I simply cannot take it anymore

[Merrex.5384]

Elementalist  does not bring anything special to the table they DPS but guess what just about all professions can DPS. 

You are never going to see in any LFG add   "  Need Ele "  I have never seen it and unless something major changes you will never see it either.

There is always some profession that can do what a ele can do plus bring something special to the group like quickness for everyone ( Yay ) or alacrity for everyone ( Yay ) or Aegis for everyone (Yay) Or barrier for everyone ( Yay )

I remember someone saying how they could actually just remove the profession all together and no one would really care. I am starting to believe that statement more and more as time goes on. Just take the Ele out back and shoot it to put it out of it's misery if your not going to fix it .

Edited October 11, 2021 by Merrex.5384

[Obtena.7952]

On 10/8/2021 at 6:04 PM, SNap.2087 said:

I just can't believe that anet is still letting this continue

Believe it ... because not everyone chooses a class because of performance or easy to play or the other things you complain about. The whole point of different classes is variety. 

[Sunshine.5014]

4 hours ago, Zhaid Zhem.6508 said:

I REALLY REALLY wish elementalist had a "QQ elementalist jailed into bannerslave" issue; because at least it would mean elementalist is requested in pve. Or "bubble jailed " in wvw.

Maybe a thankless role but a role anyway.

There is so much truth in this statement. Ele don't even have a thankless role in PvE. Catalyst needs to provide Perma Quickness for it to have some role in Raid/Fractal. Otherwise, why not just take a Weaver for DPS?

[Infusion.7149]

If you are playing with people new to Conjured amalgamate or Keep construct you can play power tempest with rebound , it means you can ignore the clap if people fail at shields or the orbs on KC. Recently I saw people chain rebound on Dhuum as well for the bombs, but as I stated above elementalist suffers from a hitbox size problem first and  foremost.

I don't think Catalyst could replace FB/scrapper even if it had 100% quickness really. It is far too hitbox reliant in its current iteration.

[Shena Fu.5792]

I don't even main elementalist. But I can tell eles have it the worst. Some classes don't get any love by the Anet devs; unfortunately, the devs actively hate and deride the elementalist. Ever since the game's release in 2012, the devs have stomped every ounce of life from eles. When some glimmer of hope somehow accidentally shines through, the devs will snuff it out.

Catalyst is a freaking joke. They just phoned it in and called it day. That's nowhere near elite spec material. Hammer is another melee weapon eles don't need or want. The class mechanic F5 is just unimaginative and worthless. Basically telling everyone to stay from this elite spec (and elementalist in general).
 

[moony.5780]

Hey 🙂 i also started with an ele. It took me 3 years to get good and to stop dying. But once u master ele, u master already 80% of any new class. So that's at least no waste. If u got asc stuff u can still share it with a necro or mesmer. 

 

Personally i think celestial gear is the best on ele....but ele makes too little dmg compared to other classes.

Ele is still my main,  but i often feel frustrated and then just play rev or scrapper. (And my ele is nearly full legendary, so that feels really bad when I don't play it xD)

 

Honestly ele was much better in the past, u could play what ever element u want and change according to the situation. Now its just blind and braindead piano typing of rotations. After practicing the condi weaver on the golem for 2 months, I became good at raids. But it's really frustrating to give so much effort and just do fine compared to others.

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

Sometimes I think I'm the only person who actually likes to play ele on the ele forums.  There's something I'd like to address:

 

7 hours ago, Merrex.5384 said:

Elementalist  does not bring anything special to the table they DPS but guess what just about all professions can DPS. 

You are never going to see in any LFG add   "  Need Ele "  I have never seen it and unless something major changes you will never see it either.

There is always some profession that can do what a ele can do plus bring something special to the group like quickness for everyone ( Yay ) or alacrity for everyone ( Yay ) or Aegis for everyone (Yay) Or barrier for everyone ( Yay )

I remember someone saying how they could actually just remove the profession all together and no one would really care. I am starting to believe that statement more and more as time goes on. Just take the Ele out back and shoot it to put it out of it's misery if your not going to fix it .

