You deserve a buff
@Pyrial, I don’t think elementalist is fine with just that.
They need to relook at our traits to make other builds viable as well, not just earth/water/arcane..
Dd is not fine, currently. I can’t speak for sd. It is better than what’s available currently, but I wouldn’t say fine. Holding out until the bug fixes would be a smart thing rather than a buff now/nerf later scenario.
@Rafe, what isn’t fine about D/D?
@Pyrial, I don’t think elementalist is fine with just that.
They need to relook at our traits to make other builds viable as well, not just earth/water/arcane..
We have as many viable builds as other professions, imo.
Changes for D/D are being tested internally, so apparently the devs do think d/ d is not 100% fine.
(edited by Moderator)
@Pyrial, I don’t think elementalist is fine with just that.
They need to relook at our traits to make other builds viable as well, not just earth/water/arcane..We have as many viable builds as other professions, imo.
Not in my opinion.
@Burrid Compare by number or list the number of viable build options other professions have to that of the ele.
@Rafe, what isn’t fine about D/D?
Ride the lightning and burning speed to start with, you’re really alright with how these skills function?
Ride the lightening. Burning speed. Fire grab. Long as sin cast on e5, if your target is still in the area while you are quite obviously are casting this animation he deserves instant death. Drake breath being clunky, cast bar in melee on a class that is dependent on dodges when they’re available. Lightning seems like a damage/control attunement that lacks damage. (I see fire as aoe/dot and air as single target/direct dmg.)
Ele is fun as hell. But. It feels like an unfinished class.
@Rafe, what isn’t fine about D/D?
Ride the lightning and burning speed to start with, you’re really alright with how these skills function?
That would be covered under the “bug fixes” in my post.
Ride the lightening. Burning speed. Fire grab. Long as sin cast on e5, if your target is still in the area while you are quite obviously are casting this animation he deserves instant death. Drake breath being clunky, cast bar in melee on a class that is dependent on dodges when they’re available. Lightning seems like a damage/control attunement that lacks damage. (I see fire as aoe/dot and air as single target/direct dmg.)
Ele is fun as hell. But. It feels like an unfinished class.
I disagree, it feels more polished (outside of bugs) than the other professions.
Pyrial, don’t be a fanboy. Anet has acknowledged that the elementalist isn’t where they want it to be and that it is a top priority for them. So please, feel free to tell Anet they’re wrong but arguing with everybody here is pointless. It wastes their time and yours.
I disagree, it feels more polished (outside of bugs) than the other professions.
I used to believe that when the game was released, but I disagree now. The most polished profession so far is the Warrior, and even the devs used to say so, and the elementalist does not seems that close to it.
- Our downed state has an interesting playstyle in theory that does not works in practise.
- Most of our trait lines/ individual traits are contradictory to the way the profession works, and are generally bland and too conditional. Water and Arcane are the only two traitlines that feel “complete”.
- We have an entire utility subset that is greatly ineffective, and an entire utility subset that is so much better than almost everything else, exceptions aside.
- A few of our attunement skillsets lack focus and coherency (Scepter’s water, MH Dagger’s air). Several of our weapon skills do not properly fit in, having no worthwhile synergy with the weapon’s playstyle (the examples mentioned above, most of our auto-attacks, etc), some skills are ineffective without trait and/ or utility support (Churning Earth, Fire Shield) or just plain bad (Flamewall, Fire Shield again).
This, of course, not talking about the bugs. Necromancers are in a worse situation here, but we’re clearly not anywhere near the most polished when it comes to bugs too.
EDIT:
Pyrial, don’t be a fanboy. Anet has acknowledged that the elementalist isn’t where they want it to be and that it is a top priority for them. So please, feel free to tell Anet they’re wrong but arguing with everybody here is pointless. It wastes their time and yours.
I have read dev’s comments about what they think of the elementalist, but nothing stating that it is a top priority. Was that said somewhere, or just what you think they have implied?
