Is there a reason to play elementalist for damage?

After being out of guild wars for a really long time, I wanted to get back into and roll a primary damage dealer. But I've seen so many posts about elementalists being useless in HMs and such as primary damage dealers.

Is there a reason to play an elementalist if you want a primary damage dealer? Or should I just roll a warrior for that?

The Elementalist went through some changes and so has HM. In HM, enemies recieved more health and lower armor. I still prefer Necros, Mesmers and rits though.

elementalists are good damage dealers in HM now. For a pure damage-dealing role, I prefer eles (though rits/necros/mesmers usually win out on my hero team due to their abilities to both do damage and have good support).

eles as players are doable now with the changes (and 3 pve skills)


hero eles are useless as always, bad timing and target selection. bad energy management

No. Eles are still mediocre for damage roles. Give them support skills instead.

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The way I see it, most classes can currently be called top tier for hero and henchmen play. Note that the reason I spesify "Hero and henchmen" play is because it implies building a team where the character would work. As opposed to having builds that work great regardless of the team build.

Ranger, Warrior, Dervish and Assassin are all top tier physicals, and I concider them to be so well balanced that I'm incapable of pointing out which is best. They all have their own strengths and weaknesses.

Mesmers, Elementalists and Necromancers are top tier casters, all of them in their own way. With their own strengths and weaknesses. And with multiple different builds available to them. But the ones I concider to be the most efficient with hero teams is AP callers so I'll be speaking from that perspective.

Necromancers have the easiest energy management, but when stuff dies fast it can get overloaded and skip out on gains when you need them. They pack a huge "Nearby" AoE, but it's conditional and damage is only delivered when the foe actually dies, so they are vulnerable to prots and slow kills in general. And they have easy access to cover hexes.

Mesmers have easy access to armor ignoring damage, helping trigger AP in the first place. They have an active energy management and great utility in the form of being able to bring double EVAS and pain inverter in AP caller builds. But their energy management gets strained in longer fights.

Elemetalists have a huge energy pool, easy energy management, big AOE's and damage on demand. But elemental damage is still affected by armor, and they don't have easy access to cover hexes and casts are often slow. Meaning their performance varies the most from beeing great vs one group to mediocre vs the next.

Mid tiers I'd say are Ritualists (Mediocre AP callers, nerfed spirits and lack of control) and Paragons (Lack damage).

Bottom tier, monks. They lack damage, energy management and it all turns in to a not too pretty sight.

So in other words, elementalists are worth it for damage, most of the time.

Would a necromancer specializing in nukes be a better damage dealer than elementalists?

And what do you guys think about necros using elementalist spells? Go necro for Soul Reaping then use ele spells for damage

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