Guild Wars 2

Sylosi.6503:

Suctum.6912:

lol, when you die 30 times and I have over 100 kills I have not been “out pvped” if I lose on the objective. It means the other side was only trying to accomplish the objective because they saw they could not win by any other means. That’s what Pver’s say to make themselves feel better. True, there is a strategy to WvW and objectives are needed, but also there should a FFA element as well. If I am out there with 4 or 5 guys and we are repeatingly killing the guys who are running supply for siege/repair, or killing the people leading the zerg we don’t get kitten for that. If 10 people roll up to an unprotected Doylak and PvE it down your saying they contribute more to the fight than my group actually killing players who are makign the difference? That’s the problem…

This is the problem with PvP. Every PvP encounter in this game is objective based. Getting kitten on, just ingnore the actual PvP and run from objective to objective as you keep rezzing from the spawn because every 30 seconds your dead.

I’m not saying objectives is bad, but EVERY PvP scenario has to be objective based? Why?

If you are out there killing people running supply then you are playing objective based PvP correctly and should be happy, you are after all killing people.

If people kill your Dollys unopposed (and the dollys are actually needed for say upgrading a keep you’ve just captured), then your team has failed and the other team has out PvPed you by doing a better job of organisation than your team (someone on your team should of been protecting the dollys), if you can’t cope with organisation / strategy / communication then this style of PvP is not for you, there are plenty of more simple minded PvP games where you can indiscriminately kill without having to think beyond that.

As for why it is objective based, well without objectives it would be an entirely different type of PvP and the whole maps / keeps / etc, would be pointless and it wouldn;t actually resemble warfare, where shockingly enough they have objectives, you seem to want to play an FPS or a fighting game…

And to repeat, PvP stands for player versus player, ‘versus’ means in opposition to or in competition with, it does not mean ‘hitting the other guy over the head with a sword’.

lol, If there were enough people to protect every single supply camp on each side I would have no complaints about PvP. My point is if I am killing the people who are making the difference and 10 idiots spent 15 minutes running to the most remote supply camp to kill a dolyak…who’s helping more? And beleive me, it took much more communication and strategy to burn a keep in AoC than it does in this game. The only way to kill players in AoC was to actually do it the hard way and PvP, seige equipment was only for destroying walls, it did dick to players. If players were bad, they lost. There was no fail safe baddie welfare like cannons and balista’s to make up for lack of skill. Gear differnece? Does not really matter if 20 people come at 5 does it…

Hell, I can’t even see the opposing side’s names or guild tags, what kind of PvP does not let you pick out your targets or grief specific people…I’m sorry, but being considered ’pro" in WvW all it takes is the ability to follow a zerg, put down a few siege weapons, build them, and stifle the supply going into the objective while keeping your rams and trebs up.

It’s really not as complicated as it sounds, and strategy or not, when it’s 2:1 or 3:1 ratio’s in numbers you don’t need strategy…just a commander or two so people can zerg.

Staff is good for WvW and if you want to have a few more combo fields, but once you learn to move around you’ll find it really is not that great unless you want range.

Even S/D seems somewhat underpowered to D/D. Sure, you have limited range, but tons of mobility if played right. Go 0/10/0/30/30 and take the right traits…add the right runes to armor and weapons and you would be amazed that you can almost indefintely sustain 10x+ might and swiftness. Add the fact that every 30 seconds you have 20 seconds of rage on top of that and almost indefinate regneration D/D is quite viable. The DPS is no less than the staff, it just comes in quicker intervals at smaller numbers.

If you switch to fire, Burning Speed, Arcane Blast, roll, Ring of Fire, swicth to earth, roll(evausive arcana), Earth Quake, Chruning Earth(using teleport at the last second to get the hit), go to Water, Frosy Aura, go back to Fire, Burning Speed and Ring of Fire, switch to Lighting, Shocking Aura, go back to Earth…you get my point. At any point you need to heal Cleansing Wave and Cone of Cold work nicely, and if you spec right you should have constant regen anyways and 3 ways to remove conditions without ever having to use a cantrip You can’t just get this array of quick DPS with a staff, although you can get close with slower but larger AoE. I find that AoE though, is not always the way to go, it really is situational.

Class is defintely OP though…

Doing that in any sequence as long as you keep swapping and rolling/arcane wave for blast finshers by yourself you can keep most of your boons up. Of course, you need specific runes in both weapons and armor and specific traits to make this work.

Make it to rank 21 with less than 500 games played? Scoring 200+ points 80% of my matches in pug minis alone is an accomplishment considering how terrible most people are….on an Elementalist no less.

Sylosi.6503:

Suctum.6912:

WvW is about killing people. The problem with it though it’s WAY too objective driven and there is not many chances for smaller groups or guilds to acomplish much when it’s just 1 zerg vs 1 zerg. The fact you cannot see guilds or names creates no rivarly either, which is a HUGE incentive for people to want to kill over doing stupid objectives.

The problem here is that there will always be more PvE people than PvP. So the trend nowadays is to make PvP like PvE so people who are low skilled based or not interested in PvP feel useful. People who enjoy PvP usually get bored with objectives, then the game, and move on.

WvW does not need any reward, it needs more incentive to kill people to foster content, which is PvP…

Not really, if you want skill, then WvW (of any type) is entirely the wrong place to be as you will face uneven numbers / uneven levels of gear, greater differences in regard to lag, etc.

Nor is simply about killing people, like real war you have objectives, if you jus to want to mindlessly kill people play an FPS or arena type game like Bloodline Champions.

Lastly PvP does not mean player killing player, it means player competing against player, there are many ways to compete against each other – e.g if you are defending a keep and your opponent cuts off your supply simply by killing Dollys / taking supply camps against NPCs, whilst you mindlessly KILL MOAR defending your keep that you eventually lose due to lack of supply, then they have out PvPed you.

lol, when you die 30 times and I have over 100 kills I have not been “out pvped” if I lose on the objective. It means the other side was only trying to accomplish the objective because they saw they could not win by any other means. That’s what Pver’s say to make themselves feel better. True, there is a strategy to WvW and objectives are needed, but also there should a FFA element as well. If I am out there with 4 or 5 guys and we are repeatingly killing the guys who are running supply for siege/repair, or killing the people leading the zerg we don’t get kitten for that. If 10 people roll up to an unprotected Doylak and PvE it down your saying they contribute more to the fight than my group actually killing players who are makign the difference? That’s the problem…

This is the problem with PvP. Every PvP encounter in this game is objective based. Getting kitten on, just ingnore the actual PvP and run from objective to objective as you keep rezzing from the spawn because every 30 seconds your dead.

I’m not saying objectives is bad, but EVERY PvP scenario has to be objective based? Why?

It’s just like AoC Blueprint. People complain about Assassins because it’s a noob friendly class. You don’t need skill or time invested into the class/toon to do well, just spam DWW and GC/Bomb and always get at least 1 kill per death. It would be different if it was like the DT, where everyone see’s a handful of people do well, make the class, gear it out, and find out other than being extremely tanky they can’t find a way to make it work. Elementalist is like the DT in this game, people just have not realised how incredibly OP it actually is played right.

