Guild Wars 2

TemperHoof.6438:

Come back when you hit 380 or better. Then I might be impressed.

I was not trying to impress you, I was proving how much of a child you were. Your response proves my point further.
I don’t screencap every time I win a match, and just because you were fighting a group of no0bs (highest score on your 2nd screenshot was 80, wth??) who stood still for an entire match and let you kill them — it doesn’t prove any sort of superiority of Rangers over Elementalists.

(EDIT: Oh, and you had 75 points on your first screenshot from Forest Creatures killed, tough man you are!)

Fact is: Elementalist is fine in PvP. Elementalist CAN and DOES score high in PvP matches.

Xhaiden.3891:

Oh, well, there’s a screenshot now. Clearly that means everything is fine!

My screenshot was directed at TemperHoof.6438, who wanted to prove his superiority as a ranger by posting a high-scoring screenshot. I merely wish to point out that it’s not “superior” to end first in a match, and even us poor, weak, underpowered, unloved Elementalists can do it.

@Toxification
Actually, Water has an AoE chill (slow), and a chill-on-hit. Air gives you a passive movement buff. So utilizing your skills would, in effect, help you stick to your target.

@mcavellero
True about the air skills – but then again I think you need to see each attunement as having a purpose. Fire is for damage, water for healing/slowing, air for mobility, earth for defense and bleeds. Your two main damage dealers would be Fire and Earth presence (Churning Earth), just like you wouldn’t expect Water to be damaging, so you shouldn’t expect Air. Air is to get you where you want to be faster than your enemy can see it coming.

Ooo, I also have screenshots!

Oh, would you look at that, looks like Elementalist can also be the top-scoring player!

Deepcuts.9740:

Amnon, I do understand what you are saying. And partially you are right from a programmer’s point of view. But…
Judging by what you said, I propose police should wait and do nothing until at least 1000 people get murdered, in front of the police station, so they can put together a program that somehow predicts what kind of people kill other people.
ONLY after that, they will do something about it.
And the examples can continue…

I am not saying it is easy to catch bots, but doing nothing for so long?

ArenaNet are not the police; they are game developers. And they do ban accounts – but just like in real life, the moment you put one down, 2 more pop up. These people have literally limitless access to new accounts, either by buying or hacking them.

I’m not saying nothing should be done, but I am saying it takes creative thinking, which can take a while. I, as a former independent MMO developer, had similar problems myself – and some of the solutions felt like “punishment” to the players, but they were necessary.

Nageth.5648:

Uh, everything you do on an alt is a timesink by that logic.

The whole game is a timesink.
Computer games, in essence, are giant timesinks.
Life, is that big time sink you have before you die.

Philosophy aside, if you want to level an alt, then level an alt. It’s a new character, and I don’t see why it needs to have certain achievements you’ve made with your old character. Nobody is forcing anyone to make alts in this game – which is why you can gather all materials and switch between crafting professions (without losing progress).

Vzur.7123:

You consider vistas and POIs to be 50% of the leveling game?

Read my quote again; I said “map completion”, not leveling.
Map completion consists of Vistas, POIs, Skill Points, and Heart Quests. Hence, POIs and Vistas are 50% of map completion.

I don’t think you understand how overflow servers work.

I think the idea is for ANet to control the flow of information to the player. They want to avoid minmaxing (recount), and unfair advantages (think of Deadly Boss Mods alert telling you to dodge when your opponent is casting a long attack).

Not all addons are evil, but once that hatch opens it’s hard to control it.

I feel your pain, Cabbage – I would also love to have certain addons in GW, but ANet’s current stance is that they don’t want them. They want every player to play the game using the same tools.

I can sort of understand where they’re coming from. They want a leveled playing field, and they don’t want people checking out everyone else’ DPS meters and being jerks about it.

API is for external applications (think WoW Armory), an addon is an in-game extension. I don’t think anyone here is confusing the two.

So you’d get the map completion bonus 50% faster, which would put things a bit out of balance, wouldn’t you agree?

I did not misunderstand; they will NOT permit addons nor support them. There will be no implementation of it because they do not want one.

As far as I know, the official stance is that addons will not be permitted nor supported in this game.

So let’s say you complete a zone with your level 80 character, when you create an alt all the heart-quests would be completed? All the POIs? What about the experience points you get from them?

