Guild Wars 2

The vision of the ele i had was the ability to choose the element you want to use and be able to stick to it if you so desired.

The versitility aspect as i see it should have been the choice to choose. As many people have mentioned no other proffesion have to switch around the whole time, why should we.
I personally prefer fire spec with the staff and usually stick to it. Even tried the melee builds but for me a caster should not be melee i just dont see how it fits.

If eles are to be required to use attunement swapping to be successful, then there needs to be an inherent reward for using any given attunement, or on swap. This reward cannot have a trait requirement. An ele without at least 15 or so in Arcana is completely kittened in SPvP and TPvP, simply because of the lack of attunement passives and attunement recharges.

Our individual skills have such simple effects that the use of one by itself leaves you wondering if you did anything, which only compounds with the need to swap in order to function at a baseline level of efficacy. The justification for this is of course the fact that we have 16 skills on a weapon set. This justification fails for multiple reasons:

1. We are locked into a given range, which inherently limits our versatility right after the 16 skills tried (being the operative word here) to give it to us.

2. We are required to blow an abhorrent number of cooldowns to even attempt to replicate what almost any other profession can do, and we more often than not fail, even if only slightly, the only exception being immediate healing. Example: You are attuned to water and entering combat from behind your target, (running D/D) hoping to catch him off guard. You swap to Air (1 cd) and use RtL (2cd) and chain into 5, using 3 right before you swap to Fire. (3 more cd, bringing you to 5 cd) You follow with Fire’s 3, 4 and 5, before swapping to Earth to use 4 and 2. In this chain, you only manage to kill your target if they are a glass cannon (assuming you have decent damage)and if you successfully land a few key crits. You also blew more than 10 cooldowns, leaving yourself in a position where you must start auto attacking and dodging until you gain attunements/cds back. This is if you are lucky, and your target does not have a stunbreaker handy, because you are relying on your first CC (air 5) to hold your target long enough for you to get the rest of the combo in, which will only happen if your combo is totally fluid and your target does not stunbreak.

3. We have a large number of traits that do not function with the entirety of our profession’s core mechanic. Aside from Elemental Attunement, you must trait into an element that you want any immediate/passive/continuing effect from, not including skills 1-5 changing. This would be more acceptable if attunements had some kind of base reward for their usage.

Now I won’t lie, I’m relatively successful on a D/D ele and have defintely gotten used to the state of things; I’ve played the bulk of my PvP matches on ele, the rest on ranger, and am almost R32. My problem is just that I pull out the stops to kill some people that I wouldn’t have much problem with on a stronger profession. Am I effective? Yes. Am I on par with other professions on an objective level? No. As another example, I can tell you that when I was still in the R20 range, I tried mesmer for the first time. I put together a build that looked ok, and hit Play Game. I can only assume that at least some of the people I played were within my rank range, but I facerolled people, for lack of a better term, often in 2v1 situations where I would have lost. I held points without trying to be a bunker, and killed people without really trying to be a skirmisher. The discrepancy should not be this obvious, and it really bugs me that there are so many problems with a profession that I genuinely enjoy playing.

Personally, I agree with the opening post.

I was a bit surprised when I first looked at this forum, actually. People talking about Attunament Swapping as if it was some sort of skill-intensive pro-like maneuver, when actually it’s just a very basic mechanic that you’re supposed to be doing from almost the very start. And it’s an extremely fun mechanic, at least for me and probably for many other people that chose to play Elementalist.

We have twice as many weapon skills as other professions – this isn’t just a detail, it’s a core mechanic of the Elementalist and you likely aren’t playing them to their full potential if you aren’t making use of it.

Leuca.5732:

If eles are to be required to use attunement swapping to be successful, then there needs to be an inherent reward for using any given attunement, or on swap. This reward cannot have a trait requirement. An ele without at least 15 or so in Arcana is completely kittened in SPvP and TPvP, simply because of the lack of attunement passives and attunement recharges.

Our individual skills have such simple effects that the use of one by itself leaves you wondering if you did anything, which only compounds with the need to swap in order to function at a baseline level of efficacy. The justification for this is of course the fact that we have 16 skills on a weapon set.

I suggest looking at this topic, there’s a lot of ideas thrown around on this subject and how to break away from the reliance on Arcana. They’re all “full overhaul”-level ideas, but it’s some food for thought.

Pretty sure everyone attunement swaps. Thats not the problem.

Vukovic.9320:

Wildclaw.6073:

I only spec 10 points arcane >.>
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mcazM9molvMMolvMM0pVxaoaVcsV

Really bad spec.

• The points in air are wasted on inferior traits.
• You split points between two bad minor traits instead of going for a good major trait
• Wasting the 30 point water trait on cantrip mastery is a sin, especially considering cantrip mastery doesn’t even work with mist form.

It does work for mist form 75-60s cooldown
The reason for the air is because it gets me to 40% crit chance while my gear stacks vit, power and some toughness.
I didn’t go 30 in air because 5 in earth gives 130 toughness instead of 50 any other stat and the 10 in arcane give a really useful team/rotation trait.

