Guild Wars 2

shadowfox said:
I've been browsing Reddit again (because work = meh), and I've seen a lot of complaints with regards to the the Ele's squishiness vs DPS ratio. There are, of course, plenty of comments along the lines of telling people they need to learn to play the Ele properly, and maybe some of them are even fair - but just based on personal experience, I've found most of the other classes a lot easier to keep alive in most situations.

I'm by no means an expert, but I do feel that I'm fairly comfortable with using the class with a relative amount of efficiency, and just looking at the amount of work Glordit and myself had to do to take down the one lover between us (since he and myself were trapped in that little passage with her and didn't feel like dying) .... let's just say we literally supported her to death because that's what we were doing most of the time. Fuzzy on the time, but I think it took the two of us about 6 minutes (with the help of Eir and her doggy) to beat her down.
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It's a fact that ele is probably the hardest to play in dungeons. I have leveled my ele to 80 and have a fair amount of experience playing it and it's a seriously stressful profession to play.

First of all, I'm forced to spec at least 20 points into water otherwise I get one shotted by trash mobs, another 20 points goes into arcana because our attunement switching cool downs are too long for us to be effective otherwise.

This brings me to my other point; attunement switching. This aspect of the profession already makes that it requires a lot of concentration (eventually it does move closer to second nature) and on top of this we need to be extremely vigilant about everything that's happening so as not to die.

So Ele needs some attention, though what Arena Net can do is beyond me.

That being said it's still the most fun profession I've played in GW2 and I'm by no means done with it yet, I'm just waiting for the higher level areas to be fixed.
 
shadowfox said:
I've been browsing Reddit again (because work = meh), and I've seen a lot of complaints with regards to the the Ele's squishiness vs DPS ratio. There are, of course, plenty of comments along the lines of telling people they need to learn to play the Ele properly, and maybe some of them are even fair - but just based on personal experience, I've found most of the other classes a lot easier to keep alive in most situations.

I'm by no means an expert, but I do feel that I'm fairly comfortable with using the class with a relative amount of efficiency, and just looking at the amount of work Glordit and myself had to do to take down the one lover between us (since he and myself were trapped in that little passage with her and didn't feel like dying) .... let's just say we literally supported her to death because that's what we were doing most of the time. Fuzzy on the time, but I think it took the two of us about 6 minutes (with the help of Eir and her doggy) to beat her down.
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I think the discussion on reddit is pretty indicative of what the larger community feels about this, but I've got to agree with you somewhat. Keeping an ele alive is hard work, and you need to be very vigilant and concentrate a lot. But, that being said, I wouldn't want it to be changed. I love the challenge of trying to balance dps with staying alive and un-conditioned (my weak point atm) and trying to help others stay alive, and thus far, I find it doable.

Btw, to us zerging on the outside, your fight in the corridor felt like about 15 minutes! I'm still amazed you two finished her off alone.

Isengard said:
It's a fact that ele is probably the hardest to play in dungeons. I have leveled my ele to 80 and have a fair amount of experience playing it and it's a seriously stressful profession to play.

First of all, I'm forced to spec at least 20 points into water otherwise I get one shotted by trash mobs, another 20 points goes into arcana because our attunement switching cool downs are too long for us to be effective otherwise.

This brings me to my other point; attunement switching. This aspect of the profession already makes that it requires a lot of concentration (eventually it does move closer to second nature) and on top of this we need to be extremely vigilant about everything that's happening so as not to die.

So Ele needs some attention, though what Arena Net can do is beyond me.

That being said it's still the most fun profession I've played in GW2 and I'm by no means done with it yet, I'm just waiting for the higher level areas to be fixed.
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Attunement switching is the single strongest weapon the ele has. I think the folks on reddit who assume that those complaining can't play, believe the others don't know how powerful it can be. In normal PvE you can get away with sticking to fire most of the time, but in the dungeons you need to switch.

Out of interest, what attributes do you concentrate on with your gear? I'm trying to add +vit the whole time, to the point that I have about as much hp as my Guardian housemate, who was 5-7 levels ahead when we compared..

Wow, wall o' text. Just a last note, I'm a lvl 47 ele, so do take everything I say with a generous helping of salt.

EDIT: Good news, though, ANet truly listens to the community. We can now discover without having to pull anything from the bank or collectibles tab.
 
Isengard said:
It's a fact that ele is probably the hardest to play in dungeons. I have leveled my ele to 80 and have a fair amount of experience playing it and it's a seriously stressful profession to play.

First of all, I'm forced to spec at least 20 points into water otherwise I get one shotted by trash mobs, another 20 points goes into arcana because our attunement switching cool downs are too long for us to be effective otherwise.

