Guild Wars 2

So iv been with GW2 since cb times, then i took some time off and came back some time in april and started playing again.
I usually play one class for a month or so(s-tpvp), then switch to another so recently i was trying to play ele again.

And this feels so frustrating after all those classes that im simply baffled with state that ele is right now.
First i used s/d fresh air as iv met some players in game, while playing other classes, doing nice dmg ,
but i found out this build have 0 tolerance for mistakes,
since you use rtl offensively and have 2 arcane as other utilities ur means of escape are 0 .

SO i switched to something more def 0.0.10.30.30 s/d and s/f
then i tried out some variety like fresh air with EA
fresh air with DS
and wht i had most success with was
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJArdnEEVcYzB6GgjYAhUAGGPCBPoDLPwhZwGA-TgAA1CmI2RtjbHzOyds7A
done nicely in supporting my team and fighting ranged spec classes, u have 3 projectile blocking skill on relatively short cds

You would think that is ok and if u can at least support ur team ele is ok,but problem is that after playing guard ,ranger necro wr ,Mesmer
ele is so lacking in a way that no other class is

U have to either spec for total defense and hope that other player will make mistake before you ,or u can spec for high dmg and and hope u wont make a mistake or the player wont dodge your burst since after that u r left defenseless/

This is most notable when defending point 1vs1 against h/lb wr, bunker guard,bomb /kit regen engi and mm necro. they can defend as good if not better then u and dish out a LOT more dmg
even memsers and thiefs have builds that can def and out dmg u.

i had fight with wr that just stood on a point and didnt do ANYTHING,but still couldn’t get his hp below 50%
guard will just heal up to full health and necros will hm go smoke and have coffee while minions do the job,and all the while im bashing my Kb like a mad man

So i said to my self one thing i didn’t try is build a condition ele,and this is where disappointment almost made me quit.

After recent patches most of other classes have cond cleans every 10-15 sec and depending on a class its 2-3 conditions cleansed.

scepter ele can apply 2 sec of burning on auto att. but that skill is really slow
dragon tooth is a joke as well as phoenix,some may argue this but play against ppl who know how to play and they can walk out from Dt and just strife from phoenix.

U can opt to have burning precision but it has 30% chance to trigger and im wondering y did engis,necros, get this same trait with 1000% success rate,if we r masters of elements

Then we have bleeds which ridiculously hard to apply by ele ,even with scepter earth since this att is also very slow slow and moment u go out of earth u r done:(

These are just examples but problem is that any other clss has so much cleaning that these two dmging conditions are so easyly cleansed by other classes that players dont even notice they had some conditions on them.

Another thing as lowest hp pool class and lowest armor all amulets are useless to ele,
For sigils u have to go crit and that leavs u with no defence at all.

So condition ele doesn’t have dmg or deference no matter how u trait or equip,there is no high risk high reward for ele option
no poison unless sigil and that is on 10 sec icd
no torment at all
no confusion
no retaliation,or i just missed something important
There is only one good fire field on oh dagger
only 2 watter fields on staff

scepter /focuss has some blast finishers but u have to work with one lousy fire field

utilities give no condition dmg or if they do its on so high cd that no1 ever uses them,
i mean glyph of elemental power and SoF (20sec single target)-SoW(30sec singke target) with 1 sec cast time????

I know that i wrote a lot of stuff that has nothing to do with condition ele,and it may seam like rant to some1,but i didnt wnat to start another thread just to point out some of my observations .
solutions are
access to other conditions
make conjures something like spirit weapons theyr still bad
and have them apply some cond
some more fields
utilities with conditions,
So ele need a bit of love ,pls give us a hug or just a hand shake will do,this ignoring is painful.

I dont think the “condition” in the tittle was needed though…

I am not reading this because the grammar is atrocious.

Stand The Wall.6987:

I am not reading this because the grammar is atrocious.

Ditto. I didn’t read it.

However, I’ll say something on the topic anyway. I normally play s/d fresh air burst for PvP, but after the Dec 10th patch, I changed to bunker-condi.

d/d, 0/0/30/20/20, settlers amulet, 6x undeads, doom/accuracy sigils. Earth: V, VII, XI; Water: III, V; Arcana: II, XIII. I’ve found it’s stronger than the burst ele I used previously.

