Guild Wars 2

Every forum around has the same issue on the Elementalist board: a massive pile of players complaining that the Elementalist is too weak, and a handful of players telling them to `learn to play’ (and little on what they need to do).

My main is a Ranger. My first alt was an Elementalist, but I have since also begun playing Thief and Warrior alts. I have played all eight classes to at least 15, but did not really like the way the others felt. Other than one of my personal quests, I have never once felt that the Elementalist could not complete something, but they most definitely take considerably more effort to progress. They also progress slower.

I use Sceptre/Focus. I play mostly solo PvE, so Staff is obviously sub-optimal. I did not particularly like the Dagger skills, but felt the Sceptre and Focus offered a nice balance of abilities. I circle-strafe and dodge constantly, and am more than used to kiting.

I can and do switch attunements. For damage:

• When I need to hit a group of enemies, I switch to Fire, drop Firewall, then use Dragon’s Tooth and Phoenix for AoE damage.
• When I have only a single opponent to face, I switch to Air, chain Arc Lightning and burst Lightning Strike for more damage. I typically only use Blinding Flash in this situation, and time it for when I am likely to soon be hit.
• In Champion situations, I alternate between the two whenever I need to switch to Earth or Water for utility.

For utility:

• I use Swirling Winds whenever there are multiple missile users in the frey, protecting myself and any other players.
• I use Gale as an interrupt against Champions. If I am using Air for my damage, I use it as an additional defence against melee attackers.
• When I need to boost my survivability, I switch to Earth. I pop Rock Barrier immediately, throw out Dust Devil if I need a little extra immediate protection.
• I sometimes use Obsidian Flesh and grab aggro for a moment, to help the other players out in DEs. I also sometimes use this in general solo, but it rarely comes to this.
• I rarely use Magnetic Wave, but that is only because conditions are generally not too common in the content I have taken my Elementalist through so far. Never felt the need for its projectile reflection when I already have Swirling Winds.
• Occasionally, I switch to Water in DEs. I spam Shatterstone to boost everyone’s damage and use the occasional Water Trident and Comet. Honestly, I rarely use Freezing Gust, as it does not seem to justify the attunement cooldowns to switch to.

I switch Utilities frequently, as I have not hit onto a set I like. Glyphs are so-so, have long cast times and long cool-downs. The Signets are garbage. Arcane are fine, but seem better in a crit-focused build. Cantrips are fine, but my weapon skills already provide most of those defensive abilities. Conjurations… I do not even get why they exist.

Traits are another point I find exasperating. It seems like we need to be level 60+ before we have enough points for the class to be viable. The other classes I have, traits are gravy that take you from great to awesome, but with the Elementalist I always feel like I am three steps behind where I need to be.

In my play experience, the Elementalist can handle all the content I have faced, but it takes considerably more effort to perform adequately. The other classes can auto-attack spam and faceroll PvE, whereas the Elementalist has to use everything they have to make any progress. If the class’ problems are purely `learn to play’, as we are so often told, please teach me how to play. What am I doing wrong? Attunement swapping does not phase me and I have an IQ over 70, so those are not the issue. How can I be as awesome as the class seems like it should be?

The most important thing is to know all of your weapon skills, because it is required that they all be utilized to maximize effectiveness.

I personally think that part of your issue is that you prefer a focus offhand. Focus is good, don’t get me wrong, but dagger offhand is superior in all around usefulness (imo, but definitely so for PvE) and for damage especially. The biggest reason being dagger offhand has significantly more AoE.

Combo your skills, and I don’t exactly mean combo fields and finishers but that’s part of it. My personal favorite combo to use involves scepter/dagger. I use Ride the Lightning > Updraft (At the same time I Burn my Lightning Strike and Blinding Flash if they’re off cool down bcs they’re instant cast and will be recharged by the time I get back to air) > Dragon’s Tooth > Ring of Fire > Phoenix (At the same time I use Arcane Blast if it’s off cool down to get 6 stacks of might from Blast Finishers in Ring of Fire) > Fire Grab.

Staff is actually really good, even for solo play. Take Elemental Glyphs to absorb damage and get foes to stand in AoEs. You can also perma maintain swiftness with windbourne speed, glyph of elemental harmony, and elemental attunement. Blasting staff makes the staff way more effective.

Really, mastering the elementalist and being good with it just comes down to knowing all the skills, traits, and a lot about the game’s mechanics. Then the player has to understand when to use what and execute quickly. One of the biggest things is setting up your mouse/keyboard controls to minimize time between casts.

