Cool lookin armor. I am an asura in that masquerade armor which looks pretty stupid but I loved the stats. It looks so goofy that I went ahead and colored him in red/green Christmas colors. Hey, since he looked clownish anyway might as well go the whole 9. Btw, I use that Shaman staff too. I got my condition damage so high now that when I use Fire/Earth, the damage ticks are downright impressive.
I think most people who think eles suck just need to practice more. I’ve been playing ele since the 3 day head start and the only problems I have had were the horrible downed state and a few very annoying skill bugs with ride the lightning and magnetic grasp.
Yea, and all those just got fixed. The D/D Ele is completely viable now (particularly the Earth D/D is amazing), and I kill people when in downed state after the patch. Damages on the #3 are amazing. Instant mist form is incredible. I think that Staff needs some love mainly in Earth and Water. The build time of Earthquake is terrible and the hang time on that Iceburg is rediculous, although the CD on those two are low. Makes no sense that.
Maybe you should stop feeling like an entitled little child who expects everything to be perfect. Are you trying say that you did not get your moneys worth from the game?
That your experience is so broken that you have wasted the one time payment you made to play GW2?
Your accusing me of acting childish? When you post a statement like that?..
You are very confused.
For my part I do not “feel entitled” to anything except for what I payed for with the money I earned. I think anyone should feel entitled to get what they payed for. It makes little sense to pay for something that is buggy (your words, not mine – “This game is barely out and yes it has alot of bugs and glitches”) and then defend that company for the privilege of getting something broken and buggy, as you are doing.
Now, unless your an Anet Dev, I see little reason for why you are trying to make excuses for them. Do you think they cant do that for themselves? Do you feel some sense of obligation to come to their rescue whenever someone questions their ethical standards? I doubt they even care, so why do you?
(edited by boozer.7815)
GW2 is basically still a brand new game as far as MMO’s go. Does anyone actually remember what vanilla WoW was like? How long it took for them to fix major class bugs and exploits.
This game is barely out and yes it has alot of bugs and glitches but it is far from unplayable. The flamethrower is probally one of the glitchy’es weapons(kit) in the game with the flame blast getting blocked by just about everything and the constant miss miss miss miss miss, But its not unplayable I still run around in PvE and WvW with my trusty FT and I can make do just fine.
Mmmk. Why are you making excuses for Anet and apparently Blizzard too? As if you actually agree that you should get a broken, buggy product after paying for it…
You presupposing that all MMO’s must follow in Blizzards footsteps from what?.. 7 years ago?.. As if somehow this behavior is OK?..
Its NOT OK. You keep on with that apology tour of yours though if you think thats actually working for you. Maybe if you try hard enough Blizzard or Anet will shower you with cash from above LOL!
Half the problem is folks have been conned for so long now and by so many gaming companies that push crapware out the door that you actually think that this is some kind of standard. Well I got some news. Its never good to push a crap product out the door and expect to make any kind of profit on it except for this industry which has got its sheeple so brainwashed into believing that this is actually normal.
But back on topic. Engy’s got a bone thrown their way. Be happy with that. There is likely to be many more. PS.. There is nothing wrong with FT. It works great for me both in PvE and PvP. Never seen a miss yet from any of the targets I point it at.
(edited by boozer.7815)
Whole bunch of speculation there. Given that we just got a series of buffs I would say those are probably just the start. Anets first pass at rebalancing the class after the long series of mega nerfs. I think they realize that they obviously overnerfed the heck out of the class and are having that “oh crap” moment. Overall I think Anet has proven that they totally suck at class balance.
Best you can hope for on an ele is to annoy. I just don’t get how this class make it through testing. Do something already Anet.
Clueless. Post is clueless.
If your talking about PvE then the Ele is a great class. If your talking about sPvP then the D/D Ele is a great class. If your talking about Wv3 then the Ele is a great class. All depends on the build and the player behind the toon.
is ele really that bad >? been playing it for a while and ive been tearing thro mobs like its nothing verry easily with S/D weapon set like so easy the burst damage from it is just rediculous even when attuned to water i still do decent damage and aswell as earth dont even get me started lmao mega damage with its aoe skills its not as bad as everyone makes it out to be if ur really goona say it is why even play it x.x
Short answer: No.