I agree that creating an alt and doing the same heart quests that you just did with your L80 is a bit daunting; but I’m sure once you’re done with world completion and they’re not as fresh in your mind, it would get better.

Not only is there dualing, GW2 supports QUAD CORE processors as well!

… joking aside, yes, it would be a nice feature; but it’s not that urgent.

It’s not so easy to “deal” with bots. Bots work because they emulate the game client – sending the same commands as a normal player does. ANet needs to find a method of detecting bots, and then banning them en-masse.

If they ban one bot account, that person will simply buy/hack a new account and use that. The problem needs to be stopped at the source – the actual botting program. This, unfortunately, is not easy.

My CTRL+Spacebar keys broke. I’m sure you all know what I had that keymapped to – so I’m angry.

A very interesting analysis, but would you not also consider staying near your opponent “skill” even if he tries to move away?

I agree that Dragon’s Tooth is awful in PvP, but the dagger/dagger skills are more about you sticking on your enemy’s back and not letting him go anywhere, while circling him so he can’t hit you.

Moophious.1735:

What worries me more is why there isn’t an option to create any Jewish toons……

AIPAC is still considering my request; they said I should get a reply by the end of the Jewish year…. and then congratulated me for the Jewish new year last week.

Elona has a black population, but at the moment they are mainly… uhhh, slaves, to this Necromancer tyrant.

I should expect a knock on the door and a lawsuit any moment now, shouldn’t I?

Lightning gives you mobility, blinding, and CC. Scepter has a blind, dagger offhand has ride the lightning and updraft (mobility + cc), and dagger mainhand has shocking aura and weakness.

Wait… did you just teleport right at the end of Churning Earth?? That works? Awesome

Elementalists must have the highest number of knockdowns and blinds in the game.
If you’re dagger/dagger: shock aura, earthquake, updraft
If you’re scepter/dagger: dust devil, blinding flash, earthquake, updraft

You also have cantrips to survive their bursts, mobility skills (burning speed, air attunement bonus, ride the lightning, magnetic grasp) to confuse them (or run away), and a single attack with 8-point bleeding.

Show those thieves no mercy!

You know what, Zeropride, you’re right. All classes should be created equal.

This is why I propose all classes are to be made as complex as Elementalist. Would you agree to that?

Oh, wait, you want all classes to be just as easy/hard as YOU are capable of playing? Oh, now it all makes sense to me.

But more seriously, great design is allowing each player to play the game with the difficulty level he feels comfortable with. Just because everyone wants to play the hardest difficulty and aren’t able to, how is that either ANet’s problem, or my problem (which it will become if they change the class)?

Celine, I couldn’t care less what label you put on me; I’m staggered that it seems to impossible for you to understand that some people actually enjoy a challenge.
Not everyone wants to play ezmode; those of you who do are welcome to do it.

Serious question: if other classes are “blowing you away”, and you feel this class is weak, then why are you playing an Elementalist?

So Spiritus, you believe me wanting 2 classes, while you have 6 is Greedy and Childish?
Especially when you’re the one asking to take one away from those 2… If your argument stands, it’s only because War Monk is rolling it up that hill you’ve made.

If it were, then how come Spiritus isn’t here to defend his comment? In fact, you’re the only one.

War Monk, when you can come up with anything other than 1-liner piggybacks on other people’s comments, I’d start taking you more seriously. Meanwhile, I still don’t consider wanting to have 2 classes and you having 6 “Greedy” or “Selfish”.

Spiritus.3508:

Pot, meet kettle.

You’ll have to excuse me for not feeling sorry for those people who can play 6 out of 8 classes, but want the other 2 as well. You don’t see me going to the Warrior forum whining it’s too boring; so leave the non-simple classes alone if you can’t play them.

Is it greedy to want my 2/8 classes? Only according to you, the guys trying to steal #7.

Let me put it in simpler terms:
This game has 2 challenging classes, and 6 easy classes.
People who can only play easy classes are trying to force ANet into changing Elementalist to be easy.
I don’t like to play an easy class because I find it boring.

People who like easy classes should try one of the 6 easy classes, and not try to steal the precious few challenging ones. That is greedy, that is selfish, that is childish.

People who like easy classes already have 75% of the classes to play, while people like myself have 25%. I’m fine with it, but by whatever god you believe in, you’d better be sure I’d speak my opinion against people who try to make that ratio any worse for me.

