Time to fix the Elementalist

wren e

Academy Page

Join Date: Sep 2005

Xen of Onslaught

With the introduction of Nightfall and specifically the Dervish, Anet needs to fix some of the issues that Elementalist have when it is released or the Elementalist will be none played profession ever again.

Issue #1 - Skill recharge needs to be lowered on many skills

Issue #2 - Casting times need to be lowered on some skills as well

Issue #3 - Aftercast on PBAoE spells needs to be removed

Issue #4 - Casting cost on some skills also need to be lowered to put them more in line with their effect

Issue #5 - Exhaustion should be removed from some of the skills that it is currently on, really, what where they thinking

If Anet was to do something about these areas that have been needing to be addressed, then the Elementalist would still be a viable primary profession to choose.

fallot

I'm the king

Join Date: Nov 2005

Aussie Trolling Crew: Grand Phallus and Chairman Pro Tempore

Elementalists are viable, its just that they have a very narrow range of truly useful skills. I'd like that to change personally so I somewhat agree with you. Especially on the cast times, some of these spells have ridiculous cast times (Meteor Shower anyone ?) and recharges.

TadaceAce

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jul 2005

Viable? they are only used in pve cause people in pve are dumb and in pvp as blindbot. They are no good at doing what they are sposed to do.

Electric Sky

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: May 2006

the cast and recharge times are just the worst......not to mention the energy required

Samuel Dravis

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jan 2006

Mo/Me

I'd rather Energy storage give me more energy regen pips than a bigger pool, really..

Magnus_1

Academy Page

Join Date: Feb 2006

Mo/Me

Yeah, the energy required for some skills is rediculous. The point of having the large energy pool is so that Ele's can continue to cast throughout a battle. With the energy costs so high (and exhaustion), they can't effectively do their job (nuking).

And their damage output could use a boost. If they don't lower casting times, ANet should at least boost damage. That would be cool.

Chilly Ress

Chilly Ress

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Oct 2005

Kinetic Fusion [kF]

Me/

Exhaustion=FTL

Hella Good

Hella Good

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Oct 2005

None, free and clear

Favorite pass time of the GW community when there is nothing better to do: rework Elementalists. The only thing that I believe needs to be worked on is better nrg management skills (that do NOT cause Exhaustion, mind you!). Everything else is within reasonable good skills/bad skills, nature of damage (elemental), nature of profession (fragile but powerful) limitations.

Taurus

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Oct 2005

Mexico

Go for the eyes [jizz]

W/Mo

Elementalists are perfect the way they are... people use them in the championships and WIN, if you dont win, newsflash for you : boo hoo hoo.

Eclair

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Apr 2005

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hella Good
Favorite pass time of the GW community when there is nothing better to do: rework Elementalists. The only thing that I believe needs to be worked on is better nrg management skills (that do NOT cause Exhaustion, mind you!). Everything else is within reasonable good skills/bad skills, nature of damage (elemental), nature of profession (fragile but powerful) limitations.
They're fragile, but hardly powerful. I mean, pretty much they only skill that is actually worth of the elementalist profession in terms of damage and big explosions is Meteor Shower. I think some of the other pure damage skills need to be buffed a bit if the "powerful but fragile" image A-net painted is to be kept.

However, I do agree that if energy management is fixed, there really isn't that much of a need to change most of the skills, just slight tweaks here and there.

Kaida the Heartless

Kaida the Heartless

Desert Nomad

Join Date: May 2006

N/

If elementalists were changed to anything more then they are now, they would be broken.
Spike city. When you can slap target X for 100+ damage every 8 seconds with ONE non-elite skill, that's good enough. When you can slow a target past 66% for over 10 seconds with three different skills, that's good enough. For 10 energy you can strike 3 people for over 100 damage each. What are you complaining for? For 25 energy you can maintain burning for over 30 seconds if your smart enough. Thats 420 damage. Use your heads, not your magic. You wont be able to just walk up and nuke everything in sight and expect to win. Throw some strategy into your skillbar. Go observe the skills PvE monsters use and how they synergize. It's really a good place to start learning.
And don't even complain about exhaustion. One of my necromancer builds uses gale as a REQUIREMENT to begin attacking an opponent and it doesn't have exhaustion issues. Instead of clicking every skill when it gets done recharging, try picking out tactical targets and striking them with the right skill at the right moment. You'll save energy and exhaustion this way.

