Curse

Gods Hell Warior · Dec 05, 2010, 02:15 AM // 02:15

Just wondering if the elementalist is pretty much dead in human groups to do things such as VSF, DoA, and the other ones, just seems like theyre good for just soloing now, it just eems like all human group places seem to use only perma assassin and monk and some sort of damage dealer that is not an ele. For my ele he is my main HM vanquisher, and I'm thinking of changing my main chars to something else because i would like to get my main char involved in the human activites. So does anyone have any suggestions on which character to use for HM vanquishing and group forming farming.
Note: i dont not like being an assassin or monk. I'm also working on a Imbagon which it seems like their only good for DoA group.

jackinthe · Dec 05, 2010, 03:10 AM // 03:10

rits are fun and needed pretty much everywhere atm

Cuilan · Dec 05, 2010, 03:22 AM // 03:22

Elementalists aren't dead anywhere. Just find a guild or build up friends.

Try out Ether Renewal bond/healing builds, too.

Kravick · Dec 05, 2010, 05:33 AM // 05:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cuilan

Elementalists aren't dead anywhere. Just find a guild or build up friends.

Try out Ether Renewal bond/healing builds, too.

Is that all elementalists are good for in HM though? Healing? Is even lightning builds worthless for HM?

Nijntjuh · Dec 05, 2010, 10:54 AM // 10:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kravick

Is that all elementalists are good for in HM though? Healing? Is even lightning builds worthless for HM?

You have to understand that most people that pug will do a speedclear. In a speedclear it is obviously about speed so whats usually happening is you have solo assassins which clear certain areas and complete certain quests and you have a small mainteam where 1 tank gathers aggro balls it and you nuke it. common for FoW is manly spike cause the spike is insanly strong. for UW they use SoS + SS and skills like spirit rift / ancestors rage to kill enemies quickly. Now the problem is the ele lacks the AoE power these days compared to the other professions cause you'r damage is reduced by tons in HM and lightning really doesn't cut it for AoE dmg.

Altough the elementalist has the skill Obsidian Flesh and is also used in UW Terraway because that skill doesnt have a damage cap like shadow form. also they can run E/MO bonders which are insanely good at protting and healing and also used in UW.

If you'r talking about pugs for zmission you can run your air build as long as theyre not the OMG LOAD A PVX BUILD YOU NOOB kind of people.

Best option for you would probaly be a ritualist or necro they are both searched for in speedclears and allowed in pugs easily and they aren't on your list of profession that you don't want to play.

rkubik · Dec 05, 2010, 01:42 PM // 13:42

Like mentioned earlier try to ER protector. It has also been fairly easy for me to find groups as an AP nuker and I just vary the build a little depending on what my group already has.

As long as you get into open minded groups all professions can be utilized in some way. They may not be "Meta" builds but if you are creative and know the basics of the game you will be fine.

Cuilan · Dec 05, 2010, 03:30 PM // 15:30

Whatever you do, don't switch your main character based on speed clears. Speed clears come and go and when they change you'll be left wondering why you can't get into groups for what you want to do. Just fix up a profession that does something you want and play the profession you enjoy everywhere else. Really there are many non-speed clear guilds and people you can play with daily from meeting others with similar interest. Just have to look around.

Spiritz · Dec 05, 2010, 04:26 PM // 16:26

From my view - in nm eles are the nukers with aoe fire but as we all know soon as you hit hm mr nuker ( or miss nuker ) becomes a little lighter rather than an explosion.Aoe causes scatter , fire dmg is a lot less against some foes etc and the poor ele switches to a less powerfull area and becomes slightly less used - nm aoe nuker then hm a 1v1 spiker and we know in most teams - they want fast kills be it aoe degen or some form of aoe.
But dont despair as the ele can switch roles which can be more beneficial to the team,
er protter, spirit spammer just to name a few.Its down to what exactly you want the ele to be and how they are to be used.
And as mentioned - sc`s come and go and when sf sins were hit and obby flesh buffed the eles roles shifted for a while and quite a few sc`s had eles tanking and doing stuff - untill more team builds etc came around and their roles dropped a bit.

LifeInfusion · Dec 05, 2010, 05:02 PM // 17:02

Been ele since beta, so you have to understand you need to adapt. The "one main character" thing doesn't work.

