Guild Wars 2

imo… it would be nice if there were no CD. then, no buff to elementalists would be needed, and it would reward skilled players for juggling their attunements better.

it’s longer than a 5 second cd… maybe 8-10ish.

how unfortunate… perhaps it runs on the weapon-swap CD for other classes.

pukknub, i’d have the advantage simply because my build is far more resilient than his. sure, he can deal more damage, but much of that, as scepter/dagger, is avoidable.

I experimented earlier: a 30/30/X/X/X ele in berzerker gear doesn’t dish out THAT much damage. for a d/d 0/0/30/20/20 build such as mine, i can, in fact, deal about 70% of the damage he’s dealing oftentimes AND survive encounters that would kill him twice over. if we shot at each other with autoattacks until someone dies… well, i can probably take almost twice the amount of damage with my added toughness and vitality, while he can’t deal twice the amount of damage as i can.

it also helps that arcane shield works so well against an elementalist’s heavy damage dealers as it blocks 3 attacks no matter how much damage they deal… which benefits me more than it benefits him, as i deal less damage and don’t have to rely on burst.

Pukknub.7368:

It works every swap for me iirc. Can’t get over 10 might stacks with it though.
And yeah, you have to be in combat for it to work.

if it works every swap, you should be able to get at LEAST 12 stacks just by pressing f1, f2, f3, and f4.

it does work, but evidently not every swap… i hope this is a bug.

D/D elementalists are totally viable in WvW. Due to the large number of casual or new players in WvW, it’s not difficult to simply outplay your opponents.

Personally, I’ve never lost a 1v1 fight in WvW, and I’ve fought in at least 20. In fact, never bothered grabbing a decent set of exotic armor either. I’m still wearing a green, a lvl 70 exotic, and my armor is a hodgepodge of random types including carrion and berserker’s armor.

How does it work? theoretically, it should give you 3 stacks every time you swap attunements, but it seems to work only once every 15 seconds or so, and at tops every two attunement changes.

of course, 3 stacks * 4 attunements might be too good, so it may or may not be intended. 12 stacks? god forbid elementalists’ DPS be on par with that of the other classes…

Mathiuzz.4760:

1v1 me and u will lose with that squishy build.

same. my elementalist would ruin yours 9 times out of 10. when you ride the lightning to me, my updraft will launch first. after said updraft, fire element will take out a third of your HP (because of your glass cannon build) with ease. your churning earth is ridiculously easy to dodge, even with lighting flash. just count to 5 seconds and press V. OR i could simply hit you for 4.9 seconds and if you don’t die, i’ll simply deploy my arcane shield right before your churning earth goes off. you won’t deal much damage to me at all, and you’d just be even more of a free kill.

Conncept.7638:

Overall, love the elementalist, the awesome spell effects add visual weight to every move. Playing one just looks awesome.

But, there is no diversity in this class, there are currently 2-3 PvP builds that allow an elementalist to survive, even then still barely contributing anything to the team. In PvE it doesn’t even matter what you build, as soon as you pull a mob you’ll know whether you can kite it or whether you’re completely boned. In WvW we are pretty much delegated to sitting on walls and spamming AoEs into a barely discernible mob. For the class with the most skills available at any point and time, those sets of skills are applicable in a disturbingly small amount of situations.

very well said.
it seems that Anet thought AOE was the only thing elementalists needed to be on par with the other classes… even though in 90% of situations, this is definitely not the case.

lightning. i play my elementalist almost exclusively dual dagger (which has the fewest survivability skills of any elementalist weapon btw), so i’ve basically got the squishiest weapon setup of the squishiest class, and i haven’t died in a fight with <5 mobs for 2 weeks. also, i have no problem gaining gold; i have somewhere around 50g right now.

elementalists are awesome if you have an idea of what you’re doing. if you’re just using as staff in PVE and playing it like you would another class, you are royally screwed. and dead. and poor from paying all the repair fees.

basically, L2P. you’ve got two arcane shields. that’s 6 hits worth of invincibility. use it. depending on your weapon-set, you have a TON of slows and snares or a TON of knockdowns. use them.
you also have a nearly invincible earth elemental able to tank all your damage for you. use it.

the two are totally different skills.

IMO, elementalist is the only class with a set of underwater skills more practical than on-land skills. (yes, staff, i’m looking at you)

it certainly deals as much, if not more, damage in 1v1 than staff.

i think they might’ve fixed the issue with dagger air’s autoattack now with the 3-target thing… at least…

it’s simple: don’t play another class and you never know what you’re missing out.