(edited by DiogoSilva.7089)
One of the devs stated that shortly after launch. I don’t remember where. They actually stated the elementalist specifically as not being where they want it and the warrior as being about where they want it. I think I read it in a link from the GW2 guru. I’ll see if I can find it. I think it was about PvP.
(edited by Zonzai.2341)
We have as many viable builds as other professions, imo.
Here is basically the full list of PvP elementalist traits. (if you need a filler to reach a bottom tier and none of the listed traits fits well, use a 20% cd trait)
Fire
Spellslinger
Air
Zephyr’s Boon
Earth
Earth’s Embrace
Elemental Shielding
Written in Stone
Water
Soothing Disruption
Cleansing Wave
Powerful Aura
Cleansing Water
Arcane
Elemental Attunement
Blasting Staff
Vigorous Scepter
Final Shielding
Renewing Stamina
Evasive Arcana
Elementalist is kitten, in theory. Terrible in use. As a class we lack definition. Most would say support whereas “support” is an OPTION for the other classes. Not to harp and bully warriors, but the have extremely efficient choices. They can go tank/bunker, dps, support(outstanding ae supporters) and moderate ae heals, all excelling at their chosen line. Ele’s don’t get that choice. We get terrible survival, less than mediocre dps, and trait/utility choices that feel like the aftermath of a garbage disposal. Sure we can trait for better survival but what does that do? It puts in line with base survival of what other classes get when traited for damage/support. This decreases our already lower than adequate damage.
The traits don’t “jive”. It looks, quite obviously, like a perfect example of too many chefs in the kitchen. It seems like everyone wanted to take this class in a different direction per trait line. Read fire- seems like specializing in fire for dmg is the way to go, but wait read the rest and they don’t support that specialization. Read air- lolwut? Wtf is air supposed to even be?! Dmg or control because most of that looks like junk that was left over. Earth- a bit of middle ground of dmg vs utility but still seems quite mixed up. Water- functions smoothly enough. Arcane- hey! One that works well! Why do you think most eles go 20-30 arcane? I just want to emphasize that reading fire it seemed like they wanted eles to function similar to gw1 ele in which you could pick an element and stay with it. In a perfect world you’d be able to trait for either staying with an element OR attunement dancing to pick and choose from a larger pool of abilities. So your choice would be either specialize or jackofalltrades. To me it looks as though one individual had elementalist as a project, something happened so another individual picked it up and finished it his way without go over the first guys work….
Yeah burst ele is way off the mark. I tried to be a D/D glass cannon ele and did a test vs a golem. With a large combo (earthquake>air attunement> ride the lightning>arcane blast>arcane wave> updraft> fire attunement> burning speed> fire grab) 99% of the time i couldn’t outdamage my glass cannon warrior with a much smaller combo (bolas> hundred blades> whirlwind attack).
A lot of the times not even close. Hundred blades usually took out 1/2 to 8/10 of the heavy golems HP and whirlwind attack by itself could take a respectable 1/4 to 1/2 of its HP out too, depending on positioning.
And the cooldowns. Earthquake and fire grab are 45, updraft is 40. I need 30 in air to get bonus damage from stuns and 15 in arcane so the air bonus damage can carry over to fire. I can’t reach both the earthquake cooldown and the fire cooldown reduction, and even if i could they’ll still be 36 seconds.
Bolas are 16 seconds CD, whirlwind attack is 8 seconds CD and HB is 6.5 seconds CD. All cooldown reductions in easy reach with each other.
You’d think a combo with so many chances for the enemy to escape, especially with how common stun breaks are, and with such a high cooldown, on a class with such low defenses when specced for glass cannon, would outdamage or at least match that warrior combo.
Ele support/bunker is pretty good but the class is pretty much a wet cleric for the time being.
@Zonzai. A fanboy? Why because I disagree with someone? Really, if that’s the best you can do, keep on moving. I enjoy the way the elementalist plays and I don’t see any major problems outside of the already mentioned bugs and downed state.