My build is all about rotating defensive CD’s to mitigate burst while going through standard dagger offensives/elemental/ Firewall+ Arcane Proj

Not to mention I start in air, from there I either mitigate ranged/thief elite with 4. Open with a 5 CC which is where LW and Lightning Touch come in.
Also lightning whip has longer reach then the fire spammer?

After that is when I decide whether to go Fire for damage, Earth to survive an opponents burst or Water for Chilld/Daze/Heal/Cond remove.

I am sorry, but I have to agree with the other guy. Your spec has wasted points and traits. 5 in earth is pretty much pointless, and you really need to check the huge bug list we have.

/disagree

I think saying “If your having trouble with your elementalist, then your just not very skilled.” is an over simplified and somewhat arrogant stand point.

Elementalists aren’t a broken class but they aren’t well balanced either. And if the answer was that simple, it wouldn’t still be an issue. But it is still an issue. The problem is far more complex than simply rotating through your elements and making sure you dodge…

I, for one, love my elementalist despite any flaws in the profession. But having played other professions, I can see that the class lacks potency for the amount of effort you need to put into the class. For us Eles, we have to live with the fact that our profession is a hard one for Anet to balance. It seems we can very easily become under or over-powered with little middle ground to work with.

One thing I’d love to see on these forums is for players to be able to choose a badge/avatar that designates their preferred playstyle (sPvP, WvWvW, PvE, hybrid). There’s such a stark contrast in feedback on the same points because PvP and PvE are just so different.

This of course is an old problem with the genre, this belief you can effectively balance for both without turning off certain aspects of the game along the way (e.g. removing the levels element from PvP, or nerfing the effectiveness of certain abilities simply because it targets a player rather than a mob).

But if there was a way to sub-divide the comments between various groups, I think it could be helpful. It’s not like any of us here has any real insight into how they’ve set up their matrix of skill interactions anyway

Avatara.1042:

Vukovic.9320:

Wildclaw.6073:

I only spec 10 points arcane >.>
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mcazM9molvMMolvMM0pVxaoaVcsV

Really bad spec.

• The points in air are wasted on inferior traits.
• You split points between two bad minor traits instead of going for a good major trait
• Wasting the 30 point water trait on cantrip mastery is a sin, especially considering cantrip mastery doesn’t even work with mist form.

It does work for mist form 75-60s cooldown
The reason for the air is because it gets me to 40% crit chance while my gear stacks vit, power and some toughness.
I didn’t go 30 in air because 5 in earth gives 130 toughness instead of 50 any other stat and the 10 in arcane give a really useful team/rotation trait.

My build is all about rotating defensive CD’s to mitigate burst while going through standard dagger offensives/elemental/ Firewall+ Arcane Proj

Not to mention I start in air, from there I either mitigate ranged/thief elite with 4. Open with a 5 CC which is where LW and Lightning Touch come in.
Also lightning whip has longer reach then the fire spammer?

After that is when I decide whether to go Fire for damage, Earth to survive an opponents burst or Water for Chilld/Daze/Heal/Cond remove.

I am sorry, but I have to agree with the other guy. Your spec has wasted points and traits. 5 in earth is pretty much pointless, and you really need to check the huge bug list we have.

can i have some more details about the bug list plz? the only bugs i ve found was this one http://www.guildwars2forum.com/threads/11511-Elementalist-Phoenix-skill?highlight=phoenix and i think its still here? havent used S/D for long time. Reading through the forum, seems like theres more bugs about ele but i cant find any details of it.

My chosen weapon is the Staff, and I only tend to swap between Fire and Water in most battles. I bring utility skills like Arcane Wave and Arcane Blast to trigger combos, then use Flame Burst, Lava Font and Fireball to dish out high damage packets while triggering combos. Usually this tactic massacres any normal mobs that dare approach me. If enemies are still alive after the initial barrage, use Burning Retreat, swap to Water, throw up Geyser and Healing Rain and use Arcane Wave/Blast to heal yourself via combo if necessary, then kite the enemy for a bit (I use Ether Renewal as my healing skill, so I sometimes throw it up while I’m kiting if necessary) until Fire Attunement recharges, then swap back and resume the initial barrage.

If things really go fubar, swap to Air, use Gust to push your enemy away if he’s chasing your kitten, and pop Windborne Speed to get out of there. I barely ever use Earth since it lacks the high damage of Fire. It’s good for crippling and kiting enemies, but when I’m playing on my own it can’t kill enemies fast enough.

The only time I struggle with this tactic is if there are one or more Veterans in the group (and usually this means I aggro’ed poorly), since killing a Veteran takes me long enough that there’s a good chance the first Veteran will respawn before I kill the second.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/NEW-Elementalist-bugs-and-glitches-thread

This is the bug list. It is stickied at the top of this very Elementalist forum, so it is very strange that you missed it.

I like the concept of attunement swapping but find it annoying that so many of our traits are designed to strengthen a SINGLE attunement—essentially encouraging us to stay in a single attunement despite the class’s intended playstyle!

I think the importance of attunement swapping is a bit overstated, at least for staff. In regards to killing things I seem to get better results by staying in fire as much as possible. Pretty much the only reason I’d swap at this point is for survival cooldown, and when I do I feel especially weak until I can get back into fire.

