Guild Wars 2

Yesterday, I was doing my daily in Queensdale and someone invited me to a party. I accepted the invite, and I noticed that the party leader was a level 80 Ele. Being a level 46 Ele, I decided to ask what his build was out of curiosity. Before I could, however, he asked me what MY build was.

I told him about my current 0/10/0/15/10 build, to which he responded, “What attunements do you use?”
Me: “Uhm, all of them?”
Him: “I stay in fire and air for more damage. You play balanced?”
Me: “Well, you’re really supposed to use all four, no? Don’t you die a lot?”
Him: “Well yea I die a lot. Eles are squishy. lol”
Me: “That’s what the other attunements are for…”

I was taken aback. The way he was wording everything, and the way he was linking me his oh-so l33t exotic Pre/CndDmg/Pow gear… it was like he was trying to mentor me. He acted as if he was entitled to preach about his build, and he seemed like he was trying to convince me to pick one or two attunements to use indefinitely.

My message to new Elementalists:
Do NOT be fooled by people like that. If you want to be effective, it is best that you use all of your attunements. Sure, you may favor one or two attunement(s) more than the rest, but you should still use the others when needed. It’s not difficult to learn, and you don’t want to get into the habit of only using 1-3 attunements, as it will drastically hinder you. In fact, (and I’ve seen this happen) dungeon groups may kick you out because you’re constantly dying they can clearly tell that you don’t know what you’re doing.

Edit for clarity: For example, if you consider yourself a “fire elementalist”, and you find that your health is low and you used your heal… don’t be afraid to switch to water and heal, or earth to cripple your opponent! Use the other elements when you need to.

This has been a public service announcement. lol

It’s a mistake a lot of people make in this game. They build for glass cannon and get destroyed.

It can work in certain situations but you have to be very good (and lucky) to really pull it off without being a corpse repeatedly.

At least, as an elementalist.

I hear glass cannon warriors aren’t terribly glass-like :P

Attunements: dance with them!
play with them, use combo continuosly change, use skill…never, never, never focus on only one of them.
Simple rotation of attunements:
Air-4-5-3-fire 3-4-1-5-Earth 4-2 or 5+blink on target-Water-3-2-4 (heal if needed)…very standard…Master ele use traits and combo finisher to buff himself and receive a lot of boon and healt

Chillax, not everyone is a power gamer.

Just because they´re not doing things optimal way, doesn´t mean they´re doing it wrong. Pve part of the game can be finished with pretty much anything, so let people have fun with their game the way the want.
If they get frustrated with the game, they´ll seek advice, or rage quit and roll a warrior.

Strang.8170:

Chillax, not everyone is a power gamer.

Just because they´re not doing things optimal way, doesn´t mean they´re doing it wrong. Pve part of the game can be finished with pretty much anything, so let people have fun with their game the way the want.
If they get frustrated with the game, they´ll seek advice, or rage quit and roll a warrior.

That’s the point, though. I don’t want people to ragequit and roll something else. That’s why I directed this toward NEW Eles, so that they’re aware. Staying in Fire/Air, for example, can get you killed pretty easily. A person may then ragequit without bothering to try branching out to other attunements first. For all they know, they could have really enjoyed the class if they tried stance dancing. But nope, they just quit. :|

zTales.4392:

Strang.8170:

Chillax, not everyone is a power gamer.

Just because they´re not doing things optimal way, doesn´t mean they´re doing it wrong. Pve part of the game can be finished with pretty much anything, so let people have fun with their game the way the want.
If they get frustrated with the game, they´ll seek advice, or rage quit and roll a warrior.

That’s the point, though. I don’t want people to ragequit and roll something else. That’s why I directed this toward NEW Eles, so that they’re aware. Staying in Fire/Air, for example, can get you killed pretty easily. A person may then ragequit without bothering to try branching out to other attunements first. For all they know, they could have really enjoyed the class if they tried stance dancing. But nope, they just quit. :|

It´s their personal problem, if they don´t have the common sense to ask guidance and/or think it out, i say good riddance.

Strang.8170:

zTales.4392:

Strang.8170:

Chillax, not everyone is a power gamer.

Just because they´re not doing things optimal way, doesn´t mean they´re doing it wrong. Pve part of the game can be finished with pretty much anything, so let people have fun with their game the way the want.
If they get frustrated with the game, they´ll seek advice, or rage quit and roll a warrior.

That’s the point, though. I don’t want people to ragequit and roll something else. That’s why I directed this toward NEW Eles, so that they’re aware. Staying in Fire/Air, for example, can get you killed pretty easily. A person may then ragequit without bothering to try branching out to other attunements first. For all they know, they could have really enjoyed the class if they tried stance dancing. But nope, they just quit. :|

It´s their personal problem, if they don´t have the common sense to ask guidance and/or think it out, i say good riddance.

/shrugs

I get what you mean. Regardless, I’m just trying to help. :P

What’s wrong with power / prec … and crit damage? (not cnd dmg that’s worthless)

Glass ele ftw!

Razor.6392:

What’s wrong with power / prec … and crit damage? (not cnd dmg that’s worthless)

Glass ele ftw!

Lol, Nothing. He had Precision, Power and Condition Damage. After he linked me literally all of his gear so I could see it, he then proceeded to brag about how great it was, and how expensive it was. Then he told me his build (30/20/0/0/20, I believe). It’s totally okay to play your own way. However, it’s annoying when people try to claim that their builds are the best, especially after they say something like “I only use fire and air.”

