Guild Wars 2

All I see on here and on the GW2guru forums is how weak elementalist are and how they die if a mob sneezes on them compared to every other profession. If thats the case why are they a dime a dozen? After Warriors and Guardians Elementalists are easily the 3rd most popular class, at least on my server. If they have so many issues why do so many people punish themselves by playing one? Also not to mention they are probably the hardest class to play to its full capabilities. Are all these people just pro gamers who are awesome and can just attunement dance no matter what weapons they are using and own everyone using all spells and utilities to their fullest? I mean I highly doubt people would pick them just to be bad. I have been gaming for a long time and even found them very challenging and hard to play, especially in sPvP.

Are elementalist actually fine at level 80 and can farm just as easily as a Guardian,Ranger, or Warrior using the same minimal effort?

I’ve done pvp with every profession and elementalists are by far the hardest to play. Their damage isn’t high enough to condone their weakness.

There is a perfectly good reason why other classes focus on elementalists first when in any kind of pvp. At low levels they’re fine it just gets worse each and every passing level.

I think there is alot people people think that they make good support and that staff water elementalists are great support/healer build characters. Truth is both guardians and engineers are better healing support then they are.

So if they are weak we are not allowed to play a class that we enjoy? many of us enjoy the play style of ele’s.
The game hasn’t been out long either so most of us are hoping for bug fixes and slight buff.

yes due to having 20 abilities to manage we are the hardest class to master but the problem lies that even if you are great at playing an ele if your versing any other class and the player is at equivalent skill its still an uphill battle.

A cheesy example is verse rogues, the ones who run around spamming HS strike i would generally take down with ease but if the rogue is making full use of all of his skills / abilities I either have to build very tanky to survive his bursts, or i will get taken out of the fight very quickly.

Having both a 80 warrior and 80 ele – farming is a lot easier on warrior even with fresh level 80 gear

because people who play it consider them fun, but cant hide the feeling of them being weak, but still you like it, doesnt mean you cant kill, or cant do a quest with it, or cant pvp, you can, you will kill people, its just they are weak overall, is simple.

you cant even change your weapons like warriors, guardians, rogues, etc

I can understand some people want a challenege so they picked the hardest class to play but are you saying that every single elementalist is a Pro and is attunement dancing and kiting mobs or players like a champ? I seriously dont think so. But at the same time if you suck at mastering all their spells, utility usage, and avoiding dieing then why would you force yourself to play a class you suck at?

I have 15 years of MMO experience. There have been classes I have tried and I have been good at them. Then there were others that I just couldnt play because they required so much going on and I was awful at them, EverQuest Bard and Enchanter were two off the top of my head that I just couldnt play to their fullest to help my groups. I just didnt feel like the hassle was worth it and stuck to classes I could play well and did enjoy. So if all these elementalists running around are playing because they enjoy the class then they all must be good. Becuase who enjoys being bad?

I know we are weak and also have a number of key skills that either don’t work as they should or are just not good at all, but i love to play the harder classes in MMOs (again, not that elementals are really hard, just harder than most other GW2 classes) and i’m a sucker for a magic class with FIRE!!!.

Also another reason i’m sticking with mine is because there is no open world PVP so i don’t have to worry about that, and in WvWvW i can play the AOE role nicely despite our shortcomings.

To the OP, because its kind of the default mage type class.

The particle effects.

I think the one reason why there are so many Elementalists is because many things, like the Bradygames guide, for example, lists them as the best “pick up and play” class for new players. Which, I will somewhat agree with. The first class I played was an Engineer, just to get used to the system (and figure out how much keybind changing I was going to do,) then I moved on to try out an Elementalist. Much easier to play out of the gate.

And let’s not forget one major key aspect. Elementalists are filled with a whole bunch of flashy looking skills. Flash sells, even if the product it’s selling isn’t the greatest.

It’s because everyone thinks they’re cool. What’s going to happen, is that everyone will play Ele, get mad because they can’t faceroll, and then end up playing Greatsword Guardian like everyone else and only the good eles will be left, which means like 25% of us. And we’ll destroy all those Guardians because Ele is a totally OP class if you know how to build it.
Honestly, feel free to keep griping about how bad you think Eles are. I wouldn’t mind a buff. It’ll be like when they buffed healing smugglers in TOR because everyone was complaining and then the people who actually knew how to play them were suddenly elevated from good players to completely invincible status.
Seriously, though, I don’t see what you guys are mad about. I’m having absolutely zero problems on my Ele. And I’m dual daggering it, so I’m in peoples’ faces all the time. Soloing all kinds of stuff in PvE without issues, absolutely destroying in PvP…Builds, people, it’s all about builds and knowing how to play to them.