Oliin.9581:

Think about it, if a very skilled player is feeling a good solid challenge from something then what’s the average Joe feeling? They’re throwing up their hands in frustration and switching to a different character, and that just doesn’t work as well in an MMO as it does in a ‘single-player’ game, especially one trying to be as ‘fun’ and ‘accessible’ as GW2 is.

Like I said, they have other classes to play which are far easier. I want my challenging class, I honestly couldn’t care less if other people don’t enjoy it, because for them to enjoy it would detract from MY enjoyment of the class.

Just like I don’t play a Warrior because I find it boring (which you don’t see my whining about on the Warrior forums), if you have a problem with Elementalists, then don’t play one.

Nekrothaft.6390:

Roll a necro.

heh.. yeah that would work
Have you seen how broken that profession is?

Actually I haven’t played one yet, but I keep hearing everyone cheer for their high base health and lifesteal.

Oh yes, why don’t I go play Barbie Adventures blindfolded and tell you how hard that game was, too?

I don’t want to handicap myself, I want a challenging class. If you don’t, there’s nobody forcing you to play it.

Sharpe.1485:

This is what you people fail to understand, there is NOTHING to take away from you – once classes are balanced, it is purely your skill against other players skill – that is what balance is!
Wanting a whole class to remain underpowered just so you can “rofl I’m playing this POS and can still beat you!” is not a reasonable argument to alienate every person that enjoys the elementalist playstyle.

I don’t want the class to stay as it is so I can “rofl” at someone; I want the class because I truly enjoy the challenge of playing it. Why, why, why must I keep saying it? I’m not being selfish, I just want my darn difficult game.

I’m sick and tired of 3-button rotations.
I’m sick and tired of standing in place mashing the keyboard.
I’m sick and tired of not having to use a single brain cell, and rather use muscle memory, to play my class.

This is why I left WoW.

I would also agree that, for Dynamic Events, each point healed and each point of damage soaked by a boon — should be consider as a point of damage done to a monster.

Hey! Finally some ideas for the Elementalist that sound good; it still requires you to use some brain matter to use these bonuses.

Sharpe.1485:

“Not everybody can play ele” Now.. if you weren’t so full of yourself, you’d realize that this is an MMO, people of all skill levels will play it, casuals, hardcores, etc.. and when a class can only be playable by the elitist minority, while other classes don’t require that sort of “dedication” – something is wrong with it.

They can play a Warrior, then. What in the name of all that is good is wrong with some “elitist” players liking a CHALLENGE in a game once in a while?!

There are 6 professions in this game which are faceroll-ably easy, and 2 which are difficult to play. Let us have our challenge if we want it, stop trying to take it away from us just because you want to play Elementalist so darn much because of whatever stigmas you have attached to it!

I still find it shocking that, just because the class you happened to pick first is too difficult for you, you cry and quit the game.

Roll a warrior. Roll a necro. Roll a ranger. Just as long as you roll out of here with your whining.

Relax, everyone. Ganadorf is a complete troll; every single post he’s made on these forums since day 1 were complaints about the dumbest of things. I’m shocked he’s still actually playing the game, after complaining about every single aspect of it for so long.

And just for fun: You don’t NEED a group to level up, there are plenty of solo events, and all heart quests are solo-able. There are group quests in WoW, also, along side dungeon quests. If you can’t find players during the times you play, consider moving to a European server.

I’m sorry, but all this shows are bits and pieces from fights where you happened to win; I can’t take this video seriously.

And to be honest, you seem to be stuck in Fire attunement the whole time, never switching even when you should.

I like Frost Bow in dungeons for its Deep Freeze ability. Nothing like completely blocking out an enemy for a few precious seconds, right? Vulnerability is also quite awesome for tough enemies.

Lightning hammer, as Ergo Proxy mentioned, is a lifesaver when you’re stuck in PvE against a group of 3+ monsters. Get them together, start auto-attacking, and you won’t be hit once due to the AoE blind.

Fred Fargone.3127:

Thats the point most people make: With ele, you need to make amazing combos to be about as effective as a tief spamming 2 on their keyboard. Thats not balanced.

So they are free to play a different class. I like amazing combos, I like the smell of the smoke coming from the keyboard as I hit those number buttons and F buttons at 88MPH. I like relying on dodging rather than armor, because it makes me feel like my skill matters and not my gear.

And honestly, I don’t feel “on par” with other classes; I feel the Elementalist is better. I feel the Elementalist has control of the fight.