Storm Crow

Storm Crow

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jul 2005

With Vanatiel by the Lion's Arch Lighthouse, waiting for the storm with which we are accoustomed

Children of the Order [CoO] -True Heroes Fight to Keep the Balance-

I agree with Kaida. Mostly, people are just too lazy to string skills together tactically. Although there are some things that need to be buffed out. Personally, I think Air Magic is much too strong compared to the others. If you can hit a target for over 100 damage using one 10 energy skill in Air Magic, and only get 50-80 out of one10 energy skill in Fire Magic, what's the point of any other Element? Just use Air, and kill everything in your path in under five seconds! Otherwise, I think the Elementalist class is perfectly fine. Personal opinion.

Samuel Dravis

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jan 2006

Mo/Me

I think the damage is fine with the skills. The recharge and (most) cast times are fine too. Fire damage is AOE and so it does less damage on a single target, but can cause a lot more trouble when used against groups. Pretty nice. Exhaustion is manageable, but I generally take very few skills that cause exhaustion - pretty much only Shower when in PvE. Probably some of the ones that have Exhaustion now could have that gotten rid of, but it's not a major thing.

It's just the freaking energy management that eats me up. Energy Storage, as of right now, is useful ONLY for spiking builds. Boy, I can blow things up for a few seconds, but then I have to wait FOREVER for my energy to be back up again. Of course, I could use dual attunements, but that's 2 skill slots being used up just to keep me in the fight for a reasonable amount of time - not to mention that they get stripped so easily that in some places they're unusable. Prodigy? Whooo! PvP skill. Yeah, I can put it on a few seconds after it gets stripped. But then it gets stripped again, and again, and AGAIN... Exhaustion city, anyone....

Which is why I'd like Energy Storage to increase regen pips. 50 Energy would be fine for an ele with more regen.

wren e

Academy Page

Join Date: Sep 2005

Xen of Onslaught

Some of you are missing the point of this thread. As of right now, elementalist play a very specific role with very few of the skills being viable particularly for PvP, all of which revolve around ether prodigy and heal party. With the way the elementalist plays now, it is a support character instead of the big damage dealer it was toted to be. I have no problem playing an ele and being effective with it and it fits in with the current metagame. But, with Nightfall, the Dervish is going to be able to do things that the ele can do but better, which actually should be the other way around. So, if there is a class that can do what another class can do but better, your going to use that instead. That is why Anet cannot put off fixing the issues the Elementalist has when they release Nightfall. And for those of you saying learn to play, I do have a very good grasp of this game and have been playing since release and until recently been in a GvG guild that averages between 100-30 rank. And if need be, I will post specific changes to the skills that I am talking about for those of you that need everything spelled out for you.

Hella Good

Hella Good

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Oct 2005

None, free and clear

Quote:
Originally Posted by Eclair
<snip>
The damage is fine. Kaida is right, anything more than what it currently is will be over the top. Meteor Shower is hardly the only viable damage dealer in the Ele line. I mean, come on, you can't possibly say that with a straight face. I'm personally a huge fan of Earth, always played a Geomancer. Obs Flame and Crystal Wavex2 are great skills. In fact, the monster skill I've probably hated most in Factions is Unsteady Ground. If people are going to complain about Eles and not want to be viewed as whiners, than skip to the part that actually makes sense- energy management, not damage (count the skills that do over 100 damage... seriously), or fragility (many proto skills available to Eles, use em).

