Guild Wars 2

No, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Simply because that would make heart quests feel grindy and would be abused by loads of people. The lowbie zone events being farmed by high level characters already is a prime example of that. Just picture a couple of dozen players killing the very limited amounts of quest mobs, etc. I’d quit in a heartbeat if I had to contantly wait for respawns.

I do think it would be nice to have a form of ‘mentoring’ system. As in, you will gain experience/small monetary reward/loot bag/whatever for partying with a lower level player as they do their heart quests. This would allow higher level players to benefit from helping lower level players without unlocking abusable grind systems for solo grinders and generally kittening off people who genuinely want to level.

Paul.4081:

No matter what anyone says, there are for certain blessed and cursed accounts. I have a cursed one.

Saying it’s RNG is a cop out. If it was random it wouldn’t be so consistent now would it?

Actually, true randomness includes clusters. Therefor, this is actually a perfect example that proves the rule.

:D

With all due respect, the whole condition system is already a point of discussion. I wouldn’t want to see any new conditions added. There are already 12 to deal with (not inclusing CCs like daze/stun).

Use a first and last name instead of a single name. The chances that a combination is used is far smaller then a single name.

Personally, I’ve never understood why bleeds in this game work like they do. 25 stacks of bleeds? Why?

Why not a single stack per player that gets overridden by applying a new stack. You’d have to decide wether to overwrite the condition due to buffs, etc or risk applying a weaker version. It also does away with the, what I view as stupid gameplay, condition spamming gameplay. Instead you have to make a concious choice wether to (re)apply them or not.

To balance out the massive event zergs, you could place a stacking resistance buff on the mob that would diminish all (including direct damage) for every condition applied above 25. As in, if more then 25 players apply a bleed stack, the enemy builds resistance to damage inflicted.

No more useless conditions overriding better ones unless you make a personal mistake, but it wouldn’t affect other people’s DPS nearly as much. And the stacking debuff decreases damage across the board to prevent DD characters from still having a big advantage. Yet the large amount of conditions that would trigger such a debuff would still even out the relative damage done, because there’d be more conditions applied then currently possible.

Just thinking out loud here. I’m sure there’s a lot that I haven’t thought of. Just thought I’d give my 2c :P

I’ll give you the standard answer; play whichever style/weapons you prefer. Experiment with traits (respec costs are very low anyway. Yay!). For the warrior, I feel that for leveling there are no ‘bad’ options. Some weapon sets offer greater survivability, some more utility and others will make you a wargod incarnate in terms of damage.

Leveling in this game is extremely easy. As a warrior even moreso.

By experimenting for yourself, you will actually get to know the class intimately and this will ultimately lead to you becoming a better player than the guy/gal who uses builds other people made for him/her. When you get to 80 this way, you’ll most likely have a build in mind that suits your playstyle. If you’re still not sure by then, you can always ask again for an end-game build.

The leveling proces is there to prepare you for the stuff that happens at level 80. Love it, learn from it and reap the benefits when you become a veritable death god at max level.

Remember, far more often than not, a player will excel at the game when they play their own style which they enjoy. I’ve seen (and stomped) many warriors who use predictable cookie-cutter builds that they don’t fully understand or can’t use to the fullest. Hell, to be perfectly honest, I’ve copied a build once or twice and got my shiny kitten handed to my on a silver platter every time. In both PvE and PvP.

Good luck and have fun!

It’s basically the same as when you do open world PvE events in low level zones; You get less experience. I think it was 27% of a level if you do it on-level and about 17-18% of a level if you outlevel it by a fairly good margin.

But that 10% difference really isn’t anything to worry about. Just do one extra PvE event and you’re back on track.

Though, the gear rewards don’t scale AFAIK. But considering most of the gear rewards are relatively crappy compared to what you can get from the AH for very little money, that doesn’t matter one bit :P

Khisanth.2948:

Well they are trying to fix the whole ‘zerg is the answer to everything’. Whether they succeed is to be seen.

