Guild Wars 2

Right now ele is reduced to the fiery greatsword, the micro ventilator and the glyph of elementals.

Here is why all elite skills are useless for general purpose for elementalist.

lets start with fiery greatsword shall we?

Fiery Greatsword:
Conjure weapon, uses fire skills, 20% reduction in recharge from fire spells doesnt affect fire weapons (go figures) same applies for all other weapons and their attunements.
Conjure weapon dps auto attack is only between 15-25% better dps, however there is one big flaw to this calculation, you also take alot more time casting it, so you cant auto attack 1 second quickly cast something else and then get back to auto attack as that willl interrupt the auto attack, think of it as continuous damage vs burst damage.
the 5th skill of this weapon is pretty weak in terms of dps, offers nothing special besides a small buffed up glyph of storms spell, the rest of the spells of this weapon are neither on par with staff aoe nor with scepter, it is charges AND time limited, its 180 seconds recharge time wont help many, and you cannot swap it, you can only permanently destroy it and continue with your normal weapon without beying able to return back, wasting potential of all 4 elementalist attunements, this weapon its pretty much spam all skills drop and continue.
Besides all this, its 600 range casting is ridiculous despite the fact that it deals much worse damage than the normal weapons, staff, scepter and dagger depending on secondary weapon.
So this weapon is reduces to lets have some fun moment and then swapping skills in any serious dungeon fight, not only this is useless in dungeons i consider it to be useless everywhere as it scales poorly.

On to our next beloved elite!

Micro ventilator(Tornado)
Yay! you get twice the hp! you get twice the precision, you get twice the power and stability! YES! but oh wait! what? it lasts 15 seconds! you cant heal yourself unless you are counting on water atunement regen, you cant use any of your utility skill aswell, infact, you are reduced to… (suspense) 3 skills! and they are all so wonderfull! you are now scattering around foes with mediocre dps and having the privilege of the elite killing… yourself. Underwater this is the ONLY elite skill, and please mates, with the current state of the whirlpool i dont ever find myself using it anymore, its even worse underwater for survivability than it is on ground now!
Besides beying a total failure in every situation, be it vs alot of easy mobs (use staff #2) be it vs silver or champion mobs (obviously melee range wont do at all..)
its taking away from you everything you have on your bar so this skill is just plain stupid.

On to our next beloved elite!

Glyph of elementals:
Now this, for me, is the only trully viable skill for general purpose usage, however, in dungeons you will soon find out your pet dies in 3 seconds (ok maybe 4 for the earth elemental?) unless u keep urself in water attunement and heal it to postpone the inevitable, while vs normal mobs this is good in map areas it is simply too weak to make any difference in bigger fights be it earth ele, water ele, fire and if air gets aggro that includes it too.

On to our next belov, oh wait.. thats all elites ele has.

So, you are reduced to only 1 of 3 elites actually available underwater and only 1 viable on the ground vs normal mobs.

Where does this put us? Please remove all elites from the elementalist, put them into utility slot and make us a fourth utility slot or start caring for your elementalist players by adding other elites or fixing our current ones, your concept is simply nerfed to death and theres no elite skill in the gigantic list of 3 that is going to be of any use making us click the button 0 on our keyboard.

Funny thing is I use the elite every time it comes up underwater.

Not because it’s good. It’s terrible. Simply because our other underwater attacks are somehow worse.

As for above ground, I use the elemental. Again, not because it’s good. But..it’s better to have an elemental than not have an elemental, unlike the other two elites which actually make you worse when you activate them.

Well, tbh, I kind of like the elite elemental. For some inexplicable reason bosses in dungeons fall in love with me as soon as I step in the room As in, they keep stalking me until they finally down me because eventually everything is on cd and then continue ignoring the rest of the party until I’m officially dead…that is, unless smb tries to help me up in which case the boss will literally get them off me and then come back to finish the job… The only thing the bosses kill before I’m dead is…my earth bodyguard. Those few seconds are my chance to actually do, you know, dmg on the boss. I support the big little guy with sand storm and w/e other disables I can. But, yeah, I guess if bosses don’t look at you and see dinner…the elemental would be pretty useless….

Sand storm does not work vs champions or higher tier mobs, blindness has only 10% chance of attack failure on mobs with anti crowd control so i dont bother using it at all in boss fights, also in CoE which is my main dungeon, glyph of elementals doesnt stand a chance vs any silver, vs alpha its killed in 1 hit before having time to do anything.

Fiery Gsword is GREAT for skipping monsters. Fiery Whirl at 5s cooldown and Fiery Rush at 10s cooldown gets you across Arah in no time!

Elementals tend stay alive and pull aggro from everything in Arah and can’t be turned off.

You do know you have additional elite skills? AFAIK you are only limited to 3 in sPvP.

