Guild Wars 2

I left Gw2 a year ago mainly due to a lack of endgame and balancing issues. I managed to reach rank 300 in the sPvP leaderboards with my glass fresh air roaming build, but couldn’t stand seeing nerd after need in the patch notes. I loved playing ele, but playing theif was just so much easier for the roaming role ( Work twice as hard to get the same results right?) Anyway, I’ve come back after this long hiatus, and would love for some of you ladies and gentlemen to help me relearn the meta. What’s the favored build nowadays? Is 20 in arcana and water still mandatory? Thanks for the help!

So pretty much same old same old? Kind of what I expected but I’ll still be playing again. Thanks for the help!

I left Guild Wars 2 a long time ago, a little after Scarlet’s invasion of the Queen’s Gauntlet. I got tired of Anet’s balancing decisions and the toxic WvW community of my server (Maguuma).

In any case, I’ve been on a long enough hiatus, and I have that everlasting urge to play an mmo, and until Black Desert Online is released in the US, Gw2 is what I got. I know this could be tedious, but it would be a tremendous help if you ladies and gentlemen could bring me back to speed. How’s the state of WvW (meta?), how is PvE (endgame?), and how’s the class balance (low expectations).

When I left, WvW was zerg vs zerg, and whoever could throw the most bodies at something usually won, PvE was farm farm farm until you got your legendary, then idle in LA. Class balance was when warriors got crazy buffed, after Anet finally admitted after a year that they were under powered and needed reworking. and Elementalists were hit with nerf after nerf, and they also brought up some of the under-used classes (necro, engineer).

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I’m actually kind of excited to get back into an MMO I fell in love with at the start, and your words would definitely make the transition a whole lot smoother. Thanks in advance!

I quit GW2 because of Anet’s “balancing” months ago. I heard from a friend that there was a big balance patch on Tuesday. Glad to see Anet hasn’t changed a thing.

These “buffs” don’t help any of the main issues of the Ele. We’re still forced into utilities, we’re still forced to use trait points for survivabliity, we still have kitten base stats.

reikken.4961:

EchenSketch.9142:

So 20 points into Fire and 30 Into Earth solely for the condition removal. Have fun working with those remaining 20 points.

nah I’ll usually just be taking the 20 (30) in fire
But more importantly, even if I’m taking 20 in fire and 30 in earth, that still gives me 5 other traits, not 2. earth and fire do give out traits before hitting 30 and 20 points respectively

btw “or” =/= “and”

Right, because we all know how strong an Ele’s fire traitline with. So you put 20 points for the condi removal, now you get the great selection of extra burning duration, a lava fount when downed, and more charges on the amazing conjures.

30 into Earth let’s see what we have to work with… Condition build based traits, because we all know how viable condi Ele’s are. A couple survival traits. Real useful stuff.

reikken.4961:

EchenSketch.9142:

This patch doesn’t change the necessity of a an Elementalist to put points into Water and Arcane.

yes it does
I don’t need cleansing wave when I have

Fire II – Burning Fire – Use Cleansing Fire automatically when you have a number of conditions on you. 3 conditions. 40 second cooldown. Moved to Master tier.
or
Earth XI – Diamond Skin. Conditions cannot be applied to you when your health is above the threshold. 90%.

And I don’t need points in arcana when I have acceptable attunement cooldowns already

So 20 points into Fire and 30 Into Earth solely for the condition removal. Have fun working with those remaining 20 points.

Now, instead of being forced into Water and Arcane for survivability, we get the option of choosing Fire and Earth for survivability. This doesn’t change the primary issues of the profession.

reikken.4961:

EchenSketch.9142:

Am I the only one who sees these changes as a nerf?

yes

Elemental Attunement moved to master tier
Aquamancer’s Alacrity moved to master tier
Cleansing Wave moved to master tier
Soothing Disruption moved to master tier

This patch doesn’t change the necessity of a an Elementalist to put points into Water and Arcane. You want to make survivability harder to attain and expect players to not put 30 into Arcane for Evasive Aracana?

Am I the only one who sees these changes as a nerf? Either way, I don’t see this changing any of the current issues with Ele’s. ( Forced into utilites, horrible base stats, etc).

