Guild Wars 2

Hello folks!

After leveling my Mesmer to 80, I found that in many ways, the class just doesn’t have the appeal to me that it once did. I think much of that is due to how slow they are to move around the map and how common they tend to be on my server. Sorry, but I hate being a class that you see all the time.

After looking over a bit of the information on your class, I really love your mobility skills and if you go D/D, you have some great support/survival abilities. Generally speaking, the class just looks like a good bit of fun to play. That and last night, I got owned several times by an ele in WvW. I had to just bow and walk away with my tail tucked between legs.

So… with that said, here are a few questions I have:

1. Is the class really as exciting to play as it looks?
2. How high is the learning curve?
3. If I do roll one, what would be a good leveling spec to use?
4. Can you recommend a solid survival-based PvP/WvW spec?

Thanks!

1. More than that
2. I say it is high, regarding your #4, you need to master swapping elements quite often. I suggest you to get some mouse with more buttons to make things very easy. But this is not something that “YOU MUST”

3. Because of your #4, I suggest standard D/D ele. Otherwise, staff to learn all those evading skills better than all other professions.

4. Standard D/D build for any PvP is
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mcszz9Mz0MbvTmMbm0o9MaxxccsqmVq

For armor use the one with Toughness as main stat + vitality + power (can be aquired in HotW dungeon or AC). Superior dolyak runes on armor.
It is longer explanation why this build is extremely good, but selected traits boost each other so well that gives you a lot of survivability. Nothing invested in power but dagger skills have short CD so you make it up by often spamming of abilities.

You can use same traits to be healer and turn tides of WvW battles in favor of your server if you use staff and these traits

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mcsc9cz0MbvTmMbm0o9MaxxcczqmRq
Use crafted or AC armor with lot’s of healing. AC Armor comes already with superior Monk runes that boos your healing even further.

NOTE: Linked website doesn’t calculate crit chance properly.

Dolyak Runes are terrible and your build has 10 Earth over 10 Air which is also terrible. The “standard” D/D build has always been 10 Air. The Fury & Swiftness from Aura use is incredible, only people with no clue use 10 Earth over it (see: Bit).

@Inkubus,

Thanks for posting all this information for me! I have an 8-button “gaming” mouse at home which I got for SWTOR (only to quit once it went F2P) so I’ll dedicate a few of those to changing elements.

I saw one build that used a scepter/dagger as a burst “glass cannon” concept which looked like a good bit of fun. Squishy, but fun none the less. Is that still effective as well?

@Intigo,

Your youtube channel has some amazing video’s on it. /subscribed.

It’s a very exciting class to play once you get over the attune switching part (which for me at least was a big stumbling block – I did the first 40 levels in fire attune only which was ridiculously stupid of me, and made it VERY difficult to play).

I’d definitely recommend the d/d setup as that’s what I eventually switched to, and now I’ve got it down that I know exactly what # key does in each attune so I can (and do) switch constantly (keeping those boons up) making combos and such.

I think in the end that’s the important part – learning what each key does in each attune and then making them all work together so you’re flowing from one attune to the other constantly. That’s the true strength of the class – the amount of abilities available to us.

Intigo.1653:

Dolyak Runes are terrible and your build has 10 Earth over 10 Air which is also terrible. The “standard” D/D build has always been 10 Air. The Fury & Swiftness from Aura use is incredible, only people with no clue use 10 Earth over it (see: Bit).

Yes you are right. I gave him deliberatly totally wrong and terrible build that he won’t be use for anything, hell he won’t be able even to move his character and it is so terrible that everybody will kill him instantly as soon he is rendered on their screens.

well, the build is bad. Dont take it so personally, its just a bad build

1. How exciting someone finds a profession is always a matter of personal taste. For me, however, the elementalist is easily my favourite.

2. The learning curve is high, because you need to be familiar with up to 20 weapon skills (5 skills x 4 attunements) to be able to get the most out of your skill arsenal. And those skills change if you decide to try a different weapon set.
(The good news is that elementalists have no weapon swap ability in combat.)

