Guild Wars 2

bodhy.9107:

Elementalists are bad made despite all their abilities! No other class has to change weapons or atunment to achieve results in pve or pvp.

That’s not the reason they’re bad actually. That’s the reason why they’re still playable. If they’d only have, say, the fire skills and nothing else changes…then they’d be bad.

Just did some comparing at a Medium Armor – Target Golem. Comparing the greater elemental’s auto attacks averages to the lesser ones:

Fire: 900/720
Air: 379/287
Water: 890/700
Earth: 490/330

On average, this means that the greater elementals’ auto attacks deal 25-30% more damage than their lesser counterparts. Also, I noted the following:

Air Elementals attack rapidly for less damage per attack.
Fire Elementals (both greater and lesser) grant area of effect might on their special attack.
The greater Fire Elemental’s ‘super attack’ can deal more than 2000 damage (on the medium target golem).
The greater Air Elemental’s stun attack is single target and deals no damage.
The greater Earth Elemental has an aoe ‘stomp’ that grants aoe protection.
The greater Ice Elemental has healing and freezing combo fields.
All elementals seemed to have a more or less similar attack speed, but the air elemental launches a burst of attacks (4 or 5 times at once) where the others just attack once.

Hope this helps the discussion forward.

EDIT: I do not know wheter the greater earth elemental’s stomp counts as a blast finisher.

There are trophies, but it’s yet unknown what they do. Other than that, I think it’s mostly the storyline and which Asura gate you can teleport to from Fort Trinity..

My armor’s decked out with Runes of the Golemancer. The golem is comparable to an elite elemental. So it’s quite nice.

Seeing as how I use all my elements most of the time, I balance power and condition damage. somewhat. That’s also because unlike other professions, the elementalist’s staff build isn’t really built to be either one or the other, but contains a good mix of both. So focusing seems a waste of potential to me.

Lokki

Big thanks to ThiBash I totally forgot they were called elites. got that fixed.

Hehe, no problem. You got a nice guide going here, and, more importantly, you’re open to suggestions and tips from other people. If I can help out, then I will.

But speaking of Glyph of lesser does anyone have some numbers on this?

Unfortunately, I cannot give you exact numbers but I would like to point out that all the ‘elite elementals’ have an additional skill compared to the lesser versions. The fire elemental has a firestorm-like area of effect attack (in addition to the blast finisher) and the air elemental gets a stun.

Also, if you use both the lesser and the greater elementals together, their blast finishers can empower both elementals. So if they activate their finishers in a fire field, they will both get +6 might instead of +3 might on 1 elemental.
That may be a bit nitpicky, but there are certain reasons to get the larger elementals. But I agree, the water and earth versions’ heal and prots are pretty neat as well.

If I get time, I’ll compare them a bit and see if I can get some numbers for you.

Human Elementalist, once, 10% speed boost.

Well, actually twice, but the first time I missed the clockface (still got the achievement though). So I had to go again.

Aether McLoud.1975:

Probably because the blast finisher doesn’t have a cooldown.

Hmm…so that’d be a bug fix rather than a nerf. But now that you mention it, I did notice that sometimes it ‘blasted’ when it shouldn’t…but not always.

By the way, about the Glyph of Lesser Elements…I disagree that the elementals are useless. The earth elemental is particularly useful while levelling (since it can tank well, at least until you got the elite version) but the others do have a few tricks of their own (like the ice elemental’s snare aoe). They’re kinda like a swiss-army knife and can be quite useful, even if they’re relatively weak, they do have a great uptime.

Oh, and could you please change ’’Ultimate’’ to ’’Elite’’? That would avoid some confusion among the beginners that you’re aiming to reach with this article. Otherwise, good job.

Efacia

(not including the soon to be nerfed evasive arcana)

Why do you think it will be nerfed?

Also, doesn’t Signet of Fire add +4% crit chance rather than +10%?

Can’t you use it while casting another spell? As in, go up on the wall, cast a firestorm and then tleport back to safety while still casting the spell?

