Guild Wars 2

It pains me that to stay relevant on sPvP we have to play D/D, can we get some functional builds out there that does not force us to play a weapon that I would have never thought would go to with mage stereotype, I wanna be able to kill people with staff, not just also be pidgeonhole into “support” role and “run-away” role.

I want to be able to kill stuff with elementalists, and NO, i dont wanna play other classes, I LOVE elemntalists and I REFUSE to play anything else. anymore.

I want to be able to kill stuff with range like ranger can, dont give me the “you have to swap attunements” , I already do, and a ranger can crossfire you all day long no problem, same with theives without having to ever be changing 999999999 times from weapons and using all CDs to be able to SURVIVE and hopefully deal enough damage to just watch the enemy run away.

Tl;DR I dont like D/D, staff elementalists are underwhelming, give us viable builds outside D/D, fulfill the mage archtype and let us be effective with staff.

[/rant]

Personally i think ele is a complete mess and should really get a total resign. The attunements is stupid forcing us into doing something that SHOULD be optional – you dont see the other classes HAVING to use their mechanics to be semi-decent.

BAD design flaw that we are limited into either being Range or Melee while in combat, while every other class has the option to change to range or go melee. Engineers get kits and we get conjures – they should be the same but yet we get limited uses and long cool down

We need a more weapon options, rempove the Conjure weapons altogether and give us PROPER bow, Gsword, Hammer weapon options

and the BIGGEST issue we have – all the bugs and issues and when we get a bug that HELPS us if gets nerfed SO much it becomes broken…

Personally I very much enjoy D/D, which is fortunate because it’s pretty much the only weapon set, except for scepter dagger that’s viable in PvP. Even S/D has it’s draw backs and I still wouldn’t use it in 1v1 situations.

I would love some more options but the only time i ever use staff is when I’m defending a keep. D/D is far superior everywhere else. It really shouldn’t be this way.

They feel…..lackluster, underwhelming at times. I feel constantly overpowered by everyone else when trying to have a fight outside a D/D, the best i can do is run away…….and personally I dont like this….at all, maybe fun if you have an angry red-lined mob every now and then, but for the most part I wanna fight, I wanna be relevant and still feel like I actually do something other than heal/stun/run

I agree that D/D is by far our most popular and probably our most powerful weapon set, and that others should probably get a buff/change. But attunement swapping is awesome and fun. Ele’s have a huge amount of utility. You can’t buff each attunement to be as powerful as another classes weapon set, because then in the hands of a pro player, they would be so much better than any other class.

If you don’t like attunement swapping, ele’s gonna suck for you. That sucks if it doesn’t suit your playstyle, I’m actually sorry, hate it when that happens.

Wulf.5431:

I agree that D/D is by far our most popular and probably our most powerful weapon set, and that others should probably get a buff/change. But attunement swapping is awesome and fun. Ele’s have a huge amount of utility. You can’t buff each attunement to be as powerful as another classes weapon set, because then in the hands of a pro player, they would be so much better than any other class.

If you don’t like attunement swapping, ele’s gonna suck for you. That sucks if it doesn’t suit your playstyle, I’m actually sorry, hate it when that happens.

who said anything about hating attunement switching? As a matter of fact i love the class because of it, but most traits are put into “if you are in xxxxx attunement you do 10% more damage” which forces you (or makes you believe) that you have to specialize into one.

As i said, dont give me the “play another profession” bullcrap, i like elementalists and want to see them strong, I refuse to give up on the whole class just because a few elitists who like their current UP state.

Unfortunately this game isnt composed by pro players, i bet you that more than 90% are just like me, casual players so no, dont give me the pro crap. I want elementalists to be up par with others, period.

Fortus.6175:

Wulf.5431:

I agree that D/D is by far our most popular and probably our most powerful weapon set, and that others should probably get a buff/change. But attunement swapping is awesome and fun. Ele’s have a huge amount of utility. You can’t buff each attunement to be as powerful as another classes weapon set, because then in the hands of a pro player, they would be so much better than any other class.

