Guild Wars 2

I check the forums from time to time but this place by far is the worse when it comes to complaints about the elementalist profession.
I haven’t put as much time in to the game as i’d like but don’t find it all that bad?
Here is one video from my series doing some pvp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvKR14H2npQ

Now i didn’t have that much trouble staying alive or dishing out some damage, and this was just one pvp game. I’ve played a few and its same results more or less with exception of 1v1ing a guardian, they just seem to have infinite hp.

Outside of that, what exactly is the major issue here? Is it at the high end teaming where is falls over keeping up with top end players? or is it all problematic around the low to mid section level of play?

For most problems start around lvl 20 ….till lastly from lvl 30 ^^
After lvl 30 you figure our that you don’t have survivability or damage. After lvl 30 PvE is just HORRIBLE.

And that’s also the time you figure out (in AC) that all you’re good for is supporting (for dungeons 30-50)….

And the WORST thing is that you’ll mostly get kicked from Dungeons (after lvl 60) or won’t even be allowed to enter with some people because you’re “useless Elementalist” -.-"

We made a mistake, please don’t make it yourself too. Supports can’t solo PVE in this game.

About minute 3:00, a downed guy of another class could bring your health down to half. Just saying how deadly we are, even in a high damage low survivability build like yours.

Vaerah.4907:

About minute 3:00, a downed guy of another class could bring your health down to half. Just saying how deadly we are, even in a high damage low survivability build like yours.

That’s not so true? I lost half my hp to attacks from behind before another team mate intervened. the downed guy really only did about 3k, but i think it was him who interrupted my killing blow which would be useful for every class?

PS.:

• Useless Elites
• No trait Synergy
• forget about sPvP
• story mode ….good luck
• you wanna solo a skill point… guess again
• get to PvE lvl 80 → Delete character (this is what happens to most of us),

Optional at lvl 80 : break Screen,Throw Keyboard at wall, Smash mouse, rage, swear, curse ANet, cry etc….

I think the biggest problem with Elementalist is the reliance on your targets to remain stationary, due to the insanely long animations. this is a problem in everything this game has to offer. PvE/PvP/WvW. Its really funny a game that prides itself on its fast pace real time combat, makes its squishy class rely on targets standing still to do a big portion of its burst damage. If it wasn’t for that I’d let the slightly lower then average dps slide.

But given our damage pay off isn’t up to par on effort. (Getting into the right attunement, getting the spell to land on target then hitting for less compared to other classes with less effort) is the problem for me.

But everyone finds a problem they dont like about any class.

Veenix.5248:

I think the biggest problem with Elementalist is the reliance on your targets to remain stationary, due to the insanely long animations. this is a problem in everything this game has to offer.

This is noticeably true and will agree, but i don’t know how well we compare on the holding down your target in comparison to other classes, i have 2 stuns and a root in my setup which considering the cool down timers, all function quite well in getting those stationary power hits, the biggest problem with this however is it raises the skill bar far higher then other classes i have played.

Lillian Wandom Hale.7102:

Optional at lvl 80 : break Screen,Throw Keyboard at wall, Smash mouse, rage, swear, curse ANet, cry etc….

Rofl, Ok so the serious problems seem to be occurring after lvl 30 in pve primarily from what i’m getting from you and trait issues in comparison to other classes in pvp?

At the current state of balance I’d say:

If you want to learn a hard to play but rewarding class… roll Engineer.
Elementalist is good and fun. He can be used effectively. But Engineer is just a little bit better.

Heraseth.9703:

This is noticeably true and will agree, but i don’t know how well we compare on the holding down your target in comparison to other classes, i have 2 stuns and a root in my setup which considering the cool down timers, all function quite well in getting those stationary power hits, the biggest problem with this however is it raises the skill bar far higher then other classes i have played.

You missed both earthquakes and never landed a dragon’s tooth on anything but an illusion and downed players.

“skill” arguement aside poor design is poor design, in a game that promotes movement like this game does. a class where the majority of its burst dps/most of its dps is ground target and relies on targets to remain still is a silly concept with the way animation lengths are now.

Thats not to say elementalist are broken, underpowered, useless, unplayable. I enjoy my elementalist alot, but a problem with the class is a problem with the class, is that not what you asked for?

Veenix.5248:

You missed both earthquakes and never landed a dragon’s tooth on anything but an illusion and downed players.

“skill” arguement aside poor design is poor design, in a game that promotes movement like this game does. a class where the majority of its burst dps/most of its dps is ground target and relies on targets to remain still is a silly concept with the way animation lengths are now.

Video analyzing my skill level for the 2nd time ever pvping in this game is entirely irreverent, I only put it there to show exactly that. That even an elementalist can jump into pvp brand new and hold his own, its why i’m asking about the complaints and if they are only for high end. Every mmo class takes time and practice to master and I’m aiming my question at those who have had a lot more time to try that in the few weeks since release.