One thing that might help in my opinion, is for players to not lose their weapons’ stats when using a conjure. That in itself is quite a large loss, and is tough for the conjures to compensate.

Agreed. Give them time to fix the bugs, then reëvaluate the class as a whole. Give the discussion a rest because most of it has been said (and read by Anet) already.

Hehe, yeah. The main ‘problem’ with the elementalist is that it’s not a classical mage. Instead, you got an attunement-dancing combo-field supplying swiss armyknife. Nuking from range is only a small part of what they can do.

In terms of WoW, I’d say they’re more akin to the shaman and druid than the mage.

Batlav.6318:

if we dont count the elementalist’s crap elites where hounds are rly great to use

You mean you prefer them over Glyph of Elementals? That’s totally possible, though I wouldn’t consider Glyph of Elementals to be useless. Even more so because its cooldown can be reduced through traiting.

Lokki

buffing other people’s damage isn’t your DPS. Sorry it isn’t. there has never been a situation in any MMO where a support class with support skills was considered DPS because the buff damage.

Comboing isn’t the same as buffing. When I throw down a lava font that makes my teammate’s arrow cause 3 seconds of burning, then those are 3 seconds of burning damage he wouldn’t have done without me. So those 3 seconds of burning are acutally MY damage, not his. And there’s not a lot of ways to put down those damage fields without an Elementalist.

So wheter it fits your definition is irrelevant to me. I just caused 3 second of burning. I just needed a ranger to do so, that’s all.

The problem you people are forgetting is in the very description of the Elementalist class

“What they lack in physical toughness, they make up in versatility and the ability to inflict massive damage in a single attack.”

It’s settled then. Let’s change the description so we can end this discussion.

Versatility is indeed a great asset, but it takes creativity to fully make use of it. Meaning you need to make decisions quickly and then be able to carry them out the way you anticipated. Wheter you need snaring, defense or healing, there’s always some utility available to the player who knows which attunement to look at.

That being said, I do agree that mass-attunement swapping has the overhand now. Evasive Arcana seems like the only way to make a viable staff build for example, and that shouldn’t be neccesary.

If nothing else, those would be awesome town clothes…

Just like there are scientists today working on eco-friendly cars, solar power and bio-engineering, so too can an Asura krewe work in a ‘different’ way.

I just wanted to heal them, without absolutely thinking to engage the bosses.

To me, that’s actually part of the challenge. With the Elementalist, you really need to plan ahead what you plan on doing. Not just for damage dealing, but for team support as well. The tactical choice you make when picking daggers is to go for damage instead of support…that’s a choice you’ll have to live with! You can’t have your cake and eat it too. Now, you may argue that other classes aren’t hindered by such things but I’ll have to disagree. And that’s because for other classes, the differences lie more between ranged or melee, defensive minded weapons vs offensive minded weapons.

But not like the elementalist, who can choose between party support or solo damage dealer. The real issue here is that the differences between elementalist weapons are more akin to differences between builds than differences between weapons. You cannot add weapon swapping and expect everything to be fine…because it won’t be.

Lokki.1092:

If you think Staff does anywhere near the DPS Dagger/Dagger or Scepter/Dagger does, you haven’t played as those at all.

Well, maybe that’s because I’m counting all the added damage from combo fields as my own, even if it only shows up on other people’s screens.

Or maybe I just consider the 20 stacks of might I get by comboing myself.

Could be either I suppose.

While the current change to the downed state is pretty good, there’s still the issue with Vapor Form adding ‘death penalty’ whenever it’s used. While it can be seen as a balancing mechanism, I would just like to point out that it’s actually punishing players for staying alive too long. Ergo, it feels like you’re being punished for trying to remain alive for too long. And that’s quite frustrating. Isn’t there some other way it can be balanced other than punishing people for staying alive?

A good first step, and without buffing numbers. Very impressive, and I like it.

TheWarKeeper.5374:

Also, ive said Staff DPS is useless, which is the only full range way of dealing damage.

