Guild Wars 2

So I heard about the 75% off deal and I bought in. Now looking for some insight on Elementalists, this is one of 3 profession I’m looking into , others being warrior and thief.
I understand the name elementalist tells you what the class is about but I’m wondering if there are hybrid builds? While looking at youtube videos , I came across a video of a ranger using a melee weapon and so that raises my second question are hybrids meant for experienced and well geared players?

The youtube video is called Guild Wars 2 – Melee Ranger Outnumbered Compilation – Path of Scar , in case anyone was wondering.

There is no such thing as “hybrid” by the means of a Ranger using the weapon of another class. Ranger does not mean “ranged weapon user”, many misinterpret the name of the class. They can use swords, axes and daggers (and many other weapons) not just shortbow/longbow.

^^^

You don’t really hybridize elementalists.

I’m speaking from a PvE perspective & overall, the nice thing is that with one weapon you get 20 skills (love it)!

In general the “only” PvE build out there for elementalists is Zerker. Your weapon greatly defines how the build works. I personally prefer staff.

Brokenangel.1389:

^^^

You don’t really hybridize elementalists.

I’m speaking from a PvE perspective & overall, the nice thing is that with one weapon you get 20 skills (love it)!

In general the “only” PvE build out there for elementalists is Zerker. Your weapon greatly defines how the build works. I personally prefer staff.

Yep. And for me, anything be scepter works!

Person buys game today. Gets told to play Berserker in Berserker gear.

Taking bets on how they’re going to hate how often times they get downed and then either quit game or roll another class

Kodiak.3281:

Person buys game today. Gets told to play Berserker in Berserker gear.

Taking bets on how they’re going to hate how often times they get downed and then either quit game or roll another class

:)

That’s why I said “only.”

Zerker is 9/10s of the law, but you will have to learn to how it works. Frankly I played Zerker from level 1, and it got me used to it. I hardly notice the lack of defense now.

Yes, in Zerker you WILL get dropped more often, but the Ele isn’t exactly a tank anyway, it’s a Nuke.

If pure Zerker isn’t your thing, mixing some Soldier or Knight armor is helpful. Though is recommend Zerker accessories & weapons…

-

I totally agree by the way, that scepter is a no-go.

I just don’t like how it flows. It’s great for burst & survivability, but it’s attscks feel so forced…

Sevens, since everyone here is just ignoring your question, let me chime in.

I am assuming that by “hybrid” you are referring to hybrids in something like WoW or SWTOR. Guild Wars 2 works quite differently. There is no single build for ranged DPS and another for melee DPS. The arguments above me are due to this. Simply your weapon defines your role in combat, armor defines your stats, and traits adds flavor. Adjust as you please.

Based on your questions I would just enjoy the game. By the time you get to 80 you will understand.

Sevens, use scepter/dagger while leveling for max damage.

Put points into the Air line once you get the option to for some additional precision (Critical chance). You can always redo your traits (skill tree basically) for free so feel free to try them all.

Grab the three arcane utility skills when you get the option to, they’ll increase your damage for PvE massively…. The air signet might also be nice to have for the 25% run speed passive!

The Arcane trait line is your bread and butter trait line, it helps you swap attunements (your four elements) quicker and can provide you with awesome boons(buffs), but you can worry about this later.

And just incase you like pvp… Dagger/Dagger is the meta, you’ll be a tanky melee support mage who can excel at 1v1s basically, but you are not limited to playing this role with dual daggers! (My most favorite weapon choice for the class) Dagger/Dagger is also fun to level with, if you go dagger/dagger make sure you put 2 points in the Air trait line(skill tree) and pick up the zypher’s boon trait from the Air line: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Zephyr%27s_Boon
Also grab one point in the Arcane trait line right afterwards, this way you can stack the fury boon and get 20% critical bonus chance for quite some time

Kodiak.3281:

Person buys game today. Gets told to play Berserker in Berserker gear.

