Guild Wars 2

I’ll get this straight first, I love my D/D ele and no manner of nerf will ever stop me playing it.

I have made many attempts to start an alt, but generally within a few levels get bored and end up jumping back to my ele because it’s non-stop action in combat.

Can anyone who equally can’t step away from their elementalist main suggest an alt profession which can give me as much fun. I don’t want a tank and spank character. I want to dance and sting like the proverbial butterfly and bee.

Rolling another elementalist may not be out of the question

While I’m addicted to my Ele, some others I enjoyed were:

Ranger: though to be honest it was probably more the fern hound than anything that made me like my ranger. :P
Engineer: I have not gotten high enough level to see if the weapon kits are really that amazing but I’ve heard they’re almost on par with the fun of attunements.
Mesmer: Also heard it’s fairly on par on complexity/speedy gameplay.

I will second the engineer. You don’t have a lot of weapon skills, but several kits to choose from. I can recommend the flamethrower for close-range AoE blasting, and the grenade kit for underwater combat. I have yet to explore the elixir gun.

And as an added bonus, each healing and utility skill (including racial ones) gives you a toolbelt skill, which basically doubles the number of utility skills at your disposal.

Oh, and try using a shield in your off-hand. Both shield skills can be used not just defensively, but also to interrupt foes.

If you want to dance, I guess engineer is a good choice, but really mostly for stance dancing.

If you want to litterally dance, meaning quick movements, hit’n & run and sting like a bee, I would actually suggest thief. A shatter mesmer could perhaps also fulfill that role.

My other character is a ranger, but I like it for the opposite reason.. it’s relaxing to play in pve when I don’t feel like stance dancing. The elementalist is more entertaining to me, but the ranger is a nice change of pace occasionally. I haven’t found any other class that has the complexity of ele, but I have not tried an engineer. That might be my next alt.

I have, at 80, ele, ranger, guardian and engineer and a 40 thief. If I have to pick between what to play that is exciting, it is ALWAYS a toss up between the ele and the engi. I love them both and I find more and more that I am defaulting back to my engi.

I think though, this is happening because my mouse pad is breaking down and I can’t right mouse hold to steer my character as well as I need for the ele. The engi is far more forgiving. Once I get a new pad, I’ll see what I think again.

my first char to 80 was my ranger, and is still about the best for solo PvE in my opinion, not that it hits the hardest but because of the NPC stupidity of following my pet around while I plink.

however, once I hit 80 I decided to start my next character, an ele, and really have never looked back. Like you said, the d/d ele is about the most fun I’ve ever had in an rpg, it’s the only class I’ve ever played where you can really play all day and never use your main “1” attack… like ever. it’s awesome for PvE groups, if you plan your blocks and shields right it doesn’t matter if you take on 2 NPC’s or 10 NPC’s, they can all drop at once. Great AoE damage!!!

As I’ve gotten more and more interested in PvP I’ve realized the only class I have problems with in PvP and WvW is the thief, and that prompted me to start one. A buddy I WvW roam with often is an amazing thief, not shy of any group size he comes up against, and doesn’t run from a fight. The enemy of your enemy is your friend, so I would say whichever class gives you the hardest time in PvP play, that should be your next class. If nothing else, it’ll teach you how they think like they do (especially if you take that class all the way to 80 and beyond) and help you learn to defeat them in battle.

I would say the closest thing to an ele gameplay wise (for me at least) has been my mesmer (only lvl 25 so far). It seems it’s an easy class to play averagely (is that a word?), but a difficult one to master (like the ele), and once you do, they are really annoying in PvP and ultimately cause frustration in other players and do a lot of damage.

Some really great responses and so many reasons for choosing the alts you did. Thanks guys.

I’m going to sleep on it and hope I’m inspired by your ideas come tomorrow. Or maybe the day after

Thief
dance around everywhere like a boss
Thief and ele are my two favorite classes because they’re both very dynamic, mobile, and versatile

My Elementalist is still my main character, but I’ve got all 8 classes represented right now. I play my Mesmer and Engineer when I want to engage the same tactical part of my brain that the Elementalist appeals to. I play my Guardian and Ranger when I want to give that part of my brain a rest and just steamroll PvE content. My Thief and Warrior are currently shelved – I can see why they appeal to many players, but they haven’t really hooked me yet. The Warrior is easy to dominate PvE with, but without the “style” the Guardian and Ranger bring… while the Thief is tricky and tactical, but tracking Initiative instead of regular cooldowns just hasn’t clicked for me yet. My Necromancer is also on hold… I can see it swinging into either category, but right now it’s still too buggy for me to put up with.