (or more) stat increase making burst professions stronger, to the different win conditions, and the need to kill fast….

I must admit, by the way, i don t consider GvG or Dueling, part of WWW since they have rules decided by players that are not part of the gamemode itself.

If you browse PvP section you might find few really nice posts about it.

Nabuko Darayon.9645:

Rant

you play ele, you can’t switch profession. it won’t work, since all the others will seem almost kittened and boring. don’t lie to yourself, stay true to your destiny!

believe me, i’ve tried the guardian crap you’re trying to pull off. and the engineer crap, ... it’s all just methadone in comparison to the 100% pure heroin of this godlike elementalist.

Glyph of Elementals: Now has skill commands when summoned and will be used with the elementals’ next attack.
Flame Barrage (Fire Elemental): Burns multiple targets.
Shocking Bolt (Air Elemental): Stuns a target.

• If shocking bolt actually works and has at max a short CD i think GoE elite got a good buff.

Issue is:
PvP => meh the changes may be a buff

WWW roaming => see above

WWW zerg => staff ele will now have 0 elites… an elemental would face the same fate as a phantasm.

PvE => Huge nerf. Despite FGS was indeed OP, could have used a lesser nerf, like spawning just 1 just to give some reward to use a risky profession.
Even PvE players have 0 elites now

What makes me extremely sad and angry towards the balance team:
Despite what we might think, both things were tolerated for a long time because they don’t care at all of PvE and WWW.

What caused the changes were PvP players Killing sieges in PVP With FGS and using meteornado on points.

This is another of the infinite slaps on the face to WWW and PvE players since the changes to Elites are once again PvP oriented.

The balance team has no respect or consideration of 99% of the playerbase, just to follow their esport dream that will never happen.

But the best part has yet to come:
The buff to elementals will cause a further nerf to ele since the ice ele heal will be OP in PvP (and useless everywhere else).

Also reason Number 1 why i boycott PvP.

LordByron.8369:

What caused the changes were PvP players Killing sieges in PVP With FGS and using meteornado on points.

I cant remember i’ve ever seen meteornado in team queue, so NOPE.

Fuzzion.2504:

Glyph of Elementals: Now has skill commands when summoned and will be used with the elementals’ next attack.
Flame Barrage (Fire Elemental): Burns multiple targets.
Shocking Bolt (Air Elemental): Stuns a target.

• If shocking bolt actually works and has at max a short CD i think GoE elite got a good buff.

The Air Elemental and Water Elemental I used a bunch in PvP for the lack of a real Elite. I do find the stun and heal on demand to be worthy for the PvP scene since the Water can heal up to 6k HP. But still… I hate Celestial gear and how it’s our only viable set. I refuse to wear it!

Shadow of Azrael.1205:

LordByron.8369:

What caused the changes were PvP players Killing sieges in PVP With FGS and using meteornado on points.

I cant remember i’ve ever seen meteornado in team queue, so NOPE.

Also for Meteornado to work you’d have to berserk yourself for the real spike effect and I doubt any Eles run berserker in any form of PvP, other then in WvW.
As for the FGS killing siege this was fixed when they fixed the teleport bug where you could use Lightning Flash and you’d get the fiery trail in 1 spot. FGS nerf as of september 9th is purely PvE nerf.

Shadow of Azrael.1205:

LordByron.8369:

What caused the changes were PvP players Killing sieges in PVP With FGS and using meteornado on points.

I cant remember i’ve ever seen meteornado in team queue, so NOPE.

I guess you saw necrobombs and some meteornado staff players.
Works with PvT/celestial also.

And you speak as if the balance team only nerf overeffective skills.

What i really hate is they nerf skills continually trying to balance with traits….
While doing the opposite would lead to build diversity.

P.S maybe wrong but i hear you can still kill trebs fast with FGS.
I did it in www…but i don t really care about the fgs nerf.

LordByron.8369:

Issue is:
PvP => meh the changes may be a buff

WWW roaming => see above

WWW zerg => staff ele will now have 0 elites... an elemental would face the same fate as a phantasm.

PvE => Huge nerf. Despite FGS was indeed OP, could have used a lesser nerf, like spawning just 1 just to give some reward to use a risky profession.
Even PvE players have 0 elites now

What makes me extremely sad and angry towards the balance team:
Despite what we might think, both things were tolerated for a long time because they don’t care at all of PvE and WWW.

*What caused the changes were PvP players Killing sieges in PVP With FGS and using meteornado on points.*

This is another of the infinite slaps on the face to WWW and PvE players since the changes to Elites are once again PvP oriented.

The balance team has no respect or consideration of 99% of the playerbase, just to follow their esport dream that will never happen.

