Balancing out the Elementalists

I feel that the elementalists' elements are unbalanced. In the beginning of the game, the only spells that are of any use are the fire spells. Its almost impossible to be an effective geomancer or hydromancer. Even later on, fire spells are more common.

Ideas to balance them out:

-instead of nerfing fire, they shoudl improve the other elements damage rating and lower eithe rthe energy cost or recharge time

-allow players to choose at the beginning whether they want to be a pyro, hydro, geo, etc and make thos eskills more accessible.

-have more units resistant to fire, since fire does the most damage by far.

-geomancers shoudl have a coupel more spells and a lower energy cost (they cost so much)

Anyone agree or disagree or have any better ideas?

Disagree. Spells aren't all balanced for pve, they're balanced for pvp.

In regards the campaign i agree. When i first bought the game i was under the impression that by playing an elementalist i could choose what tree i wanted to specialize in. This was partly true, however the water elementalist i wanted to create for pve didn't acquire enough water skills to be effective until 2/3 of the game was done. Thus i was forced, along with many others to play the same typical fire elementalist throughout most of the game.

I also, for PvE, agree.
I wanted to try Air, and I had very little to work with early on, unlike w/Fire. After feeling quite useless in a few party attempts, I ended up using the buy back points to switch to Fire until I could aquire more Air spells.

And my main/highest chr, lvl 18 now - while I still don't have the 'elite' or best skills, I have many ones to try....so I have been switching points around, and then going out w/henchies to check 'em out.

Fire still beats them all. Granted, with a great PvE party, other trees are workable/fun etc. as you and your friends can work out strategies. For PUG playing or henchie playing....I'll stick with Fire.

You have to understand, that Fire is the simply damaging elemental attribute, other elements reduce the enemies effectiveness with slow and blind. Also, air and earth both ignore amounts of defense, making the spell damage more powerful in a round about way.

It is sad that most of they ATTACK element spells for other elements are hiden deep in the game, but there are plenty of water and earth spells post seering, most of the earth spells are defensive, but the water spells work just fine. Water trades of some damage for slowing, don't expect to fire away mindlessly, thats fires occupation. The only real difficulty with hydromancer is that you don't have the ever ready flare to spam, well water isn't fire, and it's not going to work the same. But if you look at the amount of damage done with water spells, expecially on char and such, you will notice that alot more damage gets through then you would expect, even more then fire spells.

The key to being a good aero/hydro/geomancer is having something else to cast from you secondary profession to fill in the blanks wile you other skills are recharging, often time you will relize that you don't have enough mana to continuously cast anyhow. Having an extra rapid fire spell in every element so you can be a spaming pyromancer with inverted elements breaks the elemental specialization.

All other classes have thier "lesser" attributes as well, most players don't bother with certain skills in thier inventory simply because they are not as effective with them. And every class supports useful ways to damage opponents and save oneself, hydro geo and aero abilities are all more defensive then pyromancy, consider geomancy as your defensive magic, just like smiting doesn't revolve around healing, for the monk class, geomancy doesn't revolve around damaging for the elementist.

There are many attack spells in every element, but your not going to be an offensive unit with other elements til late game, the skills available earlier on in other elements favor defense, if you want to do earth shattering attacks and thunderstorms your just going to have to earn them, but once you see the end game fire spells your still going to want stronger/better/faster fire spell, but it's not going to happen, fire is the completly offensive element.

How far are you? I found that once you get to the Crystal Desert, fire just doesn't cut it anymore. The monster defenses are too high for normal spell damage to do anythign significant. Too many monsters interrupt, so its really hard to pull off any of the long casting spells in many situations. Monsters tend to spread out a lot more, so AoE's like firestorm don't do that well.

However, water magic isn't for PvE at all, the damage is beyond pitiful, so don't bother with it unless you just want to knock down, slow down, or just tamper with enemies in general.

Lightning is supposed to be good, but I tried it and didn't like it =/. However, I just got glimmering mark so I'll give it another shot.

Currently I'm using the 2 ignore AL earth spells with armor of earth, and with Illusionary Weaponry as my main damage spell.

Some people who havent embarked into the pvp arenas would like to see more balance in elemental attributes earlier in pve, or at least more access to the better spells. With Eles in pve, you pretty much force yourself to concentrate on only 3 attrubutes: Fire, Energy Storage, (one random Secondary profeesion skill - domination or healing mostly).

I'm a fire/water mage at the moment, since that's what I wanted to be, I have fire almost maxed out, energy storage as well, 3/4 points on healing and rest on water.

Currently since I'm only PvE, fire is my primary for raw attack power and I use water for backup. Monk is used for unlimited res and healing breeze or area heal depending on mission.

Most likely as I find better spells to use I will go to a air/earth mage since water spells aren't all that great.

Still with refund points it doesn't make it easier to try different layouts.

You mean it doesn't get any easier, right?

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I was inquiring about what she said, I should have quoted, but I'm not the quoting type.

??? Don't 100% get what you mean but.

Basically I feel firespells are the most available at the moment, and I'm in Kryta!

If anything I really need to get to lvl20 and go on a hunt for more elite spells like armor of fire maybe? if there such a thing. Thinking of moving to air earth or air spells since they have a lot of good "Knock Down" moves which are handy for stopping incoming warriors.

the only issue here is the AVAILability of other spells besides fire in the early part of the game. most ppl spec in fire to begin with because thats where the main damage spells are.. later on in the game, they branch out to their chosen line and perhaps omit out fire totally if they want to.. (i only fully respecced to geomancer right after ascension) since refund points come so freely, there really isnt' a problem switching lines...

fire is great for PvE but possibly not the best choice for PvP due to its long casting times and lack of defence... as a pure damage line, is SHOuld be doing more damage than the other lines..

Well Flare, Lava Front and Fireball I'd always have due to fast cast times and fireball as splash damage

But Meteor and Firestorm, while good take too long to hit home, and only n00bs stand still.

Yea I have E/MO that’s specced in wind, healing and storage.

At level 11 I just got my second lightning upgrade.. (so now im at GoK with 1 wind spell that hits for like 26 and another that hits for 30 ( Most things hpts wont even move )..

while if I had specced in fire ( I could have a 60pnt aoe fireball - 10 second 11/12 dmg a sec firestorm - flare(great spell) - and other fire spells that do great dmg..... pure ownage at this level.

Basically the norm is spec in fire until you get the other lines you want.. Im not doing that though because I play a wind mage AND would play a fire mage if I wanted to use fire. (ie I already have a fire mage)