Great. I might stick around to see what they’ll do.

Thanks for your reply

Greetings,

After having spent most of my time in PvE content leveling different classes, I’ve started to dabble in WvWvW and sPvP. And so far, it’s one the lesser pvp systems in a triple A title that I’ve seen throughout my MMO career.

W3 essentially devolves into a zergfest. Not much else going on. That while the concept of this system is something I was actually looking forward to. So much wasted potential. The only way I can enjoy this part of the game is when i go at it solo. That way there’s an actual challenge involved and it actually feels like PvP instead of some glorified PvE monster gauntlet.

As for sPvP… Well, it’s good fun. But the maps are just too small and there is little in the way of rewards worth fighting for. The stick is there, but there’s no carrot attached. It boils down to being a fun little diversion, but little else.

Now don’t get me wrong, this post o’ mine might sound a bit whiny, but I am geniunely wondering if anything is going to be changed/improved/etc? Or is it just me and am I part of a minority that dislikes the way PvP is handled in GW2?

I ask this, because PvE endgame content is pretty much negligible and I really want to continue playing. But if this is all there is and no change in sight, I’m afraid I’ll be saying goodbye fairly soon.

P.S.; If you simply want to reply to my post because my opinion isn’t the same as yours without giving any contructive critisism… please just don’t click the reply button at all

Aluna Darklady.3165:

I have only read the OP so I don’t know what has all been said, but immediately, I thought I NEED to refer you to the guild I’m a member of, Legion of Honour. Check out our thread here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/OPERATION-UNION-Bringing-Players-Together/first

We are VERY casual, laid back guild. Sometimes people don’t log in for days, weeks, months; there is no repping requirements. But there are enough of us regulars that there is usually always someone to run something with. Very friendly people and atmosphere. It is my opinion that you should be able to find what you are looking for.

Will definately be taking a look

I probably would not want to run with a level 40 in AC if I as looking for a speed run, tbh.

I completely understand this. But back when I played, I was routinely kicked right after joining for being low level without so much as a word. And they did not advertise their run as being a speed run or max level only. If that were the case, I wouldn’t have tried to join the run to begin with.

Basically, no one can tell you what to do, but you really aren’t going to know unless you log back in. I think that overall, the community in GW2 is very friendly and helpful and I just ignore the leetists. Good luck!!

Well, this thread did help me decide to give it another whirl.

Greetings,

I’ve stopped playing Guild Wars for quite some time now and I was wondering if it’s worth coming back. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love the game itself. Hence the reason I’m asking the question. But the reason I quit was due to the horrendous experiences I’ve had with the in-game community. Stuff like getting kicked out of a level 35 dungeon repeatedly for being… OMG! level 40! And that while they never even stated they were looking for max lvl players only. I think I’ve managed to get into one party for a dungeon during my entire /played time (before max lvl). That party was full of ‘lowbies’, and we still kicked kitten and completed the dungeon smoothly.

Or getting harrassed in PvE when playing solo for the sole reason of playing a class someone happens to ‘hate’ like a Thief. It didn’t happen often, but still…

In the end, I found myself soloing the bog-standard PvE content to max lvl, because I had too many unpleasant to downright horrible experiences with groups in the game. And to be perfectly honest, I tend to quickly lose interest in an MMO when I start playing it like a glorified single player RPG.

And I know, finding a guild would be a good thing. But I play the game very casually due to pretty harsh time-constraints and I hate being dead weight in a guild by playing only a few times each week. And besides that, I’ve yet to find a good guild that accepts such very casual players like me and not be virtually empty every time I log on because everyone in the guild plays as sparsely as I do. :P

Back to my original question; Is it worth getting back into the game and starting over? Or has the ‘elistist’ attitude persisted or even grown (not talking about PvP, because I have long since accepted that this side of any MMO usually devolves into peen-measuring constests anyway)?

