Guild Wars 2

To all the people who keep saying ele is fine, you really need to branch off and look at the ele compared to GW2 rather than the ele compared to each player.

Yes some players suck and therefore will treat the elementalist being mediocre as “OK”
Yes some players are elitest and will fight sucky players therefore will see the elementalist as “Balanced” or god forbid “over powered”

But has anyone actually bothered to really take in what most of us are saying?

The ele is fine, and if all professions (classes) were like ele it would be so much more balanced. And to really grasp this idea, i want you all to go make a thief in pvp, use the defaults, and go spam heartseeker, and then when you are “Advanced” enough (lol) go pistol whip and make it easier.

Most of the posts I see are people going “eles are glass cannons” or “eles only do this, not that”, the people that say this really have no idea about how GW2 is supposed to work, I’m not saying I have 100% knowledge about GW2, but if you are playing this game you need to know this one thing:

Every profession is supposed to be able to do everything in some way or another

And currently every profession can, yes even elementalists! But the catch is, everyone else can simply do it better than an elementalist can.

You watch these videos of elementalists and you see them working twice as hard to try and kill some moron who is literally just auto attacking and is nearly winning.

I’m kind of losing where to go with this post, but the most important thing is this

Elementalists are fun, and their concept is awesome, but right now its not fun in PvP getting dominated by people who are just spamming one or two skills to beat you.

Its not fun to go in to PvE and get rejected because you are an elementalist and other people have already learned that you are only good for condition clearing, which isnt even that important as far as most PvE goes.

Yeah thats pretty much it.

Is there proof anywhere that everything can be done better by any other class? My ele is nice support, even when specced solely for aoe damage. It’s also able to hold aggro and not get entirely demolished.

But as has been said, a lot of the ability comes from the player. It isn’t fair to drag the whole class down because a lot of people can’t play it as well as they’d like.

What are you running in SPVP (I assume it’s that and not WvW anyways because it’d be silly to even complain about that) that’s getting you rocked? You probably should check out a few other builds, because the one I’m running right now is pretty nice.

Ele is squish for the most part, even when you spec for high survivability. The dps potential is there when played right. Problem is that I have yet to see anyone play one right, myself included.

Nobody does combo fields better than a staff support ele. So the statement that everyone else does everything better is wrong.

It is a rather limited niche, though.

We secretly don’t want them to buff elementalists so we can continue two second bursting them to death in pvp/wvw.

Fievre: I have a high level guardian and a high level ranger, I had been leveling my ele equally but I’ve ditched it hoping it is changed one day to be as fun to play as my other two. My guardian heals more efficiently, it also can do around the same amount of damage – Without having to run around in circles, it can just stand in the middle of 5 mobs whacking away at them while they whack away at it. Same 5 mobs on my ele, I’m strafing and dodging and ducking and weaving and haven’t done as much damage as my guardian would have in that time and hasn’t been able to heal up as well either and is probably going to get downed relatively soon because I haven’t got enough dodges to cover the HP that’s being taken away and likewise I haven’t got enough HP to take hits until my dodges power up, while I’m playing ring a ring of roses a pocket full of posies with several mobs that require me to pan my camera round fast just so I can hit it with autowile i strafe in circles, let alone trying to hit said melee mob with those ground target aoe’s that take forever to cast… My Ele hits harder than my ranger, but what does that matter when my ranger will kill anything faster because it’s got a pet to help DPS which often takes aggro aaaanyway, where as my ele has to start kiting as soon as it even aggros something just to give it a little bit extra time before it’s got to start using up dodges. That’s my personal comparison, lol.

Hey and maybe I just suck at playing ele, which means there has to be a whole mechanic somewhere in there that I have absolutely no idea about because I’ve played all the classes, none of which give me this annoyance, and believe me I have TRIED so hard, coming from a gw1 Ele main.. I have tried to enjoy this new ele to the point of dismissing when people said the stuff I am saying here, but I had to give up trying to defend it, eles just not happening right now. lol.

@Fievre All I got from your post was “im in denial and my first line proves it, i like mediocrity” So, here is a clip from a very underrated movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnW2-jKskKc

@Yukishiro you’re right, we do have more combo fields, but other classes have better ones. Healing spring beats both our water fields.

Static field isnt really needed because an organized group will have 2 bleed and vuln stackers.

Fire. Well sure I’ll give us this one.