Same with Theives in this game, no learning curve and 80% of the popualtion runs the same gimick build. People complain about it because within seconds of getting kitten on you see you were killed by clearly a terrible player as they keyboard turn away. The difference in this game is that unlike AoC where Sins had pretty much only Acclerate to get away, here you have 3 or 4 or even 5 ways to get away if you some how blunder the gimick steal BS, C&D, and spams of Heartbreaker.

As for the Elementalist, there is a build that allows you to have the power of a Glass Cannon while remaining somewhat tanky, but you have to use the right gems and consistently keep combo fields up to keep that 15 stacks of might and hold rage for 20 seconds at a time.

I still stand by the fact that for me at least, I see no problem with hit points. Of course I have been playing a clothie for years, so low hit point pools and kitteny defense is something I’m used too. It’s not for everyone, and in fact…the few times I log into AoC lately and I play my Guard or DT I feel like a raid boss because I can jump into 3 or 4 guys, kill one or two and get out with still over 1/3 of my Hit Points intact.

Gaudrath.6725:

Also, keep yourself blinged up. I mean always, always strive to have the best gear you can afford – it does make a difference, I think with elementalists more than any other class. I think a lot of people neglect half of their gear, forget about amulets and rings etc. and then suffer from subpar performance.

Stance-dance. Always, always and not just with D/D. I have no particular rotations, I just use whatever I feel works best for a given situation. No need to pop a combo on a single mob, never forget to stack might in a difficult fight.

Switch utility skills often. Sometimes you want extra protection. Sometimes you need more firepower. Never get stuck in a routine, elementalists are all about diversity, so use that.

I also think D/D can be effective for PvE soloing, especially if you learn to circle-strafe, the only mob type I had a problem with circle-strafing are the Risen since they’re so fast. Slower mobs… they can barely land a hit on you, it’s not even funny.
Only problem is ranged mobs where you will want to use a more defensive setup since D/D doesn’t really have any protection for that.

As for challenge, that’s part of the fun. I had a period when I was fighting PvE stuff a couple of levels below me and was nuking them left and right… much like warriors do with content a few levels above theirs. Was fun for about an hour or two, then it got really boring since I knew I would never come even close to be challenged. Not a good way to play, at least not for me.

Just chnage out your A and D buttons and make them your strafe buttons. Turn up the sensitivety of your mouse and mouse turn (circle strafe). You’ll move liek a pro and will be able to bind Q and E to smtohing more useful than keyboard turning

BlueprintLFE.2358:

Yeah eles and guards maybe the toughest to kill as of now, that’s because they are pigeon holed into taking defensive gear to compensate for their ridiculously low health.

Try running a power prec toughness armor set up on an ele without speccing into vitality and see how that works for you. We HAVE to either spec into vitality and run with 13k health and run tanky gear so we don’t get 2 shotted.

The base health differences is frustrating to say the least. I can stack all damage and only some toughness gear on my necro and warrior because I don’t even have to worry about vitality, my ele thief and guard I am completely screwed on stats, I had to pick up vitality (not an option to run with 10k health in PVE or pvp) then my ele is in light armor on top of that so I have to stack toughness or healing power or both, to avoid insta gib, Good-luck fitting damage stats in there.

It’s making balance difficult and pigeon hoping players into having to spec or gear up for defense just to not get one shotted.

I run Power, Precision, and Toughness on my Elementalist with Knights Amulet and made it to Rank 21. I usually die about every 5 or 6 kills. People do not understand how to kite back to thier group or when to disengage. Theif? Mist Form, Teleport, RtL, Shocking Aura, almost unlimited Swiftness and Might. Hit Points are not really a factor when you add utility to a class. Every once in a while someone catches you with no CC break, guess what…you die. It’s not because they were better, it just happens. I could see where people could make the argument about Hit Points if the difference was huge, but if you factor utility, mobility, CC, and DPS all into the equation (and player skill) it seems pretty balanced.

Learn how to move and pick your fights, you won’t need 24K hit points as a crutch.

WvW is about killing people. The problem with it though it’s WAY too objective driven and there is not many chances for smaller groups or guilds to acomplish much when it’s just 1 zerg vs 1 zerg. The fact you cannot see guilds or names creates no rivarly either, which is a HUGE incentive for people to want to kill over doing stupid objectives.

The problem here is that there will always be more PvE people than PvP. So the trend nowadays is to make PvP like PvE so people who are low skilled based or not interested in PvP feel useful. People who enjoy PvP usually get bored with objectives, then the game, and move on.

WvW does not need any reward, it needs more incentive to kill people to foster content, which is PvP…

It’s always best to try every class and learn their gimmicks and combat animations. However, sticking to just 1 or 2 classes does help you weather patches especially ones that do not favor your class. When you can play a class that was OP and nerfed into the ground and not notice a loss in effectiveness despite having to change rotations or play style is all the difference between the average player of that class and the great players.

I plan on playing Elementalist all the way through, and as many people cry about it being weak and a bunker only class, I find it exceptionaly OP when played right. Of course, playing 4 years as a Demonologist in AoC it comes naturally.

I have to agree with the OP. guilds are rather pointless. Other than some buffs and the bank, I don’t see why you need them. It’s almost like Anet just went for some kind of extended friends list.

The games I came from it was almost impossible to play without a guild (AoC/EQ). Giving people a reason to stay in guild to work on content/PvP galvanises that guild. People get better at working together and evetually you get a pretty frinedly atomsphere in the vent. Here, other than some exta karma/exp for being in group, your not rewarded with anything. There is no incentive for people to stay with a guild, if your guild is not doing well you can simmply hop to a larger one. Get bored with that, just move again.

The system does not encourage people working together. For those in well established large guilds, those guilds were not built in GW2. Those large guilds are transfers from another game or a gaming communtiy who came into GW2 with their infrastructure and player base pretty much intact. For guilds like that, sure, mutli-guilding could work as you can coordinate with other large guilds who did the same.

But for the average player, how are you supposed to build guilds when their is no incentive to do so? No 18+ raiding events and only WvW to encourage large scale guild play is not a huge way to build guilds…

You can use tornado and just click it off for the 20 seconds of stabiltity. Other than that the Elemental Glyph works OK, most people ignore the pet unless it gets chewed up by AoE.

The difference between GW2 and other games is that Thieves are not all that squishy. Even full dps they can have respectable hit points and toughness/armor. The baseline damage coeffecients for some of their abilities are so high they don’t need to spec as heavy into power/precision as other classes may.

The problem with them is that there is no balance to risk vs. reward. There is really no counter to a stealth insta-gib unless you just get lucky and have enough HP to survive the intitial busrt and react with CC/CC break fast enough. Even if you do, that Theif just hit you for 8-12k, you are effectively limited to CC and healing, the other team if coordinated, will FF and you will be dead. Even if your team jumps on that Theif, he at least traded a kill, at most will stealth up/heal, and do it again.