I found the fiery greatsword to be a godsend when running a D/D ele, If I couldn’t kill a creature with my standard attacks I’d just flop out my massive, flaming… sword and annihilate them. If you drop the other one on the enemy you get 3 seconds burn too. I’m currently running a staff ele for dungeons and the elemental works brilliantly if you use it in the right situation…

Large group of mobs = Air (stun)
Smaller group of hard hitters = Ice (chill)
When your damage just doesn’t seem to cut it = Fire
When your entire group is downed and you need time to cast renewal = Earth

In the end, a skill is only as good as the player using it.

But you’re right about one thing, tornado/whirlpool is about as useful as a marshmallow hammer.

Water elemental does it´s job in dungeons too…kinda.
It usualy is able to cast it´s heal and/or frozen gorund before falling, so it fills it´s role alright.

I would absolutely love to have a 4th utility slot in place of the elite. That right there should be enough of a clue that the elites need changing. As far as the racial elites go, they’re pretty much all garbage.

Im playing human elementalist, im sorry but i do not use racial skills, when racial skills are considered better than elite skills you will know something is seriously wrong with the class as the devs officially stated they nerfed racials to be less effective than profession skills.

Earth elemental or fire elemental is about all i’ll use. I dont really notice them doing much sadly.

Oh, however, for dungeon paths where you must destroy destructible objects, fiery greatsword does wonders.
For example at hodgins burrows
1 → meteor shower and lava font
2 → ice bow 4 and lava font
3 → fiery greatsword 5, 3, lava font
4 → hopefully your teammates picked up the icebow and deals with this one
5 → hopefully your teammates picked up the FGS and deals with this one
6 → meteor shower, lava font

Similar results on the Magg devourer part.

But that’s about the only good use I have for it.

dpcaldae.3068:

I would absolutely love to have a 4th utility slot in place of the elite. That right there should be enough of a clue that the elites need changing. As far as the racial elites go, they’re pretty much all garbage.

I have been saying this since the beginning. Our elites are WORSE than some of our utilities and I would gladly give up my elite slot for another utility. That REALLY should be screaming “FIX ME” at Anet right there. We are past the stage where anet tells us to get the know the class better. I know the freaking class.

So, to answer the OP: None of them.

Elite elemental or bust. Mostly fire, I use it whenever it is off CD, first pull of the dungeon, etc. If you don’t use it then it is worthless. Fire will do blast finishers on your fields for AOE effects, e.g. AOE might stacks on fire fields (lava font).

Sometimes I use water because I like that it does Frozen Ground right away and I can dodge into that for AOE frost armor. It also does a little healing.

For survival I pop earth. I never use the air elemental except on accident.

I even use lesser fire elemental for more blast finishers on lava font. you can stack massive AOE might to your allies with evasive arcana, lava font, arcane wave and two elementals.

the only thing I would do to improve the elemental is add some kind of passive to it so that it isn’t TOTALLY worthless underwater and has some use when you aren’t using it (or you can’t because it gets one shot). I know that signets produce passives and not glyphs but w/e an attunement based passive on the elemental elite skill would be great for it, even it is only power in fire, prec in air, vit in water and toughness in earth. IMO if you don’t pop your elemental every time it is off CD then it is a worthless slot. I believe that about most utility skills and change up my bar as I go through a dungeon so what I want is up for the next pull.

To be honest, I really don’t get the bashing that Glyph of Elementals is getting lately. I mean, it’s basically 4 skills you can choose from instead of just one, the elementals’ dps is higher than our own auto attacks. Each elemental comes with its own AoE boon buff (might, swiftness, regeneration or protection respectively). Best of all, it can be traited to the point where it has one of lowest cooldowns of all elite skills.

What more do you want from a skill? Instant kill a target and make you coffee at the same time?

nonlinear

the only thing I would do to improve the elemental is add some kind of passive to it so that it has some use when you aren’t using it. IMO if you don’t pop your elemental every time it is off CD then it is a worthless slot.

Then don’t forget to use it. Seriously.

Oh, and one more thing. That boss at the end of Ascalonian Catacombs? It really likes to attack my Earth Elemental with it’s scream. At one point, my elemental took a hit that saved our entire party from going down.

Saving 5 people from instant-death…what other elite skill can do that? Certainly not other summons, since they don’t nearly taunt as well as the Earth Elemental.

ThiBash.5634:

To be honest, I really don’t get the bashing that Glyph of Elementals is getting lately. I mean, it’s basically 4 skills you can choose from instead of just one, the elementals’ dps is higher than our own auto attacks. Each elemental comes with its own AoE boon buff (might, swiftness, regeneration or protection respectively). Best of all, it can be traited to the point where it has one of lowest cooldowns of all elite skills.