ELEMENTALISTS 4 LIFE, and even if all the other classes deal much more damage with much less effort… let them. i’m still steamrolling HS spamming noobs in SPvP anyway.

we’d be OP if allowed to switch weapons. staff+ d/d would wreck face if anybody tried to run. dat CC. 2 aoe slows, 2 aoe snares, 2 knockdowns, an interrupt, a blind… not to mention 2 distance closers.
scepter/dagger+ dagger/dagger would wreck face with the insane amount of sustained burst…
heck, d/d+d/d would wreck face too: cycling through fire element alone will deal 10k damage and burst for 6-8k of it.
imagine if Anet eventually fixed Arcana XII so that churning earth works instead of tickling your opponent. weapon switching would wreck face because stacked with this, you’ve got 3 churning earths at your disposal. considering that with lightning flash + dodging, you’re guaranteed to get off 2 churning earths already, each dealing 2-3k damage + 4-5k bleeding… we’d wreck face.

frankly speaking, faces would be wrecked… and not an elementalist’s, for once :P

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…

^when was this? the churning earth from XI worked terribly 2 weeks ago, and i haven’t tried it since.

2 words: arcane. shield.

go dual dagger.

laugh as your thief oppoenent gets zapped for 2k damage after wasting half his initiative trying to break said shield.

permaCC him for 5 seconds while killing him.

laugh again as you collect your free kill… honestly, it’s almost as one-sided as fighting a staff elementalist in a 1v1…

Wulfrim.4793:

wertyuio.8630:

Wulfrim.4793:

Ah, I figured it would be something like that or else it would be too overly powerful. Is it worth grabbing instead of the other arcane grandmaster traits?

personally, i just put 25 points into arcana… IMO it’s not too worth it unless it’s changed to somewhere around 1/3 to half the damage as actual churning earth…. and i’d agree that it would be rather OP. though if you think about it, it isn’t THAT op… since OP or UP only matters really in PvP.

take heartseeker, for example. even after the nerf, 2 random heartseekers will still deal as much damage as the average hit of churning earth… albeit in melee.

You’re forgetting one very important fact though. Earth element is defensive. A elementalist built around earth, condition damage and toughness will last MUCH longer than a thief AND has many more answers to different situations than a thief. It isn’t all about who has the longest sword.

that reply is somewhat off-topic :P
an elementalist with a focus in toughness of course will be less squishy than a thief who places an emphasis on power + crit rate… but i believe we’re discussing whether or not churning earth is OP without the millenia-long channeling time :P

DrakeWurrum.6049:

Ride With Lightning > Magnetic Grasp
It doesn’t have to hit with a projectile. Not to mention the fact that you never know when you might need one while the other is on CD.

Shocking Aura is also incredibly useful for self-defense, as well as for auramancers. I think Updraft is terrible, however, and Lightning Touch is underwhelming.

well, not terrible in that way. air is amazing in terms of control in SPvP and mobility, but when it comes to PVE, it’s not that great.
for PvP… you definitely need every element.
ride the lightning+ updraft + magnetic grasp + earthquake+ring of earth+ring of fire is pretty awesome. it keeps your opponent down for 4-5+ seconds… rather awesome imo… while the combo’ll take off at least 20-30% of your opponent’s HP. it’s the perfect initiation in a 1v1. if they run, burning speed + sigil of fire + fire grab can sometimes crit for enough damage to finish off your opponent. if they survive and fight back, water attune abilities + heal will chill your opponent, deal another 1.5k damage, and heal you for around 70% of your HP. by then, your earth or air attunement CD will probably be done then, so you have 2 range closers back at your disposal…. keeping up that lethal stream of DPS is more difficult than “roll thief, bring a dagger, and 2+2+2+2+2+2+FINISH THEMMM,” but it’s still great.

for PVE, i just run in a giant mob of people, pop my arcane shield, and churning earth ALL the things. then i switch to fire, summon hounds of balthazar (or earth elemental or mistfire wolf or something tanky) if there are more than 5 mobs, and just dance around until everything’s dead.

Wulfrim.4793:

Ah, I figured it would be something like that or else it would be too overly powerful. Is it worth grabbing instead of the other arcane grandmaster traits?

personally, i just put 25 points into arcana… IMO it’s not too worth it unless it’s changed to somewhere around 1/3 to half the damage as actual churning earth…. and i’d agree that it would be rather OP. though if you think about it, it isn’t THAT op… since OP or UP only matters really in PvP.

take heartseeker, for example. even after the nerf, 2 random heartseekers will still deal as much damage as the average hit of churning earth… albeit in melee.