@wren e:
Ok, a major major flaw of all arguments about Ele damage is comparing it to another prof which operates by entirely different mechanics. PLUS Dervishes will get their fair deal of nerfing. PLUS you don't even know the full line of skills available to Dervishes and Eles in Nightfall. I've heard the Ele vs Warrior argument before. Comparing 2 spell casters is bad enough. Comparing a spell caster and a fighter makes 0 sense.

unienaule

unienaule

I dunt even get "Retired"

Join Date: Aug 2005

Fifteen Over Fifty [Rare]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Taurus
Elementalists are perfect the way they are... people use them in the championships and WIN, if you dont win, newsflash for you : boo hoo hoo.
Do you even watch HOW they're used? Do they use elementalist damage skills for damage? NO.

To explain what I'm saying better, here are a couple lists.

Things Elementalists are good at:
Fire damage/knockdown in PvE to large groups.
Wards.
Blindbot/slowdown in PvP.

Things Elementalists are not good at:
Doing anything with air/water/earth related to damage in PvE.
Doing anything related to damage at all in PvP outside of fast cast MESMER airspike.
Doing damage in general.

To sum up, are they good at support? Yes. But are the skills that do damage useful? Nope. If you'll watch PvP a bit more, you won't see elementalist builds set up as part of a balanced team to do damage, and that's the ONLY thing I'm saying is bad about elementalists.

BenO_Under

BenO_Under

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jul 2006

Take A Ride On My Leet Train [Choo]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Samuel Dravis
I'd rather Energy storage give me more energy regen pips than a bigger pool, really..

but I like the fact that my elementalist has 76 energy...

Phades

Phades

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jun 2005

Quote:
Originally Posted by unienaule
To sum up, are they good at support? Yes. But are the skills that do damage useful? Nope. If you'll watch PvP a bit more, you won't see elementalist builds set up as part of a balanced team to do damage, and that's the ONLY thing I'm saying is bad about elementalists.
The majority of the self buffs are pretty garbage as well. Alot of the "useful" elementalist skills are only "useful" because there is no direct comparison in any other profession untill the dervish and even then only in the form of grenth's fingers aoe snare.

Depending on what changes between now and the release of nightfall will determine if there is a valid use for the ele skill set as it is currently. Alot of it is "warrior" hate and has nothing to do with the way the dervish wants to operate.

I believe ensign summed it up the best with this one sentance.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ensign
If dervishes spamming PBAoE become the new metagame, say goodbye to the class.

Minus Sign

Minus Sign

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Feb 2006

Mo/N

Quote:
Originally Posted by Phades
I believe ensign summed it up the best with this one sentance.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ensign
If dervishes spamming PBAoE become the new metagame, say goodbye to the class.
With all respect to Ensign, if the new metagame revolves around a massive gank of PBAoE, say hello to the elemenatalist as a slow hexer, Aoe nuke with Aoe KD and wards (I foresee a nerf to the dervish holy damage enchants), not goodbye.

I'd like to see new skills added to the ele line with effects along the line of Burning Speed's tail end attack. If you can cast an AoE hex on a target that follows the target most of the ele problems would be solved. Just casting most of these skills eles have now is ground control. So for those skills I'd like to see the radius of their effect increased.

This will increase the damage eles seek by increasing the amount of time players are in Aoe and the number of players effected by such spells. Just increasing their damage per proc is like putting a bandade on a broken bone; nice sentiment but its not the fix you need.

twicky_kid

twicky_kid

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jun 2005

Quite Vulgar [FUN]

The dervish can do things that the ele can but a little different. In fact I loved mystic healing. Very very cheap and worth the energy. Between that and Balth avatar Dervish is a great flag runner.

This is going to keep happening as GW becames older. You are going to have new classes that will be better than the old ones or start doing their job in a different way.

We only have 8 slots on the party to fill. Eventually there will be more than 8 classes. Some classes will be left behind others will remain cornerstone of builds.

