Guild Wars 2

I’m going to get back into guild wars 2 with some friends, and I was wondering if the class it balanced. It’s my favourite design and gameplay wise, but when I was playing (I stopped right before that lost shores event or whatever it was called), the class was pretty much useless apart from spamming AoE outside a keep in WvW. It had absolutely no survivability and barely any damage. It just wasn’t fun having to slowly work down enemies when a thief could kill them in a second and also had better survivability, so I just ended up rerolling other characters. I’ll be doing a mix of PvE and PvP, if that makes a difference.

Thanks.

You were wrong about the class back then. If you were not good enough to play it then, you will not be good enough to play it now.

We have not been buffed, but Elementalists are worth playing.

Lol posting a thread about how the ele is worth playing when they are probably the most op in 1v1’s aoe damage mobility and 3rd-4th best in pure damage straight up i can see why you quit ele’s suck they die instantly no damage (Sarcasm)…

We haven’t been balanced but most people would probably say we are strong. You can easily die in 2-3 hits but you can survive forever with a proper build and a good playstyle. I would wager success as an ele mostly revolves around a playstyle that favors standing waaay back and AoEing, or zipping back and forth through the zerg then running like hell.

ScrakeMode.2348:

Lol posting a thread about how the ele is worth playing when they are probably the most op in 1v1’s aoe damage mobility and 3rd-4th best in pure damage straight up i can see why you quit ele’s suck they die instantly no damage (Sarcasm)…

Er… I guess you missed the part where I said I played ages ago, and I don’t know how they play now? Why are you being needlessly aggressive over something I didn’t say? Classes change over time, I was wondering if this had.

Intigo.1653:

You were wrong about the class back then. If you were not good enough to play it then, you will not be good enough to play it now.

We have not been buffed, but Elementalists are worth playing.

I could play fine. I made sure to try all the classes, and they could all outperform ele’s except for keep defence.

If you wanted to be any good with ele you had to put in 2x the work, and even then you would still be facerolled by a moderately competent guardian or thief.

I know I am posting on the ele forum and people in MMO’s are usually really biased towards their class, but come on, this is ridiculous. They were just outperformed.

At the start of the game there were alot of players who were very upset with the class and felt it was underpowered, ineffective, whatever. A huge number of us never had any problems with the class and felt it was just fine. There were a lot of l2p posts in the forums back then. As time has gone on, many of us who were perfectly happy with the class to have learned there are even better ways to play the class and we are even happier than before.

You are one of those who thought the class was, as you say, “useless.” It was never so. It is not so now.

The poster might be correct in that if you failed to find use of the class the frist time, you will not find use now. It is possible however you can find use in the class. If at once you don’t succeed, try try again as they say.

Rolling a bunker doesn’t solve issues with crap damage.

This class is at a good point because more people have learned how to play it. There is a rather high learning curve, not only because we have more skills on the bar, but also because it takes time to learn how all those skills interact with all our traits. If you’re ok with a lot of spastic button mashing and learning to get into the rhythm of our cooldowns and combos, then you’ll do very well with this profession. If you just want a straightforward, simple playstyle then you will hate this class with a passion.

TL -> DR Version: Elementalists sucked at release because nobody knew how to play them. They rock now because most of the good builds and playstyles are on YouTube for everyone to study.

P.S. This changing of the metagame is proof-positive that this community isn’t toxic, but merely rude from time to time.

haviz.1340:

Rolling a bunker doesn’t solve issues with crap damage.

Crap damage?

PinCushion.7390:

TL -> DR Version: Elementalists sucked at release because nobody knew how to play them. They rock now because most of the good builds and playstyles are on YouTube for everyone to study.

Not true. The builds people use now were used in beta and are not hard to pick up. D/D Ele’s was much less effective when rtl would self stun you for 2 seconds and go no where. Same with magnetic grasp. Also fire grab not missing 90% of the time also helps. Plus earthquake was speed up, water #2 on daggers was buffed and we got a cleave on air. Op ignore the idiots in this thread. There are a few viable builds you can find in these forums. We still have major issues with certain trait lines but water and arcane are very strong. Give ele another try.

Edit: Also, our down state went from zero to hero.

Nikkle.4013:

PinCushion.7390:

TL -> DR Version: Elementalists sucked at release because nobody knew how to play them. They rock now because most of the good builds and playstyles are on YouTube for everyone to study.