What more do you want from a skill? Instant kill a target and make you coffee at the same time?

nonlinear

the only thing I would do to improve the elemental is add some kind of passive to it so that it has some use when you aren’t using it. IMO if you don’t pop your elemental every time it is off CD then it is a worthless slot.

Then don’t forget to use it. Seriously.

its getting bashed because more and more eles are now playing dungeonsand are facing all the time 1hit kill mobs, also ill suggest you this: plz go fight alpha with any of your “4 skills” and let me know if it did any dmg ok? andbtw 4 skills mean u can activate 4 skills at once.

i find glyph of elementals alot better than any other. Water elemental is great, sole reason being its heal, it heals more than any other spell we have, and being D/D it makes it worth while and its chill.

The earth one can tank pretty well, and if its a boss that requires range just use fire or air.

the damage they do trumps all other elites because you are capable of doing 100% of your own damage, with the addition of the pet damage.

TheWarKeeper.5374:

its getting bashed because more and more eles are now playing dungeonsand are facing all the time 1hit kill mobs, also ill suggest you this: plz go fight alpha with any of your “4 skills” and let me know if it did any dmg ok? andbtw 4 skills mean u can activate 4 skills at once.

As to your first point, that’s more of a problem with the dungeon mechanics, not the glyph. I’ve seen several rangers complain about their pet dying too quickly too.

As for your second point, the Elementalist is the only one that can ‘switch’ their elite during combat. Wheter you need damage, a tank, snares, healing or a ranged attacker, you can pick what you want based on the attunement you’re in.

Finally, I’ve noticed that the Earth Elemental does in fact survive more than a few hits against Subject Alpha. But I’ll admit it helps if you time it right and maybe throw it a boon or two. But even if it doesn’t, it’s still very useful as a distraction. Protecting the party from instant kill attacks or crystal traps is just as important as dealing damage.

ThiBash.5634:

TheWarKeeper.5374:

its getting bashed because more and more eles are now playing dungeonsand are facing all the time 1hit kill mobs, also ill suggest you this: plz go fight alpha with any of your “4 skills” and let me know if it did any dmg ok? andbtw 4 skills mean u can activate 4 skills at once.

As to your first point, that’s more of a problem with the dungeon mechanics, not the glyph. I’ve seen several rangers complain about their pet dying too quickly too.

As for your second point, the Elementalist is the only one that can ‘switch’ their elite during combat. Wheter you need damage, a tank, snares, healing or a ranged attacker, you can pick what you want based on the attunement you’re in.

Finally, I’ve noticed that the Earth Elemental does in fact survive more than a few hits against Subject Alpha. But I’ll admit it helps if you time it right and maybe throw it a boon or two. But even if it doesn’t, it’s still very useful as a distraction. Protecting the party from instant kill attacks or crystal traps is just as important as dealing damage.

You are right, the dungeons are wrong, they should all be nerfed according to ele useless elites… btw i was beying sarcastic
As for the dungeon part im sorry but you clearly dont know much about CoE and your comment about an elemental protecting the party from instant kill attacks is proof of that if anything it makes it even worse.
As for still sticking by the 4 elite talk, just because a spell has different behavior based on your attunement by no means it count as an extra skill, ‘switch’ isnt switch, and yo u do not switch spells because u switch attunements, again if you really did that you would have had independant recharge time for each of its 4 behaviors which you dont, its behavior is simply changed thats all it does and by no means it counts as 2 or 3 or even 4 skills.
I expected this btw, only a player who rush tests a skill in explorable and judges it by those areas alone could make such bold claims.

ThiBash.5634:

To be honest, I really don’t get the bashing that Glyph of Elementals is getting lately. I mean, it’s basically 4 skills you can choose from instead of just one, the elementals’ dps is higher than our own auto attacks. Each elemental comes with its own AoE boon buff (might, swiftness, regeneration or protection respectively). Best of all, it can be traited to the point where it has one of lowest cooldowns of all elite skills.

What more do you want from a skill? Instant kill a target and make you coffee at the same time?

nonlinear

the only thing I would do to improve the elemental is add some kind of passive to it so that it has some use when you aren’t using it. IMO if you don’t pop your elemental every time it is off CD then it is a worthless slot.

Then don’t forget to use it. Seriously.

Tell that to all the eles I see in pugs that go entire multi-path runs without using an elite skill.

some sort of mild passive would also make it not-completely-worthless underwater (where we have to use tornado which i don’t even think had an animation underwater last time I used it). Instead we get tornado, where your character disappears and stuff near where your character used to be starts taking damage. Pretty boring “elite” skill for our ONLY choice underwater.