Anierna.6918:

Stand The Wall.6987:

I am not reading this because the grammar is atrocious.

Ditto. I didn’t read it.

However, I’ll say something on the topic anyway. I normally play s/d fresh air burst for PvP, but after the Dec 10th patch, I changed to bunker-condi.

d/d, 0/0/30/20/20, settlers amulet, 6x undeads, doom/accuracy sigils. Earth: V, VII, XI; Water: III, V; Arcana: II, XIII. I’ve found it’s stronger than the burst ele I used previously.

I’d be interested in hearing more about this, as my impression was the elementalists can’t easily produce the variety of conditions needed to kill folks. Though this particular thread is perhaps not the best place to post anything useful

Prior to Dec 10th, that was exactly the case: Ele’s couldn’t produce the variety and intensity of conditions necessary. They certainly couldn’t compete with Necros. I was very anti-condi-Ele before Dec 10th, and with good reason.

Diamond Skin was a game-changer for 1vs1, 1vs2, and 2vs2 though. In group combat larger than 2vs2, it’s completely useless, but it’s amazing for small-scale combat and duels. It caused condi-bunker to become viable in small-scale combat.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWg52AA5BMmwy4hGe8RpQOA-jUDB4iAsCA5dJLPaQs1UERjNcoaGYKUK1aYByYOQecYeEJ1rAGA-w
this is my generic earth water mage, i think it’s a serious problem that i have to blow 3 major traits in earth to get some semblance of condition offense.. it’d be the same if i went defense.. and now that i look at it, it’s the same in water for adequate cleanses.. wouldn’t be much of an issue if elementalist didn’t have the worse base stats.. anyway, it’s generic and enough to keep me from getting 1 shotted..

also, i could go into arcane or use utilities to get the best out of condition.. but i’m not an arcanist.. and of course there is fire line, but i’d be sacrificing trait points from more defensive lines.. in that case i would just go glass canon power build wouldn’t i.. i realize the last patch was a step toward fixing such issues, but it was a rather small step wasn’t it?

i’d really like to see a few traits merged in the earth line to make it fully functional..
below are two of them, and additionally i think something should be done with current strength of stone.. like merging it with serrated stones.. and finally a factor of burning or even torment added to earth25 enduring damage.. Or they could slip that into serrated stones and merge strength of stone with enduring damage.. either way, you get what i’m trying to accomplish here
furthermore as a staff elem, the third attachment would be well appreciated.. much like the thread opener, i tried rune of earth.. boon duration armor also, but as a non-arcanist staff elem it was futile.. poor access to aruas, protection and yes condition upkeep.. staff only has 2 auras and 1 of them requires a blast finisher on the chill field.. an interesting solution {though i personally don’t like fanciful suggestions that go outside the current game mechanics} would be to grant the staff user an ice aura when standing in an ice spike radius or a fire aura when standing in a lava font

sorry for the rant.. more sorry that i don’t have a durable earth mage though

“However, I’ll say something on the topic anyway. I normally play s/d fresh air burst for PvP, but after the Dec 10th patch, I changed to bunker-condi.

d/d, 0/0/30/20/20, settlers amulet, 6x undeads, doom/accuracy sigils. Earth: V, VII, XI; Water: III, V; Arcana: II, XIII. I’ve found it’s stronger than the burst ele I used previously."

I cant c how that can be with just fire and earth for applying cond ,and u cant stay long in ether of them.

“Prior to Dec 10th, that was exactly the case: Ele’s couldn’t produce the variety and intensity of conditions necessary. They certainly couldn’t compete with Necros. I was very anti-condi-Ele before Dec 10th, and with good reason.

Diamond Skin was a game-changer for 1vs1, 1vs2, and 2vs2 though. In group combat larger than 2vs2, it’s completely useless, but it’s amazing for small-scale combat and duels. It caused condi-bunker to become viable in small-scale combat."

DS is nice whether its a condition or spike dmg ,it changed way of playing and gave u lil bit more time in earth but that is all,u do realize that with soldier amulet its just 1.5-2 k dmg u need to take before DS becomes useless.

With settlers or rabid, which u need for conditions u have just 13k hp ,that is one hit and your DS is off.

Errum, this ended up a bit longer than expected, my apologies.

tl/dr: I like using Earth Shield + Geomancy when it comes to Bleed Stacks.
______________________________________________

I’ve found the new Earthen Shield to be a great assist to defense and Bleed Application.

