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  1. #821
    First off, there are other builds out there that work. The thor build actually also works in PvP but you need a team to help support you (just like warriors need a team built around them).

    Another popular build is S/D using 0/10+x/0/25+x/30 with as utilities either double arcane skills and MF or blink, arcane wave and MF. (using ogre runes)

    Ele comes down to knowing your rotation. The strength of d/d comes entirely from auras protecting you. The strength of the s/d build comes from shit tons of healing with very high burst (relying on bursts like air1+2+3+4+5>earth 2+3+4>fire 2+3+5) to bring down most builds. Firegrab does a lot of damage but you need to be good at positioning and latency greatly impacts this.

    Ele also has a couple of things you need to always have in the back of your mind. You can't beat condition classes. You can't "beat" other bunkers. And your "healing skill" is the signet but you never activate it. If you need health go into water to heal.
    If you know you'll be in a reasonably hard fight (mesmers) pop your elite before you go in! The cast time is way to long (and thus easy to interupt) mid-fight.

    You can use blink to take advantage of the terrain. Nearly every cap point has some sort of elevation where you can insta port to while other classes have to run around. This can take of pressure for a couple of seconds while you pound the enemy making them go defensive.

  2. #822
    I am Murloc! Xuvial's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Meledelion View Post
    Ele also has a couple of things you need to always have in the back of your mind. You can't beat condition classes. You can't "beat" other bunkers. And your "healing skill" is the signet but you never activate it. If you need health go into water to heal.
    If you know you'll be in a reasonably hard fight (mesmers) pop your elite before you go in! The cast time is way to long (and thus easy to interupt) mid-fight
    This was one of my issues, trying to kill Guardian or Mesmer bunkers. They would just laugh and literally sit there taking squat damage as I feebly tried to damage them. Grr grr.

    Also Thieves who spammed that shadowstep+crit move (heartseeker? dunno) pissed me off to no end, I'm trying to run away and the guy can just keep pushing that 1 button again and again jumping up to me and hitting really hard
    I think they can also steal auras or something. Grr grr.
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  3. #823
    Hi all - let me start by saying sorry if this was addressed in the previous 41 pages Started playing GW2 recently - having fun so far... Can someone please tell me w/an Ele - should I be focusing on Power or Condition? Both? Something else? Right now I'm sporting S/D (I know, I know... read all about D/D but didn't like the lack of range) Primarly Fire ('cause I like it!). Will prob. go w/Staff once I start running dungeons. Want to be able to help my team the best way I can. (coming from many years on WoW - main kitty /healer off spec. - trying to change my "thinking" - those of you that played WoW know what I mean...)

  4. #824
    It really depends on the trait and weapon setup. For building a character your best bet is to pick a theme (condition based, direct damage based, melee range, ranged, and so forth) and then build it on that. A good place to test them out is to go to the heart of the mists. There you will be max level with max level gear, can rearrange all of your traits for free, change out your gear to different gear types, and test them out on npcs. Once you find something there you like, then you can start to build your character while leveling toward that goal. Just try to find some synergy with you particular playstyle, the weapons you use, your gear, and the traits that you setup.

  5. #825
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ivy View Post
    Hi all - let me start by saying sorry if this was addressed in the previous 41 pages Started playing GW2 recently - having fun so far... Can someone please tell me w/an Ele - should I be focusing on Power or Condition? Both? Something else? Right now I'm sporting S/D (I know, I know... read all about D/D but didn't like the lack of range) Primarly Fire ('cause I like it!). Will prob. go w/Staff once I start running dungeons. Want to be able to help my team the best way I can. (coming from many years on WoW - main kitty /healer off spec. - trying to change my "thinking" - those of you that played WoW know what I mean...)
    For Elementalist, power is always your #1 stat. Go vitality + toughness for secondary stats if you're feeling squishy, then move to precision + crit as you get better with avoiding damage.

    The fire traits tree is very squishy and just to be sure, don't stay in fire attunement. You get boons/heals/finishers for switching attunements (depending how you're traited). Elementalist is all about executing combos. Lay a field and blast finishers through it. Switch attunements to stack boons and maximize finishers.

    S/D is my favorite weapon set also
    Valar morghulis

  6. #826
    Thanks for the responses... I'll find Heart of Mists and see what's up (I'm assuming some sort of training dummys) - Karizee - I take it you mean to switch attunements during the fights (?) for best boons/heals/finishers... I'm all about combos so this should be quite a challenge but fun! Gotta get the whole DOT thing outta my head I guess (condition)

  7. #827
    To get to the Heart of the Mists, just click the crossed swords icon in the above left part of your screen, and then click the enter the heart of the mists button. From there you'll be in the zone and the npcs (can think of them as active training dummies, as they do fight back) are in some parts of the area.