@SeraVerte I’ve 2 shot people too! But then you fight people who actually have a slight idea bout how to play and therefore beat you because you picked an elementalist. See thiefs heartseeker / pistol whipping.

As for the agro system, Anet said multiple times “whoever is closest tanks” so yeah, thats not really a point of discussion about “how well my ele can hold aggro”

I’ve tried so many specs its not even funny, I’ve done ones used by other people that works for them and they all have the same problem. They are just so much effort when you can just go make a warrior, thief, ranger and just faceroll.

I like having to work my class in order to get results, but its just stupid when other classes dont.

And this still goes back to my original point, everyone else can simply do it better than an elementalist can.

Even in PvP i got fed up with getting blown up so I went full earth water, 10 in arcana for the V trait (mandatory amirite) and got full toughness vitality gear and I even went scepter for rock barrier, signet of earth, had around 1800 toughness (give or take a few) and was still getting torn to kitten just by autos and other abilities that take nothing to aim/use

argument “here is a well constructed argument on issues elementalists have”

rebuttle “i must praise arenanet, so your argument is invalid”

this is what i learned from this thread, im not entirely sure but i think there might be an issue here

I understand your points in theory, but when it comes down to actually playing the Elementalist, I don’t find it squishy in PvP, or underpowered in the least.

Elementalist is all about how fast you can press buttons while still knowing what you’re doing, and which skill should come in next. It’s about knowing your skill order, your attunement order, and being fast enough to use them. If you have that nailed down, you will rip people apart as an Elementalist.

Because elem is seen as the ‘hardest’ proffession. People want to increase their kitten circumverence and weight, and what better way is there to play the hardest class, which is mostly hardest because it is weakest, and claiming that its all fine and you can own if you’re just skilled enough!

People havent played other chars thus have no clue, or the need to act like a celebrity on the forums is what i think causes it. It’s not very hard to pick out either of these types, some even have both. Hi Pinkerton

SeraVerte.2640:

We secretly don’t want them to buff elementalists so we can continue two second bursting them to death in pvp/wvw.

It feels soooo good to stomp an elem, not getting interrupted or knocked back and then zerged by friends. Its like a fresh little breeze on a hot summer day. If only i didnt feel his pain everytime i drive a flag through ones heart.

I think the biggest issue I have… so you watch these videos of elems. And yes, we can kick some serious booty. I watched a video yesterday that was awe-inspiring. It gave me hope that our class is not totally useless. I made some changes to my build based on it. Things were good.

But, I will say this. In that video, the player was working his butt off. I mean, attunement switching, making his own combos, hitting keys faster than you can see that he hit em… etc… After all of that work, he still had a great challenge in defeating opponents.

So there in lies the issue I think most elementalists have with teh class. We can start to compete but only once we do everything we can to get there. I mean, we have to spam keys, know cooldowns, know effects, watch the opponent and know what their animations and effects are, etc…. where as, almost any other class can get by without doing all of that work. Now, I don’t mind that all of that work may be needed… but in the end, after doing all of that work, we START to compete. Our damage level and CC ability gets on par with every other class.

One would think that if we expend that much energy, we should exceed the normal dps. After all, we are putting more effort into doing dps than any other class is having to do. So it would only stand to reason that the work/effort should pan out to more dps. shrug

Just my two copper.

@Amnon

Word.

I´m running dual daggers and arcana/water spec with full cantrips focus, and can easily fend off for myself in 1v1 PVP. This is a survival build with focus on fast attunement switching and utilizing your spammable skills to the max, while being able to clear conditions and dodge like no tomorrow.

Edit:

@EnochDagor

I agree with what you said, the elementalist may work a bit more during the fight, but I really don´t see it as, “We need to master the attunements to get the DPS on par with the others”.

I see it as, “Master the attunements, and you will ride through the storm as a whole”.

Survivability is really what it all comes down to. As a glass cannon, sure you may be able to outburst a single target, but then his friend might come seconds after and kill you, because you would be too squishy or the good skills are on CD.

On the other hand, with survivability in mind, you may not kill that single target in one go, but it could give you time enough for an ally to come by (as like with the enemy) and help you to defeat the targets. And believe me, if it is just a 1v1, a survival build is more than capable to hold on own ground and most possible take a kill too in the long run, attrition fight.

My point is, dead elementalist = zero DPS.

Amnon.4769:

I understand your points in theory, but when it comes down to actually playing the Elementalist, I don’t find it squishy in PvP, or underpowered in the least.

