An Elementalist's tale

Once upon a time, the Elementalist was considered a weak class, but then people decided to give the dagger/dagger weapon set a try. Scholars studied the lore books to find synergies within the traitlines and learned the profession mechanics. The build that had been discovered was fun - active gameplay, four skill sets, combos to stack might - and effective, but also had counters. Then, ArenaNet decided to buff burning for every class, a change that turned out to make dagger/dagger Elementalists overpowered. Even the wise elders of metabattle.com created a new category for the conquest gamemode (called meta^2) and the proposed team was composed of 5 d/d elementalists. We thought it was fun but hell - ArenaNet strongly opposed that view. And this is where the story takes a turn. It's getting really creepy now. Because from the deepest and darkest corners of their hearts and souls, a growing despise for Elementalists spread across the company. In a vile turn of events, they nerfed the class into perdition. But that wasn't enough. Shortly after, Heart of Thorns was released and they downgraded the poor Elementalists to walking healbots without any damage, mobility or fun.

"HA!" they said, "take that b.itches. Oh, and you know what? Your new mechanic will be a 4 second channeled skill that can easily get interrupted. And everyone else gets tons of crowd control rofl olololololol xD xD :D"

So for two years, elementalists kept "shouting" their ass off while trying to keep their surroundings alive. What no one knew by that time: It was only the beginning. After two years of being trolled by ArenaNet, a new hope appeared at the horizon and it had a name: Path of Fire! The dreams of Elementalists all around the world would come true: The class would finally get a sword. People started to gather materials and crafted legendary swords. The price for zap increased by 200g. Meanwhile, the game developers had to hold back their laughter. Because what was about to hit the community was the biggest troll move of all time: An elite spec that would be the most complicated thing to play in the history of gaming but without any reward for playing it. While firmly gripping the wet noodle in their right hand, sword weavers started spinning around in the biggest ballerina dance Tyria had ever seen.

It was not long before the community realized that Elementalist players had been, once again, bamboozled.

The council of Elementalists gathered in the forums to discuss suggestions on how to improve the gaming experience. They submitted their feedback to the developers and put all of their hope into the release of a balance patch. But they were walking into a trap. With a final, lethal blow of trolling, ArenaNet buffed: Conjure Earth Shield.

The once proud community of Elementalists is now scattered all across the world of gaming. Some have returned to Azeroth while others sit crying in their Minecraft basements. The council of Elementalists has been abolished. The once frequently visited subforum is forsaken and only a few ancient, dust covered threads give a glimpse of what used to be a prospering society.

The end.

After 4 years of PvP Top Tier class, with different time of God Tier where was totally unkillable, the class now is in a bad/ok state, where it's not the best but if you're good enough you do really good things.The problem is that in this game no one want to be "ok", everyone want to be OP and then no one want to play ele anymore.Another big problem of that game is that instead force players to Cooperate forcing them to make teams to play, ANet listened to the casuals and chose to make players totally unable to make teams. That made all they're Team Based Balance a mess just because there's not any "team" in this game. With a good Team composition a ele can do great things, but without be able to make a team no one is able to play that class as it's best.

Anyway, different classes know how you feel and was kept in the last tier for Years. Just wait and hope.

@Silv.9207 said:After 4 years of PvP Top Tier class, with different time of God Tier where was totally unkillable, the class now is in a bad/ok state, where it's not the best but if you're good enough you do really good things.The problem is that in this game no one want to be "ok", everyone want to be OP and then no one want to play ele anymore.Another big problem of that game is that instead force players to Cooperate forcing them to make teams to play, ANet listened to the casuals and chose to make players totally unable to make teams. That made all they're Team Based Balance a mess just because there's not any "team" in this game. With a good Team composition a ele can do great things, but without be able to make a team no one is able to play that class as it's best.

Anyway, different classes know how you feel and was kept in the last tier for Years. Just wait and hope.

Only cele d/d reached god tier.

Auramancer was a must pick, but it wasn't something that your actual ele main enjoyed. It was a necessary evil of a build (one that I never used).

4 years huh? ele has been bad for a while. most people hated being confined to a healer role, with all other options being extremely inferior to other specs in the same role. reminder that scepter received many minor buffs over the years because of how bad it was.

Aside from cele d/d, ele has never had a powerful dps build. NEVER.

I fully agree with this tale... Remember when zerk d/d was viable in WvW? Or when tornado did something?When you could heal, cleanse, chill and cast elites in mist form?

@Razor.6392 said:

@Silv.9207 said:After 4 years of PvP Top Tier class, with different time of God Tier where was totally unkillable, the class now is in a bad/ok state, where it's not the best but if you're good enough you do really good things.The problem is that in this game no one want to be "ok", everyone want to be OP and then no one want to play ele anymore.Another big problem of that game is that instead force players to Cooperate forcing them to make teams to play, ANet listened to the casuals and chose to make players totally unable to make teams. That made all they're Team Based Balance a mess just because there's not any "team" in this game. With a good Team composition a ele can do great things, but without be able to make a team no one is able to play that class as it's best.

Anyway, different classes know how you feel and was kept in the last tier for Years. Just wait and hope.

