Guild Wars 2

Aether McLoud.1975:

Swimsasa Stoon.8936:

tried some new builds in pvp with all the new traits and found that 0/0/20/30/20 D/D bunker spec (all cantrips+fiery Greatsword and the signet for healing) works best.
12 matches only 2 deaths and quite a few kills. The battles are more fun too!

What amulet are you using?

Clerics!!! Healing constantly with good base power and toughness will wear down most opponnents. Beware of stalemates though. They occur quite often and if you slip up more than once you’ll find yourself out of water atunement with no way to heal except your healskill (which you generally don’t want to use).

death penalty only becomes as dangerous after being downed 5+ times. Not randomly like this. I’ve experienced both and I hadn’t thought much of it but yea it could definately be a bug.

tried some new builds in pvp with all the new traits and found that 0/0/20/30/20 D/D bunker spec (all cantrips+fiery Greatsword and the signet for healing) works best.
12 matches only 2 deaths and quite a few kills. The battles are more fun too!

So…. I have several armors and made a picture of ‘m with a cool background.
I’m constantly getting new armor and weapons (almost daily) but tend to give away money more often lately.

play elementalist!
We’ve got a mount on our off-hand dagger, he’s called ‘the lightning’
(air no. 4)

Here are two ideas I have for the game. They’re just ideas have no idea how you’d go about implementing it since I’m not a or the game-developer.

Idea no. 1:
Open-world dungeon that like the fractals gets more dangerous the further you venture into them but then lacking check-points/waypoints. With interesting rewards (like previous event rewards, jetpack and such very far into the dungeon).

*I wish Arah had been like that.

Idea no. 2:
1v1 tournaments. This way the players won’t be dependant on other peoples skills and can actually measure their own skill with that of others without being disturbed by allies or foes alike. It would make spectating and shoutcasting less hectic as well.

What are your thoughts?

1v1 tournament style?

its rock paper scizzors condition damage based characters won’t do good on those who have alot of cleanses while those who focus too much on cleansing conditions won’t do as good against those with lots of crit burst damage.
As for removing conditions:
melandru, trait that shortens condition duration + sigil that lets you remove conditions on crit.
Quite honestly you won’t need much more condi removal.

As for a longbow warrior being more scary than a melee one.
in comparison:
light armor, lowest health, average damage, mediocre mobility elementalists having to go D/D since Staff gets them killed.

This game isn’t like other games, you got a longbow and it works? then use it.

DiogoSilva.7089:

The power of a profession is determined by its entire build, not a single skill. It’s perfectly normal that some skills are better than others, without making the profession overall stronger. An elementalist is much stronger than a warrior in pvp, for example.

Also, RTL is a more reliable escape skill because it is not affected by chill and cripple slowdown.

Just like warriors hundred blades… Good warriors are very good at pvp though. The elementalist just has skills that work good for pve and pvp (all mediocre though). Lots of warriors try to use a pve build (greatsword) in pvp which tends to fail alot resulting in QQ we need buff.

15/15/15/15/10 with divinity runes, try it and see for yourself what they want the elementalist to be like.

cleanse conditions and spam conditions. Engineers lack good cleansing. Not sure if the same goes for mesmers since I refuse to play them too much but you could probably do the same. Get a balance between power/healing/toughness and condition damage with healing power as the main to make sure you recover from any damage received.

This is the bunker build I use:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAoYhMmgbxx5wjDAkHn4CLDFisRRxM4A-TsAgzCmIMSZkzIjRSjsGNC5QwsAA

12 matches 2 deaths quite a few kills and very cool loong fights way better than the short dps fights.

I’ve had that happen, I always thought it was just a random heavy hit that just happened to hit me right as I was downed which should be impossible because I always get the invulnerable notification when I hit someone in pvp who’s going into downed state.

Is it confirmed that it is only the elementalist?

Are you in Piken Square server? Are you in a guild? Joining a guild is a big part of the mmorpg experience since you’ll more easily have people to play with.

Basedgod.7328:

Thing annoys me most about Eles: I struggle transitioning to other classes that dont have the same mobility, cleansing and respnsiveness of certain skills.

Other than that, Evasive Arcana spoils you and messes up legitimate dodging/endurance management.

And how I cant break away from the 0/0/0/20/20 skeleton build

That’s why I don’t use evasiva arcana. And yes the skeleton build. But I think once you’re able to get used to swapping less by lowering the points in arcana you’ll be able to switch and enjoy other classes also.

Simon Sickboy.6250:

In honesty I’m pretty clueless when it comes to ele. I play warrior and have done for about a month or so. I’m playing a pretty glass cannon heavy armour wearer and i thought it would be fun to do the complete opposite; A light armour wearer built tanky as hell.

