Guild Wars 2

I have one 80. My ely. Maybe ~200 hours in. It is the only class I played in GW2. I have not even tried the others. The present is not so great for us. The future is not looking great either. So if you had to try another class, which would you choose?

If you go check the other profession boards, everyone is saying the same. Everyone feels that their profession is weaker than all other 7.

EDIT: But if you dislike nerfs, stay away from Thief/ Guardian/ Mesmer. They’re the top priority targets to take down. Have you seen how much Mesmers were nerfed last patch? :P You would come at the forums stating the future isn’t bright for those.

If you like buffs, pick underpowered classes like the elementalist. For example, the Ranger and the Necromancer. But then you would come at the forums stating the future isn’t bright for those.

Warrior is probably your best bet. It’s strong, but not “top-tier” strong. It’s possibly the best balanced class in the entire game, and it has only been getting small nerfs or small buffs in all of their patches. Probably the best class for those that dislike MMORPG nerf culture.

GS/Rifle Warrior, simply effective.

DiogoSilva.7089:

If you go check the other profession boards, everyone is saying the same. Everyone feels that their profession is weaker than all other 7.

Let me rephrase the question: what profession would you recommend that’s even remotely as much fun as an Evasive Arcana staff elementalist?

ThiBash.5634:

DiogoSilva.7089:

If you go check the other profession boards, everyone is saying the same. Everyone feels that their profession is weaker than all other 7.

Let me rephrase the question: what profession would you recommend that’s even remotely as much fun as an Evasive Arcana staff elementalist?

D/D Elementalist.

Your question is a bit vague, and it does depend specifically on what makes it fun to you. Is it the rolling in and out? Dual Daggers are extremely fun at that, even if in a different way (ex. you’ll dodge and pull in to survive while sustaining damage, not to generate finishers, except for magnetic grasp). Or do you want a party support build about rolling in and out? D/D Elementalist with Auras. Also different, but very fun too.

But then again, I’m biased, because D/D is my favourite playstyle.

I’m looking for a build that allows me to change effects based on my creativity at the moment. Evasive Arcana allowed me to pick an effect based on the available combo fields out there. It kept me thinging and planning constantly. That’s what appealed to me and that’s what Í’m looking for. A very flexible, constantly changing build that changes based on the decisions you make.

ThiBash.5634:

I’m looking for a build that allows me to change effects based on my creativity at the moment. Evasive Arcana allowed me to pick an effect based on the available combo fields out there. It kept me thinging and planning constantly. That’s what appealed to me and that’s what Í’m looking for. A very flexible, constantly changing build that changes based on the decisions you make.

Wasn’t this option always available for Staff, even before people found out how to abuse EA? You still have your two Arcane skills and your Earth skills.

Earth skills will require more planning and skill than EA, because you must priotize specific attunement orders. You have Eruption -> change attunement -> pick combo field of choice, or field -> change to earth -> Shockwave (and Stoning). With the two Arcane skills, you can have finishers on demand when you want to stack them up or when that specific order is not available or optimal. Add in the elite glyph of elementals for extra fields.

Evasive Arcana still allows you to pick your effect, although not with combo finishers. As an alternative, you have the other grandmaster trait that affects arcane and, even if you don’t like either of them, you have the arcane’s 20% cooldown reduction trait.

Think of it like two arcane skills = 2 dodges, except the combo finishers are different now. Which is not all that bad. Doesn’t the projectile applies daze through the lightning field?

EDIT: You can also add in for your third utility a conjure weapon for extra combo finishers – but yeah, I know, conjure weapons are a bit poor. Still worth experimenting with the new changes. Lightning Hammer adds a field and (one?) leap finisher, giving you three different ways to finish fields when taking into account your arcane skills.

I think that conjure weapons should open a lot of new playstyles the day they are properly balanced.

DiogoSilva.7089:

Wasn’t this option always available for Staff, even before people found out how to abuse EA?

