Guild Wars 2

How bout a game mode in which guilds can play competitively against each other?
(first post)

This thread’s purpose is to determine all of the current issues with the Elementalist class. Once all of the issues are clearly laid out, we will begin to approach possible changes to our class which directly counter these problems.

This thread will reference many “ELEtism” posts which are located in the Elementalist forums. Conclusions derived from those posts will be summarized in this main thread to help maintain a fluid experience.

I will keep this thread updated with a collaborated response area which will summarize all of points we discuss in this thread and multiple other ELEtism posts.

Collaborated Response: Current Problems with the Elementalist

There are multiple problems with Elementalist.

1. Survivability
Since Elementalist lack basic survivability mechanics (like stealth, mobility, clones, or damage mitigation (armor), we are forced to shape our builds around surviving so that we can actually contribute to a team. If Elementalists do not trait themselves for support and survivability they can be locked down, focused and killed within a matter of seconds before they are even able to make a difference to the team.

Elementalist are pigeon-holed into points in Water and Arcana which make it very difficult for Elementalists to extend to other trait lines. They are also “forced” into running Cantrips which locks out the use of other utilities.

Discuss Lack of Survivability in more specifics here: ELEtism Discussion #2: Ele Survivability

2. Unusable Trait-Lines

There are so many traits which are just plain bad. There are very few traits which I would take into a tournament. Picking traits should be a challenge for the user; it should be a very difficult decision and should make users value each trait that they choose. This is not currently the case, most of the traits I have gone over have not seen any use since launch.

The lack of useful traits is another reason why Elementalists stick to the defensive trait-lines; they synergize well to create the best possible build and that there is nothing else to take which will be as effective as the defensive trait-lines.

The Fire Magic tree does not synergize with anything; it probably has the worst traits out of all of the other trait lines. This tree needs the most work.

3. Unusable Utilities
The only incredibly useful utilities are Cantrips. They are effective in keeping the Elementalist alive. They are almost necessary because they cover the Elementalist’s vulnerabilities. Even though Cantrips are helpful, they are on a HUGE cooldown; other classes have skills which do all of what Cantrips do but better on a SHORTER cooldown.

Glyphs and Signets don’t have very much utility at all. These two need major revamping,;
none of these are worth giving up a Cantrip for because for every Cantrip that an Elementalist does not take, they make themselves a LOT squishier.
(I’m gonna come back and add more information about Glyphs and Signets later)

The lack of effective utilities make Elementalists fall back on the Cantrips which are a sure thing and are effective. The Cantrips also synergize well with all builds.

Discuss all of the utilities in more specifics here: ELEtism Discussion #2: Elementalist Utilities

In order to push us out of these traits/utilities, they have been nerfed terribly but since Elementalists have no other useful traits/utilities to fall back on so they need to stick to playing with the nerfed stuff.

4. Elementalist Class Mechanic – Attunement Swapping
Does this act more obstructive than beneficial?
(More on this later)

To help think keep the conversation going, try answering these questions:

What are some weaknesses that Elementalist have internally?

What are some bad traits? (Useless/Buggy)

What are some bad skills skills? (Useless/Buggy)

Join the ELEtism Community

Evolution has played it’s part in Tyria. The weak have been weeded out and those who could not handle the style of play have left; only the strong remain.

It should be a point of pride for those elementalists who still practice their magicks in these harsh times filled with deathly condition spamming necromancers and rampaging warriors while also being regularly smitten by the unseen gods above (ANet).
It should be known that those elementalists who still delve into the arcane and go toe to toe with the other classes have to play on a whole other plane just to match levels with them.
This being so, let it be so that being an elementalist makes you better than everyone else.

If you are a proud elementalist, put this in your signature.
#ELEtism

PS: I have set up the E L Etism[ELE] guild and I plan to use it for productive elementalist business in the near future. Whisper “Gasmic” for a guild invite. (More info on this to come in a later thread.)

P.S.S: This was mostly meant as a joke and in no way is meant to be taken seriously, though it does touch base with a little truth

People like you are the reason that companies like ANet cannot be transparent about what they’d like to do.

On one end people are yelling at them to tell them their future plans. On the other hand there are people like you QQing about not meeting the standards that they set for themselves EVEN THOUGH they had stated that these timelines are not set in stone.

It seems like ANet has made great strides over the course of this year and has met most of their benchmarks. They still have 2 months to come to terms with even more of them and my faith in the ANet team is strong.