Haette.2701:

Leuca.5732:

If eles are to be required to use attunement swapping to be successful, then there needs to be an inherent reward for using any given attunement, or on swap. This reward cannot have a trait requirement. An ele without at least 15 or so in Arcana is completely kittened in SPvP and TPvP, simply because of the lack of attunement passives and attunement recharges.

Our individual skills have such simple effects that the use of one by itself leaves you wondering if you did anything, which only compounds with the need to swap in order to function at a baseline level of efficacy. The justification for this is of course the fact that we have 16 skills on a weapon set.

I suggest looking at this topic, there’s a lot of ideas thrown around on this subject and how to break away from the reliance on Arcana. They’re all “full overhaul”-level ideas, but it’s some food for thought.

I don’t think a full overhaul is necessary; there just needs to be a system that rewards proper mechanic usage, instead of simply enabling survival.

OnionXI.6735:

I think the importance of attunement swapping is a bit overstated, at least for staff. In regards to killing things I seem to get better results by staying in fire as much as possible. Pretty much the only reason I’d swap at this point is for survival cooldown, and when I do I feel especially weak until I can get back into fire.

Actually, the number of combos an ele can perform is enhanced dramatically by weapon swapping. There are myriad buffs and support skills an ele can trigger just by using combos with itself, which can only be achieved in such a number while using a staff. Aoe healing, might, swiftness and frost armor can all be applied by a staff ele without the help of another profession, and this number of self combos is only achievable on a staff. As you already know, it is also only possible when using your attunement swapping efficiently.

devilstriangle.9346:

TWMagimay.9057:

Think of ele as an out-fighter and warrior would be a swagger(taking your boxing analogy to the level of smb who actually knows box). Yes, out-fighters have to work more, throw in more punches while evedaing the opponent better. A swagger pretty much stands there, soaks the hits and delivers a K.O when he gets the chance. Are out-fighters UP because they have to work harder? Before you answer, Muhammad Ali is an out-fighter.

Oh talk about summing it up. This guy is good. He is right the people who say ele has to use all there stuff to compete against a class such as warrior who can just use 1 skill. Clearly warrior is an easy class. A no brainer class. A class that probably is unfair at the moment due to being so easy to survive and deal massive damage. It’s not eles that need there auto attack to be more dmg output to equal a warriors skill less ability it’s warriors who need to become more challenging to play to obtain there high damage.

Challenge is fun. Skill less and button mashing blindfolded is boring and repetitive childs play. The people who play Warriors are not to blame it’s the people who choose how warrior should work.

It’s other proffesions that need to become more challenging to play to obtain there high damage.

Challenge is fun. Skill less and button mashing blindfolded is boring and repetitive childs play. The people who play these professions are not to blame it’s the people who choose how professions should work.

Fixed.

These problems are still relevent now so… shhhhhh!!!!

In my opinion,

Elementalist are not underpowered. Yes you have to try harder, but some people actually enjoy the challenge (like me=P). If you like mashing 1 button to victory, then this is not the class for you, simple as that. Yes, some elementalists can be considered overpowered due to the sheer nature of the class, as massive versatility and utility leads to more effective options that are harder to counter for all other classes.

As to the state of elementalists, there are some flaws concerning the class:

no fall damage trait
pigeonholed into 20 or 30 arcana
lack of variability in traits and builds
mediocre underwater damage
buggy skills and traits (you should be fixing these first>_>)
no out of combat swapping, or in combat weapon swapping with global cooldown on all skills (seriously, running out of combat to swap weapons is tedious especially with staff and 2 daggers)
a lot of useless utility skills that I would never even use

november 15 nerfs that actually simplified the class (all classes in my opinion should be getting more complex to reward better players, considering the original model GW2 followed was that the gameplay was simple for enough for anyone to pick up, but complex to master for even the best of players. You don’t get into competetive e-sports by making a class more simpler to play over time [plus all the poor balancing…..especially the november 15th one concerning other classes])

There’s probably more in this list, but I don’t remember the rest

I feel like the attunements need to be more isolated than they are now. Right now to kill something, you need go Air, then do a skill, then go Fire, then do that skill, then Earth, then Water…etc.

I just feel like the attunement swapping idea would work so much better if the attunements were dedicated to a main purpose, as in:

Need single target DPS? Go with fire.
Need healing? Go water.
Crowd Control? Air.
Tankiness/DoT? Earth.

That way, you could trait into 1 or 2 trees and become really good at doing two things while having the other attunements for “oh kitten” moments.

Haette.2701

I disagree that swapping inherently contradicts traits, many of them focus on skill families and effects that aren’t tied to any particular element, and a whole line is dedicated to the act of swapping itself.

really? Maybe you missed the fact that about 60% of elementalist Minor traits require you to be IN or switching TO a “specific” attunement. Right there is a conflict in the traits themselves. One is telling you to stay in attunement while the other says to leave & come back for effect. We don’t get a choice on those.

I don’t see Guardians or Warriors having to worry about holding or switchng to a particular weapon to activate 60% or their minor traits.

That follows the reasons why Arcane became a staple for ele builds. None of its skill traits require a specific attunement to trigger. Other elemental traits are basically hit with a double conditions to be met.

Example: Flame Barrier – have to be hit by melee AND be in fire attument.

