Curse

Evilsod · Jun 11, 2006, 09:30 PM // 21:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ensign

My theory on the matter is that fire elementalists have never been terribly good damage dealers, but everyone assumed they were, because, hey, fire magic! AoE! You know the drill. But then those DoT-AoEs made enemies scatter, and people started looking for alternatives, discovering Barrage and Spiteful and the like. Templates that had existed before, but were always passed up for the 'fire nuker'. Were they worse than the old fire guys? Not by a longshot. But 'everyone' knew that fire nukers were the best AoE characters, making those other templates afterthoughts. If you had a fire nuker and a Spiteful guy, the team would give the fire nuker compliments whenever Spiteful ravaged a mob. Not until firestorm got that nerf (apparently destroying the profession in the process) did those other characters start to be recognized for how effective they were.

I'd have to agree with that. I hadn't rolled a necro myself until long after the AoE update. But many people i've met on GW had. Heard many times that SS practically annihilated mobs and the ele got the compliments.

Loch · Jun 14, 2006, 03:01 AM // 03:01

Ele was also my first character. Of course, that was back in the day when I still had the MMO mindset of warriors being tanks and mages being the real damage dealers. And hell, the damage output of the ele wasn't too bad against all those low-armor foes in Pre-Searing. I had some good fun nuking things.

Then you know what happened? I started taking henchies in post-searing. And I could see clearly that the fighter hench was dealing exponentially more damage than I was (just watch the enemy's lifebar for god's sake, it wasn't even hard to see this when I was new to the game). My (then) four-second firestorm would always land as Stefan was finishing up the kill. I'd call a target, get the enemy in range, then I'd watch as a sword would deal more damage in two seconds than my Fireball. Oh, and about that four-second firestorm? I'm not a big number cruncher, but even I realized that firestorm was a terrible investment of time and energy, as its damage output was absolutely terrible against anything with armor.

But as I progressed and got more Energy Storage, not to mention Air Attunement, I experimented with blinding-flash, enervating charge, and gale. I realized that slowing down enemy damage while warriors did the heavy lifting was ridiculously more productive than "fire newking." Even in an UW pug, I disregarded the usual "Meteor Shower" build and just brought flash, charge, and gale - aatxes really aren't that scary when they're blind and weak.

Besides, it's not like fire nukes would have done actual damage to something that armored.

joncoish · Jun 14, 2006, 06:13 AM // 06:13

Yeah, I agree with that. It seems fire magic is the best at first, but as the mobs armor increase, fire magic decreases in effectiveness mostly. Still useful for some places, and good fun as always.

I like elementalists because they seems to have a nice few options. I played fire magic mostly while leveling up, as most probably do, and am now playing around with earth magic, air magic, and trying to gain skill points to get all my water magic skills. I like the idea of being a support character using wards, and throwing heal party into that mix really makes you great support I think. You can throw down a variety of wards to protect against melee damage, spells, etc, and can also heal the whole group when things get rough, along with a little damage thrown in for good measure.

I really enjoy my elementalist though. I have been able to run the missions pretty efficiently, I can solo farm pretty well, and I have a lot of options at my disposal (imo). Maybe elementalists aren't the best for pvp as a lot of people say, but where most people would probably say mesmers are more suited to pvp then pve, maybe elementalists are just the opposite.

Apok Omen · Jun 14, 2006, 08:42 AM // 08:42

*plz note that I am not attacking anyone here, I am just here as a peace keeper in GW, plz do not count the following as a flame*

Will...all...the...arguers...saying...this-or-that...is...better...please...shut...up!!!

My lord, I am sick and tired of people attempting to out balance professions in GW all because they like one profession more than the other. ''Oh, a warrior has a higher DPS than elementalists and are therefore better than elementalists doing damage'' Yeah, right, that is why warriors can do tons of damage to a mob of foes in one action.

But, that is not all I hear these days: ''Elementalists are way smarter than warriors who just swing their weapon at one target forever'' Completely wrong. They are strategic if they know what they are doing, which they do. Once they see a target is open, they shift towards them. If the target is impossible to damage if the situation fits, they go to someone else.

