The Elementalist Profession in Guild Wars 2 is the most versatile class in adjusting to situations, whether it is by enemy weaknesses or adapting through environments. Generally weak in defense, The Elementalist avoids frontline combat damage but makes up for it in support buff, healing, and magical damage. Specializing in casting magic, The Elementalist attunes to four types of magic: water, earth, fire and air, each type having their own range of unique capabilities. This profession is ideal for those who like to stay in the backlines dealing high magical damage and support their party when necessary. Read the full overview!
Ele is shaping up to be a great profession, i like the new changes they're doing in GW2. Much better than GW1.
I never did like magey mcmage type classes (cept for my necro ^^), but when I saw a asura elem with dual daggers flinging air slashes everywhere and just looking all around cool... I had to pop my head up and say, "Aweeee, that-is-awesome!"
From looking at YouTube vids it seems even more awesome that we'll be able to cast and run around rather than the old method of standing still for 10 secs to cast my spell. Soooo looking forward to getting a chance to try this class out!
Norn Elementalist here i come !!! cant wait to start wreaking havock and supporting my party members at the same time
Awesome! I would say a Norn Elementalist would be an awesome choice. Definitively more unique than what the majority pick which is asura or sylvari as an elementalist.
Conjure spells aren't new, they exist in original Guild Wars, what's changed is their function. The original conjure spells are enchantments which while they last provide bonus damage to weapons of the matching element. "Conjure Flame" increases fire damage."Conjure Frost" increases cold damage. "Conjure Lightning" increases lightning damage. There is no conjure spell for Earth magic. These enchantments only work on the caster. They're more useful for characters that have elementalist secondary than primary. For example, my warrior/elementalist uses Conjure Frost to increase the damage she does with her Glacial Blade, a sword that does cold damage instead of slicing damage. And I have a ranger/elementalist who uses Conjure Flame to increase the damage done by his fiery bow. For Guild Wars 2 the conjure spells create an environmental weapon anyone can pick up and use. Guild Wars 1 mesmers also have "Conjure Nightmare" and "Conjure Phantasim" but they're just health reducing hexes.
Yeah your right, I used to use one of the conjures on my warrior back when i was testing random builds.
The only thing that could make me go image is if you could swap elements on the fly. Kinda like a feral druid from wow.
Is it just me or did i feel like the fire elemental attunement was to over powered in dealing out damage compared to the other attunements?
Fire is imo, certainly the only attuned really worth its salt as far as dealing out damage goes. This is a little disconcerting since it was said that air was supposed to be more single target dps with fire being more aoe dps....but from my experience air was almost useless as a dps attunement. I used it more for the mobility and blind.
The more I look at the elementalist, which is my profession of choice, the more I think it may be the most situational class in game. Because of that, it's hard for me to pinpoint the "best" dps spec but I will agree fire looks strong. From what I can tell, my best PVE single target weapon may be scepter/dagger for more dps or scepter/focus for a little more suvivorability. I would use the staff in group settings were I can AOE with less threat of aggro seeing how a lot of the staff AOE's effectiveness relies on the target remaining in the AOE target zone. The scepter/dagger seems to offer some nice burn stacks and switching to earth on long fights can add some very potent bleeds.
Fire is the only attunement that looks "worth its salt" at damage dealing because the majority of its spells (for all weapon setups) have little to no utility attached. Utility referring to applying conditions or providing support via healing, 'barriers', damage reduction, immobilization, stuns, etc etc. Take for example the Staff, the Fire attunement has 2 combo fields, 1 of whose primary purpose is damage and not utility, the other of which is a retreat mechanism, and 3 spells that are meant to do nothing but damage. The Water attunement has 2 healing combo fields, 1 of which also grants condition removal, a damage + splash heal upon impact, a chill field that slows enemies and increases the cooldown on their abilities, and an AoE damage spell. The Air attunement has 1 combo field used to stun enemies, a snare/root removal + speed boost, a knockback, a large damage spell that inflicts AoE blind, and a chain lightning-esque spell. Finally, the Earth attunement has an AoE blast finisher that applies bleed, a root + moderate damage, a shield that reflects projectiles, a cripple field, and a projectile that deals damage and inflicts weakness. So, it is very clear (at least to me) why Fire deals more damage than any other attunement, if it didn't, it would not be used at all. Part of playing an Elementalist effectively is knowing when it is time to back off and start gaining control of the fight. If your opponent can't deal damage to you, or if he tries to, is severely inconvenienced by massive incoming damage/conditions himself, you now have the upper hand against him. This is especially true with the Staff, no other weapon combination offers near as many combo fields or what is in my opinion useful utility. Do not mistake my words, other weapon combinations have some good utility, specifically Scepter/Focus, but compared to the control capabilities of a Staff, they all fall short. Additionally, because almost half of the Stave skills are combo fields of one form or another, the "I control this fight" factor only has one path to go, and that is exponentially upward. Not a terrible article by any means, pretty well written actually, although most of the area-based effects or triggers the author mentioned in the "Attunements" section are granted via traits. However, I was exceptionally pleased with the "Background" and "Closing Thoughts" section as I too feel the same way. They are potent force if left unchecked, and although they have what I believe is the lowest base health in the game, their utility not only from having twice as many skills as every other class but also from the intrinsic nature of the various-purposed attunements can easily make up for the low HP pool. Here is the build I was using for sPvP during the 2 stress tests as well as BWE 2. Barring nothing changes significantly with the traits, skills, and damage output, I found this to be the most effective build that had high-survivability, enough damage to kill most players (couldn't kill a few guildies, but they also could not kill me either) in a reasonable amount of time, and enough AoE/support fields to scare your average or below-average player shitless if he is hellbent on avoiding big red circles on his screen. Video of the above build in action. I will admit the other Elementalist was pretty bad, and he was using dual daggers iirc, but hey, I'm not here to say what's good and what isn't; I just know how I play, and that is making people feel helpless and winning by attrition. [video=youtube;nMZRkjha5BA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMZRkjha5BA[/video]
Will be interesting to find out what BW3 changes there are for the elementalist. I've heard a lot of people think that there won't be that many changes accept for the higher damage builds (glass cannons).
