Guild Wars 2

So i love this game, love the combat, but main my main (Guardian) is getting boring, i switch between my variant of an A.H might stacking tanky dps build (using might on crit proccing traits / sigils plus vigor proc on crit and more)

And a my variant of a 3 meditation build, note i NEVER use other peoples builds, i came to using these 2 guardian builds because their the most viable, plus they are the only ones that fit my “style”.

So i find myself using the same weapons, greatsword/staff , i made the best builds you could for sword/focus main but its just not as viable in the long run in wvw and such compared to the 2 cookie cutter guardian builds.

TL DR ; START READING BELOW

So i basicly am sick of only having 4 utlilty skills deciding my play styl it just seems to boring and it seems every fight is almost the same, with no room to really tacticly change. Plus the fact that theirs only 2(main variants) of guardian builds, with little changes here and their but the best guardians use a.h or monks focus and seem to use the same 5-6 utlitiy skills, i dont know how people can play the same char with so little builds for so long.

Note: Ive tried MANY outside of the box guardian builds, i post a very high damaging unique sword/focus & staff dps blind/vuln stacking/might stacking spike dmg guardian and got shot down, people didnt even beleive he could spike for 10-15k damage if done right in a 2-5 second setup.

Alas the build did good damage but more then 1 condition remover and the ability to snare openets and stop them from running away.

Sure a lot of the out of the box builds i made were usable, but they became redundant compared to the 2 main flavors since they usually had problems with enemies just wandering away.

A lot of people told me they feal the same and that i should try ellie, now the main thing holding me back is i hear ellie has only 2-4 real viable builds for wvw – pve .

(As in viable i mean their much better then the “non viable” builds thus making them redundant)

I like how the ele has many different skills as one of my main gripes of gw2 is the lack of skills especially if you like only 1 or two different weapons then your stuck with those skills forever.

I would roll elly now as my main but if theirs only a few viable builds for wvw (d/d or aoe nuker) then i may reconsider but IF

The elementalist officers different playstyles that are viable, even without having to switch weapons (GW1 PLAYERS KNOW WHAT I MEAN)

and if every weapon set is has viable builds then elementalist i think IS for me as i get real bored of essentially only having 4 utilty skills that you can change at first its fun but doesnt give me a lot of replayability imo atleast on guardian

I’m leaning towards either a elementalist because it looks like it takes it to the next level and i wont be bored, or a theif since they seem to have a high skillcap also, due to them relying on mobility a lot and such, but when i played theif before i seemed to have a problem with backstab builds almost overruling all other types of builds.

Edit: What about mesmer?

Any class is going to have a small handful of builds that become popular and termed ‘viable’ by people, that doesn’t necessarily mean that other builds won’t work. This class does have a couple easier to play builds (d/d in particular) that perform really well, so you’ll see a lot of people use similar builds to that.

Doesn’t mean it’s the only way to play.

As to whether you like the class or not, nobody can tell you that. You’ll have to start one and see.

Shimond.2478:

As to whether you like the class or not, nobody can tell you that. You’ll have to start one and see.

This. I have now tried every class in the game so far (ele being the last one) and I am now wishing I just rolled one to begin with. For me so far the profession is just so much fun and kicks out some very nice condition damage. Which is what I was looking for in a class.

My friend now owns guild wars, I built the ele up alot and he tried it and well … hated it. His main is now a guardian.

No one can say what you will like because every class and even weapon skills make you play differently. You need to try them for yourself and see what one “clicks” for you.

Well, to each their own. I’ve made it to lvl 31 on Guardian and feel like I could continue lvl’ing PvE by simply laying my forehead down on the keyboard and going to sleep. Wake up 8 hours later and have gained 10 lvl’s. Some people think this is great, others terrible.

Ele is a very complicated class to master, but worth the effort for those that enjoy that sort of thing. I also have been training bonsai for years, same principles I guess, requires forthought, concentration and commitment. Cant just charge face first into battle and start smashing whatever key on your keyboard your finger happens to hit first (or in my other hobbies case, cut of whatever limb jumps out at you).

The game will always be what you make of it – Every class can set up a build where you can just go up, hit auto attack and take a nap until everything is dead. Guardian can get away with sneeze stuff to death as he won’t die with so much access to passive heals. Warrior can get away with this as he can just walk up to a group of mobs, press “2” on his GS and read a book while everything dies to that single move. Rangers can plink whatever while their pet face tanks even Champions. Pretty sure thief only has “heartseeker” on their skill bar. Engineer doesn’t matter what weapons you pick as you can just use flamethrower. Mesmer can just dodge back and forth spawning clones just spamming auto-attack between “4” or “f1”. Elementalist just drop a bunch of staff fields on them, and then switch to water and rain/fountain yourself as you watch everything around you die. Most classes can add “run in lazy circles” for tough to kill stuff.