Fiery Greatsword is fun. It controls the battlefield, period. Have you seen how much cripple it can stack? The damage is good and while I’m not sure if it is intended or not, even the auto attack hits multiple tight-knit mobs. Let a friend pick up your other sword and your entire group can kite melee mobs with absolute ease.

I use GS when I staff to switch to high single-target DPS and/or to handle large mobs that my group needs to kite to survive.

That said, I’ll always take a buff, especially in range. I’m also not wild about #4 run skill. The #5 is ok, I suppose.

Tornado is blah

Elementals are both boring and barely effective.

Okay, here’s what I think about ele’s elite skill, like previous mentioned before the glyps of elementals is my personal favorite. I usually pop it under earth attunement. However for AC, whenever I have a mesmer with time warp skill, I usually pop my fiery greatsword. Greatsword+Time Warp=Annihilation of champions especially if there are two of them. Should try it out sometime, it’s fun.

I like the Elemental. The Water elemental is a reasonably effective healer to supplement your own Water skills, and (assuming it doesn’t die immediately, which can obviously happen) it’s got a pretty reasonable uptime compared to most Elites (across all classes) that are only active for twenty seconds every 3-4 minutes.

PlatypusRex.3428:

Fiery Greatsword is fun. It controls the battlefield, period. Have you seen how much cripple it can stack? The damage is good and while I’m not sure if it is intended or not, even the auto attack hits multiple tight-knit mobs. Let a friend pick up your other sword and your entire group can kite melee mobs with absolute ease.

I use GS when I staff to switch to high single-target DPS and/or to handle large mobs that my group needs to kite to survive.

That said, I’ll always take a buff, especially in range. I’m also not wild about #4 run skill. The #5 is ok, I suppose.

Tornado is blah

Elementals are both boring and barely effective.

Ty for your comment, this clearly states dungeons and not WvW :P

Use air elemental at mid range against alpha.

Alpha spams his AoE ice spike thing at mid range targets. The thing is the ice spikes don’t hit you if you are in the center and don’t move. Which the air elemental won’t as long as he is in range.

Just saying.

TheWarKeeper.5374:

You are right, the dungeons are wrong, they should all be nerfed according to ele useless elites… btw i was beying sarcastic

It’s the pet mechanic I was referring to. Rangers complain as well so it’s not just the elementals that suffer from that problem. World of Kittencraft uses a system where hunter pets are pretty much immune to boss attacks so they don’t die as often. That allows for instant kill attacks without removing the challenge for players.

As for the dungeon part im sorry but you clearly dont know much about CoE

Full Golemancer rune set says otherwise.

As for still sticking by the 4 elite talk

But that’s what glyphs are, per design. Of course they’re not 100% different. But their effects do differ between the various attunements, so instead of having only 1 pet type to choose from (like the Asura golem elite), you get to pick a pet based on the situation. Now, since you clearly think they’re all the same, let me help you: the burning one is the Fire Elemental, the floating ball is the Air Elemental, the frozen guy is the Water Elemental and finally, the rock dude is the Earth Elemental. Thought I’d mention that since you’ve clearly got no idea what’s what.

I expected this btw, only a player who rush tests a skill in explorable and judges it by those areas alone could make such bold claims.

The fact of the matter is that because I use them so extensively, and tested their actual damage and abilities, I know what the different elementals do and when to use them. It’s also the reason why I, unlike you, CAN use elementals in CoE effectively.

@ThiBash
Alright im tired of this, lets deconstruct each of your claims 1 by 1

Rangers have several ways of keeping their pets alive vs bosses like alpha, thye can command them to move around if they are melee and easelly avoid dragon tooth spam, they can also command them to stay in the same place ignoring everything and avoiding circular spike damage if the ice shard is not building up in its area, as soon as pet reaches low hp u can easelly swap pets before it dies reducing your recharge time quite considerably, look it up.

So your argument about ranger pets beying similar to glyph of elementals and having the same issue goes down the toilet.

Full golemancer rune set says what? if u honestly use that rune set then you are not only poorly experienced at the dungeon but also at making builds, just for the fact of the matter that 6 ruby orbs offers you way more than what a golemancer rune set does is enough of a proof for that.

The fact of the matter you use them “so extensively” and yet you did not realise that dragon tooth takes between 90-95% hp of earth elemental in 1 hit and all the rest die instead is more of a fact than what youve just said.

Now, the only thing im impressed about is that you use golemancer runes and claim to be experienced at something you clearly are not and when you say “I know when to use the skill and i know that earth ele =! ice ele != air ele != fire ele” very well played Sir! you have taught not only us, but also the devs themselves about glyph of elementals!…. for a second there, i tought my fire ele was dazing enemies or my earth ele gave me swiftness, its talking about the basics and taking them as if youre some sort of MacGyver by exploring them that really shows how your claims are to be taken.