Yes, but I was using those as well. Losing the EA blast finishers basically cut my number of options in half. The thing is that I was enjoying to make those kinds of decisions with every skill I used. Not make a combo or setup for a combo every few seconds or so, but for almost every move I made. How can I optimize my next move? Where are my teamates? Who needs healing? Where will they kite to next so my combos will affect them? The thrill and intensity of such a playstyle is unmatched, and it also made any alts I made feel very bland in comparison.

you have the arcane’s 20% cooldown reduction trait.

That’s actually a very good suggestion. I may try that. Thanks.

TerryLong.9561:

I have one 80. My ely. Maybe ~200 hours in. It is the only class I played in GW2. I have not even tried the others. The present is not so great for us. The future is not looking great either. So if you had to try another class, which would you choose?

I have a level 80 ele and gaurdian and I just started a Mesmer and love it. Try the Mesmer with a great sword.

DiogoSilva.7089:

EDIT: But if you dislike nerfs, stay away from Thief/ Guardian/ Mesmer. They’re the top priority targets to take down. Have you seen how much Mesmers were nerfed last patch? :P You would come at the forums stating the future isn’t bright for those.

If you like buffs, pick underpowered classes like the elementalist. For example, the Ranger and the Necromancer. But then you would come at the forums stating the future isn’t bright for those.

I see this a little different. (Remark: I am mostly talking about sPvP here where IMHO the shortcomings of the class are most painful.) It seems Anet does not see the major issues with eles (only one half-decent elite, bad fire traits, pathetic fire skills on the focus, attunement switching cool down too long, etc.). They only buff the ele in areas hardly anybody really cares about (conjured weapons). If you look at all the “your hopes for the patch” thread, I doubt you will find “stat bonuses on conjured weapons” there. Looking at the patch notes, I don’t expect any significant (i.e., making it fun again) ele buffs/fixes in the near future.

Regarding Thief/ Guardian/ Mesmer as nerf targets: I agree with you on the thief and mostly on the mesmer part. But the guardian has so many viable builds … I doubt any nerf will really hurt him.

My post looks to have been eaten. Basically I tried rifle warrior for first time, and it makes me sick how powerful it is, given the armour and health warriors have. Rangers and Elementalists should have that single target damage potential, not warrior.

I’m not one to call for nerfs, but elementalists and rangers better be able to equal or outrange warriors and definitely have to out damage them (ranged) as well. Anything else is a complete joke and insult.

DiogoSilva.7089:

EDIT: But if you dislike nerfs, stay away from Thief/ Guardian/ Mesmer. They’re the top priority targets to take down. Have you seen how much Mesmers were nerfed last patch? :P You would come at the forums stating the future isn’t bright for those.

^this. I am now tempted to spend more time working on my guardian alt. But they already bunkered as well as (if not better than Ele’s) and they didn’t get crushed by the nerf-bat, so I HAVE to assume their bunker builds are next in line to get eviscerated…

DiogoSilva.7089:

Wasn’t this option always available for Staff, even before people found out how to abuse EA? You still have your two Arcane skills and your Earth skills.

I was already using Eruption and Arcane Wave as blast finishers along with blast finishers from Evasive Arcana. I suspect others were as well. So I can’t stack as much might as I used to. Sure I can do the occasional water heal, or group swiftness, or an area frost aura, and projectile finishers are definitely nice sometimes but I really only used the Earth 1 attack for that.

But no more stacks of might to increase my personal damage to something somewhat reasonable, as well as buffing the damage of those around me. Not to mention how fun it was to roll around comboing stuff constantly. How am I supposed to do that now?

Arcane Mastery is an interesting idea for replacing Evasive Arcana, but my ability to combo everything and support those around me is still severely nerfed because some jackholes in tPvP felt like ruining the game for the rest of us.