Taking bets on how they’re going to hate how often times they get downed and then either quit game or roll another class

The “berserker” advice is a very narrow perspective of the game and it’s really only applicable to dungeons and the original World Bosses at release. It’s also universal to any class, because the PvE content is so easy that you simply don’t have to take advantage of 90% of the game mechanics to survive. It’s just all about facerolling your keyboard to do as much dmg as possible and dodging at the right times.

It’s not the case at all in WvW or PvP, because the competition requires utilizing all the game mechanics and it’s not just about doing damage. Most of the metabuilds use other gear sets besides berserkers. The top rated meta builds for elems are celestial mixes.

It’s one of the reasons I think if you buy this game and just do PvE content, you are going to walk away with the wrong perspective and think the game is boring. You have to do WvW and PvP to get a real idea of just how fun and awesome the combat in this game really is.

Anet seems to be trying to change that though with the introduction of high level fractals, Tequatl and Silver Wastes. I run the same builds I run in WvW to support groups in Silverwastes, because the PvE in that zone is significantly harder and much more intense than any of the other World Bosses.

Based on the interviews they have given for the new expansion, their focus seems to be on adding more challenging PvE content (I read in one interview they have been working for awhile now on revamping their AI system), so hopefully with that, the days of “zerker or gtfo” will start to fade off.

Could you define the question of hybrid play styles?

Hey,
welcome to the ele family. Guildwars2 is a little different when it comes to the game mechanics.
As already stated above you can’t chose stats by leveling up for example or completing difficult game content. Armor as well as trinkets – to a certain extent – define your overall damage/health/crit chance etc.
The gear you’re wearing therefore defines the role you are placed into.
—
The current meta doesn’t want players to mix around with armor sets. The current way of playing content is playing ‘zerkie’ – having zerk trinkets and armor.
So there aren’t any ‘hybrid builds’.
There are different weapons which can be used by the ele – you should ALWAYS carry all weapons usable by your profession in your inventory. In PvE, there is no such thing as a perfect weapon.
Knowing your rotation and knowing different boss’s attacks is fundamental. Also keep in mind that Guildwars2 is a “live” game. You have to move around, maybe stand in a certain position to get your party’s effects ( boons, cleanses etc.) – as well as dodge. Mobs in this game are active, therefore dodging is necessary.

MadRabbit.3179:

Kodiak.3281:

Person buys game today. Gets told to play Berserker in Berserker gear.

Taking bets on how they’re going to hate how often times they get downed and then either quit game or roll another class

The “berserker” advice is a very narrow perspective of the game and it’s really only applicable to dungeons and the original World Bosses at release. It’s also universal to any class, because the PvE content is so easy that you simply don’t have to take advantage of 90% of the game mechanics to survive. It’s just all about facerolling your keyboard to do as much dmg as possible and dodging at the right times.

It’s not the case at all in WvW or PvP, because the competition requires utilizing all the game mechanics and it’s not just about doing damage. Most of the metabuilds use other gear sets besides berserkers. The top rated meta builds for elems are celestial mixes.

It’s one of the reasons I think if you buy this game and just do PvE content, you are going to walk away with the wrong perspective and think the game is boring. You have to do WvW and PvP to get a real idea of just how fun and awesome the combat in this game really is.

Anet seems to be trying to change that though with the introduction of high level fractals, Tequatl and Silver Wastes. I run the same builds I run in WvW to support groups in Silverwastes, because the PvE in that zone is significantly harder and much more intense than any of the other World Bosses.

Based on the interviews they have given for the new expansion, their focus seems to be on adding more challenging PvE content (I read in one interview they have been working for awhile now on revamping their AI system), so hopefully with that, the days of “zerker or gtfo” will start to fade off.

You can’t crit on all ‘world bosses’. (e.g. Tequatl) Therefore it’s useless running full zerk on these particular world bosses. But running zerk is better than running condition damage against world bosses. The better choice here would be power and XY. But not Ferocity and Precision because of the fact of not dealing any crits on some world bosses.

All conditions are overwritten. So running condition builds are – whatever you are running pretty useless. Just saying.

I don’t think that there will be much of a change. At the beginning the new content will be difficult and fun to play, that’s for sure. But after learning the mechanics you will be perfectly save running zerk – that’s at least my thinking.