3. If you want to level effectively, invest in either toughness or vitality, with a side helping of power. Elementalists have low health, and being able to take a few hits while you take down (NPC) foes can often be the difference between winning or losing.
Additionally, if you want do use dagger/dagger, make sure you are good at dodging and combat movement, because over 80% of your skills will be melee range, and the rest will be dedicated to getting close to your foe.

4. For “solid” pvp/wvw builds, I shall refer you to other posts in this thread.
Personally, I have Earth 30, Water 30, Arcana 10, with my armor split between Cleric’s (Power/Toughness/Healing) and Carrion (Power/Vitality/Condition Damage), and a full set of Melandru’s runes.
I like the Earth Magic traits for the various boosts to Signet skills, as the grandmaster trait allows you to keep the passive effect even after activating the signet. Even for Signet of Restoration alone (the healing skill), this works like a charm. The trait that activates Armor of Earth when you reach 50% health is also great.
The Water Magic traits are very versatile. I either use them for various ways to remove conditions, or for boosting my cantrip use (reducing cooldown, giving boons).
The Arcane traits are mostly there for the Elemental Attunement major trait (number V), which gives you boons upon attuning.
But this is just my build. I play for fun, and don’t play PvP all the time.

Knox.3748:

well, the build is bad. Dont take it so personally, its just a bad build

I am not taking personal “Hey your build is bad” line itself, but I take it if you don’t say what is bad and why is bad and what is your proposal, why is your better proposal and so on. Right now it looks like trolling and then I do take it personal.

Good example is Jornophelanthas.1475 and I respect that he gave his idea of good build.

Intigo already wrote the reason why the build is bad.

Well, I made the plunge and rerolled my engineer into an Ele and started training around the D/D concept. I’ve quickly been able to see how it can be difficult at first to remember what each of your skills due based upon atunement and how to combine those into really powerful effects. However, even though I’m only a low level Ele, it’s a ton of fun! Being able to leap into a group of mobs during a dynamic event and then setting off a chain of AoE damage is so rewarding!

Oh, and correct me if I’m wrong but after reading a TON of information about the class and toying around with it myself, I really get the feeling that the Ele has something for just about any situation. The key is being skilled enough to know which skills to use and when.

Anyways, so far I’m really enjoying the class as it’s so much more fun than my Mesmer or Engineer.

Inkubus.7529:

Knox.3748:

well, the build is bad. Dont take it so personally, its just a bad build

I am not taking personal “Hey your build is bad” line itself, but I take it if you don’t say what is bad and why is bad and what is your proposal, why is your better proposal and so on. Right now it looks like trolling and then I do take it personal.

Good example is Jornophelanthas.1475 and I respect that he gave his idea of good build.

Having perma-Fury (and Swiftness, but less significant in the fight itself) from both your Auras is far more valuable than an uncontrolled 50% Armor of Earth buff. You likely already have perma-Vigor and perma-Regen (for the duration of the fight) due to other traits, so the only thing it gives you is a tiny boost to Protection & Stability (which you do not control and do not need). The 5pt Earth trait also does not seem to work with Lingering Elements from Arcana, unless they fixed it (but Air 5pt is worthless too, so it doesn’t matter as much).

I personally find Renewing Stamina superior to Final Shielding, but that’s more of a taste thing, I’ll admit. In that build it makes some sense with the high amount of Vigor you would get from Cantrips (I prefer having perma-Vigor even without my Cantrips so I know I have it for a sustained period of time even when Cantrips aren’t up).

Dolyak Runes are weak because the 6th bonus is bad (30hp/s) and the bonuses it gives overall are somewhat lackluster. Using the 4/6 Boon Duration (Sup Water + Monk) and 2/6 Divinity mix or simply 6/6 Divinity is overall far better for any Elementalist. If you want to get some of the lost Toughness back then slot some more Knight’s gear.

Intigo.1653:

Having perma-Fury (and Swiftness, but less significant in the fight itself) from both your Auras is far more valuable than an uncontrolled 50% Armor of Earth buff. You likely already have perma-Vigor and perma-Regen (for the duration of the fight) due to other traits, so the only thing it gives you is a tiny boost to Protection & Stability (which you do not control and do not need). The 5pt Earth trait also does not seem to work with Lingering Elements from Arcana, unless they fixed it (but Air 5pt is worthless too, so it doesn’t matter as much).