They do bring some unique stuff, actually.  it's all on tempest.  My static would recruit a heal tempest as a quick replacement for druid in many fights, since the tempest provides all of the might, fury, cleanses, and vigor for the team.  I've seen magnetic aura carry in W2 against Slothosar and Matthias.  Their most unique utility is rebound, which lets a squad ignore many instant-down mechanics.  

[Sunshine.5014]

9 hours ago, Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:

 Their most unique utility is rebound, which lets a squad ignore many instant-down mechanics.  

You mean the Rebound? The poor-man Aegis? On a huge cooldown, take an elite slot, and has a limited duration that you have to time correctly?

P.S: oh, and only work when you're about to die.

Edited October 11, 2021 by Sunshine.5014

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

4 hours ago, Sunshine.5014 said:

You mean the Rebound? The poor-man Aegis? On a huge cooldown, take an elite slot, and has a limited duration that you have to time correctly?

P.S: oh, and only work when you're about to die.

Yeah, that rebound.  The one that works in places where aegis doesn't.  

[Aedil.1296]

2 hours ago, Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:

Yeah, that rebound.  The one that works in places where aegis doesn't.  

Sorry where does it work where aegis doesn't? I really don't know please let me know. 

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

1 hour ago, Aedil.1296 said:

Sorry where does it work where aegis doesn't? I really don't know please let me know. 

My static would use it on Cardinal Sabir, Conjured Amalgamate, and I've used it on CM Arkk.  Each one has an aegis-bypassing attack that causes instant downs.  They'd also use it on Deimos, because the tears have a habit of canceling out aegis right before the instant-death attack.  Basically, any place that has an instant-down mechanic and/or a lot of ambient damage flying around.  

[Aedil.1296]

16 hours ago, Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:

My static would use it on Cardinal Sabir, Conjured Amalgamate, and I've used it on CM Arkk.  Each one has an aegis-bypassing attack that causes instant downs.  They'd also use it on Deimos, because the tears have a habit of canceling out aegis right before the instant-death attack.  Basically, any place that has an instant-down mechanic and/or a lot of ambient damage flying around.  

Ah ok got it thanks. 

I think rebound has a top long CD though. It can help with these mechanics but not one after the other as you can't just spam it. 

Edited October 12, 2021 by Aedil.1296

[Cyndercat.7615]

On 10/12/2021 at 4:43 AM, Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:

My static would use it on Cardinal Sabir, Conjured Amalgamate, and I've used it on CM Arkk.  Each one has an aegis-bypassing attack that causes instant downs.  They'd also use it on Deimos, because the tears have a habit of canceling out aegis right before the instant-death attack.  Basically, any place that has an instant-down mechanic and/or a lot of ambient damage flying around.  

Deimos tears don't strip aegis anymore and haven't for years afaik.

[usernameisapain.7163]

As OP can see there is a lot of people suggesting that you try your hand at a different class. However keep in mind that almost everyone commenting here still main or 50% ele. Despite the struggle, Ele is a lot of fun to play, but it is very frustrating when you pick up a class you haven't played or barely touched, and you find yourself doing as well if not better within a short time. 

As mentioned already, back in the day ele was a powerhouse insofar as dps was concerned, but that is like 6-7 years ago. You can still do fairly well with ele, but you'll need to put a lot more energy into it.  The plus side is that you'll be capable of picking up the other classes quite easily after playing ele for a while! 

I'm not sure what is most fun for you, class mechanics and what is intuitive, or following guides to participate in raids/fractals etc. I love to play guardian for example, but I abhor firebrand because of how the tomes are baked into the virtues.  My point is, try out a few classes in pvp you can spec up however you want and get a feel for what is what.

Edited October 30, 2021 by usernameisapain.7163

[The Fear.3865]

Ele should be the aoe top dps class. It's designed that way, and it's the reason why it's squishy and so buff selfish. 

But then, anet says no more top dps on ele, and now they say no more power dmg on pve, go go condi meta yay. 

Now ele is clunky. It's so garbage they have no idea how to make Catalyst viable, so they hard boost stats without adding any special mechanics, and it's not even working. 

