Guild Wars 2

Hi all. Quick disclaimer – I’m a ‘casual’ by the standards of the community, I only play the game sporadically ( I quit for almost a year for WoW : MoP) and when I do play I tend to just dip in and out of various game modes. I understand fully that Legendaries are not for my ‘crowd’ and I don’t even go for them, nor ascended gear except the ones I can earn from Laurels.

So, I’ve been really, really struggling to play this class.

I’ve dug hard as I can for info, and the guides and the community seem to suggest that Berserker armour is the way to go. So my current armour is full Berserker, though I have Knights trinkets I like to swap in for some more survivability during WvW and the recent LA events.

However, I’m just hitting this brick wall which I’ve experienced since release. That is I just can’t seem to deal damage unless I’m in the full berserker garb, but then I’m torn apart quicker than you can say “watch out its a thief!”.

So, I dug more and found out that theres this spec called ‘the bunker’, but you can guess how I felt when trying to play that.

Firstly, I feel this spec is definetly for the more skilled….if you asked me about one of the 8-button ‘effective’ combos or whatever, I’m clueless. I mean I’ve read them, but it just doesn’t go in And when a thief or warrior is attacking, or im in the heat of a siege, the last thing I can do is recall the Tekken-style button combination that will totally pwn everything within 20 paces. I haven’t tried post-it notes on my monitor yet or a exam-style cheat sheet, but yeah >.< About the only combo I can really accomplish is the scepter one with the pheonix and dragons tooth, but thats another can of worms ( I have awful aim. ).

Secondly, while the spec abides the Hippocratic Oath admirably, this is of course a problem when I want to actually hurt people in WvW or get credit for monsters and such in PVE.

Sadly after much searching I’ve not really seen anything that is ‘inbetween’, except comments that ‘inbetween’ is vastly inferior and not a worthwhile goal for any well-to-do elementalist.

Now I’ve already decided I’m probably going to switch to my only other 80 – my warrior – who I have none of these issues on (beginner issues? newbie issues? baddie?). She is only in yellow gear, but I’m able to have way more fun on her in both PVE and WvW surprisingly.

There’s always a spark for a final decision I guess, and for me it was being brutally murdered by a thief once again in a group-fight during WvW. I mean, I thought something might change in the year I was gone, but the murderer (im just joking! im sure she was a really nice person irl XD ) came upon me during the group fighting, hit me for half my HP, disappeared, returned, hit me again and disappeared, repeat a few times until I was ‘downed’, and then I was ‘stomped’ while 2 of my allies tried to save me ( she was in stealth while stomping! ).

As a newbie, that didn’t really seem very fair. I decided to log on to my horribly neglected Warrior alt, and had a much more fun time instantly, packing globs of HP and armour and still seemingly able to do lots of damage.

I suppose one would think after those last 2 paragraphs this is a thinly disguised ‘omg buff eles so UP!!’ post, but it’s just my last attempt to get help. I’ve played Elementalist since the stress weekend beta tests, and she proudly wears the Tier 3 I worked hard for ( hard work to me, okay! ). I’d like to at least continue her even if she becomes an alt.

I’m sorry if this is a lot of words, I don’t write often but when I do I write lots

So I guess a TLDR is: help I’ve tried berserker and bunker specs but I’m dying lots is there some kind of inbetween spec that has decent damage and survivability?! And is also relatively simple to play? LOL. Yeah, maybe I should move to make my warrior my main, I know I know! Maybe this class is just the ‘newb-trap’ cries

Addition and possible suggestion for Anet? :

I really , really wish this class had something similar to the Diablo 3 mage, in which when a monster attacks you, they get frozen for a second or two. I’d love for a thief to hit me and get frozen for 1.5 seconds or something. Maybe make it trigger on a certain amount of HP damage dealt like 25 % of total HP, which would mean everytime they hit practically, they’d get frozen snickers

1000 hour of play on the elementalist at least. Only advice you need

well…fiddlesticks. I’m only upto 580 hours and probably alot of those are afk’ed Do afk hours count? Do experienced elementalists gain a sort of thousand-yard stare from all the thief beatings? XD

In all seriousness i don’t think I could take 420 more hours of that harsh rite of passage!

