Elementalist Discussion

[Eggoman]

Um. You do realize Arcane Wave/Blast are guaranteed crits, Dragon's Tooth and Fire Grab can do over 7k? (upwards of 9k+ on glass cannons)

The Ring of Fire is simply to increase the damage of Fire Grab.

Yeah, don't use the base damage values, or else I can just as well say hundred blades only does 1.7k damage. Don't cry underpowered if you don't know the profession.

We also have the pheonix from the scepter, but that typically isn't used in that combo. It's a good follow up, but easy to dodge and hard to get just right so it hits multiple times.

And lets not forget the fact that this is essentially turning into a "this profession can do X damage in Y seconds, therefore it's better" argument, which is incredibly illogical and stupid for many reasons.

DT and FG can crit up to 7k, but 9k? Screen shots please with how many might buffs you need to have before that happens. But anyway the stars need to align pretty damn well while the thief/warrior/guardian/ranger just needs to hit the number 1 and number 2 button to double that damage. You are also inconsistent with your logic, if you aren't going to count phoenix then Dragon Tooth shouldn't be counted either because that thing is harder to hit than phoenix. I doubt I'll comment on anything more on this specific aspect of Ele damage since people insist on stretching the truth and avoiding reality. SS or Video or it didn't happen I say.

I think it is pretty misleading to say ELE can do a lot of burst damage. This isn't saying they are not fine, but people are only wishing the ELE was a direct damage type class but it isn't. Sooner you get your head around that the sooner you will realize what strengths you need to play toward as a elementalist.

[DrakeWurrum]

I dunno. So far, my Elementalist has had an easier time surviving than my Warrior. Then again, maybe I just need to get the both of them to higher levels.

[Eggoman]

Ok so if im using a staff and fire spec, when it comes to traits ive maxed out the fire (30 points) for power and condition duration and added the deal more dmg glyphs etc, what would be the next best place to put points in your opinion?

Currently i have stuck 10 points in water to give me more health and that extra bit of healing if i need to help out with healing in dungeons and 7 in air for that extra crit/precision. (currently only lvl 63).
Should i as fire spec be putting points into earth maybe where i get extra condition damage or does that not benefit burn as much as it does say bleed?
Im a little confused about it, condition duration in my fire spec obviously means it burns longer and condition damage i guess would mean higher burn damage...bleh ive still got the fire crit thing in my mind from wow, im starting to get the feeling i should stick points in fire and air for that damage and crit and whats ever left over put anywhere at my will....i also hear to reset the points it costs 2g (((((

For staff elementalist the first place you want to put your points is in 20 in Arcane to get blasting staff. After that if you are going for a dps focused spec then you probably want to put some in fire and some in condition. You can max out fire to get the might stacking from each fire spell you cast trait if you want to have a constant stack of ~5 might with blast finishing your lava front. Might is a really good way to up your damage as it effects both direct damage stuff and DoTs.

Don't spec water because you want more heals, spec water if you want more condition removal and get up to 10 in that tree.

Actually, one thing you might want to change is how you look at the traits. I wouldn't look to the trait trees to get more of a primary/secondary stat. I would look at the trait tree to get traits that have synergy with how you are going to do damage.

For example you said you want to put 7 in air for extra crit/percision. Well that isn't the way to look at the air tree. The first tier trait you get to pick gives you fury and swiftness when you pop an aura. Do you have a lot of Aura's to use as a staff ele? No, but as a D/D you do and you pop those frequently. Is there anything in the air tree that you see would make the playstyle you choose better? That is what you should be looking at. Primary stats can come from gear, how your traits enhance your style of play can't.

Resetting points is like a couple of silver.

[DrakeWurrum]

one thing you might want to change is how you look at the traits. I wouldn't look to the trait trees to get more of a primary/secondary stat. I would look at the trait tree to get traits that have synergy with how you are going to do damage

Fully agree with this statement. Don't want to pick trait lines based on their stats.

[Suggs]

ye cheers for info people most appreciated, ill admit im being a bit ignorant towards gw2 by thinking its the same as other mmo's when it comes to specs and how different attunements work.
Im going to play with the talent thingy that was in the first post so i can see whats avaliable to me in other specs.
I think im deff going to take them all away from water though, something told me in the first place that for max output water was not the way to go among other personal reasons i have like the thought of healing to which ive not got on with in any other mmo lol but ill deff look into the arcane part.
As for the 2g to respec thing, ok note to self go and find out yourself rather than listening to heresay :P .
Cheers for info

edit- after having a play about i might try this http://gw2.luna-atra.fr/skills_tool/...070h0i1ge6e9f1

[Deleted]

I am currently a level 73 elementalist and for PvE my main weapon selection is Dagger / Dagger, I love the fast movement and strong damage at close ranges and when combined with switching atonements you have a lot of utility at your disposal along with decent aoe damage. I have found though for dungeons and PvP 2x daggers just don't play well which is disappointing, 1v1 situations are fine I can catch and kill within seconds but getting out alive in situations where the odds are against you are slim. The daggers are for getting into situations but have little to get you out of those situations.