2005 Release to now that causes Eles to fall out of favor:
* AoEs cause fleeing
* Gear trick in Sorrows Furnace (SF), Unholy text "book trick" in FoW that caused the rise of Spiteful Spirit necros
* 2006 searing flames ridiculousness
* 2007 EOTN: Mobs that don't burn (Destroyer) and take almost no damage from fire, mobs that have ridiculous armor i.e. Spectral Vaettir
* 2007 Hard mode release: Eles do basically 50-60% less damage than Normal mode unless using cracked armor
* SoS, spirit buff
* Shadow form , sin attack buffs (Jagged strike, Fox fangs)
* Mesmers got buffed to do more damage (Wandering Eye, Clumsiness, etc.) in adjacent and nearby range (adjacent isn't a big deal, nearby is)
* Obsidian flesh nerf sometime around here (instead of 50% slower speed --> now -2 energy regen and cannot attack)

If you want to speedclear, UWSC use E/Mo protters exclusively. Or you can go E/A Shadow form, although it is lame and not better than A/E.

Cool Name · Dec 05, 2010, 05:10 PM // 17:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by LifeInfusion

Been ele since beta, so you have to understand you need to adapt. The "one main character" thing doesn't work.

2005 Release to now that causes Eles to fall out of favor:
* AoEs cause fleeing
* Gear trick in Sorrows Furnace (SF), Unholy text "book trick" in FoW that caused the rise of Spiteful Spirit necros
* 2006 searing flames ridiculousness
* 2007 EOTN: Mobs that don't burn (Destroyer) and take almost no damage from fire, mobs that have ridiculous armor i.e. Vaettir
* 2007 Hard mode release: Eles do basically 50-60% less damage than Normal mode unless using cracked armor
* SoS, spirit buff
* Shadow form , sin attack buffs (Jagged strike, Fox fangs)
* Mesmers got buffed to do more damage (Wandering Eye, Clumsiness, etc.) in adjacent and nearby range (adjacent isn't a big deal, nearby is)
* Obsidian flesh nerf sometime around here (instead of 50% slower speed --> now -2 energy regen and cannot attack)

If you want to speedclear, UWSC use E/Mo protters exclusively. Or you can go E/A Shadow form, although it is lame and not better than A/E.

The one main character, I assume, is for getting GWAMM or something so it's necessary. Also I'm not sure what you mean by using emos exclusively, they also use E/R obs flesh (as mentioned earlier). 2/8 members are eles in a very popular speed clear, you can't complain about that. Try being a Dervish.

Also that isn't really a 'nerf' to obs flesh, IMO. You can control aggro a lot better if you don't move 50% slower. Not attacking is irrelevant and when you have storm chaser + stone striker energy is not a problem at all.

LifeInfusion · Dec 05, 2010, 06:15 PM // 18:15

Well usually people put balth spirit on E/Mo Obsidian flesh nowadays. Compare Shadow Form to Obsidian flesh and tell me it's not nerfed.

Fine, "You cannot deal more than 5...21...25 damage with a single skill or attack." but then you still see more permas than obsidian flesh eles due to "but cannot attack and have -2 energy degeneration.".

Cool Name · Dec 06, 2010, 12:56 AM // 00:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by LifeInfusion

Well usually people put balth spirit on E/Mo Obsidian flesh nowadays. Compare Shadow Form to Obsidian flesh and tell me it's not nerfed.

Fine, "You cannot deal more than 5...21...25 damage with a single skill or attack." but then you still see more permas than obsidian flesh eles due to "but cannot attack and have -2 energy degeneration.".

Comparing it to shadow form isn't a good indicator of it was nerfed. Before the changes were made, perma sins were still seen a lot more than obs flesh eles. The reason it isn't nerfed is because it is to be used on an elementalist. Elementalists don't kill things by attacking, they use spells. As far as I am aware Obsidian Flesh has rarely been used by anything other than eles because nothing else can use earth runes and make it last long enough (although using cons will help with this).

If you can convince me that obsidian flesh was used any more pre update than post then I will change my opinion. Otherwise I still think it's better now, it's just targeted at casters, not melee, which hasn't changed the usage.

Also, on UWSC I don't see why people would take balth spirit instead. At 6 wilderness survival (I think it's 6 people use) storm chaser gives you 3 energy per hit. This is because eles always take geomancer's insignia and stone striker, and therefore all damage is earth anyway. Balth spirit is only 1 energy every hit. Storm chaser will only be up 14/20 seconds but it is still more energy. And it has the speed boost. Although I don't think this matters because with the amount of agro you get either will give you more than enough energy.

AndrewSX · Dec 06, 2010, 07:36 AM // 07:36

My main char is an ele, and it is surely underpowered in most part of the high-end pve, but i'm still working on it for gwamm...if you want to join to sc groups you can always create other characters like necro,mesmer,sin...that are also fun to play. I won't change my main after vanquished 2,5 continents only to join sc's group with the same character i use for most of the time.

And about Obby flesh...the real problem is that for mantiain it you don't need only something like glyph of swiftness(or bu), but also 1(or 2 generally) only to counter the 25 ene cost and the -2 ene degeneration....mantra of earth/storm chaser + stone striker at least...half of your skillbar is gone.