Fixing Elementalists (esp HM)

Give HM enemies a reduction in armor versus all elemental damage or a single elemental type or two, perhaps consistent with lore, such that elemental DPS can compete with melee DPS at the very least, and IMHO being the "nuker" the Ele's single shot spike damage should outperform melee.

For example, HM Destroyers, being creatures of Fire and Earth would be weak against Water and Air magic. Their physical armor could remain the same so that melee damage stays the same, but drastically reduce their armor against water and air magic so that Eles can at least hurt them.

All this kind of change would take is to send some intern into the game code and alter armor values. I highly doubt that armor is hardcoded into the game engine, it probably amounts to changing a few large spreadsheets.

Elementalists could then be effective against all targets in a nuking role, dependent on whether they customized their skillset for a particular area, requiring Ele players to think about their builds and not just copy/paste meta builds.

This would also mean ANet wouldn't have to do a ton of skill splits for PvP, since the skill damage/effects aren't changing. Couple the armor changes with a few general buffs, such as Intensity affecting all spells cast during its ten second timer and making it work properly with multi hit spells. I don't see this being a huge issue of a change since most Ele spells have significant cast times and aftercast delays.

I heard the search button is nice.

Eles are fine in HM, use the right builds.

Say what? Care to share perhaps? Last time I checked, they sucked ass..

if you reduced resistances to elemental dmg but kept physical the same, then surely more mele would run conjures, and that would further increase the mele dps? also then causing you to be behind them in dmg terms.

I highly doubt that.

First it would have no game effect on creatures weak to Earth (no Conjure Earth).

Second, the plethora of physical buffs in game make it hard to justify running Holy Damage in PvE because of the anti synergy, and Holy affects all creatures. I don't see Conjures becoming a big deal in light of that for physicals.

Third, running a elemental weapon precludes the use of Zealous or Vampiric, both generally better outside of niche builds, and you still run into the inability to make use of physical buffs from Monk and Necro.

Air magic says hi.
Invoke/Chainlightning/GoS/Shell Shock/Shock Arrow/Air Attunement/Lightning Bolt/res sig or aura of restoration.

Armor ignoring damage says hi.

Every mesmer/necro/smite skill in the game.

Also, lol @ you naming like 10 skills of an entire profession line and then saying, "well, problem solved". You just admitted that the only mediocre option for an ele is air magic, because it does armor penetration, which is just about it. It's still shit.

^Agree. And note also that your "Run this-problems solved!" bar have 4 slots only to support the rest, which still pump shitty dmg. Stop denying what was already clear time ago.