Guild Wars 2

I rolled an Ele the other day and yes he’s only level 42 but it’s the most fun I’ve ever had in this game?

and I have an 80 ranger, thief, warrior, mesmer and 60+ guardian. All of which I wvwvw/PvE with.

Why is there so much hate on Ele in this forum? Is it just going to become terrible when I hit 80 because nothing can be worse than my “mesmer” levelling experience :P

Please help me understand as I’m seriously considering making this character my main! Never had so much fun in guild wars before, I’m currently levelling with S/D but will try Staff and D/D in wvwvw once I’m 60+.

People like to pretend they’re victims and inflate their own personal opinions and skill issues into something much bigger than reality.

Ele is not very straight forward to play, and has one of the higher skill caps in the game. Conversely, they are also ranked medium-low as far as viability goes. This means that eles will have to play much better yet receive less rewards than someone else. For example, guardians and warriors. That is the largest issue, and probably will always be a fundamental issue with the class.

And no, nothing will be worse than leveling a mesmer. Eles are actually one of the best classes to level as. They have incredibly high AoE damage, incredible mobility, and with proper builds will also be very tanky. Again though, the leveling experience of an ele is probably 3-6 unique abilities for a normal encounter, whereas something like a warrior is 1-3.

So for example, on my ele I go pure berserker stats, with most points in earth, water or arcane. Signet of Fire and Signet of Earth are incredible for leveling. Fire is a passive 20% crit chance, and Earth is about 50-100% of your toughness. With the scepter earth (which is trivial to maintain 100% uptime) ability, your toughness will be as high as your power or higher. Again, with pure berserker. The best weapon combo is scepter/dagger or dagger/dagger. Focus is too defensive, and staff is just really unwieldy.

A typical fight in the world with 1-3 mobs (or 5+, really doesn’t matter for eles) will be something like this:

RtL to engage with scepter air 2, swap to fire, fire field, dragon tooth, phoenix triple hit, arcane wave (if I take it) and then fire grab. Most mobs will be dead. If they’re not, then dragon tooth again and swap back to air.

Or for fun, get 5-10 mobs, LOS to clump them. Get an ice bow, use #4. That’s one of the funniest things to see.

Larynx.2453:

Ele is not very straight forward to play, and has one of the higher skill caps in the game. Conversely, they are also ranked medium-low as far as viability goes. This means that eles will have to play much better yet receive less rewards than someone else. For example, guardians and warriors. That is the largest issue, and probably will always be a fundamental issue with the class.

.

I don’t mean to discredit ele players opinions in any way but you can pretty much say that about any class in the game…imo that’s a Warrior design problem not an Ele problem.

Bastien.1645:

Larynx.2453:

Ele is not very straight forward to play, and has one of the higher skill caps in the game. Conversely, they are also ranked medium-low as far as viability goes. This means that eles will have to play much better yet receive less rewards than someone else. For example, guardians and warriors. That is the largest issue, and probably will always be a fundamental issue with the class.

.

I don’t mean to discredit ele players opinions in any way but you can pretty much say that about any class in the game…imo that’s a Warrior design problem not an Ele problem.

No it’s not. Guardians can literally spam their abilities with a greatsword. Rangers autoattack 90% of the time. It’s not a warrior issue.

Warriors: Autoattack, hundred blade, whirlwind attack
Guardian: CD spam
Thief: Black powder + autoattack
Ranger: 11111111111211111111
Engineer: Grenade/bomb spam is adequate in most scenarios

I’ve never leveled a mesmer, but it’s definitely in a similar boat with ele. I leveled a necro over a year ago, but only to about 20 so I don’t think my opinion on that is very educated, but I think it’s not as bad as ele/mesmer, but it’s still much more involved than non-light armor classes.

edit: to be clear, I meant all of this for leveling purposes.

Well the main issue is people confusing damage and DPS. They see big numbers and think bigger numbers = higher DPS. Ele usually focuses around continuous attacks around the same damage. Honestly, if you enjoy playing Ele, stick with it. My ele is my newest 80 and has double the play time of any of my other class. As well as the only one to almost have full Ascended (just missing offhand wep). It’s a very viable class, but not the optimal class in most situations.