I’ve come up against ele bunkers in solo que that can just sit on the node, with what seems like endless heals, slowly wearing me down. As a glass cannon build there has been plenty of time where I’ve had to run away, and i like the idea of being on the other side.

I have also looked into a guardian bunker builds. Do you, as an ele, feel a more or less effective bunker that a guard? From what i understand ele has near to endless survivability with less damage, whereas guard has less survivability but more damage. But please, correct me if I’m wrong.

It depends on your opponnent the way guardian and elementalist bunker is completely different.

Guardian can block alot with their aegis’s but those only block once. Then they have some weapon skills that block and some utility skills that do good against ranged damage. Most guardians nowadays use hammer for some powerful CC.
In a way the guardian is the game changer drawing down lines of defence on the battlefield.
Elementalist bunker (D/D probably). is the game breaker. The elementalist weaves through the opponnents attacks generating boons while doing so and healing whatever damage they take.

Guardians:
-lots of blocks
- decent amount of blinds
- pretty good mobility in combat
- good heals when specced for it.
- lots of control over the battlefield

Elementalists:
- always have heals on weapon skills
- has mobility skills on almost all of its weapon skills.
- Not a whole lot of blocks but a few invulnerability spells.
- decent amount of blinds
- some control over the battlefield (updraft-earthquake and aoe-scare)

There are more points to grade ‘m on but that’s the gist of what I’ve understood playing both of ’m.

Zelyhn.8069:

The staff trait is overrated.

Attunement recharge is pointless with this build: 15 extra points in arcane reduce the attunement recharge to ~12s, a 3 second improvement out of 15, that is a 20% increase to my heals from swapping to water (about 1k4) . . . compared to 15% damage and 1k hp?

Vigor is quite nice, but even in Arah I find I am able to sustain myself without it. It is a matter of practice and group set-up. Arcane boons are very nice though, at the moment I do not need them because I am running with a guardian, but this could change!

thanks for the in-depth reply, very informative.
Its just that you can spend 4 seconds per atunement and swap around constantly instead of 5 seconds. The difference is minimal but it does prevent you from getting stuck in one atunement. But if you’re a better player than me and can plan when to use what atunement effectively instead of spamming them when you blew all y’r CD’s then yes you can drop some arcane points easy.

I wouldn’t do 10 in fire or 25 in water. I’d rather put 20 in water and all the rest in arcana for the staff trait or vigor on crit + longer boonduration and better atunement recharge outweighs the 100 power, condition duration, vitality and healing power you get by quite a bit because having lower attunement recharge and more vigor will allow you to use all your skills more effectively and boons like vigor will last longer allowing you to dodge more thus negating more damage and allowing you to do more damage in long drawn out fights which are quite prevalent in dungeons.

Simon Sickboy.6250:

Sorry, this is for PvP. 9 times out of 10 I simply solo que tPvP, i figure a bunker would be both fun to play, and useful to the team.

Swimsasa Stoon.8936:

bunker builds got nerfed. 25th in water allowed for bunkers to do some damage but the boost has been halved thus gimping the little damage bunkers did even further.

You think id be better off not bothering with a bunker? I’m pretty new to the world of tPvP and the research I have done has lead me to believe that a bunker is useful if not a necessity in a team. I know for solo que its probably not AS important, but me and some friends are hoping to get a little team going soon.

Bunker is definately usefull in tpvp, did some research myself too. But as a bunker all you’ll be doing is making sure they don’t take your point. You can’t kill them because your damage output is just too low.
I have thought of an idea where you use mistform-obsidian flesh (focus… I know) and earthshield no.5 to stall for some time. Add in some of the anti-ranged stuff the focus can do. Problem is that you won’t have as many weapon healing skills. So you’ll have to focus on getting perma regen at the very least. (glyphs in water atunement or cantrips with the trait that lets cantrips give you regen and vigor).
So obviously you’d be running cantrips.

Another option is preventing people from getting to the points or from getting away.
You’d need the signet of earth, and staff earth no.5 immobilize and some chills. letting your arcane spells do immobilize while y’r in earth atunement could be fun too.

What are your ideas for going bunker?

Zelyhn.8069:

Urukami.4796:

well depends on what weapons you want to use

No, noooo!
Always be ready to use any weapon set.

It only depends on what he wants to play: PvE, WvW, PvP ?

Staff bunker? Never heard of that but yes you should have a build that can run with any weapon set.

