is ele supposed to be this bad?

i've been playing around in the open world and it seems like i have to bend over backward in order to kill even basic veterans that i can easily take down on other classes (especially hydras and awakened) and taking on 2 at a time might as well be suicide... not to mention that the downed skills are so weak my chance to rally against anything meaningful are basically zero.

this is the build i generally run: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PGgEsEWGBrhpwuYk4Yvk22A-zRZYBJFwWSCIqY4yIwEIiCwsB-e i tried weaver as well but didn't do any better. am i doing something horribly wrong, or is the class just weaker than others in open world? i have a thief, a ranger and a revenant that i play with far more ease than this elementalist

Ele is the hardest class to play, and the most rewarding when properly mastered. And we're talking hundreds of hours of gameplay.

The first thing I noticed is that you're running Scepter. Your main should be Dagger, with Scepter only used for range. The reason for this is because without Dagger you lose Shocking Aura on Air Attunement, which is your main insta-cast defense & CC. With Fresh Air you can attune to Air and then cast #3 every time you feel pressured, they'll get stunned by hitting you and then again by transmuting it.

Your gear is Berserker/Marauder, this only works well if you camp Air, which means you aren't Attunement cycling. Tempest especially works better on Marshal's, or if you want to risk it without healing, Grieving. Celestial builds still work well as well. Trying too hard for damage isn't going to help you much on Ele, they're not a DPS class outside of raid-level meta builds, because these kinds of builds die in one hit and have near-zero damage uptime. The days of the Ele bombing everything with Berserker Fire builds are long gone.

You need to make sure you're cycling through all the attunements. For Tempest Warhorn build this generally means casting the five skills until your Overload is ready, in a specific order to generate combos or other effects, then Overload, then #2 again, and swap.

You have no Water Line, Elementalist can't survive without it. Their defense is mostly in Healing Power, due to high heal scaling, ability to heal just by switching to Water attunement, heal on all attuning (trait+sigil), heal from auras, finishers, etc.

You didn't take perma-Vigor trait, so dodging is crippled.

Arcane Shield is useless on Tempest, better to take another Shout for the extra aura & boon, or stunbreak.

I understand what you're trying to do here, but its applying how other classes play to the Ele, which doesn't work. It was designed to play differently from them and as a result requires different gear and builds than say, what you'd slap on a Guardian.

Played properly Ele is invincible, especially Tempest, due to infinite healing and insane armor from Protection. Its not uncommon to be able to handle more than a dozen enemies at once in open-world PvE (with the plethora of reflects especially), it just takes massive patience & practice. Without a decent gear setup, a good build, and a prime rotation, the class dies in a fire, quite literally.

Off the top of my head:

• High Healing Power and as many healing effects as possible.
• Stack as much Protection as you can, as Tempest gets 40% reduction from it, ~49% with Frost Aura.
• Take aura boon traits and stack boons constantly, especially Vigor.
• Learn to use all aura effects, for cleanse, CC, reflect, damage resistance, etc.
• Learn all combos, what skills to cast in what order, from all attunements.
• Learn when to skip attuning, or skip Overlord e.g no need to Overload Water if in good condition after 5-3-4.
• The summons help alot. You can put 25 Might on them, and 25 Vulnerabilty on enemies, and solo anything, even Fractal boss.
• Most skills have some range even on D/WH, so don't be afraid to try and avoid all attacks.

then i think i'll play something else. i play open world to relax and a class that requires me to do a raid-level rotation seems like the opposite of that. not to mention that i play with 170ms, so having to perfectly time things in order to survive is a perfect recipe for frustration

thanks for the reply

@Kyzonu.7504 said:then i think i'll play something else. i play open world to relax and a class that requires me to do a raid-level rotation seems like the opposite of that. not to mention that i play with 170ms, so having to perfectly time things in order to survive is a perfect recipe for frustration

thanks for the reply

I understand the frustration but this is exactly what the class was meant for, they're a classic MMO mage in GW style. Their more streamlined equivalent is the Necromancer, which just walks through everything like its a casual night out.

You might give this a go. I'm able to burst down this poor veteran hydra before it can move, but I'm also resilient enough to solo the bounty boss hydras! I'm using Dire stats, which are one of the cheapest sets you can buy on TP, last I checked!

Build link in video comments:

@AliamRationem.5172 said:You might give this a go. I'm able to burst down this poor veteran hydra before it can move, but I'm also resilient enough to solo the bounty boss hydras! I'm using Dire stats, which are one of the cheapest sets you can buy on TP, last I checked!

would traiblazer be better for soloing bounties? i have enough VB boxes to get a full set

fresh air tempest is actually pretty easy. just spam the air overload.

