Guild Wars 2

@Ajwz, how would you go about that though? I’m just curious to hear another persons opinion who didn’t start their conversation with “get better nubs”.

I see what you are saying and I find it very well thought out, but I still find it to be an underwhelming skill that is probably in the wrong class. None of the conjure weapons are all that useful imo and one that only gives some slight support (most of which is also found in the focus off hand) doesn’t warrant a spot on my skill bar. That is just compounded by the fact that even though they have the most number of skills in our utility skills area, they are not supported by our traits or our weapons in the slightest (except some stupid extra count skill that is only good if all of your skills are spammable or else you should just get dump it quickly).

This topic kinda got out of hand. I’m not going to explain it again because I’ve done so tons of times and the people who disagree with me and the general consensus of the forum aren’t going to change their mind simply based on logic and good reasoning. I’m pretty sure that they are all good players, but bad people and they don’t care that us lesser beings can’t play the class as well as other, similarly skilled, players can play the other classes. I’m glad that they are content with putting that much effort forth and only being as good as slightly above average players in other classes.

Yeah, just because it hasn’t happened to some people doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen and this really shouldn’t be happening just because it requires more skilled players just to equal any other class.

@Hydrophidian
+1 We are playable, but I feel that it just isn’t balanced. But, and I have said this before, we might actually be a balanced class if we could play with fully function skills/traits and the sort. I really think we will still be UP but I would like to try it first.

There reasoning is that if they get a player who is just as skilled as them then they lose because it takes more skill than other classes to get the same outcome. They don’t want to risk getting a lesser skilled ele when any other class can be taken in and not have to worry as much.

I’m not saying that they don’t offer anything to dungeons. There are actually groups that won’t accept eles into their dungeon runs and it makes sense to be honest. It isn’t as risky to take another class because their skill requirement isn’t as high. But say, if our pay off was higher for the amount of skill we need, then this wouldn’t be a problem.

It’s no problem Jadda. I probably went overboard anyways. I’m listening to my recently gained “Guild Wars 2” soundtrack and I keep listening to “Fear Not This Night”…. I much calmer now than ever lol. Seriously…. LOOK UP THAT SONG.

Baladir, I’m not asking to be a tanky ele, just that we have more damage for the armor we do have. It totally makes sense that we have to put more skill into our playing but that skill shouldn’t equal an outcome that is weaker than most other classes with equally skilled players.

I honestly think that if the conjure spell only conjured one weapon in your hand it would be better. I hate that I have to ground target my conjures and then wait for a cast time. Though the burn from greatsword and axe are neat.

Hydrophidian.4319:

DaedalusDragon.3754:

Just look at that number…. I use 25 skills when I have to fight one player…. they use 3 (or 8 if they want to be flashy with their utility/elites/heals).

Couldn’t this be taken as an argument that the other classes need to have greater complexity, rather than the Elementalist needing less?

While I agree the design of the Elementalist is going to need some work in the coming months, does anyone really want ‘mashing 3 buttons’ to be the gold standard in gameplay? I most certainly don’t.

Definitely, but I see the amount of work on Anet’s side and think that just making the effort = reward a much easier task. Some of those classes would require an, almost, complete rework which would be like starting the class development process over again. And for the most part those classes are ok because other classes can counter with a similar tactic. The ele can’t though.

And P.S. I really like the skill required to play the ele. I think it makes it stand out and be more challenging. But from any “challenge” aspect (dungeons, which are already starting to exclude eles and pvp) the elementalist can be replaced by any other class and work better with a team and still require a less skilled player.

Yukishiro.8792:

Tornado has one particular use in dungeons: it is a whirl finisher that lasts a really long time. If you have a team that can place lots of combo fields you can put out some ridiculous combos with it.

That is a good point and I hadn’t thought of that. I think I still prefer the elemental for when I need one more damage absorber but that is certainly a good idea.

Jadda.1753:

DaedalusDragon.3754:

. You know it isn’t balanced when you lose to a similarly skilled player every time you encounter them. And it is a slap in the face when they do it with 3 buttons and no weapon switching and I’m having to use all 25 skills.

Just look at that number…. I use 25 skills when I have to fight one player…. they use 3 (or 8 if they want to be flashy with their utility/elites/heals).

This I belive is the dumbest arguement that elementalists need buff.
What do you think will happen if they buff so you only need to use 5 skills? You will DESTROY if you use the remaining 15. Elemtalist is hard to play and takes effort. If you dont like effort then roll a guardian.

