Messed up armor values (RANT)

So I jump into the Yak's Bend arena with my lv 14 Me/E, equip a bunch of water spells, distribute my points etc.. I hadn't done much Pvp with Elementalist spells up until now and I noticed that my spells weren't doing much damage to some players. I didn't think much of it until I faced a team of 3x Rangers and 1x Warrior (main classes, since what is relevant here is their armor). My 15 energy spell which is supposed to deal nearly 60dmg only dealt a pathetic 23dmg on all three Rangers and only SLIGHTLY more on the Warrior. I had ample time to chain-cast all my spells but I was barely making a dent in their health bar.

Then I checked on gwonline.net for the Ranger armor values and compared it with my Mesmer armor:

- They get 40 base, +30 vs Elemental and even +15 vs their choice of fire/water/air.
- I get 30 base..... and for an energy PENALTY, a glorious +10 vs physical which probably lengthens my life expectancy by 0.1s when getting hammered on by warriors.

So if they want to reduce Elemental damage, they wear their armor.
If -I- want to reduce Elemental damage, I need to use spells like Mantras which take skill slots, energy and are good only for their respective magic school... Am I getting this right ? On top of that, I just have to resign myself to not cast any Elemental spells on them because it's just wasted energy so I basically end up targetting other casters. If there are none, I'm useless to my team.

So why should I play a Me/E using elemental spells over a pure Me/E using Hexes, which are useful on everyone, and add 1-2 nukes to use against casters ?

Same, my armor is messed up now.. They upgraded the defence of the armor and mine hasn't been updated.

Wait a minute... did I read this correctly? Is someone implying Rangers are broken?

Warriors and rangers have reduced energy regeneration to offset thier better armour values. It is actually very well balanced in a team environment.

The original poster wasn't saying ranger armour is too weak, he was saying it was too strong compared to caster armour

Whoa thats cool Rangers get a +30 vs elemental damage and an extra +15 on that. Imagine a R/E, they could use elemental ward which adds another +25 vs elemetal damage, talk about Elemental bane, but yah i hear yah, im still waiting for that awsome elemental spell and im running around on the chain of fire, end game bosses. Anyways guess you would have to use lightning spell on the rangers then, they have like 25 armor penetration, im still trying to get chain lightning, i swear everytime i see it i NEVER have a sig of capture on me, its pisssing me off.

...but that's what Rangers can do. They are one of the most useful Elementalist killers because they don't take as much damage from them.

Keep in mind, that as a Mesmer, you can ignore armor with many many spells. Conjure Phantasm for instance. Or what about Empathy? A ranger will empathy on him is a very useless ranger. Maybe Spirit Shackle.

It's never safe to use all elemental spells, the same way it's not safe to use only warrior strikes on ranger shots. Play around with it till you find a balance that you, as a player, are good with.

I know, but the update also messed up some armor.

My platemail still gives 80 defence while they updated to 85, helmet gives +1 strength now as well..

Hmm, I didn't know Rangers had lower energy regen. I guess you're right then, I'll just stick to hexing/draining them and let others do the hurting.

Still, I wish I had known that before wasting 3000 energy with elemental spells on them ;(

It's part of the balance of the game.

yah yah, and top of that elementalists have a spell which negates arrows, earth or air i belive. you would have to swithc to using your ele spells for protection and def, and use your mesmer spells for domination.