I personally find Renewing Stamina superior to Final Shielding, but that’s more of a taste thing, I’ll admit. In that build it makes some sense with the high amount of Vigor you would get from Cantrips (I prefer having perma-Vigor even without my Cantrips so I know I have it for a sustained period of time even when Cantrips aren’t up).

Dolyak Runes are weak because the 6th bonus is bad (30hp/s) and the bonuses it gives overall are somewhat lackluster. Using the 4/6 Boon Duration (Sup Water + Monk) and 2/6 Divinity mix or simply 6/6 Divinity is overall far better for any Elementalist. If you want to get some of the lost Toughness back then slot some more Knight’s gear.

Now that is more like it. I like that and yes it has perfect sense. I was refering to the OP as he asks “Should I play and elementalist?”, and it gave me strong impression he haven’t done so far. so ele is new to him so I was guessing more survivability. That 50% Armor is also cantrip that do extra heal up. Handling elements like experienced ele is way different than someone who is new to the class. So that is why I suggested that build.

FinalPatriot.8034:

1. Is the class really as exciting to play as it looks?
2. How high is the learning curve?
3. If I do roll one, what would be a good leveling spec to use?
4. Can you recommend a solid survival-based PvP/WvW spec?

1. Depends what you mean by exciting. I would describe the experience as more schizophrenic. You pretty much have to constantly swap between attunements in most builds. Most of the utility is intermixed between weapon skills and utility skills. This means weapon matters a lot compared to a Mesmer where most of the utility is in the utility skills. Also the utility skills suffer as a result.

2. It’s really not hard. You’ll learn early on you’re extremely fragile and you’re pretty much going to be kiting. Eventually you can build more bunker but that’s much later on in the game. Prior to that it’ll be kiting almost all the time.

3. Most people use S/D while leveling and some sort of variation with 10 points in Water. Personally I did 20/0/0/10/0 by 40 and went with a Cantrip/Conjure build where my utility were cantrips (that granted regen, vigor and might) and using Conjure Lightning Hammer to perma AOE blind stuff.

4. Nope. Just about any Ele build is weak in WvW compared to a mesmer due to a lack of active defenses. A class like a mesmer can dodge/avoid large groups of players focusing on them due to their ability to break target. Ele kinda has to take the brunt of it which isn’t always possible with 4-5 guys focusing you.

Kodiak.3281:

1. Depends what you mean by exciting. I would describe the experience as more schizophrenic.

That is outstanding! After about an hour of playing one, I can see your point. I’m going to have to make that my quote for my signature…

Kodiak.3281:

3. Most people use S/D while leveling and some sort of variation with 10 points in Water. Personally I did 20/0/0/10/0 by 40 and went with a Cantrip/Conjure build where my utility were cantrips (that granted regen, vigor and might) and using Conjure Lightning Hammer to perma AOE blind stuff.

Ok, the S/D idea pretty much just adds a bit more ranged effects, right? I’ve only been doing D/D and the Staff so far so I don’t really have any idea how the S/D is played.

Kodiak.3281:

4. Nope. Just about any Ele build is weak in WvW compared to a mesmer due to a lack of active defenses. A class like a mesmer can dodge/avoid large groups of players focusing on them due to their ability to break target. Ele kinda has to take the brunt of it which isn’t always possible with 4-5 guys focusing you.

Perhaps I just really suck as a Mesmer but as of late, I have been eaten alive by several D/D Ele’s. They are just so quick that they burn right through my clones and stay in melee range of me. Even with the typical shatter build, they cut me down before I really have much of a chance to get into a good pattern. Oh, and let’s not even talk about what happens if I was running as a GS Mesmer. It wasn’t pretty. Course, with the fluffy outfits that a Mesmer wears, at least I looked good when I died.

Kodiak.3281:

4. Nope. Just about any Ele build is weak in WvW compared to a mesmer due to a lack of active defenses. A class like a mesmer can dodge/avoid large groups of players focusing on them due to their ability to break target. Ele kinda has to take the brunt of it which isn’t always possible with 4-5 guys focusing you.