I didn’t say that I wanted to win with 5 skills. I want to be able to do as well as everyone else when I use all of my APPLICABLE skills. As it is right now if we use all of our skills and are skilled players then we are almost always beat by ANY other class with less or equal skill as our own. I don’t understand how people don’t understand that. I don’t want an easy class, because I like the difficulty of this class (which I have posted uncountable times now). But if I am going to work as hard as I do then why am I still weaker than other characters?

And you are trying to say that my argument is poor when you put words in my mouth and decided that yours was better. I like having 25 skills. But I should NOT have to use every single one of them to still be weaker than any other class with their smaller button rotations.

Have you ever heard of “high risk, high reward”? That is what the ele is supposed to be. We risk a lot (work very hard) and so we shouldn’t still be weaker than the other classes who all have (for the most part) more hp, defense, and attack and support abilities.

These kinds of posts are what I hate to see. Nobody who is in favor of keeping ele as it is (or who just like to argue my points with invalid arguments) wants to give logical reasons. They think (not necessarily anyone in this topic, as I don’t know yet) that just because pros can play the elementalist well against other characters with less skill that everyone should either be a pro or just quit ele. This class isn’t accessible and the return on the effort isn’t there either. But whatever. If you don’t like how the majority of us feel who are giving good reasons, then go play another class because I have a FEELING that Anet will agree with us on most of these points to some extent and help out their very broken class (both the bugs that plague quite a few of our skills, and our overall lack of playability).

So can you make an argument that defends what you want or will you just put words in my mouth again and call me stupid?

Seriously Drunken Monkey.2653:

MajorMelchett.6042:

So at 20 points (or whatever) in fire you could select “improved flame axes” which would add an addition 25% damage and an addional 25% buring -Water “improved frost bow” this could add an addiotnal xyz heal per attack and a 33% chance to chill the target – Air “improved lightning hammer” (my fav i might add) could apply an addional 10% speed and a 5% increase in attack speed – and Earth “improved earth sheild” could add an extra 50% toughness.

I like your idea MajorMelchett, but I wouldn’t make a different trait for each Conjured Weapon. Otherwise we would end up with 5 different traits that are all only useful for one skill each. Maybe a weaker version of yours in the Arcane Tree that combines all or some of the effects in one? (I like more general traits more, rather than traits that are specific to one skill)

Plus, all we have right now are specific skills that only affect one element anyways.

This is a great topic. I look forward to a fully functioning ele!

I agree with the majority (which is obvious if you have read any other post by me here lol). It isn’t that we can’t do well now in PvE and such, it is that I have to put in much more effort to get similar results as other classes. On that note though, I don’t want it to be easier but I do want to be rewarded more for mastering (or getting better in my case) my class. You know it isn’t balanced when you lose to a similarly skilled player every time you encounter them. And it is a slap in the face when they do it with 3 buttons and no weapon switching and I’m having to use all 25 skills.

Just look at that number…. I use 25 skills when I have to fight one player…. they use 3 (or 8 if they want to be flashy with their utility/elites/heals).

Uder.9187:

- first floor could be even harder to attack than second, 2 ballistae on each entrance and the zerg dies
- 50 to 35, great change, you still need 4 towers to compensate the points SM generates which is a good thing
- 15min rounds, i hope that people realize that defending has become even more important, instead of zerg rushing stuff and leave it behind undefended

LOL NO WAY!

I tried getting people to stop and defend on my server tonight…. it resulted in many people saying that I was an idiot.
Evidently the best offense is exp runs through all of the keeps/camps and then being stranded with all of our home bases taken over. LOL

Cameirus.8407:

DaedalusDragon.3754:

I was having a blast on Northern Shiverpeaks WvWvW in the Eternal Battlegrounds. Then, at one point, I realize that we are missing about 75% of our team. After a bit of looking I find that they are all fighting this worm. Nobody would leave it, the enemy team took the supply camp right NEXT to the worm and nobody even cared, and we lost a lot on that server. What makes it all worse is that after helping them kill it (at that point I had decided to help them finish it as fast as we could because we didn’t stand a chance w/o this huge group of players) all I got were 3 badges of honor…………. 3……. It took us 30 minutes…….. Just take it out please.

Right now NS has very little structure due to these free server transfers and a previously high queue time and so it is hard to communicate with all of these random people and convince them that that objective isn’t helpful.

So by your own admission, your server has massively outvoted you on if the worm should be in or not….

