Guild Wars 2

So I have an exotic trident, the best aquabreather I can find, and it just seems like underwater we do 1/3 of the damage we do on land, it seems really screwed up that the only element I can top 4 digit hits with is water.

Is it a mistake or are we just honestly designed to suck eggs underwater?

eles under water can apply burning thats right burning under water, 2 blinds, 2 drops and 1 float a stun, crazy amount of bleeds a pull to skill and not to mention underwater, water attunment is insanely OP almost having mesmer status under water on just 1 attunment.

and not to mention a warp
eles are arguably one of the best classes under water, now think how many classes would kill to have all that on 1 weapon? not even counting utilities

They do terrible damage though, which makes actually killing things underwater a lot harder than it needs to be.

Dagraan.2854:

eles under water can apply burning thats right burning under water, 2 blinds, 2 drops and 1 float a stun, crazy amount of bleeds a pull to skill and not to mention underwater, water attunment is insanely OP almost having mesmer status under water on just 1 attunment.

and not to mention a warp
eles are arguably one of the best classes under water, now think how many classes would kill to have all that on 1 weapon? not even counting utilities

Yeah all that’s great if you’re in a group.

They do awful damage though and if you’re the only one there killing is painstakingly slow.

Hyper Cutter.9376:

They do terrible damage though, which makes actually killing things underwater a lot harder than it needs to be.

I used to think that too.

Water attunement though……

The #2 attack crits 2-4k and has a short CD, #3 also hits hard and chills and is a blast finisher, #5 is the strongest burst damage underwater (of any class, afaik).

The elite skill also packs a punch and has built in CC and gives a good bonus to hitpoints.

Part of the issue is you can’t might stack as easy and access to fury is limited with no auras (other than a hard to use combo) in the water as opposed to land. This makes the 0-10-0-30-30 build particularly weak in water combat damage, since that build relies on might stacking and fury uptime quite heavily. If you’re running that build, especially with soldier’s or cleric’s gear, expect to do no damage, the only reason that build does damage on land is might/fury stacking.

The other part of the equation is that ALL classes do less damage underwater. This seems to be a design choice overall (and I’d say a good one, as 3-D active combat is much more demanding than 2-D active combat, more time to react balances the more possible directions your opponents can move).

Really really hated playing under water as an ele but durin SS I had to so I could farm sharks….

Trick is all in combos.

If you don’t use em, dps is absoulutely terrible but if you do it’s pretty good. Still won’t beat rangers/engies but still decent.

One thing that bothers me is that EA does not work under water which has to be a bug…

yes eles always do terrible damage. Above and under water. Our highest damaging attacks max out around 16k while zerker necros can practically one-shot wariors, thieves hit 4k on auto attacks and mesmers go full zerk and beat ya to a pulp in no time. That’s why the pvp scene is plagued by bad mesmers and thieves. With the occasional beast warior/ranger/necro.

I’m okay with our land damage as it is, ele with a staff is more a support role with moderate damage. Ele with trident is control with lesser amounts of support and god awful damage in 3/4 attunements. Water is okay but water only really matches the damage of water skill #2 on land.

I can literally hit 4 digits with 4 skills.

1. Water 2 detonation
2. Water 3 detonation
3. Earth 2 at point blank range (barely over 1k)
4. Elite skill

I don’t really see a lot of damage coming off of water 5 but that may be because you zoom right past mobs when you use it.

Earth 4 (sink) and water 5 downwards into ground next to opponent. Every hit lands = instakill almost anything from full health. Only problem is if they dodge, go invuln, or interrupt you, you have to wait for cooldowns and do mediocre damage in the meantime. Signet of fire helps a bit.

Whirlpool is also good in glass cannon builds. You can really wreck unsuspecting groups with it.

Water is really where you should be going for damage. Its not as effective over time in PvE, but you can burst people from full to zip in wvw with just water 5. You have to aim the thing well, but its wildly overpowered if you hit a decent number of hits. Also, try changing your traits around. Grounded (lol) is useless on land, but when you have the cage and three other hard cc skills to make sure you land it, not so much.

Idk about you, OP, but my Ele is 150% more effective underwater than he is on the ground. Funny thing is, his strongest attunement underwater is actually Water, most
damaging + gives good insta-regen w/ soothing mist, not saying about weapon of mass
destruction in form of Tornado…

Its nothing just you. I too feel the hits are very weak compared to land attacks but part of its the skills themselves. I find fire is useless. those molten orbs barely scratch an enemy and take forever to explode to deal the real damage. the fire aoe is nice tho.