Gg anet. 

[Xenash.1245]

On 10/9/2021 at 8:30 AM, Fueki.4753 said:

Instead of merely looking at Snowcrows cookie cutter top end builds, how about you look at the broad picture and the issues that Warrior has?

There are many threads on the Warrior sub forum listing issues. It's very easy to see that Warrior has far, far more issues than any other profession. And nearly all of those issues are being ignored.

To be fair the forums aren't always a good measure for how something plays or not, like for example when it got popular for people in thieves forum to start complaining that they couldn't do much damage at all in pvp/wvw.

 

Not disagreeing with you, just throwing my own stupid opinion out there about the forums bit.

[Aedil.1296]

17 hours ago, The Fear.3865 said:

Ele should be the aoe top dps class. It's designed that way, and it's the reason why it's squishy and so buff selfish. 

But then, anet says no more top dps on ele, and now they say no more power dmg on pve, go go condi meta yay. 

Now ele is clunky. It's so garbage they have no idea how to make Catalyst viable, so they hard boost stats without adding any special mechanics, and it's not even working. 

Gg anet. 

This is so kitten true. 

When you don't have a clue of what u doing or totally run out of ideas you just throw in a generic stats buff as on catalyst that is even so hard to keep up that is unusable effectively leaving a meangless tasteless class. I'm just so baffled about catalyst that I better shut up as I don't wanna be rude. 

And yes I cannot take it anymore too! 

Edited November 1, 2021 by Aedil.1296

[Mell.4873]

Ele requires so much more in terms of build craft and rotation knowledge to play.

I mean people run full celestials in some games modes with huge success. 

[SkinnyT.5382]

I understands OP's feelings and frustration, though I don't know if ANET is fully to blame. The community is to blame  too.

ANET unfortunately is not the best at editing. Causing continuous imbalances with every edit, not just with the ele. Thinking too much about damage number as oppose to overall game play. And often times thinking "do we have a spec that can reach the numbers?" as oppose to " do we have enough specs reaching the  numbers?".

As far as the community goes. A good group of people know that not everyone can meet a dps or healing quota, and they adjust accordingly. Unfortunately in high end content, too many people rather play the number's game like ANET, as oppose the balance group play they should.

OP I would suggest trying to find a better group of people to play with, who can benefit from your strengths and help your weaknesses. But that might be just as hard as rolling and learning a new profession.

[Milosz.5938]

   I started my adventure with GW2 quite a few years ago. I have become attached to the elementalist, although I often have moments of doubt, seeing what other classes can do without much effort. Anet lives in a fantasy world, thinking that GODmode ON is great way to play as an elementalist. Unfortunately, the truth is different. Elementalist without cheats is a dying simulator.

    Elementalist also - contrary to what some Youtubers say - is not crucial for group play (FOTM, raids etc.); if his presence have been welcomed, it would have been visible in the LFG (and it is not).

   So why is it hard for me to give up on this profession, ridiculed by Arena NET - because I like tough challenges. Trying sometimes; driven by anger after "balancing"; other classes I get bored quickly with their ease and possibilities.

   You have to accept in your heart that for Developers, the elementalist is a joke, a pimple that is not worth paying attention to. For example: look at "buff" to weaver barrier - hahahahahahahahahaha - spit in the face

 

  Those are my personal feelings on Ele. I really wished that EoD will give us range spec (at least ONE !!!! for 'prefer range' class would be nice), thinking that maybe Anet changed their attitude - but those was only my dreams. 

[AliamRationem.5172]

On 10/10/2021 at 8:09 PM, Obtena.7952 said:

Believe it ... because not everyone chooses a class because of performance or easy to play or the other things you complain about. The whole point of different classes is variety. 

Which ignores the point that class balance matters to players and elementalist is objectively less useful than most other classes at this point.

[Obtena.7952]

29 minutes ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

Which ignores the point that class balance matters to players and elementalist is objectively less useful than most other classes at this point.

No it doesn't ignore that point at all, though it is important to note that performance balance has never been this game's priority anyways and that at least ONE class has to be least useful. 

