Why is Ele bad?

[incisorr.9502]

logged my ele for an unranked game

1.7k power skill (plasma beam) with 1sec+ channel time does 3800 damage to people with 900 range (with 220%+ crit damage and 70-90% crit rate)

i do more damage per single auto attack on longbow soul beast with 1500 range and i do 20k damage with one button on soulbeast with rapid fire. I do 15k +dmg on power mesmer in 1 sec (if illusions hit) with 2-3 skills combined, holosmiths do 10k damage per hit. Warrior hits me for 9.3k damage rampage dash, reaper does 10k dmg ih half a hit with spinal shivers proc. ele? 3.8k damage on the best skill

i dont understand why tf is this class so ridiculously bad, it does no damage , it has garbage condition applications, it has super low range on most skills and weapons which is actually laughable, staff has incredibly slow cast times, cant use half of your skills when enemy is moving behind you, the damage is trash, everything is inconsistent and takes forever to cast or wind up (earth 2, water 2, meteors)? Like does arena net even play the game ? why cant they just log ele and compare it to other classes so they can see themselves how ridiculously underwhelming and bad ele is?

there's 1 pseudo-working 1v1 build on weaver with iframe spam and it's actually decent in 1v1 but its garbage in anything else and even in those 1v1s it actually takes forever to kill anyone with it so you're susceptible to ganks, and it's not even a ' dps build ' on literally elemental mage

i have almost 2k games played on ele (in spvp) and its one of my most played classes but that was before all the pof powercreep + random buffs on older professions (cus almost all the hot specs got buffed through time) and now ele is just bad, you can't get a viable working dps build with ele cus like i said everything is slow and unreliable with low rangerevenant hits for 15-20k with a single shackling wave or deathblow with shiro heal but ele is stuck to some trash cheese that is fresh air that' does lower damage and is 3000 times easier to counter and FA is a bad concept to begin with and has always been nothing more than a cheese build but the rest of the class is so bad you cant even surprise-kill your enemy with a burst cus you dont have anything else

[steki.1478]

@incisorr.9502 said:logged my ele for an unranked game

1.7k power skill (plasma beam) with 1sec+ channel time does 3800 damage to people with 900 range (with 220%+ crit damage and 70-90% crit rate)

i do more damage per single auto attack on longbow soul beast with 1500 range and i do 20k damage with one button on soulbeast with rapid fire. I do 15k +dmg on power mesmer in 1 sec (if illusions hit) with 2-3 skills combined, holosmiths do 10k damage per hit. Warrior hits me for 9.3k damage rampage dash, reaper does 10k dmg ih half a hit with spinal shivers proc. ele? 3.8k damage on the best skill

i dont understand why tf is this class so ridiculously bad, it does no damage , it has garbage condition applications, it has super low range on most skills and weapons which is actually laughable, staff has incredibly slow cast times, cant use half of your skills when enemy is moving behind you, the damage is trash, everything is inconsistent and takes forever to cast or wind up (earth 2, water 2, meteors)? Like does arena net even play the game ? why cant they just log ele and compare it to other classes so they can see themselves how ridiculously underwhelming and bad ele is?

there's 1 pseudo-working 1v1 build on weaver with iframe spam and it's actually decent in 1v1 but its garbage in anything else and even in those 1v1s it actually takes forever to kill anyone with it so you're susceptible to ganks, and it's not even a ' dps build ' on literally elemental mage

i have almost 2k games played on ele (in spvp) and its one of my most played classes but that was before all the pof powercreep + random buffs on older professions (cus almost all the hot specs got buffed through time) and now ele is just bad, you can't get a viable working dps build with ele cus like i said everything is slow and unreliable with low rangerevenant hits for 15-20k with a single shackling wave or deathblow with shiro heal but ele is stuck to some trash cheese that is fresh air that' does lower damage and is 3000 times easier to counter and FA is a bad concept to begin with and has always been nothing more than a cheese build but the rest of the class is so bad you cant even surprise-kill your enemy with a burst cus you dont have anything else

Yet it's the first (and only) one-shot build that got nerfed (read removed) after only a few months of PoF.