Every MMO I have played, stealth classes always have high reward but high risk. In AoC , an Assasin could melt a clothie in in seconds, however, if a tank or melee dps jumped on them, they would be dead just as quick.

In GW2, I know they opted not for rock, paper counters, but they really do need to look at the damage coeffecients on some of the Theif abilites. Lowering the coeffecients would make them have to spec more into Power and Prescision, which would give them the risk vs. reward rather than reward and reward. I do not enjoy having to go bunker on my Elementalist because 3-5 out of the 10 players are Theives. If people defend a class that 30-50% of the population mains now in Minis, then saying something is up with the class has merit. Usually, where I come from, it means when a class surges like that it’s a Flavor of the Month noob class where it has 1 or 2 gimmick-like abilities that result in 1-3 shots.

Any class that gives guaraunteed kills as long as you do X even if it’s 1 kill per death needs looking at…there should always be risk for being bad.

Not that this has much to do with the OP, but I would like to talk about Badges and bag pick up in WvW since it was mentioned.

I find myself not having time to pick up or even look for bags. Pushing past the melee and into the range dps and siege equipment you don’t have any time to waste looking for some bag hardly that’s noticable. Most of the time people do not push properly and being one of the few that do compunds the fact I don;t have time to look for bags when pushing into a group of enemies.

This is not L2P. Why games force you to look for loot while still fighting is beyond me. They did this crap in the late stages of Age of Conan, kill players and get a bag. Kiting 2 or 3 people at a time does not give you much time to loot a bag. Eventually, I found myself not caring since the tokens in that game could be aquired through other means.

I’m not saying to do the same, what I am saying is that you should not have to loot for tokens especailly when you got the kills. The tokens should either be held in some cloud mode where you can loot them at your leisure or just pop into your inventory automaticly. I should not have to be punished wasting my time looking for loot bags because I’m doing my job in WvW.

Keep it simple, buy a Naga and reduce your keynbinds.

Then, change your strafe buttons to A/D and forget the turn buttons. You can increase your mouse sensitivity and mouse turn.

I make Q my call target button and E stomp/Interact.

I keep Tab as target because I’m used to crappy Tab Target from other games.

Really, that’s all you need for GW. If they added a Utility bar for using Seige equipment/Food in WvW that would be great…I would probably bind that to Z,X,C,V

lol, all these combinations. Just keep it simple.

1-9 as 1-9. Moving your thumb is not hard.

Attunements- Alt+1-4. Instantly switch and never move your thumb.

That’s all you really need to do.

Rahmorak.2318:

Suctum

…people who came from other games and not AoC are not used to having more than 5 keybinds…

I think you vastly over simplify other games. I had 30+ key binds in wow on my Mage, and unlike gw2 you could have off-target targets (focus) so you could be attacking x while cc’ing y, and healing self/other.

I imagine a lot of other recent MMOs were similar so you are being a bit conceited.

That said, Ele only has about 14 excluding movement/dodge. But just burning through them on rotation is far from optimal, and there are other factors to allow for. I pretty much suck at Ele but it is not the key binds, it is the situational awareness as I can’t simply watch unit frames and interrupt a cast bar.

WoW and AoC are completely different games. Before 1.5, I doubt any casual gamer would have enjoyed it. which is why ever since 1.5, they have progessed it to the almost WoW state of 3.2 where everyone runs at max speed and spams instant abilities and everyone has 2-3 bubbles.

I played WoW for 30 days with some of my guildies from AoC, the fact we crushing people in less than 10 hours after hitting 80 in 3v3 against people who played for 4+ years is a testament to the learning curve in that game. Pally is no easy. lol

I think about 8k is what I have been hit with by Kill Shot, it’s not instant death but the high DPS from range is kind of cheap. Easy to avoid if your in a 1v1 scenerio, not so easy when it’s a zerg fest and your avoiding 3 other people as well.

Of course, if GW2 would implement cast bars and target of target you would have a much easier time avoiding cheeseball attacks like that… rather than just relying on animation alone.

To the OP, I’m sorry but you are totally wrong. Elementalist is one of the best “Kill Steal” classes because of all the AoE. It usually only takes a few hits and as logn as your in close proximity of the player when he dies you’ll still get 5 points and the credit for it. If you kill him while taking back the point that’s another 5 points.

About the only thing you don’t get rewarded for is healing and/or buffing, but as long as your doing things in the points and staying close to players getting killed you will always get points.

But if your defending a point and stand outside that point and more than 6 or 7 meters from player when he dies, you won’t get any points. You have to stick close to the zerg for the points.

BlueprintLFE.2358:

Here’s the thing.

The problem with thieves is now compounding and snowballing to a larger effect which is going to cause more problems and complaints.

The rendering issue – This is causing thieves to have WAY more of an advantage than hey should. When you are fighting a thief for 15 seconds (because you have played well and broke stun and have kept moving) and you continue to hear the thief hitting your toon with multiple auto attacks, and you cannot see the thief AT ALL for those 10 seconds this is a problem. I haven’t been able to physically see a thief while fighting them in SPVP in a long time.

Now combine the Rendering problem with this next issues
More players playing thieves – This issue combined with the rendering issue is compounding the thief problem greatly. Not only is a player dealing with attempting to fight constantly invisible (not being rendered) thieves, but now that there is anywhere from 5-10 thieves PER game this is causing MULTIPLE enemies to be invisible all the time.

This plus the fact that multiple players are now playing thieves, which means that stun break you had is going to save you once out of multiple basilisk venoms is completely frustrating to players, when you start getting in the realm of forcing players to take multiple stun breaks to survive one class then that is completely fringing on other classes ability to play how they want.

Last issue – NO MATTER how kitten good you play against a thief, if your stun breaker is on cool down, once they hit you with basilisk venom there is NOTHIG you can do but die, it is extremely frustrating to get hit with steal, basilisk venom and have your stun real on cool down knowing there is nothing you can do about it, then get downed

Now that being said I am not complaining about thieves, just that these issues are compounding causing more problems. Rendering NEEDS to be fixed, until then players are going to abuse it to being invisible 80-90% of fights.

Which is why when I see more than 3 Theives oin the other team I instantly change all my slots to Cantrips and spend 90% of the match kiting them…and hope my team has the senese to kill them while I do.

Myst.9182:

Good thoughts.

We do get some good abilities. But we have a lot of restrictions when it comes to using them as well. Since we have ability cool downs and attunement cool downs. So just because we have them doesn’t mean we have them when we need them. Especially in PvP, simple is simply better.

Bad Builds and Weapon Swapping

Unfortunately for us, it is just far easier to create a bad build than it is for other professions. And the fact that we can’t swap weapons while in combat, can force us to get stuck using abilities, which aren’t what we actually need for the situation. Eg Sometimes a D/D Ele needs to swap to a staff because range is sometimes a majour factor in a fight.