There’s a lot to tell about the class, but really if you can learn all the skills and mechanics then swap attunements and adapt you’ll be well on your way.

Shockwave.1230:

The most important thing is to know all of your weapon skills, because it is required that they all be utilized to maximize effectiveness.

I personally think that part of your issue is that you prefer a focus offhand. Focus is good, don’t get me wrong, but dagger offhand is superior in all around usefulness (imo, but definitely so for PvE) and for damage especially. The biggest reason being dagger offhand has significantly more AoE.

I agree with the above post, have been kiting mobs since level 1 – 20 before I got sick of kiting. Kiting isnt effective when mobs leave the static dmg fields that I cast.

At from 20, I chose the following traits in order while leveling up : fire > earth > water. I needed more dmg on fire, survivability on earth. The scepter/dagger(off hand) being my most efficient weapons on solo PVE, staff in dungeons.

Since then, I do not kite, just standing on the spot casting off while stance dancing in the following order Fire > earth > air > fire> repeat. If Im out of health which is rare, I tune in to my water attunement. This playstyle allows me to pull aggro of up to 5 mobs 2 levels above me.

I have tried dagger on both main and off hand multiple times (since most Elementalist players suggests them), but I just do not like the skills. Well, I do like Ring of Fire a million times more than Firewall, but that is a specific spell :P OH Dagger’s biggest difference seems to be in Air and Earth, providing a more offensive set over the highly defensive Focus spells. If my biggest issue is a lack of offensive spells, would using Glyph of Storms and/or Arcane Blast/Wave do essentially the same thing? Alternatively, perhaps use Sceptre/Focus for defence and control, then a Conjured weapon (eg Bow) for extra damage? No idea how the latter would work, but it sounds interesting.

I actually do not mind the Staff, but felt it was unwieldy in solo. It also seemed highly support oriented, with Water and Air having great support but little offence, suggesting (to me: I could be wrong) that it lead more to a Burn/Bleed condition build for its damage. I already do that with my Ranger, so I wanted more direct damage here. Now, that was my impression of the staff, so please do correct me if I misjudged. Would Elementals be essential for making staff work solo? Again, I already run a Ranger, so am not keen on a play style that makes the Elementalist use the same strategy

With combos, the standard combination that practically every Elementalist seems to run is Ride the Lightning > Updraft > [cooldowns from one element], which seems more that Air on Dagger has a great set-up and less that the class is build on combos. Could you provide some different examples? Does Staff play like that too (never seen examples from Staff before)?

For building Traits, I get the impression that spreading over most/all lines is the best approach, rather than specialising in two of them. Is that correct? I am not a high enough level to have 30 points in a trait line, but it is just planning ahead :P I had though 10 in each Fire, Earth and Water, along with 20 in Arcane as the starting point (not in that order). From there, either add to Air and Fire for damage, or focus on Earth and Water for survivability (which sounds like what Lipin has done).

Elric of Grans.7684:

I actually do not mind the Staff, but felt it was unwieldy in solo. It also seemed highly support oriented, with Water and Air having great support but little offence, suggesting (to me: I could be wrong) that it lead more to a Burn/Bleed condition build for its damage. I already do that with my Ranger, so I wanted more direct damage here. Now, that was my impression of the staff, so please do correct me if I misjudged. Would Elementals be essential for making staff work solo? Again, I already run a Ranger, so am not keen on a play style that makes the Elementalist use the same strategy

Running an Elemental Glyph is not essential for making the staff work while soloing. The staff requires more kiting than other weapon sets in general though. For example, kiting a mob inside the radius of your Lava Font.

However, there are some combos you can do as well (not combo field, just skill combos). As an example, you can start off in earth an cast skill 4 (rock wall that cripples), followed by skills 2 (bleed) and 5 (immobilize) before swapping to fire and dropping a Lava Font.

There is also a hefty slow you can utilize in Water (skill 4) to combo off of. Air has a stun gate as well.

Utilities that I have found useful include Mist Form, Armor of Earth, and Signet of Earth (immobilize and extra toughness). I don’t actually think Mist Form is all that necessary. I don’t use it all too often. It does get you out of jams pretty effectively though. Haven’t really played around with the arcane skills too much yet.