We are talking about having no usefull elite in dungeons and gylph while usefull in explorable areas with hearts, events and stuff like that, and i am finding myself using it alot there however i simply cannot use it to my advantage on most situations in dungeons especially this one, if you come here talking about mediocre things like press the [jump] button to jump, then this thread topic clearly isnt for you.

TheWarKeeper.5374:

@ThiBash
Alright im tired of this, lets deconstruct each of your claims 1 by 1

Rangers have several ways of keeping their pets alive vs bosses like alpha, thye can command them to move around if they are melee and easelly avoid dragon tooth spam, they can also command them to stay in the same place ignoring everything and avoiding circular spike damage if the ice shard is not building up in its area, as soon as pet reaches low hp u can easelly swap pets before it dies reducing your recharge time quite considerably, look it up. So your argument about ranger pets beying similar to glyph of elementals and having the same issue goes down the toilet.

Yes, I know ranger pets can be controlled a little better than elementals. That wasn’t my point. My point was that npcs in general have issues avoiding damage spikes and I was using the complaints on the ranger forums as an example. The npc you’re escorting has the same issues. That’s the design flaw in npc mechanics I was referring to, and my point is that just because our elementals suffer from the same flaws that all npcs do, doesn’t make the elite a bad skill. It’s the npc mechanics that are the problem there, and that’s what should be fixed. Not the skill.

Full golemancer rune set says what?

That I’ve done 7*3=21 Crucible of Eternity runs. You claimed I’ve never entered the dungeon. I’ve given you proof that I have. And even though it may not be so in your eyes, the fact that I’ve chosen a golem summon over stats is because I like golems. Liking golems has little to do with how good or bad someone is at the game.

The fact of the matter you use them “so extensively” and yet you did not realise that dragon tooth takes between 90-95% hp of earth elemental in 1 hit and all the rest die instead is more of a fact than what youve just said.

Just did the dungeon. My earth elemental survived for about 45 of the 60 seconds against said boss. That’s also a fact. Ir could be luck, I’ll grant you that. Regardless, that’s just 1 (or, 3 if you prefer) boss. There’s still the rest of the dungeon where the elementals work pretty well.

taking them as if youre some sort of MacGyver by exploring them that really shows how your claims are to be taken.

You again misunderstand my intentions. Of course everybody knows that the elemental that’s actually summoned differs. That’s not news. I’m highlighting that particulat aspect of the skill in order to provide an argument for my point of view. I’m claiming the glyph is great because the outcome of the skill can not be 1 thing, but 4 things. That’s a standard discussion technique. Another technique is the one you’re using: discrediting an opponent. It’s quite effective too I’ll admit, but it’s flawed in the fact that you’ve never met me, nor have you seen how well I play. So wheter I suck or not, is not really your call to make.

if you come here talking about mediocre things like press the [jump] button to jump, then this thread topic clearly isnt for you.

To make it very clear, I’ll rephrase my reason why I like the glyph in as simple terms as possible:

Most skills -> do one thing regardless of how or when you use them.
Glyphs -> do different things based on which attunement you use.
I like Glyph of Elementals -> because instead of 1 fixed summon, you get to choose between 4 slightly different versions. It almost feels like having 4 different skills /8to me*!

Do you read me claiming you’re a wise guy because you prefer ruby gems for the increased stats they give? Nope. Then don’t call me a noob for my pointing out the reason I like the glyph. I didn’t invent it. I’m not the only one who sees it. Don’t claim I said that.

ThiBash.5634:

TheWarKeeper.5374:

@ThiBash
Alright im tired of this, lets deconstruct each of your claims 1 by 1

Rangers have several ways of keeping their pets alive vs bosses like alpha, thye can command them to move around if they are melee and easelly avoid dragon tooth spam, they can also command them to stay in the same place ignoring everything and avoiding circular spike damage if the ice shard is not building up in its area, as soon as pet reaches low hp u can easelly swap pets before it dies reducing your recharge time quite considerably, look it up. So your argument about ranger pets beying similar to glyph of elementals and having the same issue goes down the toilet.

Yes, I know ranger pets can be controlled a little better than elementals. That wasn’t my point. My point was that npcs in general have issues avoiding damage spikes and I was using the complaints on the ranger forums as an example. The npc you’re escorting has the same issues. That’s the design flaw in npc mechanics I was referring to, and my point is that just because our elementals suffer from the same flaws that all npcs do, doesn’t make the elite a bad skill. It’s the npc mechanics that are the problem there, and that’s what should be fixed. Not the skill.

Full golemancer rune set says what?