Probably trying to impress you because he thought you’re a gurl gamer? (reading from other post it turns out that’s the case)

It would be more understandable that way, not any less lame though lol.

sounds like a glass corpse

zTales.4392:

That’s the point, though. I don’t want people to ragequit and roll something else. That’s why I directed this toward NEW Eles, so that they’re aware. Staying in Fire/Air, for example, can get you killed pretty easily.

I’d say staying in fire/air doesn’t get you killed, taking damage and not doing anything in response gets you killed, obviously.

You can stay in fire/air all day and not get killed…or swap to water/earth and get killed…or dance like a lunatic and still get killed.

Perhaps you should be more specific in your message.

Razor.6392:

Probably trying to impress you because he thought you’re a gurl gamer? (reading from other post it turns out that’s the case)

Haha, I have no idea. I doubt it though. After I told him that I had a full set of PVT exotic armor/weapons and Berserker’s trinkets sitting in my bank for level 80, he asked how expensive it all was, then stopped talking and left the party a few minutes later. lol

Leo G.4501:

zTales.4392:

That’s the point, though. I don’t want people to ragequit and roll something else. That’s why I directed this toward NEW Eles, so that they’re aware. Staying in Fire/Air, for example, can get you killed pretty easily.

I’d say staying in fire/air doesn’t get you killed, taking damage and not doing anything in response gets you killed, obviously.

You can stay in fire/air all day and not get killed…or swap to water/earth and get killed…or dance like a lunatic and still get killed.

Perhaps you should be more specific in your message.

I said that because by not using water/earth you lose out on two heals, slows (chill + cripple), condition removal, regen (if traited/on glyph), protection (if traited/on glyph), an interrupt, a leap, and an immobilize.

I think the best advice is to try all of them, see if you can find a rotation that works for you, and if you decide to only use certain attunements it will at least be your own decision.

pdboddy.4162:

I think the best advice is to try all of them, see if you can find a rotation that works for you, and if you decide to only use certain attunements it will at least be your own decision.

I would definitely suggest trying more than one at least. I made that mistake for 40 levels thinking I was a ‘fire elementalist’ with a staff. God that was painful, I thought the class sucked.

Shimond.2478:

pdboddy.4162:

I think the best advice is to try all of them, see if you can find a rotation that works for you, and if you decide to only use certain attunements it will at least be your own decision.

I would definitely suggest trying more than one at least. I made that mistake for 40 levels thinking I was a ‘fire elementalist’ with a staff. God that was painful, I thought the class sucked.

This is exactly why I made this post. XD

I think there are two types of Eles. Those who think they need to pick an attunement (or two) and those who feel like they need to use all four. For this reason, it’s never really talked about. People just assume that what they do is what everyone else does. I want to make sure people realize that they can branch out before ditching the class.

zTales.4392:

This is exactly why I made this post. XD

I think there are two types of Eles. Those who think they need to pick an attunement (or two) and those who feel like they need to use all four. For this reason, it’s never really talked about. People just assume that what they do is what everyone else does. I want to make sure people realize that they can branch out before ditching the class.

Honestly with what I know now, I think this is a requirement really. I think the elementalist in just one attune is significantly weaker than any other class using just one weapon.

Oh I think using all 4 attunements is superior to using just one in most situations. I just think that if you’re purposefully going to gimp yourself, you should at least do it knowing that you’re gimping yourself.

Leggend.7219:

Simple rotation of attunements:
Air-4-5-3-fire 3-4-1-5-Earth 4-2 or 5+blink on target-Water-3-2-4 (heal if needed)…

Little tip: Use water 2 as last skill while in water, because you can already change to the next element while casting it.

It’s a shame how few people have figured out this class… although as someone who feels I understand it well, what I really mean is, it’s a shame how few ele’s ON MY SERVER have figured this out, the rest of you servers, I hope you never figure out how amazing our class is Especially you WvW’ers.

I understand the idea of, “play the game the way you want.” But it’s not about a right way and a wrong way, it’s about a learning curve, and yes there are better ways to play a given class then others.

Running dungeons with other ele pug’s, I’m amazed, I bet 10% or less PvE’ers have any clue what their class is really capable of, and a large percentage of WvW’ers don’t seem to know either.

You gave the right answer, I’d take your lvl 46 over his lvl 80 any day.

SlimGenre.6417:

You gave the right answer, I’d take your lvl 46 over his lvl 80 any day.

My thoughts exactly.

I like to carry all weapon combos too, its not that much bag space for an ele. Uses 4 slots max, then I can change what I’m doing to best help the party need support/large AoE – staff. Need a tank I have a focus + amour of earth + arcane aura + mist form I will give it a go.

zTales.4392:

In fact, (and I’ve seen this happen) dungeon groups may kick you out because you’re constantly dying they can clearly tell that you don’t know what you’re doing.

Also was tempted to do this to a staff ele, never switching from fire and going into mele range – idiot

As long as they are enjoying the game and not hindering you (don’t group with them if it’s a problem) then I wouldn’t worry about it.

Fiddlestyx.9714:

As long as they are enjoying the game and not hindering you (don’t group with them if it’s a problem) then I wouldn’t worry about it.

Indeed, I don’t see why so many complain about this.