IMO, it’s just like playing starcraft, except slower paced. my APM with elementalist (while extremely high for an RPG) that i need for optimum performance is somewhere around the 40 range :P

i think… elementalists are a tough class to work with. sure we’ve got a bunch of abilities, but many of them are not unique enough. many would be redundant if, say, elementalist used initiative instead of CDs like thieves… so even though we have a lot of abilities, and even though many are useful… they can’t cover all our bases still.

Naurgalen.2374:

Yep, its op. It will be nerfed soon I assume.

Yes, hundred blades is OP. it will be nerfed soon i assume.

see what i did there?

whirlpool can deal a bunch of damage if you walk right into it… but otherwise, the user’s a sitting duck… sorta like hundred blades. if you sit in a full round of hundred blades, you’re… gonna die. same principle.

Wulfrim.4793:

It seems to me that you are intentionally playing elementalist at 25% capability.

this exactly. earth is durable, and it deals quite the bleeding damage, but why limit yourself to 5 situational abilities? why not branch out?

water’s got a bunch of weak heals, but that can add up with your 6 skill to heal you for 70% of your total hp… and water’s condition removal is a godsend.

fire’s got insane direct damage. if you want burst, there you go. if you want the highest damage output, you still want fire.

air’s for mobility, and is also for keeping your opponent from running away.

an elementalist’s kit can’t even fit every situation even with all 20 abilities, yet you’re restricting yourself to a quarter of your abilities.

it’s so bugged.

for example, instead of critting for 5k damage with churning earth + another 4.5k bleeding, you deal 200 damage and apply only 1 stack.

i can’t understand why you’d purposely avoid healing slowing, and condition-breaking, but okay. though i can agree with you that air is largely useless.

to each his own, then i suppose. i personally find that working in groups severely limits my options.

actually, survivability as scepter/focus rivals that if not surpasses that of staff (but damage output vs. trash mobs is even worse), but i get your point. for the game’s inherently squishiest class, it’s not always a good idea to get in your opponent’s face.

i think everybody knows that elementalists’ AOE is amazing. but you said so yourself: you’re only talking about dungeons. dungeons are a highly situational component of the game.

if you were soloing in cursed shore about 2.5 weeks ago, you would’ve known why nobody would solo with a staff. with a pure glass-cannon build like that, each fight against trash mobs would’ve been a struggle for life.

now let’s take, for example, earth element power/toughness/vitality 0/0/30/15/25 dual dagger elementalist instead. you can still crit churning earth for 4.5k damage + another 4.5k bleeding. your fire’s 5 ability is instant and can hit for almost 4k damage. your fire and earth autos still deal 900 damage a pop, you’ve got 3 range closers and 2 knockdowns as well as a snare, you have much more chances to inflict burning and bleeding on opponents…. and with a far less squishy build, i can oftentimes take 20 autoattack hits before i’m downed. how many can you take? 6? 7? i haven’t been killed by a non-champion mob for over week (when i don’t AFK in a stupid place, at least).

however, i agree with the intention of your post: full berserker’s staff elementalist is VERY dangerous when given the chance to shine… except the chance isn’t given in the majority of situations.

in my opinion, soloing underwater is easier with a trident than soloing on land with a staff. many things you can simply kite, and you’ll never even take damage. you’re still rather versatile compared to staff… the only thing i dislike about underwater play as elementalist is how long it takes to do anything… unless you can nuke something successfully with your water’s 5th ability for 10+k damage…

MarzAttakz.9608:

Elementalists cannot hold a chokepoint alone unless it’s against the countless noobs you’ve mentioned.

Once you hit your cooldowns it’s time to get out of Dodge, if they haven’t rolled over your Unsteady Ground and walked around your Stasis Field and Frozen Ground has worn off maybe one or two are hurting. Or perhaps your Meteor Shower just nuked you via a Retaliation buff. And that’s only talking Melee!

1500 Ranger and Engineer spam is enough to drive you back and if you’re still standing at 1200 after that, well you’re enemy Elemental fodder after Magnetic Shield has worn off.

But all in all you are correct, WvW is one of the only places I feel like I get to use my Staff to it’s full potential when not fighting NPC’s.

the thing is, in WvW, the brashness of opponents is well expected. many seem to believe that they are safe in numbers (even if meteors are raining down around them and they’re snared around a field of slows) and thus are as predictable as PVE mobs. use this to your advantage, and you can net at least a kill credit per minute.

to avert the obvious problems that rangers and engis present, two arcane shields + armor of earth means you can lose 75% of your HP and still continue to channel your combo. the only problem with recovery would be that staff’s water element’s heals aren’t too great. 4, 5k tops in an optimal situation… though they’re usually enough for you to get away from a sticky situation :P

or maybe it’s because elementalists can’t swap weapons in battle? i’m sure it works fine :P

i’ve only played SPvP for 2 hours so far (only like lvl 6) but my KDR is hovering around 3-ish and i’m usually the player with the most points in whatever match i’m playing in.

