Guild Wars 2

Hello.

First, context, I have only played up to level 35 as an Elementalist and mostly PvE.

I have a problem in which the element of Water is largely useless. I understand that the healing can be great, but in reality for me to make my healing significant I’d need to cripple all my other elements and stack Healing Power. I actually tried this with dagger main hand using Signet of Healing. Vapor Blade is very quick so I was constantly healing and stacking Vuln on enemies while healing allies nearby via Soothing Mist and Water 2. Water 3 was perfect for escaping crowds.

I played like this in several situations while solo, partied, and partied in the Ascalon Catacombs. While I definitely helped the team, there were some major problems:

1. While out of Water I wasn’t terribly useful

2. Healing and support doesn’t ‘tag’ enemies; you won’t get loot and in events you won’t earn completion credit.

3. The healing really isn’t worth it if you compare the damage you could do instead. You’d be able to protect your team MORE by killing things quicker in many cases.

4. I switched to a more Damage oriented playstyle emphasizing Fire and my solo ability skyrocketed. Solo, Water isn’t very good except for swapping into it to pump out Water 3 and then changing to another element as quickly as possible. The healing of Water 2 on self is really kinda bad. Then I tried the same style in a group and my team ability was also much much higher… I found myself almost always in Fire. The base damages and burning damages are ridiculous when compared to other elements.

Keep in mind: level 35 with Dagger main hand. Leaving the offhand out for now, this is just a comparison of elements in general.

So my main questions are these: why are all of the elements better than Water? Why is Fire in particular better than all others (in my opinion)? Why is support and healing possible in a game with no framework (tagging kills, events, etc.) for healing?

I remember Anet saying that they wanted no tanks and no healers. So why do we have this seemingly crippled element with healing? Is it like that BECAUSE it can heal others?

Sorry for the rant. I’m just really confused and frustrated as to why I can’t use one of my elements as much as I use the others.

The healing for water kicks up several notches when you have access to Master, and later Grand Master, traits.

Simply put, you can trait such that the mere act of attuning to water becomes equal to casting Dagger Water V (Water’s 15 point minor trait adds the heal, and Water V “Cleansing Wave” adds the condition removal if you want it)

At Grand Master tier, you also get Arcana XII “Evasive Arcana” which again adds the same abilities to your dodge roll once every 10 seconds, if attuned to water.

Basically, once you have those traits, the healing potential of the water attunement more than triples, as these two heals are only a very low cooldown in comparison. Not to mention that you can use Arcana II “Elemental Attunement” to grant yourself and nearby allies regen when attuning to water, and for even more condition removal sourced from water take Water XI “Cleansing Water” to also make THAT heal conditions.

At level 35, you simply don’t have access to any of the traits that make water work as healing support. Well, with a staff, you can still use blast finishers within a water field (casting Healing Rain (water 5), switch to earth (earth 2), drop an Eruption in it, and Arcane Wave if you have that slotted – at higher levels with Evasive Arcana you can also dodge roll in earth attunement for a third blast finisher in the space of 3-4 seconds).

Anyways, point is, traits make it work. You don’t have them at your level.

My advice, get through with your Eles to 80, then u will know the Eles power. Eles is one of the class that shines in 80 but sucks in early lv. Endure the hardship, get to 80 and u will realise how useful of Eles in a pt. Trust me on this. Cheer

Thanks for the answers. I admit, though, I was hoping that I was doing something wrong and Elementalist was actually much simpler than I thought.

From the sounds of it, Water is gimmicky and not something I want to spend a lot of time in after blowing cooldowns.

Zel.8375:

From the sounds of it, Water is gimmicky and not something I want to spend a lot of time in after blowing cooldowns.

Like our other attunements, it’s a tool to deal with certain situations. Once you’ve used what you need from it, you go back to something else. Water is no different.

Although in certain situations you may wish to remain in water a little longer. For example, if you need the 600 range on your dagger auto attack because you can’t be closer safely.

ThiBash is pretty much right. At very high levels, water becomes something you pop into to heal (attunement change, water 4, and evasive arcana), situationally cast frost armor, chill field, or frost breath, and then get out of ASAP. Its not that water spells are bad (frost breath and chill are good, and the armor is good, although on a long cooldown), its just that the heals you get from attuning, the condition cleanse, and evasive arcana are all things you are going to want access too ASAP after getting them once. You will find yourself in situations where you go to water, spam your heals, and get out just so you can get back there quicker.