Fire II – Burning Fire – Use Cleansing Fire automatically when you have a number of conditions on you. 3 conditions. 40 second cooldown. Moved to Master tier.
Fire VIII – Conjurer – Moved to Adept tier.
Fire III – Ember’s Might. The effect of this trait has been changed to Burns you apply last longer. 25%.
Burning Rage 25 – Increased damage dealt to burning foes: 5% to 10%.
Air V – Soothing Winds. Increased conversion from 5% to 7%.
Air XI – Tempest Defense. Decreased the cooldown from 60s to 25s.
Earth 5 – Stone Flesh – Increased toughness while attuned to Earth Magic to 1.5/level (120 at level 80).
Earth VII – Strength of Stone. Gain condition damage based on your Toughness. 10%.
Earth XI – Diamond Skin. Conditions cannot be applied to you when your health is above the threshold. 90%.
Water I – Aquamancer’s Alacrity. Moved to Master tier.
Water V – Cleansing Wave. Moved to Master tier.
Water VIII – Arcane Abatement. Moved to Adept tier.
Water X – Soothing Wave. Moved to Adept tier. redesign: Gain Regeneration(3s) on incoming critical hits. 10s recharge.
Soothing Disruption move to master tier.
Cantrip Mastery move to adept tier.
Arcane III – Arcane Retribution. Moved to Master tier. Decreased cooldown 90s to kitten .
Arcane IV – Final Shielding. Decreased cooldown from 90s to 75s.
Arcane V – Elemental Attunement. Moved to Master tier.
Arcane VI – Arcane Resurrection. Moved to Master tier.
Arcane VII – Vigorous Scepter. Moved to Adept tier.
Arcane VIII – Blasting Staff. Moved to Adept tier.
Arcane IX – Windborne Dagger. Moved to Adept tier. This trait will now function outside of combat.
The following changes were done to reduce the necessity of putting points into the Arcane trait line.
The base cooldown of the attunement that you just left is now reduced from 16 seconds to 13 seconds. Attunement cooldown rate now increases by 1% per point in Arcane down from 2%. The end result is that now Attunements go from 13s to 10s instead of the old range of 16s to 10s.
Base global attunement cooldown is now 1.625 seconds. Global attunement cooldown rate now decreases by 1% per point in Arcane down from 2%. The end result is that now global attunement cooldown goes from 1.625 to 1.25 instead of the old range of 2.0 to 1.25.

FrownyClown.8402:

We need traits that help us counter thieves if we want to go bursty. Thieves are the only thing discouraging s/d builds in wvw IMO.

Many, many posts have in-depth analysis’s of the current issues with the Elementalist. Anet doesn’t recognize them or take them into consideration. They have their own agenda.

So I stopped playing Gw2, because I’ve just been frustrated with how Anet decided to deal with my favorite profession. It looks like things haven’t changed, and Anet is now pigeon-holing the class into zerg-support. How long have people asked for RTL rebalance? Has Anet responded even once? Glad to see warriors are still getting all the love and attention Ele’s don’t have.

So now Elementalists can support really well. That’s cool and all, but how did this patch improve any of the existing issues with the Ele? Yes, the buffs for the conjures are nice, but until Anet buffs our base health/armor (surivivability), I don’t see anyone straying away from lightning flash, mistform, etc.

I still maintain the point that our we are forced into utilities to simply survive, not bunker or tank, just to last in a fight, and until Anet changes that, these conjure buffs won’t change anything.

No, the new mechanic is horrible.

The change was made with the intention of making Ele’s using it for gap-closing, not escaping. But guess what? As soon as an enemy sees the most telegraphed attack ingame coming towards them, they dodge, and bam, 40 second cooldown.

ThiBash.5634:

The first trait to pickup is Arcana 5. As for levelling, I found Glyph of (Lesser) Elemental very useful. The earth elementals in particular can tank extremely well (both in health and in attracting aggro), leaving you free to cast your spells.

EchenSketch.9142:

Delete and make an alt. Anet is pigeon-holing the class into a support class.

Don’t listen to him or people like him. Play what you enjoy, not what others tell you you should or shouldn’t enjoy.