Is hit by melee not good enough for some reason? I don’t see Warrior’s Versatile Rage requiring they swap to a specific weapon to activate adrenaline stacks or a Guardian’s Valorous Defense requiring them to have a shield equip to grant aegis.

The core problems boil down to the following:

(i) Attunement swapping vs. single attunement trait lines

It’s a fundamental contradictory concept that does not work very well in practice. The trait lines lack synergy with each other. This flaw is basically the reason for many of the below issues.

(ii) Undesirable traits/utilities

There are too many undesirable traits which are never used.
There are certain undesirable utilities which are never used (conjures, anyone?).

(iii) Build versatility

There are only a few builds able to perform on par on a higher level. Water/arcane lines are too mandatory.

(iv) Defense/offense proportionality

Going offensive is just not worth it. Or in other words, the sacrifice is too high compared to other professions. One of the issues may be that the base health is too low and/or that eles don’t scale very well offensively.

(v) Skill cap

The output does not match the input. Players should be better rewarded for mastering a higher skill cap profession, however in my opinion only slightly in order not to destroy overall class balance.

(vi) BUGS

There are still many bugs. Reference is made to the bug list.

What I find funny is that no matter which class forum you visit, you will essentially see the same arguments repeated everywhere. “Our class is too weak, class X can perform better.”, “We are too squishy, die in seconds”,“Our skills/utilities are crap, other classes have better ones.”

Which leads to the logical conclusion that people who come to the forums to complain about their classes are actually people who got bored by them, or don’t know how to play them and would rather play another class – because grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

I was like that (sans complaining on forums), but once I actually rolled a few alts I saw that for some strange reason, they are not the uber juggernauts of mayhem and destruction I was expecting them to be. Just a different, less complicated (and for someone coming from playing an elementalist), ultimately destined to be boring class.

So basically:

PvE – learn to play. The class doesn’t suck, you do. I know, it’s tough, but hey it’s only a game.

PvP – it is a team play game. So play with a team. Ramboing won’t get you anywhere, regardless of class. Don’t believe me? Check out the other class forums and feast your eyes on the amount of complaining identical to what we get here.

Weapons – they have their uses. Accept that. Staff is long range support. Use it as long range support. That means groups. I know staff looks awesome and Gandalf used one, hell I even switch to it sometimes just to shake things up, but don’t go in solo with staff and then complain how you got mauled horribly.
Scepter/Dagger is great for PvE soloing. Scepter/Focus is good for PvE soloing ranged stuff. Dagger/Dagger is good for dueling, roaming and general melee shenanigans.

CONJURED weapons are awesome. IF you use them correctly. Check out how you can just jump in the middle of a NPC furball and totally drop everything around you without getting a scratch. Check out how you die if you try that with mobs that are immune to blinding or hit too fast (like for example, other players).
Running D/D and have a demolition job on hand? Frost bow. #4, demolition completed, that simple. Fire axe? I like them ’splosions. Greatsword? The ultimate melee champion soloing tool.

That’s it. Oh, and as others said – you’re not a “fire mage”, a “frost mage” or any kind of mage at all. You’re playing an elementalist. Use the frikkin’ elements then, there are four of them and they’re awesome.
And the only way to “fix” that is to make the elementalist as boring and repetitive as other classes. No thanks. It’s a complicated class that requires effort and skill to play well, and some of us like it that way.

If you guys are having serious problems as an Ele in PvE you are playing way wrong. Some tips:

1) Pre-exotic/lvl 80 gameplay hardly ever matters (in general for every game). There’s a huge difference between end-game and “getting there”. Wait till your gear is better and you have more skills and you will notice a substantial difference.

2) Stop creating your character around solo-play and create it around group-play. There’s other classes that fill in your gaps (example: my brother plays a heal/support staff/Hammer Guardian, guess what I play?).

3) Learn a rotation for your character where you are swapping attunement skills and always have something coming up that you are familiar with.

4) Use cantrips.

5) Learn the max ranges of all your abilities.

6) Learn the mechanics of any fight.

7) Learn to frickin dodge, seriously. Why do you still get pulled in by the LT in AC!?!?

8) Personal favorite permanent Vigor is a godsend.

Edit: The mechanics of your class might not be the way YOU want it to be (game is still slightly new), but the mechanics we have atm DO work.

I, for one have no particular issues, that I wouldn’t find in any other class, both pve and pvp wise. Having said that, I think it’s a bit arrogant to dismiss all “complaints” on the board as being irrelevant and that one just have to learn to play.

There is absolutely nothing wrong in discussing how the ele class, or any other class for that matter, can be made better. Don’t go and confuse this term with becomming overpowered. I agree with the above poster from daphoenix that eles are not per say underpowered. I would love to see a makeover, not to make the class overpowered (I would hate that), but something that would result in more build versatility, fix bugs and make the trait lines more synergetic. Can it be done? I don’t see why not.

But please, for the love of god, don’t confuse trolls, ranting and other one-dimensional posts/replies with actual critique of class mechanics/traits that could be made better and result in and overall optimization of the profession. Not all posts should without thinking first be replied by “learn to play”.

Maybe, just maybe, it’d be an option to alter the ‘while in attunment X’ skills to deal slightly more damage (say, 35% instead of 20%) and then add an additional recharge to the other attunements (say +5 seconds). That would maybe create an interesting alternative, and may allow people to truly specialize.

