Guild Wars 2

How come the ele have only 1 weapon to “choose from” for underwater?

I feel really really useless underwater. The most damage i can do is with fire, boiling the water and shooting those eggs that explode after 2 seconds.
The problem is that the only underwater weapon we can have it’s ranged, so it’s damage is way less than others that are close-range, and the skills that deal most damage are skills that needs your enemy to stay in his spot (so you can’t be running in circles, else those eggs won’t pop in their faces).

The only thing it “might” be usefull is for CC in PvP. But in PvE… Oh look, i’m making my foe float. Now stun. Now sink. Great.

Uhm… well. Are you sure that you have tried every aspect of ele underwater skills?

For all I can say, compared to other classes, ele underwater is fine. Sure ingis can do better, but if I look at my thief in comparison… almost all useful skills blocked, weapon stuff feels not very versatile (only talking PvE here).

It probably just comes down to how you use attunements underwater. Fire field and blast finisher available, lots of cc, and also: dmg
For the latter: single target air autoattack is really good (close range), for ae you can use fire and water
(only earth is somehow lacking, I just switch in for some short cc, and out again. But thats ok, condition niche)

Seriously, ele underwater is quite ok. Just try to learn when to use what. Sitting in one attunement all the time wont do you any good there, especially if you consider how most underwater pve content is designed atm (e.g. bosses in HotW, no defiant, you can cc them permanently). So try to swap often, use you skills in appropriate situations, and you will do just fine.
I even have to say Anet did a good job with ele here, since you can do most all/most things you do on land, where over classes lose significant stuff (thief stealth?!)
Stacking might, dmg (single/ae), cc.
What else do you want? ;D

I know people hate hearing this, including myself, but L2P issue. It’s true you can output substantial stationary DPS, but that’s supposed to rely on the combination of your other attunements just like above water. Frankly I think Ele is one of the most powerful underwater classes. All attunements have a quick hard hitter ( 2 skill ), with exceptional control and diversity, it’s simply another weapon to learn like everything else.

That said, I do have a couple tips. The 5 on water (Tidal Wave) is a channeled damage charge. Used against a wall, or more specifically the floor of the body of water, will do a ludicrous amount of damage. I’ve seen 10+ hits over 2k in SPvP. You also have 2 sinks to get them there, one even conveniently in water attunement.

Despite how it may feel at first, trident is a control based weapon with precision hits, much like staff. You’ll find yourself a very powerful underwater profession, especially since most people don’t give a kitten about underwater combat.

I have one very specific rotation I use underwater and it seems to work really well.

That being to blow all cooldowns except 2 in Fire, then use Fire #2, immediately swap to Water, double-cast Ice Wall (do it fast enough and you’ll get 2 blast finishers and 6 stacks of might), while you’re casting Ice Wall use Arcane Blast for another Blast finisher. Immediately after you detonate Ice Wall use Water 5. Go through fast and you’ll get Leap finisher just as the fire field is disappearing and get a Fire aura for even more might from getting hit as well as to proc Zephyr’s Boon for Fury / Swiftness if you’re running that trait. Water 5 itself tends to do a ton of damage after this specific rotation for some reason as well. After that, cast and detonate Water 2 for high damage, then swap to either Air or Earth depending on whether you’re condition or power based (Power goes to Air, Condition goes to Earth). From there you can use your cooldowns on your chosen attune for a few seconds, go back to Fire and rinse and repeat.

Or to put it another way…

Start Fire > All attacks except #2 > Fire #2 > Water Attune > Double tap Water #3 (cast Arcane Blast during Water #3’s cast animation) > Water #5 > Water #2 > Air or Earth attune depending > Blow cooldowns, wait a few seconds, > Fire attune and repeat