Pwnzor.5682:

yea i whas thinking the same.. but why cant i find a good wvw build for ele :o a staff build thats works in wvw and dungeons

0/30/0/20/20 for straight out dps. Or work towards a signet build with earth as its main focus?
0/10/20/20/20 or somewhere along those lines. For some signet love. (might be better than glyphs at the moment). Signet of earth plus 5 in earth and maybe some increased condition duration would be pretty sweet too.

Jesse.1592:

cool thanks all for your insight. I think I am just not good enough lol to play 0/30/ s/d I just get rocked I do need some survivability like my engi has, So is a 0/10/10/20/30 viable? then I could keep zephyr and pick up the new earth trait for dps and toughness (so maybe lose a piece or two of knights for zerks). Or does this leave me in a bad spot for some reason?

Also is only reason or 30ater now for aura share or is the xI still good for condition removal on regen?

Zerker trinkets is what you’d wanna get because they have more crit damage which is the only reason why you’d wanna take zerker over knights gear.
As for 0/10/10/20/30. I’d still drop the 10 of arcana into air or earth. Or drop earth too and put it all in air or water.
Baseline traits for S/D in my opinion would be:
0/0/0/20/20. Leaving 30 points to put wherever you want them.

bunker builds got nerfed. 25th in water allowed for bunkers to do some damage but the boost has been halved thus gimping the little damage bunkers did even further.

Pwnzor.5682:

will this build work? its an all rounder, but really dont know if its good..
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWhImibyx5QlDAkHv4CLjChUeMzO2A-j0xAocg8OUyLIpPN2qWR0YV1ER1KbMhAGtAA-w

you could use it but you won’t be able to kill anyone or anything in pvp. Your damage will be horrible and with the lack of survivability and mobility spells on the staff you’ll eventually die in wvw if you don’t follow around a zerg.

0/30/0/20/20 S/D or D/D or Staff.
All damage traits and if you feel too squishy choose some sustain traits in water and zephyrs boon.

Armor:
I’m currently running 50% zerker/rampager and 50% rampager/cleric (trinkets) with rampager, saphire, ruby and knights orbs on them.

Superior sigil of battle and superior sigil of impact.

you can try it in heart of the mists first (minus the sigil of impact and orb upgrades).

But if you’re not good at dodging (aka observing foes what they’re about to do) you might wanna go 0/20/0/30/20 S/D or D/D or staff. (could use focus but I don’t like focus except for the skins and for condition builds)

Kodiak.3281:

I disagree entirely. I primarily run a Conditimentalist build (with -20% Earth Timers).

The primary advantage to Conditions on the Elementalist is that we have some of the highest base durations of any other class. Even condition focused classes, such as Necro or Engineer, all have extremely short duration Bleeds while under this build we can easily stack up to 25 bleeds with little to no effort. For example Eruption lasts 25+ seconds with 6 stacks of bleed with a 4 second cool down for a listed damage of over 15000. Honestly I see us getting nerfed if more people ever pick up on this because the base duration of our conditions are just outrageous when you compare them to any other class.

That said Signets also benefit greatly from this build. Most base Signet Durations are obscenely long. Signet of Earth provides a massive (nearly 6s) immobilize that will get just about anyone killed in WvW if they don’t break it. A 7s Chill on demand is nothing to scoff at either.

The biggest advantage of these is that they plug a gap in certain Elementalist play styles. Fire is one of our hardest hitting attunements either as Scepter or Staff but so much of is ground targeted that without some form of CC it is lucky to for a few ticks let alone at all. Enter Signets and their on demand crowd control. You can easily pull off combos such as Chill (they break), Immobilize, Dragon’s Tooth, Ring of Fire, Phoenix, Fire Grab, Earthquake and lead into Bleeds with Earth after stacking all that Burning on them. Even with staff you can pull off combos like Immobilize, Eruption, Shockwave, Lava Font, Flameburst and that’s a crapload of bleed and burn again.

Personally only time I have trouble landing signets is when the target is actually out of range or out of line of sight because the signet will let me fire it off regardless (target or not). I have no issues even standing on walls, finding one guy, targeting him and just ruining his day with the above staff combo.

problem is that the only damage conditions we can do are burn and bleed. Less conditions (diversity) means they can get removed quite easily. And what good pvp player won’t bring condition removal?

I had a signet build on my warrior at lower lvls XD 100% crit chance at lvl 20 was amazing! killed anything and everything in two hits.

I wish Earth Shield was a better weapon. I like the invuln but that’s about it….