In sPvP, the only time I really die on my Ele is when I’m focused by 2/3 people. Other than that, most node skirmishes end with either me stomping them, or they run away and I keep/cap the node. I’m talking every profession out there. People like to complain about thief, but that one combo they like to do, its easily stopped by an ele if your out of dodges. I’ve taken down various guard builds as well. Most class I have trouble with is mes and good necros (but who doesn’t?).

So when do Eles get the ability to farm as fast and easily as a warrior or guardian and what spec do I need to use?

Dabrixmgp.4758:

So when do Eles get the ability to farm as fast and easily as a warrior or guardian and what spec do I need to use?

D/D. Condi Build.
Glyph of Storms in Earth.
Churning Earth.
/dance as mobs die (yes at level 80)

How do you know that they are the third most popular class? Did you conduct a survey?

I’m not saying you are wrong, but I don’t think we should start a discussion by making up statistics. From most actual polls done before release the professions were really close to being even distribution.

Personally when I pick a class i don’t try to pick what is necessarily the most powerful, but what I think I will enjoy the most based on game play and theme. I don’t think the popularity of a profession and how powerful they are so closely linked.

I enjoy the concept behind the ele and i didnt want to play a dark caster again, i chose ele… i think only issue is that the ele is suppose to be a glass canon but more like a glass pea shooter… but i also believe Anet realizes this and will fix it. Personally i love my elementalist even if its not best class out there its still super enjoyable!

being 3rd most popular class doesnt exactly make them strong or weak.
i think theres no many of them not because or OP or UP reasons but because its a standard class that many players resonate with as well as a class that has a lot of variety.

currently the most popular class is the warrior, which is considered to be the more OP class.

Elementalist is a strong class if you can master the art of dodge, timing and attunement dancing. You really to be on your toe if you play this profession and you will have to do anything possible to avoid and reflect damage. You have to be really fast at triggering spells without looking at your bar.

I dance my attunements on every fight. Switching back and fore between spells and do combos.

I can take on 3-4 mobs and mini-boss or champion on solo with my staff.

Ye, attunement swaping is very funny, but i need to use 8-10 skills to kill mob, when warrior or ranger need to use 2-3 skills and do it faster. I’m not whine, i love my elementalist and really enjoy to play with him, but more damage will be nice present. I also can’t understand why arena kills perfect crit-build what i used on bwe.

Elementalists are not weak class whatsoever. It’s very powerful and kind of OP when you know how to play it. It’s just it’s harder than any class, but not weak whatsoever.

Elementalist FTW

Popularity does not determine effectiveness of a class. It can correlate, but no in this case.

People probably play them because they look cool! I mean it’s a guy who uses the elements!

Additionally people may actually like them. However you begin to realise that they can achieve far less than other professions. It won’t stop people playing, but it makes them grit their teeth more.

Anlyon.8375:

Dabrixmgp.4758:

So when do Eles get the ability to farm as fast and easily as a warrior or guardian and what spec do I need to use?

D/D. Condi Build.
Glyph of Storms in Earth.
Churning Earth.
/dance as mobs die (yes at level 80)

Yes! This guy knows what I’m talking about. Glyph of storms in earth attunement is totally op. It’s basically a perma blind plus damage. Either that or signet of air. AoE blind with damage is great. My normal rotation for taking down tons of baddies is earthquake-signet of air-churning earth-dodge-spam impale and ring of earth while running in circles. Works EVER time. Especially if you use your glyph of elementals and have your earth elemental tank for you. He’s the greatest tank ever.

I stack condi damage and go up the fire tree as well for condition duration, improve my bleed duration with the trait, and I can get 20+ stacks of bleed on a target by myself. Those dudes drop SO fast. Most of the time, I can’t even get that high before they die. I just really like those flying numbers =)

@Pinkerton
Could you please share your build? It looks intriguing.

Vaerah.4907:

@Pinkerton
Could you please share your build? It looks intriguing.