It's my go to build when i want to relax in open world farming/tagging.

@Kyzonu.7504 said:

@AliamRationem.5172 said:You might give this a go. I'm able to burst down this poor veteran hydra before it can move, but I'm also resilient enough to solo the bounty boss hydras! I'm using Dire stats, which are one of the cheapest sets you can buy on TP, last I checked!

Depends on the build. If you focus on burning you can build with balthazar runes and skip the expertise. That's why I use dire.

Edit: I wanted to add that sword weaver is not a great spec for bounty solos because of the way some unstable magic effects heavily punish melee-locked builds. But it otherwise has the damage and sustain for it.

The build is definitely the issue. Way to glassy and mono-target for solo open world PvE.

Fire ele build that @AliamRationem.5172 shared is AMAZING! You'll be soloing champion level boss mobs with it when played properly.

In any case most ele builds are fine in open world. Some builds will struggle in open world but will work amazingly well in other instances. Like I have a separate sword/dagger power weaver build for fractals which is easily top DPS in parties, I have a sceptre focus tempest for leather farming at doric map and another condi build for open world stuff which can solo almost 90% of the content including some stuff which was actually meant for group play. It is a fun class and I do mix stuff up to break the monotony of the playstyle. When you're used to it you can even take on champion bounties in PoF with a staff build (though it might take forever to kill them solo lol! )

I've been having the same problem every time I log in and try to play my elementalist. With as good a build as I can muster he's significantly worse than every other class with very suboptimal builds even when I haven't played them in 2+ years.

It's truly unbelievable and I honestly don't get why anyone defends them.

@Einlanzer.1627 said:I've been having the same problem every time I log in and try to play my elementalist. With as good a build as I can muster he's significantly worse than every other class with very suboptimal builds even when I haven't played them in 2+ years.

It's truly unbelievable and I honestly don't get why anyone defends them.

I kinda feel the same way. Not that Ele is bad or anything, but I can do tiers more survivability, with similar damage on other classes.

PvE, I play mainly guardian, mesmer and rev. Guardian can dish gazillion damage in 2 secs. Beside champions everything is dead before it can even remotely hurt you. Rev, particularly in PvE, can stack blocks and evades, back to back to back. Sword can dish significant damage quick. On the condi side, renegade is the highest solo dpsing class, probably. Add torment runes and you are a tank. Same build with herald near is near unkillable. Mesmer, I play condi mirage mainly. If you know what you are doing you are an evade bot, and doing damage while evading. A lot of damage. Add torment runes and you are unkillable evade bot. Staff mirage is probably the strongest champion solo build.

I know I digressed too much, but no matter what you do with Ele, it is hard to play with full dps gear, Dps traits and have good sustainability. I think the issue is that most Ele heals are on the weaker side, cuz design wise devs do not want to double up one healing in water. And it is assumed you will go for healing power for survivability. Guardian has some what similar concepts, but a much more significant and robust tools. Instant heals. Instant blocks. Spamable blinds. And ridiculously powerful heal skills. IMO, LoW and MoS are the two strongest heals in PvE, of any class. So ya... in open world it is high risk without that much return. Guardian is also high risk in OW (a bit), but the reward is 100k damage in seconds as DH, and 20+ burns in 4-5 secs as FB. You can torch everything before it can do anything.

You want a casual yet overly strong build ?I use to go Tempest berserk(with some assassin gear) scepter/warhorn, spamming 4/5 of air, overload and some glyph of tempest/fire/sandstorm depending of the situation.Kill every trash+most of veterans possible with just the press of 3/4 buttons.

Yes, Ele is'nt like your casual reaper going throught every PvE map without sweating. But that's why you have the choice to play what you want.Edit : If I had another word to say : Change your heal for the glyph, and either use your fire elem to dps or earth to tank if you're scared.I usually only watch out for heavy cc/bursty champion, else I just go pew pew.

@mikdepadua.8376 said:fresh air tempest is actually pretty easy. just spam the air overload.

It's my go to build when i want to relax in open world farming/tagging.

I feel like my overload is never charged before Fresh Air ends

@ChampionMasquerade.5283 said:

@mikdepadua.8376 said:fresh air tempest is actually pretty easy. just spam the air overload.

It's my go to build when i want to relax in open world farming/tagging.

You need the GM trait that reduces the waiting time on overload.

I dunno...

