Guild Wars 2

Good post from op – agree on most parts.
Also:

The easiest suggestion is to put a 10point illusion trait (if not make it core) which says “your phantasms are no longer destroyed by shattering”. This would make shatter builds love phantasms more and phantasm builds use shatter way more.

So true …
The thing that bugs me is that clone and phantasm creation isnt fixed to the FNumber keys.
Every weapon has it…..
1 skill for clone 1 for phantasm. In my oppinion just a matter of time before it needs to be changed, as every further weapon given to our profession will just add to this problem.

I think it would have been much more interesting if the whole pet system was changed so pets were available too all classes.

hell no

While I understand people beeing turned off by pet AI, a perma stove will only accomplish the opposite effect. IF I could stove my pet for a damage boost I would do it permanently and never use the pet again for fighting – because in my oppinion pets will always have a subpar and inferiour AI / effect on your gameplay. Despite all that i chose ranger because i like pets (as having visual and gameplay influence).

Use the tools you have instead of making up new ones.

Indeed, i would really like to see a change in the way DEs work. Not having seen everything this game has to offer because everything is in a eternal win loop is kinda sad.
An alternative to increasing the number of enemies or damage would be to add some kind of ‘warlords/heroes’. Meaning as difficulty increases through very though mobs the reward could get up slightly too by beeing able to get better loot out of these ‘warlords/heroes’.

In all honestly:
I too had my issues leveling but once i figured it out, it worked a clock.
If you think u’d been off better with mesmer / necro, please try – because you are likly to get even more frustrated. Just research your profession more – there are tools – but its your decision if you want to play said profession. No one is forcing you to.

While i have to say that elementalists perform inferiour compared to other professions and need tweaking they are not broken. You can still level smoothly and pull 3/4 mobs – just dont expect beeing able to do this with every build.

Lewis Burnell.2493:

…
The main hand pistol would serve absolutely no purpose when its role has already been filled by another weapon.
….

so for those who have .. trouble .. understanding it:

A o E
Not like this hasnt been said in those beta topics at all.
MH Pistol because:
¹ looking cool
² mainhand with an AoE
³ looking very nice
⁴ possibly supporting an alternative playstyle:
[a1] septre = confusion -> feel like you have to build around it => undesireable
[a2] sword = melee -> not really for everyone i might say, which is why u see so many mesmers with a GS/Staff
[a3] GS or Staff gets basically forced on you, if you dont wanna use it – well guess what…
people want an alternative

In my oppinion:
Part of what makes the dungeons diffucult are largely players who cant or havent adapted to the new playstyle yet. Experience in other games ? Doesnt matter – this is another game you are playing! I guarantee you – in 1 month AC story will be considered EASY.
AC Story Mode gets really easy as soon as you get the hang of it. So easy in fact it gets boring.

The only thing i agree on is that most dungeons need tweating / debugging and the rewards in Explorer Mode seem a little bit lacking. But that is also part of what makes the coin rewards special, tho it likely takes a bit too long to get those (same as karma weaps). Furthermore .. do you really want 2-3 rares after every boss in EM?

Also from a design perspective:

WoW = progression of gear
Dark Souls = progression of character stats
GW2 = progression of skill

dont mix those up!

Is it just me or does it feel that the numbers on long bow in terms of damage seem a little bit off ? If i compare it to the short bow, the short bow feels a lot more .. responsive and useful in terms of damage and utility.

Im still leveling and im around level 40, but even an inferiour short bow (stats/damage) seems to perform better than a long bow, even tho i like the skillset the long bow provides more.

I am confused :s ….

Indeed. MH Pistol please.
A MH with a useable AoE for power speccs is what the mesmer is missing out on in my oppinion.
E.g.:
¹ AA chain with a bleed.
² Shot + Evasive jump behind target for a clone / combo leap.
³ Small AoE cirle + cripple.

What helped me and as many people have stated (this is kinda the TL;DR):

1) Use dagger/dagger or scepter/dagger. Staff as a weapon is optimised for grouped play ie DEs or dungeons.
2) Use multiple atunements. The main power of the elementalist comes from switching atunements. While you should try to stay in fire most of the time to damage while leveling – water, lightning and earth will help you deal with difficult situations you encounter – e.g. switch to water for a quick heal then to earth for armor and blind and then back to fire.
3) Kiting is essential. If you go fire/earth in traits you can usually nuke one mob before you take too much damage, but one veteran or multiple mobs it is essential that you kite effectively.
4) Gear according to your playstyle. If you have trouble staying alive try to get your hand on gear with toughness and vitality. If you spec in traits for fire/earth you will usually get enough power there.

I believe the fight with Mazdak to generally unfun.

I have tried the Vigil and Priory version of the fight, with the Vigil version beeing slightly easier in my oppinion.

What i find most annoying in that regard is that the sword isnt special at all. Story wise it should set the base for establishing the sword is a meowing awsome thing to have against the undead and it should make the fight easier not harder.

Well apart from the ‘greatsword-necro that doesnt doesnt even use necro skills’ and ‘useless compainion’ it would have been for the better to give the character some ‘im the boss’-time and better written lines.

Also “Well if Traherne’s that one, then I’ve still got hope” – i /facepalmed quite hard when i heard that.

sirsquishy.8531:

… I think Arenanet needs to figure out a way to introduce players, that are new to this type of MMO, for its dungeons. Coming from a EQ/WoW background it was very hard to get in sync with what I needed to do …

Basically this^.

There needs to a very short solo instance on ~level 20 with 1 or 2 bosses as part of your personal story that explains how your profession can work in a group and what combo fields & combo finishers are.

As some people flat out disregrad until AC that there are combos and skills that should be used in dungeons for that very matter it makes adjustment for most players hard [difficulty of AC overall is fine ].
The only times i had trouble in AC was when i went with players that had a servere lack of knowledge in that regard.

I have already tried AC (in live) with 4 different professions and i really think the only problem with AC is that – as stupid as it sounds – players need to ‘learn to play’ / adapt their playstyle for grouping.