Don't make Quaggan laugh. Entire mainism in sPvP is rather bad Joko, if you don't like role profession is filling in sPvP, you can play different profession. You dislike being a "healer", wow, what if a Thief dislikes being +1/decapper, or Ranger dislikes being forced to play Druid? You either play something, or you don't.

all is vain for ele mains

During cele DD prime time cele engi and hambow were pretty much at the same level.

I had a premade with 2 cele eles, 1 cele engi, 1 hambow and 1 thief.

@xDudisx.5914 said:During cele DD prime time cele engi and hambow were pretty much at the same level.

I had a premade with 2 cele eles, 1 cele engi, 1 hambow and 1 thief.

Quaggan think you meant cele Shoutbow.

@Morwath.9817 said:You dislike being a "healer", wow, what if a Thief dislikes being +1/decapper, or Ranger dislikes being forced to play Druid? You either play something, or you don't.

Quoted for truth. You don't get the right to complain if a profession is a must slot profession, but not in the role you prefer.

Complaining that your profession is not competitive, that's fair. Firebrand nerfs and Weaver buffs should put Tempest and Weaver in viable support/Bruiser roles again.

@Silv.9207 said:

The problem is that in this game no one want to be "ok", everyone want to be OP and then no one want to play ele anymore.

From the Silv that complained incessantly about how bad necro was during times when it was solidly in the meta.

@Chaith.8256 said:

@Morwath.9817 said:You dislike being a "healer", wow, what if a Thief dislikes being +1/decapper, or Ranger dislikes being forced to play Druid? You either play something, or you don't.

Fact is that many who made an ele in GW2...were eles in GW1 or some sorcerer from Aion/WoW and in those games the world "elementalist" is not associated with healbot monk

But...Elementalist is great. Here, let me prove it:

Oh, wait. It is just me being a bad player for not running that one fresh air meta. Still wondering, where is that versatile profession that was once promised?

@TheQuickFox.3826 said:But...Elementalist is great. Here, let me prove it:

Oh, wait. It is just me being a bad player for not running that one fresh air meta. Still wondering, where is that versatile profession that was once promised?

We have a meta for a reason, if you play fresh air ele you can basically 1v1 anybody and win ..I mean..do you watch AT tournaments? Every team has a fresh air ele in it.

@Arheundel.6451 said:

@TheQuickFox.3826 said:But...Elementalist is great. Here, let me prove it:

Oh, wait. It is just me being a bad player for not running that one fresh air meta. Still wondering, where is that versatile profession that was once promised?

I don't care about fresh air. I want versatility. Where is it? If you can only be able to play a few cookie cutter builds then the profession is broken.We were supposed to get great defense, survivability and condi damage on earth.We were supposed to get great healing on water.We were supposed to get great AOE DPS on fire.We were supposed to get great speed and single target DPS on air.

And switch between them. Where is it?

@Arheundel.6451 said:

@TheQuickFox.3826 said:But...Elementalist is great. Here, let me prove it:

Oh, wait. It is just me being a bad player for not running that one fresh air meta. Still wondering, where is that versatile profession that was once promised?

Can’t tell if serious or NA...

@TheQuickFox.3826 said:

@Arheundel.6451 said:

@TheQuickFox.3826 said:But...Elementalist is great. Here, let me prove it:

Oh, wait. It is just me being a bad player for not running that one fresh air meta. Still wondering, where is that versatile profession that was once promised?

https://assets.tentonhammer.com/news/attached_images/000/017/509/medium/TTH.jpg?1468383404

@TheQuickFox.3826 said:

@Arheundel.6451 said:

@TheQuickFox.3826 said:But...Elementalist is great. Here, let me prove it:

Oh, wait. It is just me being a bad player for not running that one fresh air meta. Still wondering, where is that versatile profession that was once promised?

In the garbage can, because we have been demoted to heal bots.

Funny how ele has been demoted from damage to healbot, when in gw1 you could literally swap your build to any of the four Elements to compensate what your team didn't have. You were the filler and adapted as such.

There is no adaptation with ele. It was cele or git good. Then auramancer or git good. Now supposely it's the magical, fresh air gimmick or git good.

@TheQuickFox.3826 said:

@Arheundel.6451 said:

@TheQuickFox.3826 said:But...Elementalist is great. Here, let me prove it:

Oh, wait. It is just me being a bad player for not running that one fresh air meta. Still wondering, where is that versatile profession that was once promised?

He was being sarcastic. Fresh air is good as far as burst builds go, but it doesn't bring enough to the table - it still falls short compared to other professions in the same role.

@Chaith.8256 said:

@Morwath.9817 said:You dislike being a "healer", wow, what if a Thief dislikes being +1/decapper, or Ranger dislikes being forced to play Druid? You either play something, or you don't.

requoted for +1

@ArthurDent.9538 said:

@Silv.9207 said:

The problem is that in this game no one want to be "ok", everyone want to be OP and then no one want to play ele anymore.