Though to be honest, I do like the way things are now. Yes, you need to use everything you have, from dodging to swapping to combos…but it’s fun!

Marius.8052:

7) Learn to frickin dodge, seriously. Why do you still get pulled in by the LT in AC!?!?

It can be hard to see from a distances with an Earth Elemental blocking your line of sight. And then there’s times when the pre-pull animation doesn’t play at all.

Yes, dodging is important, but it’s not possible for everyone all the time. Stop making them feel like morons just because they have lag, please. Thank you very much.

Eles who don’t swap atts… to me, It feels like another profession only using the “2” skill. I met one of these on a FotM run, when I asked why he wasn’t changing, he said he’s lazy. He was using fire only (staff).

I activally change atts and combo everything (S/D); still, I don’t think I did more damage than the lazy fire staff guy.

I dunno about you folks, but I rarely see a good elementalist lose to a heartseeking scrublit. lol. Hell even when ELes cds are down, they usually just ride the lightning out of dodge.

Cant think of a better escape mechanic in the game. Stealth is annoying yes, but ride the lightning on the correct turf gets you clear out of harms way of the player your avoiding.

Temperantia.3207:

Eles who don’t swap atts… to me, It feels like another profession only using the “2” skill. I met one of these on a FotM run, when I asked why he wasn’t changing, he said he’s lazy. He was using fire only (staff).

I activally change atts and combo everything (S/D); still, I don’t think I did more damage than the lazy fire staff guy.

In PvE, sometimes its best to stay in fire attunement for a long time. Especially for Staff, where the recharges are not very high, the aoe damage is great, and the combo field is almost spammable. Why change to other attunements if you don’t need them? Water will be good to heal your allies in FotM, air and earth mostly to protect yourself, and earth has some nice combo finishers. Outside of that, fire, fire and fire is an effective strategy whenever you can keep yourself safe, mostly in parties or events content.

Areann.1304:

So either you use the four attunments and all of your abilities, or this profession is not for you and you’ll be better and happier with an other one.

This is, by and large, the common complaint I’ve seen amongst those who enjoy the Elementalist class (or want to).

The use of all four elements is a fine and dandy concept but it doesn’t work in practice when you realise how absolutely convoluted it is. No other class needs to rely so heavily on similar functions. No other class has nearly as much skills nor a dependency on many of them.

This is what makes the Elementalist class a very complex, very unrewarding class to play. The concept of the class interests me. The complexity of the class would too but since no other class is as complex and because the difficulty is unrewarding, why even bother?

Game balance is not just about fiddling with numbers. Continuity of class complexity and strategy also plays a role in it. This continuity is broken with the Elementalist since it’s so much more convoluted to play.

I disagree. I play in Air atunement most of the time. I will change IF it is a benefit for me to do so which is mostly either Water or Earth. I play a D/D and been playing it for a while, before the changes came in and i didnt even use the EA bug thing.

Plus those saying that 20/30 in Arcane is a requirement again i disagree coz again i am doing just fine in PvE as well as in WvW and in S/TPvp without having any points in Arcane.

I personally think the Atunements Vs Weapon swap is a raw deal when in combat we are FORCED into either being melee or range while EVERY other class has the option to change to range if they require or from Range to melee. I also dont understand why exactly does atunement have to have a 15second cool down when weapon swap is a 10second cool down…

MrTastix.6842:

Game balance is not just about fiddling with numbers. Continuity of class complexity and strategy also plays a role in it. This continuity is broken with the Elementalist since it’s so much more convoluted to play.

You should realize that this is your opinion and move on. Your “convoluted” and “unrewarding” is my “insane variety”. No other class has two knockdowns, weaken, stun, several combo finishers, bleeds, ally heals, burns, chills, etc. all at your fingertips like a D/D ele, no freaking one, bar some Engineer loadouts.
The real “issue” at hand here is that Ele is a class that has a high skill ceiling, and unless you hone and master your gameplay the potential can’t be brought to the forefront, not in the slightest. And that’s fine. If every class played as faceroll as Warrior (PVE) or heartseeker Thief (lowbie PvP) I’d be bored to death very soon.

I just keep wondering…if ele feels like such hard work…did it ever occur to any of you that you might simply be playing the wrong class? I never felt like i’m working harder than anybody else or putting in more effort. So, ok, I press more buttons…big whoop. After 2 months with the class, i can do it blindfolded… Do some traits need work? Yes(seriously, what’s with the first air trait?! at least it could stack with the rest and pretend it’s useful). If the class particularly hard or UP? Not even close…

I just pve d/d. Attunement swapping is more fun imo.

Lets see… just the obvious ones

Eath: area knockdown, two aoe, gap closer
Air: single knockdown, gap maker, gap closer
Water: heal, slow aoe
Fire: aoe, combo field, fire trail thing good for zipping around in fight

I try this…

Fire: ring of fire combo field
Earth: stomp gain some might, ring of spikes aoe, #5 really slow explosion aoe, pop the protective bubble, pop the garenteed crit thing before #5 explodes
Lightening: pop stun bubble, whip stuff, use the knockback
Water: heal, dodge backwards, slow aoe, backpeddle while autoattack

Whatever u like. If a vet is still alive I like to wolf form (norn) that makes an epic finish.