Aha….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OT6zqMMBko&list=PLqbVYxfA89UMUuKnY3E_uAq2VmBY95uBH&index=14
Watch more from that list…

And this list got his track since the game launched and here are not duels:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3esNaZZiTE&list=PLqbVYxfA89UMv5OSa94FHbA2raTSkQIig

This is another guy…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rHXZ2VjKBs

FinalPatriot.8034:

Ok, the S/D idea pretty much just adds a bit more ranged effects, right? I’ve only been doing D/D and the Staff so far so I don’t really have any idea how the S/D is played.

S/D you pretty much stick to Air/Earth and kite with Signet of Air. The main idea is as you’re kiting you’ll use your evades and if you’re out of those you’ll pop a blind (3). If you still need more you can Ride the Lightning (4) → Updraft (5) and then swap to Earth. In Earth you kinda repeat using 3 to blind and 4 to knockdown then back to air.

Fire is your super damage aura where kiting isn’t needed or necessary. Drop the standard Ring of Fire → Dragon’s Tooth → Phoenix → Fire Grab (after it lands) and you’ll pretty much gib most things. The problem is you’re stationary mostly while doing that so you’re vulnerable as well.

Water is what you swap to when you need to heal up. Always swap to water before hitting your Glyph heal and be sure to use 5 (another heal) and 4 (adds chill to reduce damage taken) before leaving.

Hardest things to fight by far are Dredge who are immune to blind. Everything else is pretty easy because even ranged mobs you can usually mix in some combination of taking a few hits while using evades and blinds to mitigate the majority of the damage you take.

FinalPatriot.8034:

Perhaps I just really suck as a Mesmer but as of late, I have been eaten alive by several D/D Ele’s. They are just so quick that they burn right through my clones and stay in melee range of me. Even with the typical shatter build, they cut me down before I really have much of a chance to get into a good pattern. Oh, and let’s not even talk about what happens if I was running as a GS Mesmer. It wasn’t pretty. Course, with the fluffy outfits that a Mesmer wears, at least I looked good when I died.

I use a Phantasm Burst build and generally have no issues. I rock full Knight Armor, Centaur Runes and Beserker Weapons/Jewelry. iZerker can crit up to 6k in a single burst and even up close the weapon will hit for around 800 or so.

My build isn’t really designed for 1v1 but I’ve found I can hold my own pretty darned well and still do amazing in large scale or group scenarios. A lot of people forget that WvW isn’t just about getting the occasional 1vXs but instead is a lot of times group combat as well. The big thing is to spread you and your clones out something you don’t/can’t do with a shatter based build. Meanwhile I’ve pulled off hilarious like dodge rolling twice, decoying and then blinked to a far away area and watch a guy hilariously run around to each clone trying to figure out who’s the real one as me and my clones auto attacked with a sword lol…

Knox.3748:

Elementalist weak in WvW. Sure, why not? Now u can stop trolling plz.

Every time I read about WvW on forums these days people go on and blahblahblah about their 1vX builds seemingly ignoring that in my experiences (in T1) it’s all about group play. Simple fact is that any class without active defenses (dodges, stealths, invulns, teleports, etc) are weak because they’re incredibly easy to call as a target and focus fire down.

Now Ele certainly has some of those but due to class design they’re all on stupid long cool downs. You might survive an initial burst, but the second round of focus fire is going to eat you alive. However this doesn’t make the Ele useless by any means and in fact are a great WvW class. People just need to understand what they are getting into. D/D is a wonderful spec and the lower the number of people the stronger it is. However as numbers scale (as they are to do in WvW) that spec gets perpetually weaker.

Inkubus.7529:

Aha….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OT6zqMMBko&list=PLqbVYxfA89UMUuKnY3E_uAq2VmBY95uBH&index=14
Watch more from that list…

And this list got his track since the game launched and here are not duels:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3esNaZZiTE&list=PLqbVYxfA89UMv5OSa94FHbA2raTSkQIig

This is another guy…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rHXZ2VjKBs

1. A duel video. What a surprise.
2. A berserker video (awesome) but is clearly weak defensively. Even the video owner states 3 days ago that he hasn’t used this spec in months.
3. Another roaming dueling video. Neato.

