Guild Wars 2

now don’t get me wrong. they are great in the open world. and the elemental is great in most dungeons. and the greatsword is so much fun and so much dmg. but i feel that in wvw/pvp we dont have the same power in our elites.

quick review:
greatsword:
+ alot of dps
+ fuuuuuun
+ looks awsome
- well. dps is all it have. as a ulti? realy. as a elite i could atleast have gotten some utility. other than a crappy cripple. not to mention that i give up on all of my other spells.

elemental
+great utility
+have lots of different rolls it can play.
+if using earth you get your own personal tank who you can heal.
-it sux in most dungeons and especially the fractals, same can be said for wvw and pvp.

whirlwind/pool
erhmm … why ? sure its a cool spell but giving upp all my dps and utility for some knocbacks? and poor dmg.

you know what would be cool? a spell that reduced our cd. and made our cd recharge 50% faster for 10-15 seconds and making the attunements have 50% less cd aswell making you a super elementalist in super mode for a set amout of seconds. now that is waht i would call awesome and very useful in almost all areas. balance it by having a huge cd or something similar.

just a quick though. nothing really serious. just something to spin on :P

Our elites are what really kitten me off about this profession, outside the fire elementl which bring in some decent dmg when you need the most, the rest of the elites can easily be trashed away.

-I freaking hate the transformation elites: tornado-whirpool, kitten dmg, slow as hell, no protection spells, you just become a gigantic target you can hit safely from distance.

-Conjure fiery greatsword, become a joke even in PvE after lvl 20

We’ve got nothing that can change the course of the battle in our favour…absolutely nothing

When the majority of Elementalists would rather use another Utility in their elite slot, it’s a clear indication that something is wrong with the elite skills…

maddoctor.2738:

When ALL Elementalists would rather use another Utility in their elite slot, it’s a clear indication that something is wrong with the elite skills…

There, fixed it for you.

Strang.8170:

maddoctor.2738:

When ALL Elementalists would rather use another Utility in their elite slot, it’s a clear indication that something is wrong with the elite skills…

There, fixed it for you.

yepp, i’d rather have another utility. mist form or lightning flash. i could even take arcane shield. it gives us more utility in dungeons. but atm i might use my ele elites once per 4 fractals. they could make the glyph og restoration a ulti and make it have a 1-2sec casting time. now that would be truly game changing. why don’t we get skills like aoe quickness in 10sec… lol. we get a kittenty whirlwind witch we all used once and hen returned to whatever elite we use before it.

i’m making a alt (guardian) and when i read their elites i was like " wat"? elites that actually serve a specific purpose? cooool.

I primarily wvw, so my judgement of our elites is solely based on this aspect. Fiery Greatsword is mediocre damage at best; it also has a limit of charges, so this makes it even more worthless. As a mobility device, it has a cast time, enough said.

Glyph of Elementals has some uses. Primarily I use it to solo supply camps with earth elemental; he basically doesn’t die in this situation. It takes quite a bit of pressure off of myself so I can zone out while I do my rotation on the veterans. When I roam and come across a 1v1 that I might have a difficult time with, such as a guardian or mesmer, I summon a wind elemental to get some decent ranged dps along with a stun.

Tornado is absolutely worthless: Almost no dps and removes your atunements. You also move incredibly slow. It also has a cast time, which makes any minute possibility of usefulness null.

As a Guardian, Elementalist who pack Fiery Greatsword in dungeon groups are my best friends. Between the 1 skill piercing which mows down groups, the 3 and 4 skills being fast transportation while damaging at the same time, and the 5 skill being a strong AoE that I don’t even have to stand and channel. I’m sure the Glyph of Elemental has its use but when you have people around you who will grab that Fiery Greatsword up and use the hell out of it, why not use it?

We definitely need better elites, but I doubt any class is going to be getting new skills before the first expansion.

We’ll be carrying useless elites for a very long time. I don’t even remember the last time I used mine.

