Guild Wars 2

Hi all.
Reading these forums is a bit confusing, so let me ask: Is all the whining about Elementalist based on facts or is it due to being the hardest class to master, but still the second most popular after Warrior?

You see, I’m a Engi main with Ranger and Ele alts. On the Engi forums ppl will argue back and forth about being a weak class while some keep shouting l2p. The truth is that Engi is quite powerful in a Grenade Kit build, but this doesn’t suit the majority of the players, it’s a very clunky playstyle. But this is kinda hard to spot. So the rest of us feel underpowered while the Grenadier fanboys keep shouting l2p.

So I’m wondering if this is the same with Ele in some ways. Is it the element-dance that is the key to survival? Are all who complain about the class just standing in one spot with a staff in Fire and getting killed?

Cause it can be kinda hard to spot why some are being successful and others not. I’d appreciate some tips to this before I level my Ele any more. If someone had said to me that Engineers are that weak unless you’re throwing grenades I wouldn’t have rolled one…

The elementalist class does have a huge learning curve. It isn’t the easiest class to efficiently play. It takes a lot of testing and comparing to find a good build and stat priority. At first I was a rage fan that felt like my elementalist was by far to weak in damage and survival. Though after getting my full exotic gear and perfecting my traits I feel pretty at ease. I still feel alittle weak compared to warriors or guardians. Warriors put out so much damage and take so little. I can put out maybe as much as a warrior in a long fight, but would die in a few hits at first. Now I still put out maybe as much damage as a warrior but I’m one tough ele to kill. In-time as people find good specs and they get broadcasted throughout the web I’m sure the class wont be looked down on so much. Though, every class needs tweaking…that’s how it is with new games.

Ech… I am afraid nope. GW2 advertised the weapon system and stuff as a way to “Eliminate good and bad builds”, to “play as you want”.

In fact you can play elementalist quite well and have fun from it… but it doesnt change the fact that everyone around you keep getting better results than you with little or no efford.

Of course, there are few deadly combos, but -my opinion here though- the thing I was sick in gw1 were “farming builds” and skill combinations community found best. And playing this, pressing the same skills in the same combinaions, was what made you “pro” :/

It seems that Elementalist playing “pro” so switching attunments like machines executing the deadly combos etc can achieve no more than any other class just using their 3 basic skills.

So, to answer your question: You can play Ele, you can have fun with it and even play on higher areas, but it doeasnt change the fact that IN COMPARISON to other professions Ele seems just funnily weak :|
As we really have to use triple more skills and switch through various atunments to achieve results similar as other professions. And more skills takes more time. And more time is less hp and less battle efficiency. And with less hp anyway…

^^’

Well write what you want. I’ve learned my ele pretty well ,every tournament iam actually able to 1v1 and SOMETIMES 1VS2 ENEMYS. Iam proud that iam good in hard class to master . I dont think that warrior whoes 1,2 enemys are proud of themselves more than ppl that fighting with 26skills and 4x times longer to win using much more map objects ,kiting,debuffing etc. I could make a movie with fraps but i think my PC wont handle GW2 on low/med + fraps on ,

Ele 38. So far I love it despite being squishy and having elites I rather not use.

I use arcane wave a lot, especially with my staff. It has great synergies with AoE effects. However I love to try out all the classes in a game and I must say that the difference is clear, especially with the guardian. His staff skills puts my elemental is shame.

Hello!

My very first character is a level 80 Elementalist and there is no doubt at all that I’ve enjoyed playing it quite a lot. The versatility of having so many skills and attunements to choose from is wonderful, though being stuck with one weapon set (and thus one range) can be a pain at times… especially in dungeons or against bosses.

I started out using mainly the Staff and then eventually switched to Dagger-Dagger which was, for me, much more entertaining since it has a much faster pace. Considering that I managed to get to level 80, do dungeons, participate in boss fights, clear maps, and so forth, the Elementalist class definitely isn’t impossible to play and too weak to bother with. It really depends on your personality, play-style, and the level of challenge you’re comfortable with.

That being said… I recently started playing a Warrior (now level 21) and the gap between the two classes is MASSIVE. I’m not a super-skilled player nor a really horrible one – I’d say I’m pretty average – and the Warrior is noticeably easier. I’m NOT saying that the Warrior is “better” (it may or may not be, I don’t know), but rather that the learning curve is much much much smaller than on the Elementalist. To succeed as an Elementalist requires a lot of thought, experimentation, and skill… As a Warrior you have a lot more leeway to make mistakes and still survive.