Anyone want to link a D/D video in normal WvW scale PvP lol…

Kodiak.3281:

I use a Phantasm Burst build and generally have no issues. I rock full Knight Armor, Centaur Runes and Beserker Weapons/Jewelry. iZerker can crit up to 6k in a single burst and even up close the weapon will hit for around 800 or so.

Kodiak,

Are you using scepter/sword for your weapon swap? If so, can you explain what your play style is?

Kodiak.3281:

Anyone want to link a D/D video in normal WvW scale PvP lol…

Your post is silly. D/D does not get weaker except perhaps in very laggy situations – it’s still extremely viable in 30v30+ engagements.

Here’s some 20v20 GvG fights versus VoTF:

It’s much the same in all the WvW scenarios I have with my guild; the D/D Ele always shines. Not to mention the countless 1vX fights I’ve had.

@Intigo,

For group combat in WvW, do you ever change over to staff for the increased ranged DPS or to you always stick with the D/D build? Reason I ask is the other night a 2 D/D Ele’s jumped into our raid group and really screwed things up for us while another stood on some rocks tossing down death with his staff.

FinalPatriot.8034:

Kodiak,

Are you using scepter/sword for your weapon swap? If so, can you explain what your play style is?

I use GS + Sword/Focus in most cases. I also swap out to GS + Sword/Pistol. Gear wise I have respectable offense while maintaining a good amount of armor through Toughness as well as a decent HP pool with 25 points in Inspiration. As any GS user I try to keep close to maximum distance as possible. I do this through a variety of abilities from Clones on Dodge, Decoy, Blink and Mass Invisibility. Once at this distance I usually just lay into targets by using Phantasms and ranged attacks. I am constantly moving and try to never stand near my clones.

A popular burst combo I like to do is Berserker → Mirror Blade → Mind Wrack. Since we do have so much Power/Precision Mind Wrack hits pretty hard on top of getting tagged with a Berserker burst. Best of all it’s extremely repeatable since all that has a roughly 12s cool down time. Pistol just gets even more efficient at creating burst combos because of the powerful Duelist is now in the mix. You can easily lay up a combo like above with GS, swap to Pistol and now do dodge, decoy, Duelist as you back away (preferably to an angle they aren’t facing). Shatter again if Duelist is in danger and swap back to GS and repeat it’s combo. However for WvW I definitely prefer the Focus in most scenarios cause it lets you yank people off walls and and Warden becomes very strong on walls as well.

A lot of that is what any class (including Eles) is all about. Creating little mini combos like that and knowing what each ability does and how to exploit it to great effeect. For example when using Focus, Temporal Curtain is a light field so doing a Sword Leap through it and again afterwords gives you a good chunk of Retaliation (as well as acting as a reflect field with my spec). As a power based build, that Retaliation is going to stack up very, very quickly.

A shatter build is kinda designed to be eaten by a D/D ele because of the amount of close range AOE they have which chews through clones like they aren’t even there. I don’t think there’s one “best at everything” build. I certainly am capable of dying and for a long time there I had a hell of a time with some Pistol thieves who managed to restealth 100 times (pretty sure they were using some karma consumable) in a fight (WITHOUT going melee for CnD). You just gotta learn to accept the limitations and be aware of them.

That’s why I always laugh at these D/D guys who show off these videos. I mean it’s cool and all they like doing what they do but when I play WvW I’m not just roaming around as 1 guy, 5 guys, 20 guys and fighting everyone out in the open in some sort of organized format. Most fights I encounter are in choke points, keeps and towers. You have siege going on, walls to counter and large forces to fight.

Intigo.1653:

Your post is silly. D/D does not get weaker except perhaps in very laggy situations – it’s still extremely viable in 30v30+ engagements.

I could play in full Berserker gear with full berserker spec (30/30/0/10/0) in that situation and easily survive. You never once get focused in that 6 minutes of video just occasionally taking some AOE damage. Congratulations on surviving light passive AOE damage? lol

I’m not downplaying you, your skill or your team. I mean you all clearly work well together and are all very skilled but you don’t really disprove the point that when focused Eles will go down because they lack the target breaking skills that other classes (such as Mesmer) has.