This brings me to my other point; attunement switching. This aspect of the profession already makes that it requires a lot of concentration (eventually it does move closer to second nature) and on top of this we need to be extremely vigilant about everything that's happening so as not to die.

So Ele needs some attention, though what Arena Net can do is beyond me.

That being said it's still the most fun profession I've played in GW2 and I'm by no means done with it yet, I'm just waiting for the higher level areas to be fixed.
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Oh yes ... don't get me wrong - I love my Ele, but you are right, they do take an immense amount of effort and concentration to play properly/effectively. I don't really need ANet to turn them into tanks or anything, but if they can take a look at some of the CD times it would be great - especially attunement. If you're fighting anything Veteran and up (especially potting above your level) switching to the wrong attunement at the wrong time is almost an auto-screw.

Avatar said:
Attunement switching is the single strongest weapon the ele has. I think the folks on reddit who assume that those complaining can't play, believe the others don't know how powerful it can be. In normal PvE you can get away with sticking to fire most of the time, but in the dungeons you need to switch.

Out of interest, what attributes do you concentrate on with your gear? I'm trying to add +vit the whole time, to the point that I have about as much hp as my Guardian housemate, who was 5-7 levels ahead when we compared..

Wow, wall o' text. Just a last note, I'm a lvl 47 ele, so do take everything I say with a generous helping of salt.
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Agreed - Ele's can be incredibly versatile due to the attunement switching, but again I don't feel that the attunement switching is a viable substitute for weapon switching at all, since it doesn't affect your range. And I learned really early on to switch - one of the reasons I started soloing champs early on was an attempt to force myself to learn to adapt to the situation quickly. I think I've gotten better, but I'm not quite there yet.

With regards to slotting - I was tempted to go for a power/vitality mix early on, but I try and get some toughness in as well. The Ele really is the squishiest of classes, even compared to the other light-armor types, so I'm doing anything I can to prevent those one-shots.
 
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Avatar said:
Out of interest, what attributes do you concentrate on with your gear?
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At the moment I have a mix, but my focus is Power/Vitality/Healing. This way can do a fair amount of damage and healing while also being able to survive a little longer. Toughness is wasted on Ele and should't be bothered with since it barely makes a difference to your overall armour rating and conditions ignore it outright and will kill a low hp Ele right fast.

Guadians are on the same scale as Ele when it comes to health pools, but I find it soooo much more survivable due to the heavy armour and myriad of boons.
 
Isengard said:
At the moment I have a mix, but my focus is Power/Vitality/Healing. This way can do a fair amount of damage and healing while also being able to survive a little longer. Toughness is wasted on Ele and should't be bothered with since it barely makes a difference to your overall armour rating and conditions ignore it outright and will kill a low hp Ele right fast.

Guadians are on the same scale as Ele when it comes to health pools, but I find it soooo much more survivable due to the heavy armour and myriad of boons.
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Hmmm okay ... I'll be dropping the toughness then :(
 
Isengard said:
Toughness is wasted on Ele and should't be bothered with since it barely makes a difference to your overall armour rating and conditions ignore it outright and will kill a low hp Ele right fast.
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I read on reddit that lowest hp get attacked first, that's why I went vit>toughness, but I'll use your reasoning when explaining to people from now on :D
 
shadowfox said:
Isengard said:
At the moment I have a mix, but my focus is Power/Vitality/Healing. This way can do a fair amount of damage and healing while also being able to survive a little longer. Toughness is wasted on Ele and should't be bothered with since it barely makes a difference to your overall armour rating and conditions ignore it outright and will kill a low hp Ele right fast.

Guadians are on the same scale as Ele when it comes to health pools, but I find it soooo much more survivable due to the heavy armour and myriad of boons.
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Hmmm okay ... I'll be dropping the toughness then :(
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I am taking toughness atm and to me, damage spikes seem less deadly. Cant be sure untill I am lvl 80.

Shadowfox and I did twin a boss in AC, one of the lovers (the woman) both being ele's we managed quite well. Just kept alternating healing rain and spring to keep HP up.
 
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Glordit said:
I am taking toughness atm and to me, damage spikes seem less deadly. Cant be sure untill I am lvl 80.

Shadowfox and I did twin a boss in AC, one of the lovers (the woman) both being ele's we managed quite well. Just kept alternating healing rain and spring to keep HP up.
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Yeah, that was an epic bit of teamwork between the two of us :D Whenever one went down the other immediately stopped DPSing and started healing while the downed person kept watch on the healer's HP and shouted when things became dicey. If it hadn't been for the NPC in there with us I'm not sure we would have made it, since she served as a distraction much of the time.

I couldn't do much in terms of support/healing since I was on scepter/dagger build, but at least I had plenty of blinds and interrupts to use :)
 
Glordit said:
I am taking toughness atm and to me, damage spikes seem less deadly. Cant be sure untill I am lvl 80.