I use greatsword in wvw always. The mobility generated from skills 3 and 4 is insane, especially considering we have perma swiftness. You can get from one side of the map to the other in a minute. Not to mention skill 3 gives evade, great for getting out of sticky situations or soloing pesky theives.

Arheundel.6451:

Our elites are what really kitten me off about this profession, outside the fire elementl which bring in some decent dmg when you need the most, the rest of the elites can easily be trashed away.

We’ve got nothing that can change the course of the battle in our favour…absolutely nothing

Then you’re not using the elementals properly. In dungeons, the Earth Elemental can tank most bosses and groups of adds as well as a player, giving you some much needed breathing room. The ice elemental’s fields can do a lot to tip the battle in your favor, and the air elemental is basically a ranged stun turret…what’s not to like about that?

Strang.8170:

maddoctor.2738:

When ALL Elementalists would rather use another Utility in their elite slot, it’s a clear indication that something is wrong with the elite skills…

There, fixed it for you.

The main issue is that cantrips are so insanely powerful, not to mention that they have the best trait options as well. If stuff is to be rebalanced, than that’s the first thing that should be changed.

Have they fixed elementals dying/unsummoning causing rallies yet?

Also fiery great sword is useless in WvW… if you want speed, just switch to daggers

rtl gives better mobility in wvw. so just go d/d if that’s what you want. the greatsword have a casting time (where you cant move) so u cant use it for escapes unless you all ready have it.

and i must say the earth elemental is really good in dungeons. he loses in fractal due to %dmg from max hp. witch makes him useless and all other elements get one shotted anyway. it was a long time ago when i had a elemental out for more than 10 seconds <.<

I tend to agree with the sentiment, though since the elementalist is already a very powerful class, I don’t necessarily have the same sense of urgency in asking for tweaks.

I find I do not use the transformations at all in WvW/PvP. Underwater, where it’s the only choice, the slot is just completely wasted.

I don’t even like the greatsword, but I do not spec for conjures, in general. However, I tend to feel that the Ice Bow even has more utility (structure destruction, graveling burrows for example) than the greatsword.

This boils it down to one semi-decent elite: the elemental. As far as the skill goes, it’s not bad. At the very worst you can pull out a decent tank in the water/earth eles, and just forget about him. Used appropriately, the fire elemental can apply heavy damage. On the whole, the skill is very handy to have in a number of situations, and is really the key to allowing you to efficiently solo-cap supply camps (something that not every class can do so quickly), or give you that extra boost in a fight. I find the Ice Elemental is handy for keeping close as you bunker a capture point in sPvP, as he occasionally doles out some very good healing.

One sad thing this thread did help me realize is this, though: While I do think the Glyph of Elementals is pretty good, in almost all circumstances I would just rather have another utility.

My sPvP rollout usually looks close to Cleansing Fire / Mist Form / Lightning Flash. What I wouldn’t give to be able to add arcane shield in there to further bolster my bunker build! Or even armor of earth, for an always useful stability source.

for people who think the fiery greatsword gives less mobility than rtl:
add me in-game, we’ll have a race xD

Quick Mouse.7635:

for people who think the fiery greatsword gives less mobility than rtl:
add me in-game, we’ll have a race xD

fiery greatsword can’t be cast on the move…. that’s reason enough

Dunno, I move fast. Swiftness always up, lightning flash, RTL, switch to fire leap, switch to earth if there is a grey near by and magnetic grasp it as killing a grey doesnt drop swiftness… repeat. Any difference from the stupid sword isn’t going to be much anyways, even if it is indeed slightly fast. Not to mention you will run out of charges/duration before making it all the way across.

lots of misinformed or unaware people in here

tornado is absolutely amazing in WvW, from knocking people off walls/cliffs/siege/gates etc.. to going through a mesmer portal and AOE knocking down large chunks of an enemy zerg so your guys can kill them..

also a well placed tornado in a choke point does wonders, most people run away from the tornado or try to, so they aren’t attacking half the time and it just leads to them getting chased down and stunned and dying

fiery greatsword has great utility in WvW as well, from moving quickly across the map, to using 3/4/5 skills against enemy zergs

glyph of elementals is more for 1v1 or pve encounters but still pretty effective..works great for soloing supply camps or sentries..

there are a lot of very effective uses for each.. just need to think ahead with them.