That I’ve done 7*3=21 Crucible of Eternity runs. You claimed I’ve never entered the dungeon. I’ve given you proof that I have. And even though it may not be so in your eyes, the fact that I’ve chosen a golem summon over stats is because I like golems. Liking golems has little to do with how good or bad someone is at the game.

The fact of the matter you use them “so extensively” and yet you did not realise that dragon tooth takes between 90-95% hp of earth elemental in 1 hit and all the rest die instead is more of a fact than what youve just said.

Just did the dungeon. My earth elemental survived for about 45 of the 60 seconds against said boss. That’s also a fact. Ir could be luck, I’ll grant you that. Regardless, that’s just 1 (or, 3 if you prefer) boss. There’s still the rest of the dungeon where the elementals work pretty well.

taking them as if youre some sort of MacGyver by exploring them that really shows how your claims are to be taken.

You again misunderstand my intentions. Of course everybody knows that the elemental that’s actually summoned differs. That’s not news. I’m highlighting that particulat aspect of the skill in order to provide an argument for my point of view. I’m claiming the glyph is great because the outcome of the skill can not be 1 thing, but 4 things. That’s a standard discussion technique. Another technique is the one you’re using: discrediting an opponent. It’s quite effective too I’ll admit, but it’s flawed in the fact that you’ve never met me, nor have you seen how well I play. So wheter I suck or not, is not really your call to make.

if you come here talking about mediocre things like press the [jump] button to jump, then this thread topic clearly isnt for you.

To make it very clear, I’ll rephrase my reason why I like the glyph in as simple terms as possible:

Most skills -> do one thing regardless of how or when you use them.
Glyphs -> do different things based on which attunement you use.
I like Glyph of Elementals -> because instead of 1 fixed summon, you get to choose between 4 slightly different versions. It almost feels like having 4 different skills /8to me*!

Do you read me claiming you’re a wise guy because you prefer ruby gems for the increased stats they give? Nope. Then don’t call me a noob for my pointing out the reason I like the glyph. I didn’t invent it. I’m not the only one who sees it. Don’t claim I said that.

45-60 elemental vs alpha by luck, i prefer worse stats because i like golem just for fun, ive done 21 runs in CoE, that pretty sums it up, you obviously like the game for fun without caring about efficiency or the usefullness of your toon, good for you, nothing wrong with having fun in a game as games are meant to have fun with.

The only Alpha boss that will make your elemental last more than 3 seconds is the alpha boss at the end of the path number 1 and thats it when the team is face tanking it, thats 1 in 9 alphas, also, temporarly glitched idling alpha doesnt count, so again this skill and the other 2 elite skills are worthless in those circumstances.

I have posted this thread what many other elementalists and i are experiencing, there is not 1 elementalist elite skill to be worth us wasting 1 second of casting time in dungeons and 1 hit kill mobs or bosses, this thread has nothing to do about whats fun and whats not or what you like or what not, youre once more offtopic.

TheWarKeeper.5374:

PlatypusRex.3428:

Fiery Greatsword is fun. It controls the battlefield, period. Have you seen how much cripple it can stack? The damage is good and while I’m not sure if it is intended or not, even the auto attack hits multiple tight-knit mobs. Let a friend pick up your other sword and your entire group can kite melee mobs with absolute ease.

I use GS when I staff to switch to high single-target DPS and/or to handle large mobs that my group needs to kite to survive.

That said, I’ll always take a buff, especially in range. I’m also not wild about #4 run skill. The #5 is ok, I suppose.

Tornado is blah

Elementals are both boring and barely effective.

Ty for your comment, this clearly states dungeons and not WvW :P

Lolz. “Battleground” is metaphor for any combat area. Any large group of mobs will be very well contained with the massive amount of cripple. Cripple time is long-lasting, area of effect is huge. You get in, cripple, and get out quickly.

My comments were meant for PvE setting (especially dungeons).

PlatypusRex.3428:

TheWarKeeper.5374:

PlatypusRex.3428:

Fiery Greatsword is fun. It controls the battlefield, period. Have you seen how much cripple it can stack? The damage is good and while I’m not sure if it is intended or not, even the auto attack hits multiple tight-knit mobs. Let a friend pick up your other sword and your entire group can kite melee mobs with absolute ease.

I use GS when I staff to switch to high single-target DPS and/or to handle large mobs that my group needs to kite to survive.

That said, I’ll always take a buff, especially in range. I’m also not wild about #4 run skill. The #5 is ok, I suppose.

Tornado is blah

Elementals are both boring and barely effective.

Ty for your comment, this clearly states dungeons and not WvW :P

Lolz. “Battleground” is metaphor. Any large group of mobs will be very well contained with the massive amount of cripple. Time is long-lasting, area of effect is huge. You get in, cripple, and get out quickly.

My comments were meant for PvE setting (especially dungeons).

