Guild Wars 2

Hi everyone,

First of all, please take the following poll in order to help us understand what, if anything, truly plagues elementalists. Let me know if it’s not working.

Poll

Live results

EDIT: I’ve added pivot tables which give an analysis of each of PvE, sPvP, and WvWvW according to your spec.

While results come in on this, I already managed to come across another poll which received over 2000 responses regarding class and satisfaction in PvE, sPvP, and WvWvW. The elementalist fared relatively poorly, but I want to point out some statistics I managed to pull from that spreadsheet via pivot table.

The results I list below come from the poll listed here.

Satisfaction in PvE (descending order, scale of 1-10):

Guardian: 8.27
Warrior: 8.19
Ranger: 7.97
Thief: 7.81
Engineer: 7.60
Mesmer: 7.27
Elementalist: 7.25
Necromancer: 7.00

Satisfaction in sPvP:
Mesmer: 8.57
Thief: 8.14
Guardian: 7.88
Warrior: 7.39
Ranger: 7.35
Engineer: 7.00
Necromancer: 6.35
Elementalist: 5.58

Satisfaction in WvW:
Mesmer: 7.29
Ranger: 7.26
Elementalist: 7.12
Engineer: 7.10
Thief: 6.93
Warrior: 6.77
Guardian: 6.66
Necromancer: 6.37

Some observations on the data. In PvE there is a CLEAR stratification in terms of satisfaction, and I will offer to you that there is a simple way of explaining this: natural survivability. The soldier classes live longer by their very natures, followed by the adventurers, with scholars in last place.

My proposed solution is simply to focus on survivability if you’re having a hard time. If you’re struggling with a damage-centric build, BUY TOUGHNESS/VITALITY/HEALING GEAR. If you’re still having a difficult time, come back here. Maybe you have a reason to complain.

More interestingly, in sPvP, elementalists FAILED HARD, whereas in WvWvW, ele came in 3rd. This requires more thought to explain, and I will hazard a hypothesis. In sPvP, the expectations people have for their class differ dramatically from what the situation requires of them.

With wizard-esque classes, people probably expect to sit back and blast from a distance. When you have a wall of flesh between you and the enemy in WvWvW, this works. In sPvP, you have to be okay with some guy going up in your face. You have to have a contingency plan. Scepter/staff skills aren’t particularly suited to this, in my opinion (scepter more than staff, perhaps).

Adopting an approach that focuses more on close combat or freedom of movement, one might find that things ease up quite a bit. If anyone cares to offer their own explanations of what might be occurring, please feel free to speak up. Also, I will provide further commentary once results come back from the other poll.

Interesting results so far on the poll, but not enough to say much other than that there is surprisingly little variety in weapon choice. With 19 responses so far, not one has used focus in the offhand. Are these skills underdeveloped?

Much more data needs to come in, but it appears that daggers fare best, scepters are next, and staves are lowest. WvWvW is obviously an exception to this.

Please be sure to check out the statistics on the pivot tables, as they’re going to be the most interesting portion of the live results.

The problem with this poll is the majority of people who voted negatively were probably the kind of people who couldnt figure out how to play the class and quit or the people who had a idea of what the class was in their head and after finding out that it doesn’t play like that they quit.

Even so, we might be able to identify this through the statistics.

There are now a good number of responses (>100). If you’re interested in seeing the statistics themselves, be sure to check the live results. The tabs at the bottom display the information divided by a number of different factors.

On the whole, people seem satisfied with PvE and WvWvW. There are not yet sufficient responses to justify making too many conclusions from the data (go take the poll if you haven’t!), but they might suggest one thing or another. Here is a list of emerging trends I have observed specifically regarding sPvP:

• People who play the same weapon in PvE and sPvP tend to have a higher satisfaction rating in both.
• There is a marked difference in satisfaction between those who switch frequently vs. occasionally.
• Focus is highly underused. Out of 123 current responses, only 10 used focus whatsoever. There are 5 possible weapon combinations, 2 of which involve focus. That means there should be an expected ~50 people using a focus.

The first point leads me to believe that familiarity with each weapon’s mechanics dramatically influences satisfaction. The ability to recognize how the skills work together will lead to a more satisfying experience.

The second point makes me wish that I had set up the survey differently to where people could rate their attunement change frequency from 1-5. There is already significant stratification between the two responses (frequently vs. occasionally). This further reinforces the idea that one needs to understand the weapon he is using to have a satisfying experience.

The last point leads me to believe that people are bringing their own expectations to the class without actually exploring its potential. Dagger/Focus scored highest of any weapon combination in sPvP, though without sufficient responses to justify making a conclusion.

The same mindset which pigeonholes us into certain weapon specs probably also affects the degree to which we are able to function with the specs we choose. As a number of people have indicated, they want to play an ele to be a “glass cannon.” But the elementalist is about balance, hence the four elements. If we view the elementalist purely as a glass cannon, I believe we are forcing a square peg into a round hole.

Therefore, I believe that if you find your elementalist unsatisfying, you should reevaluate what you want from your class. If you view him as a damage class, you should be playing a thief, instead. Certainly damage is one of our primary functions, but pure damage is only fire spec, which is 25% of our class. We also have significant crowd control, mobility, healing, and defense options just within our weapon skills, to say nothing of utilities.