Lol, only truly skilled? I’ve reached rank 300 in tPvP as a Burst Ele.

Delete and make an alt. Anet is pigeon-holing the class into a support class.

No, while some of what he said is true, Anet’s actions after that video certainly prove they have no clue what they’re doing.

How does removing our stun-breakers have anything to do with being forced into arcane and water traits? (Cleansing Flame, Lightning Flash).

We are not the jack of all trades. Anet hasn’t the slightest clue about how to balance us, and are pigeon-holing us into a support class, hence the recent notes about staff and conjures. Our dps has the potential to match a warriors, at the cost of 14k hp and less than 2k armor. As a bunker build, our dps is abysmal, and any good player can simply outheal our dps.

That video was made 2 months ago, and was to the response of the forums criticizing Anet for the changes to Ele’s in sPvP and WvW. Notice how he talks mainly about PvE, about stats we should be using, and not once steps into WvW or a sPvP match. Talk is cheap.

Zelyhn.8069:

Bloody hell my “support” deals more damage than warriors!

How is it having 14k hp and less than 2k armor?

Thank you for nerfing Elementalists to the ground and pigeon-holing them into a support role. That is all.

Just bring culling back and end this skill lag. I’d rather die to a well placed portal bomb than stand in a fight spamming my autoattack 50 times to land 1 hit.

1. 5 Ele’s : 1 D/D bunker to aggro, 4 Fresh Air Bursts
2. What’s the difference between having 5 Hammer, M/S warriors?

Anytime you’ll have players with high coordination, you’ll have a significant advantage.

Put those 5 ele’s vs 5 warrs/guadians, yeah good luck, D/D dps is kitten.

ARM.3912:

Daecollo.9578:

Ryld.1340:

Daecollo.9578:

Ryld.1340:

Daecollo.9578:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Static-Confusion-Build-testforme/first#post2846286

Try this build DOOM/GLOOMERs.

Perplexity does not exist in sPVP.
If you’re in WvW, you’d be more useful just staying in Staff.
Arcane Abatement can only be used near a ledge.
Perplexity only applies if you actually interrupt an action. Just stunning someone who runs through static field doesn’t apply Perplexity.

Perplexity is also pretty broken.

All interrupts apply Perp.

Only if they’re doing something when you interrupt them. Thus the term interrupt.

When is someone not doing something? Most people smash there face on the keyboard.

Only when they have picked up an ele conjure.

Hey man, Conjures are totally viable now, what’s mistform?

If you look at the Necro’s staff, it has a lot of support, but many offensive capabilities also. If you look at the Ranger’s shortbow, the majority of the damage is from auto-attacks, while the 2-5 skills are used for utilities.

I would be happy if they simply increased the damage from staff auto-attacks, as it’s kitten in its current state.

Now to conjured weapons, this has been said many times before, but as long as our inherit survivability is low (Lower than thief when they have more escape), people will be forced to take 1-2 Cantrips for the sake of surviving. Giving up one of those for a gimmicky weapon that removes 20 skills is simply not worth it.

Anet’s Jonathan Sharp released this, along with other patch preview notes.

“Elementalist
We’re working on the staff in an effort to make it a stronger support weapon, and we also improved the conjure weapons so that they’re stronger for support. You’ll see improvements to all 4 of the conjure weapons to make them stronger and better for support.
We also increased the healing on Water Blast, the radius on Geyser and we reworked
Unsteady Ground to make it function more like line of warding.”

So much for Jack of All Trades. I guess it IS easier to just pigeon-hole us into a support class, or the unofficial healer.

Anet’s Jonathan Sharp released this, along with other patch preview notes.

“Elementalist
We’re working on the staff in an effort to make it a stronger support weapon, and we also improved the conjure weapons so that they’re stronger for support. You’ll see improvements to all 4 of the conjure weapons to make them stronger and better for support.
We also increased the healing on Water Blast, the radius on Geyser and we reworked
Unsteady Ground to make it function more like line of warding.”

So much for Jack of All Trades. I guess it IS easier to just pigeon-hole us into a support class, or the unofficial healer.

ArenaNet is a great company, always listening to community feedback and taking balance changes into consideration when suggested.