Larynx.2453:

Bastien.1645:

Larynx.2453:

Ele is not very straight forward to play, and has one of the higher skill caps in the game. Conversely, they are also ranked medium-low as far as viability goes. This means that eles will have to play much better yet receive less rewards than someone else. For example, guardians and warriors. That is the largest issue, and probably will always be a fundamental issue with the class.

.

I don’t mean to discredit ele players opinions in any way but you can pretty much say that about any class in the game…imo that’s a Warrior design problem not an Ele problem.

No it’s not. Guardians can literally spam their abilities with a greatsword. Rangers autoattack 90% of the time. It’s not a warrior issue.

Warriors: Autoattack, hundred blade, whirlwind attack
Guardian: CD spam
Thief: Black powder + autoattack
Ranger: 11111111111211111111
Engineer: Grenade/bomb spam is adequate in most scenarios

I’ve never leveled a mesmer, but it’s definitely in a similar boat with ele. I leveled a necro over a year ago, but only to about 20 so I don’t think my opinion on that is very educated, but I think it’s not as bad as ele/mesmer, but it’s still much more involved than non-light armor classes.

I might be misinterpreting your post but are you complaining that your profession is more complex and requires the usage of more skills? Because that should be fun not something to complain about… even games like WoW where you can raid with your eyes closed most classes rotation tends to be 4-5 different skills whilst watching timers/buffs/boss abilities, things that guild wars doesn’t even have.

Bastien.1645:

I might be misinterpreting your post but are you complaining that your profession is more complex and requires the usage of more skills? Because that should be fun not something to complain about… even games like WoW where you can raid with your eyes closed most classes rotation tends to be 4-5 different skills whilst watching timers/buffs/boss abilities, things that guild wars doesn’t even have.

I’m saying that some players feel that other classes can put in less effort than they do, while also achieving similar results.

I’m making an observation of the ele playerbase primarily. If you don’t consider it an issue, then it obviously is not an issue for you and you should enjoy the class.

Larynx.2453:

Bastien.1645:

Larynx.2453:

Ele is not very straight forward to play, and has one of the higher skill caps in the game. Conversely, they are also ranked medium-low as far as viability goes. This means that eles will have to play much better yet receive less rewards than someone else. For example, guardians and warriors. That is the largest issue, and probably will always be a fundamental issue with the class.

.

I don’t mean to discredit ele players opinions in any way but you can pretty much say that about any class in the game…imo that’s a Warrior design problem not an Ele problem.

No it’s not. Guardians can literally spam their abilities with a greatsword. Rangers autoattack 90% of the time. It’s not a warrior issue.

Warriors: Autoattack, hundred blade, whirlwind attack
Guardian: CD spam
Thief: Black powder + autoattack
Ranger: 11111111111211111111
Engineer: Grenade/bomb spam is adequate in most scenarios

I’ve never leveled a mesmer, but it’s definitely in a similar boat with ele. I leveled a necro over a year ago, but only to about 20 so I don’t think my opinion on that is very educated, but I think it’s not as bad as ele/mesmer, but it’s still much more involved than non-light armor classes.

edit: to be clear, I meant all of this for leveling purposes.

the only thing you need for a mesmer is clone on dodge and a null field then the rest of leveling is a cake walk.
mesmers suck hard early game.

Bastien.1645:

I rolled an Ele the other day and yes he’s only level 42 but it’s the most fun I’ve ever had in this game?

and I have an 80 ranger, thief, warrior, mesmer and 60+ guardian. All of which I wvwvw/PvE with.

Why is there so much hate on Ele in this forum? Is it just going to become terrible when I hit 80 because nothing can be worse than my “mesmer” levelling experience :P

Please help me understand as I’m seriously considering making this character my main! Never had so much fun in guild wars before, I’m currently levelling with S/D but will try Staff and D/D in wvwvw once I’m 60+.

The majority of the complaints I’ve read revolve around the sPvP and tPvP game types, which I’ve noticed isn’t among the pool of game modes you play. In leveling, WvW (not great at roaming), and PvE, Elementalist will serve you just fine.

In PvE the elementalist doesn’t have any issues, then again rarely do any other class.

the problems and all the hate comes from when you start involving some type of PvP, then the cracks fall.

WvW zerg vs zerg, ele stands back gets free loot.
WvW roaming, ele has to be significantly better and put in 3 times effort for something an average warrior for example can achieve.