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#Mcszz9coNRTMoNwToGaxa0moccRbV

That’s my build and skill setup for open world PvE
Dungeon builds are really group-dependent and situational.
For PvP, all I do is swap glyph of stoms for lightning flash, glyph of elementals for tornado, and the 10 point air trait for VI which increases damage to foes under 25% health.

I use all 6 superior runes of the undead. I use superior sigil of purity and superior sigil of geomancy. Also, I make sure that I have enough toughness on my gear.

I enjoy playing my elementalist, she’s fun, i like having 20 skills to choose from I like the fast paced gameplay I’m forced into if I want to stay alive. Yes,her damage output is low compared to nearly every other class but that won’t change the fact that I enjoy playing her and I think that’s the reason why there are so many out there. In PvP I always use my thief or my warrior though. It’s just depressing getting killed 8-10 times while killing perhaps just one enemy I was lucky to find with less than 30% health

It’s the archtype wizard
in a fantasy mmo

figure it out, it’s not a hard equation lol

Dabrixmgp.4758:

I can understand some people want a challenege so they picked the hardest class to play but are you saying that every single elementalist is a Pro and is attunement dancing and kiting mobs or players like a champ? I seriously dont think so. But at the same time if you suck at mastering all their spells, utility usage, and avoiding dieing then why would you force yourself to play a class you suck at?

I have 15 years of MMO experience. There have been classes I have tried and I have been good at them. Then there were others that I just couldnt play because they required so much going on and I was awful at them, EverQuest Bard and Enchanter were two off the top of my head that I just couldnt play to their fullest to help my groups. I just didnt feel like the hassle was worth it and stuck to classes I could play well and did enjoy. So if all these elementalists running around are playing because they enjoy the class then they all must be good. Becuase who enjoys being bad?

Hope.

That is all.

Dabrixmgp.4758:

All I see on here and on the GW2guru forums is how weak elementalist are and how they die if a mob sneezes on them compared to every other profession. If thats the case why are they a dime a dozen?

BECOUSE THEY LOOK AWESOME AND GOT SOME AWESOME LOOKING SPELLS!!!!!!! and both the mesma and necro doenst feel much like a necro or a mesma on their skillsets so yer ele is the only thing left -_-

its that simple, people play the game to have a specific feel of it, the ele is the only magic class that really can give that feel of MAGE, doesnt change the fact he is weak as kitten.

i stopped palying ele after making a full tank build and full dps build and both are stupidly weak compared to anything else. so yer now i got both ele, worriar and necro instead of just the ele which is the actual class i wanna play its just sooo retardedly weak its not even playerble

Maybe I am just not "good’, but elementalist is the only class with which I can solo most champions easily.

I see others complaining that thieves have it so easy, but when I played a thief I would have trouble with a group of 3 mobs that included a veteran in most cases. I would have to kite the same way that I do on my elementalist, the difference being I was not doing damage while kiting, only staying alive and waiting for initiative.

The problem with elementalists is that in order to perform at par with some other classes you have to make a commitment to a play style. Sure we have 4 bars of spells, but most builds only offer 5 damage skills that are on par with other classes. the other spells should still be used for effects though.

If you are not ok with either:

Grabbing a staff and stacking power and crit

or

grabbing a scepter and stacking condition damage

Then you will likely have weaker damage output than other classes at level 80.

Some elementalists are all over the map with their stat allocation and build strategy.

There are more than a few viable ele builds, you jsut have to pick one and gear to it.

Well at least theres one good thing about an elementalist. When you are at the bottom the only way to go is up. Seen it in ever single MMO. One single patch and BAM! from worst to first.

Dabrixmgp.4758:

Well at least theres one good thing about an elementalist. When you are at the bottom the only way to go is up. Seen it in ever single MMO. One single patch and BAM! from worst to first.

Are at the bottom?
Every day I fear we’ll get nerfed!

It’s true that on my warrior I chew thru stuff like a bulldozer but Elementalist is not weak, it’s just intricate to make it work.

Vaerah.4907:

Dabrixmgp.4758:

Well at least theres one good thing about an elementalist. When you are at the bottom the only way to go is up. Seen it in ever single MMO. One single patch and BAM! from worst to first.

Are at the bottom?
Every day I fear we’ll get nerfed!