?flame axe inflicts burn? :o add burn off of FGS and go all out condition

Durzlla.6295:

Swimsasa Stoon.8936:

Durzlla.6295:

Mek.2947:

Caffynated.5713:

Baladir.2736:

Again, a situation where skills are put to the wrong use and then used to invalidate those skills and indeed the entire class.

Durzlla.6295:

Does no one in this thread know how to use a staff? This is just sad….

Show us, oh glorious PvP masters. Teach the peasants how staff is an amazing weapon and isn’t a free kill like every other person in the entire game thinks it is.

http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm

Here’s a free video capture program if you don’t have one. Show me your incredible use of staff.

Yes, and while you’re at it, show us how DD eles can escape any class with 40+ second cooldowns.

shrugs I’ll let someone else do the DD escape I play staff, but I’ll get some PvP footage once I can get my group together for PvP (tried to get them rallied for tonight but 2 are MIA ATM, hopefully I’ll have it by Thursday)

EDIT: I’ve been using Afterburner for years and never knew it was able to record…. wow i haven’t been using that to it’s full potential…

So I tried some pvp with staff as an ele and after 8 matches I died 20 times and killed 0.
My mesmer with staff 1st match I ever played most I’ve ever done with mesmer was reach lvl 6 and in my 1st match I got 15 kills and 2 deaths. Pretty sad for somebody who mains elementalist.

Well were you using the starter mesmer build? If so Congrats! you can kill people with a phantasm build! In short that means you can spawn illusions and not die before your illusions kill them yaaaaaaay go you, you showed the lowest skill floor build in the game that our high skill floor staff is worthless!! Oh wait…

Just because you can go in with one profs weapon and do decently doesn’t mean you can go in with ANY weapon on ANY prof and do decently, some weapons (such as ele staff) has a higher skill floor than others. Next you’re going to say that “Well i can do well with a Warrior GS but i don’t get anything done with a ranger GS!”

Didn’t even know phantasms did much damage so I didn’t really use ’m more than once or twice….
sword-focus is what I used in combination with staff.

Also the mesmer has phantasms, what do elementalists have that does that much damage? Please do tell.
Warrior GS, closest thing we have is our elite spell Fiery Greatsword. Only way for us to do anywhere near as much damage as a warrior with his greatsword. Only difference is we have less health and less armor.
Guardian has a whole lot of blocks, do we have anything similar in our arsenal? NO!

What do we have? What do we have that we can use as staff elementalists to actually win fights? If I can kill 15 in my first match as a mesmer without even understanding the mesmers core mechanics then why can’t I do the same with elementalist which I’ve played since pre-launch daily.

Kronosfear.7548:

Badly structured argument by OP.

It’s almost laughable that an ele would complain about a warrior he can’t catch.

I mean if my enemy would run away I’d say cheers for me since I sent him away and couldn’t manage to fight toe-to-toe with me.

But noooooooooooo!

Someone just had to satisfy their need to pound that hunk of armor.

This thread might get locked down since it’s not even putting out a constructive, worthy discussion, which is good.

I like your way of thinking if they run then that’s good

Durzlla.6295:

Mek.2947:

Caffynated.5713:

Baladir.2736:

Again, a situation where skills are put to the wrong use and then used to invalidate those skills and indeed the entire class.

Durzlla.6295:

Does no one in this thread know how to use a staff? This is just sad….

Show us, oh glorious PvP masters. Teach the peasants how staff is an amazing weapon and isn’t a free kill like every other person in the entire game thinks it is.

http://event.msi.com/vga/afterburner/download.htm

Here’s a free video capture program if you don’t have one. Show me your incredible use of staff.

Yes, and while you’re at it, show us how DD eles can escape any class with 40+ second cooldowns.

shrugs I’ll let someone else do the DD escape I play staff, but I’ll get some PvP footage once I can get my group together for PvP (tried to get them rallied for tonight but 2 are MIA ATM, hopefully I’ll have it by Thursday)

EDIT: I’ve been using Afterburner for years and never knew it was able to record…. wow i haven’t been using that to it’s full potential…

So I tried some pvp with staff as an ele and after 8 matches I died 20 times and killed 0.
My mesmer with staff 1st match I ever played most I’ve ever done with mesmer was reach lvl 6 and in my 1st match I got 15 kills and 2 deaths. Pretty sad for somebody who mains elementalist.

Fiontar.4695:

Yeah. We’ll need to actually test attacks per minute for each skill to determine that part of the equation. I do have one of each profession between two accounts, so I’ll try to do that when I have a chance.

Thank you! looking forward to hearing the results.

All I did was calculate with the cast time/aftercast and damage provided to me by the wiki to find out which skills have the most or least dps. That’s the only thing I calculated.
I did this considering that there is only one target.