As for dungeons I find I usually end up falling back on my healer days in wow and switching to staff, the heals from the other weapon combos are just not good enough with too long a cooldown and as far as agro goes with 2x daggers I usually ended up getting most the mobs after me which is not a good situation so I died a lot.

As for scepter and focus weapons I don't mind some of the abilities given with them like with the focus earth ability to be invincible for 4 seconds is handy when doing jumping puzzles but the rest of the abilities are not to my liking for combat, and the scepters main abilities are nice for mid range and the highest single target damage but it focuses at you staying at mid range and blinding your enemy all the while you have no slowing abilities or anything to cc except for one with the focus in offhand, tbh I haven't really used those two that much.

[Deleted]

D/D or Staff? GO!

[Ishmur]

I've got a question. Planning to be more or less a 'support' in dungeon groups (not a big fun of pvp) while still delivering some damage with spells. What do you think about these traits and spells: http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#...FM9MGxGcazRqVR combined with power/precision/vitality gear? Staff is my weapon of choice.

[Lucky_]

If you go for support, you should really be more of a support/healer then support/damage as elementalist. I just finished some runs in dredge exporables, and even without +healing gear, just with traits and staff it was ridiculous. I could simply outheal most of the AoE non-instakill damage. I suspect that once I get +healing exotics, most explorable attrition mechanics will cease to matter for my group.

[Larynx]

DT and FG can crit up to 7k, but 9k? Screen shots please with how many might buffs you need to have before that happens. But anyway the stars need to align pretty damn well while the thief/warrior/guardian/ranger just needs to hit the number 1 and number 2 button to double that damage. You are also inconsistent with your logic, if you aren't going to count phoenix then Dragon Tooth shouldn't be counted either because that thing is harder to hit than phoenix. I doubt I'll comment on anything more on this specific aspect of Ele damage since people insist on stretching the truth and avoiding reality. SS or Video or it didn't happen I say.

I think it is pretty misleading to say ELE can do a lot of burst damage. This isn't saying they are not fine, but people are only wishing the ELE was a direct damage type class but it isn't. Sooner you get your head around that the sooner you will realize what strengths you need to play toward as a elementalist.

Here's a video of a non-glass cannon Elementalist constantly critting for 7-8ks.



Different build, but you only asked for proof of damage. The fact that the elementalist in this video has 20k health, and can put out this much sustained and burst damage pretty much disproves your "lol i'm underpowered."

Here's another video of a different build, and this time using dagger/dagger. 1:32 is the best part.



(it even has a 9k fire grab, again without a glass cannon build)

I think it is pretty misleading to say ELE can do a lot of burst damage. This isn't saying they are not fine, but people are only wishing the ELE was a direct damage type class but it isn't. Sooner you get your head around that the sooner you will realize what strengths you need to play toward as a elementalist.

Eles can do a lot of burst damage. Eles have incredible direct damage. I like how in the final bit you imply I don't know how to play an elementalist, it amuses me.

[dPwnShop]

@ those videos, unless I am missing something it looks like those videos were put up in July.. I think the numbers have changed quite a bit since then.

Below is a link to a build I found watching some streams on twitch.tv. The guy that was streaming is a lot better than I am but I tried a few spvp matches when I got home from work this morning and I have to say it really was like having the best of both worlds. The damage output I had wasn't as high as a few of the HS thieves I've ran into but still very viable. The survivability and healing from this build is where it really shines. I was able to weather the storm going up against bursty builds long enough to turn some 1v1's around that I would have normally have no chance at.


*Note* props to Phantaram on build

http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simul...2.0.20.0.20.30

[Clova]

Right now my ele is 45, and I probably noobed myself up. What i really want to do in terms of dungeons is mainly support (guess Im stuck in that WoW mindset a bit where i was ALWAYS a healer). know staff is the way to go, but i could use advice on traits. Max water, then what?

Or should I not worry about this at all until I am 80 since apparantly i can do story just fine right now?