The way I see it, they stay in fire, I’ll swap to some blasty stuff and stack might. Which might mean using more earth skills than usual or using a hammer or axe for more burns. Same with mesmers that use alot of ethereal fields means it’s time for leaps and blast combos for chaos armor.

This entire thread is terrible and pretty much exemplifies the wretched “elite status” that some Elementalists are trying to say they have for playing this class.

I sit in just Fire all the time. It mostly has to deal with 30 points in Fire and Pyromancer’s Puissance. On average just using auto attack (1) you earn around 10 stacks of Might. With Lava Font and Arcane Wave you can stack an extra 3 due to Area Might (hence why you may stick in the melee range). Switching Attunements gives you a 9-12s cool down typically. In that time frame you will loose nearly all your might stacks. So even doing something as simple as swapping to Earth to setup a blast finisher with Eruption will just cost you damage for virtually no net gain. Also because I am not attunement swapping around like a madman I can take Renewing Stamina instead of Elemental Attunement and have permanent Vigor. Permanent Vigor means that I can dodge anything at any time to avoid any boss mechanics as needed.

The guy in question likely was trying to teach you more about Dynamic Events and how at 80 when in Orr you’re going to be mostly in Fire/Air to get tags for events and never use Water/Earth. This is to get the most amount of loot possible because Staff or Dagger primary (most common weapons) Fire/Air tags the most amount of kills for loot. Trying to do Dynamic Events in Water/Earth later on when you have 10-20 people at an event and things are dying before Ice Spike would even fall from the sky would just be an exercise in frustration.

The gear in question was likely one of two reasons. One, “Rampagers” (Prec/Pow/Cond) has the highest +Precision on all the gear for critting. Two, he likely was using Burning Precision which 30% chance to burn on crit. This way on massive Crit bounces of Chain Lightning (Air 1 on Staff) or Lightning Whip (Air 1 on Dagger) you’re spreading burning as well. Also Flame Burst is a relatively decent AOE being fairly spammable (8-10s cool down) and dealing good damage with Condition damage. Is it the most solid build? No. I’d build Pow/Prec/CritDmg as well but give the guy credit for thinking outside the box instead of working towards the cookie cutter, rubber stamped 0/10/0/30/30 build as you clearly seem to be working towards (or some slight variation of it).

All that said I do not always just sit in one attunement, but instead play the Elementalist adaptively. If things are going poorly and I need to do CC’s then I do so. I don’t just randomly switch attunements like some schizophrenic moron. However if I’m in a group and I have a Warrior or Guardian clearing conditions and everyone’s generally doing alright there’s no reason NOT to just sit there and do damage.

Finally the “lack of damage” argument is faulty on two fronts. First, you just can’t compare melee of any kind in this game to ranged. They simply won’t be on par, the game is overtuned for melee. Second, without meters there’s no way to actually tell how classes/players are doing. As a person who plays Ele/Mes/Guard/Eng the only one I’ve found better is the Guardian and Mesmer melee (which brings us back to the first point).

You can now go back to your smug superiority and patting yourselves on the back for how much “better” you are at such an “advanced” class.

Kodiak, I think the problem arises from people confusing burst damage and sustained damage.

For example, in PvE I often use Fire/Air #1 for the sustained damage they provide. But I have downed/killed more than a few players in WvW with staff by casting Fire #5 and #2, then rapidly switching through Water #2 and Earth #2,#4 – that puts some serious pain on whoever isn’t quick enough to get out of the AoE. Something you would never be able to do with just staying in Fire/Air.

Another BIG reason why elementalists should never stick to just one or two attunements is because if you wanted raw damage, you should have rolled a thief or a 100B warrior. Damage is NOT what we are all about. Especially so in PvE.

So focusing purely on damage as an elementalist may make sense only in one area of the game, tagging mobs for loot drops during those annoying bugged events in Orr.

For everything else, switch attunements. We have very useful CC’s, debuffs and buffs to provide to ourselves and our teammates. Ignoring those just to get a bit more damage out is literally gimping yourself.

Also, Superior Sigil of Battle. 3 might stacks on attunement switch every 9 seconds. Use that with Might combos, and we have plenty of those, and running out of Might stacks is not an issue. Use S/F or S/D if you want to max Might stacking, I frequently get up 10-12 stacks without breaking a sweat.

Well obviously depending on the weapon some attunes are better than others for tagging, but d/d has no problem hitting 5 people in ANY attune – every single one has an AE so the argument that sticking in fire is the best way to tag targets (at least as d/d) is completely false.

Not to mention you’re going to get far more out of your class with deep arcana and attune swapping. You can claim you don’t spec that way but you’re trying to be a special snowflake and quite frankly – inferior at the class as it’s currently designed.

Also lets not forget this thread is clearly titled ‘new elementalists’ – we’re not talking about tagging mobs at 80 in Orr anyway so I don’t know why this is even relevant to the conversation. Trust me, I tried the one attune method for 40 painful levels (and then stopped playing the class altogether while I got 3 others to 80) – I’d save new elementalists that pain. It might work out ok end game, but that’s not what we’re talking about here.

This sounds like a guy who said I was almost as good as him but I should stick to water for supporting the group. He linked me his awesome condition damage stuff and I said that it was pretty good since you had direct and condis. He then proceeded to lecture me about the elements and his synergy.

I just told him that I have more than one set of armour and he proceeded to leave me alone.