Not true. The builds people use now were used in beta and are not hard to pick up. D/D Ele’s was much less effective when rtl would self stun you for 2 seconds and go no where. Same with magnetic grasp. Also fire grab not missing 90% of the time also helps. Plus earthquake was speed up, water #2 on daggers was buffed and we got a cleave on air. Op ignore the idiots in this thread. There are a few viable builds you can find in these forums. We still have major issues with certain trait lines but water and arcane are very strong. Give ele another try.

I guess I mentally blotted out all the post-release bug filled frustrations. I remember the RTL bug. It happened often enough to be maddening, but not often enough for the ability to be unusable.

PinCushion.7390:

Crap damage?

Yes, your build is one of those fotm bunkers. Point taken.

PinCushion.7390:

Nikkle.4013:

PinCushion.7390:

TL -> DR Version: Elementalists sucked at release because nobody knew how to play them. They rock now because most of the good builds and playstyles are on YouTube for everyone to study.

Not true. The builds people use now were used in beta and are not hard to pick up. D/D Ele’s was much less effective when rtl would self stun you for 2 seconds and go no where. Same with magnetic grasp. Also fire grab not missing 90% of the time also helps. Plus earthquake was speed up, water #2 on daggers was buffed and we got a cleave on air. Op ignore the idiots in this thread. There are a few viable builds you can find in these forums. We still have major issues with certain trait lines but water and arcane are very strong. Give ele another try.

I guess I mentally blotted out all the post-release bug filled frustrations. I remember the RTL bug. It happened often enough to be maddening, but not often enough for the ability to be unusable.

It was very frequent on gradients. Really hurt on maps like forest of nifihel where there are so many. Combined with our poor downstate you couldn’t risk it in pvp. Especially with the old hs thief’s. That why everyone went staff bunker till that got nerfed and daggers got fixed.

haviz.1340:

PinCushion.7390:

Crap damage?

Yes, your build is one of those fotm bunkers. Point taken.

LOL! That isn’t my build, and it isn’t a bunker. That’s some amusing glass cannon vid I spotted yesterday. It’s mostly a comedy build for trolling newbies in WvW. Zerker gear and all points in Fire/Air. RTL to your target and blow all your Arcane cooldowns at once causing their instant death.

I found it funny, and an example of us not doing “crap damage.”

Glass cannons eles are still underpowered. Balanced and bunker were crazy OP at launch, but have been mostly brought into line.

I miss you staff bunker. Come back to me.

PinCushion.7390:

I found it funny, and an example of us not doing “crap damage.”

The build is laughably bad and the damage isn’t that good to compensate. It’s worthless against anything besides a poorly played glass cannon or an upleveled newb.

Is it worth playing? definitely, elementalist have a lot of option and playstyle.
I only have one level 80 that I have been playing since beta…and that is an elementalist

IMHO it still needs more balancing, but you’re definitely right about working harder…
I tried a Glass Cannon build but honestly compare to other class GC build our damage is horrible in comparison. We have super low health but surviving off cantrips and dodge can only do so much, once were hit were dead.

EDIT: just thought of something when mention playstyle…although we have 4 attunements but those attunements are on a single weapon single playstyle while other class can easily switch from range to melee and vice versa. were stuck with one or the other.

Arkenjul.1867:

EDIT: just thought of something when mention playstyle…although we have 4 attunements but those attunements are on a single weapon single playstyle while other class can easily switch from range to melee and vice versa. were stuck with one or the other.

There’s always Conjures…..

PinCushion.7390:

Arkenjul.1867:

EDIT: just thought of something when mention playstyle…although we have 4 attunements but those attunements are on a single weapon single playstyle while other class can easily switch from range to melee and vice versa. were stuck with one or the other.

There’s always Conjures…..

LoL good one

I have actually been trying recently to use conjures…only thing bother me is speed…wish it just automatic cast on top of me instead of ground target.

If you have a good conjurer build without sacrificing survival ill be all ears. im running 0/10/10/30/20 build. only thing that decently supplements conjurer is major trait in fire (20points).