Elementalist is all about how fast you can press buttons while still knowing what you’re doing, and which skill should come in next. It’s about knowing your skill order, your attunement order, and being fast enough to use them. If you have that nailed down, you will rip people apart as an Elementalist.

Many people who find the elementalist underpowered in this forum also know all that, myself included. The problem is that doing all that is not enough against any decent player. You’ll be able to “rip apart” mediocre players, but then whenever you are killed by 2-3 spammable skills, you’ll get disheartened, dot. Maybe you can prevent that with the right weapon set, with the right defensive utility and the right defensive traits, but think, for example, of a fellow elementalist that has built for offensive d/d. Their weapon skills offer almost no means to defend themselves from, say, heartseeker spamming or the like, and dodging is not the solution because every profession can dodge, and only twice in a row. An offensive D/D elementalist will simply not kill fast enough, or at least not as fast as any other offenssive profession, while still having no meaningful defense, with the exception of one or two high-recharge utility spells.

One thing I’ve noticed, from my own experience, is that defensively-specced elementalists are mediocre/ average in pvp, but power elementalists are plain bad.

And because I can’t edit my posts at the moment, I’ll have to double post: Yes, I also play D/D pvp with defensive (+ condition damage) specs, and with cantrips, and yes, I also can fend off myself. Elementalists have good condition damage. They’re nice at killing opponents while they’re spending their own time surviving.

But their power builds simply don’t work well enough. However, I’ve heard of a critical build with that arcana trait that gives vigor per critical, and it seems stronger than people are aware of. I might try it someday.

i agree that we are good support but thats all

DiogoSilva.7089:

And because I can’t edit my posts at the moment, I’ll have to double post: Yes, I also play D/D pvp with defensive (+ condition damage) specs, and with cantrips, and yes, I also can fend off myself. Elementalists have good condition damage. They’re nice at killing opponents while they’re spending their own time surviving.

But their power builds simply don’t work well enough. However, I’ve heard of a critical build with that arcana trait that gives vigor per critical, and it seems stronger than people are aware of. I might try it someday.

Arcana also has a scepter trait that gives higher base endurance regen which doesnt rely on a boon. Which actually you can use with vigor from phoenix. You dont even need to hit people with phoenix to remove a condition or get vigor. You can also cast it inside of the Fire Ring area to get 3 stacks of aoe might as well. Pretty amazing, but i sometimes find it hard to fit into an arcane build because of thatkittenmandatory 10 point talent. I’d have to give up a Grandmaster trait or 20% less cd on my only 2 free utility slots (cause stun break is also mandatory as elem, some use up to THREE to survive as glass cannon).

Anyway people are using it a lot actually. Arcana 30 seems to considered fairly mandatory anyway because of attune switch cooldowns.

There is no other class I would rather play than an elementalist. I love the class concept and functionality. Switching attunements is a very neat mechanic. I am competent with the class and by the mere push of 10 buttons, well timed, in specific sequence, I can destroy a target.

Then I walk in my roommates room and watch him playing his ranger. He keeps showing me all this destruction he rains upon things with either his greatsword or longbow. He accomplishes what I do in 10 buttons with 3. Meanwhile, he’s taken either -0- damage or maybe 20% whereas I’m often sitting at about 10% life remaining. Not to mention his pet(s).

This doesn’t make me want to switch to a ranger. Just leaves me wondering why I have to work so hard to accomplish the same thing, and in more danger. This is just one example. I’ve seen the same sort of thing with his thief and my friend’s guardian.

Commonly, a character class concept is not designed solely for the upper-end of skilled players. Of course skilled elementalists are destroying people. Just like skilled any-class destroys people. The differentiation begins to come when the average other-class can still compete whereas an average elementalist is told “well the class is good, you just need to be better”. Is the class broken? Clearly not. Is the class underpowered compared to its peers? Evidence would seem to imply yes.

Guys stop trying to wave your kitten around and quit the bullkitten. Is it possible to do well with the Ele? Sure. Can other classes achieve the same or better results with a lot less effort? Yes, and that is imbalanced. Therein lies our problem and why we need to be fixed.

I bought the game a week after it came out. I didn’t play it in beta and didnt do much research other than the guildwars 2 website.

This is what they say an elementalist is
Elementalists are multi-faceted spellcasters that channel elemental forces, making fire, air, earth, and water do their bidding. What they lack in physical toughness, they make up in versatility and the ability to inflict massive damage in a single attack

No where in there does it mention anything about support and this is what I expected after putting in the hours I have into the game. The ability to inflict massive damage with each element doing it in a different way.

