Guild Wars 2

Hello!
So I’m fairley new to the game and I like playing this class – the fighting and the weapons is awesome and I really enjoy dodging and running around making spells and consider myself being reasonable good… The gear is not that interesting but that’s a minor detail :p
I’ve found that whenever I’ve searched for builds and information about elementalists, I always seem to find players complaining about how weak they are and even read the phrase: “The weakest class there is right now”. How can this be? Whenever I fight a veteran or does a skillspoint, I’m alone and I survive just fine everytime. Often without losing more than a few health. I’ve tried all kinds of fighting styles for the class, and like the staff-skills best. I haven’t had the honor of trying out pvp so far. My elementalist is level 68, but I’m not so interested in the pvp-world just yet. I will get there though, and I’d like to be prepared for whatever I’ll meet. Also when I’m travelling around the world, doing dungeons and events I rarely see another elementalist, which makes me feel pretty special, and that’s cool, but it’s also kind of making me nervous… I’m sure there must be a reason for it.

Thank you for the attention

I only see one thread about eles being bad on the first page and it’s by one guy whining cause he’s bad at the game.

Also, you’re playing in PvE where eles are outrageously strong. They’re also good in WvW zergs. I think they have some issues in 1v1 PvP matchups but if you wanted to 1v1 you should be playing Blazblue.

All of the complaints only apply to pvp, and to a lesser extent WvW solo (Eles are great in a group). It’s not that ele builds are BAD, per se, just that in pvp there is no role that another class doesn’t fulfill better. Also, the margin for error is lower, so the class is less forgiving. In PvE, eles are excellent, and any spec you try can work just fine.

If you are having success, than just ignore the tears. Even if ele had a lower power-level in PvE (it doesn’t), if you played something that didn’t fit your play-style, you’d both have less fun and be less effective!

Also, we are receiving a few buffs the next patch that will help us stick in the fight with opponents a little better and compete more.

In sPvP eles have no real role and are thus not really welcome. An ele is also a lot more of a gamble than a warrior, guardian or necromancer. A competent thief can shut you down completely and if if he doesn’t – what did you want to do? Defend a point, contest an enemy point, roam, decap or team up in mid? For each of these roles there is another class that can do it better. And switching roles does not really work because the rest of your team is nailed to their respective roles as well due to class/build/gear choices.

In PvE anything goes. This is actually the area where ele really shines because an Ele can stack a lot of might/fury on the party and do truckloads of damage. The downside is that Ele DPS builds have very low hitpoints and armor. If you are not careful you will die in a glimpse so you often have to hold back. And this is the main reason why other classes like warrior are percieved “better” because they can go full-on even in unorganized groups and thus deal more damage.

Its more like we’re the weakest physically. which I suppose I could accept being a mage like class but you would think our trade off would be very high damage output. which also seem to a little weak compared to some classes.

If anet would give elementalist a decent damage increase or a defence increase well over half the complains might quiet down.

Chaotic Storm.2815:

Its more like we’re the weakest physically. which I suppose I could accept being a mage like class but you would think our trade off would be very high damage output. which also seem to a little weak compared to some classes.

If anet would give elementalist a decent damage increase or a defence increase well over half the complains might quiet down.

Ele do have a very high damage output. If you are selfish and don’t feel like running a s/f or s/d Lightning Hammer might stack build then just run 30/10/10/10/10 staff, either of those has crazy dps. Just because you see those big 100b numbers from warrior Youtube videos doesn’t mean it’s good dps (long channel). Axe auto attack is the highest dps for warriors. Also warriors are really, really boring to play. I much prefer playing my ele any day.

People need to zerg as full glass zerker on an ele in wvw for a couple weeks. Then pve is a cakewalk.

Because ele defenders have never played against a good thief/mesmer or warrior.

They just get anhialated.

phaeris.7604:

Because ele defenders have never played against a good thief/mesmer or warrior.

They just get anhialated.

Those thieves/mesmers and warriors that supposedly “annihilate” eles have never gone against a good ele player.