Fiontar.4695:

Swimsasa Stoon.8936:

spatial surge (assuming target is at 1200 range) – 348 (2 additional targets in beam)
long ranged shot (assuming target is at 1200 range) – 317 (projectile combo 20%)
fireball – 314
hip shot (with rifled barrels for 1200 range) – 251 (pierces targets, projectile combo 20%)
necrotic grasp – 246 (piercing , projectile combo 20%)
orb of wrath – 224
dual shot (with stronger bowstrings for 1200 range) – 212 (projectile combo 100%)
chain lightning – 203 (3 bounce)
stoning – 185 (weakness, projectile combo 100%)
bleeding shot – 155 (255 bleed, projectile combo 20%)
tranquilliser dart (with rifled barrels for 1200 range) – 130 (170 bleed, weakness, projectile combo 20%)
winds of chaos – 111 (chance of 298 bleed / 328 burn / vuln, 1 bounce, chance of might / fury to ally)
water blast – 111 (370 healing)

Spatial surge hits 3 times with 1,5 second cast time 348 dmg:
(348/1,5)x3=696 dps
Long Ranged Shot (1500 range when traited) 3/4th second cast time.
317/0,75= 423 dps
fireball (Attack speed is 1 attack per 1.4 seconds.)
314/1,4= 224 dps
hip shot 3/4th second cast time:
251/0,75= 335 dps
necrotic grasp 3/4th second cast time:
246/0,75= 328 dps
orb of wrath Actual attack speed is once every .8 seconds.
224/0,8=280 dps
dual shot 2x 212 at approximately 1.19 seconds per attack.
414/1.19=348 dps
Chain Lightning 3/4th cast time:
203/0,75=271 dps (more than fireball even if there’s only one target)
stoning Attack speed is 1 attack per 1.35 seconds.
185/1,35= 137 dps
bleeding shot – Attack speed is approximately 0.96 seconds per attack damage is 155+255=410
410/0,96=427 dps
tranquilizer dart 300 damage every 3/4th second:
300/0,75= 400 dps
winds of chaos ( a bit trickier to calculate) 0,75 casting time:
111+((1/3×298)(1/3×328)(vulnerability,might,fury))/0,75=427 dps +boons and vulnerability.
water blast Attack speed is 1 attack per 1.35 seconds.
111/1,35=82 dps….. there’s a heal though….

So now in order:
Spatial surge (696 dps) mesmer
Winds of Chaos (427 dps+perks) mesmer
Bleeding Shot (427 dps) warrior
Long ranged shot (423 dps) ranger
Tranquilizer dart (400dps) engineer
Dual shot (348 dps) warrior
Hip shot (335 dps) engineer
Necrotic grasp (328 dps) necromancer
Orb of Wrath (280 dps) Guardian

Chain lightning (271 dps) elementalist
Fireball (224 dps) elementalist
Stoning (137 dps) elementalist
Water blast (82 dps) elementalist.

Now you know how they compare.
We have the lowest ranged damage, lowest healthpool, lowest base armor no access to fear, aegis, retaliation, torment, any survivability mechanic, bunker spec and mobility nerfed to bits I thought it was just some whining but seeing these numbers I can’t help but just be very very very very very sad.

*
May I also note that this is after the staff got buffed!

Thanks for doing that. I’ll check the math at some point, because the gap seems wider than based on calculations I did in my head, but it does show pretty nicely how Staff Ele stacks up. Sadly, it isn’t really much better on the other skill slots either.

We really got the short end of the stick and have to work really hard to reach mediocrity, while most other professions can be exceptional with relatively little effort.

The base numbers are off, by a lot, vs. other professions and weapon sets. The nature of our traits severely limits the ability to pump up offensively and even if we do, with such low base numbers, a glass cannon ele is probably lucky to match DPS from other professions running balanced or even defensive builds.

Further proof of how messed up our damage numbers are can be found in underwater combat. I’ve actually had encounters underwater against regenerating mobs where I could not out-damge their base regen rate!

I can’t really explain it. Certain devs do have a reputation of just breaking things they don’t want to deal with, rather than actually balancing them. It’s starting to feel like they are doing that with this profession. We didn’t even have access to an underwater PvE Elite skill until very recently and analysis of the pitiful underwater DPS has been completely ignored.

Back to the numbers, remember that only stoning can act as a finisher, while most other #1 skills in the game are finishers. There is hidden DPS there that isn’t accounted for in the base damage numbers.

Seems the math on spatial surge was wrong. Its not 3 hits of 341 but 3 hits that total 341 damage. making its dps a third of what it says in my previous post. So now its not as strong as chain lightning but still stronger as fireball.