Shadowfox and I did twin a boss in AC, one of the lovers (the woman) both being ele's we managed quite well. Just kept alternating healing rain and spring to keep HP up.
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Yeah I've been thinking about it and I want to test out a condition build with 20 points in earth and 30 points in water with the rest in arcana. Then I need to start getting some decent runes with Vitality and toughness. Will report how much this affects damage vs survivability.
 
Been browsing the Elementalist thread on the GW2 forum since our office network is borked again.

There's A LOT of negativity about the Elementalist class at the moment. One guy did this massive post about what could be done - I didn't really have time to read through it all, but the general consensus seems to be that the Elementalist is vastly underpowered - and for those of you who come from GW1 days, you'll probably remember that Ele's almost always carried builds that carried a lot of burst/spike damage. And didn't really go down easily either.

I'm really a bit conflicted about this at the moment - like I said, I love my Ele, and I've always specialised in playing caster classes, but coming from an arena where I could take a warrior on in 1-vs-1 and come out on top at least half the time to an arena where I get pwned unless the warrior is really bad at what he does smarts a bit.

On the other hand, those of us that stick it out are probably going to be pretty epic if they ever do buff the Ele at all, but that will probably be a reward for sheer perseverance. But I've also seen some guys comment that it's becoming hard for Ele's to find groups for the higher level dungeons because the groups don't want Ele's since classes like the Engineer are actually better at support, even if their DPS is equally crappy.

There's even a thread right now with someone warning new players away from the class. I'm having sad feels :(

[EDIT] This might also explain the trouble you guys are having in Orr at the moment. It's not a case of needing huge groups, although it'll probably make things easier, but the fact that Ele's are underpowered.
 
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shadowfox said:
Been browsing the Elementalist thread on the GW2 forum since our office network is borked again.

There's A LOT of negativity about the Elementalist class at the moment. One guy did this massive post about what could be done - I didn't really have time to read through it all, but the general consensus seems to be that the Elementalist is vastly underpowered - and for those of you who come from GW1 days, you'll probably remember that Ele's almost always carried builds that carried a lot of burst/spike damage. And didn't really go down easily either.

I'm really a bit conflicted about this at the moment - like I said, I love my Ele, and I've always specialised in playing caster classes, but coming from an arena where I could take a warrior on in 1-vs-1 and come out on top at least half the time to an arena where I get pwned unless the warrior is really bad at what he does smarts a bit.

On the other hand, those of us that stick it out are probably going to be pretty epic if they ever do buff the Ele at all, but that will probably be a reward for sheer perseverance. But I've also seen some guys comment that it's becoming hard for Ele's to find groups for the higher level dungeons because the groups don't want Ele's since classes like the Engineer are actually better at support, even if their DPS is equally crappy.

There's even a thread right now with someone warning new players away from the class. I'm having sad feels :(

[EDIT] This might also explain the trouble you guys are having in Orr at the moment. It's not a case of needing huge groups, although it'll probably make things easier, but the fact that Ele's are underpowered.
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There definitely are issues, but I wouldn't go so far as to say they are a broken class, I also wouldn't ward people off from playing it because honestly the fun factor of playing Ele is unmatched.

What is a concern is that we don't really get a trade-off for our serious squishy-ness. We can't out DPS warriors or thieves and we can't out support guardians or engineers. We are effectively a Jack of all trades, master of none (yet are however tons of fun :)).

Like I said I'm not sure what can be done to "fix" the ele, but I'm less concerned because I have my group that I play with for dungeons and never once have I felt like I was hindering the group, actually the exact opposite.

Crzwaco said:
Shhhs Isengard I told you will change character traits when I hit 40 for now she will remain squishy.
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Why wait till 40?

Edit: Reading that link you posted Shadow and one thing I very much agree on is as an Ele you will do 10x the work to get the same result as another profession. I have been finding this very much true while playing my guardian and the way we facerolled AC was just more evidence of that.
 
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Another update today hope they fix a shit load of stuff man so sick of the high level area spawning non stop creeps in 10sec intervals.

80Meg so far...
 
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Avatar said:
Ew, I feel dirty just having read the link.











Seriously, though, I wonder if this means that they are also pushing towards an eventual Linux release. It'd be quite interesting.
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Maybe Windows 8 has got them exploring new avenues.

AND You U Feel Dirty? I love my mac
 
Crzwaco said:
Another update today hope they fix a shit load of stuff man so sick of the high level area spawning non stop creeps in 10sec intervals.

80Meg so far...
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Dunno about the spawns, but the skill points are supposed to be fixed. First thing I'm doing is heading back to Gendarran Fields. :)
 
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