Re read your post, you are effectively saying your opinion on how to play is more important than 75% of the other players on the map……unless you bought everyone their account you dont get to make that decision. The only measure of whats important is what people do when givena free choice, in this case, the choose to fight the worm, that seams pretty clear cut to me, the worm stays.

At no point did I say “Everyone in that group also wants this”. I at no point spoke on behalf of the other players. I speak on my behalf, and my behalf only. You also say that somehow I don’t get to make the decision on what my opinion is because a majority of other players MIGHT have a different one… I feel like you really need to re-read BOTH of our posts because you obviously didn’t get it.

That might be the most unclear argument for anything that I have ever seen…. and I’m taking a class specifically for looking at poor arguments.

ummmm anyways…..
The worm took away from our server because it acted as a distraction to people who blindly followed it around even while they were being attacked by small contingents of enemies. This worm would not be a huge problem if it didn’t take that long for almost all of our combatants to take it down and still not get any WvWvW reward. I really don’t see much point in any PvE monsters besides the ones you can “recruit” like the Hylek. For the most part they just make elementalists constant dodging even more of a problem.

Tl;dr: If someone wants to fight a giant worm, go to Queensdale. If someone wants to fight other human players in a large scale battle for supremacy, feel free to stay and fight.

And P.S. Is this really only on one corner of the map? That might be the biggest disadvantage I have ever seen a developer give to a single side.

Usually the best thing to do as an ele is just stick with the elemental summon. Nothing else compares. The racial skills are all purposefully made weak or less impressive so that no race has any advantage over the others for certain classes.

The staff is great for CC and variety, but you probably won’t be hitting anything with any insane punches. I prefer S/D for a lot of PvE stuff as you can get something like 18 stacks of might with a VERY strong fire/earth rotation.

You really should get into the habit of switching attunements often. It becomes absolute necessity later in the game when mobs are faster than you, come in great numbers every time, and ALWAYS attack and DESTROY you first above all other players.

Nothing too great for us eles. Having access to our only underwater elite is ok but it still doesn’t change the fact that we are still weak underwater. Looks like guardian got a lot of love and mesmer did too. I find it funny that classes are getting balanced even though other classes need it more AND while other classes are getting their minor tweaks to traits and such we still have a load of bugs that keep our class from being playable for the most part.

I’m not spending any karma on gear until the price is lowered. But that is just my opinion.

I was having a blast on Northern Shiverpeaks WvWvW in the Eternal Battlegrounds. Then, at one point, I realize that we are missing about 75% of our team. After a bit of looking I find that they are all fighting this worm. Nobody would leave it, the enemy team took the supply camp right NEXT to the worm and nobody even cared, and we lost a lot on that server. What makes it all worse is that after helping them kill it (at that point I had decided to help them finish it as fast as we could because we didn’t stand a chance w/o this huge group of players) all I got were 3 badges of honor…………. 3……. It took us 30 minutes…….. Just take it out please.

Right now NS has very little structure due to these free server transfers and a previously high queue time and so it is hard to communicate with all of these random people and convince them that that objective isn’t helpful.

I understand your dilemma. The main problem is that with melee enemies we have a lot of cc abilities that help us kite our enemies but with ranged enemies we are mostly forced to take the damage. This singular aspect of the elementalist is ok with me as every class should have some kind of counter… It would be nice though if our own skills weren’t our counter. Ride the lightning right next to an enemy and being stuck in rtl form for a few seconds just gets you killed.

This class is in dire need of some fixes. Please Anet just post saying that you are working on it and maybe an ETA for your first class fix.

Everyone who states that the ele is OP needs to start posting their builds so we can judge if they are trolling or not.

We have underwater skills? I always thought I was just hurling rocks underwater and watching them sink on top of my enemies head, thus dealing 5 damage. Hmmmmm I guess I’ll have to learn ANOTHER 20 skills…

I. Love. This. Thread’s. Title. LOL

Ele is UP. (that was my on-topic so I shouldn’t get an infraction for not always being on-topic…. because everyone else is….)

I think mine was like 5k? on a similar build to what Caiyn has.

I’m lvl 74 with less than exemplary armor.

but rabbit over 300k lol… don’t know exact.

Healing power is a great stat but only to some extent. I don’t know the math but after a bit of healing power it is best to go for other things because the gain isn’t worth the cost. That being said, if you are thinking of trait lines then definitely go down the arcana trait line for more support builds. Then probably earth for some more defense.

I’m level 74 and I’m really looking forward to level 80 so I can try an aura support build that I’ve been looking into.