Compared to the other classes, I’d agree that the elite skills suck. As a sylvari, I’d rather my entalging root ability than any of the current options.

I say make the elite skill an offensive stance where you reduce your movement speed by 30% and increase damage by 30% for 15 seconds on a 1min cooldown.

Earth elemental vs old tom = easy win 40+

But ye, that’s prolly the only real advantage they give in pve. In pvp (not wvw) the elementals can save your life and deal alot of damage if they go uncontested.

But the rest of our elites… Tornado y u so bad? Fiery sword is decent if you can pull off those hug the wall whirlwinds 10-12k max (warriors whirlwind 18-32k max) ugh i rather take an another utillity then using those elites…

Some gravity field that pulls or pushes players into/our of it them. Or a panda that is cute and eats bamboo and blows kisses that heals you and your party. Or a buff that allows our AoE to temporarily hit more then 5 targets at a time. Those are elites that we need.

ketorin.5923:

lots of misinformed or unaware people in here

No, overall tornado is useless. Sure it has limited use in a handful of places, but overall it is not worth slotting full time in the elite slot.

…and fiery great sword is just bad. I can do more damage with more utility and survival than I ever could while using it. Also, as a movement device across the battlefield. Just pull out daggers.

Misinformed? Hardly. I am just being realistic. I would give up every elite skill we have if I could put one of our other slot items there.

Humposaurus.5764:

In pvp (not wvw) the elementals can save your life and deal alot of damage if they go uncontested.

Depends if they are still bugged out and causing rallies to downed players when they die/unsummon. I removed mine of my bar a long time ago, so I have no idea if its still broken.

That’s only in wvw thats why I put those in brackets.

Humposaurus.5764:

That’s only in wvw thats why I put those in brackets.

I missed that, sorry. Its been one of those days….

ok, so basically we need something to increase our utility, dmg and/or our defence. instead of limiting speed and spells. i mean lets face it. the only reason whirlwind and greatsword are bad is because we are a profession that rely on 20 spells, and we need them all. our health,dps,toughness was balanced around that a elementalists utilized his skills to maximum effect. then why the hell does 2/3 of our elites limit our movement and/or our skills to 5 / 0 !? it’s like adding a elite that made all your initiative go poof as a thief or make all your virtues go on cd without any affect as a guradian. they are there to be used.

Just wanted to give this thread the Skrittsburgh Critters seal of approval.

However, I think eles would be op (the good ones anyway) if we were given a legitimate ultimate skill.

So I was thinking the same as the rest of you that they should just give us the option to use one of our regular skills?? And give that option to ALL professions.

Killacam.2064:

Just wanted to give this thread the Skrittsburgh Critters seal of approval.

However, I think eles would be op (the good ones anyway) if we were given a legitimate ultimate skill.

So I was thinking the same as the rest of you that they should just give us the option to use one of our regular skills?? And give that option to ALL professions.

could fix the problem for now. but we still need a elite in the end. atm we dont have those moments where you feel super awesome and mega powerful ( or at least more awesome and powerful then usual) most classes have this, i.e mesmers can double the dps dealt from one area. thieves can go and do some dps while being hard to hit ( IIRC) guardian have tomes ( witch replaces the skills but you only have 5 anyway). I’m sure warrior have 1. + they are usefull

ketorin.5923:

lots of misinformed or unaware people in here

Random puggies will fall for that, but if they have even a shred of organisation you´ll melt before the transformation finishes.

It´s fun on the ledges, but other than for kittens and giggles, it´s pretty much worthless.

Yes, Ele elites are pretty terrible, and yes, I would much rather be able to slot another utility. It’s this kind of lack of freedom & choice that make GW2 such a frsutrating game to play IMO.