Alphard.6529:

Swimsasa Stoon.8936:

calculating dps based on wiki info:
Spatial surge hits 3 times with 1,5 second cast time 348 dmg:
(348/1,5)x3=696 dps

Actually the damage listed (348 dmg) is for the 3 hits total, not per hit.

Also are you taking into account the aftercast time?

Very happy to hear that.
Wiki doesn’t say anything about what the aftercast is so I couldn’t include it in the calculation. So the damage would be:
348/1,5=232 dps which is actually pretty low yay! But it can’t be side stepped like all our range 1200 spells can be

Did I make any other mistakes?

Kain Francois.4328:

Swimsasa Stoon.8936:

What if you saw a warrior do the same with a greatsword? Would you kick him too for not using a mace to knockdown foes?

That’s like comparing the strength of a gorilla to the strength of a kitten. Don’t compare Hundred Blades to Staff autoattack.

Also, FYI it takes two people to kick someone, and the elementalist in question kept messing up pulls and ignoring the team. So don’t demonize me over kicking him, unless it was you we kicked?

But to answer your question, if four people asked the Warrior to run a particular weapon and he refused, I would kick him. FoTM 30 is a little late in the game not to have a complete weapon-set. “Play how you want” is for open-world.

Bad attitude can get you kicked. but your question in topic is ‘y u no projectile block’. I merely responded (maybe not clear enough) with the question why you no ask warriors to stun-lock foes? Is WAY more viable than the few seconds of projectile defence (which doesn’t work on bosses and for which we need to get rid of 50% of our dps and group heals/mightstacking/CC) yet you come to the elementalist forum to complain about one elementalist who didn’t listen to your demands and was a bad player over all saying that we should all use focus instead of staff. Quite frankly spamming fireball is more viable than spamming swirling winds every 30 seconds. (might’ve been better to bring some embers though)

as for why you didn’t: its because warriors do good damage and elementalists don’t. So the guy who drew the shorter straw gets picked on for not having the skill to press on more than just 1 while a warrior can press 1/2 on Greatsword because he’s a gorilla and we’re a kitten.

Devildoc.6721:

kostbabis.8791:

I dont get why you are all so happy..I for one realised that 15 water and evasive arcana should be like the base for ele survivability..Not even something like fresh air can outweight the fact that ele base defence SUCKS..
This patch achieved nothing..It only forced EVERYONE in max cond removal only now we have our water line nerfed..Not even stability and 20 in earth is worth it with the necro plague.
Thx anet..but unless you really fix the arcana problem and the base ele defence nobody gonna use air/fire/earth grandmaster traits in serious pvp..
Thats my opinion of course

It’s kind of a problem that anet decided to give classes basically the same dps, but gave classes different health and armor. Thieves and Elementalists who spec full damage get 1 shot by boss attacks if they ever get hit, warriors can survive it while specced full dps.

the result is thieves and eles have to spec into surviving rather than damage.

eles have the worst health, armor and ranged dps. Only way for us to do decent damage comparable to other classes is to be in mid-close range in our zerker gear with no survivability what so ever.

Jabberwock.9014:

They are nerfing fgs mobility? Wut? That’s it, I quit. That’s just about the only thing that elite is good for and the only thing that makes our mobility in wvw bearable. God forbid an elite skill with a 180 second cooldown and rooted summoning makes us temporarily fast enough to escape most classes.

They’re looking at it, is what they said as in when they said they were looking into bunker elementalists. Remember what happened to those?

answer on the question in the title:
NO it doesn’t ever work in any situation. Its possibly the worst trait in the intire game.

and all 4 of those elementalists skills can be quite easily side-stepped.

in order of base damage

spatial surge (assuming target is at 1200 range) – 348 (2 additional targets in beam)
long ranged shot (assuming target is at 1200 range) – 317 (projectile combo 20%)
fireball – 314
hip shot (with rifled barrels for 1200 range) – 251 (pierces targets, projectile combo 20%)
necrotic grasp – 246 (piercing , projectile combo 20%)
orb of wrath – 224
dual shot (with stronger bowstrings for 1200 range) – 212 (projectile combo 100%)
chain lightning – 203 (3 bounce)
stoning – 185 (weakness, projectile combo 100%)
bleeding shot – 155 (255 bleed, projectile combo 20%)
tranquilliser dart (with rifled barrels for 1200 range) – 130 (170 bleed, weakness, projectile combo 20%)
winds of chaos – 111 (chance of 298 bleed / 328 burn / vuln, 1 bounce, chance of might / fury to ally)
water blast – 111 (370 healing)