Slither Shade.4782:

I just pve d/d. Attunement swapping is more fun imo.

Lets see… just the obvious ones

Eath: area knockdown, two aoe, gap closer
Air: single knockdown, gap maker, gap closer
Water: heal, slow aoe
Fire: aoe, combo field, fire trail thing good for zipping around in fight

I try this…

Fire: ring of fire combo field
Earth: stomp gain some might, ring of spikes aoe, #5 really slow explosion aoe, pop the protective bubble, pop the garenteed crit thing before #5 explodes
Lightening: pop stun bubble, whip stuff, use the knockback
Water: heal, dodge backwards, slow aoe, backpeddle while autoattack

Whatever u like. If a vet is still alive I like to wolf form (norn) that makes an epic finish.

the problem i see – how many times in a S/TPvp match are you going to be able to get off a whole set of combo attacks? Not very often if at all to long, to complicated when another class could do pretty much that, with few buttons and do more damage

Oh sometimes after using the Air knockdown I like to switch to fire and ride over top of him with trail of fire thing. No promises this will work for you it depends what is up.

megrim.3189:

I’ve thought attunement swapping wa a problem for quite a while now. It feels to me like someone early on in development had a crush on attunement swapping and just refused to let it go, even as the class moved in a different direction.

To me it feels shoe-horned in and kinda gimmiky, and the class as a whole suffers as a result.

At the very least I feel like attunement swapping should be something you can choose to actively trait for if you want, and ignore altogether if like me, you’re not a fan of it. I’d like to see elementalist given incentives to trait for swapping, or indeed incentive to focus purely in one element. Choice is the name of the game here, and currently, elementalist has very little to work with.

^this

pyrotikk.4620:

devilstriangle.9346:

TWMagimay.9057:

Think of ele as an out-fighter and warrior would be a swagger(taking your boxing analogy to the level of smb who actually knows box). Yes, out-fighters have to work more, throw in more punches while evedaing the opponent better. A swagger pretty much stands there, soaks the hits and delivers a K.O when he gets the chance. Are out-fighters UP because they have to work harder? Before you answer, Muhammad Ali is an out-fighter.

Oh talk about summing it up. This guy is good. He is right the people who say ele has to use all there stuff to compete against a class such as warrior who can just use 1 skill. Clearly warrior is an easy class. A no brainer class. A class that probably is unfair at the moment due to being so easy to survive and deal massive damage. It’s not eles that need there auto attack to be more dmg output to equal a warriors skill less ability it’s warriors who need to become more challenging to play to obtain there high damage.

Challenge is fun. Skill less and button mashing blindfolded is boring and repetitive childs play. The people who play Warriors are not to blame it’s the people who choose how warrior should work.

It’s other proffesions that need to become more challenging to play to obtain there high damage.

Challenge is fun. Skill less and button mashing blindfolded is boring and repetitive childs play. The people who play these professions are not to blame it’s the people who choose how professions should work.

Fixed.

These problems are still relevent now so… shhhhhh!!!!

I agree, a challenge is fun, but playing an elementalist isn’t the challenge, it is the chore getting in the way of the actual fight. You should be more focused on the enemy than thinking if swapping would be worth it. Challenges are fun, but fighting your ability bar is not my kind of fun.
I love my ele, simply because every fantasy game I’ve ever played I’ve been the “mage,” our class design spits on that. I still enjoy myself, but watching other classes steamroll through enemies with less effort saddens me greatly.

Yep. Broken profession.

Zaviel.1245:

pyrotikk.4620:

devilstriangle.9346:

TWMagimay.9057:

Think of ele as an out-fighter and warrior would be a swagger(taking your boxing analogy to the level of smb who actually knows box). Yes, out-fighters have to work more, throw in more punches while evedaing the opponent better. A swagger pretty much stands there, soaks the hits and delivers a K.O when he gets the chance. Are out-fighters UP because they have to work harder? Before you answer, Muhammad Ali is an out-fighter.

Oh talk about summing it up. This guy is good. He is right the people who say ele has to use all there stuff to compete against a class such as warrior who can just use 1 skill. Clearly warrior is an easy class. A no brainer class. A class that probably is unfair at the moment due to being so easy to survive and deal massive damage. It’s not eles that need there auto attack to be more dmg output to equal a warriors skill less ability it’s warriors who need to become more challenging to play to obtain there high damage.

Challenge is fun. Skill less and button mashing blindfolded is boring and repetitive childs play. The people who play Warriors are not to blame it’s the people who choose how warrior should work.

It’s other proffesions that need to become more challenging to play to obtain there high damage.

Challenge is fun. Skill less and button mashing blindfolded is boring and repetitive childs play. The people who play these professions are not to blame it’s the people who choose how professions should work.

Fixed.

These problems are still relevent now so… shhhhhh!!!!

I agree, a challenge is fun, but playing an elementalist isn’t the challenge, it is the chore getting in the way of the actual fight. You should be more focused on the enemy than thinking if swapping would be worth it. Challenges are fun, but fighting your ability bar is not my kind of fun.
I love my ele, simply because every fantasy game I’ve ever played I’ve been the “mage,” our class design spits on that. I still enjoy myself, but watching other classes steamroll through enemies with less effort saddens me greatly.