If you’re not dealing damage at range with a staff, then you’re doing it wrong. Be sure to make use of any combos you can make. Even without Evasive Arcana, you can get a lot of Might through combos. Also, keep in mind that a ranger firing through your static field or lava font deals more damage. Damage that’s directly a result of you, even if it only shows up on their screens.

The staff may not be as direct about it, but it can deal a chunk of damage still.

But if you pick the 20% cooldown reduction and the +10% damage traits in those specific attributes, you can do just that right?

Electro.4173:

The thing Earth really seems to have going for it is combo finishers. Other than utility skills, I believe Earth attunement is the only source of finishers in the class.

Good insight. The combo finisher part of the Earth skills are indeed an often overlooked part of the skill. Yet they can make a difference, especially with the large amount of fields that the other staff attunements have.

There are a few other finishers though, Arcane Wave and Arcane Blast being the main ones.

You’ll probably misread this sentence as well Selo but…

…if you’re good with a staff, you can deal good AoE damage at 1200 range. Not decent, not acceptable, not a lot compared to other Elementalists. But really good dps. Of course, you being the pro and all, you already know how so I’ll not trouble you by repeating it here. As for the rest of the pro WvWers…good that you can avoid an Elementalist’s attacks. That means they’re doing what they aim to achieve.

Is to blame for what? It’s pretty effective, but it does require some thinking on the player’s part. If you want to pwn mindlessly, there’s the Warrior.

Seriously, I used to be one of the more vocal complainers of this porfession until I learned how to play it properly. Now, like many others, I agree that bugfixes and maybe a pinch more health is all the Elementalist really needs. The key to playing it properly lies in comboing and switching attunements. If you don’t do that then you’ll never reach the point where the profession seems balanced to you.

No weapon swapping. To me, as a heavy WvW player, this is the absolute biggest issue. It locks you into one role, meaning you’re choosing to either function in siege combat but be very ineffective in smaller group combat, or vice versa.

The weapon’s range doesn’t limit its uses. At least, not for the Elementalist. If played properly, the staff can still be very effective in close combat and even in 1 vs 1 situations. You’re confused with other classes who DO weapon swap here.

Just curious, since conjures don’t really fit my current build, but what exactly is wrong with them.

Their damage is too weak. The earth shield’s auto attack for example, deals less damage than the fire staff’s auto attack (which is ranged instead of melee, and has AoE to boot). Also, if you’re using a weapon with defensive staff, swapping to the shield will actually LOWER your defenses because you loe your weapon’s stats bonusses when you pick up a conjure weapon.

All of you jumping all over capnflummox for pointing out that it is not a bug and trying to argue that it is are simply wrong. ANet has specifically stated that this behavior is by design. In other words, it is working as intended.

The thing is, I can’t think of a reason why the game wouldn’t save the pet’s name but instead remember the location where it was charmed.

Hence it must be a bug.

Of course they’re strong. Sylvari can do everything remember?

According to a certain Asura at a certain skill challenge, everything and everyone is magical.

Ever wondered how Ranger manage to call forth lighting just by rolling back?

Speaking of trophies, what are the trophies mentioned in the personal storyline for?

The guardian’s ‘floating’ weapons seem like an adaptation of the ritualist’s spells. Maybe the lines between professions have become more vague, or maybe things have been lost through time.

The Norn for example, call their ritualists shamans (those who commune with the spirits).

Maybe they’re not as static as many believe?

Why can’t the Sylvari be corrupted? Aren’t they overpowered enough?

elementalists have 16 good weapon skills, if you exclude all our bad auto-attacks

Stoning is actually quite useful to keep your opponent weakened and the air attack can be nice to hit multiple clones and/or proc on-crit bonusses multiple times. So I disagree there. Also, the glyphs change depending on attunement, meaning each equipped glyph counts as 4 skills. So your estimate is a bit off. 16+1+1+(4*amount of glyphs)=at least 21 skills.

The developers are apparently working on it. I for one, am one of the many Elementalists that hopes they get it working soon.

Seriously, ArenaNet, you shouldn’t have made the Stone Eye look that awesome. :-)

I’ve been thinking about this for a bit, and it may be that the problem lies in the color options. After the transmute, the eye still appears in my character creation screen but the color differs from the actual item. Could it be that, after transmuting, the color is copied wrongly and, since there are no color options for the item, it thus ends up not showing at all?