Reason - burst has no tell. Build has 900 range, 1 mobility skill, no sustain, invuln that's inaccessible for 4+ seconds after bursting.

What's still in game? Stealth bursts which crit for 20k+. Tanky/evasive builds with 15k+ bursts. 15k+ bursts from 1200+ range. Builds have free stealth (mesmer, thief, druid), mobility (previous 3+herald, soulbeast and holo) sustain (all of those except maybe thief and mesmer, but they come with tons of evades/mobility). Not to mention that all of that is built in their weapon sets/stun breaks/class mechanics or just utility skills that they don't even need (since their kit is strong enough already so they can take whatever). On top of everything else, they have a lot better boon uptime, condi cleanses (except rev) and a lot lot shorter cd on bursts, defenses and mobility.

Class that's supposed to overcome its defense/cooldown weaknesses by dealing high damage unironically has the worst damage while still having the biggest cooldowns and the worst sustain. Mind = blown.

[Aigleborgne.2981]

@steki.1478 said:Class that's supposed to overcome its defense/cooldown weaknesses by dealing high damage unironically has the worst damage while still having the biggest cooldowns and the worst sustain. Mind = blown.

So well-said ! I assume ele was nerf to the ground because he was able to deal massive damage, more than anyone else. His weakness, beeing squishy, was not a problem with proper team (in raid and fractacls at least).What ANet saw ? A profession with big damage and no apparent drawback. They didn't get the full picture as always. What about ele fighting alone in PvE, WvW, or PvP ?

I am still leveling new eles (as well as other toons because I like the leveling phase), and I can tell the difference. Damage wise, I have no issue, it's very good. Although I could argue that my axe warrior do comparable damage in a slightly less AoE, but more stable damage.Then, my ele has to use almost everything he got even to survive some strong veterans that my warrior can kill by standing still doing nothing but spamming attacks.The former might reach very low health and even been downed while the latter should probably loose less than half health in the worst case. Granted warrior might have some passive defense, you can still build without those passives and still do well.

Yesterday, I saw a veteran in brisban with 2 mobs around. I rushed in, not fully prepared but it was only a veteran. Guess what ? He was hitting hard and I was downed in no time, just lucky to be able to rally and flee away. Then, I try again with proper preparation and I killed him rather easily.So yes , I do manage most situations, but it requires a lot more work for a lesser result than most other professions. A lesser result because I usually have more down time between fights when I need my cooldowns/health to be ready. My guardian has no need for these cooldowns except for champions.

[MyPuppy.8970]

Reason is simple : it was to give more room for other specs to shine. Because Bad AI/mechanics allows full dps builds/parties to be the meta, and people always want to go the fastest way. All that to not lose the playerbase that don't main or don't want to play ele.

Solution is simple : a full trait/skill/utilities/modifiers Split between all game modes

[GoQ.1048]

low hp pool + huge casttimes + (by now) bad heals

hmmm

HMMM

[steki.1478]

Ele is already balanced in the way that 1 skill has only one role compared to other classes which have multiple uses per skill. Reason? Ele has 20 weapon skills, other classes have 10. What's not balanced is that ele still has a lot higher cooldowns AND cast times on those skills.

There's balance in regard that aoe healing has to be lower than self sustain that other classes have, but why is every single healing weapon skill and water trait aoe?

Considering that all base damage and heal values are awful and ele heavily relies on both specializations and gear stats to be considered playable, there needs to be some changes when it comes to traits:

1) Nerf/removal of modifier traits with buffs on base values. This way ele doesnt need to rely on 50% damage bonus from fire and air, and builds who dont use those specs won't hit like a wet noodle.2) Addition of offensive traits/weapon skills in defensive elements and defensive traits/skills in offensive elements so eles can have at least some breathing room without having to completely respec to get just a bit of offense or a bit of defense. Smothering auras is a perfect example of this.
3) More global traits (traits that dont work only in specific attunements, but all the time; they can just work better in said attunement) and less relying on ICD, RNG and attunement (at once!!!). Why is this mess of a trait- arcane precision in game?

A perfect solution would be a mix of all 3, but even one of those could improve the class a lot for start.