calculating dps based on wiki info:
Spatial surge with 1,5 second cast time 348 dmg:
(348/1,5)=232 dps
Long Ranged Shot (1500 range when traited) 3/4th second cast time.
317/0,75= 423 dps
fireball (Attack speed is 1 attack per 1.4 seconds.)
314/1,4= 224 dps
hip shot 3/4th second cast time:
251/0,75= 335 dps
necrotic grasp 3/4th second cast time:
246/0,75= 328 dps
orb of wrath Actual attack speed is once every .8 seconds.
224/0,8=280 dps
dual shot 2x 212 at approximately 1.19 seconds per attack.
414/1.19=348 dps
Chain Lightning 3/4th cast time:
203/0,75=271 dps (more than fireball even if there’s only one target)
stoning Attack speed is 1 attack per 1.35 seconds.
185/1,35= 137 dps
bleeding shot – Attack speed is approximately 0.96 seconds per attack damage is 155+255=410
410/0,96=427 dps
tranquilizer dart 300 damage every 3/4th second:
300/0,75= 400 dps
winds of chaos ( a bit trickier to calculate) 0,75 casting time:
111+((1/3×298)(1/3×328)(vulnerability,might,fury))/0,75=427 dps +boons and vulnerability.
water blast Attack speed is 1 attack per 1.35 seconds.
111/1,35=82 dps….. there’s a heal though….

So now in order of most dps to least dps:
Winds of Chaos (427 dps+perks) mesmer
Bleeding Shot (427 dps) warrior
Long ranged shot (423 dps) ranger
Tranquilizer dart (400dps) engineer
Dual shot (348 dps) warrior
Hip shot (335 dps) engineer
Necrotic grasp (328 dps) necromancer
Orb of Wrath (280 dps) Guardian

Chain lightning (271 dps) elementalist
Spatial surge (232 dps) mesmer
Fireball (224 dps) elementalist
Stoning (137 dps) elementalist
Water blast (82 dps) elementalist.

This is after the staff was buffed.

Conclusion:
lowest armor
lowest health
lowest damage
no innate survivability or damage mechanics like warriors, mesmers, thieves and necros have.

spatial surge (assuming target is at 1200 range) – 348 (2 additional targets in beam)
long ranged shot (assuming target is at 1200 range) – 317 (projectile combo 20%)
fireball – 314
hip shot (with rifled barrels for 1200 range) – 251 (pierces targets, projectile combo 20%)
necrotic grasp – 246 (piercing , projectile combo 20%)
orb of wrath – 224
dual shot (with stronger bowstrings for 1200 range) – 212 (projectile combo 100%)
chain lightning – 203 (3 bounce)
stoning – 185 (weakness, projectile combo 100%)
bleeding shot – 155 (255 bleed, projectile combo 20%)
tranquilliser dart (with rifled barrels for 1200 range) – 130 (170 bleed, weakness, projectile combo 20%)
winds of chaos – 111 (chance of 298 bleed / 328 burn / vuln, 1 bounce, chance of might / fury to ally)
water blast – 111 (370 healing)

Spatial surge hits 3 times with 1,5 second cast time 348 dmg:
(348/1,5)x3=696 dps
Long Ranged Shot (1500 range when traited) 3/4th second cast time.
317/0,75= 423 dps
fireball (Attack speed is 1 attack per 1.4 seconds.)
314/1,4= 224 dps
hip shot 3/4th second cast time:
251/0,75= 335 dps
necrotic grasp 3/4th second cast time:
246/0,75= 328 dps
orb of wrath Actual attack speed is once every .8 seconds.
224/0,8=280 dps
dual shot 2x 212 at approximately 1.19 seconds per attack.
414/1.19=348 dps
Chain Lightning 3/4th cast time:
203/0,75=271 dps (more than fireball even if there’s only one target)
stoning Attack speed is 1 attack per 1.35 seconds.
185/1,35= 137 dps
bleeding shot – Attack speed is approximately 0.96 seconds per attack damage is 155+255=410
410/0,96=427 dps
tranquilizer dart 300 damage every 3/4th second:
300/0,75= 400 dps
winds of chaos ( a bit trickier to calculate) 0,75 casting time:
111+((1/3×298)(1/3×328)(vulnerability,might,fury))/0,75=427 dps +boons and vulnerability.
water blast Attack speed is 1 attack per 1.35 seconds.
111/1,35=82 dps….. there’s a heal though….