Next, we’ll split the fight into certain phases:

Nuke phase
You’ll want to stay mainly in Fire presence, but don’t be afraid to switch if your skills are on Cooldown.
Put down a lava font first, flame burst, and Meteor Shower if the enemy/enemies are large enough for it to be effective (don’t use it if you’re fighting a single Asura, as it just won’t hit).
Throw a couple of fireballs until Lava Font is up again, and throw it down. Conjure a Frost Bow.
Volley that enemy first! It stacks vulnerability, and is also a combo finisher, aside from the multiple hits.
Frost pan for a quick attack.
Deep Freeze if it can affect the enemy (some bosses aren’t affected)
If deep freeze is successful, or if the boss is standing still, use Ice Storm.
If Frost Volley is off cooldown, use that again.
Discard your frost bow, repeat Fire rotation.

If you’re out of moves, I normally switch to Earth and Shockwave/Eruption the enemy.

Remember to always keep an eye out on your team’s health bars, as this brings us to:

Recovery phase
If you’re in Earth or Air attunements, throw your combo field one last time.
Find the player or group that needs help – go to them.
Switch to water attunement – you and he gets a free regen.
If he’s staying in place, use Geyser. Otherwise, or if you need to heal a large group, use Healing Rain.
Stand next to your healing target, and use Arcane Blast. Area healing!
Make sure Frozen Ground is up so your enemy can’t hurt you.

Aside from healing your immediate surroundings, you’ve also healed yourself considerably – and you don’t need many points in water for this to be effective. Arcane Blast does a nice amount of healing if used while you’re inside the Geyser or Rain.

Now, since your party is taking damage, you should consider moving to…

Kiting phase
During Kiting, your job would be mainly to dance between your attunements to use your slowing abilities.
Start with Earth, as it has 2 skills, and one instant immobilize.
Use Shockwave to immobilize your opponent. This gives you enough time to lay down Unsteady Ground in front of him.
If he’s using ranged attacks, use Magnetic Aura. It’s instant – what do you care!?

Switch to Air
Static Field around or in front of your enemy.
Windborne Speed to help anyone who’s staying too close, or has Chill/Cripple/Immobilize and can’t run.
Lightning Surge to make your enemy’s next attack miss.
Gust if the enemy is susceptible to it.

Switch to Water
Frozen Ground, obviously. Any incoming hits the enemy takes will also chill it.

Rinse, repeat.

Bottom Line
The Elementalist dies fast in dungeons, so stick to the background.
The Elementalist doesn’t do much damage, but he can boost his team’s damage considerably more!
The Elementalist doesn’t run faster, but he can slow and stun his enemies.

I hope these tips help those of you who are having a hard time finding your “niche” in a dungeon group. I don’t consider myself an uber player, but I do spend a lot of time on this class; I’d be happy to hear your own experiences and improvements.

I know a lot of you are frustrated with the Elementalist class. It appears weak on the surface, it’s squishy, and its damage output isn’t the best. I would like to share some tips to help you do more with your elementalist. For now, I’ll stick with dungeons – feel free to add more tips!

It’s true, Elementalists are squishy. In a dungeon environment where monsters hit everyone, and bosses hit hard, I find it best to use a Staff. True, its damage output is very low, but a staff elementalist is a boon to any team.

The Build
A lot of the build is up to your personal preference. Here are the talents I consider most important:
Fire:
Internal Fire (sometimes you just have to nuke things, and when you do, you’ll be attuned to fire).
Pyromancer’s Alacrity (allows for a second lava font by the time you’re done with all your other fire skills)

Air:
Inscription (Explained below)

Water:
Cleansing Wave (really, take it)

Arcane:
Elemental Attunement (Free might, regen, swiftness, and protection? Yes please!)

The rest are up to you. Some people like Blasting Staff for larger AoE attacks, I say it only makes Meteor Shower less accurate; it’s up to you.

The Skills
For healing, I use Glyph of Elemental Harmony. Try to use it in Water attunement, since when combined with Inscription, you will gain a free regen.

Utility:
Arcane Blast (Staff doesn’t have a lot of combo finishers, and this comes in very handy)
Conjure Frost Bow (my preference, though you can replace this with Glyph of Storms for an attack that also gives you a boon thanks to Inscription)
Mist Form (or other cantrip; I use Mist because you can revive a player while being invulnerable)

Elite:
Any of your summoning abilities (Hounds of Balthazar, Mistfire wolf, Elemental, etc, to help keep you away from the fight)

The Play
First thing you should remember: You’re not here to top the DPS chart in the team. An elementalist is best suited to help his group survive and be more effective in combat.

