I miss playing ranged elementalist

[Joncal.9623]

39 minutes ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

Ah, yes, the classic "everything works in open world" copout

Come again? You mean to tell me only sweaty tryhard tag/farm builds are viable in OW...? I am done. 😂✋

Have a good one sir.

[draxynnic.3719]

2 hours ago, Joncal.9623 said:

Come again? You mean to tell me only sweaty tryhard tag/farm builds are viable in OW...? I am done. 😂✋

Have a good one sir.

Nope. Tag/farm stuff are typically the sort of zerg events I was talking about. But without even going to the extremes, I doubt most people can "anything goes" their way through soloing the harder HoT hero points. There are also story events that are at least a lot easier with a good solo build, the oni ambushes in the new map are a credible threat if you're on your own, etc, etc. Sure, if you're surrounded by a dozen or more other players, "anything goes" often enough. Want to do something without relying on a bunch of other players around? Depends on what precisely you're trying to do, but for the harder stuff, build matters.

You're basically just trying to make the "it doesn't matter for what I care about, so it doesn't matter" argument. You've explicitly excluded the entire competitive side of the game. You're implicitly excluding anything that might call for a solo build. You're also implicitly ignoring even some of the instanced group content which punishes pure melee builds, such as OLC. If your argument requires excluding most of the game to stand up, it's a pretty flimsy argument.

[Stx.4857]

It gets boring playing only melee after awhile.  I agree there should be a competitive ranged spec for elementalist since it’s basically this games version of a mage.  Necro and Mesmer have ranged builds.  Why not elementalist? 

[ZolracAtrox.2908]

They nerfed Staff Weaver 'cause they "wanted a melee play style" we still ranged but without Weavers xD

[Klowdy.3126]

To be fair, all the "caster" weapons were given at the start. Their only options are guns, bows, or melee. That said, a p/p ele, like the "black mage" in ff13 would be cool. Magically charged bullets is a cool concept. 

 

Side note: I love the hammer playstyle. Feels like an old school enhancement shaman with actual flow, made for GW2, though I am a melee main in all games, so I am biased towards those builds for sure. GW2 is where I see most of my range, but even then, it's something like SB rev, or LB guard, that is still mostly melee. 

[Skyroar.2974]

Your best bet is Weaver with core ranged weapons. Weaver is the only elite spec that doesn't force you into melee playstyles (no overloads, no jade spheres), and dual skills and dual attunements give new playstyles to old weapons, making them feel refreshing.

Signet of Fire, Glyph of Storms and Elementals (elite), a stunbreaker for your remaining slot, and you have a near-perfect ranged set. Scepter/Focus will still force you to melee a bit if you want to blast finish your flamewall with earth #4, though, but I think that's the only exception.

It's funny to think how GW2 has existed for over 10 years, yet the original AoE nuke class still has yet to receive a SINGLE AoE nuke elite skill, while Mesmer has already received two.

Mesmer's Virtuoso is basically GW1's elementalist pink edition, anyways. If you don't mind the different aesthetics, that's an option (ironic how Mesmer replaced Ele's main playstyle in BOTH GW games). Or Renegade basically being a GW1 elementalist but with its nuke spells having health bars.

Edited March 13, 2023 by Skyroar.2974

[MarzAttakz.9608]

5 hours ago, Klowdy.3126 said:

To be fair, all the "caster" weapons were given at the start. Their only options are guns, bows, or melee. That said, a p/p ele, like the "black mage" in ff13 would be cool. Magically charged bullets is a cool concept. 

 

Side note: I love the hammer playstyle. Feels like an old school enhancement shaman with actual flow, made for GW2, though I am a melee main in all games, so I am biased towards those builds for sure. GW2 is where I see most of my range, but even then, it's something like SB rev, or LB guard, that is still mostly melee. 

Have you played Hammer Untamed? That flows, what we got is garbage in comparison.

[Klowdy.3126]

21 minutes ago, MarzAttakz.9608 said:

Have you played Hammer Untamed? That flows, what we got is garbage in comparison.

I have not, yet. I was looking at it last night, though. It was mostly the Cele gear, and the "GW2 enh shaman" that drew me to the spec. I do tend to follow weapons. I loved DH since its release because it could use LB/GS, I love reaper for the GS (and vindicator for the same reason, though I tend to go with condi renegade). I've only recently gotten a legendary hammer, so I've been going through the specs. I also want to try scrapper.