As an main Elementalist since launch, I formally invite everyone, from all servers, to join the festivities that will occur on September 21, at Lion’s Arch in Jade Quarry, 9pm EST.

Players will express their appreciation by summoning their conjured weapons across the mystic forge, in the eyes Zommoros. Anet worked tirelessly to make conjure builds viable, and their effort will not go unnoticed. Lightning Hammers, Frostbows, and Fiery Greatswords will flood the streets of Lion’s Arch!

Spread the word! Join the celebration! 9PM EST JQ LA
#InsertSatiricalCommentHere

Hey, maybe it won’t be as successful as the Charr protest, but at least we can wait until a their next PAX Panel for them to tell us we’re a minority of the population (13%).

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Analyzing-inherent-elementalist-issues/first#post2839230

This thread, among the many hundreds, sums it up nicely.
Seriously, spread the word, I want this protest <3

ArenaNet is a great company, always listening to community feedback and taking balance changes into consideration when suggested.

As an main Elementalist since launch, I formally invite everyone, from all servers, to join the festivities that will occur on September 21, at Lion’s Arch in Jade Quarry, 9pm EST.

Players will express their appreciation by summoning their conjured weapons across the mystic forge, in the eyes Zommoros. Anet worked tirelessly to make conjure builds viable, and their effort will not go unnoticed. Lightning Hammers, Frostbows, and Fiery Greatswords will flood the streets of Lion’s Arch!

Spread the word! Join the celebration! 9PM EST JQ LA
#InsertSatiricalCommentHere

Hey, maybe it won’t be as successful as the Charr protest, but at least we can wait until their next PAX Panel for them to tell us we’re a minority of the population (13%).

Azunai.5974:

Man, I don’t see the point when you can do so much better on a keyboard…

this :P

renmei.3102:

I dunno, dodging out of the way and destroying the backline/chasing the tail sounds like a more useful counter. Scattering just makes little clumps that is easy for the melee pain train to run down and finish off.

The cookie cutter strategy is
1.Spread out
2. Dodge push
3. Hit tail
4. Repeat.

FirstBlood.7359:

In my opinion the ele is fine. It is a balanced class.

It’s not a balanced class when Ele’s fall out of the meta in sPvP. It’s not a balanced class when Top Tier servers only use Ele’s for support/CC. It’s not a balanced class when we’re forced into certain utilities just to survive.

Want more?

Apparently nothing in Anet’s eyes. Each patch, we either get nerfed, or other classes are buffed, in turn nerfing us indirectly.

DiogoSilva.7089:

I can’t believe people are whining about the leaked notes. Outside of a slight radius nerf to the two weakest elemental attunement’s effects (i.e. its protection-on-earth is still as incredibly strong as ever), the changes coming to elementalists are tasty.

I see people complaining here about how the elementalist’s healing power gets nerfed every patch, when the notes we’re discussing mentions buffs to staff’s and frost bow’s healing skills and heal scaling.

Really, some of you just want to complain for the sake of complaining. Lightning hammer elementalists are currently being used for dungeon runs. Staff elementalists are used in wvw. Bunker elementalists and air burst elementalists have been king in pvp for months, with two viable variations of air bursting (fresh air, or 20/20/30) and the only reason they’re currently not there is because of the current meta (s/d thief can steal all the boons of a bunker ele, and an air burst has a hard time dealing with condition-defensive builds and protection/ weakness spam).

This is all facts. But when somebody visits the elementalist boards, they would think otherwise. “Our profession is the worst thing ever! We’re the only ones that get nerfed while everyone else gets buffed! Mommy, we can’t take it anymore! It’s horrible!”

The leaked patch notes, which are probably incomplete (J. Sharp hinted at changes to conjure shield as well) are going to make bunker staff builds slightly more viable in pvp, greatly buff the utility and movement-advantage of lightning hammer (especially relevant for pvp/ wvw), and they will transform conjure flame axe into a might stacking machine. An elementalist will be able to get, from conjure flame axe alone, between 6 and 12 stacks of AOE might per ring of fire (assuming you have arcane wave and evasive arcana), plus anything else you can give to yourself through auto-attacking or the fire aura.