I’d even say endgame would be far worse than early levels. Attunement swapping is our class mechanic. It would be the same as engineers sticking to a flamethrower no matter what or thieves not using stealth…

Kodiak.3281:

You can now go back to your smug superiority and patting yourselves on the back for how much “better” you are at such an “advanced” class.

Actually, I’m just shaking my head right now. You completely missed the point. See below.

Shimond.2478:

I would definitely suggest trying more than one at least. I made that mistake for 40 levels thinking I was a ‘fire elementalist’ with a staff. God that was painful, I thought the class sucked.

brickforlife.1364:

This sounds like a guy who said I was almost as good as him but I should stick to water for supporting the group. He linked me his awesome condition damage stuff and I said that it was pretty good since you had direct and condis. He then proceeded to lecture me about the elements and his synergy.

If Brickforlife was new to the Ele world, would he have listened to that guy? Maybe, I don’t know. If he would have, he probably would have had a crap time.

I don’t see what’s so ‘elitist’ about anything that I’ve said. My tone isn’t condescending at all. Your scathing tone, however, makes you sound like a jerk.

Edit: How come you can’t give people advice without getting hate for it? Seriously? Did you even read the whole first post?

“… , and he seemed like he was trying to convince me to pick one or two attunements to use indefinitely.

…If you want to be effective, it is best that you use all of your attunements. Sure, you may favor one or two attunement(s) more than the rest, but you should still use the others when needed. It’s not difficult to learn, and you don’t want to get into the habit of only using 1-3 attunements, as it will drastically hinder you."

I just don’t understand what’s so horrible about that.

Shimond.2478:

Well obviously depending on the weapon some attunes are better than others for tagging, but d/d has no problem hitting 5 people in ANY attune – every single one has an AE so the argument that sticking in fire is the best way to tag targets (at least as d/d) is completely false.

Not to mention you’re going to get far more out of your class with deep arcana and attune swapping. You can claim you don’t spec that way but you’re trying to be a special snowflake and quite frankly – inferior at the class as it’s currently designed.

Also lets not forget this thread is clearly titled ‘new elementalists’ – we’re not talking about tagging mobs at 80 in Orr anyway so I don’t know why this is even relevant to the conversation. Trust me, I tried the one attune method for 40 painful levels (and then stopped playing the class altogether while I got 3 others to 80) – I’d save new elementalists that pain. It might work out ok end game, but that’s not what we’re talking about here.

Simply having AOE attacks is not the same as being able to get credit on mobs. Ask any Mesmer or Necro player as they both have plenty of AOE but not enough AOE burst damage to reliably get tags on events.

Orr events were brought up because the person the original poster was talking about was a level 80 who was trying to give advice to a level 46 at a Dynamic Event. Even if you ignore Orr, any area where there’s high competition with lots of people doing the highest burst damage possible for the most amount of credit is sound advice. However said 46 then comes here and makes some elitist post about his way is the right way as if perpetuating the perceived standard way to play an Elementalist is doing some sort of public service.

There was a time when deep Arcana (as in 30) was standard because of how powerful Evasive Arcana was creating blast finishers on demand. That time has passed. There are still some specs that take advantage of the Attunement Swap and Boon Duration bonus (such as D/D) but to imply that it’s mandatory in any fashion is simply ignorant and lacking in imagination.

zTales.4392:

I don’t see what’s so ‘elitist’ about anything that I’ve said. My tone isn’t condescending at all. Your scathing tone, however, makes you sound like a jerk.

Edit: How come you can’t give people advice without getting hate for it? Seriously?

If you can’t see the absurdity of you not liking a person lecturing you and telling you how to play the class and then coming to the forums and making a post telling others how to play the class you’re probably just going to get it.

Kodiak.3281:

zTales.4392:

I don’t see what’s so ‘elitist’ about anything that I’ve said. My tone isn’t condescending at all. Your scathing tone, however, makes you sound like a jerk.

Edit: How come you can’t give people advice without getting hate for it? Seriously?

If you can’t see the absurdity of you not liking a person lecturing you and telling you how to play the class and then coming to the forums and making a post telling others how to play the class you’re probably just going to get it.

Read the edit, then tell me if you’ve actually read the entire first post. I’m not telling people “LOL Use every attunement exactly at the right time or you’ll suck and die in a hole.” or some kitten like that. I’m saying “it’s best to”, “you may want to”, etc. -_-

zTales.4392:

Read the edit, then tell me if you’ve actually read the entire first post. I’m not telling people “LOL Use every attunement exactly at the right time or you’ll suck and die in a hole.” or some kitten like that. I’m saying “it’s best to”, “you may want to”, etc. -_-

I can only assume you’re some some of elaborate troll at this point because:

zTales.4392:

I was taken aback. The way he was wording everything, and the way he was linking me his oh-so l33t exotic Pre/CndDmg/Pow gear… it was like he was trying to mentor me. He acted as if he was entitled to preach about his build, and he seemed like he was trying to convince me to pick one or two attunements to use indefinitely.

and

zTales.4392:

My message to new Elementalists:
Do NOT be fooled by people like that. If you want to be effective, it is best that you use all of your attunements. Sure, you may favor one or two attunement(s) more than the rest, but you should still use the others when needed. It’s not difficult to learn, and you don’t want to get into the habit of only using 1-3 attunements, as it will drastically hinder you. In fact, (and I’ve seen this happen) dungeon groups may kick you out because you’re constantly dying they can clearly tell that you don’t know what you’re doing.