1: Swing 1+2 both apply Bleed
2: Block + AoE Bleed
3: Leap with an AoE Daze (Sadly, not a Leap Finisher )
4: AoE Pull with 2.5 – 7.5 seconds Protection (Base)
5: 3 Seconds of Invulnerability (Check conditions before using!)

You also gain 120 Vitality+Toughness. You only retain the percentage health when you pick it up or drop it, but the higher health means some damage is mitigated (This isn’t counting the extra mitigation from the Toughness)

You can swap Attunements while holding the shield to gain On-Swap bonuses, including Sigils. Using this with a Geomancy Sigil helps with the bleed stacks, just keep the Sigil’s Cooldown in mind.
(Just be careful not to waste an attunement you may need when dropping the Shield!)

I try to pick up the Shield early on in a fight due to the cast-time. That lets me mitigate some early damage and have the backup sitting on the ground ready. I also let my friends know they can grab the Shield and hit 5 for a breather if they need it.

Sadly, the Conjures have plenty of disadvantages:
-Long Cast Time
-Low Charges
-Team Mates Wasting the Spare
-Inability to Use Normal Skills

But if you keep that in mind, they’re not to hard to play around.
______________________________________________

might as well playing a necro if conditions is what you want. Elem is nice eye candy and interesting play style but lack abit of reliable fire power.

I’ve played elementalist a lot and though I don’t claim to be a pro, it’s really hard to play condi ele in the current meta. Sure, there will be pros who claim condi ele is viable but this is my main concern.

1. We can only consistently dish out bleeding and burning conditions.
2. You won’t be able to dish out any DPS conditions when you have both Fire and Earth Attunement on cooldown.
3. Current Meta

The current meta is still the condi meta. Many people spec to have decent amount of condi cleanses. Only being able to consistently apply 2 condis won’t cut it. From what I’ve experience, even if I go for a power build I can still dish out decent Burning and Bleeding damage just by stacking might or using Sigil of Battle.

Cookamatic.4316:

Sadly, the Conjures have plenty of disadvantages:
-Long Cast Time
-Low Charges
-Team Mates Wasting the Spare
-Inability to Use Normal Skills

So… why use conjures again? If it’s just to apply a few bleeds then you’d be better off with signet of fire for the burning, or GoEP for the burning proc, or the Cleansing Fire cantrip. If it’s to gain defense then cantrips are also far better, eg: Armour of Earth for protection and stability.

Bottom line: there is almost always a better alternative to conjures (in PVP).

you can sit in earth attunement with sceptre and together with signet of fire, you can achieve decent condi DPS — the core problems that prevent condi Ele from being viable are:

• can reliably apply only 2 conditions (easily cleansed). not easy to apply cover condis.
• forced to sit in earth or fire attunements — switching to water or air reduces condi DPS to zero.

scerevisiae.1972:

So… why use conjures again? If it’s just to apply a few bleeds then you’d be better off with signet of fire for the burning, or GoEP for the burning proc, or the Cleansing Fire cantrip. If it’s to gain defense then cantrips are also far better, eg: Armour of Earth for protection and stability.

Bottom line: there is almost always a better alternative to conjures (in PVP).

I’ve enjoyed using the Shield since it’s remake, just recently started messing with Geomancy, Serrated Stones and bleed and it happened to fit in pretty happily.

Originally I fell for the Protection, Blocks, and so on. Had to make my peace with the downsides a bit ago so I’m used to compensating.

yeah, condi ele is terrible
Ele isn’t bad at applying conditions in general, but the issue is there is only one damaging condition that it’s good at applying: burning. Burning has good base damage (good for power builds), but it doesn’t scale well with condition damage, and it doesn’t stack. You can overkill your burning so hard that someone with -70% condition duration would still easily have permanent burning twice over. This is not helpful, as permanent burning is just permanent burning no matter how overkill it is.

meanwhile, bleed applications is laughable, and the rest is nonexistant
Some of these ice skills really should apply bleeds. or torment

@above: I’ve found earth shield to be pretty nice too. the only issue is the summon time and the lock-out on chain hit 2. But it’s strong once it’s in hand and isn’t cancelling your input to stomp someone.