Guild Wars 2

I’ve come to the conclusion that the class is designed such that we can get burst we just have to use combos, auras etc to work up to it. The fact is the way the class works if the base damage was raised, with combos etc we would be nigh unbeatable. What I do think needs to be fixed is:
downed state – I just give up unless I’m near a drop that I can use vapour form to get over.
Attunement cooldowns should be lowered slightly.
We need more durability, perhaps this could be obtained by increasing the time boons like protection are up.

1 Lvl 80, a level 16 and a level 7

I prefer D/D in sPvP than the other options except for the battle for Khylo which suits the staff. Staff 1v1 is terrible and I don’t like the scepter fire abilities for PvP. I’m never top of the rankings but I do OK.

Do you need earths embrace and armor of the earth?

Yeah but whats the base? I’ve been using some runes of the pirate and magic find food and it doesn’t seem to increase the chances markedly in terms of better loot from enemies. Funnily enough it seems to markedly increase the chance of getting rarer crafting items from mining etc.

TSLlol.4879:

I really hope they plan on doing it sooner, as this is an issue that honestly makes me want to leave and play another game. Breaking my cycle of action every hour, is just… no.

They actually need to just roll back the change until they can find a more satisfactory solution and/or fix the bugs that they’ve already acknowledged are there. Companies have to make quick decisions on this sort of thing, moving too slowly doomed swtor.

Shiren.9532:

The reasons why players are avoiding other content and favouring certain content are really obvious and should have been so when designing the game. The ArenaNet response to this isn’t to fix the problems players have with other content (it would arguably be harder), instead they are nerfing the content players are playing to force them into other areas. They are cutting off the symptoms and ignoring the problem.

Bingo! The DEs in The Cursed Shore in particular where players congregate are badly designed and encourage karma framing and indeed botting.

Yata.8932:

I think the code is in place to discourage sitting in one area constantly, turning other areas into ghost towns eventually, yeah it’s annoying to some but it forces you do switch it up so at least there’s less monotony.

It doesn’t actually do that, you get DR on any DE anywhere in the game world.

And I’ve just looked though the notes in the news and announcements section and can’t find any mention of the introduction of the diminishing returns mechanism. Anet you have to be transparent with us. Players need to know how this works let alone that it exists.

Fantastic, was that new mechanism in the patch notes? And given the confusion obviously they haven’t explained how its meant to work, which they should do.

And if its bugged it should be rolled back immediately.

Strill.2591:

The first time I hit the cap was 45 minutes into a karma booster, and I had not been doing any events before popping the booster. After trying again the next morning, I hit the cap within 25 minutes.

How many events did it take to hit the cap?

Eochaidh.4106:

Seriously? So all of those people are ragequitting over a rumor? That would be hilarious.

Not a rumour in fact it now appears the mechanism is bugged given players differing experiences. I for one acknowledge that my initial concerns were probably unfounded.

My main concern now is the lack of transparency on this issue from anet. Players should know how the anti farming mechanisms work.

Yep, its not what I was expecting when I first heard about it.Although the rampant bugs in the area may be affecting my POV.

On another thread on this someone said it kicks in after doing about 8 events in a 30 minute period. So if people are getting differing results it may be bugged.

Anet should disclose how the system should work however so we can at least know what is a bug. Their lack of transparency on this is not great.

Just got through it after bugging out a couple of times. Seemed to me that the main issue is going slow enough so that the researchers follow you.

Artorous.8573:

Duckzor.4327:

Yep. They keep nerfing and nerfing to make this game even more of a grind.

If you spread your events out, instead of doing the exact same path over and over again, you won’t notice any change at all.

From all accounts it applies to all events across the world so yes you will notice it.

DirtyDeeds.6075:

You and your family can grind good gear all you want for as long as you want…..

…..just not in the same place or killing the same mobs.

From all reports this is actually incorrect. The event anti farming mechanism applies to all events not just the same repeated event. You do a certain number of events in a certain time frame and all events will have diminished returns for the player. This is the stupidity of it. If they are doing it to get rid of bots it should apply to the same event only. Every day players are being punished for something they didn’t do so of course they don’t like it.

nerva.7940:

good. adapt, or disappear. im not saying this to be rude, but GW2 isnt like “any other” game. it is what it is.

So we should only be able to play the way arenanet narrowly define? OK its their game, they can do that but people will disappear and it will be interesting to see how the DE system operates if the pop declines drastically.

And this is not even mentioning the lack of transparency over the change to the anti event farming mechanic, no explanation nothing. Heck if the change is just because of bots its ludicrous the way it punishes normal players.

nerva.7940:

what is being taken away? why do you have to have the top-of-the-line gear 3 weeks in? WHY?