As for traits, I’m currently running with most points in arcane, water and earth. It’s basically left over from a dungeon run where I was trying to pull most of the mobs and peal for my party members. With these traits I don’t have to kit as much as before (not necessarily a good thing. Kiting is an important skill to learn for the game in general). I’ve done air and fire in the past. I mostly look for traits that synergize well with my intentions while attunement swapping.

Most important thing to learning an elementalist is learning about your weapon skills (imo). When and how to use them most effectively. Learning about and using your utilities well will also offset the elementalist’s inherent squishiness.

Glyph of Storms while attuned to earth. All kiting is now void.

I’m not much of a PvP player, so i’m heavily PvE oriented. And i haven’t reached max level yet (currently 76) and haven’t been to Orr, so i don’t know if i’ll keep my current playstyle, but so far it has worked very well. I’m using a staff basically all the time even though i solo a lot, so i wanted to give you an idea what’s possible with a staff.

First of all: my build is like this (as i’m not at max level fire isn’t at 20 points yet)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fEEQFAWhImIboxzgjEAkCmEUQADiCVUeMzOxA

There are some alternatives i might change to later on, i probably will experiment around a bit with the build later on to see what i like best. But more about that later

Against a single normal mob i usually cast Glyph of Elemental power in fire, Fireball (1), Flame Burst (3) and when the mob closes in Lava Font (2) and Arcane Wave. When the mob reaches me i use Burning Retreat (4) if i have the space, cast another Lava Font (2) and then run in circles around the mob, but stay close to him inside the Lava Font. Cast Flame Burst (3), Lava Font (2) and Arcane Wave whenever they become available, also reapply Glyph of Elemental Power if necessary.

I know this ignores a lot of the elementalist’s possibilities but i this is the fastest way to kill a single normal mob and there isn’t need for more.

A veteran mob is a different story though. Usually i cast an earth elemental before the fight, it’s a really good tank that can usually keep the veteran mob off you for the entire fight. As long as you don’t aggro it you can just cast your fire spells on it and deal maximum damage.

If you don’t have an elemental as tank, for whatever reason things get more interesting. During all this stay mobile and keep your distance. If the mob closes in on you you can switch to air and cast Gust (3) to knock it back, follow that with a static field (5) and back away a bit. Also cast a Gust of Wind (4) at some point, running speed can’t hurt, especially if it’s an instant cast. Switch to earth and cast Shock Wave (5) to immobilize it. Follow that with Eruption (2) and Unsteady Ground (4) in front of it. Depending on your health you can now switch to water and cast Frozen Ground (4), Ice Spike (2), Glyph of Elemental Harmony if you need a heal, maybe also Geyser (3) or Healing Rain (5), while staying in Water drop an Ice Spike (2) whenever possible. Frozen Ground (4) is a tremendous crowd control spell and gives you a lot of room to cast other stuff, even if it’s a Healing Rain (5). You can now either switch to fire and start the whole process again. If you didn’t need the healing you can combo your own combo fields. When i’m in earth i tend to wait for a second Eruption (2), cast it and immediately after beginning to cast it switch to fire and place a Lava Font (2) on top of it, and stay close. This will combo in 3 stacks of area might. I often also use Arcane Wave as well at this moment, which is another 3 stacks of might. And the switching to fire was another one, so i have 7 stacks of might at this point. And from here on it starts again.

You can also combo the eruption (earth 2) and arcane wave with a geyser (water 3) for some extra healing.

I usually don’t cast meteor shower on single mobs, because it hardly hits for it’s long cast time where you have to stay stationary. When i do then it’s before i start the actual fight. I also don’t use Lighting Surge (air 2), i think the cast time is too long for what it does. And i also hardly use Magnetic Aura (earth 3), because i always forget about it, i need to change that.

I tend to use Glyph of Elemental Power in fire btw.

Fights with several mobs are a mix of above strategies, Frozen Ground (water 4) comes in especially handy there, where as Shockwave (earth 5) and Gust (wind 3) are not so useful since they only target a single mob.

About the elementals: I mainly use the earth elemental as a tank, or the fire elemental for extra damage (it deals really good damage, but is quite squishy), i hardly use water or air.

Alternatives: Take 10 points from arcane or fire and put them in Fire, Air (Inscription as trait) or Earth (Earth’s Embrace). If you take 10 points from arcane keep the blasting staff trait and remove one of the other 2.

I’m still unsure about the glyph of elemental power. Sometimes i take Glyph of Storms (mainly for Sandstorm, it applies blind every second or so to all mobs inside the storm, which makes it an awesome defensive and offensive spell against static mobs), sometimes i take summon lesser elemental.