Which means we have to build our builds around our weapon choice. While other classes can build effective builds and swap weapons in or out according to taste. We can’t do that, at least not as easily and not without making some majour sacrifices. Because the traits I go for with D/D are different to the ones that I would play with using Staff.

Who said Ele’s are meant to be hard to play?

I disagree with this idea that elementalists are meant to be hard to play. Where did it ever say that? They aren’t a “hero” class. They aren’t something special to be unlocked by players who have the skill and time to unlock them. They are a standard core class. Any player with any skill level should be able to enjoy them. With the option for more skilled players being able to take the class to another level. This is the goal that Anet set for themselves. Attunement swapping is meant to be a different play style choice. Not a handicap function to make it harder for the elementalist player.

Conclusion

Ultimately I disagree with you. There isn’t a pay off for the all the extra things we manage. A thief can nuke 70%-100% of my life in an opening combo, when done properly. We don’t have the option to return the favour, even if I make a glass-canon style build. At very least we have to go through a lot more button clicks to achieve the same result.

The fact an Elementalist has loads of Utility and heals makes up for some loss in burst DPS. A Theif might be able to kitten on you, but once he does he wasted everything and 10-1 he’s just another flavor player who runs away after all the C/D are blown.

If you take Cleansing Fire/Mist Form, you really don’t need to worry about Theif’s too much. The thing about flavor classes is, they are predictable. The people playing them are generally bad because they can’t do well on their main class, so they create FoTM toons. 1-trick wonder’s might get some lucky kills, but they are not dominating mini games. Just because those Theives might cherry pick a kill and dying might feel like it’s happening all the time, when you read the scores at the end of the game you see that the Theif you thought was killing everyone scored kitten for points and contibuted nothing to the game other than a few stolen kills.

As an Elementalist, I know my burst DPS is nowhere close to some FoTM classes like Warrior or Theif. On the other hand, I can use dodges and cantrips to outlast the crust attacks and then CC and deliver my own. Elementalist is all about outlasting the kitten attacks, and countering with sustained DPS with a little burst here and there.

Knowing how to counter kitteny FoTM classes and survive new patches and changes to your class is the mark of a good player.

biggerthanthesun.2397:

TheWarKeeper.5374:

Interesting story, care to try vs my mesmer, engineer or guardian? because the only chance i am sure you would have would be surviving my guardian without killing me if you never made a mistake, other than that i see no competition.

In fact, I stated that guards were the class I feared. Thank you for your heartfelt agreement. Mesmers, when I played, did not strike me as a threat. Had a few who could bail, confuse me with their images, and get away. The others whom I saw sticking around got burned and bled just the same. Engineers… Meh, they all look like thieves to me. AoE spam and Dodge just the same. Mist and run at 33% health. No need to change strategy.

Who was your Conq in AoC?

And yes, nothing to hard about the Elementalist, people who came from other games and not AoC are not used to having more than 5 keybinds…

My only complaint about the elementalist is that the DPS is somewhat low on some of the longer casts, but when you factor in the amount of ultility and healing I guess it makes sense.

Morkai.7645:

This build brings back the cannon in glass cannon. I can instantly chain kill all thieves and elementalists (non-bunker), most engineers, most rangers, some warriors, few necros, few guardians, and few mesmers. However, if I don’t instantly chain kill a class, most classes will drop a third of their health. Bunker guardians and bunker elementalists I can drop to half health. keep in mind this is in 1vs1 situations. In group play its sick the damage I do.

How do you implement this build without getting killed with only 15k hp!?

1. Simple! kill them before they kill you! But use common sense! Patiently wait as your teammates engage the zerg first. Then pick out a thief, elementalist, ranger, engineer, warrior, mesmer, necro, guardian to kill (in that order).
a. thief or elementalist, Ride the lighting in. Use updraft, switch to fire, use burning speed, ring of fire, cast arcane wave+blast which will trigger 2 combos. If thief isn’t dead use fire grab. After grab, thief = dead.
b. ranger, engineer, warrior, repeat same as above except after ride the lightning, hit them with lightning whip, until their health drops to about 70% then updraft and repeat adding drakes breath if necessary.
c. mesmers, necro, guardians, repeat same as above except after ride the lightning, hit them with lightning whip, until their health drops to about 50% then updraft and repeat adding drakes breath.
Once you have instantly chain killed someone, ride the lightning out of the zerg, heal up, rinse and repeat.
If you get stuck in zerg, switch to water or cast shocking aura or mist, to give yourself breathing room to get out.
If you haven’t killed someone after blowing your fire load. Switch to earth or back to air if its up and they should be near death anyways.

2. The secret to fighting warriors and guardians is to stay out of range. Lightning whip has a range of 300. Learn the range because you can hit them, they can’t hit you. Kite until you get their health to about 50% and then unload the above. Fighting necros and mesmers can be tricky. Hit them with lightning whip and then burst them down before they kill you…Its a toss up based on their build.

3. Pay attention to the skills your enemy uses. Dodge a lot. take advantage of renewing stamina. With a crit chance of 49% it will usually always be up.

4. Learn when to run away. Fight another day.

5. When killing someone in downed state, to avoid stomp, start kill and then mist form. You will avoid stomp and get the kill.

Elementalist is not an easy class to play. Steep learning curve, but once you got it you will love it. I do believe their still needs to be better balance. It is true that we work twice as hard as other classes, with the steepest learning curve, just to stay on par. A little increase to our base HP wouldn’t hurt. Definitely our downed state needs to be fixed. Ride the lightning bug needs to be fixed.

-Manannan

The one problem here is that Elementalist has the same flaw as every other class: predictability. RtL to someone, everyone should know Updraft is comming next. The one flaw in GW2 is that while you have an assortment of builds and armor/weapon combinations, classes only get a handful of skills per weapon. It’s not like other games where your build is largely dependent on feat points and there are mutliple builds. Here, if you see a theif rolling dagger/dagger, we know what 5 abilities he has. Playing as an elementalist, almost all your better attacks are telegraphed through animations. While not many are long (Churning Earth at 3.25 is the worst), any veteran PvPer of any game will always be watching for animations. This is compounded by the fact many abilites have a great synergy (like RtL/Updraft) and after a while, smart players will notice the standard attack rotation of any class.

I’m not saying your advice is bad, it’s well thought out and tested. But against tourney players or seasoned PvPers, unless your team is there to CC and clear your way to DPS, the same rotation will only work so many times. The only real secret to playing a D/D glass cannon, is staying unpredictable and always be aware of positioning and the flow of battle. Not getting into and wasting time on 1v1 in minis unless you have to also helps

Brenil.8957:

I’ve been reading up on various builds and discussions within this forum since I hit level 80 on my Elementalist and have been trying to decide on what route I want to take for WvW and PvE in terms of building and therefore equipment.

With that said, I’m hoping I can get some advice on my current build and perhaps suggestions on what works best for WvW and PvE. The reason for this is that I’m close to starting to build an exotic set and I obviously don’t want to pick something I may not use very long. As such, I’d appreciate any feedback or advice.

