Guild Wars 2

Rangers are far from useless in dungeons. If you sit in the back using nothing but your longbow, yeah, you’re pretty useless, but Rangers have several strong abilities to support the group and make a fantastic addition to the party.

I have both an 80 Asura thief and ranger. Personally, I would definitely recommend ranger. Thief is a very squishy and selfish class. While it may be capable of some massive burst, it doesn’t do much to help the party. Stealth is not nearly as helpful as Healing Spring, which removes conditions off of your group and can easily fully heal the entire party when combined with blast finishers. Rangers may not have burst, but they have strong sustained DPS and fantastic support/utility to offer.

Here is a picture of my ranger next to a wolf.

I imagine scepter will still be the top might stacking weapon, and still be a viable choice. Regardless, I would like to see the scepter be made to be a little bit faster and more reliable as well.

The Elementalist forum, where Eles are the squishiest class and everything else is OP.

Eles don’t need mobility to survive, they simply abuse it to survive in situations where they shouldn’t be able to, like in a 5v1 scenario.

I am tired of the gs. I would rather have a bow and be something like an arcane archer.

You look like you should be holding some roses.

I have never gotten one.

I would say Mesmer is the clear choice until they fix condition stack limits.

Just be aware that a low level Mesmer is horrible, but it picks up after 40 or so.

As an Elementalist, my entire build in groups revolves around might and vulnerability stacking. I also make use of my Guardian’s fire fields. It’s a pretty big deal to me that has a pretty significant impact on the fights.

Aberrant.6749:

Asura get the best animations everywhere other than this. Please stop being so greedy :P

This is true, but I am greedy.

I use 5 superior runes of air and a focus and I do not fall behind anyone. I really don’t think it’s that bad.

Hooked on shatter. I’m trying out confusion now and again, but I just prefer shatter because of the more active playstyle.

BadHabitZz.1856:

I just dont get why we cant duel… that wouldnt hurt anyone…

Definitely, organizing a duel takes way too much time in this game. I liked how it was in TERA, where you could just challenge anyone anywhere even on a PvE server.

There is absolutely no reason for them not to be account bound instead of soulbound. Considering the amount of work that is put into getting one, I personally wouldn’t want to have to craft a legendary for each individual character just to enjoy it.

Yeah, trying to do the events in the Cursed Shore when I can only see a couple mobs at times is pretty awful. If they do to open world events what they did to WvW, that would be amazing.

Impressive zerg today SoR.

I like the suggestion, but I don’t think it would help because of the condition removal that an Ele has. On top of that, if swiftness positively affected the Ele’s movement abilities, it would only end up buffing them in the end.

Why don’t I put it another way, the number one reason the Ele is considered OP to so many is because of their ability to control or neutralize a point in PvP with no risk. Their healing allows them to keep themselves alive, and their mobility allows them to leave, without dying. Even if the entire opposing team finds the Ele alone, they will not be able to kill them. This effectively allows a single Ele to prevent the opposing team from gaining any points for a period of time.

Without the ability to use RtL as an escape option, the Ele would eventually die if they are found alone, and that is exactly what should happen. This is why only the Ele bunker is considered OP and why the Ele bunker is the one that does this so well.

Making a slight adjustment to RtL will balance the class. Nerfing the healing down will destroy it. An Ele needs healing to compensate for it’s low defense. You are very wrong about why the Ele is in the position it is.

Edit: You also need to stop taking my posts out of context to fill your ego.

Again, you speak as if you are the epitome of understating and yet you can’t even understand the simple point that it is mobility combined with healing that is the problem. Warrior has mobility, not healing, and look where they are.

You failed to make a point.

It’s interesting that you still fail to understand despite you seeming to consider yourself such an enlightened individual. You keep mentioning the great mobility that a warrior has and it’s funny, because the warrior is widely considered to be the most underpowered class in PvP. You see what happens when all you have is mobility and nothing else?

I guess you’re not really paying much attention to what the OP suggested if you go on about how a D/D Ele needs RtL as a gap closer. The suggestion was to make RtL require a target, not to remove it from existing. This would make it a gap closer and nothing more.

The reason the Ele’s mobility is OP is because it gives them a godlike ability to control the flow of combat and puts the Ele in control over whether or not they are engaged. When an Ele decides to disengage, they are able to retreat to a very safe distance with this one simple ability and that in turn gives them more than enough time to recover or retreat completely.

It’s time to stop acting as if this can be countered. As it has already been said, an Ele has some of the best condition removal and will not be affected by immobilize unless they aren’t paying attention. Now, even if you presume to be able to counter an ability that has no cast time by catching them off guard and predicting them, what happens then if an Ele decided to pop arcane shield before even switching to wind? Are you saying that now you are going to throw immobilize at an Ele who is in earth because you suspect they are going to run? Even if you did that, the Ele now has enough time to cure any condition as well.

The combination of the Ele’s mobility and healing make them the clear top class in PvP. A class that has mobility and nothing else will be an incredibly unforgiving class that has no room for mistakes. A class that has healing will be able to make a mistake while still staying in the fight. You say an Ele needs mobility to counter the big hits it takes, I say it needs healing to counter it, not mobility. Whichever it may be, one of them needs to be toned down.