Long Answer: No. But the class is lackluster compared to Anets holy trinity – Warrior, Thief, Mesmer. Those classes appear to be balanced on a different scale than all the rest. However, Ele compared to the rest of the underpowered classes is not bad.
So is there some reason you cant do update/design status posts on other class forums Jon?
In response to Frogjon; I don’t know what I’m talking about? Every single thing I said was true. Thieves, Guardians, Rangers even Eles have had round after round of nerfs. Some pretty significant ones too I should add.
Name one nerf, apart from the unconfirmed hidden change to Pistols someone listed, that we have gotten?
Yes we have buggy traits – you seriously think we’re the only ones?
Yes we have mechanics that we’d like fixed (sigils on kits) – once again, not the only profession with those. You should check out hunter pets sometime.This was a Halloween PVE content patch. If you expected a massive bug fixing patch than you’re either new to MMOs or a hopeless optimist.
Yea, Ele here, and its true that some classes such as the Ele got massive sweeping nerfs that demolished the classes effectiveness on every front. They nerfed the class so bad that they are now going back and buffing the class because they realized now on hindsight that they overnerfed the heck out of it. Hows that for game balancing? That sound like a company that has a clue about how game balancing works to you?
However, using that as justification for Anet releasing an entirely unfinished and buggy as heck class is kind of like someone purposely and intentionally breaking your arm and then telling you its your fault. Not saying you would believe that, but defending a company for releasing a badly bugged game is kind of like Helsinki Syndrome. Insane people do that. Rational people expect better, and Anet can do better. So stop trying to make excuses for them. Instead, demand that they come here on these forums and explain themselves instead of hiding behind people that think they have a clue posting clueless garbage about how things work in MMO development circles. Yeah right. Give us all a break here and get over your kitten ego.
Also, I see several people above posting as if they are Anet devs or GW2 game designers. Let me tell you something. You know NOTHING about these things. Nothing. Stop trying to act as if you do because unless you are one of the GW2 game designers, your just talking out your butt.
(edited by boozer.7815)
Downed State Updates
Discharge Lightning: This skill can now stack vulnerability up to 2 times.
Grasping Earth: This skill has been moved to skill 3 and given a 10 second recharge. Damage has been increased by 50%, and it bleeds enemies on every pulse. This skill can now be interrupted by other skills.
Vapor Form: This skill has been moved to skill 2, is instantly available upon being downed, and has a 20-second recharge.
Guardian
To say these changes are not much is just wrong. Vapor Form being up immediately on downed state with a 20s CD alone is just perfect.
Very nice changes with the exception of GoR being nerfed into nothingness. Very happy with the downed state changes on paper and Ring of Earth cripple. That skill is on a short recharge. Cone of Cold healing being increased and Fire Grab and Lightning Touch radius’s being increased. All in all, very nice changes for D/D Ele’s.
Staff Ele’s are the ultimate counter to Mesmers. There are a ton of great AoE options on staff. Use them. Watch illusions die instantly. Then watch Mesmer die from bleeds and burns.
Arenanet, I think you have some serious game imbalances in spvp. As a d/d Elementalist with a decently high amount of toughness/vitality, and a 0/20/0/20/30 build it is almost impossible to deal with any competent thief, warrior, or mesmer.
I do not understand why you nerfed whirlpool, because that was the only way for Elementalist to be viable in Capricorn…
I also do not understand why ride the lightning, and burning speed seem to not function over half the time.
Why doesn’t Elementalist have a weapon swap? Even if it had a 1 minute cooldown in combat, it would be better than being unable to deal with half of the classes due to the lack of long or short range spells.
Just out of curiosity when are you going to make Eementalist viable in spvp as dps, I really don’t think that I should be restricted to only being able to be staff heal/tank.
Ele’s do get weapon swap via attunement switching. Those of you who think Ele’s suck at sPvP are built wrong and played wrong. Those of you who think Ele’s suck at Wv3 have very serious LTP issues.