(Note, this is for PvE and WvW only, I run a different build for sPvP)

My current build is thus:

10 Fire – Burning Precision
25 Air – One With Air (I sometimes exchange this for Bolt to the Heart), Soothing Winds
10 Earth – Earth’s Embrace
15 Water- Cleansing Wave
10 Arcana – Elemental Attunement

The rare gear I’m currently using with this build is Rampagers for everything except boots and legs, which are Carrion. This is because I wanted some extra vitality for some more survivability. The runes on the armor are Lyssa.

The weapons I use are D/D Rampager’s on both with Bloodlust and Blood runes, while my staff is Cleric’s with a Water rune. The accessories and jewelry is a mix of vitality, precision, power, and critical damage increases.

Before someone says my build sucks or is all over the place, the thinking behind it, perhaps flawed, is a crit/condition build that takes advantage of always having decent conditions up while still having decent spike, some durability, and the ability to weapon switch roles for different aspects of PvE and WvW. It isn’t the best damage build, nor is it extremely tanky, but I am more or less looking for a build that can get the job done without focusing one extreme over the other, such as bunker builds or beserkers.

I’d appreciate any advice anyone has to give.

I can’t say I agree with this build. If your going for WvW, you really do not need a whole lot of utility as an Elementalist. The way they caculate kills now, you don’t even need to do most of the damage or be the one to stomp someone to get the credit. Simply laying AoE to enough people will net you a ton of kills. You do not need to be worried about getting killed, as once you move out of range most people tend to FF the closest target. Not many players are smart enough to push past the Bunkers/Melee and start dropping the ranged DPS first, which is why you need hardly any utility for WvW as a ranged class.

I almost always use a staff for WvW. The 1200 range lets me steal kills quite easily. Eruption works quite well on fools using Siege Weapons as you can target the wall next to them and still hit them. They are too busy aiming equipment to notice most of the time. Chain Lighting actually works quite well against small groups, better than Meteor Shower often times. You just have to learn to sit back and AOE DPS, rather than trying to kill a target, finsih him, and move on. Let your allies finish the target, you do enough damage and are close enough you still get the kill credit.

As for Builds, I go 30 Air, 10 Earth, and 30 Arcana. The Air abilites allow me to move around a bit faster and get my crit chance up. The free shocking aura is a nice tool if somebody gets a creep on you. I go for 10 in earth for the free Armor of Earth, and I go Arcana to build up my endurance. Why do you need endurance if your ranged? All the AoE from seige equipment. You can constantly keep dodging out of the circles while hitting people outside a gate or wall, which leaves you in battle much longer than having to retreat back every time you see a red circle. Your crits will regen your endurance, and your arcane powers will refill it another 25% each use. I use Arcane Blast and Arcane Wave, Arcane Blast with a range of 1500 works great, and you can always use Arcane Wave to just recharge your endurance if people are out of range. The only utlility I use is Ether renewal and cleansing fire, and I tend to get about 25-30 kills before I die usually.

I do however, tend to only go WvW with my guildies though, so it’t not like I am not getting supported. But you don’t have to bunker down or go all around to do well, WvW is about team work. Go out with your guild and play the role you want, for me that’s AoE/DD DPS, but I have people healing and protecting me as well most of the time. WvW is about team play, no class is going to go out there with a “holy grail” build and accomplish anything by themselves.

Bads always kitten out on Flavor toons. AoC=Assassins. SWToR=Agents

The rougue class is always incredibly OP and underskilled in every MMO at some point, in GW2, it’s just at release. 6 months from now some other class will be OP and Theif players will be crying. That’s the nature of MMO’s. Just stick with the class that suits you and find ways to still counter the FoTM baddies, that’s the mark of a successful player.

I agree with most of the advice here, but remember one thing.

Churning Earth is a 3 second cast time. Where I come from, that’s a red light for immediate CC. The fact the cast animation is so telegraphed makes this a spell I rarely use. Also don’t forget 1 Condition remover wipes away all that bleed, but at least the DD Dps of the spell is quite good. If you can get it off.

Don’t underestimate Arc Lighting either. It can do decent damage if you get lucky on crits and build fury. I play Sceptor/Dagger for minis, but Dagger/Dagger is looking much more viable, especially since most fo the attacks are cone based now rather than single target. I just like the 300 range.

If you don,t like PvP, why are you Pvping? Just because you chose a caster does not make it an insta-win class. I like how GW2 ups the skill level with the Elementalist, you have to plan out your attunement swaps and abilities rather than spam 2 or 3 spells and keyboard turn your way to 30 kills. GW2 does not reward bad players by crutching on gear dependency like WoW, or on the backs of other players like Age of Conan. Here, if more than one person does not contribute to actually doing something in a mini, your not only almost certain to lose, but you don’t get kitten for what little you did either.

If you enjoy gear-based keyboard turning macros, by all means go back to WoW. The only thing GW2 and WoW have in common is the somewhat WoWish Char and Asura, and no collision. That’s about it.

I think the problem is not people playing well, it’s the fact you do not recieve enough glory points. Even if you score 250+ points every game it takes you hours to watch your bar move, and days for it to hit the next level.

People generally want to win and you do run across bad players. I find that out of 75% of quick join games people DO go for objectives, they just do not try to go for more than one or break the enemy’s hold of one. I expect that in GW2, as it appreals to a braod base of people, many who are not pvpers.

Still, the base of the problem is that we are not rewarded enough glory. Considering it took me this long to get to PvP 20 off of free joins, I can only wonder at what kind of experience is needed for PvP 50 or more…

You don’t need to max DPS or go for max Power/Precision to be effective in WvW. Most of the time if you just AoE enough you will get the credit for kills even if you don’t stomp.

I find Fire and Lighting work pretty well, and the large radius of Eruption can usually hit most people on walls.

WvW, I roll with a staff and get probably 25-40 kills every death. WvW is not dependent on single target DPS, in fact I get credit for kills that I did not have to really do much for, just AoE and you’ll get credit.

Minis are different, and I roll Scepter/Dagger or Dagger/Dagger, but Elementalist is a strong class. The problem is that PvP is not a 1v1 game, and unless you roll with your team GW2 is not the game where you will able to kill 3v1 as an Elementalist. Your best kiting and contributing to the kill, or standing back and taking advanatge of AoE while contributing to healing/buffing those on your team who are kiting.

If you want to go it alone though, you might think this class is weak. I think it’s very strong class, people just need to learn how to play in groups.

I don’t agree with everything in the OP about build, but the fact that people think they need more than 2 CC breaks and 20k+ hit points to be effective in PvP shows the quality of players.

