What r you supposed to do with this class?
You could either give up and fold your hands Or
Try this new build https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/My-Celestial-Elementalist-build-for-Spvp/first#post3940776
Or fresh air.
I am not sure how effective the build I posted is since the meta is still changing.
This is an mmo forum, if someone isn’t whining chances are the game is dead.
If you don’t experiment with the class how are you going to find out what suits you the best? We can’t just tell you what to do or use.
And no, there are plenty of eles that prefer to use other setups like d/f or s/d. Some even use s/f, but that’s just not for me.
I dunno man, i find ele to be far the most complex class in game, that and engi.
check my vid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o11XcHn1CgI ele can have nice damage and good defense now
@OP I was feeling like I had bad luck when I first picked the Ele as my Main, back in 2012.
I struggled with Staff PvE a lot, got wasted on every fractal run I tried and couldn’t do squat on WvW and sPvP. the only thing nice was the fact that I loved the animations, but usually sat on fire and spammed 1, 2 and occasionally 5.
Then I read some builds on this forum and found a great one based on the Fresh Air trait, D/F.
while that was a great discovery for PvE, it opened my eyes as to HOW the Ele class is to played. We have 20 weapon skills at our hands all the time, we should USE them all to their extent.
Eles are the hardest class to master (next to Engi, I guess), for we are so much versatile… The utilities might sound weak and slow, but they account as game changers if used correctly.
We are jacks of all trades and can fit different positions in a team without having to respec traits or trade half our equipment.
The first secret to master is the button smashing, you WILL have to press 10+ buttons in order to pull something out. It is hard, but fun when you manage it.
Position and best uses of our skills makes the most. The thing is Eles are so flexible they look weak and frail, hard to understand how to grow when we hit for 1/3 the thiefs and heal for 3/4 the guardians, cant debuff as mesmers or necros and cant support as banner warriors… But once you get your button smash going, you will be able to overcome all this.
Eh. I like diamond skin d/d, but I’ve been experimenting with s/d which is more midranged. You should check that out. General rules when starting (correct me if I’m wrong guys):
Try to keep arcana at 30 (attunement swapping is the most important part of our class)
Don’t attract the attention of the zerg/group (this goes for any squishy)
Use your positioning to your advantage.
Attunement swap as much as possible for benefits, but not for the sake of the benefits.
Don’t spam skills. You have to actually think of the benefit, make a rotation, but stay versatile.
If you want an easy class, play warrior or ranger. If you want an extremely challenging class play Ele. This class is the furthest to ‘press x to win’, you really gotta put your all in, when you enter a fight.
If I were you I would personally not play the class. Too much effort for little in return. Right now Celestial with Might stacking is nifty, but in my experience anything but will still get wrecked by all the things that wrecked the class before. And even so, I find that good Thieves still just train me all game and just kill you. I’m also assuming they’ll nerf the might runes eventually, and that will certainly suck, since I find that to be the only thing carrying the class.
For complexity while still being good, Engi is a solid choice. They can also abuse might stacking well.
(edited by TainoFuerte.8136)
Eh. I like diamond skin d/d, but I’ve been experimenting with s/d which is more midranged. You should check that out. General rules when starting (correct me if I’m wrong guys):
Try to keep arcana at 30 (attunement swapping is the most important part of our class)
Don’t attract the attention of the zerg/group (this goes for any squishy)
Use your positioning to your advantage.
Attunement swap as much as possible for benefits, but not for the sake of the benefits.
Don’t spam skills. You have to actually think of the benefit, make a rotation, but stay versatile.If you want an easy class, play warrior or ranger. If you want an extremely challenging class play Ele. This class is the furthest to ‘press x to win’, you really gotta put your all in, when you enter a fight.
I don’t think 6 points in Arcana is a must, that depends if you really need to go back to your starting attunement fast or if you can build a rotation with the 3 other that lasts enough until the first one is ready, more build oriented decision.
Eles are squishy when not build to last, but we can still hold a lot of Aggro and endure hits when build to Tank. Earth and Water work wonders in this, Specially with Stone Heart for PvP. An all around Ele should try to stay away from the AoEing mobs though.
Good Positioning (and flanking) as well as frequent attunement swap (with intelligence, not just random swapping) are indeed the keys to master. Button Smashing, as I said.
A good tip is to understand in what each element excels, Fire for AoE, Fire Fields, burning and raw power; Water for Support, Vulns (or chills, depending of your weapon), restoration and raw healing; Air for fast hitting, Crits, CC (with some stuns and disables, as well as some vulns); Earth for defense, tank-like thoughness, protection and Bleeding.
Utilities aren’t made to burst damage at all (maybe some, but it is hard to pull out), they are made to support your roles and you will switch them constantly, depending on what you are facing and if you need to tank, range, meelee or support, even if your main weapon and armor stay the same.
Glyphs change their effects with the selected attunement when their cast time finishes, use this in your advantage.
Cantrips provide usefull protection (and one of them had 15 seconds removed from its cooldown with the feature patch). Combined with the right traits, they can make you last longer, specially if you pop them at the right time.
Each conjure has its way to be used, get to know them.
One last note: With almost all channeled skills (like Dagger Water 2), you are able to swtich attunements without breaking the channel, meaning you can get the bonuses from other attunements than the one you cast the skill with.
If you’re having this much trouble and aren’t willing to experiment with all the weapon sets, I’d say this class isn’t for you.