The real problem of eles is that the only way to make the class work is to play Close range D/D.
Absolutely not true. There are lots of viable builds with all weapon sets. LTP young man!
Would Elementalists be able to use greatswords in the future?
in Elementalist
Posted by: boozer.7815
Yes. Elementalist can summon a GS and use it just fine. Whats the problem?
Ele is strongest with AoE and Combo Fields that other classes can take advantage of best. In Wv3 you will have a lot of fun because your AoE and CC is great for controlling areas and/or facerolling those dumb enough to walk right into your AoE. In sPvP the Ele can be very strong using a couple different builds but if your not on the ADD or ADHD side of the house then you will be badly dissapointed. Lots and lots of work, very little payout should be the catch phrase for this class. Some say you need to have “Ub3r L33t sk1llz” to play this class, but from my experience that just is not true at all. What is needed to play this class well is a little bit of forethought into how you want to play it and then build for that. Practice a lot.
Anyway, I have been playing around on an Engineer lately and all I can really say is that that class is what the Ele should have been. They can do everything an Ele can do and quite a lot more.
The Living Bomb: A might stacking, PvE, close ranged staff Ele build
in Elementalist
Posted by: boozer.7815
This is very close to the build I run in Wv3 and its nice. I dont think there is any big secret to it though. I see lots of Ele’s run like this almost every night.
“Restored Asuran head sizes to the size selected during character creation
Fixed a bug with the Asuran character creation head size slider”
Are you kidding me OP? The patch notes do not say a thing about healing skills. This is talking about character model fixes, in this case, the way the Assuran heads render in game.
Carrion gear is great. Both Power and Condition. I think ultimately you want a good mix of both. I have melted crowds of people with bleed stacks combined with the 20% extra bleed duration.
Just wait for the next updates. The ONLY changes in the works for eles that I’ve seen a comment on from Anet are upcoming nerfs to tanky ele builds. So the only viable build we currently have is next to go.
Where are you getting this, “the only viable build” stuff from? Ele’s have at least 4 completely viable builds just off the top, and there are more.
Whirlpool, I think the damage was justified by the fact that you literally couldn’t do anything else. If you could use utilities, move fast or deflect projectiles, then I can imagine a nerf would be in order. I don’t think nerfing the base damage of this skill was the right kind of approach though, because it really does put you in a vulnerable position. You’re slow, can’t heal… so if you use this skill incorrectly you’re erm kittening yourself over. For the damage, it ‘was’ an elite skill after all and it’s not like eles were dominating underwater otherwise.
That is just not true. I used to AoE for 2500+ per target every few seconds. There are video’s out of Ele’s soloing the sharks in one of the sPvP scenario’s, and I have done it as well. It was more than obviously OP and did need a damage reduction or an increase on the damage timers. It should now do ~1675 per tick. Not exactly sub par damage there on an AoE ability.
As far as our other UW skills, try Water and Fire skills. The damage is pretty good and you get some decent CC as well. The damage is decent too if you have a good Trident and Aqua.
(edited by boozer.7815)
I guess the very straight forward “inflict massive damage in a single attack” part escaped your line of sight, right?
That’s not worth mentioning as it is a straight up lie.
The problem is that statement is too general to be useful. There is obviously a lot of angst in the Ele community about this class and Anet. I think while there is a lot of truth behind the communities anger and the part that Anet plays in that, most of it is non constructive. So what is needed here is hard numbers. Data. Lets start with the “massive damage in a single attack” statement put out by Anet to advertise this class. This is the statement that has lured many people into investing their valuable time and efforts into playing it. Lets get some hard evidence to back up the sentiment. If you cant prove it with data, then it aint true.
/signed and agree to the principle of this, maybe not the intent though. Ele has been on the receiving end of a steady stream of nerfs since BWE1 and as a result, many of our traits do not function properly anymore, and several more have been nerfed so badly that they have been effectively removed from the game. I think there is a lot to be said about a company that designs a class and then has to nerf it over and over to bring it into “balance”… Terrible management comes to mind..