Right now as heal party is the most efficent healing spell on the game. The ele is going to be there to support that. They are also the best flag runners because of this strategy. Ele's are going to go no where from GvG until something changes heal party.

DOCB22

DOCB22

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jul 2005

[SGC]

Elementalists was my first toon and stell my fave. the trouble with the Elementalists is its USER!! the only thing that pissed me off was the unneeded aoe nerf. give me back my aoe

Numa Pompilius

Numa Pompilius

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: May 2005

At an Insit.. Intis... a house.

Live Forever Or Die Trying [GLHF]

W/Me

Get real people, Ele damage output isn't fine, it stinks, and the reason it stinks is that it's not armor ignoring. Take Meteor Shower, the only serious damage fire ele spell: 5 second cast, 25 energy cost, 60 second recharge, and it causes exhaustion - and the power of it isn't bigger than that a level 15 Ettin survives. If you use it on a human lvl 20 warrior you better have Blinding Flash loaded, because even provided he's dumb enough to STAY in the Meteor Shower it doesn't even make him lose half health.
No, even the eles biggest spell is only good for one reason: it has three knockdowns, giving the rest of the team time to kill the enemy.

As of now, eles are a good support class with many useful support skills, but have the lowest damage output of any class in the game, including monks.

Robster Lobster

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Dec 2005

I think a reasonable buff to ele's would be to allow some mechanic on their AoE spells (Ctrl + Click perhaps?) that allows you to select a location to cast, rather than being forced to cast only on top of one targets head. This would allow you to control chokepoints and important area's much better.

I mean, it makes sense. Why shouldn't a powerful mage be able to summon a powerful spell in any location?

floppinghog

floppinghog

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Oct 2005

pit of brimstone

Squad Six Six Six [ssss]

A/Me

aoe attacks suck honestly, i would much rather see an "in the area" (or bigger would be nice and useful) spell that hits randomly and HARD. it would be balanced if its based on just luck of the hit and position of the foes.

they are supposed to have a sort of control over an area? wasnt ONE of their suggested uses when gw was released? yeah tough break - they can move someone out of a "nearby" radius, thats 3-4 steps to the SIDE. cause the spells have SET spots to work on...

I say, meteor shower should not be a target and "nearby" radius and all of it each hit but... be a single space hit (size of a player -and effect the adject of it for half dmg) randomly - in the area or larger would be totally useful - cool - and pose eles as even alittle more useful.

come on now... if you cant make them spike insanely (like they were the biggest dmg dealers - supposed to be). cause that would be overpowered,

-add the element (NO PUN INTENDED) of RANDOMness to aoe attacks
1 - make em hit double as hard
2 - make MORE aoe spells....
3 - more aoe spells ... more twists to uses
4 - make em hit half of the jacked up dmg for adject lands
5 - make the hits random, and in wide area
6 - and much longer durations.

Lordhelmos

Lordhelmos

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Apr 2006

Sentients of Shadow (noir)

Me/E

In the preview event, eles got jacked really freaking hard. Yes dervish will get the nerf bat, but in the same regards it made me realize how ineffecient the elementalists class really is. Yes there are good players that have found ways to keep this class alive in high level play as a support class (Mages as primary supporters? When the manual states them as damage dealers? Freaking pathetic.), but seriously... I mean to think about what nightfall is going to do to eles is scary. Factions really jacked eles up pretty hard with repeat skills and the lack of good energy management that we were waiting for. My elementalist is DREADING nightfall. Players from all across the board are complaining and pointing out the numerous issues surrounding the class...

Bottom line is something needs to be done. Look at the number of ele complain threads floating around! I am sure Anet is well aware of this issue. These complaints and discussions are even involving people in high level play...

Screw the whales, save the eles!

Vermilion Okeanos

Forge Runner

Join Date: Feb 2005

The dervish had everything ele ever dreamed of.

