Guild Wars 2

I mean they are one of the most common classes in the game. I can’t seem to do an event without a forth of the people around me being an elementalist.

If ele is so terrible why is everyone leveling one up? O_o

Because they aren’t terrible. I love playing an elementalist because it actually challenges me. Especially in dungeon. I can change the way a whole fight goes by reviving 3 people at once.

people are under the impression they play like mages

that being said, there is ALOT of truly horrible elementalists, and i dont see many at 80 anyway

Because flashy mages are popular in all MMOs. Just like everyone is playing with Warriors, Guardians and Rangers, and few with Engineers and Mesmers. Even if warriors, guardians and rangers sucked, and engineers and mesmers were completely overpowered, you would still see most of players picking the first ones, completely unaware of their power balance.

Also, the elementalist is not “oh so terrible”. It’s underpowered when compared to other professions, but it’s good enough to beat most of pve nonetheless.

And to the second poster, playing a weaker profession just because it adds challenge to the game does not means that the profession is not weaker. Go play a Mesmer or an Engineer, they’re about as challenging to play as with an Elementalist, and yeild better results.

They’re fun to play is why. I love the attunement rotation and all that. I just wish I actually did damage in PVP per the same level of effort.

In my very humble opinion, I believe it has to do with reasons not related to how “terrible” or “great” the profession is, but rather the aesthetics and “flavor” of the class.

Elementalists are a more classic mage type and seem to have a more versatile “flavor” to them than the other scholar classes. So, you want to play a caster? Mage? Light armor, robe-wearing class? Squishy in a dress with a wand? Your choices are:

- Mesmer: uses illusions, mind tricks, and sparkly pink and purple spells
- Necromancer: master of death, darkness, and generally creepy stuff
- Elementalist: uses spells with the elements of fire, water, earth, and air

Though they each have their appeal, IMHO Elementalist’s is somewhat broader in this regard.

And let us not discount armor looks, either. Light armor has some of the sexiest looking styles, while also offering more modest coverage like almost all of the medium armor styles have.

Just my 2 copper! I know that the concept of the profession, along with the beautiful and varied armor, is why I wanted to play an Elementalist.

They’re fun, and unless you actually try a different class, it’s easy to think the game is actually supposed to be this hard.

Once you do realize it though, it’s a bit frustrating sometimes, particularly in dungeons and what not, when you’re the squishiest class in the game, don’t have very high damage, and are OK at support but that’s about it.

Still fun to play, the notably lower power level and lack of options if you want to play the best elementalist you can are frustrating though.

tl;dr We are fun to play and look sexy. The whole sucking thing is an inconvenience though.

im not a fan of attunement swapping. I would rather have the option to choose a element to specialize in while leaving the option to choose all for those that may enjoy it. It wont happen though since it would require a major overhaul of the class.

I dont know if they are UP, they are just damage magnets. They have the same damage output as most classes, but when we get hit, we get HIT. Often find myself one shotted in dungeons.

We dont have the same dmg as the rest of the classes…. it’s the lowest dmg compared to all + you have slow casting and animation time that sucks in PVP the most. Oh and pray that peonix and tooth hits the target ofc

I have Power/Cond dmg Magic find gear and similar trait allocation. Getting one-shot is my job.

this have been asked a lot of times…. its simple: if you want to play a specific thing in this case “powerfull MAGE!!” you will play it no matter what or you will not play the game at all.
you dont really realise how weak it is untill lvl 25-35 when classes starts to show their actual worth and first when you try another class you realise how insanely nerfed the ele is in comparison, and you realise the game is no where near as hard in design as you previous thought.

but the people which wanted to play a mage and can’t accept how weak they are will not be playing the game if they realise there is no buff in the future to fix this issues

Elementalist is simply fun to play with sir.
Which doesn’t change that he is underpowered.

I myself prefer to have fun with underpowered class than bore all the time even slaughtering every enemy by warrior. Simple.
Still it would be nice to have something done with Ele.

Personally, it’s because of Meteor Shower. Just too neat to give up.

Tried and leveled Mesmer and Necro but their AOEs just doesn’t have the same oomph.

In open-world PvE, they’re fun to play. You may have to work a bit harder, and pay a bit more attention to dodging, but they’re still fun to play.

Flashy spells always draw people to a profession.

A “traditional” mage will ALWAYS draw a following. If a profession is fun to play, as long as you’re not grossly underpowered (Ele is weaker overall, but not massively weaker), there will be players beyond those who just want a challenge.