It’s not that elementalists are OP…
It’s just that all elementalists are better players than you.

#ELEtism

Gorni.1764:

Mash Hog.5672:

Change the icons to small dots of the opponent team’s color. (Much like in WvW)
It would be nice knowing what class the opponent is, but there is already a LOT of clutter on the mini-map.

This way you can make a dot for each mesmer clone.

One thing is for sure though, if you want to keep the icons, you need to make them a LOT smaller.

this sounds reasonable but it would be misleading when you see 3+ dots on a point and think that there are 3 players but in fact it’s only one mesmer.

I thought of that, maybe we can have miniaturized dots with each color being a different class.
Purple: Mesmer
Blue: Guard
Green: Necro
Brown: Ranger
Ect…

This way we can have multiple purple dots for mesmers and clones and still not have them get mixed up with other classes.

All is Vain

If you actually look at how retaliation damage is determined, you would see that the damage is determined is based on the power a character has.
Therefore someone with a super bunker build with little or no power would also in turn do low amount of retaliation damage.

Remove all rank points that a player has.
Add rank based on hotjoin plays/wins, solo tournament plays/wins, team tournament/wins based on the current formula.

Retroactively reward all of the hotjoin matches that ended normally and ignore all of the ones that ended due to a /command.

This way you can reward “loyal” players while still shutting down Skyhammer farmers.

The majority of players will get a nice boost in glory from this and the only people who will end up with less rank points will be the ones who abused the farming rooms.

If you don’t have that kind of data, award rank points for only those hotjoins which were not private servers. This will still give most people a boost in their rank so they cant complain while shutting down those who rank farmed.

When I was a kid and I got bad grades, my mom would frame my report card in my room and I was only able to take it down when I brought good grades again.

This is ANet’s bad report card and Anet needs to sticky this thread until they fix the ridiculous state of PvP in this game.

Change the icons to small dots of the opponent team’s color. (Much like in WvW)
It would be nice knowing what class the opponent is, but there is already a LOT of clutter on the mini-map.

This way you can make a dot for each mesmer clone.

One thing is for sure though, if you want to keep the icons, you need to make them a LOT smaller.

As of right now I have 943.

It is a pain having a system which has you take up multiple inventory slots to store the many different kinds of tokens that A-net has provided us with. I would be much better content with a kind of “Merit” system in which whenever you get are supposed to get tokens you instead get “X- amount of merit” towards the current group of people you’re working to help in the dungeon. The NPC’s in Lion’s Arch would allow you to purchase using these merits (which are account bound and internal). It would be a much more reasonable method than trading 100’s of Eyes of Zhaitan.

For the case of recipes requiring certain amounts of tokens, you can just make replace those tokens replaceable with an item which you can buy from the NPC for the same amount of tokens, much like those bought with 500 Fractal Relics.

silvershadez.8421:

Mash Hog.5672:

The lack of survivability pidgeon-holes Elementalist into points in Water and Arcana which make it very difficult for Elementalists to expand their traitlines.
The lack of survivability also pidgeon-holes Elementalists to run cantrips which makes it difficult for them to use other utilities.

The fun part is in my current tPvP build I have 0 points in water and 10 in arcane. I kinda agree that alot of our traits don’t make any sense at all and a rework is not debatable. But I don’t share the oppinion that we have to rely on arcane and water traits. The current change with reduced attunements helped me alot btw.

I also don’t use /rarely use any cantrip at all. Most of them are no stun breakers anymore, which reduced their use for me ALOT.

My current build runs 10 in water and 30 in Arcana.
This build requires triple cantrips.

In order to make an effective, well balanced, build which doesn’t fall over and die, thus being liability to your team, survivability is a requirement.

My WvW build has nothing in Water and 10 in Arcana… but this build is very gimmicky and is very situational.

Nice job, but you’ve only played 60 Solo Queue matches.

We all know how RNG solo queue is; solo queue ranking means squat.

This doesn’t prove anything.

Keep representing though, you have my support!

This is ridiculous.

15 Charrs.

We used to hold “Hide-and Seek” events with the guild in which everyone would find a hiding space and then we would start with one seeker and everyone who would get caught would also become a seeker.

For a few extra points you can have Miley Cyrus riding on it:
+500 damage to keeps and towers

Does anyone have any thoughts as to what we can do to help out the elementalist community?