It is true that very recently people got HOW to play the class. Dont mind the hyper defensive trolls. Things didnt change much since lost shores. Many bug fixes but no major changes. But i think you got it all wrong back then …
My guess is that you went for staff ele, that is why u maybe disappointed by dmg and survivability. Try D/D or S/D, i think you will find it more fitting.
The truth is that newcomers to the class dont get that Staff as a weapon is designed for aoe-combo field offering and support. It is a squishy choice and a low dps one as well (compared to S/D).

PinCushion.7390:

haviz.1340:

Rolling a bunker doesn’t solve issues with crap damage.

Crap damage?

This is a way more better video and he is fighting lvl 80s

IMO, if I had to reroll, I would pick an elementalist. They are not overpowered in any area, just can perform just as well as other classes. They can go staff zerg buster, D/D tank roaming/dueling, support, PvE, AoE, it goes on and on.

istariwk.8312:

It is true that very recently people got HOW to play the class. Dont mind the hyper defensive trolls. Things didnt change much since lost shores. Many bug fixes but no major changes. But i think you got it all wrong back then …
My guess is that you went for staff ele, that is why u maybe disappointed by dmg and survivability. Try D/D or S/D, i think you will find it more fitting.
The truth is that newcomers to the class dont get that Staff as a weapon is designed for aoe-combo field offering and support. It is a squishy choice and a low dps one as well (compared to S/D).

Probably the other decent thing about staff is it’s really awesome for destroying someone’s endurance at range. Earth 1 can apply nearly permanent weakness, and the plethora of red circles you put down will practically force dodges out of your targets. It’s not bad for setting up a group member for a decent spike. Just rotate Earth 1 and Earth 2, watch for 2 dodges kinda near each other, then Earth 5 → Earth 2 → Water 2 → Water 4 (so they don’t run far when Immob ends). If you can squeeze more damage into that 1 Immobilize then go for it. Arcane Blast is great for getting a tad more spike in.

The trouble with this is that if they close to melee on you, and you can’t scare them off with fields or cripple/kite them with Earth 4…..you die.

vmj.4170:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D0X7FAxuHY

This is a way more better video and he is fighting lvl 80s

Is this a sarcasm or you’re just trolliing me?

Ninjutsu is one of the worst Eles to make videos and Taugrim is average at best.

The ele is almost the same as it was when you left, with a few nerfs to the 5 usable traits, and (gasp!) some underwater fields/finishers.

Eles can “manage”, but so can every profession. We have a lot of useful base skills, and are welcome on a team by virtue of having lots of fields and AoE. Unfortunately, what you can do at level 80 is little different from what you can do at level 30 (or even 20, since our elites are mostly fluff). We have an appalling selection of traits, with many being so inconsequential it has to be a joke. Only a few do anything to affect playstyle.

I don’t know when you left, but if everyone back then used D/D, cantrips, and only put heavy points into Water and Arcana, nothing has changed except that those are a little bit weaker. Still no reason to use glyphs or conjures in any serious build, or signets (apart from a convoluted aura spamming gimmick). Still no reason to use scepter or focus. Still no reason to use staff when circumstances don’t force you into long range.

vmj.4170:

PinCushion.7390:

haviz.1340:

Rolling a bunker doesn’t solve issues with crap damage.

Crap damage?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D0X7FAxuHY

This is a way more better video and he is fighting lvl 80s

Guy had 20 stacks of what, bloodlust? lol.
Damage aint complete crap, but aint the best. what is amazing is how ele can survive so well while doing moderate damage.

gandlethorpe.2641:

The ele is almost the same as it was when you left, with a few nerfs to the 5 usable traits, and (gasp!) some underwater fields/finishers.

Eles can “manage”, but so can every profession. We have a lot of useful base skills, and are welcome on a team by virtue of having lots of fields and AoE. Unfortunately, what you can do at level 80 is little different from what you can do at level 30 (or even 20, since our elites are mostly fluff). We have an appalling selection of traits, with many being so inconsequential it has to be a joke. Only a few do anything to affect playstyle.

I don’t know when you left, but if everyone back then used D/D, cantrips, and only put heavy points into Water and Arcana, nothing has changed except that those are a little bit weaker. Still no reason to use glyphs or conjures in any serious build, or signets (apart from a convoluted aura spamming gimmick). Still no reason to use scepter or focus. Still no reason to use staff when circumstances don’t force you into long range.