Hrmm, I just realized I can still dispute my credit card purchase as not getting the product I was promised

Because: Elementalist is the most balanced class. Imo all other classes should be balanced to the Elementalists powerlevel. Stronger can result in boring results, weaker as well.

Buffing the Elementalist would only shorten fights instead of making them more interesting.

That depends on Anets view. If they want fast bursty fights then buff the Elementalist, otherwise nerf 7? classes? That’s not gonna happen quickly either I suppose. Also their view is kinda messed up, since they first nerf Eles for being to bursty, yet give Thieves/Warriors quickness which allows them to do 20k+ damage in a few seconds. If that isn’t incredibly bursty I don’t know what is. :P

Gelrod.1295:

Because: Elementalist is the most balanced class. Imo all other classes should be balanced to the Elementalists powerlevel. Stronger can result in boring results, weaker as well.

Buffing the Elementalist would only shorten fights instead of making them more interesting.

That is a good question.

Frankly, I wonder if it is even possible to balance the elementalist vs everyone else because our playstyle is extremely different. Our F1-4 buttons are about as important as 1-5 and you can’t really say that for any other profession. We may be stuck with being the niche of difficult to play and very difficult to master.

Most of our skills need a damage buff and/or have some form of CC added. We can do pretty good as support, but ele’s can’t be delegated to just that role. With a staff, our only somewhat decent damage dealing skills come from fire. Lightning has 1 interrupt and almost no damage, which contradicts what the tooltip says. Water has healing, but none of it does enough to be worth focusing on. Earth can have good damage, but it is over a very long period of time, and you can burst for more damage using fire.

I can kill multiple mobs in PVE, but it takes twice, if not more, of the effort to do so than other classes. PVP is a different story. Classes like the warrior can do our dps and more, while at the same time having a ton more defense and hp.

Pretty much comes down to: we have to work very hard for very little

Nageth.5648:

Gelrod.1295:

Because: Elementalist is the most balanced class. Imo all other classes should be balanced to the Elementalists powerlevel. Stronger can result in boring results, weaker as well.

Buffing the Elementalist would only shorten fights instead of making them more interesting.

That is a good question.

Frankly, I wonder if it is even possible to balance the elementalist vs everyone else because our playstyle is extremely different. Our F1-4 buttons are about as important as 1-5 and you can’t really say that for any other profession. We may be stuck with being the niche of difficult to play and very difficult to master.

Mesmer is the same. Their F1 through F4 are just as important as their 1-5. The difference is that Mesmer is not that hard to play and they get rewarded for learning the ins and outs of the class by the class performing at a higher level when you know what you’re doing. The Ele just needs to be balanced as well as they are.

Freakiie.8940:

That depends on Anets view. If they want fast bursty fights then buff the Elementalist, otherwise nerf 7? classes? That’s not gonna happen quickly either I suppose. Also their view is kinda messed up, since they first nerf Eles for being to bursty, yet give Thieves/Warriors quickness which allows them to do 20k+ damage in a few seconds. If that isn’t incredibly bursty I don’t know what is. :P

Don’t forget the Mesmer Elite that gives the entire group quickness lol. :P

Nageth.5648:

Gelrod.1295:

Because: Elementalist is the most balanced class. Imo all other classes should be balanced to the Elementalists powerlevel. Stronger can result in boring results, weaker as well.

Buffing the Elementalist would only shorten fights instead of making them more interesting.

That is a good question.

Frankly, I wonder if it is even possible to balance the elementalist vs everyone else because our playstyle is extremely different. Our F1-4 buttons are about as important as 1-5 and you can’t really say that for any other profession. We may be stuck with being the niche of difficult to play and very difficult to master.

Engineers and their kits have a playstyle that’s very much like ours. They get a new skill bar if they use a kit, they can switch through their kits instantly though, their f1-4 changes depending on which healing/utility skills they use and they can’t weapon swap.

Edit:

Don’t forget the Mesmer Elite that gives the entire group quickness lol. :P

The Mesmer one is only 1 second though and requires precise timing from the entire group. I don’t think there’s a lot wrong with a coordinated spike bursting down someone.

Better mention Ranger and Engineer though since they both have single (well ranger himself + pet) target quickness. Their burst isn’t as strong as pistol whip/hundred blades though. (although I still think quickness is a pretty silly thing to allow in PvP, but that’s a different matter)

Spammables annoy you? Arcane shield.
That is all.