Here is a question: do you see anything exceptional about Catalyst as a spec and it's performance given the history of the game? Like somehow we had all these amazingly balanced specs and classes ... and then Catalyst comes by? That's not what I see. I see that this is par for the course ... that Anet is developing a spec based on a theme to give variation in gameplay, not because it's 'useful' or 'balanced'. If it's not played at a level Anet is happy with, they will change it. We see this in balance patches. I mean, THAT is what is real here. 

 

Edited November 10, 2021 by Obtena.7952

[BunjiKugashira.9754]

I've been an ele main since 2013 (played my first confused year as a thief because I was hoping it would feel like GW1 assassin).

Ele used to be the class that can most reliably provide a group with boons. Nowadays every elite spec has better and easier boon uptime than ele.

Conjured weapons used to be a dps boost for anyone who picked them up. Then they were all nerfed into oblivion the domain of anguish.

By putting in a lot of effort, eles used to be able to dominate the dps charts. It was selfish, it was risky and it was rarer than seeing an ele absolutely struggle and fail. Then the nerf hammer struck.

Now eles received said hammer as a reminder of what happens, should the class ever rise to relevance again.

 

Every other class has received something useful over the years. Something that makes the class desirable to have in a party. What did ele get? Auras. Who the hell thought "hey, this class has the lowest base-health and the lowest armor in the game, let's give them a mechanic that requires getting hit!"? Who even thought "yeah, getting hit is something that high-lvl parties do all the time. I'm sure auras make ele a desirable party member."? I'm sure the other ele-mains here can confirm this: As an ele you learn to dodge or you die. I always dodge attacks that I would easily tank on another class, even if it means interrupting a strong skill to do so.

[Kodama.6453]

1 hour ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

Which ignores the point that class balance matters to players and elementalist is objectively less useful than most other classes at this point.

Is it really objectively true that elementalist is less useful or just harder to pull off?

I repeatedly read that tempest, for example, is one of the most potent healers in the game and also provides quite a good boon uptime. Weaver seems to have reasonably high damage to fill the dps role decently well. Yeah, condition firebrand is strong and more useful because of utility, but this is a problem about firebrands being overpowered, not elementalist being not useful enough as a dps...

I think that the one problem is just that elementalist generally is harder to play at full potential, so the average elementalist is perceived less useful than the average player of another class. But I don't think elementalist really is less useful if played at full potential compared to another class played on full potential.

Still means that we have to nerf outliers which are providing strong utility on top of top dps, like firebrand and scourges are doing, tho.

[AshenOwl.2485]

1 hour ago, Kodama.6453 said:

Is it really objectively true that elementalist is less useful or just harder to pull off?

I repeatedly read that tempest, for example, is one of the most potent healers in the game and also provides quite a good boon uptime. Weaver seems to have reasonably high damage to fill the dps role decently well. Yeah, condition firebrand is strong and more useful because of utility, but this is a problem about firebrands being overpowered, not elementalist being not useful enough as a dps...

I think that the one problem is just that elementalist generally is harder to play at full potential, so the average elementalist is perceived less useful than the average player of another class. But I don't think elementalist really is less useful if played at full potential compared to another class played on full potential.

Still means that we have to nerf outliers which are providing strong utility on top of top dps, like firebrand and scourges are doing, tho.

What makes most supports desirable are easy access to Quickness and/or Alacrity. Elementalist has almost no access to either. Scourge is desirable because it provides tons of barrier without really giving up its DPS. Healer Tempest loses tons of DPS because they have to spend time in Water Attunement, so while they have the highest pure healing potential they give up more than other supports. Unless you NEED all that raw healing, you don't need the Tempest.

Weaver DPS is competitive with other DPS specs... but requires twice as much work to achieve in comparison to anything other than a Condition Engineer. It's also got a very punishing rotation.

So, no, I don't think Elementalist will suddenly become meta or even desirable if they bring down the current meta professions. It needs to either supply meta boons or deal more damage while healing to be a desirable support, and either needs to deal more damage or needs a simpler rotation to be a more desirable dps.