We have as many viable builds as other professions, imo.
Here is basically the full list of PvP elementalist traits. (if you need a filler to reach a bottom tier and none of the listed traits fits well, use a 20% cd trait)
Fire
Spellslinger
Air
Zephyr’s Boon
Earth
Earth’s Embrace
Elemental Shielding
Written in Stone
Water
Soothing Disruption
Cleansing Wave
Powerful Aura
Cleansing Water
Arcane
Elemental Attunement
Blasting Staff
Vigorous Scepter
Final Shielding
Renewing Stamina
Evasive Arcana
I’m not exactly sure what your intentions were behind this.
@ Pyrial.
He’s pointing out the viable traits in pvp.
As you can see there is only 1 trait worth a kitten in fire and air. Which means speccing heavily into those is completely unviable.
The idea was to point out that builds are basically combinations of arcane, water and earth. Anything else is generally seen as gimmicky and/or useless. Whereas other classes often have a large variety of traits and builds they can run, not to mention weapon choices.
Ele just needs a bug-fixing treatment like Necro and a minor changes in traits and certain weapon skills. The profession does not desperately need buff or re-make. I dont think it is a top priority for either nerf or buff at the moment. Let’s get all teh bug fixed first and see how we go from there.
So far we’ve seen that Anet will do what Anet wants to do.
So it’s pretty pointless trying to state as fact that “Elementalists only need A or only need B”
My opinion is that elementalists will require more than bug fixing.
Alot of people mention RTL bug as really important, yet I feel the complete opposite.
It bugs alot sure – but most of the time the enemy is just as confuzzled by it as we are.
What we need in my eyes is a buff to our offensive spells (the ones that are hard to hit) such as flame tooth, firegrab etc, cuz lets face it, if a guy is silly enough to stand there in a flame tooth till it hits, he should pay for it… you know, kinda like how I “pay” for it if I stand on a quickness HB?
and a buff to our defensive skills / traits, so a glass cannon spec can have more survival than 2 seconds after random guy looks at us funny.
Only Red Post from developers counts.
Fire shield as a whole seems like a waste. I’d love to see Flame Barrier get replaced with something actually useful.
I just started levelling an Ele after playing both a thief and guardian to 80.
I have to say, it feels like I am playing the game in slow motion. Where is the front loaded damage? Either I am tethered to my opponent or the range damage seems to take way too long to get there, and they are out of range before it even gets to them.
Speed up the projectiles please!
@Pyrial, I don’t think elementalist is fine with just that.
They need to relook at our traits to make other builds viable as well, not just earth/water/arcane..We have as many viable builds as other professions, imo.
Not in my opinion.
Have to agree with Burrid here.
Ele isn’t broken but its not balanced well either.
Problem is if ele gets a buff, in anyway from a pvp perspective, the bunker staff ele is going to be one of the most overpowered thing you’ve ever seen.
The burst with a bezerkers amulet + s/d is fine, if this gets buffed having a roaming ele would be the 100% best in slot.
If S/F got buffed this bunker ele would be even as devestating at the staff ele.
There are a lot of people rocking with the ele at the moment, and the devs are trying to make as little changes as possible simply as the more changes = more time till tournaments arrive. And the shift in that “eles are bad” to 3 weeks ago to “Ele’s are actaully kitten good”, the latter proportion of eles have started to come to fruition and is becoming the norm.
No..Elementalists have come a long way. Yes they were horrible ly up compared to other classes at release, but due to the needs of other classes our class is getting closer and closer to balance. At this point I feel bug fixes and some trait improvement outside or earth and water would make a world
of difference. Needs were supposed to be nerfs
No d buffs are needed. Direct I mean. Typing on phone is weirsDi
Elementalist – Blárp, Razarei, 55HPMonk, Need More Defense
Revenant – Master Blárp [Desolation]
Revenant – Master Blárp [Desolation]
(edited by Razarei.2809)
@ Zen, the same can be said for all professions. There are a limited number of builds for all professions people would consider viable.