So now in order:
Spatial surge (696 dps) mesmer
Winds of Chaos (427 dps+perks) mesmer
Bleeding Shot (427 dps) warrior
Long ranged shot (423 dps) ranger
Tranquilizer dart (400dps) engineer
Dual shot (348 dps) warrior
Hip shot (335 dps) engineer
Necrotic grasp (328 dps) necromancer
Orb of Wrath (280 dps) Guardian

Chain lightning (271 dps) elementalist
Fireball (224 dps) elementalist
Stoning (137 dps) elementalist
Water blast (82 dps) elementalist.

Now you know how they compare.
We have the lowest ranged damage, lowest healthpool, lowest base armor no access to fear, aegis, retaliation, torment, any survivability mechanic, bunker spec and mobility nerfed to bits I thought it was just some whining but seeing these numbers I can’t help but just be very very very very very sad.

*
May I also note that this is after the staff got buffed!

0/30/0/20/20 lots of damage % increases and just make sure to bring a friend who does alot of cc that way your foes will actually stay in your aoe’s otherwise you’d better go for S/D or D/D. (for the very daring you could try focus).

that and focus fire no. 4 the bug thread is full of QQ about it. I actually liked the scepter water skill 2. (aoe vulnerability)

Senticon.3452:

You can’t seriously speak about survivabilty in any possible Ele’s build.
Lowest hp and armor can’t be made up with any possible gear or buffs
you get. To survive as ele you just have to move alot, watch your positioning,
try to stay as far from sources of damage as you can, deal dmg and provide
support to the group.
I currently run mostly damager build with staff focused of crit%/dmg and power,
still, I can provide decent support like regen, auras and removing conditions.
As we play only against brainkitten ts in dungeons, it’s really easy to keep them
under consant damage, in your fields and etc. With my build + gear I do insane
ammonts of damage to everything, often I do most damage in groups, sometimes
second after zerk war, but considering my AoE range, it’s not much less.
0/30/10/10/20 works just like a charm after recent patch.

I’ve proven that the elementalist healing bunker build (pre-patch) could barely hold up to what a guardian bunker can do. Intire party was wiped out by 10+ mobs and only me (at 10% hp) and the guardian survived and cleared the area. Guardian had it easier while I had to constantly rally (living on the brink). Haven’t tried it after the patch yet but I’m not running bunker spec much anymore either.
Running rampager/zerker/cleric nowadays for 500ish healing power, some base toughness and lots of damage (double what I used to do).

if they’re gonna nerf our Fiery greatsword mobility then they should do the same to warriors.

I must say that utility skills have been freed up which seemed to me attleast to be the main goal in the last patch. I now actually feel compelled to bring other skills. Cantrips are still good but they don’t completely over shadow every single other skill we had.

0/30/0/20/20 S/D zerker+cleric trinkets (some rampager if you want more damage).
Get every single trait that increases your damage output. Good now you die fast but attleast you’ll do enough damage to burst people down pbaoe with the fire burst and air aftermath.

Caffynated.5713:

Swimsasa Stoon.8936:

hint:
lingering elements and 10% more damage while in air atunement.
Kind of like a permanent 10% damage boost.

Unfortunately, lingering elements doesn’t work the way that literally every person who ever read it thought it would. It’s basically lingering soothing mist, and then only if you have soothing mist.

Making it work the way we all expected would be the single biggest buff they could make to the fire, air and earth lines.

bugger….. same as flamewall and icespike bug… and diamond skin not upping with increase of toughness through skills…. bugger….. bugs everywhere……

agreed
though I do win any 1v1, problem is and has been many times is that they seem to come in pairs. I’d down a thief and then get backstabbed to death by a second thief out of nowhere (imba stealth). Had this happen to me 5 times. All I wanted was to get to that jumping puzzle

Razor.6392:

Swimsasa Stoon.8936:

Razor.6392:

Sunflowers.1729:

Razor.6392:

-Ranged aoe damage

That would probably go to Necromancers.
(But I agree with the other one!)

Nope. Wells are ground cast unless traited for it.

Also, no necro goes crit damage(?)

necros can hit for 28k dmg

each of my meteors hit for 4k damage on top of lava font and other aoes.

I guess wells / life siphon is spammable now?

28k was with an axe no. 3, I hit 5-6k dmg with my meteors but I’ve never seen more than 3 meteor hit the same target nor seen anyone in pvp or wvw stay in the giant obvious red circle. Axe no. 3 of necro hitting for more than killshot off of a zerker warrior with no long wind up at medium range but a class with the biggest health pool in the game (next to warriors) meaning not only are necromancers better damage dealers but its also easier for them to spec towards it without losing too much survivability in comparison to us elementalists.