If you work with your team, or even with just another person you should never be in a situation where need this amount of overkill defense unless every player on the other team decides to FF you only. PvP is about working in groups. I run about 1500 toughness and only have about 16.5k in PvP and made it to PvP 20 without getting kitten Playing an elementalist is all about positioning and movement, if you expect to run into a group and burst DPS your not going to do anything but die. You have to pre plan your atunements and swaps for each situation without burning cooldowns before they are needed. People need to just tighten up their game and stop thinking you can take on 3v1. This is not the kind of game that favors that kind of playstyle.

shaolin.9716:

Such bad reasoning. Can’t kill a bunker 1v1. Now can’t kill a thief 1v1 either. Tell me what fun is left for the other builds out there? As soon as you’re caught alone you’re dead meat unless you play a bunker or a thief? And then have to run back to your team with your tail between your legs like a beaten dog?

Why are you concerned with 1v1 in a group oriented game? If balance was based on 1v1 you would have complete inbalance in game. Trust me, comming from Age of Conan, I have seen what 1v1 balance does to a game, it ends it.

I agree with everything the OP says. I only die to Theives when I am alone or seperated from my team. If they kill me, does that make them a better player than me? Not always. In fact, if I am alone and he is alone then both of us are probably not contributing to the team effort and we are both fail. As an elementalist, sure I can kill bad theives, but good ones, very rarely by myself. In that situation, I try to survive and kite back to my team.

However, I always try to stick with my team if I can. Dpsing one guy when your team is dpsing someone else is bad tactics. Always FF one target at a time and CC the rest. This is not acheived by one person, this is a group effort. People who do not understand that PvP is a group activity usually do are the first to cry inbalance. Are there inbalance’s in PvP now for soem classes, sure. But when 3 or 4 people FF the Theif supposedly criting people for 15k, he does not last very long. In fact, after he get’s FF 3 or 4 times most players will get frustrated that their cheeseball tactics do not work and now you have thrown a scrub out of his element and basicly removed his worth to his team.

Buzzkill.9608:

Suctum.6912:

No problem where with my Elementalist. I find myself doing quite well when supported in groups. I do have a hard time 1v1 some classes, but then again, I put myself into a 1v1 situation in group PvP, which should not happen.

I see people mainly crying about 1v1. I have news for people. Elementalist is a group PvP class. Your built to support group play. If your 1v1 everyone you maybe need to pick a different class. Balance in a MMO should never be on 1v1 situation.

If your not doing well, you need to check 3 things.
1. Are you feating traits for abilities or for stats. If your doing it for the latter you are kittening yourself.
2. Do you actually have a rotation for situations are just spamming abilities? Just spamming your highest DPS casts while not bothering to debuff or CC anyone is usually a good way to contribute absolutely nothing to your team.
3. Are you using your AoE buffs/heals for yourself or your team? If your playing selfishly and not bothering to use any of the group utility which is inherit of the class your disregarding 50% of your role in PvP.

If your not for team play I do not think this is the class for you. If you enjoy doing good dps (not exteme) and like a kiting/supporting in PvP, this class is extemely fun.

Find me a single quote from the developers of this game which states that Elementalist is a support class.
The vision set forth by the developers is clear. Any class can play any role.
That is stated by the developers over and over again.
“We want you to be able to play what you want, when you want and however you want to play. Any class can tank and any class can be a damage dealer”.
You have taken the broken limitations of this class and in your own imagination you have decided that because this class is currently only good for support it must therefore be a support class.
If Anet made an official announcement saying that they have decided that elementalists were going to serve a support role in the future the majority of players would drop this class like a bad habit.
Just because you found a way to make the class work for you does not mean it is functioning as intended.
Go here…..
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/media/videos/
and watch the combat video (3rd one down on the left hand side).

I never said the class was functioning as intended. I only said I realise the failings of the class and as a player ustilised the strenghts it does have to fit my playstyle. Did I expect the class to me more of a DD damage dealer? Sure, but it’s not. So as a PvPer, I make due with what I have. 4+ years of Age of Conan have hardened me to class inbalance, so I guess I don’t see what’s underpowered here. Like I said, at some point some other class will be OP and another will be fail. That’s the nature of MMO’s. I just stick with what i liek and make it work depsite the inbalance.

Yes, I think we agree, but the only thing I can add is that if you do not top itemed gear than maybe 300 power seems like alot. But if your in full exotics 300 power really is not a game changer, nor does the damage you get from 300 power really show in your numbers. My point is that if your going for a DPS build, unless your are going for cantrips, avoid fire as it does not really up your DPS as much as say, Bolt through the Heart, and other abilites like that would. I do not use cantrips alot since I base my spec off of arcana, and rely on team work to avoid CC’s. Having only 2 cc breaks may seem weak, but I am quite practiced at dodging. Like I said, my build does not work for everyone, but 4 years of AoC probably puts me above standard players as I am used to a squishy, kiting class where movement, rather abilites, kept one alive. Still, Fire does not net you that much gain in DPS once you have all the best armor and trinkets.

I think your missing the point. Theif is stupid right now. That’s common knowledge. Join any mini game and all you see are Theives and Mesmers. A Theif is a killy 1v1 class, so if your not workign with your group and are alone a Theif has every chance and ability to kill you as a Elementalist. Your job, is to use your 20 abilities to survive him and kite him back to your team. Sounds pretty crappy? Well, the only way to deal with the DPS a Theif can put out is to out dps him and make him run or outright kill them. The only way that will happen quickly is if your group FF the threat. In a situation like that, the fact an Elementalist can buff, heal, condition, and DPS the Theif in the group aspect makes us OP to them who have low AoE DPS and will only be able to focus one guy.

Do they need to look at some problems with Theives? Sure, but right now there’s nothing you can do about it so work on your A game….

Think of traits like a feat tree. You benefit from getting stats, but you should not pick your feats according to the stats they provide. With 30 points invested in a trait line, you only get a maxium of 300 stat points. 300 points at level 80 with full exotic armor and trinkets is nothing. It is not enough of a stat increase to be readily noticably. Instead, go with the abilities the trait trees unlock. Fire, for example, gives little benefit to actually up your dps. 5% more burn dps is nothing, 10% more dps is still not that much considering spells have a minium/maxium damage potential. 30% longer fire feild is intersting, but 30% of 6 seconds is only going to round to 2 seconds. These abilites are meaningless compared to unlocks you get in Lighting, Earth, Water and particularly in the Arcana tree. In fact you can up your dps more using Lighting/Earth more than Fire. Also, don’t forget CC’s or debuffs. Losing a small amount of DPS to chill, bleed, snare, will always win you a battle than going for 100% DPS and not having any utility attatched to spells.

As for staff, the blasting power which increases your AoE is not that signifigant, so I would suggest you go with renewing stamina and arcane energy. With a high enough crit chance you can dodge as much as you like providing you use arcane wave and blast. You can use Ether Renewal and Cleansing Fire or Mist Form as CC breaks, and if you use Stop, Drop, and Roll with water you can shrug off nasty chills for free.

But playing staff, you defitinely want skills that keep you mobile and keep you at range. This will go alot farther in keepign you alive than stright up DPS, as a dead Elementalist deals 0 dps being dead.