The Officially Unofficial Manifesto to the Elementalist's Past, Present, and Future
in Elementalist
Posted by: boozer.7815
lol even if Anet implemented all of your suggestions, you will still have the Anet fanboi’s saying that people just need to LTP and that its a player skill issue.
- I can think of at least 4 viable builds off the top of my head and I know that there are more than that.
That’s true. There definitely is more than one viable build.
- More work? Yeah. It is harder to get used to the professions. Less payout? HELL NO! At least equal payout. And who cares if it’s a little bit harder to play? As far as I’m concerned, the less single-button builds there are in a game like this, the better. Besides, easy to play professions and builds are easy to counter. If they’re only using one or two abilities, it’s a pretty simple matter to figure it out and do something that will get through those abilities without trouble. Me, on the other hand, I can swap combat tactics on the fly with my build. Versatility is a huge advantage and we Eles have a crap load of it.
That is your opinion and its subjective. While its true that Ele’s have a ton of versatility, its usefullness is what is being debated. Not the fact that we have it. I happen to dissagree with you on this point, and especially about the payout for the amount of effort. But thats your opinion and just like those people that post negative crap about Ele’s here, its your opinion. Its not fact. I happen not to agree with either viewpoint. Ele’s are a sub par class compared to several others, and in some cases, they are worse off than all other classes, such as our downed state. But you go on ahead with your, “I am right and everyone else is a terribad player. La la la la. Let me get my head back in the sand!” attitude.
- There are no worthless traits. There are certainly traits that are useless with certain builds, but that’s because there are other builds that use those traits to great effect. That’s perfectly true of every profession.
On this front you are ignoring several key facts. You are as clueless about the class on this issue as the whiners are. Do you really think anyone will ever use GoR again after the nerf? If you do, I got some land in the Sahara to sell you. There have been bug reports on a lot of our key traits which have been confirmed, such as Arcane Power not getting the full amount of crit attacks, Final Shielding and Earths Embrace not triggering properly, etc.. And these are just the traits that I have personally confirmed on testing with logs to prove it. We do have many traits which are of questionable efficacy due to nerfs.
It is ENTIRELY a learn to play issue. Other players laugh at Eles because most Eles are whiners who expect to play a 1-button profession without realizing that that’s impossible with an elementalist. There are way too many stupid lazy gamers who want every profession to be heartseeker spamming thief with different skins. All of those people are fooling themselves and doing themselves a disservice. The elementalists out there who understand what’s going on are doing fine and kicking the crap out of those people who think that Eles suck.
Again, your post here is spewing with subjective opinion and personal attack. You are posing as the forum bully so I will treat you as such. STOP ATTACKING PEOPLE!! Just stop it. You are entitled to your opinion but that does not give you the right to post personal attacks on other forum posters.
I can confirm this.
Yea I tend to agree having some experience with this type of thing. You first have to get into the mindset of the game dev, which I have. Bugs suck to work on. Developing new code or hack and slash coding issues based on last minute design changes are always more fun to deal with because in most cases you dont go looking for the ramifications right away. You just make the change based on what is more surgical and has the least chance for creating bugs down the road in other places. Fixing bugs is tedious and boring and usually never easy. This is why the GoR nerf is nonsensical in this case. They have effectively made that skill totally worthless and assured that it will never be used in WvW or sPvP.
Why design and code a skill and then invalidate it later? What could possibly justify the huge loss of man hours involved with its initial coding? And, why the steady stream of Ele nerfs since BWE1?
To me anyway, it all points to bad design and lack of foresight. The people who bear the brunt of all of this poor management is the player base. Were the ones playing this class day to day, and being forced to live with the nerfs Anet appears to be randomly making. This class is not balanced and not ready for prime time yet. Same can be said of a couple other classes, and yet still, there are in fact some classes that overmatch an Ele on every front – offense, defence, mobility, and utility – but these are considered “balanced”, such as the Warrior and the Thief.
Too many unanswered questions here that need some explaining on Anet’s part. Things like why cant you remove people from groups after they go offline? Why cant Anet deal with the que issues? Why does the game lack in game things like a guild/alliance Calendar for event planning? Those are just a few small, but incredibly annoying things that all modern MMO’s do not have an issue with. Just this game. Untill that happens, welcome to the player base bleed that is happening, and will keep on happening.