Thank you in advance for any input you guys can give me!

The warrior has 2 ranged weapon; Rifle and Longbow. Both are very powerful. The Rifle is single-target and allows you to kite pretty much any melee mob that can be slowed and the Longbow is more AoE/condition based.

Personally, I pick a Rifle because I either run with a Greatsword or Axe/Axe in general PvE. Both of which have heavy AoE options by themselves.

http://imgur.com/a/6AxpH#0 (not mine, I take no credit for this)

Hope it helps a bit

Lithos.9560:

Basically I want a profession that can deal out some super good damage, and also as excellent survivalibility.

Warrior: Massive damage, great support (if specced for it) & good survivability.
Guardian: Good damage (if specced for it), great support & massive survivability.

Right now, I’d pick a warrior if I had to choose between those two. Simply because the Guardian is much more limited in it’s options. If you want to de good damage, you actually have to spec for it. Whereas a warrior has massive damage built-in by default and you just have to decide what else you want to spec for. Oh, and the warrior has access to amazing ranged options. Whereas the Guardian just plain sucks at range.

This is just my opinion though.

Pinder.5261:

7. Thief (Shortbow & Venoms)

D/D condition thief should be #1 in my opinion. The amount of bleed AoE from Caltrops + Death Blossom is crazy. Though that in itself isn’t going to bring it to the #1 spot. The thing that trumps the elementalist in my opinion, is the fact that you have so much more control over your enemies and the battlefield. This in turn makes it a very high survivability set-up, because you will rarely even get hit.

I’m talking PvE here, though.

That being said, I find my Elementalist more entertaining due to the mechanics of the profession and the sheer flashyness of the skills. Also, it’s a lot more satisfying to kill stuff on an elementalist than a thief. Simply because my D/D condition thief almost feels like cheating in PvE.

Eh, PvE poses what kind of threat? I’m solo’d loads of champions and abnormally large groups of regular mobs as a D/D condition thief during my levelling period. Granted, that only started after I got Caltrops and Roll for Initiative. But that should be really fast.

Death Blossom + Caltrops = PvE lulz.

Caltrops doesn’t seem to suffer from the 5-target AoE limit, so you can kite massive amounts of mobs across it. Combine it with the evade from Death Blossom and it’s truly lolworthy how easy it is. Instant 10-15 bleed stacks on everything in sight. Low on intiative? Roll for Initiative! And just death blossom away again. Now either the mobs are (nearly) dead or Caltrops is off colldown.

And the higher you get, the easier it gets. After ~level 30, you should pretty much have everything you need. Anything you get after that is just an awesomeberry on top of the awesomecake.

But it is true that the thief suffers a lot harder from getting hit than most other classes. This is why you shouldn’t get hit as a thief. Melee mobs, regardless whether it is a regular, veteran or champion, rarely even hit me anymore.

So yeah, it takes a bit more practice than for example a ranger or a warrior to play. But in the end, the D/D Thief can be so much more powerful then either in PvE. Simply because the damage intake should be very low to non-existant.

That being said, it doesn’t hurt to stack some vit/toughness for those pesky ranged mobs or when you do get into trouble somehow. During my levelling process, I generally went Precision (or power but thats rare during the levelling process)/Condition Damage on my 6 gear slots + 2 accesory slots and Vit/Tough stacking on the remaining 4 accesory slots.

As a side-note; The Thief is the only class I can reliably kill the wintersday mobs from the mysterious presents regardless of the type of mob it spawns. All my other classes can kill the Skritt, but the rest are a pain in the…

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/10ilke/how_sigils_work/

That article was very helpful to me when I needed it.

These seem to work fine in conjunction with all other types of sigil. However, it is mostly pointless to use two of these as you can only have stacks of one type at any given time. If you use two of the same stacking sigil, you do get two stacks of the same type on every kill, though.