It’s true that on my warrior I chew thru stuff like a bulldozer but Elementalist is not weak, it’s just intricate to make it work.

Thats a problem then. EIther warriors should be made more complicated or elementalists made simpler. I just dont understand the logic behind elementlists right now. How can a class like a Ranger. Guardian, or Warrior use like 3 abilities and farm extremely fast with no risk of dieing while an elementalist has to use everything they have and kill much slower and still risk dieing. Shouldn’t there be some balance?

My main is Ranger but I got to say, Elem is a lot of fun to play. I’m slowly leveling it up and trying to learn how to use him properly. So far, in PVP, I’m doing ok.

I’m just patiently waiting for this rebalance patch to knock in before grabbing this prof as my main.

I’d have to concur with what was said above.

Many people consider Elementalists fun. AoE’ing in big group events is a blast (no pun intended), and a fairly easy way of getting a good number of kills and drops. They have “pretty” effects. They’re a “standard” mage, and mages are a popular MMO/RPG archetype.

In groups, players can eke by, even if they’re less experienced with the game and haven’t built up their attunement switching skills, or knowing exactly when to dodge. It’s solo’ing that really requires them to improve.

I keep playing the Elem cuz its my highest level character until I can get my warrior and thief up in level. shrug

The profession is amazing.. when I first hit 80.. my build was a little messed up. After taking a passive for toughness.. and switching points around.. I barely take damage and I am able to survive.

I think some people chose elementalist because they wanted a damage dealing mage but didnt want to role a pet class or a mesmer (havent played one yet but seems very supporty and CC-y to me).

Cayenne.5341:

I think some people chose elementalist because they wanted a damage dealing mage

where is that class? They arent even close to the damage of Warrior and Rangers. Probably not close to Thieves either. If they are a damage dealer who are they dealing more damage than?

Dabrixmgp.4758:

Cayenne.5341:

I think some people chose elementalist because they wanted a damage dealing mage

where is that class? They arent even close to the damage of Warrior and Rangers. Probably not close to Thieves either. If they are a damage dealer who are they dealing more damage than?

When ArenaNET said that GW2 would get rid of the “Holy Trinity” I am quite sure it was not just limited to “tank and healer”. The third of the Trinity too has gone and everybody now are “damage dealers”. Eles just happen to deal less direct damage than most.

I play because it’s fun to play even if I don’t do a lot of damage or have survivability. But in comparison, my guardian, thief, or necro absolutely rapes PvE. So I can’t really say if guardian, theif, warrior, or necro, are just OP or that ele is just really THAT underpowered.

For ele I stay dual daggers with attributes in earth for increased survivability, and spam PBAOE all day while circle strafing things. I usually die like once every over day or less, and maxed my monthly survivor achievement already, and I solo a lot of events since at level 60+ there still isn’t that many people around. But dual daggers is high damage and fun to play but it’s really hard compared to playing guardian… Staff damage is pathetic in comparison, and scepter/focus is meh but I do use it when melee range is unfeasible.

Dabrixmgp.4758:

All I see on here and on the GW2guru forums is how weak elementalist are and how they die if a mob sneezes on them compared to every other profession. If thats the case why are they a dime a dozen? After Warriors and Guardians Elementalists are easily the 3rd most popular class, at least on my server. If they have so many issues why do so many people punish themselves by playing one? Also not to mention they are probably the hardest class to play to its full capabilities. Are all these people just pro gamers who are awesome and can just attunement dance no matter what weapons they are using and own everyone using all spells and utilities to their fullest? I mean I highly doubt people would pick them just to be bad. I have been gaming for a long time and even found them very challenging and hard to play, especially in sPvP.

Are elementalist actually fine at level 80 and can farm just as easily as a Guardian,Ranger, or Warrior using the same minimal effort?

Ahh, the appeal to popularity fallacy. If billions of people thought the world was flat it wouldn’t make it true. I will say that elementalist isn’t as weak as its reputation, though all skills needing to charge gets annoying. Underwater we tend to wreck, especially as fire with the number 2 boiling water AoE (then switch to wind for the single target lightning), earth is good too for bleeds.

Just keep in mind to dodge and that elementalists weren’t designed to be tanks.