I don’t say this is the best (or even a good) way to play, but it’s fun for me and so far it worked well in PvE (dungeons are another story). But to give you an idea what you CAN do with the staff in solo play.

Edit: Ok, this post got longer than i thought :p And it seems others do similar stuff.

Naryoril.6507:

Fights with several mobs are a mix of above strategies, Frozen Ground (water 4) comes in especially handy there, where as Shockwave (earth 5) and Gust (wind 3) are not so useful since they only target a single mob.

Shockwave actually can hit multiple targets, you just have to line it up as a skill shot. It travels in a straight line towards your target, rooting anything in between and goes a certain distance past. I’m not sure if it just travels it’s full range (1200) or if it travels a set range past the target. It’s probably the former though, not traveling beyond the 1200 range.

If you get good with it, it’s pretty easy to root 3 or more mobs into a Eruption + Lava Font combo.

Razgriz.7319:

Shockwave actually can hit multiple targets, you just have to line it up as a skill shot. It travels in a straight line towards your target, rooting anything in between and goes a certain distance past. I’m not sure if it just travels it’s full range (1200) or if it travels a set range past the target. It’s probably the former though, not traveling beyond the 1200 range.

If you get good with it, it’s pretty easy to root 3 or more mobs into a Eruption + Lava Font combo.

Good to know, i never tried that. Thanks for the info.

Razgriz.7319:

Naryoril.6507:

Fights with several mobs are a mix of above strategies, Frozen Ground (water 4) comes in especially handy there, where as Shockwave (earth 5) and Gust (wind 3) are not so useful since they only target a single mob.

Shockwave actually can hit multiple targets, you just have to line it up as a skill shot. It travels in a straight line towards your target, rooting anything in between and goes a certain distance past. I’m not sure if it just travels it’s full range (1200) or if it travels a set range past the target. It’s probably the former though, not traveling beyond the 1200 range.

If you get good with it, it’s pretty easy to root 3 or more mobs into a Eruption + Lava Font combo.

Shockwave stops shortly after hitting the target, even if it is well inside the 1200 range. So target the furthest back person you can find to ensure the most hits.

It took some practice but I’m in the same boat as others being able to take multiple mobs at the same time… without kiting. I’ve never been a fan of kiting so I never really learned how to do it.

Here’s a simple series that works well for me. I use Dagger/Dagger. Pull attuned to air with ride the lightning. At the end of RTL, use updraft which is an immediate dodge and knocks all opponents near you down. While using updraft, switch to fire (can’t remember skill name but its #3)… use #3 to get back to the middle of the fight… #3 ends with an AOE effect and is one of our biggest Direct Damage abilities. Now, if there are multiple targets use fire ring and fire grasp, begin to autoattack and position yourself so that all the mobs are in front you. Then hit number 2… be sure to hit everything in front of you. At this point, you may have taken some damage (you’ve been totally offensive up till this point) so switch to water and cast your healing glyph…if the situation is really tough (5 or more mobs), I also use Arcane Shield at this time to protect me while I heal. While in water, go ahead and hit #2 again to hit everything in front of you. If you need extra health, hit #5. Water’s primary attack is an automatic aoe in front of you (in a line) so it doesn’t hurt to stay here if the situation warrants it… but also realize that it is one of the weaker auto attacks. At this point, I switch back to air. Use Updraft to knock everything on its butt and then hit RTL to get to your target and begin whipping on it again. Be sure to spam 2 and 3 when they are up anytime u are attuned to air. They are fast casts. Usually by now, everything is dead for me. But your results may vary based on traits.

Hope that helps.

I do what EnochDagor.6185, does too. Dagger/Dagger but the exception being that I pull the enemies with me with #1(Fire) and then let them do their attack while i move back and go with #3 and hit the middle of them. I use the arcane utility spell that attacks in circle around you while I use ring of fire and walk out and prses #2. Always works.

Not sure why people think staff is underpowered in solo PvE? I use it sometimes (switching between it and D/D to keep things interesting) and it absolutely kittens.

Pull w/ Eruption/Shockwave (that’s two bleeds) and immediately place the wall (skill #4) in front of them so they get crippled the instant they come out of immobilize? Yes, thank you very much, I like my mob crippled, damaged, and bleeding as it hobbles towards me.