So to summarize;

2x stacking sigil of different stats = useless.
2x stacking sigil of the same stat = faster stacking but not double the effect (still max. 25).

If the filter weren’t implemented, sooooo many people would’ve been banned from this forum.

The ‘Tab’ button usually selects the closest enemy in front of you. And I say usually, because it’s not perfect either. But it works most of the time. Targetting in GW2 has always been wonky from what I’ve experienced.

That being said, if it’s an event where mobs spawn, auto-targetting by using skills automatically skips them while they are invulnerable (spawned mobs are usually invulnerable for a short period of time after they spawn).

Also, auto-targetting only seems to work on enemies in a cone in front of you. If you are running away and use skills, it won’t automatically target the mobs chasing you even if they are a lot closer.

Personally, I disabled targeting assist. If I use a skill, it just fires off in the direction I’m facing when I don’t have a target selected. Works wonders for escape skills such as the Elementalists Ride The Lightning and movement-based AoE skills such as the Thief’s Death Blossom (allows you to more easily target the area which is covered instead of always leaping towards your target).

Hope this helps

People comparing Elementalists to other classes (or compare any class with another), clearly haven’t played both classes.

The reason people tend to make comparisons a lot in this game, is because out of all the MMOs I have played, Guild Wars 2 has got to be the most balanced one yet (at level 80 anyway). Each class brings something unique to the game, yet any class can be pretty much as effective as the next. Yes, ofcourse there are slight differences. Perfect game balance in an MMO is something that simply doesn’t exist in a game with multiple classes and different mechanics.

And no, I’m not talking about pure damage comparison. It’s pretty obvious that certain classes have a higher burst capacity than others. But where one class lacks the high burst of say a thief, another class makes up the difference with heavy support and defensive abilities. Where one class is most effective at range, the other is most effective in melee. Where one class has high sustained direct damage potential, the other can throw around DoTs like no tomorrow.

To be perfectly honest, when people start comparing two classes with one another, I can’t help but laugh at the futility of it all. Especially when it’s painfully obvious that more often than not, they only know the mechanics and playstyle of one of the classes they are talking about.

For example, I know very little about Necromancers since my highest Necro was somewhere around lvl 35. As such, I’m not going to moan about a Necro when (s)he kills me while I’m on my Ele, because I simply don’t know enough about the class to compare it against my Ele character.

The sad thing is, developers tend to listen to the extremely vocal trollish behaviour.

There is this slight issue with the extreme use of the Norn racial elite skill. This makes it less of a build and more of a complete character plan. Without the Norn elite, the build loses a lot of it’s effectiveness in terms of ambush potential and survivability.

I tried a variation on your build myself.

30/10/10/0/20 while wielding dual daggers.

Start in lightning -> RTL -> Shocking Aura -> Updraft -> Fire attunement -> Burning Speed -> RoF -> All Arcane Skills -> Fire Grab -> Earth attunement -> Earthquake -> Churning Earth -> Water Attunement -> Frost Aura -> dodge/heal a bit -> repeat (without arcane skills)

You lose the +30% damage from Air on downed/stunned enemies. But you gain 20% recharge on arcane skills and attunements, allowing for much faster cycling. On top of that, you’ll be stacking attunment bonuses, aura boons, area might combos and self-healing.

Your build is pretty much a one-shot in small scale 1v1/1v2 PvP with a gigantic cooldown and little other synergy and very little in the way of defense. And you provide next to nothing to any allies near you. I don’t like only being really effective in very specific situations and only for a very short amount of time with a long cooldown in between.

But in the end, I also got bored of my version. I seem to be swapping builds a lot to keep things fresh :P

I constantly see people saying that Elementalists have low survivability at lower levels. I didn’t remember any such thing on my Ele. I burned, no pun intended, through low level content faster than I could with virtually any other class except my warrior alt (since greatsword is a one-hit kill weapon untill about lvl 40).