Tornado – slow to cast, weak damage, easy to kill, extremely situational. Should be instant-cast and either move faster, be harder to kill, or do more damage.

Fiery Crapsword – Terrible for all the same reasons the other conjures are terrible. Giving up access to 20 skills to gain 5 is plain stupid design. Conjures all need to replace the 5 skills of their respective element not all 20 skills.

Elemental – it’s at least usable in a majority of the game, but again, not very exciting, and less powerful than most of our utilities, mainly because of how underwhelming glyphs are. Doesn’t need a change per se, but all glyphs need to cast faster and/or have better trait support.

Suffice to say I’ll be continuing to use the racial elites until new elites are added or the kittenty current ones buffed considerably.

maddoctor.2738:

Quick Mouse.7635:

for people who think the fiery greatsword gives less mobility than rtl:
add me in-game, we’ll have a race xD

fiery greatsword can’t be cast on the move…. that’s reason enough

Okay lets race then xD

Quick Mouse.7635:

maddoctor.2738:

Quick Mouse.7635:

for people who think the fiery greatsword gives less mobility than rtl:
add me in-game, we’ll have a race xD

fiery greatsword can’t be cast on the move…. that’s reason enough

Okay lets race then xD

the question isn’t “how far can i get over the course of 30 seconds”? the question is “how far can i get from that thief NOW” if you are in alot of kitten you want to get out of their range asap. so if u already have it up , sure, you might have a advantage. nomatter what, it’s still a sucky elite.

Waraxx.4286:

Quick Mouse.7635:

maddoctor.2738:

Quick Mouse.7635:

for people who think the fiery greatsword gives less mobility than rtl:
add me in-game, we’ll have a race xD

fiery greatsword can’t be cast on the move…. that’s reason enough

Okay lets race then xD

the question isn’t “how far can i get over the course of 30 seconds”? the question is “how far can i get from that thief NOW” if you are in alot of kitten you want to get out of their range asap. so if u already have it up , sure, you might have a advantage. nomatter what, it’s still a sucky elite.

I have used fiery greatsword many times to get away from thieves, and even to solo theives. I guess it’s all in the eye of the beholder (or skill of the player ).

Quick Mouse.7635:

I have used fiery greatsword many times to get away from thieves, and even to solo theives. I guess it’s all in the eye of the beholder (or skill of the player ).

Ssssh, don’t give away the trade secrets. ;p

Was having a nice 1v1 with another d/d elementalist the other day, then the call came in to defend a keep so I had to disengage (what was basically a pointless fight anyway, would have lasted forever….) so I threw down my fiery greatsword and hauled kitten away without the slightest concern the other elementalist might be able to catch me. I’d seen him use his elite elemental already.

With areomancers alacrity and fiery greatsword, I have possibly the most mobile build available.

Fiery greatsword

—> Pro:
Taking a supply camp/ Fighting a 60 man zerg/
Tremendous increase in pow/
Ally can use/
Awesome DPS on keep doors/
ou can still switch attunement to water/
You can still heal/
AOE damage plus PBAOE damage.
You can drop sword anytime/
HighDPS

Con —> Not many VS the rest of our junk Elite skills

Tornado—>No discussion needed

We have elite skills? huh?

They’re all situational and I find myself swapping them out constantly in WvW.

Fiery Greatsword is good for mobility (yes, its mobility makes up for cast time). If you really need to make it somewhere fast, then use both Fiery Greatsword and D/D. Its damage is also decent when paired with a Mesmer’s Timewarp (plus confusion bolts with the whirl finisher are a nice bonus). I’ve also had luck using it to take out siege weapons in the open field. The whirl makes enemies regret immobilizing you and getting up in your face. The key, imo, is not to hold on to it until you’ve depleted the charges, but rather use it, hit a couple key skills, and drop it when my other skills are no longer on cooldown.