Sadly true. I wrote a lot of posts in the past, frequently useless and unhelping.I left the game for a while, than I turn back to gave it a chance and now I know a lot about how bad I was as a forum user. Forgive me for my intollerance.Actually i don't even play necro XD (I don't like scourge mechanic, still if it's insanely strong)

Anyway, my post is true (I hope). The ele was meta since the first time I start to play in sPvP years ago and changed a lot of roles since then. DPS with Fresh Air (don't say you didn't had a dps build because that one was really strong), a God build with the cele D/D meta (that meta was good and top tier for years, I think, and made eles be top heal, top damage and top survavibility a large amount of times. So much strong that ANet had to make necromancers able to corrupt boons Only to make someone able to ounter an ele!).After HoT the ele meta in sPvP was more about Support and Survive, making other builds barely viable. That made a large amount of ele players unhappy finding they're all mighty ele be confinated to be a healer. But still then the ele was a Top class and frequently a good ele was able to change the match. In a match between a team with an ele and a team without it there was no game, the one with the ele was the winner at 90%.

Sadly, the guardian now (finally) play his main role and instead of pew pew people can support and defend them better than anyonelse (like it had always to be).

If you want to look, there's a recent post on that forum that show a really interesting build for the Weaver that seems to be able to kill a large amount of classes in 1v1 and do really great things in Teamplay. And it's good to dps the enemy, as you ever wanted (maybe not able to burst down but still able to kill fast). That show that there's still hope for this class. The weaver isn't for shure an easy elite to master (for shure the hardest ever made by anet) but with a lot of practice you'll be able to win your battles.

here's the link if the post move away and you want to find it:https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/18331/video-weaver-pvp-build-gameplay-80-win-platinum-league#latest

@Silv.9207 said:

@ArthurDent.9538 said:

@Silv.9207 said:

The problem is that in this game no one want to be "ok", everyone want to be OP and then no one want to play ele anymore.

Soulbeast has been the hardest class they have made to date. Weaver just have a lot of skills, Soulbeast actually took more time.

Fun fact for the day.Problem is with this, Weaver is not 'strong' like it's predecessors. It's gimmicky at best. Sure it can do /some/ things, but core and Tempests can do it better.

Core has way better survivability, since it has the ability to slot two survivable traitlines (Earth/Water) with either Arcane if you like element swapping, Fire if you want to focus on Condi/might stacking/AOE , or Air (if you want to focus on burst DPS on one target before scurrying off. The hit and run)

Tempest is better support because of it's 'bursty' mechanics and unique boons through auras/increased effectiveness of protection. Burst heal, burst damage , and solid Condi cleanse. Weaver is not taking doing anything better than this ol' grandpa.

So tell me what can Weaver do that is helpful to a team that doesn't consist of twirling in place like a purty princess?

@Lilyanna.9361 said:

@Silv.9207 said:

@ArthurDent.9538 said:

@Silv.9207 said:

The problem is that in this game no one want to be "ok", everyone want to be OP and then no one want to play ele anymore.

No, Sword Weaver is performing better than core D/D when mastered, but that's not saying much as Weaver is still irrelevant in the meta. Its the same role except better, tanky 1v1. Check out Phantaram's past broadcasts. Weaver is a modern D/D Cele Ele except undertuned damage in PvP, ie: lacking selfish might stacks. Exact same role as vanilla D/D Ele.

@Chaith.8256 said:

@Lilyanna.9361 said:

@Silv.9207 said:

@ArthurDent.9538 said:

@Silv.9207 said:

The problem is that in this game no one want to be "ok", everyone want to be OP and then no one want to play ele anymore.

I don't seem to understand how it is 'tankier'? Please, don't read this as brash or angry, I'm just genuinely curious. Would it technically be squishier because of the traits it's dropping for the more damage? I understand the evades are important, and the condi cleanse is magnificent, but I don't seem to get how it could be tankier than core.

Shed some light for me, I'm in a learning mood <:

10/10 for literary style.

@Lilyanna.9361 said:

@Chaith.8256 said:

@Lilyanna.9361 said:

@Silv.9207 said:

@ArthurDent.9538 said:

@Silv.9207 said:

The problem is that in this game no one want to be "ok", everyone want to be OP and then no one want to play ele anymore.

Riptide is quite frankly an insanely good weapon skill healing for about 3k every use on a 12s CD and that doesn’t include using combos like blasting or leaping in the water field which can add another 1.5k on top of that. It’s also got a lot more evade frames on the sword and ballerina stance gives you 2 right off the bat in fights. The 4s or 3.5s CD on attunement swap means you can keep hopping in and out of water for healing ripple and soothing mists buff while keeping protection and regen up as much as you need to at the time and woven stride makes you one of the few classes that can actually keep up with the amount of conditions thrown out atm.

The issue is sword has low damage numbers because might stacking is hard without taking offhand dagger and running fire trait line for reduced CD on your fire fields. Most of the good attacks have a pretty hefty cast time of 3/4s but the real issue is if you land something like gale strike there’s no follow up, no spike of damage you can do to punish them for not dodging even if they didn’t see the massive tell.

So what you end up with is an ele that has more healing, cleansing and damage mitigation but without the ability to might stack and slow wind up on strong attacks coupled with having to be melee to really hurt you which if you know the meta we are in melee is a danagerous place to be.