What is it with you people, saying the classes are better than the rest or even only one? People who say such things obviously have no clue how to play the other classes as they were attended to.

And yes, I realize that the topic of the thread is about how the OP thinks the elementalist suck at doing damage. But, that is both true and not true.

True: if the elementalist is not paying any attention to the battlefield, then they will do low damage to one or two targets.

Not True: If the elementalist IS focused on the battle field and is patient, then they will deal them damage at a safer distanst them warriors.

Now, on to smarter issues here. For all of the people who believe it is the elementalists sole job to deal heavy doses of damage to groups, please pay attention VEEEEERRRRRRRRYYYYY CLOOOOSSSSSSSEEELLLLLYYYYYYY...: They dominate as the number one support class in GvG. Wards, Snares, Conditions, Buffs, Healing-Spamming, Energy Management, etc. No guild should leave home without at least one of these in their arsenal. If they did, they would get owned. All of the top guilds have elementalists in their builds and are successful. Let me state what the actual main quote, imo, for elementalists: the best defence is the strongest offence.

Now then, I will not liked to be yelled at by warriors in this thread, so just to be fair: A team is not complete without at least one warrior, yet they bring two often. They do heavy amounts of damage on one target, and then they choose to either stop and move on to another target, or they pummel the stuffing at their dummy. They are wise in their choices of who to slam, and some of these decisions are smart and offer the team some relief.

For these two, brains are well needed and used. Saying that one another is better is purely stupid and not true. Where they show excellense in the battlefield on their own, they do 10 times better with each other watching their backs for them. Warriors are glad to made someone snared to luanch attacks on as they stagger to run away, and Eles are glad to have a warrior help them out when they are getting attacked.

In short, every...profession...is...balanced..., versatile,....and useful,....but only in their own way. So, get over it, kiss, and make up.

And to anybody who wants to argue this, be warned; It would just be you saying that you do not know how to proporly use the profession wisely.

Mr Bunny · Jun 14, 2006, 11:13 AM // 11:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ensign

My theory on the matter is that fire elementalists have never been terribly good damage dealers, but everyone assumed they were, because, hey, fire magic! AoE! You know the drill. But then those DoT-AoEs made enemies scatter, and people started looking for alternatives, discovering Barrage and Spiteful and the like.

I think the popularity of PvE fire nukers had more to do with when in the game the skills became available.

In Prophicies, you could first capture Barrage and SS in the southern shiverpeaks, but by then you're almost done with the storyline. Afterwards you could use them in the fire islands or to farm, but you still needed to run a different build during the hundred-hour-grind that preceded it.

By contrast, fire storm, meteor shower, fireball, and arcane echo were all made available by Lion's Arch.

This has changed in Factions, where characters can have a reasonably full compliment of skills and equipment before entering Vizunah Square.

darrylhaines · Jun 14, 2006, 11:51 AM // 11:51

Well, Anet say that Elementalist's are the biggest damage dealers in the game...so take it up with them ok lol.

Basically, it's the age old thing of it's not the class but the person who plays it thing.

If there was a 1v1 battle (Ele vs Warrior/whatever) it only comes down to the indivduals build. An ele could hex/ward you so you stay under a meteor shower, rodgorts invocation and a lot of other dmg dealing spells if you didn't carry a condition/hex remover and die in under 30sec's. If you did carry a hex/condition remover, you could get in close and kill the Ele. It's not the class it's the individual builds.

joncoish · Jun 14, 2006, 04:29 PM // 16:29

Well I agree that Elementalists do have the POTENTIAL to do the most damage. In an example I made earlier, if I hit a fireball on three targets for the max amount of damage, that's like 360 damage or something total (about 120 on each target). That's pretty significant as a fire elementalist. If I hit the earthquake/aftershock combo, that's what, like a potential of 260 to 300 hp damage? That's pretty significant. Also, on single targets air elementalists have the potential to do more damage for spiking and such. That's pretty good, but of course it's potential because a lot of the elementalists spells are affected by armor level. They even have spells like obsidian flame and crystal wave which ignore armor. But good thing elementalists have a lot of other things to use besides just pure damage.

Ensign · Jun 14, 2006, 08:03 PM // 20:03

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