I was terrible at elementalist for like 5 months. I switched to condi elementalist for about 4 months and got really good at it like I was probably the best condi elementalist around and then went back to power and found I was above average now. My recommendation is play tanker until you know how each enemy works. Watch YouTube fights. Ask people how they fight certain classes.

ephemereldream.7403:

well…fiddlesticks. I’m only upto 580 hours and probably alot of those are afk’ed Do afk hours count? Do experienced elementalists gain a sort of thousand-yard stare from all the thief beatings? XD

In all seriousness i don’t think I could take 420 more hours of that harsh rite of passage!

He is talking about actual play. And no the longer you sit on your elementalist it will not get better by itself. The 1000+ hours is actually playing and fighting for an elementalist. Its all about how well you know the class. You could be given the most Op spec for an elementalist alive but if you have 0 hours on it you will fail. My advice is stick with it and play what you like whether thats dps or bunker or anything inbetween. On an elementalist experience > build.

ephemereldream.7403:

Hi all. Quick disclaimer – I’m a ‘casual’ by the standards of the community, I only play the game sporadically ( I quit for almost a year for WoW : MoP) and when I do play I tend to just dip in and out of various game modes. I understand fully that Legendaries are not for my ‘crowd’ and I don’t even go for them, nor ascended gear except the ones I can earn from Laurels.

• You do not need ascended gear to compete but when you consider buffs from nourishment/ oil/ ranks/ stone/ etc in ADDITION to armour sets , there is almost a 17% to 25% boost

• Buy WXP boosters to up your rank fast

• Note that the drop rate of ascended gear has been increased for WvW world rank chest

• Do your daily and monthlies

So, I’ve been really, really struggling to play this class.

• The Ele is the hardest class to master

So my current armour is full Berserker, though I have Knights trinkets I like to swap in for some more survivability during WvW and the recent LA events.

• These are two decent Dagger and Dagger builds for ELE, both are from veteran players. http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/elementalist/?1.0|8.5g.h4.8.5g.h19.d19.0.d19|0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0|1c.71h.1c.71h.5j.71g.1c.71g.5j.b1m.1c.b1m.0.0.0.0.0.0|211.d1b.211.d1b.311.d1b.211.d1b.311.d1b.3v.d1b|0.a1.0.u15b.u28b|15.1|1n.1u.25.1v.29|e
• and http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAoYhEmkbwx5wjDAEFucyQRIbUekzM2A-jUCBYgBkgAkEBIBqIaslRht6KalXBRVjIqWbDTGAmxA-w

However, I’m just hitting this brick wall which I’ve experienced since release. That is I just can’t seem to deal damage

• Stacking might is very beneficial

So, I dug more and found out that theres this spec called ‘the bunker’, but you can guess how I felt when trying to play that.

• Most Bunker builds are now hybrid builds

Tekken-style button combination that will totally pwn everything within 20 paces.

• Combo buttons can found by googling “Combo fields Ele Gw2”

I want to actually hurt people in WvW or get credit for monsters and such in PVE.

• Hurting people? Just follow the above 2 builds.

Now I’ve already decided I’m probably going to switch to my only other 80 – my warrior – who I have none of these issues on (beginner issues? newbie issues? baddie?). She is only in yellow gear, but I’m able to have way more fun on her in both PVE and WvW surprisingly.

• Warriors are easy to play, good to play and are superior to eles in almost every area. Perhaps you should skip the ele. Being Frank here.

There’s always a spark for a final decision I guess, and for me it was being brutally murdered by a thief once again in a group-fight during WvW. I mean, I thought something might change in the year I was gone, but the murderer (im just joking! im sure she was a really nice person irl XD ) came upon me during the group fighting, hit me for half my HP, disappeared, returned, hit me again and disappeared, repeat a few times until I was ‘downed’, and then I was ‘stomped’ while 2 of my allies tried to save me ( she was in stealth while stomping! ).

• Thieves are always the cheese class. Even thieves admit they are cheesy. But the skill level is moderate to become very good in that class VS what is required for a skilled ele.

As a newbie, that didn’t really seem very fair. I decided to log on to my horribly neglected Warrior alt, and had a much more fun time instantly, packing globs of HP and armour and still seemingly able to do lots of damage.