Unlimited energy recovery.
Heal + recover energy + dmg + condition all at the same time.
An AoE auto-attack.
No PBAoE delay.
Increase movement speed stance.
Large AoE size.
Higher armor.
More life.
Form shift that allow you to play almost as any kind of role for the duration. (avatar of balthazar = warrior, etc)

Anyway...

If I were to fix ele, I would change their damage system. I would test the result of from 75% armor catious damage + 25% armor ignore damage of the oringinal damage to 50/50 of the original. Say if the oringinal damage is 100 armor catious damage, it would now be 75 A.C. + 25 A.I. instead. This way, ele would be balance in both offense against strong armor and weak armor target.

Aside that, the dev should be able to make each elemental attribute's damage uniqe. Such as fire being 75/25 and earth being 50/50 and so on.

Just an untested theory.

I really hope ele get something like spectral agony

hipoxus

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2005

Ok, this is my take on this pretty much crappy class. I've played both a Mesmer fast cast Ele, and a regular ol Ele, and damn Mesmers make them look like crap. I swear my mesmer can dish out the exact same crap twice as fast and nearly just as deadly. Cast time for ele is just rediculous!!?!?1 wth man, but look at this you can't fkin fIX CASt Times! wHY? Mesmers would OWN THAT much more that is why...so how do you we fix it so Eles are still wortha crap?

My plan is to fix the Elementalists main attribute Energy Storage....obviously looking at Mesmers and my Eles mana pool the majority of the time you don't really need 100 energy...Elemental Attunement anyone? So what I'm saying is this attribute is just not up to par with mesmers/dervish/necros/paragons/monks you name it. So my plan is something like what a monks got...have them say do more damage as you gain rank in Energy Storage hey? This is what I'm thinking, two possiblites....either A.] For Every 4 Ranks of Energy Storage You Gain 1 Attribute Point for All Elements -- with this setup you can have up to 20 in an element, vastly increasing Energy Storages worth. or B.] For Every 3 Ranks of Energy Storage You Gain 3 Added Damage To All Elemental Spells --- so like 48 more damage maxed out, not as much as 20 in elemental attribute but would still help out. Or maybe some sort of Divine Favor effect certain skills type of thing you know, somethign around those lines.

Now both of these options would keep the 3 energy for each rank or maybe lowered to 2 if one of these is added to it. Either way this idea would make Elementalist mains useful for damage. Anyway thats just the way I see it, and if Dervishes can heal and gain energy I don't see this as that huge of a problem.

led-zep

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Nov 2005

Quote:
Originally Posted by TadaceAce
Viable? they are only used in pve cause people in pve are dumb and in pvp as blindbot. They are no good at doing what they are sposed to do.
this quote alone gives pvpers such a bad name, its idiots like him who put people off pvp due to the self important tossers involved.

Phades

Phades

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jun 2005

Quote:
Originally Posted by Minus Sign
With all respect to Ensign, if the new metagame revolves around a massive gank of PBAoE, say hello to the elemenatalist as a slow hexer, Aoe nuke with Aoe KD and wards (I foresee a nerf to the dervish holy damage enchants), not goodbye.
The wards are junk, because everyone in one is getting hit by dervish aoe damage. The hexes do not work, as the dervish class has very effective ways to remove hexes without outside support, while creating synergy within their class for energy management and healing. AOE kd with dragon stop and earthquake seems interesting at first, until you realize its a 3s cast and with a run speed boost the dervishes will be doing damage to people within that 3s timeframe when you start the clock from the edge of the aggro circle. Clearly you didnt play with or against the dervish durring the pvp event.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Minus Sign
So for those skills I'd like to see the radius of their effect increased.
Been asking for AOE size increases for almost a year now, in order to justify the energy cost of the skills. This would be ignoring cast times and recast times.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Minus Sign
This will increase the damage eles seek by increasing the amount of time players are in Aoe and the number of players effected by such spells. Just increasing their damage per proc is like putting a bandade on a broken bone; nice sentiment but its not the fix you need.
I have no idea what you are talking about when you wrote this considerinig the dervish skills did more damage, for less energy, ingoring AL alot of the time, creating healing and energy for the user, larger aoe size, were usable more often, and did not have a massive aftercast penalty. They simply felt like un-nerfed elementalists.