I forgot to point out that you’re not even listing all of the Ele’s movement abilities. The correct distance is this:

RtL > Bruning Speed > Lightning Flash > Fiery Whirl > Fiery Rush > Lightning Leap > Flame leap

1200 + 600 + 900 + 900 + 900 + 600 + 550 = 5650

If you want to go and say it’s ridiculous to use conjured weapons, let me just point out your ranger all melee setup.

On top of that, Your ranger and thief do not have perma swiftness, the movement signet is a 25% increase, swiftness is a 33% increase. On top of that, the Ele has that signet too.

Would you like to go on pretending that the Ele has limited mobility somehow?

Edit: I forgot one.

You must not have studied physics. Distance traveled by itself means nothing. You need to factor in time spent to travel said distance. Get your notebook back out and start adding up how much more distance the Ele covers running with their perma swiftness while another class is still spamming it’s slow cast abilities.

Removing a cheap escape option in no way “ruins” any build. It will make it so that one class is no longer immortal. Please, explain how running away is an integral part of your ability to fight 1v1 and isn’t in any way a cheap mechanic. I can imagine how healing nerfs could ruin builds, but please, tell me how many people you are able to kill because of your ability to run away.

Wow, 9 stacks of might. I really don’t think there is any more that can be said. If that is all you think Eles can accomplish then you aren’t very experienced with the class.

I never said Ele is OP in PvE (only in PvP), I agree that they are balanced in PvE. It’s the people that say the class is underpowered that have a L2P problem.

Congressman Vekk

And with boon duration I get myself to 25 stacks, but I wasn’t counting that. I could probably go higher, but that’s the cap.

I am speaking about the party, I have never had a party have less than 12 stacks unless there’s a ranger sitting in the back. On average, even if no one else is stacking, they have 14.

On top of that, everyone can throw out a blast finisher, it’s not just the Ele. That nice little staff ability however, has no combo field. It is one stand alone ability.

With everyone using blast finishers, the party has no issue getting to 25 stacks at all times.

You are a very bad Ele if you can’t keep up a very minimum of 12 stacks of might at all times. Guardian’s one ability does not recharge fast enough to allow for constant might, an Ele’s blast spam keeps up might at all times.

To say a Guardian is better is flat out wrong.

Yeah, Warrior needs a tier all to it’s own, far, far below the pyramid.

Also, as an Ele, lol.

LordByron.8369:

Empathetic Fighter.2065:

No other class can stack might up for the whole team so easily than an ele.

quite false….
Mesmers, guardians and possibly Others can…..

Through constant boon sharing you have alot of support for the team too, not to mention the water heals.

Guardians and engis heals much better i hope you agree on this….
But thetruth is ele’s healing in pve is just useless…..

For Boon sharing (actually AURA sharing) requires a single weapon set…

Any ele with a build relying on a single weapon set is not effective…..

You have a high survivability if playing alone, while you still have a nice movement and viable dmg. Actually pretty good in some fractals.
Sure you have not high-bursts like other classes have. But still you got a lot of aoe.

And when it comes from the thing i play mostly i can clearly disagree.

While movement don t change anything in fractals, having more than 2 eles means struggling in DPS events like veteran shamans…

Its actually the undeniable proof of how bad is ele dps.

For fotm we have
D/D …obviously staying in melee range with 1shotting enemies is often a bad idea but is useful for trash mob even if requires twice the skill for half the effect of other classes.

You can t reach a good burst…..

S/F clearly awesome for projectiles…… cannot hit mobile targets :|

Staff well it just has range…..

Also as said DPS is a necessity…
Most mobs just hit hard as a truck….defense is just not useful you have to evade and kill them fast….

But the reality is clearly shown in gw2lfg….
You won t see LF ele there….never going to happen….so calling ele OP in PvE is clearly a huge mistake.

You seem to be a little misinformed. Try playing with S/D in PvE. Your ability to put up a fire field and spam a ridiculous number of blast finishers easily puts the Elementalist as the top might stacking class.

By boon sharing, yes granting fury to your party several times is very strong.

The ability to give an easy and strong aoe heal just for swapping to water is very strong.

Using gw2lfg postings as a way to determine the Ele’s strength is ridiculous. I have run a full party of 5 Elementalists before and not only did we kill things quickly, but we also never died or hardly had any damage for a long period of time.

Eles do not struggle in DPS when played well. I have 3 abilities that can hit up to and over 10k with S/D. The only reason an Elementalist would be holding a team down is if they don’t know how to play one very well.

I wouldn’t really call this a buff, but it isn’t a nerf and other classes did get nerfed. Eles are long overdue to be placed on an even playing field rather than being the clear top class.

Yes absolutely. Anything that’s faster than what human reflexes can react to is just silly.

maddoctor.2738:

Dog.1472:

Yes, Immobilize will totally stop an Ele.

Granting regeneration to yourself or an ally cures a condition, attuning to water grants regeneration, using a cantrip grants regeneration, cleansing fire: remove 3 conditions (4 actually), mist form: make yourself invulnerable for 3 seconds while remaining completely mobile (and remove a condition).