If you don’t like attunement swapping, ele’s gonna suck for you. That sucks if it doesn’t suit your playstyle, I’m actually sorry, hate it when that happens.

who said anything about hating attunement switching? As a matter of fact i love the class because of it, but most traits are put into “if you are in xxxxx attunement you do 10% more damage” which forces you (or makes you believe) that you have to specialize into one.

As i said, dont give me the “play another profession” bullcrap, i like elementalists and want to see them strong, I refuse to give up on the whole class just because a few elitists who like their current UP state.

Unfortunately this game isnt composed by pro players, i bet you that more than 90% are just like me, casual players so no, dont give me the pro crap. I want elementalists to be up par with others, period.

I do not consider myself a pro by any means, there are loads of people who are better than me, yet I still do not think elementalists are even close to UP. Sure there are some lackluster traits, but EVERY profession has these, you just have to learn to work around them and see which traits are good.

MindlessRuff.1948:

I do not consider myself a pro by any means, there are loads of people who are better than me, yet I still do not think elementalists are even close to UP. Sure there are some lackluster traits, but EVERY profession has these, you just have to learn to work around them and see which traits are good.

- Useless Traits
- Broken Traits
- Bugged Traits
- Bugged Skills
- Bugged utilities

Do the other classes have these as well?
The ONLY time we get a “fix” is if we have a ability that is working well and they nerf it to the point of it being broken…

Dagger/Dagger gives you shocking aura, two knockdowns, and well…RTL. It does not require you to do anything overly fancy (like root your target before dropping tooth on them) to get DPS, it compliments well with an auras build, has great self-healing, etc. It is most versatile, and lowest skill ceiling to achieve strong dps. Plus…with GS/100 blades warriors abound, shocking aura is almost required. Would be wonderful to have greater diversity, but we’re pigeon holed. I’d love to go scepter focus, it is my view of perfection, but losing RTL, a knockdown, and shocking aura is unfortunately not as effective as gaining a reflect, invuln., daze and a projectile destroyer. It should be…but in practice it isn’t. Game is all about DPS in its current form, and defensive abilities consume time and do not produce DPS. My ideal theorycraft is an ice mage, inflicting perma chill and whittling down an opponent. But in practice all that time spent chilling is just time not doing damage. Unfortunate. Wish there was more feasible class/build diversity. Honestly the game was more fun in September before everyone figured out what was ideal.

@ DeeTooDee – Yet RTL and MG are STILL bugged. Many a time have i either over shot my target using RTL making my upraft combo unusable or just not move at all explode in my current position doing no damage to anyone and wasting a cool down.

MG is also still having issues

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

- Useless Traits
- Broken Traits
- Bugged Traits
- Bugged Skills
- Bugged utilities

Do the other classes have these as well?

Yes. Almost every class suffers from one or more of the things on your list.

boozer.7815:

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

- Useless Traits
- Broken Traits
- Bugged Traits
- Bugged Skills
- Bugged utilities

Do the other classes have these as well?

Yes. Almost every class suffers from one or more of the things on your list.

except we suffer from ALL of them. I am talking about Thief, Warrior, Guardian and Engineer – the 4 classes that the 2 “balance” devs play and enjoy the most…

they are not UP per say, but definitely underwhelming……big difference here. Not everyone likes D/D, period. Mage stereotype is staff, when I think of a mage Gandalf comes to mind, I want to play as a staff mage that works with fire and lighting and water and stone, not a fighter. Right now you are FORCED to play dagger, there is no going around this.

Well yea I agree that for sPvP Staff is not even an option more than once. It needs LOTS more CC options for it to be even remotely viable for sPvP.

fkc this, enough with the frustration, this game has stopped being fun to me, i give up, good bye Anet, you lost another potential customer

Ranged in general is a lot worse than melee for every class. You ever try killing someone with Warrior Longbow, or Rifle before they buffed kill shot?

Its called opportunity cost. Even for rangers, their melee is a lot better than ranged. I guess crossfire can be pretty potent, but why are you standing there with your back facing a ranger for an extended period of time?

Well, I use Scepter/Dagger and I’m incredibly pleased with how my character performs. I get that ranged stuff, but I also get melee stuff, too!

I’ve found a few builds by searching these forums, but I’m not sure if I like the Utilities they suggest I use, or maybe I think one of the traits is better used elsewhere.