I hope that helps =)

It might also help you to bind those buttons to keys that are easier for you to use. I do have a great mouse so it isn’t much of a problem for me, but I have a few of my normal skills bound to r and t and all of my utility skills are bound to z through B (healing through elite). If you can find spots to put them or use a modifier button and some button then it might be easier for you.

Honestly though, your method sounds like a lot more work than what I suggested.

I still think it is bugged as I NEVER see those bonuses after I switch. I can’t figure out what it DOES effect.

Very nice. If we keep it up and keep these on top then I’m sure Anet will change what needs to be changed. Team effort!

At this point in time we should start by asking for bug fixes and to fix the entirely broken skills/traits that we have. For all I know we might be a balanced class if over half of our skills worked as intended. (though I kinda doubt it)

I’m getting a lot of infractions for this lol.

I hope the mods and community managers and other professionals who see this note that I just want our class to be playable. I apologize if any post was against the code of conduct.

On another note I was told that these are looked at, though a post saying such wouldn’t be a bad idea.

And I definitely agree about arc lightning. Might be the most annoying sound in the game too. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz “Would you like to sell your wares?” zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I’ve been scanning both forums and I definitely think Ele has it worse. I am no expert (obviously) but it looks like a lot of people are just complaining over some skills not being entirely damaging. I look at the necro as a tanky character that can take a ton of hits and keep on chugging away. That and the super condition removal/damage isn’t anything to scoff at either.

I can say more when I start getting my necro up higher.

I kind of hate the bow. EXCEPT it’s 4? ability. The daze/confuse icy meteor shower. That skill packs a HUGE punch. The greatsword has some power and I really enjoyed using it for a while but then I had to actually play well and the greatsword doesn’t let you do that lol. The hammer is neat in that it lets you 1v1 up close a little easier with so many blind attacks and CC. The shield suckskitten. The flame axe is like a stupid version of the greatsword. Since we have 4 skills related to conjuring, you’d think Anet would have made them…. useful? Yeah, useful is what I mean to say.

So far it always seems like they try and help but then, in an effort to balance what they just tried to balance…. before they even tested it, they supahnerf twice as many skills as they buffed.

@ThiBash
The other weapons are so great because they add variety to the fights. If you know you have to fight 10 enemies I hope you don’t dash in there with D/D. Stay on the outside the best you can and hit them with staff skills. The weapons are situational… which is a problem when you are forced into one range (one weapon set) for the entire length of combat.

I’m facing the same dilemma. Every other class can do what the ele does but they can do it at LEAST as well and with less than half of the effort.

There are definitely other things I would change LONG before this. I don’t know how long you have been playing it, but eventually your skills and their locations become second nature to you.

I see what everyone is saying but I agree with the OP. I know that to be effective you should stance dance but why are all of my traits for a specific stance? It isn’t like I can stay in one and be effective or put points into all trait lines and still be effective. As it is now I have to stay in one attunement more often or I might as well not have traits at all.

BTW OP, you have convinced me to try the necro again lol.

MystiQ.9648:

Traits.
I believe the tooltips are quite self explanatory. I’ll point out a few things though.
Arcane Power: Windborne dagger which gives you 15% more movement speed with daggers (Again, I like this because of the shoddy out of combat run speed) can be substituted with something else if run speed isn’t something you’re concerned with, Renewing Stamina might be nice if you dodge alot. I don’t really have the need to.
Zephyr’s Boon and Elemental Shielding, these add boons when applying an Aura, with daggers you got two auras, one in Water attunment and one in Air attunment. I got those two on “auto attack” which means they trigger as soon as I drop into that attunment and keep triggering once they go off cooldown (if still in that attunment)
They’re also nice when you want to travel faster, as Zephyr’s Boon adds swiftness when applying an aura. You can keep this buff going indefinetly by switching back and forth.

As for gear. I’m ofcourse level 80. But I’ve got Power/Precision/Critical Damage in my armor pieces and Power/Vitality/Critical Damage in my Jewelry. But anything really will do, it doesn’t focus much on one thing or another, but I like crits so that’s what I went for.
Still fiddling around with Runes at the moment though. But Vitality and/or Toughness wouldn’t be a bad bet considering how squishy elementalists are, but not necessary unless you get into a bind.

For Sigils I like Sigil of Battle, which gives might when you switch weapons. (Attunments count as weapon swaps). For the 2nd one I’m still undecided and will have to test out a few I got my eye on at the moment. Currently running with Sigil of Luck, which gives magic find when you kill something. But that’s not really usefull in a combat setting.