The ability to get certain gear in an expected timeframe is being taken away. For the temple armor it costs 252,000 karma anyway, which would have taken weeks for the average player, now it may take months.

nerva.7940:

i dont get these people. good luck to you and your family. but more likely than not, you’ll be back =)

Whats so hard to understand about the average gamer being annoyed when they are working towards something and anet suddenly makes it much harder, in effect punishing them for behaviour that they haven’t engaged in? People tend to get annoyed when they have something and then it gets taken away.

As a fairly new lvl 80 the game does have rewards, that temple armor is better than what I have so it is a reward, whether dungeon armor is a badge or not it is still a reward that has be grinded for.

As for the fun philosophy, it seems to me that its fun as defined by arenanet whereas like others have said fun is a completely subjective concept. What they are doing now is making the game a lot less fun for a lot of people.

Gray.9650:

bluebacker.8679:

IF this turns out to be wildly unpopular then ANet will rethink the change.

nah, they won’t.

I hope they do but I don’t expect it. To me it has some similarities to SWTOR, a developer with fixed ideas on how the game should be played taking anti gamer measures to force players into their narrow view.

Its astonishing how within a week attitudes can change but IMHO thats human psychology, cracks appear and they undermine the whole foundation. The way the mmo gamer is now thats all it takes for an exodus of players. I personally question anet’s whole manifesto now, its pretty clear they aren’t actually sticking to it.

Reihert.1509:

You are mislead.
The drop nerf in dungeons dont hit normal players. It hit people that farms the same path over and over.

A lot of whom are doing it because the reward costs are so high. Just like with karma farming.

ledzep.9504:

so any word of arena net on this?
.

Not as far as I can see, nothing in patch notes on it, no justification, no reply to the objections to it.

So correct me if I’m wrong but this change hasn’t appeared in the patch notes has it?

I’m just doing this quest and have the bug as well. Trahearne didn’t die but I killed the savage abomination before killing all the other undead. Sorry anet but this is ridiculous that this is still bugged after all these notifications.

Given the amount of crap you have to go through with this quest I don’t want to have to do it again. I died once and got taken back right to the convos in concordia which is ridiculous.

To me decisions like this and the dungeon one, without any transparency or consultation are almost swtor like in terms of bad decisions. The people they are most hurting are the regular every day players and it only serves to make the player base angry.

And I have to ask what is the point of it? Are they trying to prevent an exploit?

dsundmark.1902:

Yeah i don’t feel like this is a good system. Karma is a hard currency to earn and when you’re trying to earn armor that coasts 252,000 karma its impracticable to get that much just by earning 20 to 30 karma per event. Please let us know why this is implemented and when it will be fixed.

Doubt it will be because they seem to be fixated on an anti-farming crusade, despite it being at odds with their no grinding philosophy. Like you said its ridiculous when it costs 252,000 karma to get a full set of the temple armor anyway. When it costs that much what do they expect people to do?

ROTFL, how very true.

I agree OP, seems like anet want to make getting the gear a grind, make them impossible to do with PUGs which are by nature disorganised and require you to gear and spec a certain way.

All of which are at odds with their stated design goals.

Masternewbz.4953:

Ementalists are good if you can use all 4 attunements.

If you are saying they’re not underpowered then please provide proof of elementalists with crits as high as for the other big damage classes?

Eldrene Ay Ellan.9206:

Overall i fell 30 points in arcane with the traits I listed (and blasting staff ofc.) are more or less mandatory if you want to run such a build. The blasts also have decent utility, providing heal/condi removal, blind and cripple. This setup allows you to stack 12-15(if you are fast) stacks of might, amazing area healing (both optimal for melee heavy groups). It’s worse in applying chilled over lengthy periods of time, so possibly better in ranged only groups against single melee opponents.

I pretty much agree with your build, which is more rounded, but what do you put the other 20 points into? I personally like 20 pointsd in air for quick glyphs and inscription.

There seems to be plenty of analysis and possible solutions being posted in the thread. Good stuff actually.

DrakeWurrum.6049:

It’s… not at all irrelevant. “skill cap” has nothing to do with under/over-powered.

But thats what I’m saying, if you compare players of similar skill on other classes and Ele always comes out behind then they are unbalanced. The fact that a skillful player can play Ele effectively says nothing about whether its unbalanced or not, its just a reflection of the players skill.

In BWE1 engineers were badly underpowered yet Teldo from Team Paradigm still did very well as an engineer.

DJRiful.3749:

I’m a Dance build. Mix bag support and combos build.