  8. #828
    NPC's that fight back - even better than training dummies

  9. #829
    I find going with any gear other than zerker/rampager to be a waste of time. Many people clung to the "ah anchor" build for guardians which is a retarded build and now (7-8months later) those people finally realise how stupid that build actually was/is.

    If you want to "buff" allies the only viable right now is the thor-hammer(aka LH build) which focuses on might+fury stacking+ high dps from using lightning hammer.

    Elementalists greatly suffer when using condition damage since they need to swap attunements a lot (burning=fire, bleeding=earth) to stay "competitive" sadly this means you're always giving up one thing (fire or bleed uptime) and replacing it with other (possibly worse) skills.

    While D/D is better than S/D for "pure" damage (lightning whip hurts) S/D is better due to all the blast finishers + LH doesn't really care for what weapon you use. (the build is something like 30fire 20air 20water)

  10. #830
    Part of the attraction to playing an elementalist for me is attunement swapping. While I understand a pure power build will be better in general, you can still make a condition build work (unless you play with the zerg and run into condition caps)

  11. #831
    Switched up to Power / Vitality (with some condition runes) - Seems much better - not dying as much - at least not as fast

  12. #832
    Hey guys, I just got the game and just had a questions about the Elementalist. I'm currently leveling a warrior (17) and ele (21) and having a tough time picking one. I like the Ele more I think but the squishyness is frustrating at some times. I know about the stats/traits/builds but I just have some more general questions for people who have played the class:

    Is the Elementalist a viable class at 80? I understand that probably all classes are good if the right person is playing them however I understand that some classes are more desirable than others. Will I have trouble finding groups at 80 (Assuming I don't suck) I wouldn't mind playing a support role or dps role.

    Is the elementalist a 1 trick pony? I've read a lot that the ele is only worth it if you are glass cannon fire. I'm wondering if this is true or if it is only considering pure dps. I would like to be able to make a choice between playing support or playing pure dps.

    Am I always squishy? I understand solo leveling essentially any cloth class in any mmo is super squishy, however I want to know if I'm also going to die 15 times per dungeon run, or constantly be running back in world events and other stuff (still new and not sure really what there is to do).

    Thanks!

  13. #833
    Quote Originally Posted by Serpenth View Post
    Hey guys, I just got the game and just had a questions about the Elementalist. I'm currently leveling a warrior (17) and ele (21) and having a tough time picking one. I like the Ele more I think but the squishyness is frustrating at some times. I know about the stats/traits/builds but I just have some more general questions for people who have played the class:

    Is the Elementalist a viable class at 80? I understand that probably all classes are good if the right person is playing them however I understand that some classes are more desirable than others. Will I have trouble finding groups at 80 (Assuming I don't suck) I wouldn't mind playing a support role or dps role.

    Is the elementalist a 1 trick pony? I've read a lot that the ele is only worth it if you are glass cannon fire. I'm wondering if this is true or if it is only considering pure dps. I would like to be able to make a choice between playing support or playing pure dps.

    Am I always squishy? I understand solo leveling essentially any cloth class in any mmo is super squishy, however I want to know if I'm also going to die 15 times per dungeon run, or constantly be running back in world events and other stuff (still new and not sure really what there is to do).

    Thanks!
    About being squishy - just remember all your abilities. You've got blinds/knockdowns/teleports/shields/heals. Remember to use earth for defensive abilities, water for support/healing.

    Don't forget about combat combos either. You can arcane wave in a water field and get area healing. Knowing things like this can make a difference.

    I like to go 15-20 into water for a little bit of extra healing for myself and allies. Elemental attunement in the arcane trait line is really nice too, it just reinforces your attunement swapping a little more.

    You are squishy but you've got the abilities to avoid it or recover from it a little easier than most classes.

    Idk how someone can call them a 1 trick pony when they have more abilities available than any other class. It's much easier to have a well balanced dps/support build. I feel like I can still do really good damage, while being able to support well enough.

    After playing elementalist I feel like every class should be able to get 4 weapon sets open to them always. Swapping between them and utilizing all the different abilities is so much more fun when you've got 4 sets of abilities instead of 2.