Kodiak, I give up, you don’t get it. I use balanced gear, of course I do, but staying alive is perfectly doable even in high damage situations when you know what you are doing. And the reason I take no damage is because I know how to position myself. VoTF gets commended all the time by NA T1 players, so they can’t be that bad, surely.

FinalPatriot.8034:

@Intigo,

For group combat in WvW, do you ever change over to staff for the increased ranged DPS or to you always stick with the D/D build? Reason I ask is the other night a 2 D/D Ele’s jumped into our raid group and really screwed things up for us while another stood on some rocks tossing down death with his staff.

Very rarely do I swap to Staff. We have really good Staff Eles that do their job very well in regard to AoE and Healing, so I rarely need to.

If we’re sieging or people run the turtle (ie. 30-40+ bunched up) then I may go Staff, but otherwise not.

The 2 D/D Eles you had join your raid were most likely very inexperienced.

Intigo.1653:

The 2 D/D Eles you had join your raid were most likely very inexperienced.

Oh, they were from the other team not mine. Those two jumped right in the middle of our group and before I knew what happened, they were dropping us left and right. It was impressive to watch from my dead position on the ground…

1. Is the class really as exciting to play as it looks?

Yes. You can switch to staff for long range damage or DnD if you are looking for close combat fights. Eles are also a pain to catch and have some of the best mobility.

2. How high is the learning curve?

Staff requires almost no learning curve

DnD is where the noobs are distinguished from the pros.

3. If I do roll one, what would be a good leveling spec to use?

For PvE , fire was my favorite.

4. Can you recommend a solid survival-based PvP/WvW spec?

Not sure about PvP but for WvWvW the solid survival spec is 10 air 30 water 30 arc

A modified version of it is 10 Fire 10 Air 25 Arc 25 water

Some add earth instead.

@FinalPatriot:, in response to your question about changing weapons in WvW (originally directed at Intigo):

One thing that can be inconvenient in WvW as an elementalist is not having a weapon switch option. The problem is that dagger/dagger and staff are good for entirely different things.

Staff skills are excellent for raining down death on attackers from atop walls, as well as putting down combo fields for allies to use when you are with a large group. However, staff skills are exceptionally bad when facing (human) enemies directly, especially if they outnumber you.
Dagger skills, on the other hand, are excellent for dealing with opposing players from close up, but are not effective during sieges.

My personal solution to this is to wield dagger/dagger whenever I am in a place where there is a chance to suddenly be attacked by enemies, and to (manually) equip a staff when I am inside a tower/keep that is under attack, or among a large group of allies, and to manually re-equip the daggers as soon as I intend to leave this protection.
Occasionally, I get stuck in combat mode with a staff equipped. That is the time to run away. Air 4, Earth 3, 4 & 5, and Water 4 may help here.

I may be late, but here is what I think. To your question “Should you play an Elementalist?”

My advice is NO.

I played an elementalist as my main and it is one of the weakest profession in the game. My other characters like my Necro, War, Ranger, Guardian, Thief, Mesmer all played easier than the ele. Ele dies twice as much many times, get one-shotted even with best eq for any said level, taking on veterans, elites takes a long time to kill. Champions is almost impossible to kill alone.
Many eles skills have long cast time and can’t attack while moving. And even if you managed to cast, the enemy will have already moved away. You have to PREDICT CAST your skills on spot where you think the enemy will walk into.
Yes, D/D build is now the best ele build for Ele, but not everyone wants to run a D/D build. Like me, I like my staff. I like my meteor shower. Even though meteor shower does not hit a single enemy too many time, it is good as a crowd weakener but can’t finish the job unless we have backup or wait for the Cooldowns to finish the job or use auto-attack and kite like hell.
Yes, eles have 20+ skills over 4 elements, but unless you are quick on your fingers and switch from one element to another, any mistake may cost you dearly.
Unless you want to play an adrenaline pack time and some frustration, then play an ele. If you want easy play, then don’t play an elementalist. If you want to kill your enemy without moving most of the time, then play a war, thief or guardian. Unlike an ele where you need to move and kite around, playing a war, thief or guardian you can basically stand without moving and kill enemy or enemies. I have taken out more than 10 enemies with my warrior without dodging or moving away and that is with normal crafting equipment (blue and some greens) when leveling. I can’t even do that for my ele during leveling.