Arcane shield? You’re kidding right?

Since arcane shield only lasts 3 hits it’s by far the least effective method against spammables. Arcane Shield is good against heavy individual hits, not a skill that hits you 10 times in 2 seconds.

ele is a high skillcap prof. it’s very much fine.

High skill threshhold, low reward compared to other 2button classes.

Yes a good Ele beats bad whatever, but with equal playerskills Ele will loose.

Leiloni.7951:

Guys stop trying to wave your kitten around and quit the bullkitten. Is it possible to do well with the Ele? Sure. Can other classes achieve the same or better results with a lot less effort? Yes, and that is imbalanced. Therein lies our problem and why we need to be fixed.

Actually its not imbalanced.
The amount of effort someone has to put into a class is not balance-able.
Let me give you an example.

Class X uses 1 Attack, deals 500 damage and applies 3 debuffs, and can do this every 15 seconds
Class Y uses 3 Attacks, each 166 damage, and each applying 1 debuff, and can do any attack every 15 sec.

You could actually say Class Y is more powerful because he or she is less likely to inflict no damage (vis dodge, block etc) and can choose which condition to inflict when.

Yes they had to work more, but they achieved the same results.

Yes this is a over-simplified example, but the point it that the ammount of effort someone has to put in isnt what you balance a game around.

The ele is hands down the hardest class to be amazing at. Any warrior can come along and do well. Not true with every ele.
Thats exactly why i love the ele. Because killing people is so much more rewarding.

I kinda hope we get a small nerf or two and people jump ship….and there ARE things that need nerfing.

Trident Water, 5 and Whirlpool. 100% protection/fury/swiftness uptime on all nearby allies.

Oh yes, please nerf Eles. Means I can delete mine and only have to buy 2 char slots if I want to play ALL the classes, if you get what I mean.

Hmm… I think Frodamn has pretty much gotten into the heart of the problem with Elementalist.

I played ele in GW1, I play ele in GW2. I’ve tried other classes, and yes, they are way easier to play than ele. Ele can achieve same results as some other class, but with around double or triple effort.

Lets have a player that is a complete noob playing an warrior, and a semi-good player playing an elementalist. Now, the battle will be tough, but the semi-good player will probably win.
However, what about having two pro players? The warrior would beat the Kittycat out of the elementalist in few moments, unless the elementalist is having a serious keyboard workout. (Nobody can keep it up for long before being dehydrated tho.)
Same goes for pretty much every other class too…

So far the only thing I’ve found that an elementalist can do better than anyone else is: Scouting in WvW. The amount of swiftness elementalist can stack is… well. Around a minute? Just try to keep up with me. And as if that wasn’t enough, I can also stun/slow down the people chasing me without slowing down my self. So yeah, doing pretty good on the running part. However, scouting rewards no XP and no silver, making it pretty much a useless niche. (If I had a copper for every enemy that I saw that are not in range of any other ally, that would be more than enough.)
Oh, and ele is semi-good at destroying enemy siege weapons. And no, no reward for that either.

ele is a high skillcap prof. it’s very much fine.

• Scepter DD is a useless piece of kitten with big attacks that will never hit any good player. (if you are playing against people that actually get hit by your Dragon’s Tooth, then you should just go warrior and use Hundred Blades instead for much better results)
• Staff DD is an even more useless piece of kitten than Scepter, for the exact same reason.
• Scepter Condition is an insult to professions with real condition builds.
• Staff support is laughable. Your only real dangerous move is Frozen Ground, and any good player will anticipate and deal with it. Other than that you can pretty much just be ignored as your healing throughput and protection uptime won’t make up for your total lack of damage output.
• Focus is a piece of kitten that give you good projectile protection in exchange for a loss in mobility and damage/offense. And quite frankly, that is a really bad deal in the vast majority of situations as you get an auto-loss against any melee spec.

So that leaves Dagger/Dagger as the only possible build if playing against good players. A skirmisher that has very fast movement and decent burst combined with hard cc that can be well utilized in team battles. But very low defense ability outside the hard cc causes a lacks in sustainability which is very bad for sPvP where you have to be able to fight over points.

Not a bad thing to have in WvW mind you (elementalist skirmisher is quite good for open field battles). But there are better choices for the skirmisher role in sPvP.