Tornado has its uses. The knockback/blowback can be very useful on bridges or near cliffs for instant kills and general crowd disruptions. The key to using Tornado is preparation. Load up defensive skills (protection, magnetic aura, vigor, etc.) and possibly throw down a field to take use of the constant whirl finisher (unfortunately, the cast time makes it difficult to do many self combos, though it’s nice when you can coordinate with someone else). Again, it’s rarely something you’d use for the full duration, but it does have its uses. Underwater, it’s nice to combo with other fields like boil or lightning cage and is good for taking out a Powernode when the quaggans are hostile.

The elemental is nice for the reasons listed here, like taking pressure off your character when fighting NPCs. If you’re using it to fight siege, just remember to keep the siege targeted. The extra frozen ground from the ice elemental is also nice if you have traits that provide buffs with auras.

I agree that none of them are “Fantastic, I’m going to use this elite all the time.” For better or worse, this opens up the slot to racial elites. I’m human and occasionally use Avatar of Melandru for the 10 second water field and 20 second binding roots. The hounds of Balthazar also have leap finishers which you can combo with static field for dazes. The Reaper of Grenth is nice with d/d or fighting melee and even better with Piercing Shards.

So, as with every other elementalist skill, they’re useful in the right situations, but depending on how you play, these situations may not come up very often.

I very much agree that ele elites are rather useless, and even more so after playing 100+ hours on a warrior. I more or less live in wvw since I love that style of gameplay so much so having a useful 10th skill would be amazing.

When playing my 2 characters here’s what happens:

Ele: I forget I even have an elite. I just don’t really see a use in most situations. I normally roam with a couple friends (both play thieves now) and they pop their elite very often. I might use mine once a night if at all.

War: I use the Signet of Rage. Traited for a 48s CD and the boons last 39s. That means 9s CD for the boons and I ALWAYS pop it on CD.

Now I donno if it’s just me or what but there’s a clear difference in elites between classes. All of the mesmer elites are amazing; thieves get some great ones; warrior is a no brainer and is used right on CD; ranger’s could be better but at least they offer some utility to them; necro can blind spam in a fairly large aoe (god that’s annoying xD); Engineer’s supply crate is pretty nice (has a stun too!) though not the best; and guardian’s are a tad weak but if done well can give heals and invulnerability.

I would take any other class’s elites over the ele ones in a heart beat. We get a crap (though epic looking) GS and loose are normal skills which are better anyway; A golem that lasts 60s and really doesn’t do too much in wvw for having a 180s CD (though this is the best elite we get IMO); And the all but useless Tornado…..wow how bad that is in almost every situation. Our class is amazing but it really feels like our elites were just thrown in last minute.

This is my opinion after playing 700 hours on ele alone since launch and even more so in the betas. Our opinions may vary. Cheers~

All our ellites are mayby not the strongest in game but they can serve very well, as long as you remember you don’t need to always, and fully use em.

Glyph of elementals is obviously very strong for soloing and PvE. Not necessarely dungeon tho. Nothing to complain there, great ellite.

Tornados problem is, you give up 20 skills to use tornado. Main thing to realise is, you don’t have to stay in it full duration, and you use it situationally, not something you always do.
Like in team/raid pvp you can use it just for few seconds on opening, or after some re-engage. Get 1 or 2 aoe knockbacks off. Or in smaller scale, interupt ressing/downing if for some reason running in staff.

Greatsword if you get behind of you group in wvw and need to catch up. Ofc this is stupid “pro” for GS, but it’s something. Or if runnign staff, you can gain some dps by using GS for a moment after you have blown your staff CDs/fields.

They not amazing but have their uses. Especially on tornado have to realise, you can always leave it early.

If we had ellite that reseted our attunument CDs, (like guardian one), I’d use that tho.

sanestar.8731:

I very much agree that ele elites are rather useless, and even more so after playing 100+ hours on a warrior. I more or less live in wvw since I love that style of gameplay so much so having a useful 10th skill would be amazing.