Air 20
Earth 20
Arcane 30

- Mass infinite buffs and combos burst damages on AoE. Switch dance on every fight and speedy + dodges.

Sounds good can you provide a link to your build on 1 of the build websites? Or more specifically what are your air and earth traits? The combo builds I’ve seen spec 20 or 30 into water.

Shockwave.1230:

There’s another option, and that’s for players to use the class as designed and frequently swap attunements.

But then we have the self confessed pro eles stating that we shouldn’t swap frequently.

Yukishiro.8792:

No. It means they’re hard to play. That doesn’t mean they’re underpowered when played decently. It certainly does mean a bad elementalist is underpowered compared to a bad warrior or guardian or ranger.

To me that says that the class is inherently underpowered, the fact that a good player can get past that limitation is pretty much irrelevant.

DiogoSilva.7089:

However, the devs didn’t like how the elementalist could kill in 2-3 seconds.

Yet they apparently don’t mind thief being able to do the same thing or a dps specced warrior for that matter.

Saereth.8306:

really feels like the damage vs survivability is generally off for this class. If you build lots of toughness/vit you hit like a wet noodle, and are still able to be bursted by cannon builds if you run out of stamina, which as a result of increased fight lengths is common. I you build glass cannon you can nuke people down, but other glass cannon builds will very often burst you faster since you have literally the lowest toughness/hp polls in the game. The middle ground simply means you excel at neither position and generally still suffer the same problems of both GC and Survival builds.

This, I agree its the biggest problem even if the traits are kind of blah.

Just ignore him, given the complexity of our skill set we need threads like this. I appreciate it.

Pinkerton.5643:

Low HP pool is the same HP pool as thieves and guardians.

But thieves hit like a truck from stealth. Their burst damage is greater than ours and their condition damage is better overall as well.

Pinkerton.5643:

Dude, pay closer attention. lightning whip is THE hardest hitting 1 ability of any dagger attunements.

Not in my experience.

Pinkerton.5643:

Also, those average players from other professions can’t accomplish the same thing. I know because I beat them all the time. EVERY profession is difficult to really master. The difference with Ele is that it’s not very effective until you’re VERY good with it. There’s a tipping point past which your effectiveness skyrockets.

The fact that you can be effective with it as it stands doesn’t mean it isn’t underpowered.
It just makes you a skillful player.

To the OP hope you left feedback for arenanet on it.

Razarei.2809:

*
It’s insanely stupid how much we have to spec one way (defensively) and if we choose not to we get the survivability of a paper shield, and the damage of your average guardian wearing lesser gear, and specced for defence. Now, clearly there is something wrong here. Elementalists are MAGES. They are supposed to be the TRUE glass cannons, yet, we’re not glass, we’re paper, and we’re not cannons, we’re pea shooters. Why is it that every other class in the game can be specced for TRUE glass cannons yet achieve way more killing power AND defence while doing it? How does this make any sense at all?

Agree with this, if we choose to spec for damage we should be near the top of the charts.

Plus I like the suggestion of having an out of combat weapon switch, this is badly needed.

DiogoSilva.7089:

The advantage of trying to master an underpowered profession, is that once they get a buff, you’ll feel like a god.

If you really like the elementalist, keep learning how to play it best. They have some pretty strong tricks and combos that make PvE much easier, even if those combos require more effort and are less rewarding than spamming a few skills from other professions.

This, being underwpowered (and yes it is underpowered relative to other classes), will lead you to knowing the class much better.

Perhaps you should try other weapon combos. I used scepter/dagger last night for the first time since about level 10 (now at 66) and quite enjoyed it, I had the mobility of d/d but the greater range enhanced my survivability.

Myndranius.2139:

To give a clear example. There is one quest you encounter around level 60-ish (which I did at around level 70, with jack-of-all-trades gear, which balances vitality, toughness and power/condition damage). It involves a dream/future sequence in which you follow the queen of the Pale Tree (I’ll say no more to avoid spoilers). Throughout the quest, groups of 2-3 ghostly swords spawn on top of you. You can’t survive more than 2 or 3 hits from them, AND they move faster than you do, so kiting is essentially impossible.

I kited them, used a staff IIRC. The problem I had at first was seeing them. Once I was able to identify them before they attacked it was quite easy to kite them. You have to make sure you only aggro 1 maybe 2 at a time.

1v1 dual dagger is king

air gives greater crit chance and crit damage.

WhiteCrow.5310:

Yeah no, the crafting doesn’t need to be any easier than it already is. What are you expecting OP? This is an MMO, it by and large is already a time sink.

What I expect is anets goal of no grind and FUN.

To the OP, because its kind of the default mage type class.