Anyhow, keep filling out the survey if you haven’t yet, and perhaps more trends will emerge. It only takes a brief moment.

At the same time, even though I dislike their attitudes, I must admit the ‘pros’ were right. Only after mastering equipment/trait selection, dodging, attunement switching AND combo fields did I finally manage to play the Elementalist in a way that I found enjoyable. Now, I don’t die as often anymore, I contribute to my team and I can solo several enemies at the same time.

But it took me the equivalent of about 100 levels before I finally managed that, some of which were due to playing other classes.

If anything, the best tip to new players is the one given in the original post. Start off with defensive gear until you know how to play the class. It gives you the breathing room needed to actually learn the class properly.

My hypothesis (and my reason) for voting WvWvW in a relatively high way is due to the sheer effectiveness of AoEs. It might be capped to 5 per AoE but that is a LOT more than only playing against 5 people in sPvP and all of them dodging out of them before they even start dealing damage.

I didn’t answer the poll at all because a lot of things need to be worded differently to fit me before I can answer correctly. I think it’s great that someone is doing this for the Ele community, but I would like to add some constructive criticism on how I think the poll can be improved upon:

1. What kind of PvE? Soloing hearts, doing DE’s, dungeons? I use different weapons based on the situation. Separate questions are needed for different types of PvE.
2.I don’t do sPvP on my Ele so we need an “I don’t do this type of gameplay” answer – and we need an option for that on the PvE and WvW questions as well.
3. The “primary statistical focus” questions also need that " I don’t do this type of gameplay" answer. But I’d also say that you need more options. There are more build types than the 3 you listed. It might just be better to list all the stats we can trait into and let us either rate them using a numbering system, or place a check box next to all that we focus on, or simply just add more options to this question.
4.I would say the same about the healing/utility/elite questions. My slots aren’t all focused around one thing so there isn’t an answer that would fit. Also, how are conjure weapons considered flexibility? Some of the examples you put in there just confuse me. Perhaps you should just leave those out and the question wouldn’t be so bad. Also you’ll need to separate the PvE version of this question because again, I use different setups for different types of PvE.
5. Again, the overall satisfaction needs to be separated into different PvE types because I’d rate them differently.

WvWvW is pretty much the best case scenario for us as we can leverage Staff support in a situation where we can hide in a crowd and have plenty of inattentive enemies that may not notice our AoEs winding up beneath their feet. While conversely lots of allies to really get the most out of our support AoEs.

sPvP satisfaction drops like a rock because we’re confronted directly and an Ele essentially needs to put in twice as much effort for the same return when fighting in a small scale situation. Both our offense and defense requires constant effort in the form of unending button spam. Whereas other classes can perform offensively or defensively with less effort.

Other classes effectively get a break in at least one aspect of their performance. Guardian and Mesmer have an easier time defensive. Thief and Warrior have an easier time offensively. Ele doesn’t get a break in either. That’s pretty much the problem in a nutshell.

Xhaiden.3891:

WvWvW is pretty much the best case scenario for us as we can leverage Staff support in a situation where we can hide in a crowd and have plenty of inattentive enemies that may not notice our AoEs winding up beneath their feet. While conversely lots of allies to really get the most out of our support AoEs.

sPvP satisfaction drops like a rock because we’re confronted directly and an Ele essentially needs to put in twice as much effort for the same return when fighting in a small scale situation. Both our offense and defense requires constant effort in the form of unending button spam. Whereas other classes can perform offensively or defensively with less effort.

Other classes effectively get a break in at least one aspect of their performance. Guardian and Mesmer have an easier time defensive. Thief and Warrior have an easier time offensively. Ele doesn’t get a break in either. That’s pretty much the problem in a nutshell.

I honestly think Ele is fine in all areas except sPvP. Solo hearts PvE, DE’s, dungeons, and WvW. We could probably use some changes since other classes do have it easier in those areas, but overall it’s not so bad. sPvP I haven’t even done at all on my Ele because I don’t want to be frustrated and disappointed lol.

D/D and S/D are both great for PvE leveling, I usually go Staff for both DE’s and dungeons although I suspect other weapon sets have a decent role in those areas a well. And I of course also go Staff for WvW. The benefit with all that though is that we don’t have to be in danger of dying most of the time and are free to just play our spec , whereas in sPvP we are at much bigger risk of death. Solo PvE is not hard, DE’s and dungeons you can usually stay in the back and out of danger, WvW you can do the same thing. A few deaths or downed states may happen but nothing out of the ordinary. But sPvP by it’s very nature puts you in danger all the time due to small skirmishes and fewer players involved so the imbalance between damage and survivability becomes that much more evident.

I don’t know what the best way to fix the class for every Ele player and every spec is but I do think that increasing our base health would go a long way towards that. Mesmer’s and Necros both have a lot more base HP than we do and both have more natural options for survivability (i.e. with both weapons and class mechanics; traits and utility slots simply make them more survivable) while maintaining a comparable level of damage as us.

Most my problems with Ele stem from spvp/tpvp, yes. PvE we could certainly use some adjustments just in base damage or surviability. But its tolerable and we do fine in any kind of group or event scenario.