I’m sorry that you guys don’t enjoy the class in its current state. But honestly, maybe it just isn’t for you.

There are PLENTY of ele’s that love how the class plays, and absolutely own face with it. In fact, D/D ele is known as one of the best, if not the best, 1v1 class in the game.

So I get a little irritated when folks on this board talk about how the class is broken, or is a flawed concept, or whatever.

The class could use some fixes, but so could every other class. All in all, ele is pretty good in its current state. If you think it’s terribly flawed…then maybe it just isn’t for you.

Creslin.1758:

Zaviel.1245:

pyrotikk.4620:

devilstriangle.9346:

TWMagimay.9057:

Think of ele as an out-fighter and warrior would be a swagger(taking your boxing analogy to the level of smb who actually knows box). Yes, out-fighters have to work more, throw in more punches while evedaing the opponent better. A swagger pretty much stands there, soaks the hits and delivers a K.O when he gets the chance. Are out-fighters UP because they have to work harder? Before you answer, Muhammad Ali is an out-fighter.

Oh talk about summing it up. This guy is good. He is right the people who say ele has to use all there stuff to compete against a class such as warrior who can just use 1 skill. Clearly warrior is an easy class. A no brainer class. A class that probably is unfair at the moment due to being so easy to survive and deal massive damage. It’s not eles that need there auto attack to be more dmg output to equal a warriors skill less ability it’s warriors who need to become more challenging to play to obtain there high damage.

Challenge is fun. Skill less and button mashing blindfolded is boring and repetitive childs play. The people who play Warriors are not to blame it’s the people who choose how warrior should work.

It’s other proffesions that need to become more challenging to play to obtain there high damage.

Challenge is fun. Skill less and button mashing blindfolded is boring and repetitive childs play. The people who play these professions are not to blame it’s the people who choose how professions should work.

Fixed.

These problems are still relevent now so… shhhhhh!!!!

I agree, a challenge is fun, but playing an elementalist isn’t the challenge, it is the chore getting in the way of the actual fight. You should be more focused on the enemy than thinking if swapping would be worth it. Challenges are fun, but fighting your ability bar is not my kind of fun.
I love my ele, simply because every fantasy game I’ve ever played I’ve been the “mage,” our class design spits on that. I still enjoy myself, but watching other classes steamroll through enemies with less effort saddens me greatly.

I’m sorry that you guys don’t enjoy the class in its current state. But honestly, maybe it just isn’t for you.

There are PLENTY of ele’s that love how the class plays, and absolutely own face with it. In fact, D/D ele is known as one of the best, if not the best, 1v1 class in the game.

So I get a little irritated when folks on this board talk about how the class is broken, or is a flawed concept, or whatever.

The class could use some fixes, but so could every other class. All in all, ele is pretty good in its current state. If you think it’s terribly flawed…then maybe it just isn’t for you.

Pretty much. I think certain people are correct in that some other classes need to be brought to the Eles level in complexity, but atm I love the way Ele plays. Attune-swapping is incredibly fun and I don’t particularly care that the combos for burst require more than other classes.

I personally would be a bit upset if they simply buffed Ele auto-attacks or whatever to make them as mindless as other classes. I’ve leveled both a Warrior and Thief to 80 and find them incredibly boring after giving the Ele a shot (and I don’t know what some people are on but Ele has way more survivability than a warrior, and can still dish out damage/control).

The combos aren’t really that difficult tbh. I don’t use a gaming a mouse or whatever; using simple common keybinds and I can perform my combos through muscle-memory. Ele has been the most rewarding class for me in the game in its current state.

I can’t even play anything else that the elementalist. I tried out other classes, but the limited variety and less than engaging gameplay really get boring soon.

And to people who find the attunement swapping difficult, try playing the elementalist for longer than a couple of levels. I don’t even notice it anymore and I too play just with normal keyboard bindings and mouse, no special gear here. I know exactly where each skill is and when I should use it.

Hell, even gameplay itself is really varied compared to other classes. Not only do you have an excellent range of choices when it comes to CC, damage and healing, but you also get to play a ‘zerker warrior (lightning hammer), ranger (frost bow) or just set things on fire with the flaming axe or greatsword. You know, for those times when burning/freezing/electrocuting or crushing stuff to death isn’t quite enough.

No other class offers that, which is a shame. ALL classes should be as varied and challenging to master as the elementalist, not the other way around!

As the above poster said. Having played the ele for quite some time now, it is simply impossible to go back to any other profession. They feel so slow compared to the ele. When you have gotten used to the hectic gameplay that involves a-swapping, it’s just un-fun to play a single button-mashing profession, such as a thief or warrior.

Creslin.1758:

I’m sorry that you guys don’t enjoy the class in its current state. But honestly, maybe it just isn’t for you.

There are PLENTY of ele’s that love how the class plays, and absolutely own face with it. In fact, D/D ele is known as one of the best, if not the best, 1v1 class in the game.

So I get a little irritated when folks on this board talk about how the class is broken, or is a flawed concept, or whatever.