But the best part has yet to come:
The buff to elementals will cause a further nerf to ele since the ice ele heal will be OP in PvP (and useless everywhere else).

Also reason Number 1 why i boycott PvP.

seriously man, you don’t make any sense at all.

there’s not been a single meteornado spotted in pvp for almost... well,... ever? (there was a kittenload of them going havoc while besieging a fort in wvw though.)

eles take down the treb in kyhlo with fgs? it takes the treb to about 60%, but that’s it. you can rarely use the rush twice if there’s a skilled player using the treb. plus, you cannot use it for anything else anymore, since rush+blink nerf.
the ice elem is rarely played, but how an increased heal can be a nerf is totally beyond me.

your quiting the class because you dont like the elite.

in other news there is now aids in africa

Peow peow.2189:

your quiting the class because you dont like the elite.

He’s quitting the class because our elites are worthless. It’s not a question of liking or not, all the elementalist elite skills are worse than the normal skills.

yeah, ele brings not many useful elites, true, but at least there are cool racial elites in pvp.... wait. what?

tanztante.6532:

yeah, ele brings not many useful elites, true, but at least there are cool racial elites in pvp…. wait. what?

At least Fiery Hounds bring more pressure then an Elemental

Hello, I’m started to play as a d/d ele and it’s really fun compared to my thief and ranger. In pve/roaming, is it really necessary to use all elements?

cudzgaming.9316:

Hello, I’m started to play as a d/d ele and it’s really fun compared to my thief and ranger. In pve/roaming, is it really necessary to use all elements?

You will stay in Fire 90% of time (Staff) and about 70% of time in Air or Fire (depends on your builds) as D/D ele in pve … If you really want to stay in one attunement go for a Staff and sit in Fire …

@OP, FGS is not that useless: don’t forget that you can switch your attunements while wielding your FGS, without droping your FGS!
And you keep all your passive benefits from your attunements, if you pick up the right Traits, like: passive healing for your group in Water, more toughnes in Earth and other buffs for your group when you switch your attunements. And other player can also pick up your FGS.
So you can swap from Fire to Watter when you need heals and then pick up your FGS, if you want to continue with heavy dmg, as you can’t get back into Fire for 9 or 13 seconds and so on. There are so many options with FGS …

Sifu.9745:

then pick up your FGS, if you want to continue with heavy dmg,

… LOL
You lose all your stack power, and the attack themselves are very weak.
You have have less dps with than without

LordByron.8369:

Waisenpai.6028:

As a d/d ele we only use elemental elite to help solo camps 10 -15 seconds faster. Or FGS to spaz out in a zerg to kill steal from allies. In most direct fights as a D/D ele, 20 v 20 you can dance away unhurt while plowing frontline, mid and stun breaking to safety. I played ele since alpha this nerf does nothing spvp or wvw wise. Guardians at best 1v1 can almost never beat a d/d ele in wvw. In spvp based on mechanics and yes due to armor limitations 33% win rate. You better role warrior if you want an easier win, but then again you’ll notice the same limitations in that profession as you fight better players or servers.

Are you telling you don t use elemental or grenth with DD?
If so you are giving up a lot of potential.

Also maybe is true a guardian can’t beat an ele in 1vs1.
Its almost true that they will ignore and outrun you in WWW (yes even guardians can).
And if you find some guard roaming WWW builds you change your mind.

I playe also Ele since release and i don t agree with anything you say.
The differences between WWW and PvP that makes some strong builds in one weak in the other, have been discussed quite a lot lately and seemed people started to understand….

Starting from a 30% (or more) stat increase making burst professions stronger, to the different win conditions, and the need to kill fast….

I must admit, by the way, i don t consider GvG or Dueling, part of WWW since they have rules decided by players that are not part of the gamemode itself.

If you browse PvP section you might find few really nice posts about it.

Oh I’m a champ Magus in spvp former top 200 in solo Spvp and top 300 in team spvp. If I spam Engi in a 5 marches I can go to top 100 but Lol. Ele’s are fine.

In wvw just use Conjure Frost Bow, you can still melt siege with it. I stand on edge of of the structure make sure you have stability ready and let loose volley of frozen kittens. Rinse and apply pressure and once awhile jump down and harass with D/D mobility and spike. Yeah I can fight of 2 guardians on my ele or guardian and a warrior with caution. I just slip on a dire armor with perplexity and laugh, eat a mango pie and some oils. Keep in mind I have full wvw guard defense/offense and 25 stacks of blood lust. (with ascended gear) On the BP server you fight 1v2-3-5-7-20-40, un like larger servers we lack the commodity of numbers