Ah ok sorry for the confusion, i do more dps with my staff in pve and dungeons than you will do with this skill though, my staff can also cripple and the longer they stay in the same spot the more crippled they will get if i immobilize them its nb aswell, my staff can also chill (better than cripple), daze, heal, make combo fields, combo finishers, combo projectiles and more, i can also evade/dodge more times than you can with GS, i also have twice the range you do with GS, better AOE radius, better AOE, and i gain all of this by NOT using GS, how does this make GS look a good elite? i honestly much prefer ice bow instead, you should try it, its 5th skill actually matters and is better than GS 5th skill too and 1 is utility while the other is elite.

As for GS beying fun, i have no objections to that, i used it when i was level 40 too and i liked it alot back then, but fun is not what the thread is about.

TheWarKeeper.5374:

45-60 elemental vs alpha by luck, i prefer worse stats because i like golem just for fun, ive done 21 runs in CoE, that pretty sums it up, you obviously like the game for fun without caring about efficiency or the usefullness

and

Ah ok sorry for the confusion, i do more dps with my staff in pve and dungeons than you will do with this skill though

Seriously? Is that the only argument you can make? People who disagree with you must be inferior players?

Well, then, riddle me this, oh great marvel of the gaming world…if ALL npcs, both summons and escortees, suffer from the same issues, why is changing the glyph better than changing the mechanics of npcs overall?

That’s like using a hairdryer to bake a cake instead of fixing the oven. Sure it can work. But the second option will fix your problem for ALL cakes.

TheWarKeeper.5374:

ThiBash.5634:

To be honest, I really don’t get the bashing that Glyph of Elementals is getting lately. I mean, it’s basically 4 skills you can choose from instead of just one, the elementals’ dps is higher than our own auto attacks. Each elemental comes with its own AoE boon buff (might, swiftness, regeneration or protection respectively). Best of all, it can be traited to the point where it has one of lowest cooldowns of all elite skills.

What more do you want from a skill? Instant kill a target and make you coffee at the same time?

nonlinear

the only thing I would do to improve the elemental is add some kind of passive to it so that it has some use when you aren’t using it. IMO if you don’t pop your elemental every time it is off CD then it is a worthless slot.

Then don’t forget to use it. Seriously.

its getting bashed because more and more eles are now playing dungeonsand are facing all the time 1hit kill mobs, also ill suggest you this: plz go fight alpha with any of your “4 skills” and let me know if it did any dmg ok? andbtw 4 skills mean u can activate 4 skills at once.

This is a problem with all pets/minions, not just the elemental. Ranger pets get 1-shot in dungeons all the time (and are often left dead, because they have a bad habit of accidentally triggering traps, mid-fight), Necro minions die if you sneeze on them, Engineer turrets may as well be made of paper mache…

Having your elite skill reduced to a 1-shot wonder is frustrating, but understand that this is a game-wide problem, not something that specifically targets Elementalists. If you want to see changes, you should ask for changes for everybody.

turrets can be swapped for another skill and still be viable with them, ranger pets have more control than glyph of elemental has and it can be used to your advantage.

Having no viable elementalist elite skill in a dungeon fight is what this thread topic is about, by no means ive ever said glyph of elemental is a bad skill, im saying i have simply no replacement for the so called elite slot skill in dungeon fights.

Im not here to complain that my glyph is useless because of poor ai, im here to complain i have no viable replacement for it.

If you feel like you are having the same issue but with another class please make a thread about it in its respective class thread.

TheWarKeeper.5374:

turrets can be swapped for another skill and still be viable with them, ranger pets have more control than glyph of elemental has and it can be used to your advantage.

Having no viable elementalist elite skill in a dungeon fight is what this thread topic is about, by no means ive ever said glyph of elemental is a bad skill, im saying i have simply no replacement for the so called elite slot skill in dungeon fights.

Im not here to complain that my glyph is useless because of poor ai, im here to complain i have no viable replacement for it.

If you feel like you are having the same issue but with another class please make a thread about it in its respective class thread.

My comment was in regard to your specific statement, which was specifically about the uselessness of the elemental, and that statement alone. There’s no need to backpedal.

Greyfeld.7104:

TheWarKeeper.5374:

turrets can be swapped for another skill and still be viable with them, ranger pets have more control than glyph of elemental has and it can be used to your advantage.

Having no viable elementalist elite skill in a dungeon fight is what this thread topic is about, by no means ive ever said glyph of elemental is a bad skill, im saying i have simply no replacement for the so called elite slot skill in dungeon fights.

Im not here to complain that my glyph is useless because of poor ai, im here to complain i have no viable replacement for it.

If you feel like you are having the same issue but with another class please make a thread about it in its respective class thread.