I will stop leveling this class if it truly is broken, I may need to see this for myself but a heads up comparisn is what i’m after. Lillian gave me some good answers to work on so far

The elites are useless – I will test other class elites and compare to see how strong the differences really are.
No trait synergy – Again will need to compare but these are good points non the less, knowing other classes have excellent trait synergy is worth looking into.

The rest of the answers however don’t give me anything to work with. I’m after just a few facts and am instead getting a lot of personal reasons, such as i don’t like it or i think its broken, and no that doesn’t mean i need a full compendium of all class ability examples, just a couple.

Don’t delete it at 80, park it in Lion’s Arch. Especially if you’ve got fully leveled up professions on it. (Mine is a 400 jewelcrafter.) Balance in any MMO is a fluid thing, and sooner or later, eles will have their day in the sun. That day is certainly not now. You can always bring it out of retirement when the inevitable ele balancing patch arrives.

In the meantime…other professions beckon. I want to get an 80 of all of them eventually. (Working on my 3rd toon right now, a mesmer, just finished up a war.)

Even though I rage almost every night at how much weaker my Elem is compared to other professions, I keep on playing. I am waiting for the day when the buffs drop and everyone will be just annihilated by properly balanced elementalists.

Heraseth.9703:

I will stop leveling this class if it truly is broken, I may need to see this for myself but a heads up comparisn is what i’m after. Lillian gave me some good answers to work on so far

The elites are useless – I will test other class elites and compare to see how strong the differences really are.
No trait synergy – Again will need to compare but these are good points non the less, knowing other classes have excellent trait synergy is worth looking into.

The rest of the answers however don’t give me anything to work with. I’m after just a few facts and am instead getting a lot of personal reasons, such as i don’t like it or i think its broken, and no that doesn’t mean i need a full compendium of all class ability examples, just a couple.

Underwater combat is completely broken: you can hardly cause any damage, some attacks are hard to aim/land, and you get crushed pretty easily/fast. However, I don’t know how this fares compared to other professions, other than seeing a random Engineer shoot all the enemies dead in a moment once.

Downed state: terrible. Just terrible. There’s no interrupt, the skills are too weak, you get a mist form for about 5 seconds that does nothing other than delay your death – that is, if you survive enough for the skill to actually cool down.

Damage/defense: It’s been mentioned before. You get the minimum base health with the minimum defense (only two more have your base health, guardian [heavy armour] and thief [medium armour]), so you are likely to die very, very fast… and there’s no compensation for it. Even if you trait all the way to DPS, your damage is still lower than any other classes’ average damage. This leads to situations where you spend a minute to kill an enemy or two, and as you’re about to move forward, either the previous enemy respawns, or you see another player rush in, kill 5 enemies in a few seconds and leave. Fine that the class is more complex and has more depth, but having to work a lot more and still not even get an equal result to the other classes…
Unfortunately, this becomes a larger problem the more you advance into the game, to the point where some parts are nearly unplayable.

Healing: unless you spec for it, your healing will suck, again, compared to the other classes. You’ll heal few and far between. If you do spec for it, say bye bye to your little DPS.

Dungeons: Yes, dungeons. There are a growing number of PUG parties that will refuse to accept an Elementalist due to “being useless”, especially for Explorable Mode. This isn’t a problem with the class per se, but rather with the way it’s broken/flawed.

There are a few more issues here and there, but those are probably the “loudest”. There’s no “fix the broken skills and traits will work fine”. Traits are very poorly designed, and fixing a few skills won’t change that. It’s akin to putting a bandaid on a train wreck victim.

Keep in mind a good chunk of these issues surfaced when ArenaNet decided to nerf the Elementalist to the ground at BWE#3 – it wasn’t half as bad in BWE #1 and #2.

IMO yes it is. My Ele is only 33 and I’m still trying to figure things out. The class has a pretty big learning curve with all the skills but IMO that’s part of the fun. There are times when I just really frustrated because I’ll get in over my head (which isn’t that difficult to do with this class) and it’s a circle-strafe marathon.

i wish more groups take Ele’s (but maybe i just don’t see it happen) – my first character in this game is my ele, and i hate to see it get no action. If these PUGs are being selective about classes to roll with in dungeons for any reason, defeat the purpose of the class or game entirely, kind of like GW 1 (have to be a specific character spec to roll with group). i thought that in GW2 this was not as prevalent, but now i have been in Orr for 1.5 weeks, and level 80 for maybe 4-5 days, and i might be feeling the pinch soon.

if other players are going to start hating on ele’s because we cant effectively survive situations, then not take them, the ele class has been defeated. i can’t learn to play well with others if they don’t give me the chances for me to learn how to play. “well, then solo dungeons first” they might say – that isn’t going to help me any, is it? at least in guild wars 1 i could hench a mission or something to get the idea on how to play, then go group, but i think that the lv80 content restricts ele’s a bit much.

class discrimination i think is going to be the norm if classes don’t get fixed/balanced/etc.