Guild Wars 2

Aiglos.2907:

Just to address this part
“If all you ever find in your hand is a staff, you’re probably doing it wrong. Just saying …”

Maybe in a dungeon yes, it might be worth changing up weapon sets? If you are another profession, who actually has an in combat weapon swap, this is also very true.

In dungeons its often very worthwhile to change weapon sets in between fights. Some fights find the staff useful for reasons of range, AOE, etc, while in others the staff is considerably less effective.

Aiglos.2907:

However, attunements should make up for the lack of weapon swap. If someone wants to hold a staff in their hands, then they should be able to stand on the strength of the skills and traits involved in that. By changing their attunements, they should be able to cope with a diverse array of situations.

Well, attunements do make up for no-swaps in any particular fight. Someone surely can hold a staff and be able to stand on its strengths. However, that doesn’t mean the staff is or should be equally useful in every scenario. And it’s not!

The fact is, whatever weapon you’re using does offer a diverse array of solutions, but not all of them are applicable in every fight and not all of them are even ideal. Knowing which weapon may be most effective for coming situations is part of what makes a good dungeon elementalist.

What is tiresome is hearing people expect to use the same strategies and the same weapon sets and the same powers, over and over and over, for every challenge they face. Instead of playing what is arguably the most dynamic class in the game, dynamically, it seems some people are only satisfied by trying to shove a square peg into a round hole, and complaining when it doesn’t fit.

Aiglos.2907:

So you can’t apply “If all you ever find in your hand is a staff, you’re probably doing it wrong” that statement, to an ele. An ele should be able to use whatever weapon they like, because all weapons should be strong enough to stand on their own due to our attunements. In that case, and especially in the PvE environment, you have to play what you enjoy. So you can’t make a statement like that for someone using an ele.

You can absolutely do that. Just don’t come into the forums and whine that it isn’t as effective as other ways of doing things, or that it is the only way and now the devs have broken it.

I happen to really like the staff and EA was a great compliment to that. I found it extremely fun. Admittedly I’m going to enjoy it less now, and I’m going to have to find way to adapt.

I love the staff, too. It’s amazingly effective even without EA, particularly in dungeon scenarios. But it isn’t the only way, and it certainly isn’t broken or ineffective because EA is no longer powerful. That’s garbage talk.

So far as it goes, being willing to adapt to the changes will make you a better elementalist even when you’re using the staff throughout the future. It’s not the end of the elementalist world, though some people would have others believe it.

Avatara.1042:

Anarchium.8046:

Udyr.9283:

And in dungeons ele’s suck, except with evasive arcana build. To support and heal is our only viable role. Area swiftness, might, healing. But now that has been nerfed.

That may be the only way YOU can manage to play your elementalist in a dungeon, but don’t wave your hands around trying to represent the rest of us.

Stop looking at the class through such a narrow lens. Experiment with new playstyles — it’ll support many (many) more than people like you give credit. It can definitely fill both offensive and support roles but it requries different ways of playing both. Imagine that! If all you ever find in your hand is a staff, you’re probably doing it wrong. Just saying …

One of the single worst posts I have ever read. Not once do you mention anything meaningful, and you end it with one of the most assinine things possible: ‘just saying…’.

So you’re saying you agree with Udyr in that support and healing is the only viable role for elementalists in dungeons? And you’re happy he’s droning on about that as some sort of fact?

Honestly, it’s not hard to guess that your panties are twisted up over the recent changes. That’s fine. You can be upset. But let’s not pretend that elementalists have now been broken, that staves and healing/support were the only way to go, and so-on and so-on. Because that is what is asinine on these forums right now.

Udyr.9283:

And in dungeons ele’s suck, except with evasive arcana build. To support and heal is our only viable role. Area swiftness, might, healing. But now that has been nerfed.

That may be the only way YOU can manage to play your elementalist in a dungeon, but don’t wave your hands around trying to represent the rest of us.

Stop looking at the class through such a narrow lens. Experiment with new playstyles — it’ll support many (many) more than people like you give credit. It can definitely fill both offensive and support roles but it requries different ways of playing both. Imagine that! If all you ever find in your hand is a staff, you’re probably doing it wrong. Just saying …

Aether McLoud.1975:

How about some statement about gutting eles?

Elementalists are fine. They weren’t gutted. They are still a powerful and fun-to-play class. This type of dramatic whining is ridiculous.

fixit.7189:

This is effectively destroyed an entire weapon set in one patch. Ouch. OUCH!

Really? Destroyed it. Uh-huh.

Some of you are sounding crazy around here. I understand what it feels like to have something you really like get nerfed down, but come on.

The frost spirit isn’t just about the damage buff. (And don’t get me wrong, it isn’t exactly glorious for that part.) It’s also about the Chill effect.

I use mine traited so it fires the Chill effect on death over the increased radius, but I don’t use the increased health for spirits trait. When something kills it, it hands out 5s of Chill to whatever is nearby. Chances are, I may already have used Cold Snap for another 5s.

Even if something doesn’t kill it, when the timer is up and it expires, the Chill effect procs then too.

It’s not the greatest ability in the world. Hell, it’s arguably not even a good one. But it is possible to use it with some effect in dungeon scenarios, if nothing else.

They are hashes.4523:

People whining are level 80, when you get there you will understand.
Its like day and night.

I’ve got a level 80 necro and I don’t understand all the boo-hooing. The class has problems but it isn’t broken like so many would have us believe. The play styles it offers are more subtle and nuanced than most other classes, and unskilled players will feel like it underperforms (generally because they only know to look for big hits, which the necromancer doesn’t tend to offer).

That’s not to say the class doesn’t need some attention — it does. The issues seem magnified because the class isn’t as straight-forward to play as, say, the warrior or ranger, and a lot of people simply don’t get it. (This is a problem with the elementalist, too.)

You people dogging the necromancer are a laugh riot. I mean, seriously … a total overhaul is needed? Total. Overhaul. That’s crack-smoking talk. Yes, the class has its issues (even lots of issues) but it isn’t near the point of needing to be rebuilt.

The minion AI is bad. Real bad. The broken traits (mostly in Curse and Blood, I think) need to be fixed. Yes, damage output needs some tweaking. But the class isn’t broken. It’s quite viable to play and can be a lot of fun when you’ve mastered the nuances.

But “necro looks like a placeholder?” Yeah, someone needs to L2P their class.

Maybe it’s possible to make the axe work, but in my experience the weapon is sub-par compared to the dagger (for close-up, that you don’t want) or the scepter. It’s not a terrible weapon, but it just doesn’t compare well at the moment.

(My time using the axe has been limited, and I haven’t played a build specifically meant for it, so YMMV.)

So far as it goes, if I were looking to go with an axe I’d pursue a +Power +Critical Damage (with a small dose of +Precision to keep crit rate around 16-20%), putting the remainder toward Vitality (aka, the Valkyrie).

With the vulnerability the axe gives, I’d want to hit real big when I crit but wouldn’t care about crit-hitting as often. The Spite line suits this well as it increases raw damage and makes conditions like vulnerability last longer on the target.

It’d be the ogre necromancer, focused on signets and the occasional well. Probably 30/0/0/20/20. Personally, I do not see the axe as suitable for a high-Precision build, as suggested by Fadeaway.

Also, excepting WvW (where very long range is a common necessity), I wouldn’t suggest using a staff as a secondary weapon for the character. Scepter/x and its damage and utility will prove more useful in most situations.