Dude i love my 80 ele. He could do so much more at 80 than at 30. Are you gearing properly? I love bringing in my ele for those harder dungeons/ dungeons where my team have a bit of trouble surviving, like arah exp. Works wonders compared to my warrior for that purpose.

I think the OP has left the building lol.

I think if is fair to say most players who enjoyed the ele to start still enjoy the ele. Except for some PvP players, most did not find the changes to the ele profession since the start of the game enough of a reason to come back and play after a discouraging beginning.

Apparently, hardly anybody still remembers that a lot of the the bugged elementalist skills have been fixed, and are now actually usable and useful.
(e.g. Fire Grab, Tidal Wave, Ride the Lightning, Magnetic Grasp)

Also, the downed skills have greatly improved since launch.

Jornophelanthas.1475:

Apparently, hardly anybody still remembers that a lot of the the bugged elementalist skills have been fixed, and are now actually usable and useful.
(e.g. Fire Grab, Tidal Wave, Ride the Lightning, Magnetic Grasp)

Also, the downed skills have greatly improved since launch.

If someone did not like the ele to begin with, would those changes be enough to change someones mind and come back? Certainly not the OP. He said and I quote:

“the class was pretty much useless apart from spamming AoE outside a keep in WvW. It had absolutely no survivability and barely any damage. It just wasn’t fun having to slowly work down enemies when a thief could kill them in a second and also had better survivability,”

Lol. He said nothing about bugged skills. Best he could come up with for the class was spamming aoe in wvw. He couldn’t stay alive and in his opinion an otherwise useless class. Either 1) he needs a better understanding and playing the class or 2) he can find new appreciation for the strengths of the class he never developed before.

I can’t think of a single reason he should come back except to try again. Many of us have put down a class and come back to it later only to find we are much more successful the next time around. Did any of us ever go into the class forum blasting the class as subpar when we first played it, as if we were uber players. Imo he never had a handle on the class to begin with. There’s nothing wrong with admitting that.

@Baladir:

If your interpretation of the OP is true, then he/she will likely have trouble keeping any profession alive, because the playstyle “Use-all-my-skills-one-by—one-while-standing-in-one-place-while-the-enemy-tries-to-pound-me” never works.
In my opinion, a player who does not know how to dodge (and refuses to) will have a very hard time with only little enjoyment of the game.

Short story..
1)The class has been mostly nerfed to many areas (mobility /healing) since when you stopped playing.
2)The class is considered one if not the strongest in game for many scenarios especially in pvp where its kind of mandatory and every team has 1 or more.
I leave the conclusions to you

Jornophelanthas.1475:

@Baladir:

If your interpretation of the OP is true, then he/she will likely have trouble keeping any profession alive, because the playstyle “Use-all-my-skills-one-by—one-while-standing-in-one-place-while-the-enemy-tries-to-pound-me” never works.
In my opinion, a player who does not know how to dodge (and refuses to) will have a very hard time with only little enjoyment of the game.

It took me forever to unlearn the bad habits of other MMOs. Fighting Ettins in Queensdale was a good way to get practice on how to look for tells so I would only dodge the good attacks and not waste all my endurance on garbage autoattacks that did next to no real damage.

ive seen a few posts how people say how great the class is and ye its great if you go with d/d but people have to remember thats not everyone see a ele using a dagger i for one think a caster should have a staff why be forced into one playstyle every ele out there have the same d/d build its just boring. As to the ops question yes if you follow the rest and go d/d then fine the class is fine but i can assure you staff needs some work.

@Osculim:
Staff is a weapon most suited to group play. It has tons of support abilities (including lots and lots of combo fields), but relatively little in term self-defense. Still, it can be done if you learn to use Fire 4, Water 4, Air 2, 3 and 5, and Earth 3, 4 and 5 effectively as self-defense skills.
(I never have; I use defensive skills to keep monsters occupied with my groupmates if I use staff. I never use it when I solo.)

By the way, your belief that “a caster should have a staff” is arguably exactly the kind of “forcing into one playstyle”, if you refuse to use anything but a staff because of your belief.

The class hasn’t really changed so if you didn’t enjoy it then, you won’t now. Not unless you do something different with it. The d/d builds are pretty good at what they do, but obviously aren’t for everyone.

Jornophelanthas.1475:

By the way, your belief that “a caster should have a staff” is arguably exactly the kind of “forcing into one playstyle”, if you refuse to use anything but a staff because of your belief.