(edited by boozer.7815)
Whirlpool was OP. Nuff said. If you did not know that its because you never used it. At 33% reduction in damage, its more or less “balanced” now. Were talking underwater here, where most everyones damage is craptastic. It also currently lacks a noticeable animation, so its hard to see in combat and hit like a truck aoe. Blah blah bleh..
The nerf to GoR is rediculous though, and nonsensical. Anet refuses to talk to us little people that play this game, so well never know why they did this. We simply are not good enough for the Anet devs to stoop to any form of an explanation.
You know I watched this video like 3 times and there were several times where you were taking crazy damage and your health bar barely moved. How did you manage that level of godlike damage mitigation?
What is APM?
Do you play this game? This game forum is for GW2, and the class is called an Elementalist. An Elementalist is not a Warrior. Those are two different classes. An Elementalist wears a dress and runs from Warriors.
I think your confused about this game.
And just to add insult to injury, I think that the gaming community overall is changing thanks to the recent spate of crapola games the industry keeps pumping out because they truly believe in the sheeple mindset. Its bad enough that flocks of sheeple rush to buy the OOHH SHINY NEW GAME!!! Then rush to the game forums to whine and cry about their dissapointment in the terrible choice they made in spending thier money and then actually thinking that the company responsible for said crapware will sympathize and fix things. Just for them.
Conan, Aion, SW:TOR, etc.. All ended up crashing and burning with huge numbers of kitten off customers while the Devs took their cash to the bank laughing. Heck, at least Blizzard honestly gives a frack about thier reputation, but their game is really not much different from any of the others of that genre. Whatever.. It is what it is and what it is looks and smells like you know what, and Anet is behaving exactly the same as all the others, despite the hype from MANY in the community that they were different. Pfft!
LOL Boozer…. You’r entire post is conflicted. Who cares about legality? They are NEVER forced to do anything at this point… but should they? yes. Who is going to buy their game/expansions when nobody plays the game anymore or if it only ever gets bad reviews. I’m already telling people to hold off on buying the game until it is polished a LOT more. You think that just because the law is on their side that they have won some nonexistent war. Good luck with that.
I dont see the conflict. Your post agrees and confirms everything I posted there. The reason for why I said that they owe us (the paying customer) some form of communication is because if they dont, they will lose current and future business. Your statement about telling people to hold off just confirms it, and btw, I am doing the same.
But lets take it to the macro level. Do you really think Anet is doing anything different than Blizzard, Mythic, EA, etc. etc. etc..
They are all of them the same. Many of us had hopes that Anet would be different because it does not have a monthly sub, but I see no difference at all in how they are handling the game overall.
First off, I think many of you are right in feeling that you (we) are all paying customers, and therfore deserve to be heard and responded to by Anet. This is absolutely correct. It is incorrect to think that Anet must buff or nerf a class because you want it. You all agree’d to a Terms of Service Agreement and signed on to all the plethora of Licenses when you installed this game, I am sure without reading a word of them.
1. How can you even think to question a company over “The customer is always right”, when you in fact signed all your rights away when you accepted the licence agreements? It is YOUR fault, and nobody elses, that you agreed to these terms that give them absolute control over both the content of the game and the copy of it you have on your machine. Yes, even though you paid for it, they own the rights to it. How do you like them apples?
2. Nobody is holding a gun to your head to force you to play this game or any given class, or partake in any of the game content. It is your choice to do so. Buyer beware!!! Legally, it is 100% your fault that the Ele is in the state that it is in, not Anet’s, because you paid for the game and your money is what Anet cares about, not you. They could care less what you do or what you play or what you like or dislike. Just shell the $$ over if you like it or dont if you dont like it. Vote with your wallet, because your opinion matters not one iota to them or anyone else for that matter.
3. You did not develop this game. You did not create the idea for this game. You have no stake of ownership in this game. You are a consumer. If you dont like what you buy, dont keep putting money into it. This is how the business world works.
I am having a hard time reading through this wall of tears. Can someone post a recap plz?