Combine their lack of condition removal with the super long casting time that RTL has and you can totally stop them right in their tracks.

I don’t know if trolling or not but certainly a totally ignorant post… Unless they integrated all those traits in the Elementalist profession (which they didn’t as far as I know) what you mention is achievable with certain traits/builds. Last I checked, RtL is the only option for a non-bunker Ele to escape, and if you made a very simple effort to search before posting, how builds/skills actually work, you would realise that a non-very-specific built Ele doesn’t have all the above condition removals.

Yes, nerf RtL even more, so MORE people roll D/D bunkers, since nerfing their one and only escape skill, that makes going something OTHER than D/D bunker a bit more viable is a great idea…. the “problem” is to make other builds more viable by buffing them, not by nerfing the only viable build more, something that unfortunately our Devs (and some posters) don’t know.

Oh, so you run the 0/0/0/0/0 build? Traits are very much a part of the class. Different builds are irrelevant, all that matters is what the Elementalist is capable of achieving. The condition removal by itself is not as much of an issue as being able to quickly and easily put a massive gap between you and your opponent. No amount of healing will matter if you can’t get away from your foe. Healing is definitely strong on an Ele, but not as strong as their ability to run.

And no, putting 30 points into water doesn’t make you a bunker. The stats from your traits are insignificant in comparison to your gear. Combine those traits with that ability and some power focused gear and you are immortal.

And no, RtL is not the only option to escape. It is simply the best, most overpowered one.

I’m not going to argue that Eles don’t have a lot of viable builds because they don’t. The fire tree is useless and needs a buff, but because some things are underpowered, it doesn’t mean that some things aren’t overpowered.

I am also happy to see that the majority of people seem to want some balance and feel that the Ele is simply overpowered. I’m not crying because I keep getting killed by Eles, I am one. Ele is the class I have the most experience with and yes, it is very unbalanced.

Of course it’s fun playing Ele, it’s like bringing a gun to a knife fight.

Yes, Immobilize will totally stop an Ele.

Granting regeneration to yourself or an ally cures a condition, attuning to water grants regeneration, using a cantrip grants regeneration, cleansing fire: remove 3 conditions (4 actually), mist form: make yourself invulnerable for 3 seconds while remaining completely mobile (and remove a condition).

Combine their lack of condition removal with the super long casting time that RTL has and you can totally stop them right in their tracks.

I like this. Guardian has a utility pretty similar to RTL, but it requires a target and Guardian is probably the most balanced class in PvP.

Eles can hold their own in 1v1, but what sets them apart from almost every other class is their ability to just run away unscathed every single time, which is stupid and incredibly irritating.

This is a running away ability, nothing more. This change would make it an ability used to catch people instead, making it pretty balanced.

I doubt a boost in damage output will ever make the staff a viable PvP weapon. It is simply too slow to ever be viable.

There is no problem with that though, the staff is fine as it is. It simply isn’t a 1v1 weapon and it doesn’t need to be one.

Eles can be very easy to play, sure, but they have a higher skill cap than other classes. A bunker Ele won’t have a difficult time surviving, but that shouldn’t be a surprise.

Being able to survive is just step one. After that you need to learn how to offer the best support for your group and optimize your dps. This is significantly more complex for an Ele than it is for other classes.

It is very easy to tell the difference between an experienced Ele and an inexperienced one.

My suggestion would be to make both of them Asura.

Asura is the only race.

Really, you guys just want mounts.

You can’t compare an Ele using an aoe ground targeting slow to cast weapon to one using medium ranged immediate attacks. Saying something like that shows you have no understanding of the class.

An Ele doesn’t need mobility to win 1v1 as they often do.

Losing is realizing you can’t win, or defeat your opponent. It’s called a forfeit and it’s a loss.

If you die when getting focused for a couple of seconds, you aren’t timing your dodges very well.

I thought you meant immobilize the Ele and was about to say how pointless that is, then I realized you meant thief. Yeah, thieves have garbage condition removal. That would end any of their mobility quite easily.

And no, stealth isn’t as good as you pretend it is if you know how it works.

As an Ele, I solo roam WvW and get in plenty of 1v1, 2v1, 3v1, or even zergv1 and I have NEVER been killed. Sure, I have lost plenty of fights, but I can ALWAYS run away. It was fun at first, but it’s pretty obviously unbalanced.

If you lose, people should be able to kill you.

Why shouldn’t a Thief be hard to catch? Are you saying you want a mage to be more mobile than a thief, which is by definition fast and sneaky?

And there are those in this forum who think Eles are now too slow.

Yes, they are incredibly mobile and have a very easy time escaping. Constant swiftness, RTL, lightning flash, mist form, and insane condition removal make the Ele one of the most difficult to catch classes. They may be the most difficult depending on how the stealth nerf works out.

I would not mind seeing more nerfs to the Ele’s mobility.

We should have rocket boosters spawn on the bottom of our boots as we rush.

Asura is the only race.

I can only imagine you play with your foot if other classes can catch up to you.

Being able to cross ledges with shadowstep is not intended and using that as a comparison for mobility is ridiculous.