When playing my 2 characters here’s what happens:

Ele: I forget I even have an elite. I just don’t really see a use in most situations. I normally roam with a couple friends (both play thieves now) and they pop their elite very often. I might use mine once a night if at all.

War: I use the Signet of Rage. Traited for a 48s CD and the boons last 39s. That means 9s CD for the boons and I ALWAYS pop it on CD.

Now I donno if it’s just me or what but there’s a clear difference in elites between classes. All of the mesmer elites are amazing; thieves get some great ones; warrior is a no brainer and is used right on CD; ranger’s could be better but at least they offer some utility to them; necro can blind spam in a fairly large aoe (god that’s annoying xD); Engineer’s supply crate is pretty nice (has a stun too!) though not the best; and guardian’s are a tad weak but if done well can give heals and invulnerability.

I would take any other class’s elites over the ele ones in a heart beat. We get a crap (though epic looking) GS and loose are normal skills which are better anyway; A golem that lasts 60s and really doesn’t do too much in wvw for having a 180s CD (though this is the best elite we get IMO); And the all but useless Tornado…..wow how bad that is in almost every situation. Our class is amazing but it really feels like our elites were just thrown in last minute.

This is my opinion after playing 700 hours on ele alone since launch and even more so in the betas. Our opinions may vary. Cheers~

Couldn’t agree more with this.

Sabull.5670:

All our ellites are mayby not the strongest in game but they can serve very well, as long as you remember you don’t need to always, and fully use em.

Glyph of elementals is obviously very strong for soloing and PvE. Not necessarely dungeon tho. Nothing to complain there, great ellite.

Tornados problem is, you give up 20 skills to use tornado. Main thing to realise is, you don’t have to stay in it full duration, and you use it situationally, not something you always do.
Like in team/raid pvp you can use it just for few seconds on opening, or after some re-engage. Get 1 or 2 aoe knockbacks off. Or in smaller scale, interupt ressing/downing if for some reason running in staff.

Greatsword if you get behind of you group in wvw and need to catch up. Ofc this is stupid “pro” for GS, but it’s something. Or if runnign staff, you can gain some dps by using GS for a moment after you have blown your staff CDs/fields.

They not amazing but have their uses. Especially on tornado have to realise, you can always leave it early.

If we had ellite that reseted our attunument CDs, (like guardian one), I’d use that tho.

Why is it “useful” to have an elite that you only use for 10% of it’s duration? “You can always leave early” is the lamest excuse to make tornado any less bad of an elite. Also an “elite for catching up” is nonsense why would any class ever want that?

insidiane.9570:

sanestar.8731:

I very much agree that ele elites are rather useless, …I would take any other class’s elites over the ele ones in a heart beat. … A golem that lasts 60s and really doesn’t do too much in wvw for having a 180s CD (though this is the best elite we get IMO)

Couldn’t agree more with this.

Then you’re both doing something wrong. First of all, the glyph has a 120 seconds cooldown (96 with trait) which kicks in the second your elemental goes down. Second, even if you disregard all the other options your elite skill has, your Air Elemental can spam a ranged stun every few seconds. Tell me, how is that NOT useful in WvW?

ThiBash.5634:

Then you’re both doing something wrong. First of all, the glyph has a 120 seconds cooldown (96 with trait) which kicks in the second your elemental goes down. Second, even if you disregard all the other options your elite skill has, your Air Elemental can spam a ranged stun every few seconds. Tell me, how is that NOT useful in WvW?

It´s too unrealiable, you need stuns when they matter, not randomly in a fight. Ice elementals field force you to certain locations, which needless to say is bad for mobility focused profession. Earth doesn´t achieve anyhing really, and fire ones lack of ranged damage makes it practicaly 0 dps.
Elemental can potentialy rally all of the opposing team, should it die.
Stupid ai and slow movement in a fast paced gameplay makes elementals at most moderately useful, definately not elite material.

Yes, elites can be better than nothing, but nothing changes the fact that we have many utilities that would be more powerful than our elites.