My comment was in regard to your specific statement, which was specifically about the uselessness of the elemental, and that statement alone. There’s no need to backpedal.

Uhm… okay and my comment was in regard to your specific statement too that other classes suffer from this same issue, when i clearly said that build issues and pet mechanics have nothing to do with this thread title or topic, the thread is about we having no elite skill that is usefull in dungeons, are we having some sort of misscomunication here?

TheWarKeeper.5374:

my comment was in regard to your specific statement too that other classes suffer from this same issue, when i clearly said that build issues and pet mechanics have nothing to do with this thread title or topic

Well the thing is, it has everything to do with this topic. Like you said, the skill is fine everywhere else. The fact that elementals die in one or two hits to dungeon bosses is the only thing that makes them worthless in the dungeons. So rather than changing Glyph of Elementals, it’d be a better fix to just make sure the summoned elementals are of use in the dungeon. And seeing as how other npcs have the same problem, the same fix could be applied to them.

One of the other benefits is that you won’t introduce potential imbalances in other areas of the game.

TheWarKeeper.5374:

Where does this put us? Please remove all elites from the elementalist, put them into utility slot and make us a fourth utility slot or start caring for your elementalist players by adding other elites or fixing our current ones, your concept is simply nerfed to death and theres no elite skill in the gigantic list of 3 that is going to be of any use making us click the button 0 on our keyboard.

Woah now, I understand you might think your elites are underpowered but they are FAR too strong to be regular utility skills.

This is a problem with all pets/minions, not just the elemental. Ranger pets get 1-shot in dungeons all the time (and are often left dead, because they have a bad habit of accidentally triggering traps, mid-fight), Necro minions die if you sneeze on them, Engineer turrets may as well be made of paper mache…

Having your elite skill reduced to a 1-shot wonder is frustrating, but understand that this is a game-wide problem, not something that specifically targets Elementalists. If you want to see changes, you should ask for changes for everybody.

This is very true. There is a pretty big issue with pets in dungeons atm due to AOE spam boss mechanics (some bosses increases number of summons/aoes due to the number of allies rather than players, making pets in many fights detrimental such as giganticus lupicus.)

Earth Elemental has some use in PVE, and Water Elemental in PVP, but in general, the elites are worse than regular utility skills.

I use the Sylvari racial ‘Take Root’ – I find it far more effective than any of the Ele elites.

TheWarKeeper.5374:

mjharrison.3209:

Earth Elemental has some use in PVE, and Water Elemental in PVP, but in general, the elites are worse than regular utility skills.

I use the Sylvari racial ‘Take Root’ – I find it far more effective than any of the Ele elites.

No, they are simply just too overpowered to be considered utility slots! frankly i take utility skill over them anyday if i could have but since elite skill forces you to use the elite skillls only….

Maybe if tornado had a couple more buffs like protection and/or swiftness with it to prolong your life a bit or something like lich form it would get used more. Its actually a pretty cool elite except you die too fast when you lose all your active defenses, which an ele needs.

Yes kilger thats exactly what i think about it.

Kilger.5490:

Maybe if tornado had a couple more buffs like protection and/or swiftness with it to prolong your life a bit or something like lich form it would get used more. Its actually a pretty cool elite except you die too fast when you lose all your active defenses, which an ele needs.

I’d be happy with tornado if it pulled instead of pushing. So, ok, good, I just pushed everybody out of my dmg range…now what? Pick one of them, head there and push him out of range again?

mjharrison.3209:

Earth Elemental has some use in PVE, and Water Elemental in PVP, but in general, the elites are worse than regular utility skills.

I use the Sylvari racial ‘Take Root’ – I find it far more effective than any of the Ele elites.

I agree, people keep saying racials are useless but I miss this elite skill in pvp. When I get into trouble, I swap to water, hit this skill, and with the 3 secs of invul gives me time to regen most of my hps, plus the turrets often take a lot of the aggro off me.

Have you ever tried tornado in WvWvW?

Winds.3087:

Have you ever tried tornado in WvWvW?

No, it was enough a disaster in spvp against only 3 people who just got pushed away, swaped to ranged and killed me before I could even get close to anybody else. I wonder how it could possibly work better against 30 people… Video, please?

TheWarKeeper.5374:

No, they are simply just too overpowered to be considered utility slots! frankly i take utility skill over them anyday if i could have but since elite skill forces you to use the elite skillls only….

As some|one else said, the fact that many people would rather slot another regular utility instead of one of our “elite” skills is pretty clear indication that something is wrong.

I have to agree, after rolling a mage.
I find that I always forget to use my elite skill in PvP.
I use a conjured GS and they’re okay at pvE

The other classes, I would love to use my elite skill and I want to save it for the perfect time and always want to use it. Mage, I do not even remember having an elite skill…