What I did see is that many lowbie elementalists seem to think that facetanking is a good way to play an elementalist. It is definately not. You have to dodge, strafe, control and evade like your life depends on it. And it does. And when you get the hang of it, you will barely even get hit. Let alone die.

Awesome! Amazing work!

No. Just no. The Elementalist is not a pet class. Giving the Elementalist a permanent pet on top of our already massive arsenal would just be too OP. The sheer amount self-comboing alone would make it massively overpowered. I mean, scepter/dagger can easily stack near permanent ~15 might without breaking a sweat and without utility skills. Now you have a pet with 15 might stacks next to yourself with 15 might stacks. And that is besides spamming all 20 elementalist skills from a safe range instead of actively involving yourself in combat, switching attunements when needed, controlling enemies, dodging, etc. Y’know, the core mechanics of the class.

Regardless of personal DPS nerfing while having a pet out, the Elementalist just has too many ways to abuse a permanent pet ability.

The only way it might be remotely feasible is if the elementalist would be locked into the attunement of the pet’s element.

But no. Just no. If I want a pet, I’ll play my Ranger alt. And I know this might sound harsh, but if you can’t survive or don’t like/can’t cope with elementalist gameplay mechanics as it stands, it’s simply not the class for you (and there’s nothing wrong with that).

My feline companion is usually called ‘Juvenile Delinquent’. Exactly the max amount of characters allowed.

Erickmwc.9135:

Hello, I know that each professions have pros and cons, but I started with a warrior(now lvl 10) and I think he is dying easily, so I’ll start with a new class and want your opinions:
Who would you choose between: (and if possible, why)
-Necromancer
-Mesmer
-Ranger (just they can summon animals?)
-Elementalist

From the above, the Ranger is by far the easiest profession to start with. You get a starter pet and can tame animals (by ‘talking’ to animals/creatures that have the word ‘Juvenile’ in front of them). You can have 2 pets at any time which you can switch out whenever you need. Your pet is your personal tank while you can stay at range.

I highly suggest getting 2 bears if you’re just starting out. Nothing will be able to kill you up untill you start encountering the Risen (undead enemies), because they ignore your pet mostly and you’ll have to dodge/etc. Eventually you can switch to more squishy but higher damage pets when you get used to the class.

I would advise against rolling an Elementalist or a Mesmer if you’re not that familiar with the game or the genre, because those professions require a lot of work and/or time to get used to. An Elementalist is very squishy and will die a lot faster than a warrior ever will. You’ll be forced to kite enemies, use skill combos and get used to using all 20 attunement skills to get the most of the profession. But when you do get a hang of it, it’s very very very fun to play.

A Mesmer is a great class, but tends to feel fairly weak untill about level 40-45 or so. After that, it’s a very strong class. But it’s special class mechanic will require you to adapt quite a bit from ‘normal’ profession styles. For this class goes the same as an Elementalist; when you do get a hang of it, it’s very very very fun to play. It might just take some time.

A Necromancer is a good caster class to start with if you really want a caster class. This is because you can transform into something else and you get an entire second life bar. But it’s still harder to play than a Warrior or Ranger because you’ll mostly kill with condition damage and will have to kite a lot.

To be honest, if you’re new, I’d highly suggest a Ranger even if you’re just going to stop playing that profession. You’ll get to know the game before jumping into other classes. You can always choose to create an alt and play more than 1 profession.

Also, regardless of the profession you pick, learn to dodge attacks! It’s the most important thing in this game and every single profession has to do it if they wish to live. If you see an enemy charging an attack or if you’ve fought it before, double tap any direction key to roll away and dodge the attack. Once you get the hang of this, life will become a lot easier!

And just as a final word of advice; Don’t get discouraged when you die a few times! I know I did when I first started playing. Every profession has it’s weak spots and will die from time to time. Anyone who says otherwise, is lying.