[Deleted]

That is pro but actually that is exactly how I play PvE with daggers, in pvp I think I panic slightly and forget what everything does along with keybinds



Edit:

Got a chance to do some sPvP today with duel daggers and it is indeed fun and plays exactly like that vid, forget what I said about survivability I've walked away from some pretty hairy situations, not only does this weapon combo give excellent burst damage but you can hunt people down and escape fairly effectively.

All I need to do now is find some decent sigils and trait builds for it.

[sacrypheyes]

Right now my ele is 45, and I probably noobed myself up. What i really want to do in terms of dungeons is mainly support (guess Im stuck in that WoW mindset a bit where i was ALWAYS a healer). know staff is the way to go, but i could use advice on traits. Max water, then what?

Or should I not worry about this at all until I am 80 since apparantly i can do story just fine right now?

if you actually want to max your support potential, i'd say water/arcane is the way to go, and a bit of earth is always good as i believe the first passive is pretty nice (80 bonus toughness on earth attunement @ 80 always help when you try to minimize incoming damage)

arcane is very good for support for the group boons and reduced attunement cd, which usually translate in more often condition removals with the water trait.

[Deleted]

Right now my ele is 45, and I probably noobed myself up. What i really want to do in terms of dungeons is mainly support (guess Im stuck in that WoW mindset a bit where i was ALWAYS a healer). know staff is the way to go, but i could use advice on traits. Max water, then what?

Or should I not worry about this at all until I am 80 since apparantly i can do story just fine right now?

I'm running 30 arcane, 30 water and I like it although it's not one of the most popular I've seen in theorycrafting discussions - I'm going to try a few different builds for explorables. Don't have the game open right now but off the top of my head this build means that

- Everytime you switch attunement you give a boon to your party.
- Your aoe attacks with the staff are larger.
- Heavy emphasis on condition removal.
- Dodge rolling both removes chilled/burning from me and casts a spell based on attunement.
- Switching to water both heals the party, and gives party wide regen, whenever I cast regen, I automatically then remove a condition from myself or allies, so just the act of switching into water gives pretty good support even before I start casting.

In addition heavy water gives you a fair amount of vitality so buffs your personal defense and arcane is making your elements recharge faster - so you can get boons from switching more often, and makes your boons last 30% longer.

The last 10 points I've tried in a few places and not decided how I like it yet or what I'm going to do long-term. I've tried air with 5% precision converted to healing but didn't find that even remotely useful since I'm not running precision. At the moment I've taken 10% extra damage in fire to up the DPS a little bit and earth doesn't really appeal to me at the moment. Probably worth me trying air with glyph recharge. Alternatively I a may give a 30arcane 20 water 20 air build a go today.

[Deleted]

Lets talk Mist Form. Pretty buggy or am i expecting to much? Thus far it doesn't stop fall damage/trap damage/knock down damage or Poison cloud/Dot damage.

[Rivellana]

So I stepped into WvW the past couple nights and have discovered I love it...I'm wondering if anyone has a particular build that's good for this?

Last time I posted I was concerned about my ability to learn to switch attunements but honestly after a couple of nights of WvW I'm not worried about that at all anymore, being a fast learner.

I'm sure eventually I'll try out sPvP but I haven't yet and really don't have much desire to go after reading a few pages of this thread where everyone seems to say eles are worthless there.

[Ashnazg]

Eles can do a lot of burst damage. Eles have incredible direct damage. I like how in the final bit you imply I don't know how to play an elementalist, it amuses me.

Eles do decent damage, maybe even decent burst, but nowhere to the level of, say, warrior.

Just gonna leave this out there.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/546/skillshot.jpg/

One button.

[DrakeWurrum]

Eles do decent damage, maybe even decent burst, but nowhere to the level of, say, warrior.

Just gonna leave this out there.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/546/skillshot.jpg/

One button.

You mean all the abilities that built up that adrenaline beforehand was part of that one button?! :O

Also, I haven't checked my Elementalist's HP, but that's only half of my Engineer's HP, without any vitality.

[Ashnazg]

You mean all the abilities that built up that adrenaline beforehand was part of that one button?! :O

Also, I haven't checked my Elementalist's HP, but that's only half of my Engineer's HP, without any vitality.

It will be more than your hp unless you invest significantly into vit.

And all those abilities that build up adrenaline beforehand don't really count because they do significant damage in their own right. Its not like a rifle warrior has to slog through the game doing crappy damage until they get to pop their adren finisher.

In any case, the damage is obscenely high.