Does that mean you can damage invisible thieves too?

Agreed. Time does not equal difficulty.

On a side note, for any player who wishes to improve their gaming skill, I can greatly recommend Crucible of Eternity (explorable). Once you can get through that without getting killed, you’re well on your way to mastering the game.

A game that claims to be aimed at casuals, shouldn’t contain any content that takes longer than an hour to complete.

It really shouldn’t have to be explained that time doesn’t equal difficulty. But it seems it does have to be repeated over and over again (much like the dungeons themselves).

Time Does Not Equal Difficulty!

It used to be that many complained dungeons were too hard on the forums. As Anet did predict and mention. The community will eventually see the dungeons to be ok in difficulity

After doing quite a few dungeons, I can tell you that I still don’t agree with their statement. They basically say that things are perfect and shouldn’t ever need to be altered.

They are wrong. Bosses take too long. Repeating the same trick 40 times does not make the game more fun than repeating it 30 times. Being stunlocked and killed 3 times in a row isn’t any more fun than having it happen 2 times in a row.

Seriously, cut the health and, for future dungeons, find a more creative solution than instant kill mechanics. We’ve seen enough of them for the time being.

I am happy with my Elementalist. She’s not invulnerable, and that’s not something you should ever expect, but she can put up a fight. She’s no pushover and that’s enough for me.

Also, I must say it was particulary satisfying when I duelled a warrior in WvW…and made him run away. Now that’s a rare feeling (and something I don’t expect to happen again soon).

Stoning causes weakness, which will lower the damage you get as well. The thing with Earth however, is that it’s not strictly a defensive attribute: it combines offense and defense (and not in a token-damage kind of way like water does).

The skin of the Student Boots made from tailoring (female human light armor) bugs when you enter the water. It overlays itself with a star wars white/grey/red look. I’ve already sent in a bug report with a screenshot too.

The change remains (even back on land) until you equip another set of footwear.

I suppose it’s not a big problem because you can avoid it (going underground for example). But I wouldn’t call it fun.

Yes, this is really one of those issues that punishes a player for playing smart. If it were removed yesterday, I would still consider filing a petition to have it removed the day before yesterday.

The thing is, giving a boss more health does not make it harder to defeat. It only makes it take more time. Once you’re skilled enough to handle the mechanics of the fight, it really doesn’t matter if you dodge an attack 15 times or 20 times.

Samfisher.7942:

What’s the point of a pet which is a huge part of our DPS but can only take at most 4 hits and you’re penalized with a 20/60 sec cd to switch to your other pet.

You do realize that those 4 hits will take out an entire Elementalist, whereas you just lose a bit of dps?

wertyuio.8630:

don’t worry about it. staff autoattacks (except for fire) more or less tickle your opponent anyway :P

besides, you should expect to lose if you’re fighting anything other than other staff wielding elementalists in PvP. the weapon has no 1v1 practicality. sure, it’s flashy, but even when you magically get every shot off perfectly, it still won’t deal a ton of damage.

now d/d or s/d, on the other hand…

Unfortunately, I must disagree on both your points. The Earth auto-attack may not do a lot of damage, but it can maintain weakness on an enemy. That by itself makes it worth it.
Also, the staff isn’t as poor at 1 vs 1 as everyone makes it seem. Sure, you got a lot of AoE skills, but guess what? If you’re in melee, against a single opponent…you can still use them! But you’ll have to beat your opponent through kiting and disabling, while slowly taking them down. There’s no fast instant-kill burst damage available.

I’m not so sure weapon swapping would be so useful anyway. I’d use a different trait build and utility set for D/D than I would for Staff for example.

Also, I don’t really agree about the need for it. My staff suffices for 1vs1 as well as long range AoE. And it seems like D/D has enough gap closers and aoe to solve the issues there too. Sure, there’s SOME difference between how effective the weapons are in the various situations, but not as large as it’s made out to be on these forums.