Quote:
Originally Posted by twicky_kid
Right now as heal party is the most efficent healing spell on the game. The ele is going to be there to support that. They are also the best flag runners because of this strategy. Ele's are going to go no where from GvG until something changes heal party.
Its only really efficient for party wide pressure commonly found in degen style builds. In virtually every other instance directed monk based heals are more effective. Heal party is not going to save anyone that gets hit hard with anything or focused upon. Besides, you could just make a dervish or a necro spambot for that skill if you really wanted to anyway. It just requires a little more of a specific setup, opposed to a generalist ele setup.

Numa Pompilius

Numa Pompilius

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: May 2005

At an Insit.. Intis... a house.

Live Forever Or Die Trying [GLHF]

W/Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by Robster Lobster
I think a reasonable buff to ele's would be to allow some mechanic on their AoE spells (Ctrl + Click perhaps?) that allows you to select a location to cast, rather than being forced to cast only on top of one targets head. This would allow you to control chokepoints and important area's much better.
That is actually a very good idea. The actual damage and/or duration might need to be buffed too, to keep people from simply running through the AoE, but I like the idea of area denial.

EDIT: How about very serious AoE spells which can not be targeted against players, only areas? Possibly at very long range (longbow-range, or even more)? For instance, something like Meteor Shower, but with one knockdown/damage every three seconds for 30 seconds. I mean, if Eles are supposed to be heavy artillery, give them heavy artillery-like fire and let them do area denial...

blaise

blaise

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jun 2006

Holland

FeS

E/Me

Recharge time need to be lowered then it will be ok.

Cynn Evennia

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jul 2006

E/Mo

Quote:
Originally Posted by hipoxus
My plan is to fix the Elementalists main attribute Energy Storage....obviously looking at Mesmers and my Eles mana pool the majority of the time you don't really need 100 energy...Elemental Attunement anyone?
My dear hipoxus, you read my mind.

We are one of the best support professions ingame but we do not deal enough damage to be considered as a serious damage dealer in both PvE and PvP

True enough: the elementalist cannot be considered balanced when a FC (air) ele spikes better. What is the case of making a primary ele then? Damage should be the answer but the Energy storage just makes an ele a Heal party spammer or makes us deal slightly better than other professions vs exhaustion. Hipoxus, you are right, an ele should be the master of elements: no one should use air, earth, fire and water better than her, as no one uses corpses like a necro, heals like a monk or casts as fast as a mesmer.

Lets forget the extra energy granted by Energy storage (ES) and lets consider instead "Elemental wisdom" (EW) with an extra 3-5% damage per EW rank when using elemental spells

In that case we could consider to make all attunements EW dependent, and with the energy rebate (payback, return) depending on EW ranks. Say we start with 0% back of the cost of an ele spell at 0 EW rank and end up with 100% rebate when EW is maxed (btw having twin attunements gives 83% back).

Of course this would change the dynamics of the game: no more energy guy over 60, and therefore a reduction on cost, casting and recharge times of ele's spells should be considered.

Gedanken Experiment

Imagine this brand new elementalist with only 45 energy pool but 13 attribute points on Elemental wisdom and 16 on Fire magic. She comes and casts a buffed Meteor shower (say it costs 20 energy, casts in 2 secs, recharges in 25 secs) on a random location (yes, Robster, "why shouldn't a powerful mage be able to summon a powerful spell in any location?"). If we add 3-5% of damage per rank in EW and a wider AoE then this proto-ele can secure the zone completely: who would dare to enter into the shower when they got KD'd and receive 169-196 dmg per hit. Considering an energy rebate over 70% using Fire attunement this proto ele would be able to cast showers every 30 seconds: isnt that THE DAMAGE DEALER and THE PRESSURE BUILD the elementalists are supposed to be?