Really, they were bug fixes. Whats wrong with them fixing the many bugs this class has? Isnt that better than not fixing any of them? Granted, none of those things dealt with the class balance issues, but I dont think its worth crying over that they did not fix the bugs that were a priority for you.
What Anet needs to do is come clean with what their intentions are for this class. And they need to do it soon.
Oh I don’t think its as bad as the WoW Druid your describing, but the Ele is badly handicapped compared to almost all other classes. This is not to say that it does not have its strengths, because it definitely does, but you will be doing no facerolling the keyboard with it, that’s for sure.
In terms of class/game balance, the Ele needs some work. In terms of ithe classes effectiveness in PvP, I think it is effective in Wv3 with Staff only, and can be effective in sPvP with certain builds and tactics, but it is very limited in its ability to survive which severely hinders the ability to get the damage on the table necessary to make it worth the risk vs. reward dynamic. In other words, the class is very limited in its ability to be effective because it does not produce the kind of spike damage necessary to win close range fights, which makes close range weapon builds a handicap rather than a way to be effective at close range combat, which is what they were intended to be by design. Therfore, the class does not meet design expectations after the many rounds of nerfs that the class was subjected to during the BWE’s.
There are also skills and trats which do not synergize well anymore, mainly because of said nerfs. They seemed to synergize just fine before the nerfs. There are also skills that no longer function properly post nerf period, like RTL.
In essence, I feel the class needs to be looked at again because the nerf bat in essence “remade” the class into something slightly different than what was originally designed.
Staff is a great weapon for any setting, including sPvP. D/D and S/D are situational. D/F and S/F is much more useful in just about any environment, so for Wv3 if your just going to roll with one weapon set I think Staff is the way to go, but Focus is not far behind.
The staff is amazing in sPvP. There’s a lot of top tier teams that run with a staff ele. They are very tough to kill because they can cleanse conditions constantly and they can throw out huge aoe heals with the water 3 and 5 plus blast finishers. They do decent dmg, strong aoe. And they are perfect for killing the treb in kyhlo. The treb has a huge hit box, so the fire 5 ability just destroys it.
Right for the most part, but the staff has anything but “huge” aoe heals. Geyser is a 1.1k heal at the most, and healing rain offers no healing other than the regen. The blast combo finishers are also pretty weak, depending on the healing stat of the person applying the finisher, they range from 1.6k at the most to as little as 900-1k.
If you want to offer actual healing support, the scepter/dagger is the best for that.
Well, actually that is not true at all unless your saying that the heal on damage aspect of waters attacks in S/D, which is not my experience with it at all. Water Staff is very nice healing support. The best of any weapon combo I have tried thus far, in fact.
Its true that unfortunately with the state of the game and the Ele, Staff is our best weapon setup for a multitude of reasons that anyone who has played both sPvP and Wv3 a lot knows. I saw someone post above that Staff combo fields dont do good damage and that is absolutely and categorically a false statement.
(edited by boozer.7815)
You need a lot of condition removal in your build. They are not that hard to beat.
Its actually a good build. Used it myself in Wv3 and it works very very well as a support build. I would not go running it in sPvP..
I think what nearly everyone is trying to tell you is that you just seemed to spam off attacks with very little thought into how they synergize, which is definitely true. I think what you need to do is put some time into learning all your D/D abilities intimately well, as well as the regular game mechanics and how they all play together. A poster above mentioned several times that you do not dodgeroll efficiently, and that is also true. You can not play a D/D Ele well if you do not learn the basics of the game first.
Ok so your saying that some things about the Ele do not work as you would expect them to, and I would agree with that. Do not agree that all of our weapon skills are weak and on the wrong weapon. Staff = range but less single target damage, WAY better AoE and combo fields that are the most OP in the game without question. S/D = shorter range, awesome burst dps in Fire and Earth. Supposedly better ST burst with Air but I dont see it (Air needs fixing TBH). D/D = very short range, highest burst potential (not seeing it, needs fixing). Then there is the Focus = utility, CC, and defence. So you see there I outlined some of our shortcomings with the game design in mind. But, you first have to understand the intent and design of the Ele to know what it needs, and I am not sure you do based on your posts.