I kinda hope we get a small nerf or two and people jump ship….and there ARE things that need nerfing.

Wow arent you just the little gw2 mastermind standing out from the crowd. You must feel awesome to say ele needs nerfs. Keep touting your own horn in fake superiority.

And wtf d/d only possible build if fighting good players?? You realise dragons tooth can be used after updraft, on base circles, and gives 3 stacks of might in an aoe when used inside of flame ring? I find d/d eles to be failed thiefs without stealth and burst, walking around pretending to do amazing combos for amazing damage while getting blown up when sneezed at. Its so bad you gotta dump 30 in water and earth just so you dont get swatted like a fly.

Also with scepter you can do a double lightning at the same time plus a RTL. Which is actually sweet burst when used with the 20% more dmg trait, and updraft which gets followed up with a dragons tooth and phoenix, giving you vigor (along with extra endurance regen from sceptre trait for quadruple (?) the amount of dodges) and curing a condition.

Fred, how does an elem achieve the same thing as ANY class with haste? What do i do to provide aoe knockback bubbles and full group heals and permanent retaliation and all while doing similar damage of a Guardian?

A well played elementalist is ACCEPTABLE, and by far not impossible to carry, but not up to par to all of the other classes if you actually sit down and compare stuff.

@Anylon – I think plenty of people have proved my point already so I won’t bother repeating them. Ele needs fixing.

@Quickness buff discussion – anyone remember Word of Quickness buff that Chanter’s had in Aion? Would halve the casting time of all spells for the entire group for 30 seconds every 10 minutes. Pair that with a few Sorcs and half your team would be dead before they knew they were in combat. Or a Cleric pairing it with their own self buff that did the same thing for 10 seconds and stacked (lol wtf) and a Cleric could bring an entire team back from the brink of death literally instantly to full health. Or the Chanter buff called Word of Wind that increased attack speed for the group by 20% for a full 5 minutes. Lol.

Yea, speed buffs of that nature are always OP. It’s a very fine line when a game uses that sort of thing.

The only class that I see that is nearly as bad as the elementalist is a mesemer. Everyone can take a ton of hits and kill a monster faster then elementalist. The closest I’ve been able to come to dealing damage as any other class is summoning the great sword. Problem is that it takes way to long to summon again.

I’ve been calling the elementalist the “Frail-mentalist” as more of a paper sling shot instead of a glass canon.

LightningLockey.5938:

The only class that I see that is nearly as bad as the elementalist is a mesemer. Everyone can take a ton of hits and kill a monster faster then elementalist. The closest I’ve been able to come to dealing damage as any other class is summoning the great sword. Problem is that it takes way to long to summon again.

I’ve been calling the elementalist the “Frail-mentalist” as more of a paper sling shot instead of a glass canon.

I dunno I have been leveling a Mesmer and I don’t really see any problems with it. It’s a good class for both PvP and PvE.

I do agree with the people saying all the other classes should be brought down to the elementalists level.

If you really think about it Eles are really balanced, the amount of work you put in is actually pretty well designed for our output. But comparing that output against other classes its terrible.

I came to GW2 with arenanet saying they wanted battles that lasted long while still being fast paced, and it really comes down to player skill. I havent seen this enough to actually think Arenanet has done this.

In my honest opinion (and yes im aware of the flame to come) but right now the PvP might aswell be WoTLK and early cata. Its all over the place, it comes down to who can press the buttons faster. I dont want to see GW2 be a WOTLK/Cata PvP system with ghostcrawler behind it.

And any WoW vets in here will agree that Vanilla and BC were great for PvP and that was extremely fun.

And once again, I agree with all the people saying Ele is the most fun, because it sure is, all the other classes are boring, little work for such high reward is boring.

OP is 100% correct. Our biggest issue is that we have a horrible glass cannon spec. We output 1/3 to 1/2 of the burst damage of other classes with much less survivability. How is that fair?

A terrible class and I re-rolled Engineer a long time ago. With that class I can spam elixirs and auto attack everything to death. It takes me about four crits in a row to kill an Elementlist in sPVP and they are just a laughable easy kill. “Free kill”, is what comes into my head. BUT OH NO THEY CAN SPIN AROUND SPAMMING BUTTONS. Heh, no. The amount of CC other classes get compared to the Elementalist is hilarous, hell I get a turret that will do it for me if I can’t be in the mood to click on more than one button.

I rolled a Mesmer to compare the difference, learnt a few of the skills, went in with default traits and weapons. Beat an elementalist, guardian and ranger at the same time.