    I get 1 hit or globalled here and there, but then there's more times where I get out alive and I thought I was going to die.
    Last edited by grandpab; 2013-08-13 at 12:05 AM.

  14. #834
    I am Murloc! Xuvial's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Serpenth View Post
    Is the Elementalist a viable class at 80? I understand that probably all classes are good if the right person is playing them however I understand that some classes are more desirable than others. Will I have trouble finding groups at 80 (Assuming I don't suck) I wouldn't mind playing a support role or dps role.
    Assuming you're talking about dungeons/PvE, Ele's are not exactly champions for it but they are by no means bad. See the thing with GW2 PvE is that it's borderline impossible to judge how "good" a class is other than factoring in their versatility and survivability, because there is no accurate way to compare damage (no damage meters, etc). The goal of pretty much every dungeon is to survive, deal damage and offer support. If it's one thing I can say is that Ele's are very support-heavy, you've got tons of stuff to avoid damage, improve group performance and healing and dish-out decent damage on your own.

    Quote Originally Posted by Serpenth View Post
    Is the elementalist a 1 trick pony? I've read a lot that the ele is only worth it if you are glass cannon fire. I'm wondering if this is true or if it is only considering pure dps. I would like to be able to make a choice between playing support or playing pure dps.
    Noooo, Ele's are FAR from 1-trick ponies, quite the opposite. IMO glass cannon is probably the worst way to play an Ele in PvE unless you are an absolute pro-dodger. Otherwise you're going to die. A lot. For a new player I just don't see the point of glass cannon builds in PvE at all, you need to have at least a decent amount of toughness and utility to act as a buffer for incoming/unavoidable damage.

    A lot of people incorrectly think Elementalists = WoW Mages (or "the mage class") which implies insane burst/sustained damage, escape tools, squishyness, etc. But Ele's aren't known for particularly high damage, and they ARE known for some of the best escape tools, healing builds and great damage avoidance.

    Quote Originally Posted by Serpenth View Post
    Am I always squishy? I understand solo leveling essentially any cloth class in any mmo is super squishy, however I want to know if I'm also going to die 15 times per dungeon run, or constantly be running back in world events and other stuff (still new and not sure really what there is to do).

    Thanks!
    I will say that Ele in general is the squishiest prof and really punishing on new players. They have by far the highest skill requirement in the game and VERY dynamic playstyle. Attunement switching means you will need to keep least 10-12 different abilities handy as opposed to other profs who only need to worry about 5-6 lol.
    While leveling with a staff you can easily get by with sinking points into fire + water (or fire + arcana), at lvl 80 things change a bit because you can start learning Dagger/Dagger or Scepter/Dagger and attunement switching becomes REALLY powerful. Once you sink 30 points into Water + Arcana you get short cooldowns on attunements, constant regeneration, fast stamina, and the oh-so-famous Evasive Arcana = win. There's tons of other builds.

    Overall I just can't think of any class that is harder to learn. I started playing the game as Ele and got absolutely wrecked even at low levels by regular mobs because I wasn't really familiar with dodging (and with Ele you need to dodge your ass off), got the impression that GW2 must be really freaking hard. As someone coming over from WoW where I could just spam 1 goddamn ability through the entire leveling process (Frostbolt lol), not surprising :P but I think they've leveling Ele's a lot easier.

    That was until I decided to try other profs like Engi and Ranger, those classes seem to be 5x easier to play in PvE/PvP...but they don't have as much of a dynamic playstyle as Ele, they're a lot more static. Ele is hard, but it's fun and never gets boring.
    Last edited by Xuvial; 2013-08-13 at 01:31 AM.
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  15. #835
    Eles are highly desirable in groups at the moment IF both the ele and the group are skilled players.

    The reason for this is rather simple it's this build you can read the guide here.

    That build is insanely strong since you can get insane amounts of crit damage with high skill modifiers (those are two key determining factors of DPS).

    Elementalists might feel squishy in that they seem to lose a lot of health from mediocre attacks but you have to remember that they have insane amounts of bunkering/healing capabalities by swapping attunements. Earth gives you Rockbarier and earthquake which are good ways of mitigating damage, water on the other hand gives you one bunker skill (frost aura which gives armor and slows enemies hitting you) + 2 strong heals on relatively short CD's, if you add signet of restoration it's clear that you make up a lot of health.