Anyways. beeing low level you obviously can’t get all of these trait points yet.
I can help you choose a few things to start with, but then I’m gonna need to know your level.

(Had to put this in two posts, was appearently way too long)

You mean, the weapon switching sigils actually do something for elementalists??!!!!!!!!

mind = blown. I wish that was in the description. Though I guess I have come to expect incredibly bad descriptions in GW2.

Just build as you go. It isn’t expensive to change traits so just keep a few of the weapons handy so you can try them when you feel like changing it up. I have experimented a LOT and I still have no idea what I want to do. Good luck. Maybe before you are high level we will have some kind of buff that makes late game more enjoyable.

Exactly. And to anyone who thinks that if the ele gets a buff then the already “good” players will have an outstanding advantage, you. are. wrong. Every player will have an outstanding advantage if they are highly skilled with their class, but it does NOT mean that nobody else should be capable of playing it. If someone is worried about this then there mustn’t be any pro theives, or guardians, or rangers yet because all of those classes are great for non-pros and pros alike.

Yeah. Our classes mechanic is stance dancing so we are almost forced to go down into that line some ways if we want to succeed and lower our high CD on stance changing. I don’t see other classes with whole trait lines that have such an impact on their entire mechanic.

I got infracted for putting “bumpity bumpppp bump bump bump”. Lol. But seriously, we need this to be looked at. The elementalist can’t compete with other classes right now… AT ALL! If it isn’t a bugged skill that doesn’t hit its target then it is a trait that doesn’t work.

I am the 99%. lol

Anet just has to make it so the average player can do well in it and compete against the other classes. If every person who wants to be an elementalist has to master the class then nobody will play elementalist. And remember, our goal isn’t to make it a scarce class. I would love to see what ele groups could do with different builds.

I understand that it is a more complicated class. I really do. But it has to be playable just like every other class. It’s like having two salesman come up to you. One offers you a chocolate bar (you love chocolate) and the other one offers you a hershey kiss (smaller, not as good). The first salesman says “Mine costs 5 gahoogyfats” and the other says “mine costs 10 gahoogyfats”. Are you going to take the better chocolate for less money? or are you going to spend more and get less? Right now it is just a novelty class. It is certainly the only reason I have stuck with it (besides only figuring this out after level 60).

Oh and I just bought a superior sigil of accuracy only to find out that it does nothing. Thank you Anet.

If you are using cantrips to gain stacks of might, you are doing it wrong. They have long cooldowns and shouldn’t be used like that.

The difference between me fighting at close range and anybody else fighting at close range is that they are wearing armor made of mithril (or w/e, i’m no crafting expert) and mine is made of someones old cloth straps that I fashioned to cover myself.

Ok. You sit there at a hands breadth away from the enemy using your decent lightning whip. I’ll sit in the back with a small bag of popcorn once they feel the tickling going on and find you within sword reach of them. Too bad there isn’t a butter attunement, this popcorn is kinda dry.

If you can’t make a video then tell us what makes you so much better than us. I’m not an ele god (unlike you) but I’m ok… probably in higher percentileish…. and I can’t get the ele to output enough to make up for the extreme amount of effort that I put into it.

Tell us your build, your strategies, and everything else that just flat out makes you the best elementalist in all of Tyria. Please enlighten the majority.

I will bump this until we get word from Anet on the elementalist.

I love my elementalist but not because they are a good class; they are just fun. To anyone who is forming an opinion prior to at least lvl 70, you don’t know the half of it. Before level 60 I was just having a blast being a semi-skilled ele dodging attacks and burning my foes. But once I got to level 60 I started hitting walls of difficulty and finally at lvl 70 I just couldn’t keep going on my own. You eventually start running into enemies at ever turn who respawn in a very short amount of time and you will probably aggro every enemy within a mile by dodging attacks in dense jungle vegetation. Also, about half of those enemies have some super speed buff that doesn’t go away and makes kiting them with 1 cc (S/D) incredibly hard. And of course you can’t forget about the many skills we have that are so bugged that they don’t work or the traits that don’t function correctly. Just look at Ride The Lightning. About 80% of the time (that is NOT an exaggeration, seriously.) Ride The Lightning fails in some way or another. Either I’m blasted to the side of the enemy and completely miss, I don’t go anywhere and just sit there…. which is practically like stunning myself, or even combining them by moving up next to them and being stuck in RTL form for about 4 seconds.

I’m also broke from armor repairs.

And I’m kinda skilled. Not amazing but I’m ok. You can’t ask every player to be a master of that profession just to have fun.