• See above what i said

So I guess a TLDR is: help I’ve tried berserker and bunker specs but I’m dying lots is there some kind of inbetween spec that has decent damage and survivability?! And is also relatively simple to play? LOL. Yeah, maybe I should move to make my warrior my main, I know I know! Maybe this class is just the ‘newb-trap’ cries

• See builds suggested above

Addition and possible suggestion for Anet? :

I really , really wish this class had something similar to the Diablo 3 mage, in which when a monster attacks you, they get frozen for a second or two. I’d love for a thief to hit me and get frozen for 1.5 seconds or something. Maybe make it trigger on a certain amount of HP damage dealt like 25 % of total HP, which would mean everytime they hit practically, they’d get frozen snickers

• When you get frozen pop a cantrip , shocking aura is also usefull

See my answer to your post above

thanks for the replies and the comprehensive writeup Fuzzionx. I checked out both those links and they looked good, I especially liked the very even stat distribution which looks along the lines of what I was after, however both require something called ‘Celestial’ gear which I’ve never heard of before.

I googled it up and found out it’d take me something like 72 days to make a full set, which seems a horribly arbitrary timer for something that apparently came out in late 2012. I guess I have nothing to lose and can make a charged crystal per day though.

As for the last comment Fuzzionx, I meant I wish we had like a frost armour of a sort that would freeze other people if we get hit for more than 25 %~ of our hp in one strike. I generally break stuns with arcane shield T’was just wishful thinking.

I’ll throw my two cents in.

First and foremost: stick with the class if it appeals you, experience will make up for some of the immense flaws of this class (yep, for all the player vs player modes we are currently the bottom of the food chain, deal with it).

Second: don’t go Celestial. It’s about to get nerfed and we still don’t know what will happen exactly, so I think it’s wise to save your funds until a clear picture of the scenario appears.

Third: in a couple of weeks we will undergo a process of class balance, so I would advice to be patient before making any definitive decision regarding the class.

Your friends are somehow right: “bunker” is the only viable build we have if we choose small scale combat (zerging is never a problem) but the con is having a very laughable damage output, and even if you choose to go full glass cannon, your damage will be far surpassed by other classes (which will also have way more efficient self sustain).
For personal fun, I always choose to play experimental builds, and there is plenty of room for experiments with Ele, just keep in mind that the class currently completely lacks self sustain and you will aaaalways targeted first by enemy (because you are the easiest one to kill)

Grevender.9235:

I’ll throw my two cents in.

First and foremost: stick with the class if it appeals you, experience will make up for some of the immense flaws of this class (yep, for all the player vs player modes we are currently the bottom of the food chain, deal with it).

Second: don’t go Celestial. It’s about to get nerfed and we still don’t know what will happen exactly, so I think it’s wise to save your funds until a clear picture of the scenario appears.

Third: in a couple of weeks we will undergo a process of class balance, so I would advice to be patient before making any definitive decision regarding the class.

Your friends are somehow right: “bunker” is the only viable build we have if we choose small scale combat (zerging is never a problem) but the con is having a very laughable damage output, and even if you choose to go full glass cannon, your damage will be far surpassed by other classes (which will also have way more efficient self sustain).
For personal fun, I always choose to play experimental builds, and there is plenty of room for experiments with Ele, just keep in mind that the class currently completely lacks self sustain and you will aaaalways targeted first by enemy (because you are the easiest one to kill)

Nobody can outdamage my GC staff ele, haha. You get instagibbed if you screw up, but if you play well and keep track of the thieves, you will beat face. It certainly isn’t quite as powerful as it should be, because you can only outplay passives to a certain degree (which is entirely what the meta is about), but if you can pull it off it’s really fun.
I currently use celestial to maintain a minimum level of defensive stats I want and condition damage, and then build zerker from there (for WvW of course, full zerker PvE and PvP doesn’t have this option), which will not change with the upcoming patch, especially considering that they might buff the ratio across the board to compensate for the crit damage nerf.

ephemereldream.7403:

So I guess a TLDR is: help I’ve tried berserker and bunker specs but I’m dying lots is there some kind of inbetween spec that has decent damage and survivability?! And is also relatively simple to play? LOL. Yeah, maybe I should move to make my warrior my main, I know I know! Maybe this class is just the ‘newb-trap’ cries

Get your build. Go into the Heart of the Mists. Kill the Profession NPCs; Svanir and Chieftain too. Try to take as little damage as possible while fighting the NPCs. Try to 2v1 the Guardian and Warrior (aggro the Guardian first and lead him to the Warrior).

Use your own builds or play around with these builds if you want (mess with the stats and traits if you feel like it):
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-k34;2B2VV0v4-NkY0;9;49T;0T4;054B;417A;6sV2DsV2D5BA

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-kZ;3BJ-U0v4-NFZ0;9;4TJ;0J56A58;514-U;5sV2DsV2D6Bt