Are the exact same thing. That guy was trying to give you tips on how to play better and here you are trying to give tips to everyone. Your points on how to play are every bit debatable as his given the right context of what we’re talking about. There’s far too many assumptions going on regarding build, weapon and what the person is doing at that time (all of which matters in this game).

Kodiak.3281:

zTales.4392:

Read the edit, then tell me if you’ve actually read the entire first post. I’m not telling people “LOL Use every attunement exactly at the right time or you’ll suck and die in a hole.” or some kitten like that. I’m saying “it’s best to”, “you may want to”, etc. -_-

I can only assume you’re some some of elaborate troll at this point because:

zTales.4392:

I was taken aback. The way he was wording everything, and the way he was linking me his oh-so l33t exotic Pre/CndDmg/Pow gear… it was like he was trying to mentor me. He acted as if he was entitled to preach about his build, and he seemed like he was trying to convince me to pick one or two attunements to use indefinitely.

and

zTales.4392:

My message to new Elementalists:
Do NOT be fooled by people like that. If you want to be effective, it is best that you use all of your attunements. Sure, you may favor one or two attunement(s) more than the rest, but you should still use the others when needed. It’s not difficult to learn, and you don’t want to get into the habit of only using 1-3 attunements, as it will drastically hinder you. In fact, (and I’ve seen this happen) dungeon groups may kick you out because you’re constantly dying they can clearly tell that you don’t know what you’re doing.

Are the exact same thing. That guy was trying to give you tips on how to play better and here you are trying to give tips to everyone. Your points on how to play are every bit debatable as his given the right context of what we’re talking about. There’s far too many assumptions going on regarding build, weapon and what the person is doing at that time (all of which matters in this game).

Wow. I’m not being a troll, you just have no idea where I’m coming from. Okay, let me try and make this as clear as I possibly can by using an example…

There’s a level 10 Elementalist fighting in Queensdale. He will not leave fire attunement. Due to the fact that Elementalists are squishy as heck at such low levels, he’s dying ridiculously often. Would it be better to,
A) Suggest that he stay in fire, get better gear, and learn to play.
B) Switch to water attunement, pop Frost Aura, heal.

In this case, I want people to realize that it’s okay to switch to water attunement. Do you understand now?

Kodiak.3281:

This entire thread is terrible and pretty much exemplifies the wretched “elite status” that some Elementalists are trying to say they have for playing this class.

I sit in just Fire all the time. It mostly has to deal with 30 points in Fire and Pyromancer’s Puissance. On average just using auto attack (1) you earn around 10 stacks of Might. With Lava Font and Arcane Wave you can stack an extra 3 due to Area Might (hence why you may stick in the melee range). Switching Attunements gives you a 9-12s cool down typically. In that time frame you will loose nearly all your might stacks. So even doing something as simple as swapping to Earth to setup a blast finisher with Eruption will just cost you damage for virtually no net gain. Also because I am not attunement swapping around like a madman I can take Renewing Stamina instead of Elemental Attunement and have permanent Vigor. Permanent Vigor means that I can dodge anything at any time to avoid any boss mechanics as needed.

The guy in question likely was trying to teach you more about Dynamic Events and how at 80 when in Orr you’re going to be mostly in Fire/Air to get tags for events and never use Water/Earth. This is to get the most amount of loot possible because Staff or Dagger primary (most common weapons) Fire/Air tags the most amount of kills for loot. Trying to do Dynamic Events in Water/Earth later on when you have 10-20 people at an event and things are dying before Ice Spike would even fall from the sky would just be an exercise in frustration.

The gear in question was likely one of two reasons. One, “Rampagers” (Prec/Pow/Cond) has the highest +Precision on all the gear for critting. Two, he likely was using Burning Precision which 30% chance to burn on crit. This way on massive Crit bounces of Chain Lightning (Air 1 on Staff) or Lightning Whip (Air 1 on Dagger) you’re spreading burning as well. Also Flame Burst is a relatively decent AOE being fairly spammable (8-10s cool down) and dealing good damage with Condition damage. Is it the most solid build? No. I’d build Pow/Prec/CritDmg as well but give the guy credit for thinking outside the box instead of working towards the cookie cutter, rubber stamped 0/10/0/30/30 build as you clearly seem to be working towards (or some slight variation of it).

All that said I do not always just sit in one attunement, but instead play the Elementalist adaptively. If things are going poorly and I need to do CC’s then I do so. I don’t just randomly switch attunements like some schizophrenic moron. However if I’m in a group and I have a Warrior or Guardian clearing conditions and everyone’s generally doing alright there’s no reason NOT to just sit there and do damage.

Finally the “lack of damage” argument is faulty on two fronts. First, you just can’t compare melee of any kind in this game to ranged. They simply won’t be on par, the game is overtuned for melee. Second, without meters there’s no way to actually tell how classes/players are doing. As a person who plays Ele/Mes/Guard/Eng the only one I’ve found better is the Guardian and Mesmer melee (which brings us back to the first point).

You can now go back to your smug superiority and patting yourselves on the back for how much “better” you are at such an “advanced” class.

I think you’re too quick to judge, this thread was just supposed to mock a guy that was trying to show off, nothing more.