This game is one of the worst I have played for launch balance.

i agree that this class needs some reworking. i was so excited to play an elementalist, but so far it has been an exercise in frustration on a number of levels:

1. low health – sometimes just one hit will reduce my health by 75% or more. how is that fun?

2. lack of variety and specialization – i typically use a staff but not all of the skills are that useful or compelling to me – but, given the other weapon choices, i think staff is the best pick. i have tried using the F keys to switch things up during combat, but it feels clunky and like i am mostly wasting my time in the process. i wish i could just pick one or two elements to focus on, and create a set of skills based on those elements.

3. armor. a minor point, but it kinda breaks my immersion knowing that my ele and mesmer wear the same types of armor. i wish armor was class specific.

Nayaru.4716:

Fievre: I have a high level guardian and a high level ranger, I had been leveling my ele equally but I’ve ditched it hoping it is changed one day to be as fun to play as my other two. My guardian heals more efficiently, it also can do around the same amount of damage – Without having to run around in circles, it can just stand in the middle of 5 mobs whacking away at them while they whack away at it. Same 5 mobs on my ele, I’m strafing and dodging and ducking and weaving

Did you have somethign better to do All you have to do is move your fingers.

Nayaru.4716:

and haven’t done as much damage as my guardian would have in that time and hasn’t been able to heal up as well either and is probably going to get downed relatively soon because I haven’t got enough dodges to cover the HP that’s being taken away

There are several ways to buff up your dodge, endurance, regeneration

Nayaru.4716:

and likewise I haven’t got enough HP to take hits until my dodges power up, while I’m playing ring a ring of roses a pocket full of posies with several mobs that require me to pan my camera round fast just so I can hit it with autowile i strafe in circles, let alone trying to hit said melee mob with those ground target aoe’s that take forever to cast…

Were you trying to eat while you were playing or what lol Why not push buttons? Nothing better to do atm

Nayaru.4716:

My Ele hits harder than my ranger, but what does that matter when my ranger will kill anything faster because it’s got a pet to help DPS which often takes aggro aaaanyway, where as my ele has to start kiting as soon as it even aggros something just to give it a little bit extra time before it’s got to start using up dodges. That’s my personal comparison, lol.

The ele class is certainly not the best class to solo. Better pulls help alot to control the number of mobs. The earth elemental skill will draw the agro of virtually every mob and has very high endurance. The Focus in the off-hand makes Pve so very very easy. Not for the player who is farming a gazillion mobs in the shortest period of time.

Nayaru.4716:

Hey and maybe I just suck at playing ele, which means there has to be a whole mechanic somewhere in there that I have absolutely no idea about because I’ve played all the classes, none of which give me this annoyance, and believe me I have TRIED so hard, coming from a gw1 Ele main.. I have tried to enjoy this new ele to the point of dismissing when people said the stuff I am saying here, but I had to give up trying to defend it, eles just not happening right now. lol.

Sorry to hear that cause many others feel as you do too. Am not trying to be sarcastic. If you are still reading I hope there is sometihng constructive here you can use.

frodamn.3706:

@Fievre All I got from your post was “im in denial and my first line proves it, i like mediocrity” So, here is a clip from a very underrated movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnW2-jKskKc

@Yukishiro you’re right, we do have more combo fields, but other classes have better ones. Healing spring beats both our water fields.

Static field isnt really needed because an organized group will have 2 bleed and vuln stackers.

Fire. Well sure I’ll give us this one.

@SeraVerte I’ve 2 shot people too! But then you fight people who actually have a slight idea bout how to play and therefore beat you because you picked an elementalist. See thiefs heartseeker / pistol whipping.

As for the agro system, Anet said multiple times “whoever is closest tanks” so yeah, thats not really a point of discussion about “how well my ele can hold aggro”

I’ve tried so many specs its not even funny, I’ve done ones used by other people that works for them and they all have the same problem. They are just so much effort when you can just go make a warrior, thief, ranger and just faceroll.

I like having to work my class in order to get results, but its just stupid when other classes dont.

And this still goes back to my original point, everyone else can simply do it better than an elementalist can.