Your comment became irrelevant when you said a bunker ele was the king of PvP, lol.

Why…why would you block your name…

I feel like we’ll see 20 necros >.>

Leagues mean basically nothing. Nothing has really changed.

You cannot punish a server for having a higher population than another. Even a simple speed boost does that. The outnumbered buff is not the issue. Making WvW not a numbers game is the issue.

Speculated nerfs to Evasive Arcana and Elemental Attunement, and more buffs to conjured weapons that people won’t use because we’re still forced into specific utilities such as mistform, arcane blast, lightning flash, etc.

Yeah, they’re “leaked” notes, however, these leaks are usually true, and if so, just… disappointed, again.

IMO, roamers need mobility, and so, I recommend thief, ele, and warrior. Although, with the current state of the ele, I’d just go thief or warrior.

I, like many others, watched the PAX panel from twitch. I, like many others, was pretty dissapointed by the lag of GvG, WvW, and sPvP questions, thankfully, MattVisual got a chance to interview Colin, and asked questions from his fans.

I am in no way affiliated with Matt, just would like to get the word out. It’s a good interview

I mainly roam on my S/D Fresh Air Burst Ele in tPvP. So far, it’s served me well. However, I notice most teams tend to roll a thief instead of an Ele. Part of me understands, because being the squishiest class ingame with only 2 escape skills in a bit gimmicky. Thoughts?

Frosch.7809:

Ingame i met an NPC named Jhavi Jorasdottir today, apparently a descendant of Jora from GW1, i would like to hear more about her and her familiy history, but there just isn’t (i disliked that she only told me where to find the latrine in Vigil Keep – a bit more interaction would have been great). But new players will not even notice she exists at all – i guess the majority of players doesn’t care a lot about the lore, so why give more details…

There is not much of a difference imo between how lore was presented in GW1 and 2 – in the original GW game one often had to draw connections oneself, read between the lines, and interpret things for oneself, especially in the Prophecies campaign. Only when looking back onto what had happened and having a “bigger picture” did many pieces fall into place (it was somewhat better in Factions and Nightfall). When playing the game without having an eye onto the lore (or not caring about it) one could easily lose the feeling of continuity, and the campaign felt like it was pieced together from several storylines. So don’t expect GW1 to be more lore-friendly than GW2, just saying…

Neither is the lore presented in a worse way in GW2 than in the original game imo. I would like to be given more background information, ingame or through other sources, but i assume not that many people care about the lore that much, and the people at ANet have their hands full with plenty of things. I also assume that plenty of information is being held back, for later use. At least i hope so.

So why is GW2 so “lore-unfriendly” to new players? It’s kinda the same as in GW1, people interested in the lore have to look for it themselves, while most players don’t care much about it. It has improved, with 3 novels and short-stories like the recent one about Ceara. Also, for fans of the lore there can never be enough information i guess…

Looks like I’ll have to get the books then

LAD Infinitum.1675:

Evalana.5480:

I love this thread right now. Kyle! BPM! You are awesome.

Turns out this is really fun. I think all of my forum posts from here on out will be in the spirit of song-making.

Was thinking of how I could respond to you, but your name is kind of syllabically awkward … until a voice from the distant past popped into my head! “Heyyyy EVALANA”:

Evalana

(I am mabye trying to seduce you)
When she plays we call her Evalana
On BP we think that she’s buena
I’m so happy, that she’s with me
As I play Guild Wars 2 on my PC
Group with me, chat with me.
And if we click, I’ll show you my mini…
This here’s a song to thank a girl named Evalana.
She’s a boss, and you know that I think she is so buena.
This here’s a song to thank a girl named Evalana.
Hey Evalana!
(Ay!)
This here’s a song to thank a girl named Evalana.
She’s a boss, and you know that I think she is so buena.
This here’s a song to thank a girl named Evalana.
Hey Evalana!
(Ay!)
Now don’t you worry ‘bout the point spread
You know this match, it’s total loco.
(Ha!) They all zergin’, let’s stay in
Just please don’t laugh when I ha ha ha
Now come on, what was I supposed to do?
She was in her town clothes, and that ranger is so FINE.
This here’s a song to thank a girl named Evalana.
She’s a boss, and you know that I think she is so buena.
This here’s a song to thank a girl named Evalana.
Hey Evalana!
(Ay!)
This here’s a song to thank a girl named Evalana.
She’s a boss, and you know that I think she is so buena.
This here’s a song to thank a girl named Evalana.
Hey Evalana!
(Ay!)
(Ay! Ay!)
(Ay! Ay!)
(Ay! Ay!)
(I am maybe trying to seduce you)
(Ay!)
E-E-Evalana.
E-E-Evalana.
E-E-Evalana.
(Ay!)
E-E-Evalana.
E-E-Evalana.
E-E-Evalana.
Evalan, Evalan, Evalan, Evalana.
This here’s a song to thank a girl named Evalana.
She’s a boss, and you know that I think she is so buena.
This here’s a song to thank a girl named Evalana.
Hey Evalana!
(Ay!)
This here’s a song to thank a girl named Evalana.
She’s a boss, and you know that I think she is so buena.
This here’s a song to thank a girl named Evalana.
Hey Evalana!
(Ay!)
(Ay!)
Wish I could get, with that Evalana.
Even with stability my knees shake when I see ya.
Group with me, chat with me.
And if we click, then I’ll show you my mini…
This here’s a song to thank a girl named Evalana.
She’s a boss, and you know that I think she is so buena.
This here’s a song to thank a girl named Evalana.
Hey Evalana!
(Ay!)
etc…

oh…I got bored and decided to re read the posts….you got this song in my head…you ..monster….ah. Page 20 here we come >.>

BrianRonin.1673:

[insert guild name here] are dirty rotten cheaters, they use [unfounded cheat] and made my [objective] turn to paper. Everyone on [server] is allowing this to happen and are horrible poor skilled players.

I have [number of witnesses] who can vouch for how horrible you all are. Our server [server name] would never allow this to happen. Learn from us [random insult (noobs)]

(Provided template for flame war instigation in effort for page 20)

Couldn’t we all just start a reply train? I’ll go first! Weeeee….

No? You’re all a bunch of bums! Screw you [insert opposing server name], bunch of low-life zoom hacking karma trainers.

Rabble Rabble Rabble Rabble Rabble Rabble Rabble Rabble Rabble Rabble

Too many sounds to handle, so it just stops playing them. Try turning your sound quality down.

Has everyone seen the strawberries at NEC in the BL’s? We should all talk about how much we love that strawberry patch. It’s always a nice little present when I resupply there, and don’t even get me started on airline food.
(am i doing this right?)

Aeros.2046:

TheJewpacabro.2907:

EchenSketch.9142:

This is how I feel when reading this thread: http://imgur.com/gallery/gjhrO

Every server zergs, every server has karma trains, every server is outnumbered at times, you’re all pretty, so please, shut the kitten up. Let’s get back to smackin each other with swords.

SHH, we are so close to page 20, Just go back to being productive and let the PvF players work their magic.

Somebody should accuse an entire server in this match up of being zoom hack cheats. Should do the job.

Oh yeah, every server has zoom hacks, but I still love all of your pretty faces, so please, SHATAP

Having played every class in Gw2, stealth is a non-issue. L2P

Lenador.1436:

EchenSketch.9142:

We’re the Three Best Friends
That Anyone Could Have
We’re the Three Best Friends
That Anyone Could Have

We’re the Three Best Friends
That Anyone Could Have
And We’ll Never ever ever ever
Leave Each Other

<3

BP isnt contributing to this relationship enough for me give me something to work with T.T i wanna get to know you before we take the next step ^.^

You don’t believe in love at first sight? I’m hurt

LAD Infinitum.1675:

Evalana.5480:

I love this thread right now. Kyle! BPM! You are awesome.

Turns out this is really fun. I think all of my forum posts from here on out will be in the spirit of song-making.

Was thinking of how I could respond to you, but your name is kind of syllabically awkward … until a voice from the distant past popped into my head! “Heyyyy EVALANA”:

yada yada yada yada [insert bad song here ] etc…

Those rhymes make my ears bleed
You should go to rap school it’s what you need