I came back to GW2 about 2-3 months ago. And for some random reason I decided to grab my elementalist that had barely even done the personal story, and use that character to catch up on everything from there through to the current content.

At first, I was doing a LOT of faceplanting.

But other stuff even then would go down fairly fast.

Now I'm ripping through creatures like crazy. I still have some survival issues because I have base toughness and vitality. I'm on condition damage builds for both tempest and weaver. I think viper gear mostly

one is sword and staff, the other dagger and staff.

I find when I go into dungeons and fractals most of the group's damage is me. This is a dramatic change for me - I'm not a DPS like player and my rotation has some massive flaws. I get on my other classes and I'm the low person in the group.

Elementalist deals insane amounts of damage.

For that, it's a paper tiger.

That said... before I left some years ago was gear was all 'knights'. I had absurd toughness - I was basically running dungeons as a tank, with an elementalist. It worked. The profession's damage is so good I didn't slow up my groups too much, and I had that absurd amount of toughness where it finally does start to actually reduce damage enough that you get tanky... like over 1800 or over 2000 I think (been about 5 years so... not sure).

• In open world... just go soldiers.

In dungeons or fractals use berserker or assassin. My going condition damage was probably a mistake. The guides all say to go power, but I read over the profession when I redid my gear and just assumed I needed to go condition...

Works either way... but if the guides are right I'd be even more absurdly overpowered had I gone berserker gear...(that said a common tactic of mine is to just slide into a stack of creatures and cast "Feel the burn" and then slide out - for many open world creatures, given my condition damage; a single cast of that and they're done for, and I can focus on the elites, vets, and champions.)

Ele is supposted to be the most complex class in this game, so complex that after its creation, ANet devs dunno what they made and what to do with it, so prophylactically theyre randomly nerfing it. If youre just starting, Id suggest changing class, with ele you gonna be disappointed sooner or later, lol.Have a nice day

It's been strong in the past but now it's been over nerfed in all 3 game modes, engineer and guardian is Anets new pet class atm with the amount of reworks and buffs they get.Pve ele is stuck on super stale sword Weaver,Pvp ele is jailed on support tempest which can't carry that hard really and wvw ele is good but not mandatory/meta like scrapper.

Fresh air is pretty bad, why be full glass and execute a perfect combo when a holo does more damage with a grenade 2 and EE proc :smiley:

Have you tried Sage Fire Weaver at all? I'm not saying its META in PvP, but if you're good at weaver you should be ok.

@jpsssss.7530 said:Have you tried Sage Fire Weaver at all? I'm not saying its META in PvP, but if you're good at weaver you should be ok.

It's playable, but it is really lacking damage and there's nothing else weaver can really do. It's not useful for support and can't sustain in team fights very well, but as a side-noder it has less of everything meta side-node builds have as well. If you're going to design a class with no range, no mobility, ridiculously long cooldowns on stunbreaks, and no stability then it damn well better have the tippy top of top tier damage! It just doesn't, even if you go full glass.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PGgAgilFwaYesOGKWSTWtNA-z5IWGZWA9mA2NA

Here is a roamer dps tempest that is very fun. I can hit 5k fire grabs against squishies with only 2k power. Vulnerability spam op. Plus no one can catch you, not even thief imo

@"FrownyClown.8402" said:http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PGgAgilFwaYesOGKWSTWtNA-z5IWGZWA9mA2NA

Here is a roamer dps tempest that is very fun. I can hit 5k fire grabs against squishies with only 2k power. Vulnerability spam op. Plus no one can catch you, not even thief imo

If thief cant catch you on that build then he's doing something wrong on many levels.

@steki.1478 said:

@"FrownyClown.8402" said:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PGgAgilFwaYesOGKWSTWtNA-z5IWGZWA9mA2NA

Here is a roamer dps tempest that is very fun. I can hit 5k fire grabs against squishies with only 2k power. Vulnerability spam op. Plus no one can catch you, not even thief imo

Between perma swiftness and 60% movespeed, RtL and 2 other leaps i will take my chances. Feel free to try it the build.

Every class in this game is definitely playable. But is ele a great class?I don't think so, at least not for PVE end game. You don't see a bunch of elementalists group up in end game, but you can get a guardian party quite often.Lowest HP, no stealth, minimal block, no Aegis, no quickness, no alacrity, almost no group stability, boon dependent, even damage is not the undisputed #1 nowadays.

You don't see a whining thread in other profession forum that much; But elementalist forum is just full of whining threads.

Tempest ele can pretty easily spread 25 might to allies while consistently providing 25 stacks of vulnerability. That to me seems like the biggest damage increase possible.