PS Even if this is just a dream i think it should be tried at least, say one weekend in both PvP and PvE.

dreamhunk

Banned

Join Date: Mar 2006

:P

E/Me

Quote:
Originally Posted by unienaule
Do you even watch HOW they're used? Do they use elementalist damage skills for damage? NO.

To explain what I'm saying better, here are a couple lists.

Things Elementalists are good at:
Fire damage/knockdown in PvE to large groups.
Wards.
Blindbot/slowdown in PvP.

Things Elementalists are not good at:
Doing anything with air/water/earth related to damage in PvE.
Doing anything related to damage at all in PvP outside of fast cast MESMER airspike.
Doing damage in general.

To sum up, are they good at support? Yes. But are the skills that do damage useful? Nope. If you'll watch PvP a bit more, you won't see elementalist builds set up as part of a balanced team to do damage, and that's the ONLY thing I'm saying is bad about elementalists.
Izzy knows this but yet he fails to change it! LOL

I bet when ever he sees elemental class he skips right over it.

Hella Good

Hella Good

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Oct 2005

None, free and clear

Let's have a bit of reality check here. There was no complains about Eles before the AoE nerf. In fact, Echo nuking was a staple part of PvE, and Ele spiking was a staple part of PvP. It all started AFTER the AoE nerf. Now:

Q: Did the AoE nerf include a nerf of the skills themselves? Did it change the damage component of the skills?
A: No.

Isn't it true that since the AoE nerf Eles have only been buffed??? Damagewise, rechargewise, whathaveyou. Well then, if be4 the AoE nerf Eles were perfectly fine (in fact, often overused) and the AoE nerf did not include any nerf of damage component of Ele skills, AND since the AoE nerf Eles have only recieved buffs, is there ANY validity to all the whining??? Absolutely NOT.

Should I remind you that Eles were over the top when the game 1st came out and ANet had to adjust them because people were complaining? I wonder how many remember the whole story anymore.... and how many are simply post-AoE nerf complaining that monsters will no longer sit in one spot and contemplate existence while getting hammered by a ton of AoEs sent by an underdressed chick...

Rancour

Rancour

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Aug 2005

Camp Rancor (Rancour :D)

I'm a free spirit (that's not what the guild is called, I just am)

W/R

I suggest reading the first post in "Why Nuking Sucks"... That sums up pretty well WHY elementalist stink at damage dealing, not only because they're skills aren't worth their cost, but also because warriors simple-are-STRONGER. Warriors deal more DPS and are larger threats than elementalists.

Again, read "Why Nuking Sucks". It's the best description of the situation of elementalists (and it's from before Factions, though nothing has changed).

Ensign

Ensign

Just Plain Fluffy

Join Date: Dec 2004

Berkeley, CA

Idiot Savants

To clarify why elementalist use will drop if the dervish is strong - the existance of elementalists in builds comes largely from three aspects, the first being the ability to crank out Heal Party (and other expensive monk spells that you can't fit reasonably on a roach monk). The second is their ability to hate out warriors, and to a lesser extent other physicals, between wards, blind, and ice. A third concern is the ability of an elementalist to snare opponents, which makes all of your physicals more effective (they can't kite your melee or dodge your arrows).

The less warriors there are in a metagame, though, the less relevant an elementalist is. Sure Heal Party is nice and all, but you're not going to get anywhere with a guy who's just a third monk. You need some offensive help (in the form of setting things up with snares, or spiking) to win, and strong, proactive mes effects on their warriors tend to be a lot stronger than straight healing. But if your defensive skills aren't working, because instead of warriors you're facing PBAoE dervishes, then the ele starts to look really bad. Sure they can still snare targets offensively, and pump out some parties...but is that really worth a character when you can distribute those snares onto other templates?