I like having survivability but I’m more interested in two other things – my ability to support people in multiple different ways, and having a dynamic, busy, interesting playstyle. I don’t wanna sit around spamming 3 buttons – I’ve always played healers in other MMO’s because you have to pay attention and you’re always busy, and the ability to support in various ways, having something for every situation is so fun. The ability to buff my friends, heal them, debuff my enemies, and use CC, all in one character, is usually what I look for and Ele had it. I guess I’ll switch that one trait in my build and see how it goes, but I do have a level 30 something Mesmer I’ve been meaning to level. Not sure if it will feel the same but it’s worth a shot.

DiogoSilva.7089:

If you like buffs, pick underpowered classes like the elementalist. .

Stop with that crap already.Ele is obviously not underpowered for Anet or they wouldnt just continously nerf it again and again anda again after each patch.
They probably dont even care about ele’s problems this moment since the whole game could be balanced with out his presence in tpvp.
Actually we havent got a considerable buff ever.All these erased playstyles were available for us since the beggining but we couldnt see them..it took me 3 betas to realise ea had a blast component.Its quite depressing thinking of this.

I’ve been playing an Engineer, and the self-comboing possibilities with Magnetic Shield/Magnetic Inversion is a lot of fun: it serves as a ranged reflect, knockback, and blast finisher. So you can throw down a flame turret, overcharge with blinding smoke, and then use Magnetic Shield to AOE stealth. Similarly, you can do other self-combos with the water fields or light fields or poison fields that the Engineer has available.

Equipping kits feels like choosing what attunements to equip, except there are zero cooldowns for flipping between kits or your main weapon set. As an elementalist, you’ll be used to flipping through F1-F4, so that won’t be a problem utilizing those additional skills.

It does play differently, but has enough complexity in common with the elementalist that I find myself very engaged by its style.

kostbabis.8791:

DiogoSilva.7089:

If you like buffs, pick underpowered classes like the elementalist. .

Stop with that crap already.Ele is obviously not underpowered for Anet or they wouldnt just continously nerf it again and again anda again after each patch.
They probably dont even care about ele’s problems this moment since the whole game could be balanced with out his presence in tpvp.
Actually we havent got a considerable buff ever.All these erased playstyles were available for us since the beggining but we couldnt see them..it took me 3 betas to realise ea had a blast component.Its quite depressing thinking of this.

I do agree that part of the problem is that the prof isn’t exactly self-explanatory. It takes a lot of thought to figure out how to setup your skills to allow you to develop a play style for your weapon set because we have so many weapon skills.

As far as buffs, they’ve actually done a decent job buffing d/d (e.g., air used to be a complete joke as far as actually hitting people with damage). So we know they can fix issues with skills being completely useless. Don’t know if they just haven’t gotten around to other issues or if they are aware of some build that makes the ability really good.

Hmm have to level my engie then, seems like the last bastion for self combos and fun, complex gameplay that I crave and can’t get with ele no more. Well until they nerf other classes few remaining self combos that is….looks like that is their goal: no self combos ever.

Ahhh, I would have a hard time switching mains. If I had to pick, possibly ranger, guardian, or necromancer. Ranger is the only other class I’ve gotten to a reasonable level after my ele. I’d struggle to find a class as energetic as zooming around like a deranged rabbit who’s watched too much Captain Planet though. D/D ele is the best.

I might give mesmer a shot if I ever considered changing (tried once to ranger, got bored), I’ve heard they’re somewhat close to the energy of ele.

My two level 80s are a Necromancer and Elementalist. I’ve been using an Elementalist due to better support and pure damage (as yellow objects STILL don’t take condition damage). But since Evasive Arcana has been changed, I’ve started raising my Warrior up as my third character. It’s currently level 40, and I have a bit of fun supporting with banners / shouts and whatnot.

Guardian, most likely. Possibly Necromancer or Engineer. But this is assuming I could wave a magic wand and turn my level 80 Ele into one of those classes. I can’t stomach another 100% world completion, so I won’t actually be re-rolling, probably just taking a long break and hoping ANet comes to their senses.