Switch to fire, drop a lava front in their path, blast a fireball and burn (skill #3). Yes, I like my mobs, crippled, bleeding, and burning, thank you very much. You can almost stop right there, the mob will die from the DOT’s. But if you’re so inclined, go ahead and keep blasting fireball until they’re almost on top of you, then use burning retreat (free dodge) to back up, they’ll walk right through it!

Switch to air, and gust them backwards making them walk through your fireline TWICE before they even get a chance to take their first attack. By the time they reach you (if they ever do, cause of skill #4 in air), you can blind them (skill #2) so they miss! They should be dead, twice over by now, but if not, switch to water for the chill field, or back to earth, your skills should be almost off cooldown by now. Seriously, w/ a staff, you can kill just about any mob without being touched even once.

Yes it’s more fun to burst/combo them with D/D, but I feel practically invincible with a staff in my hand in PvE. Not sure about everyone else…

i do the same but i summon an earth elemental before pulling i also use air skill 5 and 3
with earth armor earth glyph and arcane armor i can survive even if i pull 3 mobs sometimes….

Yet itsmuch easier with pther classes

Absolutely nothing weak or wrong with Staff PvE. I can take on a dozen mobs at a time, depending on the area. You get a lot of DoT with bleeds, burns and AoEs. They don’t drop instantly, but you excel at multi-enemy control. If you can handle one mob, you can handle 8. They’ll all drop at the same time.

What’s sad is that our class is quite capable at PvE… problem is that once you move to PvP and WvW, ya, ur screwed.

Huh? It’s the opposite. Ele is awesome at WvW. They are weak mostly in dungeons because glass cannon kiting builds don’t work (you will get 1 shotted by ranged mobs). When you are forced to spec defensive, damage drops off way below other classes. So you’re basically relegated to support duty and setting up combo fields.

Underwater tip:

To kill something fast, drag it to the floor or a wall, or if it has an immobilize, get immobilized right next to it. Use tidal wave. All hits will hit the target, 1 shotting it (or almost).

kublai.8694:

Huh? It’s the opposite. Ele is awesome at WvW. They are weak mostly in dungeons because glass cannon kiting builds don’t work (you will get 1 shotted by ranged mobs). When you are forced to spec defensive, damage drops off way below other classes. So you’re basically relegated to support duty and setting up combo fields.

In a dungeon, I actually use Scepter/Dagger. The extra range afforded works well. Gives me more time to switch to defensive skills, etc… Sure, it hurts DPS a lil but it increases survivability.

If the group sucks, I use a Staff… but I rarely find a need for that.

PvP and WvW on the other hand… let’s just say there are a lot of classes that seem to do more damage with more ease than I… and seem to be better able to withstand damage than I.

So ya, I stand by my original statement.

Thanks for the responses, especially Naryoril. Your detailed response gave me a solid basis for understanding how to use the Staff.

I will try switching to Staff. I will just run through a 1-15 zone to learn the skills and get a feel for how they fit together.

Vayra.3290:

Shockwave stops shortly after hitting the target, even if it is well inside the 1200 range. So target the furthest back person you can find to ensure the most hits.

I just wanted to say that I’ve noticed today that the particle for Shockwave actually travels beyond the target if you’re in close range. Will actually have to test it out further to see if it roots anything.

Well,I have actually found staff to suit me best while leveling and doing dungeons,but now I’m thinking of doing some sort of elementalist tank with full cleric gear and such,will see how that works out. I know it will be huge dps loss,but considering the fact that I find myself way too often laying dead on the ground…So far I got full green level 80 cleric gear and it’s not that good. I still do get hit hard sometimes and healing isn’t as good as what some other classes have.

I don’t have any tips for you but I felt compelled to post to agree with what you said.

I came to these forums originally looking for some help or some sort of guide for my ele so that I could learn how to survive better as I was becoming increasingly frustrated. All I found here instead was 20+ pages of people complaining about how bad the ele sucks by 95% of the people and the other 5% saying “no you suck at ele”. How is that helpful to people who are looking for help with specs/gear choices/etc? It’s not.

Yesterday I created a guardian out of frustration and found an absolutely AMAZING guide that someone wrote up on guardians on their forums. Why can’t we have something like that?!

In the end my laments in guild chat drew the attention of one of my ele guildmates who theorycrafts and took the time to help me and I’m feeling much better about the ele atm but it just should NOT be that hard to find good help, ya know? I thought that was what forums were for…not solely for QQ.