My main damage is ironically water, the weaker of the land skills. Must be because we’re being super charged by being in the very element itself.

It depends on your build, if you deal from mediocre to average dps/burst on land then on water it will be less of course but from high to massive dps/burst on land then in water will be high too. Water 5 skill is extremely powerful with a burst build ele, I take out any player from 100% of health to 0 only with that skill if I land it right.

i find undwater ele pretty Good … Coming from a Guardian .. No
Surprise

I Run a condition build which performa really well due to great bleeds and a Lot of cc … I can Take quite a Lot of Champs underwater. Water 5 can be pretty funny when its actually roatating in Place. Yet positioning can be a pain.

lightning water Earth is all Good…. Fire… Hate it

Elementalist is pretty meh underwater…

Unless you do the following rotation.

Boiling Water > Arcane Wave >Water attune > Ice Wall set > Ice Wall Detonate (must do set and detonate almost instantly, if you do it fast enough you’ll get 2 blast finishers for 6 might stacks) > Tidal Wave (preferably with Zephyr’s Boon spec’d for the Fury).

I regularly kill whole groups of normal enemies instantly using the above combo. And if they’re not dead after that, throw out Ice Globe for more big damage and swap to Earth or Air (depending on whether you lean more towards condition damage or power) to finish it.

Swimsasa Stoon.8936:

yes eles always do terrible damage. Above and under water. Our highest damaging attacks max out around 16k while zerker necros can practically one-shot wariors, thieves hit 4k on auto attacks and mesmers go full zerk and beat ya to a pulp in no time. That’s why the pvp scene is plagued by bad mesmers and thieves. With the occasional beast warior/ranger/necro.

so 16k with 1 attack is bad? do you want to be able to 1 shot every class instead of just half of them? and even if their not 1 shotted you have other skills that will down them just as fast if not faster as every other class.

the cookie cutter 0/10/0/30/30 build isn’t meant for damage its meant for survivability and making every single person who wvw’s or pvp’s rage more than the thief class or mesmer class has ever seen.
because they can’t get 2 badges, and have to work for a kill.

Dagraan.2854:

eles under water can apply burning thats right burning under water, 2 blinds, 2 drops and 1 float a stun, crazy amount of bleeds a pull to skill and not to mention underwater, water attunment is insanely OP almost having mesmer status under water on just 1 attunment.

and not to mention a warp
eles are arguably one of the best classes under water, now think how many classes would kill to have all that on 1 weapon? not even counting utilities

What are you talking about? Elementalists have horrendous damage under water. I have two accounts, Elementalist is the main on one and Guardian the main on the other. When I do the underwater kills daily with these two characters, the degree to which Elementalist is kitten for underwater DPS becomes obvious. The Guardian can complete the same task in the same locale in close to a third the time.

Often, when fighting regenerating skale and other foes underwater, my Elementalist can’t even overcome the regen!

This is the way it has been since launch, with no improvement.

My theory is that someone thought it would make sense to debuff fire and buff water due to the watery environment. However, since Water does a lot less damage than fire, debuffing fire and buffing water by similar percentages vs. land damage did not result in proper DPS output.

Like most Elementalists, I do everything possible to avoid underwater environments with my Ele, which is a shame because I generally like the underwater play.

Fiontar.4695:

Dagraan.2854:

eles under water can apply burning thats right burning under water, 2 blinds, 2 drops and 1 float a stun, crazy amount of bleeds a pull to skill and not to mention underwater, water attunment is insanely OP almost having mesmer status under water on just 1 attunment.

and not to mention a warp
eles are arguably one of the best classes under water, now think how many classes would kill to have all that on 1 weapon? not even counting utilities

What are you talking about? Elementalists have horrendous damage under water. I have two accounts, Elementalist is the main on one and Guardian the main on the other. When I do the underwater kills daily with these two characters, the degree to which Elementalist is kitten for underwater DPS becomes obvious. The Guardian can complete the same task in the same locale in close to a third the time.

Often, when fighting regenerating skale and other foes underwater, my Elementalist can’t even overcome the regen!

This is the way it has been since launch, with no improvement.

My theory is that someone thought it would make sense to debuff fire and buff water due to the watery environment. However, since Water does a lot less damage than fire, debuffing fire and buffing water by similar percentages vs. land damage did not result in proper DPS output.