If you play a Staff Ele and think that your going to burst people down 1v1, then you are clueless about this class and it is not a good fit for you.
If you play a S/D or D/D Ele and think that you are going to faceroll the keyboard on people, then this class is definitely never ever going to be a good fit for you. Delete now and save yourself and the community some pain.
If you play S/F or D/F and think that your going to faceroll the keyboard and unkillable, then probably this game is not for you. Forget about the class, the game itself is beyond your understanding.
So yea, there is a large grain of truth behind what alot of people are saying about the whiners. They do need to L2P. But it goes beyond that. Way beyond that. The problem is that the Ele is an incredibly complex class that is way out of their league. How can you hope to do well on a class that you will never understand? This is the real problem here because to do well on this class you have to spend an awful lot of time testing, studying, and learning just to become mediocre at it. And then countless hours more to become good. Just look at Kyros’s thread and you will see after 4 pages now that he has just got started on the learning curve and has a long ways to go yet (kudo’s to him for sharing his experiences with us, it has helped me).
So, should Anet “dumb down” this class so the WoW kiddies can faceroll on it? That is the real question here before us all.
First off, the Elementalist is not a class that I would call “broken”. Broken means not working at all, which is not true here. Some aspects of the class are not up to par with other classes, but that does not meet the definition of “broken”. What the Elementalist needs is some dps boosts in some area’s that are weak, some traits need to be fixed, and the downed state is horrendous. Worst in the game.
There are some area’s where an Ele seriously shines however, and any team would be ignorant not to take one especially for Wv3 and for Dungeon crawling, they are absolutely essential IMO. I also think that certain builds are nigh unbeatable in sPvP 1v1. There are alot of whiners and cry babies on these forums who will tell you otherwise, but there are also alot of people who play this class who are absolute GODS in sPvP.
Never the twain shall meet. Either the class is “broken” as the whiners and cry babies claim, which means that the class should never be able to win under any circumstances in any arena – sPvP, Wv3, and PvE, or the class is not “broken”, and can do well in some area’s. You can not logically have both situations existing at the same time. My experience with this class is that it is definitely and absolutely NOT broken. This can be quite easily proven by simply rolling a new Ele, going to the Mists, gearing yourself out, and then go into a few matches and giving it a go. If you can win even one single fight 1v1, then the class is not broken. Simple test. I strongly encourage you to do exactly that before rolling one and levelling it up to 80.
Ele is squish for the most part, even when you spec for high survivability. The dps potential is there when played right. Problem is that I have yet to see anyone play one right, myself included.
Churning Earth + Lightning Flash is just incredible. I have got to do that more!
Well, S/D and D/D earth is strong because of condition stacking and bleeds. Especially the bleeds which are just devastating. Earth also brings significantly increased survivability which is key and I think especially synergizes with Water and Air. That’s what I am looking for here – synergy. You will not spike dps anyone down with Earth when solo, however when your solo your not really trying to burst anyone down, your trying to outlast them and bleed them down, especially when 1v2 or more. Water/Earth or Air/Earth is the way to go there. Not saying that other builds are less viable at all, just that (on paper) Earth is potentially one of the best from my admittedly limited experience.
(edited by boozer.7815)
Hello Boozer. You failed to mention what weapon you are GOING to use :P
Yah, thats because I really do not want to lock myself into one weapon set. I want something that works with switching so although I do plan on going S/D or D/D most the time, I need a build that will work OK with Staff too. I will have a seperate build for WvWvW zerg fests where Staff is king. Probably an AoE combo field build.
3 – Yes. Earth is just as good, or probably even better than fire versus a single target (with S/D anyway) however when encountering multiple foes or players, you should use both, only switching to Air for either RTL > Updraft or Lightning aura / Stun Field.
Switching between it and water attacks is pointless, there is no reason to do so to maximise dps. IF DPS is your goal, and you want to main Earth / Water, just stick in earth until it requires you to switch out for survivability.
