Is there any way to play elementalist as a hybrid?

[EpicName.4523]

Elementalists seem like a very fun class, but some things  bother me:

 

1)It is supposedly a spellcaster that is mostly melee...Range stuff is kinda bad/outdated?

2)A lot of button mashing to do the same thing as other classes and often do it worse.

3)Despite the interesting concept and constant form switching, you are bad at the things you are not geared for. For example, you have the ability to do condition damage, but unless you gear for it, it sucks. You can heal, but unless you gear for it, it is not worth switching to water. 

 

Is there a way to play elementalist as hybrid that can do a bit of everything? Maybe with celestial gear? Or marshal? Is there a build/gear setup which will allow you to make good use of all your skills? And is such a build viable in say, fractals?

 

Is there a viable way to play as ranged? I want to be a mage, not some melee ninja flipping around and dying when someone looks at me badly.

[Downstate.4697]

https://snowcrows.com/builds

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

You can use marshal and celestial weaver to great extent in WvW.  I use an Air/water/Weaver celestial build with sword/dagger for roaming, and it works quite well. 

 

While such a build would technically be viable in fractals and raids, people aren't going to be happy with you running it.  In PVE it pays to focus on one job, and damage is king out there.  The closest you'll get to a hybrid in PVE is to use a full Grievers build: https://snowcrows.com/builds/elementalist/weaver/hybrid-weaver

 

As for ranged, there are some scepter builds.  For PVE there's power tempest:  https://snowcrows.com/builds/elementalist/tempest/power-tempest

 

You can also use some fire/air scepter builds in WvW and PVP.  I run mine with full Marauders when in a group.  The damage burst from chaining all of the skills together lets you delete players from a group.  It's very glassy, though.  

[soulknight.9620]

First of all we need to set the terminology right.
Viable and optimal are not the same thing. If you want to go for high end pve/pvp/wvw content you need to be optimal about your build/gear or else people will mildly speaking not be happy with you. Ofc you can run with a group of friends that will sort of carry you. 

As for "viable". To a certain degree everything is viable in open world pve for example. Celestial weaver can solo any opve content. Will cele work for fracs? Sure, at a cost ofc - slower clear time. A lot of people have ark dps installed and will easily spot that your dps is not there. 
If you want a decent dps in fractals while utilizing hybrid playstyle - Grievers build that was mentioned above is a really nice build that has enough burst potential and dps to be competitive in high end content. But that build does not utilize water attunement much. 
The only one build i can think of that actually reaches all of your criteria is celestial weaver with sword/focus or celestial tempest with staff or scepter (or dagger)/warhorn. These builds can utilize all of the stats and attunements, but ofc you will not be optimal for any role. 
 

Edited September 3, 2021 by soulknight.9620

[Zhaid Zhem.6508]

Yes.

I play since pof launch a grieving + rampager weaver for fractals with "great" success; it's even better since some month because of the exposed debuff and some tweak to weaver's damage modificators.

 

SC has made one grieving + vipere; https://snowcrows.com/builds/elementalist/weaver/hybrid-weaver

Im not 100% convinced it is the best mix with food; at least not for fractals.  Same with Rune of the Flame Legion, in fractals you better want Rune of Balhtazar because of the frequent Exposed debuff (+100% condi damage, +30% strike damage).

And in raids, I don't have "pve" geared weaver on my second account and I'm too lazy, too shy, to build one and impose it to players; so may be they are right.

 

Otherwise, for OW, a Celestial weaver is surprisingly good. No high burst, no huge cleave, etc; but may be better than any other class with full celestial ( still OW speaking). Recent changes to boon and condi duration really sustain both power and condi damage with weaver : weakness, vulnerability and of course bleeding, burning, loop fury with only raged storm...

Something like that http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PGgAwilZwkgZijqy2rC-zxIY1ohvMCMBioAkfA-e  Perma fury, ~90% precision, perma weakness in zone (which is great to facetank a lot mobs) 95% burning duration, strong bulk and regen...

 

[Zhaid Zhem.6508]

Edit.

About a "healer / buffer" + DPS. You can try fresh air tempest with zealot/celestial something like that, but honestly just go in one way, don't try both even in WvW.

Hybrid condi+power works great because traitlanes fire and weaver are hybrid by design; you can't really do it wrong. After it's just a matter of optimisation ; pinpoint gear and sigilsrunes for precision, condi duration, a trait rather than another, etc.

[AliamRationem.5172]

Celestial is lower damage than pure damage sets, which makes it a poor choice for organized PvE (raids/fractals - there are more offensive hybrid builds utilizing viper/grieving for this).  However, it's a solid choice for solo players in open world and especially for WvW roaming. 

 

Here's a full solo clear of a DRM with challenge modes active.  I'm using a WvW-style build here which is well-rounded rather than optimized for damage output.  Even so, it deals adequate damage and can handle most anything you come across in open world.

 

 

[EpicName.4523]

Ok, so the only content where a hybrid playstyle is accepted is WvW. Basically, you are liability if you do anything, but a narrow role like just dps or just support, I get it.

 

The Grieving build seems ok to me, because it mixes a bit of both power and condi damage, but it's melee. At least the build linked uses sword. Will it work well with scepter or staff instead?

 

 

[Jski.6180]

Cele is ok but that lost of power hits very hard for nearly all of ele attks. That and losing out on any dmg trait is very notable as well as losing out on any support trait too. Ele as a true hybrid class needs too much from its traits and too much from the power state.

If you can work out a max min for ele power condi dmg and healing/support which i never seen any one do then you could work out a good hybrid build for a given game type. I think most ppl dont unless its a video click bate or very known builds because there a real fear anet will nerf the build. Anet actively keeps the ele class from being too of use as a hybrid set up.