If you have a bit of knowledge about computer parts or know someone who does, build it yourself. That way you’ll spend a lot less money for the same result. Pre-built computers are overpriced to a point where I honestly have to /facepalm hard and use weird components. Like a stock cooler instead of a £15 decent one and 16GB RAM (hint: for a gaming rig you don’t need 16GB. At all. Ever. 8GB max and even that is just to be on the safe side if you tend to run everything simultaniously). And that’s not even going into motherboards, GFX cards and the like.

The rigs you linked are by no means bad. Just overpriced and stocked with typical marketing components that don’t benefit you at all.

Also note that with online gaming, slowed FPS doesn’t always mean that your computer is at fault. There’s server lag, client-side connection lag, shoddy ISPs, etc etc. That being said, either of the options you posted should be able to handle anything GW2 throws at you and then some.

In summary; Give £1000 to someone who knows what (s)he’s doing, and you’ll get a rig that’ll blow your mind for the next 4 years (if purely built for current-gen games such as GW2, you’ll need a lot less money :P).

Out of all the races, both Asura and Charr are two options I just can’t pick. Tried both and dumped them about 3 levels in. They are simply too ugly, too small, too big or a combination of the above. And I find my character’s aesthetics to be very important in this game.

So, no. I don’t find them ‘better’.

Hm, that’s weird because I haven’t farmed mats once while levelling. And I was still able to easily craft everything I needed every 5 levels (or 10 for the rares). And don’t forget that gathering also gives experience.

Though, the best part about gathering for me has been the fact that I seemed to be very lucky on herb nodes. I kept getting unidentified dyes from those. =D

Oooh, gifts! I like gifts!

*character name: Alexzandra Thorne
*request of how you want your character to be: 3/4 view, holding the staff while casting something fiery. The casting part would be awesome but is optional (well, everything is optional since you’re doing it for free, but you get what I mean :P)
*references: Front, Side 1, Side 2, Back.

I’m very excited to see what the result will be. I might actually order a sketch or an ink for another character later on, since I really like what I see on your DA portfolio! =D

Craft everything every 5 levels. As long as you gather every node you see, you should have more than enough mats to do this. You don’t have to ‘farm’ mats either. Just gather what you see while levelling. Just pick up the craft for the armor you need and jewelcrafting, since this covers everything besides weapons. You can even pick up your weapon crafting skill as well and just switch out whenever you need to level the other (thats what I did, since the cost for switching crafting proffs is way lower then buying stuff and you get some major extra experience in the process).

Personally, I only got karma gear when I found the skin to be particularly attractive, wear it and save it when I don’t need it anymore for possible future transmutes. Their value stat-wise, is virtually identical to what you can craft. Especially at your level.

Agreed. The final part is just rubbish. I completed it on 1 character because virtually everyone was at that stage in the game. And even then I loathed the fact that I had to group up to complete my personal story, which I had fought through for 80 levels solo.

On my alts, I don’t even bother anymore. It’s too much of a pain for a completely rubbish mission story-wise. At the end, I was like ‘Oooohkay… This can’t be it, right? Right!? RIGHT!? Please, somebody say ‘This was merely a setback’ or something! Please!’.

If I were a new player that didn’t start at launch, I probably would’ve stopped playing altogether because of this issue. The personal story feature was one of the biggest draws for me to stop playing my other MMOs and focus on GW.

So yeah, I hate it. With a vengeance. Probably the biggest letdown I’ve had in an MMO since World of Dailies: Mists of the Daily Grind™.

Haha, I did the exact same thing last night, but I pm’d Fsnowzombie instead. The drawings are amazing!