At level 80, my ele is using exotics and still get one shotted many times, my warrior is only using rares and greens and have only goes down when facing super champions mobs, other than that, i hardly have to worry about my warrior going down.

Hence, playing other professions, I feel they are boring as hell. Only my ele is exciting to play with. Yet, ANet likes to nerf eles, so if you start playing an ele, you will get frustations after frustrations. So, NO is my advice.

@SirDrygan.1823
Yes and no sir. Staff ele is a joke in any PvP. Casts are really slow and to make it up you have to use high damage equipment that would instant kill you in PvP unless you are healer. I personally use staff ele for PvE and I am always last to die in bad party or usually the one that rez others. Playing PvE with ele is really good if you like PvE.

As for D/D ele, yes, it is hard and and seems like ANet wants to remove ranged combat for eles. It is hard enough to swap elements and damage output is still lower than with other professions.

Yesterday I played some FotM with PUG and my staff was good as always. In Urban Battlegrounds Fractal when breached into city I pulled aggro by accident and as it was my mistake I wanted to sort it out. Others thought I will run back but no, I stayed to fight and I soloed mobs while others were in chat “oh gawd let fool die”. I survived. Then when we had to fight Captain Ashym they were complaining he was too hard and I was the one to die the last. Still kiting enough to make others who wanted to get up to do so or rezing them in my Mist Form…

After that I went into WvW with my friend as D/D. It was interesting at first and then turned boring. Reducing mage like class to just another melee is a turn down to play as I really don’t see how ele could play WvW or SPvP as staff ele. So I logged out to play Civilization 5 GAK and had more fun in single player game – lol.

Staff Ele is amazing in WvW in an organized guild group.

Yes, it’s not good when the numbers are very low.

But we don’t have them so much. Organized groups are really scarce on my server.
On Gandara we have server TS and there is one very good commander but he has such British accent that I really can’t understand him

I suggest you take into consideration that this is class has quite a learning curve (but not too much) and will take extra effort to equal the performance of other classes which take less skill to play (wars/guards). However when mastered it can be one of the best classes in the game. Dont let anyone convince you otherwise. It is not for everybody. Its not a facetank class so having a good connection and good twitch reaction will make or break this class especially in pvp.

I main an ele and have an alt war both with full exotics, and I still spend most of my time on my ele because it was so much fun! You will have to learn how to attune swap and not mindlessly waste skills to be effective as an ele. I see a lot of beginners eles (and even veteran baddies) doing this.

1. Is the class really as exciting to play as it looks?

- Yes, I learned the ropes with ele and it requires a more active playstyle compared to the other classes.

2. How high is the learning curve?

- A bit high but not too much. I strongly suggest rebinding keys for an ele to be effective to accomodate the constant attune swapping.

3. If I do roll one, what would be a good leveling spec to use?

- No idea, I just rolled with what I had. Got to lvl 80 way before guides on ele were made sorry. D/D and Staff are both effective. I usually went D/D for open PVE and staff on story/dungeons

4. Can you recommend a solid survival-based PvP/WvW spec?

- Standard 0/10/0/30/30 build. It works for both WvW and PvE on both staff and D/D with just swapping major traits.

I use exotic cleric armor with soldier trinkets with full dwayna runes for massive heals and condition removals while running D/D. The damage is pretty average compared to glassy specs but I outlast most classes simply by attuning to water and casting heals negating their damage output while removing conditions.

Inkubus.7529:

But we don’t have them so much. Organized groups are really scarce on my server.
On Gandara we have server TS and there is one very good commander but he has such British accent that I really can’t understand him

Gandara has pretty decent WvW guilds. Aren’t Yakslappers still around? I am sure you could play Staff in their groups and be a huge benefit. There’s uhh…Semnome or something too.