Even in PvP i got fed up with getting blown up so I went full earth water, 10 in arcana for the V trait (mandatory amirite) and got full toughness vitality gear and I even went scepter for rock barrier, signet of earth, had around 1800 toughness (give or take a few) and was still getting torn to kitten just by autos and other abilities that take nothing to aim/use

You specced for toughness and had 1800 toughness?! I have no idea what you’re doing. Are you sure you don’t mean 2800? If I go tank spec, I go Fire 20, Air 10, Earth 30, Water 10 and build the spec around signets and auras. I have ~2900 toughness and quite literally constant protection, fury, and swiftness. I deal moderate damage and take a very long time to kill. There are other specs which focus more on regeneration and do something similar.

In short, if those are really your stats, then you are speccing poorly. I don’t know what else to tell you. I’m definitely on board with the group of people who do not think ele is underpowered. Unfortunately, though, both in the moment and in the setup beforehand, it is hard by comparison. What I spec to do, though, I do very well. If I want to kill people, I do. If I want to tank, I do that, too.

I’ll grant this: it takes a lot more knowledge to play an ele than the other classes. I played a guardian in sPvP, spent 5 minutes learning the skills beforehand, then specced for group support and did wonderfully. Ele, though, has been far more complicated.

nerva.7940:

ele is a high skillcap prof. it’s very much fine.

In a ticket I sent in a few days ago asking about the class, the reply assured me that no class is meant to be more difficult than another. So I’d disagree with you on that basis.

I’ve played an ele since release in tPvP and we’re fine. We have the highest burst, we’re one of the best roamers, treb killers, supports etc…(wont go into speccs but if you’re not farming goldchests like crazy you’re doing something wrong). The only thing I’d like to see a buff on is focus oh since it’s pretty inferior to the other weps but otherwise all good.

I’ve seen so many of these threads it’s almost depressing. I’ve not posted much because I don’t want to be one of “those guys”. I’ve had tons of play time on my Elementalist and other classes. I’m pushing over 300 hours played on my ele.

In order to be “in your face” and do really amazing dps you have to be point blank. Simple as that. D/D is, in my opinion, the greatest of the weapon types if you’re looking for action and high stakes dps. It’s probably one of the best weapon skills sets of any class too in terms of fun. I love it. I do very well. But does that mean it’s perfect?

No, Elementalists are not perfect. They are not so broken they can’t be played. There are some quirks to their mechanics that won’t ever change and I’m thankful for (distance of weapons, 20 skills, no weapon swap). If every bug was fixed in our skills/traits I bet we’d feel a bit better about ourselves.

Our biggest issue, I believe, could be 1 or 2 reasons.
1: Not alot of active defensive skills. Staff has a couple, but would require a lame-duck enemy for most of them. D/D has a couple of knockdowns/push. Scepter has a blind. Focus has a couple of real defensive ideas. We have no blocks, few active defenses to save us. Even if we do defense stack (I do). Most classes have a nice defensive cooldowns without spending any points for utilities.
2. Alot of elementalist want to play glass cannon. That’s your play style and it’s legit glassy. Unfortunetly if players decide to go glass they don’t get cannon. I’m not saying we can’t push out dps, but other classes (maybe all classes?) get more cannon and less glass. If we had a higher base HP or Toughness I bet we’d be feeling a bit happier. It doesn’t make alot of sense that the lowest armor profession also has the lowest HP. I’m not sure what Anet was intending, however, so this is still just my opinion.

Elementalist—
You have to know fights ahead of time. I carry multiple sets of gear (armor and weapons) depending on the situation and play style the team will require. In order to really do well players need to know when to switch traits/skills/weapons more so than any other class. While I may play D/D as a main spec, I am more than willing to roll staff if the group requires. For a dungeon, if we have no melee I’ll roll D/D tank it up and switch up my traits so I get earthen armor at 50% and arcane shield at 25%. My utility skills are constantly changing (Exception is always having mist form) depending on the pve/pvp situation.

All in all, to be “good” at elementalist you really do need to be on top of your game, understand the finer points of combos/defenses. What I don’t understand is why ANET decided it had to be more difficult to be as good. I’d like to say I’m a god of elementalist, but it took alot work to understand my rolls.

I also agree with the OP. There is more denial here than you see at AA meetings. Most who agree with me have already stopped posting, stopped playing, and/or rolled other professions that faceroll. It’s apparent that eles were designed to be weak and squishy compared to other classes and nothing will be done to change that anytime soon. My frustrations are all for spvp. So, I’ve resorted to using my 80 ele for wvwvw and pve but it’s too horrible/frustrating to use in spvp. There I roll my faceroll thief and I’m going to roll a godmode mesmer.