i use dual dagger solely… but i balance things out a bit so that i’m not pure tanky (you really can’t, with the weapon set) nor am i pure burst or glass cannon-y. i still go down faster than tankier classes, but MAN is it fun and MAN is d/d elementalist mobile!

omg. you play almost exactly the same as i do, except i go for a more fire-centric build, play a bit more spammy (starcraft reflexes coming back) and use water element solely for heals and condition breakage instead of the range. i guess i dance in and out of range more often… the benefits of having 3 range-closers instead of simply toughness + condition damage equips, i bring toughness + [power + vitality.

i find that fire;s direct damage let’s me deal more controllable damage— i can better manage my opponent’s health that way. i also bring sigil of air as my 8 skill instead, since that blind lets me get away more easily as well as, in niche situations such as finishers, allows me to pull it off without interruption.

I don’t usually see dual dagger eles in sPvP. they generally go scepter/dagger. personally, and i’m sure you agree, i prefer the damage output of dagger/dagger. and i compensate for my squishiness by maxing out toughness and grabbing soldier’s equips… and the condition damage bonus in maxing out earth is very handy as well. yay 4 all-around elementalist!

get a berserker’s set. with that setup, you’ll be dead as soon as anyone draws a bead on you anyway, so why not try and deal as much damage as you can before that?

unless you’ve got sigils of earth or something, 95% of your damage in WvW is coming from direct damage: you meteor shower… though I don’t recommend going only fire element nor choosing to go either rampager’s or berserker’s sets. your damage output would suck if you only used fire element, and you’d be pretty much useless if not for that meteor shower.

an elementalist’s extremely good in WvW: with staff, you’ve got a huge radius AOE slow, up to 3 AOE heals, a line that slows all opponents that cross it, 2 AOE DoT spells and two AOE direct damage spells, an AOE snare and a line snare, a knockback, a blind, and just about all of your spells have 1200 range. an elementalist alone can hold a chokepoint indefinitely in WvW. WvW is the only thing elementalists excel at. why let all this potential go to waste and use only meteor shower?

elementalists’ damage output is terrible compared to that of other classes. however, we can deal the same amount of damage to almost unlimited numbers of mobs as we can deal to a single mob… and in WvW, where large battles are a common occurrence and the battlefield is strewn with the bodies of noobs-aplenty, this is where we shine.

i’ve seen countless noobs try to walk through 50 feet worth of slows and an entire length of meteor shower+ lava font +eruption + ice spike. i’ve seen myself deal 10k damage per second in WvW and my WvW KDR is somewhere around 10-15 all THANKS to the many control abilities we’ve got at our disposal. don’t let those go to waste. :P

now, if you’re going to go try sPvP, it’s totally different. dual daggers, dagger/focus, and scepter/focus with a soldier’s set is better for 1v1 dueling, and smart element juggling means you can still beat thieves who mindlessly spam heartseeker all day, no matter how disadvantaged people say we are in the matchup.

well, i went off on a tangent. personally, i just go with power + toughness + vitality gear. it won’t make you tanky, but it’ll keep you alive long enough to control the battlefield… and that’s what makes you useful to the team. sure, you might be able to land a few shots that perhaps might deal 30% more damage, but really, if you wanted damage output, you wouldn’tve picked elementalist in the first place.

i didn’t buy my 3rd trait book until lvl 80 as well. it really isn’t necessary, unless you shoehorn yourself into a single attunement… and even then, it won’t render you any more useless than if you didn’t dodge or didn’t switch attunements constantly. it’s like good gear: you don’t need good gear to be good at the game, and good gear won’t make a bad player great either.

if you just hit lvl 80, you won’t be getting a legendary weapon anytime soon due to the insane monetary investment… by the time you have all that, you’ll probably have countless skillpoints. just spend your skill points on all the useful skills and leave the useless ones alone.

Elementalists are totally viable in PvE. sure, you might have a harder time than if you played warrior, and you can’t just hundred blades everything to death or spin-to-win, but with proper attunement swapping, even dual daggers is rather survivable, as you can easily heal for 70% of your HP within 5 seconds.

the only thing you’ll have problems with might be soloing and in 1v1 fights, but nowadays, there are enough people even in the high level areas to avoid many of these.

Really, don’t worry about what people are saying about elementalists being weak. they’re only RELATIVELY weak, but they’re still perfectly viable. heck, before i learned about the other classes, i thought everyone else had as hard a time as i did getting to lvl 80!