SwickHobo.5096:

That’s really bad advice. Arcane tree is without a doubt the best tree we have with any weapon set. Its crucial for Evasive Arcana. That skill alone is better then the 3 you’ll get from fire, not to mention you’ll rack up way more power thanks to all the might you can then build up. The fire tree should be avoided at all costs, cause the traits in it are all terrible, unless your an auramancer, and even that build can be done better without fire, at least in PvE. I suggest the OP change his post to “ignore arcane before level 60” as pre level 60 the stat bonuses are more significant then the traits themselves.

“QTF” If more players made informed posts like this the quality of the dedicated Elementalists would go up. Evening up the skill curve amongst the population is the best way to actually acheive balance and see what needs tweeking rather than people who try the class for a day or so and cry it’s underpowered simply because they are ignorant to the strenghts of the class. You can only acheive mastery of a class by playing it…not by reading QQ on the forums and not testing for yourself.

I have played this class from pre-release. First leveling to 80 and using every ability/skill. I then moved to PvP only after knowing every ability inside and out. While it can be said some classes are simply create and go PvP, Elementalist is certainly not one of them.

Comming from an MMO that had the best PvP potential a MMO game ever had, I hate for ANet to make the same mistakes Funcom did with Age of Conan.

People complaining about Elementalists being underpowered, unplayable, over-complicated, this is all not true. However, if people are speccing traits wrong and not building the class as it’s meant to be played, yes it will be fail. Putting 30 points into Fire is an example of this. You gain very little at the cost of almost half your point pool. Successful players always test abilites, then spec according to what works. Builds become public, and successful builds become common knowledge. However, it takes well known players publicaly promoting those builds.

What happened in Age of Conan, was they drastically changed the PvP system. Instead of rewarding players due to skill, they rewarded players with time spent in game and gear-based reliance. With PvPers upset, the PvP population dwindled was replaced with more casual players which the majority would complain about 1v1. Funcom, over a year or so, actually listened to these players and based PvP off of 1v1 rather than group play. All of this because dissinformation by uninformed players.

I see the same kind of QQ happening here. I would hate to see Elementalists get buffed not because they need it, but because the skill curve is to high for the current population to handle to make it a popular class. When you start balancing games in this way you are locked into a progessivly bad balancing system which never attempts to solve any “issues”, it only attempts to level the playing feild with bubbles, cc’s, and all other of stupid abilities that slow combat rather than improve it.

I am having alot of fun in GW2. Please don’t put dissinformation on the forums before you actually put time into learning a class. I don’t want another AoC incident.

Your playing a light armor caster. Of course a melee is going to mow you down if your not paying attention. I am not saying there is not some inbalance issues (Heartseeker?), but typically every game is going to have what is considered a “FoTM” or “OP” class. Over the life of the game, who that is will always shift. What makes a player better is learning how to counter these abilities with their preffered class. Sometimes, there is nothing you can do. There is no shame in being put down by a Theif, they have every tool to do so in a single target to target scenerio. On the other hand, classes change and 6 months from now that same Theif might be complaining about Elementalists being stupid OP.

The best thing a player can do is learn to stick with their team and learn combat animations. The nastiest attacks in game are often telegrpahed by animation, which with enough practice, players can become twitch sensitive and either avoid or CC these attacks like 2nd nature.

Leiloni.7951:

Suctum.6912:

Why precision? Bolt through the Heart is by one of the best skills in game.

Like I said, for a support spec staff user that’s a waste of points. I’m not specced into burst damage and I don’t play that way, so why would I take a trait that does that, in a line with a ton of stuff that does nothing for me, and a stat I’m not even stacking on my gear anyway? People use different weapons, different utilities, different gear, and have different playstyles. Just because something works for you, that doesn’t mean it makes sense for everyone.

If you read my post, that’s exactly what I said. The other guy wanted me to explain why I choose what I do. The only spec that works for someone is what will work FOR them. However, as in all MMO’s there are things that just do not work for anyone. I’m sorry, but DPS/Utility wise, there is nothing in Fire worth it for anyone. To waste 30 points in Fire for an extra 300 dps? I just can’t see someone thinking that 300 dps at 80 with full exotic gear is worthwhile…

As for staff or dagger/sceptor, I never said which one I use because I use them both. It depends on who I am fighting an who I am with, I prefer dagger/sceptor, but sometimes I like to use the staff. I limit dagger/dagger pretty much to PvE, but since they changed some of the abilities to conal attacks it seems more viable for PvP. I just do not like the short range, I tend to stay about medium range as that’s what I am used to from Age of Conan.

Xriah.5743:

Suctum.6912:

The point of my post is that PvP is a TEAM effort. You can stack Water all you want, you will never be a tank, and you will never be able to out heal sustained DPS. The best way to play an elementalist is to think of yourself as a utlility class. Sure, you can murder bads all day in minis, but when it comes down to it a seasoned vet on any of the “considered” OP classes (mesmer, warrior, theif) is going to down you 75% of the time without someone to back you up. Playing as an elementalist, you should always roll with someone and and take advanatge of their CC’s. While we do have a bunch of CC’s, they are not game changers and they act more as intterupts rather than a full blown stun. I find myself doing only average when I try to win minis by myself. When playing with people who know their roles, I feel almost OP. Elementalist is not the class for someone who wants do straight up DPS, but if you enjoy kiting and outlasting most opponents, this is defitenly where it is at.

As to people who spec Fire…what traits are you goign for? 10% more dps is nothing, 5% extra burn damage is what? 10 dps? Other than the cooldown shortner on abilities or perhaps fire fields lasting 30%, I see no reason to even put a point into Fire. PvE, I have 2100 power without a single point in fire. What is 300 power with 30 trait points tied up going to do for me? Nothing. In PvP, what’s 300 power going to get you? Slightly more DPS but nothing that constitutes a game changer. When taking traits, go for ability unlocks rather than what little stats you get. It’s all about play style, so I’ll keep my recomendations to myself, but getting to PvP 20 already obvisouly what I use works and it’s nowhere near the garbage people are putting up on the forums.

Do yourself a favor and find what works for your play style, that’s what usaully works the best.

I go for the Fire trait that gives me 3 stacks of might for each cantrip and the 10% damage traits. Might is nice. 3xMight is nicer still.

The more base damage I have, the higher my crits are gonna be. Specing 30 into lightning will get me nastier crits. It makes a huge difference, and I weigh both the stats as well as the abilities when I make selections.

I’m asking people to try something besides “must put points in arcane”. You say to find what works for your playstyle. Yet, your also saying my advice of trying something else is bad. A little contradictory.

Having an sPvP rank of 20 means you sink a lot of time into PvP. Doesn’t say anything about actual skill. Care for a friendly duel? I’m genuinely curious as to how you do. I shouldn’t be too much trouble with my garbage advice and tactics.