    There is no excuse for an ele to die unless it's in high level fractals where you get one-shot anyway. Running any gear that has defensive stats (healing/toughness/vitality) simply means you need a buffer for bad play, I personally think there are better ways to get that same buffer like using utility skills (arcane shield, armor of earth, mistform,...)

    A good way of learning timings is watching skill casts and aura cd timers, it's not harder to attunement swap and hit buttons 12345 than it is to weaponswap. People act like you need to learn 20skills instead of 10 but this is false. You need to know what they do and that's it. You don't need to know that the CD of cleansing wave is 40s or water trident's is 20, you need to know that they heal for a lot you'll learn the "flow" as you play. Fire earth air fire air fire earth air fire => you just learn that and you'll know what butttons to press since you sure as hell won't be using Dust Devil to dps.

    The problem is the very first part. If you're not running with people you know it's harder to find a team as an ele than as a warrior since people know what warriors do but aren't familiar with what eles bring to the table.

  16. #836
    I am Murloc! Xuvial's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Meledelion View Post
    Running any gear that has defensive stats (healing/toughness/vitality) simply means you need a buffer for bad play, I personally think there are better ways to get that same buffer like using utility skills (arcane shield, armor of earth, mistform,...)
    I dunno man, quite a few Ele's seem to recommend going with gear based around Soldier's (Power/Tough/Vit) or Cavalier's (Tough/Power/Crit) for Dagger/Dagger since it's mostly close-range combat. Not sure about Scepter/Dagger, haven't really explored that.

    I haven't really played Ele to any extent other than entry-level dungeons so I can't really talk, but tons of guides seem to recommend it : /
    Then again, the number of Ele builds and playstyles are just crazy in general. BRB I'll read the one you linked, looks nice.
    Last edited by Xuvial; 2013-08-13 at 01:31 AM.
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  17. #837
    The reason why people recommend it is simply because they don't realise just how much healing potential they have. D/D air spam is great with signet of restoration due to the fast attack speed and thus massive heals. Then swapping to water attune to get a quick 1.5k heal off is simply awesome. Personally I don't like D/D since it's dps isn't all that great (it's 6.4k out of the top of my head which is "on par" with mesmer but mesmer brings knockback, timewarp, condi removal/boon stripping, boon sharing (doubling duration of all boons is pretty baller), projectile defense, ...). IMO d/d shouldn't be brought to dungeons since instead of "buffing" your team you're trading team dps for personal dps but the trade-off is not worth it.

    S/D is very strong due to the blast finishers with the new trait giving you perma fury+might(15stacks I think) which is awesome since that means you can just bring a warrior with 2banners + w/e is needed (frenzy/omm/...) and an ele and you won't need to worry about those boons. You also get a second heal on half the CD of Cleansing Wave which makes it that bit better for melee (s/d is also played in melee range). It's also important to note that you'll be in water when dpsing so you get additional passive healing.
    With the amount of healing you get it's close to impossible to die unless you're dodging the wrong things or simply not dodging at all.

  18. #838
    Thanks for all the advice...I think I'm going to stick with the class as tonite I've already seemed to understand it that much better after asking and doing some more research. The S/D combo right now seems to be very powerful even at my level. I am already learning about the capability of attunement swapping and it is making a night and day difference. I used to really hate water attunement but now it's whats making the biggest difference when aggroing too many mobs.

    I have read that conjure weapon builds are very powerful for leveling but am going to stick with a non conjure weapon build as people say it will just make it that much harder at 80 to learn the class. Which just leads to my last question - what do you guys recommend for utility spells? I understand that cantrips are useful but I am running all signets, which I feel is nooby but apparently signets were buffed and thats a thing now - any input? Thanks again!

  19. #839
    Quote Originally Posted by Meledelion View Post
    The reason for this is rather simple it's this build you can read the guide here.
    I am so doing this on my next elementalist. I was debating leveling D/D, but Lightning Hammer is going to be so much more awesome!

  20. #840
    I am Murloc! Xuvial's Avatar
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    > Signet of Restoration or Ether Renewal, either is fine.
    > Signet of Air is pretty much a given, 25% movement speed = needed for leveling since so much of it involves running around. AoE blind is also a very useful "oh shit" button, or you can use it to setup huge AoE burst without getting interrupted.
    > Arcane Blast - nice burst
    > Arcane Wave - moar burst
    > Glyph Of Elementals - summon it in Earth attunement against veterans/tough mobs and you will have your own pet TANK capable of eating tons of damage
    Last edited by Xuvial; 2013-08-13 at 02:39 AM.
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