Bottom line, no matter how many might stacks you may get from the pyromancer’s puissance trait, an elementalist that doesn’t actively switch attunements is a bad elementalist. Sure when fighting the trashiest mobs you can just afk autoattack with fire 1 until they die, but in pretty much any other situation, be it pve or pvp, you must switch the attunements to get the most out of your class.

Razor.6392:

Kodiak.3281:

This entire thread is terrible and pretty much exemplifies the wretched “elite status” that some Elementalists are trying to say they have for playing this class.

I sit in just Fire all the time. It mostly has to deal with 30 points in Fire and Pyromancer’s Puissance. On average just using auto attack (1) you earn around 10 stacks of Might. With Lava Font and Arcane Wave you can stack an extra 3 due to Area Might (hence why you may stick in the melee range). Switching Attunements gives you a 9-12s cool down typically. In that time frame you will loose nearly all your might stacks. So even doing something as simple as swapping to Earth to setup a blast finisher with Eruption will just cost you damage for virtually no net gain. Also because I am not attunement swapping around like a madman I can take Renewing Stamina instead of Elemental Attunement and have permanent Vigor. Permanent Vigor means that I can dodge anything at any time to avoid any boss mechanics as needed.

The guy in question likely was trying to teach you more about Dynamic Events and how at 80 when in Orr you’re going to be mostly in Fire/Air to get tags for events and never use Water/Earth. This is to get the most amount of loot possible because Staff or Dagger primary (most common weapons) Fire/Air tags the most amount of kills for loot. Trying to do Dynamic Events in Water/Earth later on when you have 10-20 people at an event and things are dying before Ice Spike would even fall from the sky would just be an exercise in frustration.

The gear in question was likely one of two reasons. One, “Rampagers” (Prec/Pow/Cond) has the highest +Precision on all the gear for critting. Two, he likely was using Burning Precision which 30% chance to burn on crit. This way on massive Crit bounces of Chain Lightning (Air 1 on Staff) or Lightning Whip (Air 1 on Dagger) you’re spreading burning as well. Also Flame Burst is a relatively decent AOE being fairly spammable (8-10s cool down) and dealing good damage with Condition damage. Is it the most solid build? No. I’d build Pow/Prec/CritDmg as well but give the guy credit for thinking outside the box instead of working towards the cookie cutter, rubber stamped 0/10/0/30/30 build as you clearly seem to be working towards (or some slight variation of it).

All that said I do not always just sit in one attunement, but instead play the Elementalist adaptively. If things are going poorly and I need to do CC’s then I do so. I don’t just randomly switch attunements like some schizophrenic moron. However if I’m in a group and I have a Warrior or Guardian clearing conditions and everyone’s generally doing alright there’s no reason NOT to just sit there and do damage.

Finally the “lack of damage” argument is faulty on two fronts. First, you just can’t compare melee of any kind in this game to ranged. They simply won’t be on par, the game is overtuned for melee. Second, without meters there’s no way to actually tell how classes/players are doing. As a person who plays Ele/Mes/Guard/Eng the only one I’ve found better is the Guardian and Mesmer melee (which brings us back to the first point).

You can now go back to your smug superiority and patting yourselves on the back for how much “better” you are at such an “advanced” class.

I think you’re too quick to judge, this thread was just supposed to mock a guy that was trying to show off, nothing more.

Bottom line, no matter how many might stacks you may get from the pyromancer’s puissance trait, an elementalist that doesn’t actively switch attunements is a bad elementalist. Sure when fighting the trashiest mobs you can just afk autoattack with fire 1 until they die, but in pretty much any other situation, be it pve or pvp, you must switch the attunements to get the most out of your class.

…I wasn’t trying to mock somebody, either… -.-

zTales.4392:

Wow. I’m not being a troll, you just have no idea where I’m coming from. Okay, let me try and make this as clear as I possibly can by using an example…

There’s a level 10 Elementalist fighting in Queensdale. He will not leave fire attunement. Due to the fact that Elementalists are squishy as heck at such low levels, he’s dying ridiculously often. Would it be better to,
A) Suggest that he stay in fire, get better gear, and learn to play.
B) Switch to water attunement, pop Frost Aura, heal.

In this case, I want people to realize that it’s okay to switch to water attunement. Do you understand now?

Actually you’re the one who just doesn’t quite seem to grasp the concept. Until said Ele in your example asks for advice, telling that other person a “better” way to play the character to his makes you no different than the guy telling you to pick 1-2 elements and stick to them (the way he plays the ele).

Maybe that level 10 ele is just unlocking skills with fire? So now you switch up the arguement and say what if it was a level 40 ele sticking in fire and dying? Again, maybe he’s trying out a build for himself and trying to figure out if it’s viable rather than eat the same spoon fed build everyone else talks about? Maybe he’s doing high risk burst play with S/D trying to blow everything up in 2 seconds?

The big concept you seem to be having a problem with is it’s not about the quality of advice here. Even if you tell a player by doing X they will eat thunder and crap lightning the point is you’re still telling them what to do and how to play. It’s identical on every level to another player telling you how to play even if their advice is unbelievably terrible. You’re both telling them how to play the game.