Again, your reverting to 1v1 to say one spec is better than another, I am basing my opinion on group play. If MMO’s were based on 1v1, they would not be MMO’s would they? You can stack all you want into fire, but your not getting any extra DPS that’s worth mentioning. Why do I spec Arcana, because I can put conditions on Arcane Wave and Arcane Blast if I choose. I can also apply vigor every time I crit, which is sually 1/2.5 times. I can aslo cast attunement bonuses for my team. Why precision? Bolt through the Heart is by one of the best skills in game. Why 10 in earth, because a free Armor of Earth coupled with an attuntment switch to earth gives me 66% damage defelction, which is plenty of time to cast a quick cleansing wave and swith to lighting and RtL out of danger. The fact each arcane ability recharges my stamina by 25% gives me plenty of time and chances to dodge telegraphed animations like heartseeker and BC. I could continue to explain myself but that does not help players improve their PvP skills. I can only tell you basic builds and you all need to find what works. But I can tell you now there is nothing in fire to warrant a single point…

Attack 2929
Condition Damage 300
Critical Chance 53%
Critical Damage 53%
Armor 2195
Health 11,285
Healing 0

This my PvE stats, and I find that it’s pretty much well built all around. My build works around crit chance rather than crit damage as I specced myself for abilities that rely on crit chance. I find that having low hit points is not really an issue even in WvWvW

As for traits, I go 30 Lighting, 10 earth, 30 Arcana, same as my PvP build and it seems to work great for me and my playstyle. This of course, will not work for everyone.

No problem where with my Elementalist. I find myself doing quite well when supported in groups. I do have a hard time 1v1 some classes, but then again, I put myself into a 1v1 situation in group PvP, which should not happen.

I see people mainly crying about 1v1. I have news for people. Elementalist is a group PvP class. Your built to support group play. If your 1v1 everyone you maybe need to pick a different class. Balance in a MMO should never be on 1v1 situation.

If your not doing well, you need to check 3 things.
1. Are you feating traits for abilities or for stats. If your doing it for the latter you are kittening yourself.
2. Do you actually have a rotation for situations are just spamming abilities? Just spamming your highest DPS casts while not bothering to debuff or CC anyone is usually a good way to contribute absolutely nothing to your team.
3. Are you using your AoE buffs/heals for yourself or your team? If your playing selfishly and not bothering to use any of the group utility which is inherit of the class your disregarding 50% of your role in PvP.

If your not for team play I do not think this is the class for you. If you enjoy doing good dps (not exteme) and like a kiting/supporting in PvP, this class is extemely fun.

BlueprintLFE.2358:

Suctum.6912:

Why would you not spec heavily into arcana? I find myself only needing one ability here and there in an attunement, being able to readily switch quicker is great considering you can gain boons on each swap if you spec for it.

I run 30 lightning, 10 earth, and 30 arcana and did well enough to make it up to pvp 20 that way. Am I going to lose 1vs1 in some situations, sure, but PvP is a team game. I should never be left alone and games that balance classes according to 1vs1 are always fail. Do I feel that ele’s seem a little short on DPS, sometimes. But then factor in that alot of the dps is aoe rather than single target, and it makes sense.

I think people get used to caster’s in mmo’s being traditionally very easy, and most of the complaints about elementalists are about having to switch attunements and memorise abilities. Comming from Age of Conan, I had soem classes that would have 30+ keybinds, remembering 20 abilities all bound to 1-5 and easily swapped with F1-F4 feels like a give me class.

So my point is, if your a pver and think you can do well in pvp with an ele because it’s a caster, your probably going to get face rolled and complain the class is broken. L2P folks.

Ah Suctum, I was wondering if I was going to See you on the forums, also saw Cogbyrn posting somewhere.

I completely agree with this post. Arcana has to many good benefits to completely ignore, and the ability to keep protection and regen Boons up are HUGE, not to mention boon lengthening as well.

Edit: I’m Running D/D so swapping attunements for Boons cc’s and the extra protection and swiftness is great for my playstyle. Like suction said, coming from AOC I’m used to TONS of key ones and micro managing, that’s what drew me to the ele fast paced playstyle with micro management and the arcane feats help me stay in that style.

Good to see AoC players here. Any AoC player, even the most average one, has 4 legs up on these WoW players here. Sad to say, but you will not see much competition outside of tourneys. The fact people think that specing traits for stats rather than abilities will make them do more “dps” or “heal better” is out right lols. I hope the popualtion gets a bit quicker to realise that most people who offer advice on the forums don’t know what they are talking about. I find it’s bet to just point somethign out, and let folks find out themselves if it works for them or not. However, reading these posts for a while it’s clear to me 90% of the people playing elementalists have no clue what they are doing. I hope ANet is not like Funcom and listens to these people when it comes to balance.

The point of my post is that PvP is a TEAM effort. You can stack Water all you want, you will never be a tank, and you will never be able to out heal sustained DPS. The best way to play an elementalist is to think of yourself as a utlility class. Sure, you can murder bads all day in minis, but when it comes down to it a seasoned vet on any of the “considered” OP classes (mesmer, warrior, theif) is going to down you 75% of the time without someone to back you up. Playing as an elementalist, you should always roll with someone and and take advanatge of their CC’s. While we do have a bunch of CC’s, they are not game changers and they act more as intterupts rather than a full blown stun. I find myself doing only average when I try to win minis by myself. When playing with people who know their roles, I feel almost OP. Elementalist is not the class for someone who wants do straight up DPS, but if you enjoy kiting and outlasting most opponents, this is defitenly where it is at.

As to people who spec Fire…what traits are you goign for? 10% more dps is nothing, 5% extra burn damage is what? 10 dps? Other than the cooldown shortner on abilities or perhaps fire fields lasting 30%, I see no reason to even put a point into Fire. PvE, I have 2100 power without a single point in fire. What is 300 power with 30 trait points tied up going to do for me? Nothing. In PvP, what’s 300 power going to get you? Slightly more DPS but nothing that constitutes a game changer. When taking traits, go for ability unlocks rather than what little stats you get. It’s all about play style, so I’ll keep my recomendations to myself, but getting to PvP 20 already obvisouly what I use works and it’s nowhere near the garbage people are putting up on the forums.

Do yourself a favor and find what works for your play style, that’s what usaully works the best.

Why would you not spec heavily into arcana? I find myself only needing one ability here and there in an attunement, being able to readily switch quicker is great considering you can gain boons on each swap if you spec for it.

I run 30 lightning, 10 earth, and 30 arcana and did well enough to make it up to pvp 20 that way. Am I going to lose 1vs1 in some situations, sure, but PvP is a team game. I should never be left alone and games that balance classes according to 1vs1 are always fail. Do I feel that ele’s seem a little short on DPS, sometimes. But then factor in that alot of the dps is aoe rather than single target, and it makes sense.

I think people get used to caster’s in mmo’s being traditionally very easy, and most of the complaints about elementalists are about having to switch attunements and memorise abilities. Comming from Age of Conan, I had soem classes that would have 30+ keybinds, remembering 20 abilities all bound to 1-5 and easily swapped with F1-F4 feels like a give me class.

So my point is, if your a pver and think you can do well in pvp with an ele because it’s a caster, your probably going to get face rolled and complain the class is broken. L2P folks.