In short, you can indeed get away with standard boring MMO gameplay in PvE with any class. However to play ANY class to the best of its ability, it takes active gameplay. Guardians can be buffing the entire party with pretty much any boon under the planet and keep them cured of conditions without ever stopping DPS by actively keeping an eye on the party and dropping fields where needed most. Bad guardian: “hey, squishy people stand on me so I get better AH and you get cleaved hoping my boons are enough to keep you alive”. Good guardian: says nothing as you watch boons pop from no where, somehow drops condition fields on you while never stopping his boss face tanking never losing aggro, and keeps walls of reflection up on bosses with projectiles. You can’t play like that without watching at least 6 things at once and positioning yourself to be epic.

There are classes, though, that ramp up better with skill than others. Mesmer and Elementalist are both examples of high skill cap classes – you will get STOMPED by low skill cap classes (such as Thief and Warrior) until you learn how to play your class, then they basically stand ZERO chance against you. It’s a balancing concern Anet has, since how do you nerf a class that sucks if not played well, but is OP if it is? If you buff the low skill cap classes, you’ll get something like a Thief as they can win in most cases with little effort… effort should be rewarded.

Personally I think it’s simple – high skill cap classes have two factors: high combat mobility and 4 ‘f’ skills that add complexity and options. Take away mobility, and you have a class like Engineer that has difficulty keeping their tools effective. Take away ‘f’ skills and you get the horribly predictable warriors or Guardians who’s f’s are just buffs/heals. Thief would be predictable and pitiful if not for stealth (and culling). A real culling fix would help balance thief, though stealth is a crutch that will always make up for their predictability/simplicity. Complexity/mobility needs to be added to the simpler classes so skill caps even out. THEN the real buff/nerf hammer needs to be looked at, but not until then.

TL;DR – Yes, both Elementalist and Mesmer are higher skill cap classes. Played right they are a class of their own. My Mesmer can solo whatever I feel like because I can’t be touched in PvE. PvP I’ll almost always win in 1v1 except against better played Ele/Mesmer or a thief that caught me off guard. And I find it a blast to play because the difference of me owning face or facing dirt is my active play and skill… including in PvE (glass cannon).

Just full disclosure, the ele is getting nerfed soon, so the current “viable builds” you speak of may change, if not disappear all together.

It’s definitely a class that is good to play once you get a feel of the game. I started with ele as my first profession, and found it EXTREMELY difficult to level up, because of the high skill cap and it’s not a forgiving class if you screw up on the field. But after about 300 hours of play, I really enjoy it. I made a guardian after my ele, and it’s true, I basically just stick to greatsword mashing the same 4-3-2-1 combo over and over on just one skill-set.

If you want a challenge and a steep learning curve but with which you can enjoy the fruits of your labor, ele is for you.

Just be weary, depending on Anet, the enjoyment of playing ele may decrease after the next nerf.

I just rolled an ele looking for an alt I want to stick with, and I love it so far. It is definitely not boring to level as almost every pve encounter so far is different (there is a large learning curve and I just make up rotations depending on what attunement I am in) mostly because one weapons set gives you 20 skills instead of 5. I agree with what other people have said in that you really have to work for it as you play, lots of attunement swapping and constant action. you ALWAYS have a skill to use and are never waiting on cooldowns for anything.

It is a great Active class, I guess would summarize my first impressions.

Shimond.2478:

Any class is going to have a small handful of builds that become popular and termed ‘viable’ by people, that doesn’t necessarily mean that other builds won’t work. This class does have a couple easier to play builds (d/d in particular) that perform really well, so you’ll see a lot of people use similar builds to that.

Doesn’t mean it’s the only way to play.

As to whether you like the class or not, nobody can tell you that. You’ll have to start one and see.

/signed

So true.

If you are looking for a profession with alot of possible build, skill, and weapon choices that in different combinations favor different styles of play, I would say the Ele can fit that bill.

Min Maxers will always distill a profession down to just a couple of setups out of hundreds. That is what they do, but they do so using thier own scale of how they enjoy the game and what is most important to them. This profession can be played in many different ways. Part of my enjoyment of playing any profession is playing in ways I never thought I would enjoy. I used to love playing glass cannon casters, but now get as much if not more satisfaction also in a support role. In support, I can have a very dramatic effect on a parties’ performance. The profession’s overall result is not about me, it becomes about us. A whole new world of builds and weapon choices opens up that way as well as the fun of learning what is in essence a new profession.

In other words, if you limit your acceptable results by judging using just a few criteria, any profession will be limited to just a few builds.

Yes to your question, for 1 reason, they are fun to play.

If you’re looking for a profession with lots of different builds, elementalist is not it.