If you use a defensive dagger/dagger build for leveling, you can kill anything, even groups of enemys, quite easy and your elementalist feels really strong. Hit 80 and that story is over.

Right now in tPvP; ele doesn’t have good enough sustain to even hurt warriors healing sig + cleansing ire. Yes, you can kill warriors. With a great deal of struggle because Ele’s sustain is simply horrible.

Thieves can 2 shot you if they run glass. You’ll probably see 2-3 heartseekers after you go down just to show how hard they were spamming that kitten.

Necro Signet of spite is getting kinda nuts considering we can only cleanse 1 condi at a time unless we run bunker water builds. Good news is, most necro’s are absolutely horrible and I support the MM necros because they are easy to kill and really bring nothing to the table for their team. Wait, I take that back. The petting zoo for down time is nice to play with. :P

Ele seem okay outside of sustained dps, some other classes need to come down is the biggest issue I see. Thief needs some serious balance with their spam and Healing Sig needs to come down some more even after this 8%. I would really like the see the passive not be ‘as passive.’

LightningBlaze.4913:

Those thieves/mesmers and warriors that supposedly “annihilate” eles have never gone against a good ele player.

Oh really….must just be a coincidence that of all the classes I never ever lost to an ele on my thief. I just happened to fight all the terrible ele players, and would come out of fights at pretty much full health. Or somehow I could end fights in sub 5 seconds sometimes, or occasionally 1 shot geared eles.

I even had an obviously well kitted ele join my group just to tell me how did I hit him for a 21k total. I replied ’ i pressed 4 buttons’. How we laughed!

phaeris.7604:

LightningBlaze.4913:

Those thieves/mesmers and warriors that supposedly “annihilate” eles have never gone against a good ele player.

Oh really….must just be a coincidence that of all the classes I never ever lost to an ele on my thief. I just happened to fight all the terrible ele players, and would come out of fights at pretty much full health. Or somehow I could end fights in sub 5 seconds sometimes, or occasionally 1 shot geared eles.

I even had an obviously well kitted ele join my group just to tell me how did I hit him for a 21k total. I replied ’ i pressed 4 buttons’. How we laughed!

Unless you are abusing the broken constant/perm stealth mechanic to keep healing yourself back up after every 1-2 hits then you are a very easy kill to me. There are many awful easy mode eles roaming in wvw trying to become better just like there are a couple of thieves that said to me they never have lost to an ele until they encountered me. If you are as good as Triggerless or Amonator with s/d then you are a challenge but still beatable.

I ran d/d.

Since the ability to stealth every 1-2 hits isn’t really a broken mechanic, but actual class design, they why exactly wouldn’t I use it?

What thief isn’t in stealth every few seconds?

But yes, I can say ele’s are an easy kill, you can say you can kill everything that exists, so eles are clearly in a great spot.

phaeris.7604:

I ran d/d.

Since the ability to stealth every 1-2 hits isn’t really a broken mechanic, but actual class design, they why exactly wouldn’t I use it?

What thief isn’t in stealth every few seconds?

But yes, I can say ele’s are an easy kill, you can say you can kill everything that exists, so eles are clearly in a great spot.

There are various thief players that don’t rely on abusing that well known broken mechanic to stand a chance against other players. Triggerless for example. They do stealth but not as constantly to abuse it. Yet they perform extremely well even on outnumbered encounters. In terms of wvw and pve, the ele is most certainty in a very good spot but that depends on the player. If you are on tier 2 lets duel and see if your “undefeated against ele” status remains.

Elementalists are extremely handycapped compared to their actual power, in order to bring them in balance with the rest.

With their full power, with a snap of their fingers they would engulf all enemies on sight and bury them alive to death, and end the fight just with that, while being surrounded by a thick layer of rock that makes them immune to anything.

But of course we can’t have that, so they had to be toned down…

…but they got too toned down. Elementalists are a partially physical class. They can stand back and “nuke” but they are also meant to go in there and dish out with PBAoE attacks. Yet their means to endure combat while in the thick of battle are extremely limited. Very short protection and extrely short invulnerabilities, two of which makes them unable to attack. They also got the lowest health tier because of things like they keeping up long regenerations.