So it depends on how much effort you’re willing to put in! The Elementalist is a great class, but it’s definitely on the difficult end of things. : )

P.S. These are only my PvE thoughts. I haven’t delved into the world of PvP just yet so I can’t compare the classes in that light!

CaitlinJF.1720:

Hello!

My very first character is a level 80 Elementalist and there is no doubt at all that I’ve enjoyed playing it quite a lot. The versatility of having so many skills and attunements to choose from is wonderful, though being stuck with one weapon set (and thus one range) can be a pain at times… especially in dungeons or against bosses.

I started out using mainly the Staff and then eventually switched to Dagger-Dagger which was, for me, much more entertaining since it has a much faster pace. Considering that I managed to get to level 80, do dungeons, participate in boss fights, clear maps, and so forth, the Elementalist class definitely isn’t impossible to play and too weak to bother with. It really depends on your personality, play-style, and the level of challenge you’re comfortable with.

That being said… I recently started playing a Warrior (now level 21) and the gap between the two classes is MASSIVE. I’m not a super-skilled player nor a really horrible one – I’d say I’m pretty average – and the Warrior is noticeably easier. I’m NOT saying that the Warrior is “better” (it may or may not be, I don’t know), but rather that the learning curve is much much much smaller than on the Elementalist. To succeed as an Elementalist requires a lot of thought, experimentation, and skill… As a Warrior you have a lot more leeway to make mistakes and still survive.

So it depends on how much effort you’re willing to put in! The Elementalist is a great class, but it’s definitely on the difficult end of things. : )

P.S. These are only my PvE thoughts. I haven’t delved into the world of PvP just yet so I can’t compare the classes in that light!

I agree. Elementalist might be seen the worst in the beginning of this game, but I feel that they will triumph in the end. Elementalist has ALOT to it.

A little more to add-
They restrict your skill usage so there’s no good or bad builds, but all they did was make your builds rely on stats not skills. If you reach level 80, test all your builds and stats. You will be surprised what you find. I prefer not to share my experiences/builds and rather let people experiment themselves. You will be a much greater player if you learn your class from the inside out. Don’t just look up a build and play it without understanding what the hell is so special about it.

Thank you all for good answers.
I’m very curious about my own Ele, even more after these answers. I’m one of those who get very easily bored with 1-2-3 -skill classes/ professions. I like the challenge and the idea of approaching every fight different. I do worry about spending too much time with every single kill. I already have the Engineer who is very hard to kill while kiting, but sometimes I have spent 3-4 times as much time killing an enemy as I would on my Ranger.

GG:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh5zjK7ITpQ&feature=colike

That happens a lot on the Elementalist, honestly. While you certainly -can- kill things fast in the right circumstances with the right setup, it’s not something you can take for granted. I often found myself avoiding certain enemies altogether simply because I knew how long it would take me to beat them and how little reward you get for doing so.

If you want to be able to kill everything in your path quickly (and on your own), then I would avoid the Elementalist. For the most part, it just isn’t going to happen… unless you are amazingly skilled or something.

The single target damage just isn’t there, and the amount of effort to get it all out of proportion to results. The basic attacks are all severely underpowered and using combos and attunement switching brings that up to merely lackluster. You don’t realize how weak the ele is until you play another profession. Its aoe is strong, and if you can contrive to use it in pve to round up groups of mobs, then this is actually better than single target damage as such. But doing this in Orr is a real headache.

The lack of weapon swapping is a serious drawback and winds up limiting your options rather severely, too, even with 4 attunements, because every weapon set has limited roles it can perform. Traits have no internal synergy. Cast times are painfully slow. Etc. etc. I’ve moved on and am now working on my 3rd level 80 toon (have a war and ele as 80s, the ele is gathering dust, the war farms, and now I’m working on a mesmer.)

On a side note…a lot of folks seem to be rerolling mesmers. Lowbie zones are full of them on my server. What’s up with that? I hardly ever saw them on either my ele or war on their trips to 80.

I like how ‘active’ Ele is, versus thief. I like pressing more than one or two skills, but yes the damage output is just really low. And from a feel standpoint, never on my ele do I feel as if I am a master of the elements. I feel like an apprentice who stole a spellbook and staff, and is desperately trying to use everything I know to kill an angry rabbit.

I like the style, but my 80 elementalist is shelved for now as he’s simply not as effective as the rangers, warriors, and thieves that I see running round the ruins of Orr. Fine, ltp, whatever. Or learn to play another class.

The reason you see so many mesmers, I think, is that a lot of people want to play a caster (thematically), and realized that mesmer is a lot closer to the mental image than the elementalist, and a lot easier to play (believe it or not).