@ pyrial
dont look at me. Im just passing along the intended message of the post o.o
@Zenya
It looks as if you offered up your opinion in the second half of the post, that is what I was referencing.
@ pyrail (where be mah kitten quote button!)
I suppose it does. Not my intention though. Sorry for the misunderstanding.
Quote button went missing, a rogue back stabbed it…
“There are a lot of people rocking with the ele at the moment, and the devs are trying to make as little changes as possible simply as the more changes = more time till tournaments arrive. And the shift in that “eles are bad” to 3 weeks ago to “Ele’s are actaully kitten good”, the latter proportion of eles have started to come to fruition and is becoming the norm.”
In other words, people figured out that they bunker/support pretty well. The problem is, people have been asking since release only one question about the class. “Where the kitten is the damage?!?” That’s all I’ve read, over and over. Where’s the damage? Nobody has a problem with being squishy in glass-cannon. Everyone’s cool that we can build to be tough controllers, or support. Where’s the damage?
Basically, players who already have elementalists have given up on that question and just built around it. I know I have. I accepted a while ago that the damage was just going to be lackluster no matter what I did, and that I may as well build for utility and durability. It’s fun, after a fashion, but still…I shouldn’t be shoved into that choice by poor balancing decisions. It should be my preference. If I want to do loads of damage, then I should be able to build for it, even if it trashes my durability or support potential.
Thieves can currently build to AoE destroy entire zergs in WvW, and are still able to get away because of stealth. Sure, if they get CCed and focused on they instantly die. That’s their choice. Elementalist players currently don’t get to make that choice. It’s bunker and bad damage, or instant death and….better bad damage.
The problem lies in the traits, the class has potential of being great at everything but we’re only good bunker and maybe a roam build but that only because water and arcane trait lines are actually worth it.
The main problem I see is that we are not rewarded for attunement swapping, in fact feel punished. Now why do I say this?
Most traits are only working while attuned to the said element, (exception being Arcana) they need to work across the board as in theory most traits only work 1/4 of the time.
So lets take the 30% chance on crit to cause burning (Fire trait) thats good an all but wouldn’t it be better to have it so that while in fire it burns, in water you cause vulnerability, air causes weakness and earth causes bleeding?
10% Damage while attuned to X, yeah lets take X and make it water, water atunement will not benefit from this at all, so why not make a 30 point trait in fire and say 10% damage no matter what attunement you’re in, at least then our damage would be viable in every element but excel while in fire. I’m not saying it should work exactly like this but you get the meaning, traits should benefit every element not just one, otherwise they should make us specialize in two elements and call us a mage instead because at the moment we are the the master of element*S*. Oh and they should reduce the base C/D on attunement swapping and remove the 60% recharge from Arcana and replace it with something else. ehh random rant
PS we need a skill that either polymorphs people into kittens are a spell that throws kittens at people
In the greater blob of things, there is only the zerg.
Kittens, Kittens everywhere!
Kittens, Kittens everywhere!
@Zonzai. A fanboy? Why because I disagree with someone? Really, if that’s the best you can do, keep on moving. I enjoy the way the elementalist plays and I don’t see any major problems outside of the already mentioned bugs and downed state.
I’m not going to do better because I’m not here to argue. I just call it like I see it. And the impression that I got from your posts in this thread is that you’re a fanboy. If that’s not you fine, but that’s how you’ve come off. I know, because I am an Anet fanboy.
From my experience in GW1 I feel confident saying that the elementalist will see continual small adjustments for a while. And if that doesn’t put the elementalist where Arenanet wants it, they will do a major revision like they did in GW1.
Arenanet has a plethora of metrics that they use to determine what a professions weaknesses are. Those metrics will help them determine what adjustments need to be made to which profession.
Threads like this can contain useful information that may help Arenanet identify the specifics of those weaknesses but they won’t be the determining factor for how or when adjustments are made to the elementalist. Mostly they just provide a way to vent frustration. And that’s important too.