Admittedly the post you’re replying to is nearly incomprehensible, but I don’t think he was saying “I for one believe a caster should have a staff, therefore everyone should play with one.” I think he was saying, “My belief is that a caster should have a staff, therefore I’d like the option of playing with one. However, I feel hampered by the fact that staff builds need some work in comparison to d/d.”

nope.. this class is still crap.

nope.. this class is still crap.realy realy forcing people to specc more than 1 element.
and because of that.. i atleast find them totaly stupid and boring..
and weak.

< Over 1500 hours on Ele so Ill throw some input in:

1) I dont like how 1 spec seems to be the dominant (d/d). This
is what the vast majority of the flame posts are referring too
when it comes “OP.”

2) Staff Ele is what I mainly play, but its true strength is running
in zergs or defending/assualting a keep. Its weakness is most 1v1.

3) I do not like how we have 4 elements, but dont have any true
“ice mage” or “fire mage” builds. Maybe Im biased on WOW, but
I think there could have been more ways to specialize in a particular
element for different playstyles.

4) Lastly, there is a very limited effective range of weapon styles, and
even those depend on the situation at end.

I enjoy playing it, dont get me wrong. Its more in depth than my Warrior,
but I think I speak for all of the classes who are asking for more variety.

The ele class needs a rebuild from anet. There is absolutely no incentive to play an ele, regardless of weapon choice. I have spent well over 1000 hours on my ele, I have always loved ele’s in RPG’s, but when my ele does less dmg, less consistently than my gaurdian or warrior and can only take 2 – 3 hit in a dungeon; there is no point in frustrating the hell outta yourself because you can’t keep your ele alive. With all the builds out there the crit builds seem to be wining, where a crit ele can potentially do massive amounts of dmg, with a staff, to STATIONARY targets, 9 times outta 10 your targets have moved out of your AoE and will take no dmg at all. Then there is channeling time, in the time it takes to drop meteor shower a guardian with a crit build could have already pulled 5 targets done a 3 hit gs combo and whirling wrath; dealing 12k + dmg. All in the time it took you just to channel meteor shower and do 0 – 2k dmg. Anet seems to think that this is ok, that ele players still have the edge of versatility, well versatility doesn’t count for much when you are spending your evening dead, observing other players beat the dungeon. If Anet insists on keeping, my favorite class of all time, as squishy as an ambient rabbit then I respectfully request double if not triple the dmg out put with 1/3 the channeling time. That way while I’m watching everyone else beat the boss I can at least sit back and chuckle about how I took him down to 3/4 of his over all health before he killed me. And it would still be a challenge to pick the ele back up without wiping, maintaining the aspect of team play and banning together to get through tough spots.

I really love my ele, but I refuse to play her untill something is done about this unscrupulous disadvantage that no other class seems to have. Like I said, there is absolutely no incentive to play an ele, all it does is raise your blood pressure and drive you to early an early grave.

Well, I also think that it makes zero sense how they made a caster
classes most effective and well rounded spec a melee build(d/d).

Thunderbrew.7034:

Well, I also think that it makes zero sense how they made a caster
classes most effective and well rounded spec a melee build(d/d).

I don’t find D/D to be terribly well-rounded. I think the popularity of the weapon set is a combination of how much survival you can squeeze into it combined with how trivial it is for most high-damage melee classes to close range, CC you, and spike you to death.

Asura.4709:

rant

Please do not vent your opinions as if they were absolute truth for everyone.

The elementalist is NOT a clone of the warcraft-mage, has never been intended as such and never will be. This class has its own thing going for it, and while there is room for improvement in terms of balance between the different weapon sets, bear in mind that each weapon has specific strengths:

- Dagger mainhand: melee-range damage, offense
- Dagger offhand: melee-range damage, offense
- Scepter: medium-range single-target damage, versatile
- Focus: defensive/utility skills aimed at medium range
- Staff: medium-long range area effects, support

If you insist on using a certain weapon in a playstyle that does not play to that weapon’s strengths, you will have a hard time. However, do not blame the elementalist profession or the weapon properties; blame your choice of weapons and try out different weapons, or (if you don’t want to adapt) blame your choice of professions because the elementalist is apparently not your cup of tea.