I think Earth is amazing so far in S/D or D/D. Not too impressed with it in Staff. I will definitely be going earth for PvE and small teams PvP with S/D or D/D. BTW, Earth has some very nice abilities with Focus as well. The ability to be immune to damage while still being able to nuke things is just… Wow. I think the S/F earth 4 also removes all conditions as well as make you immune to ranged attacks and deal pbaoe damage… You know, it almost seems like Anet put much more thought into Earth synergy than the other attunements in close combat. TBH, I think Earth has more synergy in close ranged combat than any of the other attunements except for Air.
Also, 30 Arcane is pretty much a must. Most of your strength as an elementalist comes from the ability to switch attunements on the whim, and gain boons or effects for doing so. Without 30 arcane, you severely limit yourself on these capabilities. I would recommend whatever build you’re running with, to grab 30 arcane. The way the elementalist is out right now, you do not really benefit from staying in one attunement, although the traits say otherwise.
To maximise any build, I would recommend at least 15 water, and 30 arcane. If you don’t, you’re probably going to die a hell of a lot more.
Power / precision just doesn’t work as an elementalist. You have to go support, or support / condition damage.
Unfortunately, it’s the only way currently to be remotely competitive at PvE and PvP. Anyways, don’t just take my word for it. I encourage you to try these things out for yourself. Do your research. If you don’t know an effect, test it out. Do NOT just take someone else’s word for it, or read up on it and accept it as gospel. This leads to many misconceptions and that’s why this forum is in such a state.
Well.. That is just depressing. It sounds like you are saying that we are locked into one build that makes little sense. I will give the 30 arcane build a shot but I do not see how maxing out arcane is going to push an Ele over the top. If your saying here that Ele’s are just weak overall then that is one thing and Anet needs to fix that. The Ele should definitely not be locked into a 30 Arcane build to be effective at PvE.
Hi. I am looking into a Water/Earth build. On paper many of the traits in Water line seem to significantly increase damage in that line. One increases damage to vulnerable targets (easily imposed) and another increases damage while above 90% health, another increases damage to Water attunement, which is common to all of them. I guess my questions are as follows:
1. The damage increase trait for 90%+ health – does that mean that you do more damage when the target is at 90% health or above or when YOU are at 90% health or above?
2. Is the Water line good for spike dps when running dps traits for it?
3. Is the Earth line good for spike dps, and how well does it work when switching between it and Water attacks?
I guess what I am looking at with a high Water/Earth build is – significantly increased survivability, good group support, and the potential for some really nice supporting dps with Staff. I think I am more impressed with S/D or even D/D for team PvP. Churning Earth is really nice I think, perhaps our best AoE of all of them, and it can be combined with Lightning Flash to do some incredible surprise burst with a really nice backend bleed. On squish targets its almost a sure kill unless they have a ton of support. Its a lot of fun to throw in that AoE knockdown on Earth 4 D/D just for spite after you do that bit. :P
Anyway, advice please.
Risk vs. reward.
Kyros, I think this is where you seem to have an issue in dealing with the community here. You shrug off this concept completely and I think that’s because you fail to grasp its meaning and how it relates to the way this and most other MMO’s are fundamentally designed – the risk vs. reward principle. The concept works as follows:
If you decide you want to have godlike dps, you will be paper thin and one hit will destroy you. If you decide you want to survive a long time, your dps will be like a toy gun and hit for very little. Risk vs. reward. Low risk = low rewards. High risk = high rewards.
Pro tip to you Devs of Anet, this is fundamentally what motivates Human Beings in general and drives several national and world economies. Why ever would you think that this fundamental principal would not apply to this game? Of course it does and on a global scale. If you fail to implement this design, people will leave GW2. Simple as that. Its a simple matter of fairness by design, and pro tip #2, when the Human Being perceives something to be unfair, it overrides all other emotional states and drives behavior to an extreme. This is what your seeing here on these forums now with this class. Obviously, I have some professional experience to know what I am writing about here. It may be wise to heed this advice.
The Elementalist, real or not, factual or not, is perceived to be very weak by the community overall. This is fact. It does not help that there is some strong truth to that statement. You can fix this by throwing out a statement of intent and some quick fixes to even some minor issues. I think you would be wise to heed this advice.