The class could use some fixes, but so could every other class. All in all, ele is pretty good in its current state. If you think it’s terribly flawed…then maybe it just isn’t for you.

I enjoy the class alot, i dont attunement dance or anything like that as personally i think its a chore, i still dont quite understand why ours have a 15second cool down and weapon swap can have under 10second cool down with traits/sigils

An idea though not sure if it would be “OP” seeing as we are locked into either Range or Melee – why not reduce the attunement switching to 1second cool down? its not going to change the abilities they will still have the same cool down but it will make swapping more fluid, i dont quite see why it has a 15second cool down

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

why not reduce the attunement switching to 1second cool down?

Because we also have traits that activate whenever you swap attunements. They’d have to be rebalanced, making it a bit harder than just lowering the cooldowns.

ThiBash.5634:

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

why not reduce the attunement switching to 1second cool down?

Because we also have traits that activate whenever you swap attunements. They’d have to be rebalanced, making it a bit harder than just lowering the cooldowns.

Thats true a simple fix – activate every 10seconds then they wouldnt be changed at all or maybe 15seconds

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Creslin.1758:

I’m sorry that you guys don’t enjoy the class in its current state. But honestly, maybe it just isn’t for you.

There are PLENTY of ele’s that love how the class plays, and absolutely own face with it. In fact, D/D ele is known as one of the best, if not the best, 1v1 class in the game.

So I get a little irritated when folks on this board talk about how the class is broken, or is a flawed concept, or whatever.

The class could use some fixes, but so could every other class. All in all, ele is pretty good in its current state. If you think it’s terribly flawed…then maybe it just isn’t for you.

I enjoy the class alot, i dont attunement dance or anything like that as personally i think its a chore, i still dont quite understand why ours have a 15second cool down and weapon swap can have under 10second cool down with traits/sigils

An idea though not sure if it would be “OP” seeing as we are locked into either Range or Melee – why not reduce the attunement switching to 1second cool down? its not going to change the abilities they will still have the same cool down but it will make swapping more fluid, i dont quite see why it has a 15second cool down

I would be in favor of lowering the cooldown a bit, and lowering the cooldown reduction that arcane gives…so maybe the cooldown is 12s with 0 arcane and 9s with 30, instead of 15s with 0, and 9s with 30.

The problem right now is that I feel I am absolutely dependent on 20+ in arcane to reduce that cooldown. I’m D/D, and with 20 in arcane, I can usually take 2v1, and sometimes even more, simply because I’m able to switch attunements quickly to get tons of boons, and use clutch skills when I need them.

I have tried going less in arcane, and it just doesn’t work for me. I will always get into a state where I am “stuck” in an attunement and am pretty much boned. A 15s cooldown for air is killer when I almost always use it to engage…it means that I can’t escape, chase, or defend with shocking aura for 15s…can’t deal with that.

If the “normal” cooldown was 12s instead of 15s…I would feel like I’m not stuck with 20 in arcane just to be viable.

Was going to add my thoughts to this, but Creslin already said everything I was thinking.

Maybe it is a personal problem for me, but anything less than 20 in arcane is kittening yourself IMO.

So everybody who’s playing an ELE suggesting to change attunement recharge to 10-12seconds, and maybe arcana not reducing cd further more, thats not OP and u can make a viable build without useing useless arcana tree!!!

PS: today is the AMA so pls someone post some questions about this subject (i will try too)

Personally i think it should be like this:

5 Second cool down without anything in Arcane and make a trait for Arcane that reduces it to either 1second or 2.5seconds and then change the part where its reduced the more points you have in it to something else – Maybe to increase Arance performance, something like:

Arcane Power – Make every 5 points add another crit hitting attack to it
Arcane Blast – Make the damage do an Extra 1% damage per a point in Arcane
Arcane Wave – Same as Arcane Blast
Arcane Shield – Make it last longer and do more damge per a point in Arcane

I think Arcane Shield should give the attacker a condition every time they hit someone with it. When it explodes giving 5 stacks of condition to everyone in range – the condition it gives could be dependant on what attunement you are in Burning(Fire), Chill(Water), Stun(Air), Bleeding(Earth) something like that

You know i don’t get why would Arena net make them so insanely painful to play? they are insanely weak, and their damage is terrible compared to every other other class even ranger…

What on earth was Anet thinking when they made this class….as others have stated what was wrong with the guildwars 1 direction for elementalist.

Seriously playing it just doesn’t feel fun at all solo, i spend so much on repairs and yes i attune swap as needed, doesn’t help, need less hand eye coordination and more fun added…

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Thats true a simple fix – activate every 10seconds then they wouldnt be changed at all or maybe 15seconds

Yes, the fix would be simple…but the programming required to make the actual change is not. That’s kinda what I was referring to.

I agree with the OP here.
I see way to many noob Elementalist who just stand there, not swaping to their attunments when needed. and focus fully on DPS.

I get asked “What weapon is better DPS for elementalist?”

Seriously!?

People, this game isnt about doing the most DPS… this isnt World of Warcraft.
This is GW2. All weapons are 100% useful and so are the utility skills. Its how you use them that matters.

I took on solo champions and 10 monsters at once as an Elementalist, and I can do it naked too. “Though gotta watch out for Ranged type Monsters… Hate those lol”