I wont mind hosting different Elementalist workshops to help teach new elementalists.
Any other thoughts?

It looks cool!
It would be nice to have an option for this for videos and such but this would not/could not be used for serious game play which is why I doubt they’ll implement this.

You have 4 elements to switch between for your different needs and when situations get a little bit too awry you can always conjure. (I’ve never needed to conjure ever in my 1k+ hours of being an ele except for certain dungeons).

Other classes have to make do with a lot less than we do.
I consider ele’s the most versatile class in the game.

I think roaming the open world needs to be harder.
Significantly increase waypoint costs, make mobs spawn and hit harder.
Make it so that to get around the world you need a half decent party.

Make it that much harder, but that much rewarding!

Well, one of the things I plan on using the ELEtism guild is for theorycrafting and finding working builds. One of the things we lack as elementalists is a solid community and I honestly hope that we can change that.
There might be some awesome builds out there no one has figured out yet because we can’t get the community together to get it together.

Wintel.4873:

I wouldn’t be surprised if “All is vain” was found scribbled on one of the rocks/walls in one of the PvP maps in a future patch :P

This.
ANet needs to accept the current state of the game.
It might make players feel a little better about it if the devs would be able to laugh at the broken state of the game with the rest of the players and work to make it better instead of putting up a facade that everything is nice and peachy.

If Ride the Lightning is Nerfed I also encourage you guys to look at the other strategies that other classes use to move the orb faster and to get the orb off the pedestal.

I am sure that a couple of leap skills are not affected by having the orb at all.
There are many rangers who are able to run the orb a lot faster than the elementalists.
Engineers also have a couple of skills which allow them to cap the points extremely fast.

Another thing I have noticed which no one has mentioned is the fact that there are skills which allow people to pick up the orb while being under fire.

The Mesmer can use distortion shatter to pick up the orb while still being hit.
The Guardian has a skill which blocks attacks which ensures that they are the ones who get them. That skill with the bunkering skills of a guardian makes it quite game changing.

I’m sure there are many other skills which are like this and I do not know if they are like this by design or as an oversight but I would like to see a response to these strategies and A-net’s stance on them.

Took 105 people on TS.
We had 2 minutes left on the timer.

Took 4 attempts!

Good job and congratulations Dragonbrand!

Randulf.7614:

A true Living World needs a living environment.

A true Living World needs a living environment.

It hurts so good!

If you’re going to stand under a bunch of flaming meteors don’t you deserve to die?
Taking away the aoe limit reintroduces situational awareness to WvW and may lead to smarter, more competetive WvW.

I personally love the ideas of Guild Halls.
I’m the leader of a very active guild and I would love to see these implemented.

We are the most active PvP guilds in NA, please do not leave us out when you add Guild Halls to the game.
What I am saying is, when Guild Halls are added to the game, please implement the system in a way in which PvPers will not have to PvE to help create it.

“Maybe have a reward track to collect resources to contribute towards building the guild hall”.

I thought it was the fox from the FireFox logo.

This has more views than all of the stickies combined.

It seems like there are currently three issues with the Ele.

Lack of survivability, lack of effective trait-lines, and lack of effective skills.

The lack of survivability pidgeon-holes Elementalist into points in Water and Arcana which make it very difficult for Elementalists to expand their traitlines.
The lack of survivability also pidgeon-holes Elementalists to run cantrips which makes it difficult for them to use other utilities.

That, coupled with the less than stellar trait-lines and terrible utility skills that the Elementalist have been given make it so that the most efficient use of the Elementalist requires points in water and cantrips.

In order to push us out of these traits/utilities, they have been nerfed terribly but since Elementalists have no other useful traits/utilities to fall back on so they need to stick to playing with the nerfed stuff.

This is not the rule 100% of the time but this is the underlying issue.

Glenstorm.4059:

I wish I could spectate this

I will see if I can get this recorded/streamed.

That would be great! :P

Bump.

Fox only.
No Items.

Final Destination.
Go!

I think it is a great idea to use Fractals to tell the history of Tyria!

I love playing Ele,
I have 3.8k hours on my Elementalist and 4k hours in the whole game.

I tried playing other classes… I always got bored.

Singlemalt.4021:

good job on pick the lowest population server DR….

“Lowest Population Server”

You had 40 people taking Stargrove to the north and 40 people taking Green Tower to the south.
AT THE SAME TIME

I’m pretty sure you had no problem fielding enough members in your borderlands tonight.