Like most Elementalists, I do everything possible to avoid underwater environments with my Ele, which is a shame because I generally like the underwater play.

Patch notes indicate underwater dmg buff

Fiontar.4695:

Dagraan.2854:

eles under water can apply burning thats right burning under water, 2 blinds, 2 drops and 1 float a stun, crazy amount of bleeds a pull to skill and not to mention underwater, water attunment is insanely OP almost having mesmer status under water on just 1 attunment.

and not to mention a warp
eles are arguably one of the best classes under water, now think how many classes would kill to have all that on 1 weapon? not even counting utilities

What are you talking about? Elementalists have horrendous damage under water. I have two accounts, Elementalist is the main on one and Guardian the main on the other. When I do the underwater kills daily with these two characters, the degree to which Elementalist is kitten for underwater DPS becomes obvious. The Guardian can complete the same task in the same locale in close to a third the time.

Often, when fighting regenerating skale and other foes underwater, my Elementalist can’t even overcome the regen!

This is the way it has been since launch, with no improvement.

My theory is that someone thought it would make sense to debuff fire and buff water due to the watery environment. However, since Water does a lot less damage than fire, debuffing fire and buffing water by similar percentages vs. land damage did not result in proper DPS output.

Like most Elementalists, I do everything possible to avoid underwater environments with my Ele, which is a shame because I generally like the underwater play.

really all i have to do is press 2,3 maybe 5 for stronger enemies just on water attunment.
but if you’re running the cookie cutter bunker build that makes everybody rage more than a thief then yeah some guardian is gonna kill just as fast, that builds not meant to be a tank with a cannon. its even worse under water.

all i have to do is press 5 if the enemy immobilizes, chills, or cripples me, since the damage on that skill is so insane is makes the vet risen sharks jealous.
fire attunment is just meant for damage over time not damage right now like D/D or S/D.

The point with eles underwater is not to do damage, but to CC the kitten out of your enemy (I can see that this is a problem in PvE). In WvW you should either CC them and let your team kill them, or CC and get your kitten dry.

am i the only one that thinks its awesome that “water” is really powerful… underwater?

I dont think the the damage is that bad. fire1 and 2 are aoe, air1 does solid damage if all 3 prongs hit. water2,3,5, air2, all do great heavy hits on fairly short cooldowns.

we have amazing control, arguably the best underwater elite, can combo stealth, what more can we really ask for?

Raven.9603:

the best underwater elite

It locks all weapon skills, utlities, even attunement swap (for a heal or protection during whirlpool), requires melee range and deals pityful “damage”. The only good thing is the unreliable AoE pull. Before it’s 33% nerf it was a high risk/high reward skill (and I admit it may have been too strong for PvP) but now it’s a low risk/low reward skill.

I’d slot a 4th utility over the elite at any time. (and it’s kind of sad that I would say the same about land combat as well)

/daily ele rant

Allelya.6830:

Fiontar.4695:

Dagraan.2854:

eles under water can apply burning thats right burning under water, 2 blinds, 2 drops and 1 float a stun, crazy amount of bleeds a pull to skill and not to mention underwater, water attunment is insanely OP almost having mesmer status under water on just 1 attunment.

and not to mention a warp
eles are arguably one of the best classes under water, now think how many classes would kill to have all that on 1 weapon? not even counting utilities

What are you talking about? Elementalists have horrendous damage under water. I have two accounts, Elementalist is the main on one and Guardian the main on the other. When I do the underwater kills daily with these two characters, the degree to which Elementalist is kitten for underwater DPS becomes obvious. The Guardian can complete the same task in the same locale in close to a third the time.

Often, when fighting regenerating skale and other foes underwater, my Elementalist can’t even overcome the regen!

This is the way it has been since launch, with no improvement.

My theory is that someone thought it would make sense to debuff fire and buff water due to the watery environment. However, since Water does a lot less damage than fire, debuffing fire and buffing water by similar percentages vs. land damage did not result in proper DPS output.

Like most Elementalists, I do everything possible to avoid underwater environments with my Ele, which is a shame because I generally like the underwater play.

Patch notes indicate underwater dmg buff

Yeah the sheer damage increases under water are noticable, seems the devs agreed anything outside of water attunement was very underwhelming and frustrating to do underwater content solo with.

Eles can stealth underwater, that total balances out our damage → jk lol.

I find fighting underwater a pain and try to avoid it where possible.
However, 1 zerker ele and 1 cleric ele both in whirlpool is redonculous (until it ends, then its a gg feast).