Why doesn’t the advice matter? Because all advice is debatable on the context and scenario it’s being given for. Fire/Air is great for Dynamic Event farming but you probably wouldn’t want to stay in them full time for WvW. Water/Earth has some great support based builds but you probably wouldn’t use them while soloing. D/D is a great, versatile build but you’re still going to want a few Staff eles around for field generation in large group play. Your arguement and message provides NONE of this context and states:

zTales.4392

If you want to be effective, it is best that you use all of your attunements.

Kodiak.3281:

zTales.4392:

Wow. I’m not being a troll, you just have no idea where I’m coming from. Okay, let me try and make this as clear as I possibly can by using an example…

There’s a level 10 Elementalist fighting in Queensdale. He will not leave fire attunement. Due to the fact that Elementalists are squishy as heck at such low levels, he’s dying ridiculously often. Would it be better to,
A) Suggest that he stay in fire, get better gear, and learn to play.
B) Switch to water attunement, pop Frost Aura, heal.

In this case, I want people to realize that it’s okay to switch to water attunement. Do you understand now?

Actually you’re the one who just doesn’t quite seem to grasp the concept. Until said Ele in your example asks for advice, telling that other person a “better” way to play the character to his makes you no different than the guy telling you to pick 1-2 elements and stick to them (the way he plays the ele).

Maybe that level 10 ele is just unlocking skills with fire? So now you switch up the arguement and say what if it was a level 40 ele sticking in fire and dying? Again, maybe he’s trying out a build for himself and trying to figure out if it’s viable rather than eat the same spoon fed build everyone else talks about? Maybe he’s doing high risk burst play with S/D trying to blow everything up in 2 seconds?

The big concept you seem to be having a problem with is it’s not about the quality of advice here. Even if you tell a player by doing X they will eat thunder and crap lightning the point is you’re still telling them what to do and how to play. It’s identical on every level to another player telling you how to play even if their advice is unbelievably terrible. You’re both telling them how to play the game.

Why doesn’t the advice matter? Because all advice is debatable on the context and scenario it’s being given for. Fire/Air is great for Dynamic Event farming but you probably wouldn’t want to stay in them full time for WvW. Water/Earth has some great support based builds but you probably wouldn’t use them while soloing. D/D is a great, versatile build but you’re still going to want a few Staff eles around for field generation in large group play. Your arguement and message provides NONE of this context and states:

zTales.4392

If you want to be effective, it is best that you use all of your attunements.

… Wow.

First of all, the example I made up is mine to make up. If in MY EXAMPLE, the Ele IS NOT UNLOCKING SKILLS…

Seriously, there’s no point in arguing with you since you’ll never get the point. I understand what you mean as far as ’you’re still telling people how to play’, but here’s the difference:

I’m not being like that guy and telling you that you should stick with a certain thing and roll with it because it’s the best. I’m saying, WATER ATTUNEMENT IS THERE. Earth attunement is there. If you’re in a pinch, why would you stay in fire when you can use what abilities your class offers? YOU WILL DIE QUICKER if you NEVER use water attunement. Don’t quit the class because you die a lot, branch out to other attunements and try them first. I’ve been saying this throughout the whole thread…

If you don’t understand me at this point, I give up.

Kodiak successful troll?

Razor.6392:

Kodiak successful troll?

If he’s some sort of elaborate troll, I applaud him. He did a great job at getting me REALLY frustrated. XD

Razor.6392:

Kodiak successful troll?

Yea I’m thinking so at this point – I mean look at his first post in this thread he talks about how powerful sitting in fire attune auto attacking is…

To be honest i dont know with what i d laugh at more..An elementalist staying in 1 attunement doing pitiful damage and dying over and over again ?..
Or an ele in a dungeon spazzing through attunements putting water in cd when nobody needs it,cutting his dps in fire at half,capping the bleed stacks with his pitiful 0 condition damage or using air cc in a boss with infinite defiant stacks ? :P

Swapping atunements in battle is the best way to go about it i know. Im lvl 78 and just use staff. Now i know people will say d/d is better etc etc but i really dont care.

I always start in fire. Thing is i very rarly need to change atunement as the mob is dead before i need to. I know things will get ahrder in dungoens and pvp but for simple solo leveling atunement dancing is no better for me than sticking to fire.

If i had to play d/d, atunement dance, dodge and move around 100% of the time then i would get very bored with Ele.

I payed for the game and i can choose how i play each class. Ele with staff is slower paced which suits my gaming style. If someone tells me im playing it wrong i just ignore them.

All im saying is, Dont tell others how to play there class. If it does seem wrong to you it doesn’t matter as they prob just having as much fun playing it there way.

kostbabis.8791:

To be honest i dont know with what i d laugh at more..An elementalist staying in 1 attunement doing pitiful damage and dying over and over again ?..
Or an ele in a dungeon spazzing through attunements putting water in cd when nobody needs it,cutting his dps in fire at half,capping the bleed stacks with his pitiful 0 condition damage or using air cc in a boss with infinite defiant stacks ? :P

I’m kind of guilty of that. lol. I mean it’s not HORRIBLE, but there are times when I switch into earth/water when I don’t need to. It’s a habit that I noticed a while ago that I feel like I really need to break. XD It’s definitely getting better as I level, however. I’m level 49 now, and by level 80 I’m pretty sure I won’t be needlessly swapping at all.

kostbabis.8791:

To be honest i dont know with what i d laugh at more..An elementalist staying in 1 attunement doing pitiful damage and dying over and over again ?..
Or an ele in a dungeon spazzing through attunements putting water in cd when nobody needs it,cutting his dps in fire at half,capping the bleed stacks with his pitiful 0 condition damage or using air cc in a boss with infinite defiant stacks ? :P

Thank you!