Since it appears that the OP asked for some builds before prematurely ragequitting a few posts above (please come back?), here is a build I found here on the forums, that I’ve been practicing with in sPvP:
http://en.gw2codex.com/build/21560-s-d-tpvp-build-burst-and-survive

Here is another, but I’m not so sure how I feel about it:
http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/elementalist#6|3|2771|630|2817|100|4480|20|917|918|0|15|1887|0|0|10|2255|0|0|15|1684|0|0|10|2250|0|0|0|0|0|28032|28017|49981|49981|49981|49981|49981|21025|21080|0|0|0|0

I’m sure there could be better ones, but you might find the best one by trying something out for yourself. You don’t HAVE to play dagger/dagger to win, you know.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

boozer.7815:

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

- Useless Traits
- Broken Traits
- Bugged Traits
- Bugged Skills
- Bugged utilities

Do the other classes have these as well?

Yes. Almost every class suffers from one or more of the things on your list.

except we suffer from ALL of them. I am talking about Thief, Warrior, Guardian and Engineer – the 4 classes that the 2 “balance” devs play and enjoy the most…

Guardian Bug thread
299 posts.

Engineer bug thread
384 posts

Warrior bug thread
120 posts

Thief bug thread
248 posts

Elementalist bug thread
299 posts

Everyone is buggy, warriors perhaps less so, but still quite buggy. Of course not all bugs are equally bad.

D/D is slowly coming to a decent balance, but still need tweaking (especially a slight boost on damage output); IMHO wishing to use a specific weapon setup for each scenario is naive to say the least, that’s where weapon swap becomes mandatory.
Staff: great, really GREAT for support (why in the world would you use a staff in melee?), if the mage is free to unleash all spells… I wouldn’t like to be in the enemy crowd xD
S/F: didn’t master it yet, nothing to say so far
S/D: same as above

You can play like condition dmg thief. Use S/D and spam earth 1, when enemy attack use dodge.

I have no idea where people started to get the idea about this is the only solid ways to play in PvP. There are condition elementalists, Scepter/Dag burst, Healing/Support Elementalist (which is pretty king in team fights). If you really think D/D is forced, then maybe the class is not for you. Seems it isnt the class for a lot of people who complain.

S/D and staff can be amazing in the right hands so can S/F. The real issue is many lost EA abandoned staff ran to D/D and said this is the only solution. While I advocate EA gaining back some of its lost steam it by no means dictates that a few nerfs made D/D the only viable option. Its just a little more attractive now. D/D has its short comings optimal word being “short”. Our range is atrocious and on many fight you will feel forced to use range.

Staff over all with the right party is still more useful. Any class that can drop a waterfield (like ranger 15 seconds) can literally make a party nigh unbeatable using the right combos.

EatThisShoe.5136:

Guardian Bug thread
299 posts.

Engineer bug thread
384 posts

Warrior bug thread
120 posts

Thief bug thread
248 posts

Elementalist bug thread
299 posts

Everyone is buggy, warriors perhaps less so, but still quite buggy. Of course not all bugs are equally bad.

Strictly speaking, the number of posts is not indicative of the quantity of bugs; rather, it indicates the number of people affected by the bugs and care enough to bring complaints to the forums. For all we know, engineers have the fewest bugs and warriors the most.

Servanin.5021:

Ranged in general is a lot worse than melee for every class. You ever try killing someone with Warrior Longbow, or Rifle before they buffed kill shot?

Its called opportunity cost. Even for rangers, their melee is a lot better than ranged. I guess crossfire can be pretty potent, but why are you standing there with your back facing a ranger for an extended period of time?

Problem is every other class can switch between ranged and melee. Ele doesn’t have that option.

Woow OP.. chill out man.
You can go with any weapon you like in sPvP… Its how good you play and what skills you use and utilities. Its your strategy that makes the difference here..

Anyone who tells you “You must go this weapon to be useful” dont know what they are saying. They dont even know crap.

I highly recomend u play the way you want based on strategies that works for you.
It is NOT your responsiablity to support others.

Everyone has to Support/Control for themselves while dealing Damage, just as you do.
If someone dies, its their fault.

Have fun now and put a smile on. Grab a Happy Meal =)