Oh and lets not forget to mention the “Lowest population server” was green when we came into this tier and was second place last match up.

That is why GASM decided to show up to your borderlands!

Dungeons, world bosses, and other events need more incentive in general.
The only GOOD incentive system they have in place is for Fractals.

Otherwise all other incentive system in place are terrible.
sPvP/tPvP
WvW
Dungeons
World Bosses

Guild Mission incentives are quite nice…

I know that feel brother.
pats back
But when you wreck other teams as an elementalist and have one of those perfect games.
Or when you outperform another person in a 1 v 1 doesn’t it make you feel great?

It just makes you feel great knowing that you stuck to the class you love and that you can match and even surpass other people, even when you’re kitten.

It’s a great feeling knowing that you’re better than everyone else.

#ELEtism

Gasm

Hello ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls! (As well as anyone who doesn’t fit in these categories!)

I am Gasmic!
I lead a nice small guild called Gasm [GASM].

We have around 140 people currently enrolled in the guild out of which only 5 do not regularly represent. (I will deal with them later). I usually do not have a problem getting members to represent, because they realize that our guild provides something no other guild can! We have multiple guild perks, and we are active in all parts of the game.
We provide 24/7 10% Magic Find.
We provide 24/7 15% Karma.
We provide 5% Exp Bonus whenever you ask for it (Most of our members are already 80)
We provide all kinds of banners whenever you need them!
We are almost 100% maxed out on the upgrades, we’re just getting the bank upgrade!
We have guild events daily! (More info on the events on the bottom!)

Gasmic WvW
We were started and Devona’s Rest
as a no-name guild, and have grown to be one of the top three guilds which represent Devona’s Rest in WvW as well as a multitude of other places. We had started the guild when Devona’s Rest was at the bottom of the lowest tier in WvW, and from then we have fought tooth and nail to now secure our position on the highest spot on the lowest tier! We will be bumped up soon, and we will be facing two servers with a much larger population than ours. We have been working on strategies and organization to own up WvW without the numbers!
If you are a commander type and looking for a guild who frowns on mindless zergs, look no further.
If you are a soldier and do not want to pay for multiple repairs due to an uncoordinated commander, look no further.
If you are a strategist and are looking for people of influence who will actually listen and follow your strategies, look no further.
Here at Gasm we believe that EVERY individual can make a difference in WvW. I believe coordination is KEY in being successful in WvW, and with everyone’s help we can conquer!
I’m not currently a commander in WvW, but I’m respected as one (sometimes more than a commander). I’m saving up to get it though!

Gasmic Pve
We constantly have events in PvE. We try to make sure that the temples in Orr are always open, and when they’re not we get a nice rally going to re-open them. We are also planning other PvE events such as map completion events (We all meet at a certain map and complete it. If one shows up to all of the events, they will get full map completion!) We also like having fun events like Keg brawls! We have farming events in which we run through Orr and get as many drops as we can! And all at the same time, we have the maximum amount of guild bonuses supporting us!

Gasmic Dungeons
We have a relatively large group of dungeon go-ers in the guild! We are always looking for one last member to fill up the party to the dungeon we’re doing! Since guildies have the first priority, it shouldn’t be too hard to get those fancy weapons that everyone wants! I’m currently going for an AC dagger set! ;p

Gasmic PvP
We have a pretty small group of members who do PvP, but we’re looking to make a skilled tPvP team!

Gasmic Community
The community in this guild is amazing. We work by recruiting actively for one week and then closing off for the rest of the month. We spend that one month getting to know all of the new members, having events with them, and just having a good time. Within a month, all new members will have been accustomed to the guild and then that’s when we start next wave of recruitment. There will almost NEVER be a time when you’ll feel like the odd one out because there will always be someone else who’s just as new to the guild as you!

We have a pretty active forums: https://Gasm.Enjin.Com
We also are EXTREMELY active on TeamSpeak: 68.116.111.237:9988

Feel free to message me whenever you’d like and join us on TeamSpeak just to chat with us!
Send me a mail or whisper me in-game to check us out!
We’re an amazing community and we would love to work to make it even better!

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d188/serinerena/GBANNER.png
http://assets.enjin.com/wall_embed_images/1352714760_apiiC7eAD.jpg

Gasm Loves this tier…
Just thought I’d let you guys know that.
When we do move up,
You ALL will be missed <3