Your combo fields are your best friends as an elementalist – and you have a lot of them. You have so many stuns and slows you could keep an army of ogres at bay. While there is no “rotation” per se, your first priority with whatever attunement you’re currently in would be make sure your enemy is inside one of your combo fields. Why? Because each of them serves not one, but TWO purposes:

Fire: Lava Font – Aside from just damaging the opponent, each team member will now start burning the enemy with their normal attacks. Free team damage? Heck yeah!
Water: Frozen Ground – A superb AoE slow which could mean the difference between dying and successfully kiting/running away. Aside from that, each hit from your teammates will add Chill to your enemy!
Air: Static Field – AoE stun is great on its own, but when your team members start stacking vulnerability on their targets? Each stack is +1% damage.
Earth: Unsteady Ground (Not a combo field, but will slow down the enemy)

These fields should always be the first thing you cast when switching an attunement; they apply for any scenario you’re in since they’re both offensive and defensive.

Sai Ree, the first thing you need to know as an elementalist: This is not the WoW mage. Elementalist is a melee class which relies on dodging, slowing, kiting, and self-healing to survive. It’s not as easy as having heavy armor, but I believe it makes for much more fun gameplay.

Normally, when I’m running between fight to fight, I’m in Air attunement. When I see a target, I immediately open with Ride the Lightning and Updraft. Due to RtL’s long range, you’ve immediately opened the fight with the advantage of instant knockdown. If using a Scepter, throw in a 2 & 3 combo to damage and blind (but not if using a dagger, since you’ll be too far away).

Switch to Fire. If using a dagger, use 3 to move straight on top of the enemy and burn him – otherwise run there. Throw a ring of fire, and hit with an Arcane Blast (+might). If using a scepter, throw 2 & 3 for more might. If using a dagger, use fire breath.

Switch to Earth.
Knockdown again using Earthquake.
If using a dagger, use Magnetic Pull to immobilize your opponent, then Churning Earth. He’ll have to be pretty good to get out of that one, or dodge right on time.
If using a scepter, blind.

Switch to water.
Use healing wave for a quick heal, which you probably need by now.
Use 4, because it’s instant and could chill your enemy if he hits you.
If using a dagger, use 3 to instantly chill the enemy, then 2 to do some damage.

Back to lightning.
Rinse, repeat.

EDIT: Of course, not all your enemies would be puppets – most of the time things don’t go according to plan. Learn to utilize your attunement switching buffs – switch to Water for healing and condition removal, switch to Earth for defense, lightning to run away.

Always have a Cantrip in your skill bar, I use Mist Form. Utilize your defensive moves, such as the lightning shield (dagger). Most importantly: Be in control of the fight. Knock him down, blind him, burn him, and run around him until his head spins.

You know what, I feel entitled to insult people who cry like babies over something they simply don’t understand. “Elementalist is weak! Elementalist is underpowered!” – truth is, Elementalist is “different”, perhaps more difficult to play, but not weak or UP. I’ve stated it many times before, but there are always more whiners who come from WoW and expect “Mages” to be 1-button facerolls.

Just because the Elementalist playstyle doesn’t suit certain people, that’s their problem, not the class. It suits me just fine, and I find it really strong in sPvP. So yes, when 5 people come here and spam “Ele is weak”, I will show up and call them blockheads, crybabies, or whatever it is I feel like calling them. Don’t like it? Play a warrior. Don’t like that? Play a Ranger. Don’t like that? There are many more classes to choose from.

Staff is for group play.
Scepter/Dagger is for Solo.
Dagger/Dagger or Dagger/Focus is for PvP.

Put at least 20 points into Arcana trait tree for ANY build.
If you’re trying to do Solo, then at least 20 points into Fire. 30 is also nice, but it depends on how squishy you feel.
Also: learn to kite, learn to dodge, learn to swap attunements. Nimble fingers are that important for this class.

Bah-bye. When you realize Elementalist is simply not the play-style for you and you should pick a class that is, feel free to come back. Just don’t forget your password, which I’m guessing is “aaaaaaaa” since you obviously are only capable of pressing one button.