[HowlKamui.5120]

On 3/2/2023 at 11:16 PM, Godfather.9058 said:

I wanted some other options for ranged combat. I know staff and s/f are there. But they are there since vanilla.

You wanna play a ranged mage right? What other weapon is there aside from staff/scepter that would fulfill that archetype? If they give us bows, that wouldn't be a mage, it would be an arcane archer.

IMO don't be too quick to discredit the elite specs ability to shake up ranged gameplay, especially with the recent scepter and staff reworks (staff needs more changes though). Weaver and Catalyst do well with Staff/scepter builds, and they play and feel very differently from core, especially the weaver.

Now if you still want a different kind of mage, you can try the virtuoso. It's more psionic instead of elemental. 

Edited March 14, 2023 by HowlKamui.5120

[draxynnic.3719]

14 hours ago, Skyroar.2974 said:

Your best bet is Weaver with core ranged weapons. Weaver is the only elite spec that doesn't force you into melee playstyles (no overloads, no jade spheres), and dual skills and dual attunements give new playstyles to old weapons, making them feel refreshing.

It is the least bad option, yes. Weaver is clearly oriented towards melee in the weaver-specific utility skills and traits, but you can make a purely ranged build out of it if you want to. It's not what you'd be able to do with a spec that's actually designed for it like, say, Virtuoso, though.

 

8 hours ago, HowlKamui.5120 said:

You wanna play a ranged mage right? What other weapon is there aside from staff/scepter that would fulfill that archetype? If they give us bows, that wouldn't be a mage, it would be an arcane archer.

Mesmer greatsword. Necromancer axe. Sceptres historically started out as ceremonial maces, so that could be reversed and mace could be alternative sceptre. There are a lot of pistol and rifle skins that look a lot more like a conduit for elemental magic than anything that's going to be firing bullets. There are plenty of options if the will is there.

[otto.5684]

On 3/10/2023 at 4:36 AM, the krytan assassin.9235 said:

Even power is pumping quite hard atm. (especially when used on bosses with larger hitboxes that favor ranged dps). I pretty much outdps like 98% of the puggies on stuff like deimos or HT nm. 

Im no bench God by any means, but im pretty sure there's potential for power staff to deal 40k+ bench on large Golem atm (there's an outdated power benchmark out there that deals like 36.5k and thats before the dmge boost to stormsoul, weave self, Swift revenge and elements of rage).  This would put staff on top of all power ranged dps builds currently available. I showed the basic staff rotation to a guildie of mine yesterday (he never plays staff) and he managed a 34k dps on his 2nd Golem (medium size) attempt. 

 

I know most people on the forum tend to disagree, but i think staff is in a good spot right now (maybe only lacking abit breakbar dmge). You can't expect a 1200 ranged aoe heavy build to deal the same amount of damage as a close ranged power build or a 900 range condi build. Otherwise there's literally no reason to use anything but staff. You sacrifice abit of dps, but you get alot of consistency in return.

 

95% of the player base simply only looks at specific sites to see whats viable, without actually trying the build for themselves. For example the majority of the ele playerbase could probably benefit from taking flame Legion runes over scholar runes, yet every single player simply refuses to actually do so or is unaware of its potential. 

For some reason we all agree that Pmech, scourge &Pvirtuoso are in a decent spot because they're provide reliable consistent dmge output, yet simultaneously we blame staff ele for doing the exact same kitten. 

Link for the staff benchmark before the mentioned buffs to Weaver.

https://youtu.be/OoDkeTqMWjc

I am late to this party, however, it is a benchmark weapon. It works when you have the comfortable situation to benchmark, otherwise, it suffers. There is a lot of ground aoe for ranged weapon, which is a problem if enemies are constantly moving. It does not offer much in terms of control, mobility or sustain. 

[Loke.1429]

for wvw staff damage is rather kitten right now on aggressive stats like berserker, and it seems they want it to be like that

[Barabbas.8715]

If Anet hadn't given up on elite specs, having a mystical gunner with dual pistols would have been cool. Oh well...

[draxynnic.3719]

4 hours ago, Barabbas.8715 said:

If Anet hadn't given up on elite specs, having a mystical gunner with dual pistols would have been cool. Oh well...

I don't see any evidence they've given up on them, just that they're not committing to releasing a new set with every single mini-expansion.