SPvP, ele is a free kill or a waste of space.
Ele doesn’t provide any real benefit that other classes do not have and they lack the survivalbility to be worth taking into a team. Amply put, why bring an elementalist when another class can do the work more effectively.

in any case, your question seems to miss the point of the complaints. Generally, most of the loudest complaints on this forum focuses on some type of PvP. There is a reason why the has been no ele in the last few tournaments.

Just to add Leveling an ele is pretty much easy, however the ele tends to fall apart at 80 when compared to other classes.

silvermember.8941:

In PvE the elementalist doesn’t have any issues, then again rarely do any other class.

the problems and all the hate comes from when you start involving some type of PvP, then the cracks fall.

WvW zerg vs zerg, ele stands back gets free loot.
WvW roaming, ele has to be significantly better and put in 3 times effort for something an average warrior for example can achieve.

SPvP, ele is a free kill or a waste of space.
Ele doesn’t provide any real benefit that other classes do not have and they lack the survivalbility to be worth taking into a team. Amply put, why bring an elementalist when another class can do the work more effectively.

in any case, your question seems to miss the point of the complaints. Generally, most of the loudest complaints on this forum focuses on some type of PvP. There is a reason why the has been no ele in the last few tournaments.

Just to add Leveling an ele is pretty much easy, however the ele tends to fall apart at 80 when compared to other classes.

This, plus the comments about PvP, plus the number of traits that aren’t good, are filler, or are still bugged. That said, all of those bugged traits don’t stop you have having a great time in PvE. It’s more of a, “hey we serve 48 flavors of awesome icecream! (disclaimer: 30 flavor machines aren’t working atm).” All the same, the remaining 18 flavors are fun for PvE.

Overall, the complaints come mostly from those who have been around since beta weekends and have seen repeated nerfs to the class, warranted or not.

Here is my 2 cent about gw2 forum:
There will always be a lot of people whine about its own class. Nerf this nerf that, buff this buff that, change this change that. Every now and then there will be some positive person like you and some others. (I am the former but I already stop doing it since it’s pointless.)

My advice is to run what you like. Check this forum only for guide update. There are some pretty good guides around here.

You will be wasting your time arguing with some people around here. Ele is great class, even though she is my alt, I run her a lot. I am considering to make her main since the gold that I invested on her armor is so awesome!

Larynx.2453:

Ranger: 11111111111211111111

Coffee went EVERYWHERE!

Jacks.5367:

Here is my 2 cent about gw2 forum:
There will always be a lot of people whine about its own class. Nerf this nerf that, buff this buff that, change this change that. Every now and then there will be some positive person like you and some others. (I am the former but I already stop doing it since it’s pointless.)

My advice is to run what you like. Check this forum only for guide update. There are some pretty good guides around here.

You will be wasting your time arguing with some people around here. Ele is great class, even though she is my alt, I run her a lot. I am considering to make her main since the gold that I invested on her armor is so awesome!

Excellent advice.

I’m happy that you enjoy the class. As everyone said it’s a matter of opinion. Go by your own personal experience. Some people think Elementalists are great and that people whine about it, while others think it is a pain. I believe the latter. Starting out with one for me was a pain, I hated not having survivability and consistently running in circles to avoid certain death. Once you get to a higher level then it becomes easier apparently. Point is despite what people say good or bad make your own assessments.

Ranger: oh, I dunno, I’m leveling one now with the Greatsword as main, that usually goes: 3-2-5-1-loot

as for Ele’s, I loooove my ele, most fun to play of all the classes I’ve tried. Sure, you gotta learn to dodge but that’s part of the fun as I’ve enabled a trait that does 5-damage whenever I successfully dodge without using my 5-ability.

yksdoris.2194:

Ranger: oh, I dunno, I’m leveling one now with the Greatsword as main, that usually goes: 3-2-5-1-loot

as for Ele’s, I loooove my ele, most fun to play of all the classes I’ve tried. Sure, you gotta learn to dodge but that’s part of the fun as I’ve enabled a trait that does 5-damage whenever I successfully dodge without using my 5-ability.

I have a level 80 Ranger as well and the Ele feels a lot stronger…

I roll them all the time … with my warrior.