You've only been able to run more than one ele before because you *knew* the other team would have two or more warriors. When they don't, you can't justify the second elementalist, and depending on what they have even that first one becomes suspect. The ability of an ele to hold off a single physical in the base indefinitely is one of the big selling points of the class. But when people are ganking with dervishes, what's the point? You see it a bit now, with illusion mesmers on the side - the ele really is a hate character, he exists to fill holes, not cause problems.

If those holes shift to new ones, as one would hope from an evolving game, the ele goes away unless he's still the right solution. It's that simple.

Peace,
-CxE

brokenmonkey

brokenmonkey

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Feb 2006

CA

[UC] Uber Crue

W/

The Elementalist is a awsome character, and i agree with most of ur comments..

But I would like to add more to fixing the elementalist

Water skills
Im getting kinda tired of fire and air, and a little earth..
Why aren't the water skills even water? As far as i know there all ice (and YES i know ice is a form of water)
Why don't they Bring in actual water skills? Im just asking for a skill like this.
Tsunami(I had to check spelling XD)Energy cost 25-30(yes i said 30)Recharge time 45 seconds
All foes from Your Position to your target, that is in the area, are knocked down and take 88 water dmg( 104 with 16 water magic)This Spell causes exuastion.

Now there are a few things that are a problem, 1st of all there would need to be a new kind of phyX implamented into Guildwars to show water flow from u to a target( it would put use to my PhyX card XD), another way to this is just good design of teh spell. Im tired of the little circle over my head, i want to c water. They could do a kind of water look like the fountains and waterfalls that are allready ingame. 2nd Problem is , What would be the width of the attack? I would guess a nearby width.

There could be many other skills that involve water; Rain, Waterspout, Slipin slide(XD, like while in the range of this attack u have 75% chance to miss with attacks and when u do miss u get KD) and so on and so on

Elementalist Armour

Im tired of my stupid coat with a tail. I would likre different looks to my armour. Factions brought a "Vest look" but i want somthing cooler, maby a robe with it going over my head (exampleiablo 2 The Wanderer (the devil in human form)) there could also be tatoo look for eles.


ALso i would enjoy new Mods for ele based staffs .. 10% chance to evade exaustion. I would say 20, but that seems too much, since the adrenaline is 10% also..

AND LAST but not least



I pray to u i pray , give the ele a new dance. Im tired of the Elayna(spelling) dance from Sinefeld(spelling) XD. maby ice cube dance =) ahaha. or a DDR hahaha.

Well thats what i think.. and oh yea since the dervish get to change form.. i want to be a flame Dijjn from sorrows Ha ha=D.

Burakus Lightwing

Burakus Lightwing

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Oct 2005

W/

I mentioned the extra pips for energy storage a few months back, so I'll say it again. Maybe something like +5 at 10, +6 at 13, +7 at 16, something along those lines. I think that would go a long way into helping this class.

I'd love to dust of my first character again and use him some. Having energy storage relate to additional pips of regen would be great.

To those that mentioned removing exhaustion would lead to more spiking/spamming, then those "spike-able" or spammable "killer" skills would need their recharge times reworked to avoid this.

I like the ele, was my first character. I had fun playing one and in PvE he's still a great character to play. However, imho the Ele has no place in PvP other than being a purely defensive player.

Cynn Evennia

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jul 2006

E/Mo

It would be nice to eliminate the 3 extra energy for each rank in ES and to have instead 1 extra pip of energy for each 4 ranks on ES but im afraid its not feasible nor desirable: it would make the Elementalist the best primary profession, and we would be seeing tons of E/N necros, E/Me mesmers or E/whatever but NOT A SINGLE ELEMENTALIST.

Id rather go, as i have already said, for "Elemental wisdom" as a primary: 3-5% extra damage or armor penetration using elemental spells for each rank.

Seef II

Seef II

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Nov 2005

US

R/Mo

More regen is not a true fix. Then you have elementalists canned into more heal party bots and abusing other class high-cost skills because of the increased energy from storage.