Guild Wars 2

If you are evaluating Elementalist against each of the following classes right now, who gets nerfed of the two? This is designed to get classes to consider where they rank in terms of viability and which classes just suck compared to them.

Elementalist v:

1) Guardian
2) Engineer
3) Mesmer
4) Necromancer
5) Ranger
6) Thief
7) Warrior

Simple answers (put explanations underneath if you want). Which class gets the nerf between the two (Elementalist or each of the 7 others)?

I’m assuming we’re using Elementalist as close to “meta” as possible – either the Scepter Fresh Air burst build or CmC’s Rock Solid build, as well as the possible new Diamond Skin build. These are my thoughts…

Elementalist v Guardian – Ele gets the nerf, and Guardian will always either tie or win

Elementalist v Engineer – Engi gets the nerf, but Engi still beats Ele handily

Elementalist v Mesmer – Ele gets the nerf, and loses even more to its natural counter

Elementalist v Necroamancer – Necro gets the nerf, still beats the Ele unless it’s a 1v1 and the Ele has specced with the new Diamond Skin, in which it’s a very long battle, and then the Necro wins

Elementalist v Ranger – Ranger gets the nerf, still beats Ele because it’s the natural counter to the class along with Mesmer

Elementalist v Thief – Thief gets the nerf, still beats them because Larcenous Strike still steals a precious boon from the Ele

Elementalist v Warrior – Warrior gets the nerf, but still wins because Heal Sig wasn’t nerfed

Ele can still win these if the opponent is bad and they use the cheesy Fresh Air burst build, only to be killed by someone else walking by because it’s squishy as hell.

Overall, a pretty good patch for Ele, I’d say.

Neko.9021:

I’m assuming we’re using Elementalist as close to “meta” as possible – either the Scepter Fresh Air burst build or CmC’s Rock Solid build, as well as the possible new Diamond Skin build. These are my thoughts…

Elementalist v Guardian – Ele gets the nerf, and Guardian will always either tie or win

Elementalist v Engineer – Engi gets the nerf, but Engi still beats Ele handily

Elementalist v Mesmer – Ele gets the nerf, and loses even more to its natural counter

Elementalist v Necroamancer – Necro gets the nerf, still beats the Ele unless it’s a 1v1 and the Ele has specced with the new Diamond Skin, in which it’s a very long battle, and then the Necro wins

Elementalist v Ranger – Ranger gets the nerf, still beats Ele because it’s the natural counter to the class along with Mesmer

Elementalist v Thief – Thief gets the nerf, still beats them because Larcenous Strike still steals a precious boon from the Ele

Elementalist v Warrior – Warrior gets the nerf, but still wins because Heal Sig wasn’t nerfed

Ele can still win these if the opponent is bad and they use the cheesy Fresh Air burst build, only to be killed by someone else walking by because it’s squishy as hell.

Overall, a pretty good patch for Ele, I’d say.

How in the kittens do you have ele losing ALL 7/7 matchups regardless of nerf or no nerf?

I win most of my encounters.. Almost always and even more if I change my skills up depending on the matchup (Something I don’t usually do.)

I disagree with your “ele loses all” statements.

The only one on there I know I can’t win most of my battles against is well geared mesmer running a stealthy phantasm build.

I don’t think anybody can win against stealthy phantasm builds built defensively. They are almost literally impossible to kill 1v1 or even 1v10 if they don’t screw up. If you are built defensively they shouldn’t be able to kill you either though.

Jabberwock.9014:

I don’t think anybody can win against stealthy phantasm builds built defensively. They are almost literally impossible to kill 1v1 or even 1v10 if they don’t screw up. If you are built defensively they shouldn’t be able to kill you either though.

^^ This. You can literally walk away from just about every single mesmer build. The ones that are a threat to force you to fight is glassy GS mesmer’s that where able to open up first with ibeserker. Other than that I just ignore them most times. I hopped on my mesmer the other day and with old school phantasm style build. Grabbing both +15% damage modifers full glass with duelist and immediately put him away when I realized people can just ignore me.

Any ele build that invests on arcana and earth traitlines is going to get buffed, based on what is known so far. This is because of the bug fix to lingering elements, which currently doesn’t works with the earth minor trait, and with the buff to the earth minor itself. This means that d/d rock solid builds, and fresh air builds with the rock solid trait variant, are going to get 40 extra toughness in earth and 120 extra toughness in other attunements for a few seconds after leaving earth.

Meanwhile, warriors, rangers, necros, s/d thieves, pretty much most of the current pvp meta is going to be nerfed. And do not forget that that elementalists used to be a top pvp profession before the current meta.

Anything can happen, but elementalists will surely end up in a better position.