I tried to say it earlier a bit more subtly but yeah, how people speak of using elementalists sometimes just makes me shake my head. Yeah you don’t want to just stay in one attunement but you don’t want to just dance through them just because they’re there.

There’s nothing wrong with sticking in, say Water for 15 sec or more if you know you need the chill and healing, spamming the auto for some vulnerability stacks isn’t horrible for the team either. Or just sticking in Fire when you know you need the AoE.

I can only hope in PvP (namely 1v1 or small scale) isn’t a spam fest. Players tout PvP above all else, it’d be a shame if all you had to do to win was cycle through your attunements. If you’re doing high-end fractals, that isn’t always the best approach.

kostbabis.8791:

To be honest i dont know with what i d laugh at more..An elementalist staying in 1 attunement doing pitiful damage and dying over and over again ?..
Or an ele in a dungeon spazzing through attunements putting water in cd when nobody needs it,cutting his dps in fire at half,capping the bleed stacks with his pitiful 0 condition damage or using air cc in a boss with infinite defiant stacks ? :P

You do know that the interrupt component kicks in separately from hard CC such as knockdowns?

And again… you swap attunements for combos as well. You get attunement bonuses when traited for it. I get “perma” fury and vigor by rapidly cycling attunements.

So no. There is no good reason to stick in one attunement at any time except when spamming at Orr events. People who advocate anything like that for other 99% of the game need to learn to play.

Gaudrath.6725:

kostbabis.8791:

To be honest i dont know with what i d laugh at more..An elementalist staying in 1 attunement doing pitiful damage and dying over and over again ?..
Or an ele in a dungeon spazzing through attunements putting water in cd when nobody needs it,cutting his dps in fire at half,capping the bleed stacks with his pitiful 0 condition damage or using air cc in a boss with infinite defiant stacks ? :P

You do know that the interrupt component kicks in separately from hard CC such as knockdowns?

And again… you swap attunements for combos as well. You get attunement bonuses when traited for it. I get “perma” fury and vigor by rapidly cycling attunements.

So no. There is no good reason to stick in one attunement at any time except when spamming at Orr events. People who advocate anything like that for other 99% of the game need to learn to play.

Hmm, I’d rather have Static Field or Updraft ready right there waiting form me when I know I’m about to need it vs possibly having air on 1.5sec of cooldown at the exact moment I need it. Yes, 20% crit chance is great, but is it going anywhere? Do you get a medal for keeping it going all the time? Is it not worth using at opportune times like in conjunction with your bigger bursts?

I’m still curious about this stance-dancing perma-fury mentality…what happens when a Warrior with FGJ is around? Do you adapt your play to compensate? Or is it really just a habit?

Leo G.4501:

Gaudrath.6725:

kostbabis.8791:

To be honest i dont know with what i d laugh at more..An elementalist staying in 1 attunement doing pitiful damage and dying over and over again ?..
Or an ele in a dungeon spazzing through attunements putting water in cd when nobody needs it,cutting his dps in fire at half,capping the bleed stacks with his pitiful 0 condition damage or using air cc in a boss with infinite defiant stacks ? :P

You do know that the interrupt component kicks in separately from hard CC such as knockdowns?

And again… you swap attunements for combos as well. You get attunement bonuses when traited for it. I get “perma” fury and vigor by rapidly cycling attunements.

So no. There is no good reason to stick in one attunement at any time except when spamming at Orr events. People who advocate anything like that for other 99% of the game need to learn to play.

Hmm, I’d rather have Static Field or Updraft ready right there waiting form me when I know I’m about to need it vs possibly having air on 1.5sec of cooldown at the exact moment I need it. Yes, 20% crit chance is great, but is it going anywhere? Do you get a medal for keeping it going all the time? Is it not worth using at opportune times like in conjunction with your bigger bursts?

I’m still curious about this stance-dancing perma-fury mentality…what happens when a Warrior with FGJ is around? Do you adapt your play to compensate? Or is it really just a habit?

Depends what situation we are talking about. In PvP, yes, you are tactical with attunements so that you got your heals, escapes and CC ready when you need them.

But even then it depends. As I mentioned earlier, I can melt wall defenders in a couple seconds by syncing staff Earth #5, Fire #2, #5 and Water #2, using Fury and rapidly cycling through attunements. Especially when they zerg up since then players have a difficult time spotting what is going on.

In PvE, usually there is no situation where I just must use that heal or disaster follows, so I usually just keep cycling through attunements to keep Fury up – because there is actually a big difference between 50% crit chance and 70%. Fury builds also get a lot more from crit hits than raw damage, you get all sorts of extra effects, from perma vigor to extra conditions and it all adds up to something much more effective that what you would get from trying to optimize Fire, for example.

I tried Fire 30 build with Pyromancer Puissance, and while it sounds good in theory, in practice you can get a much better damage output with 0 in Fire, and focus on high crit chance Fury build with gear to compensate for Might stacking (Superior Sigil of Battle comes in handy).

So what I am saying is that while there are situations where you might want to cycle faster or more slowly through attunements, there are NO real situations where you don’t want to cycle at all. Ignoring the main class mechanic leads only to gimping yourself and there is nothing anyone can argue about that.