ele sucks
Vitality and toughness….have you tried them? Elementalists in this game aren’t meant to be glass cannons. Without a dedicated healer, each profession is responsible for it’s own survivability. If you find yourself dying a lot, put more points into toughness and vitality, and try to change some of your gear to have more of those stats as well. Also, use your utility skills which help you survive. Armor of earth, arcane shield, your teleport (forgot the name) all add great survivability and utility.
The damage is also not fantastic, but that’s because unlike other games, this “mage” class isn’t supposed to kill you before you reach them. They’re meant to stun, cripple, burn, chill, etc etc, to not only give you the tools to help deal with them, but to also provide bonuses to your teammates to deal with these enemies. The class is great.
woooh opinion vs opinion. Yes, this will end well.
I don’t remember Anet saying “Ele can stand by the sidelines and help their teammates have fun”. Sure, they have some decent utility, but they are not the only class, and when you look at the squishiness VS damage or utility, the balance is obviously off.
Now personally.. im going to hit 80 and possibly re-roll because the class has been quite a letdown for me so far. Just rename this crap to a Monk with crappy heals, and give me a real elementalist back.
The main site claims : What they lack in physical toughness, they make up in versatility and the ability to inflict massive damage in a single attack. And while the versatility is there in some areas.. massive damage? Really ? We have a few skills that hit semi hard, if you have a good roll of the dice, but thats about it. Warriors can still hit twice as hard with double the survivability. Having utility doesnt help when you are eating dirt
Before defending the elementalist, people should understand it first.
Yes, elementalists are meant to be glass cannons. MH Daggers, OH Daggers and Scepters are filled with skills that exist for the purpose of damage-over-time, bursting or setting up bursts. Even if you go into a more defensive route with the Focus, you’ll still have to burst with your MH Weapons. Only the Staff falls into a more support role, where your squishiness is compensated by the support you can bring and by the large distance you can keep from your foe.
I’m not sure either if the devs wanted all elementalist players to be forced to trait into earth/ water lines, or bring defensive equipment. Nor does toughness and vitality automatically mean it’s the only way you can fend off yourself: all professions should have means to be self-responsible even when they’re specced into damage builds. That’s why dodge is universal to all professions, that’s why a strong self-heal is universal to all professions, that’s why each profession can choice at their will their utilities and have means to defend from attacks. Even an Elementalist with dual daggers has its own share of support and control skills. If that, by itself, is not enough, then surely something is wrong.
Elementalists could perhaps pull off the glass cannon role if they could actually deal the damage necessary in order to compensate for their lack of health. However, being the class with the lowest starting health, and being far from dealing the most damage, I don’t think players should assign themselves the role of being a glass cannon. You’re only kittening yourself by putting yourself in situations where you can be one shotted while you deal so-so damage.
The sceptre/focus combo isn’t great at dealing damage, but with the utility you get from it, you can keep enemies at bay long enough to kill them (assuming you’re also dodging attacks and whatnot), as well as the staff. I’ve spent most of my time leveling in this game with a staff on my elementalist, and although it takes me a while to kill enemies, I can keep them at bay, have enough health to deal with them because instead of putting points into power and precision I put points into vit and toughness.
Just my opinion is all. I don’t think elementalists should get placed into glass cannon territory since they’re really not that good at damage in the first place.