Elementalists can do anything better than anyone, but never at the same time. They are either masters of just one thing or jacks of all trades that shine at nothing.

They are balanced considering all the things they can do, not considering all the things they can do at the same time. They have armor as if they always had all their defense, and health as if they always had all their healing, and damage potential as if they were focusing on that…

And if you try to make something more balanced, you’ll end up worse than anyone.

LightningBlaze.4913:

phaeris.7604:

I ran d/d.

Since the ability to stealth every 1-2 hits isn’t really a broken mechanic, but actual class design, they why exactly wouldn’t I use it?

What thief isn’t in stealth every few seconds?

But yes, I can say ele’s are an easy kill, you can say you can kill everything that exists, so eles are clearly in a great spot.

There are various thief players that don’t rely on abusing that well known broken mechanic to stand a chance against other players. Triggerless for example. They do stealth but not as constantly to abuse it. Yet they perform extremely well even on outnumbered encounters. In terms of wvw and pve, the ele is most certainty in a very good spot but that depends on the player. If you are on tier 2 lets duel and see if your “undefeated against ele” status remains.

Really?? Its not because YOU think that its an abuse and YOU think that its cheap to use that mechanic that its a abuse. Its part of the game then its legit. If Anet think that it unbalance the game, then they gonna change it ASAP. If they think that its not a big deal but need to be change, then they will change it eventually. And if they think that is part of the game then i will never change. For now its part of the thief and each profession need to be prepare to counter this kind of tactics. Some profession can counter this but other profession have a harder time like Ele. Its part of the game.

Wraziel.1854:

I haven’t had the honor of trying out pvp so far. My elementalist is level 68, but I’m not so interested in the pvp-world just yet.

There you go.

Killing a veteran in PvE is one thing.
Facing a thief, warrior or mesmer in PvP (or really any class using a top build) is another thing. Only then will you find out the true weaknesses with Ele’s.

For now keep leveling and playing what you find fun. In PvE I’m still enjoying the heck out of it.
But for PvP I have completely given up on my Ele…not worth the frustration, I do vastly better as Engineer.

Thaddeus.4891:

LightningBlaze.4913:

phaeris.7604:

I ran d/d.

Since the ability to stealth every 1-2 hits isn’t really a broken mechanic, but actual class design, they why exactly wouldn’t I use it?

What thief isn’t in stealth every few seconds?

But yes, I can say ele’s are an easy kill, you can say you can kill everything that exists, so eles are clearly in a great spot.

There are various thief players that don’t rely on abusing that well known broken mechanic to stand a chance against other players. Triggerless for example. They do stealth but not as constantly to abuse it. Yet they perform extremely well even on outnumbered encounters. In terms of wvw and pve, the ele is most certainty in a very good spot but that depends on the player. If you are on tier 2 lets duel and see if your “undefeated against ele” status remains.

Really?? Its not because YOU think that its an abuse and YOU think that its cheap to use that mechanic that its a abuse. Its part of the game then its legit. If Anet think that it unbalance the game, then they gonna change it ASAP. If they think that its not a big deal but need to be change, then they will change it eventually. And if they think that is part of the game then i will never change. For now its part of the thief and each profession need to be prepare to counter this kind of tactics. Some profession can counter this but other profession have a harder time like Ele. Its part of the game.

It is not just me that believe that constant/perm stealth is a broken mechanic that has no real counters in gw2. Dodging, putting conditions or aeo are not real counters. This topic has been brought up several times in the wvw discussion forum, each being discussed at great length. Whoever was active in any of those threads can easily tell the grand majority agreed stealth is the most broken mechanic in this game. Even a lot of well known tpvp and wvw thieves players agreed. Then again, that’s a completely separate topic that does not belong in this thread.

@Wraziel – If you are doing very well with the ele don’t pay attention to any of those that simply fail to perform just as good. Ele is very strong in all areas of wvw and pve but some players simply can’t adapt or learn how to play with this profession.