Everyone expects buffs to this class, personally I don’t want even more fotm kids playing ele…

I’ve played a few levels of every other class, but there is something that keeps me coming back to my ele. I always play a mage-type class in every game I play and the ele is no different. At level 39 I can take on 3+ mobs by myself. I don’t see why people are complaining. You just have to learn how to attunement hop. Now if they do get bad at higher levels I can’t say, but I do know that I will stick with my ele all the way to 80.

To the OP. Because we wanted to play one?

Actually I find Elementalist rather fun to play. I run around with Daggers while solo. While yes, that means I’m insanely squishy and I do rather poor damage, it’s a buttload of fun. And with the right movements you’re able to stay alive for a decent amount of time. It’s still very much subpar to anything else though. And it does not work in PvP.
Use my staff for group stuff, lets me hang back and drop combo fields all day, which is quite nice. Also as it has alot of AoE it’s more loot =p.

For PvP the only thing I’ve found to be half usefull is follow the zerg with a staff and drop AoE on walls. Other than that Elementalist is utter useless.

I think it’s the field spam, myself. Heavy armor classes with greatswords will always do more direct damage, yes. So, if you won’t join them, the next best thing is to synergize with them. All those dudes with zweihanders running around means a lot of people with whirl finishers running around with a million fiery and watery fields under their feet. Not to mention flaming bullets for gunners and all those other fun tricks.

The other thing, forum posters are often focused on sPvP, which favors extreme burst damage. World PvE is a lot more friendly to playing whatever you find fun.

juki.7539:

Everyone expects buffs to this class, personally I don’t want even more fotm kids playing ele…

I agree wholeheartedly.
To be honest, I already destroy so much in pvp and soloing on my d/d ele. I really don’t understand these complaints about being underpowered. If we got a buff, I’d be absolutely unstoppable. Now…that wouldn’t be that bad, but I don’t want to break the game and then see a huge nerf that probably WOULD make us underpowered.
And we have too many people playing Ele as is. The only consolation I have is that most of them suck at the profession. If they made it easy to play like warriors, I would be sad.
Higher skill curve often translates to higher skill reward. I’m happy with that. It’s been treating me VEEEEEEEERRRRRRYYY well.

Well, I can’t speak for the rest of the “so many” Elementalists, but I chose to play one because the concept of the profession and the look of the spells appealed to me.

I wanted to make a robe-wearing, magic using, caster/mage type of character. My choices for him were:

Mesmer — uses clones and illusions and pretty pink spells
Necromancer — master of death and generally creepy dark stuff
Elementalist — uses spells based on the elements of air, water, earth, and fire

Needless to say, it was not hard to pick! IMHO Elementalist is simply the more “classic” mage profession and (for those that care about this) it tends to be a bit more versatile in terms of character and personality types. That’s not to say the other two aren’t good (I love my Necromancer!), but they have a different sort of appeal.

juki.7539:

Everyone expects buffs to this class, personally I don’t want even more fotm kids playing ele…

arent they all playing signet warriors and guardians?

Personally, I think elementalists are generally fine in PVE. Am I weaker than other classes? Yes, but I make up for that with superior kiting abilities others might not have.

The main problem is in sPvP, and the fact I see so many people saying “lol l2p, I’m great and destroy at ele with my d/d and I don’t need buffs” tells me they’re either delusional, fighting extremely stupid players, or traveling exclusively with a large pack.

I pride myself as a pretty good player, and when I’m on my ele doing spvp or tournaments, I have pretty good survivability. I spec into earth and cantrips and can kite someone for a fairly long time and it’s not so bad.

The problem is, I can’t do any damage. Our spells simply do not touch those of other classes, and the fact that we’re effectively as squishy as a thief means to me we should be doing at least close to the damage of one, but that isn’t the case.

Elementalists definitely need to be looked at extensively and made so our damage is at least up to par. To those who speak of the legendary elementalists in pvp, or claim to be themselves: It’s kind of like believing in a flying unicorn. It’s comforting, but I’d like some proof.

People decided to play Elementalist after BWE and since there are many of them so they nerfed it on release. That’s probably the case.
There are always a lot of mages (our style!) in MMO and they should not be so anxious about it.
As a matter of fact, looks like many elementalists have rerolled. I have run 7 dungeons and I am always the only elementalist in the group. And I don’t see many elementalists in the field as well. A lot of Rangers and Warriors and they definitely help in tanking boss because our ability to tank with our summoned pet is pretty limited.