That being said, I like your coloring style better then my own (see attachment). Mind telling me what tools/programs you used? I usually use my tablet + photoshop, but my tablet is broken. I found it to be a lot harder using just my mouse…

D/D is awesome in PvE. But you do have to keep in mind that an Elementalist in melee range wil always be squishy. You should never be face-tanking a mob. Ever. To aid this, I very much suggest respeccing to a 0/10/0/0/10 spec and pick up the Zephyr’s Boon (Air) and Elemental Attunement (Arcane) traits. This will give you the ability to achieve near permanent swiftness and fury uptime, allowing you to position yourself at your own will during combat by by following the frost aura -> Air Attunement -> Ring of Fire + dodge backwards -> Magnetic grasp (creates fire aura combo). In between use your DPS/control skills.

I usually start a fight with Burning Speed + Arcane Wave + Fire Grab for a seriously hard-hitting opener that also happens to be a nice combo. If the mob isn’t dead after your usual attunement rotation, you can always run away with swiftness or Burning Speed, charge up Churning Earth and use Lightning Flash to teleport right into your enemy to deliver the final blow.

Coupled with an elemental pet, I actually kill stuff easier on my elementalist than my warrior. I certainly die less thanks to some amazing escape options and mobility.

On top of that, always turn off Combat Target Assist (or something like that) in the options. That way you can deselect your target, hit Ride The Lightning and zip off into the distance. This will pretty much keep you alive whenever you get in over your head (seriously, I haven’t died once in general PvE thanks to this amazing escape skill after turning off this option).

Or if you really can’t make D/D work for you, switch to S/D temporarily for a safer (ranged) option with more control abilities instead of straight up DPS.

These character drawings are amazing. Seeing as you’ve already got a long queue going on here, I won’t add my request. But I certainly will be watching the results of your work!

I think you can generally divide the good and bad points about this class as follows;

The Good:

• The most versatile class bar none.
• The most involved class together with the Engineer (due to both having a bazillion different abilities).
• Mastering this class pretty much means you can easily master any other class in the game without breaking a sweat.
• Not boring.
• Complex class (though can be both bad or good depending on the player).

The Bad:

• Low solo survivability untill you get to know the class mechanics intimately.
• Long cast times make certain weapons unwieldy when soloing, thus limiting your options.
• Complex class (though can be both bad or good depending on the player).

The Ugly:

• In PvP, you are probably going te end up as shish kabob more often than not in it’s current state (unless, again, you put in a lot of effort to learn the class PvP-wise).

Note that I don’t like to use the phrase ’it’s a fun class’ or anything similar. This is because that’s something subjective and can and will differ for each individual person. As such, I don’t feel like you can actually compare classes to determine the ‘fun-factor’. Unless a player only finds the theorycrafted numbers ‘fun’, ofcourse.

Personally, I enjoy pretty much every class except for the necro (due to me not finding condition-based damage classes interesting at all). I really don’t look at ‘which class is better’, but more along the lines of ‘Does this class have a unique gameplay experience’. And so far, pretty much every class has satisfied me in that department. Kudos, ANet!

That all being said, it is technically true that the Elementalist is somewhat weaker than other classes in the game. Especially when you look at the effort : reward ratio. The elementalist requires you to put in a lot more effort to succesfully play the class. At least, in the beginning. But luckily, the AI in this game is about as smart as a dead cow that has been lit on fire. You’ll get ample opportunity to practice. And when you do get this class down, it is immensely satisfying.

The above goes for PvE, but moreso for PvP. It requires even more practice to perfect due to the fact that players are less stupid than AI-controlled mobs (although, with certain people, this is still a point up for debate :P). But once again, if you put in this big of an effort, the reward will be equally great. Just take a look at some of the Dagger/Dagger Elementalist PvP videos. Some of those are, bar none, the most awesome PvP videos I’ve seen about GW2. Everyone can set up a gigantic backstab/100b/etc/etc. But when you see a lone D/D elementalist completely owning a roaming thief and warrior in 1v2 by perfectly executing skill combos, knowing when to run and when to fight and using the class skills to perfect strategies, it’s simply beautiful.

TLDR; If you’re willing to put in the effort, this class is extremely rewarding. If you simply wish to see high numbers, another class might suit you better (and that is not a bad thing!).