Worth it to make an Ele in Factions?

Well, I got this green staff(millius pillar I think) and I got to thinking how it'd be nice to have an earth ele. Then I realized that Eles really aren't all that Hot(IMHO) as they aren't much use in PVE(you can do very well in groups w/o an ele) especially w/ the AoE nerf and in PvP, Builds will have to be specialized to have them in mind.

Not that I'm an ele expert, although I think it would be fun casting spells and all, I just dunno if its worth to sacrifice a player slot for an ele. Maybe someone can educate me.

Reason I posted it here is cause in Prophecies, eles atm aren't worth it IMHO. In factions, I dunno or haven't read enough about ele buffs to consider.

Currently only have warr, monk, ranger and 1 pvp char which is storage atm which will get deleted in factions. 2 of the 3 slots left will go to Necro and Assassin(this is just a want to make kind of char) and the 1 slot I'm debating between Ritualist(they could be damn cool) Elementalist(could be fun) or Mesmer(everyone needs a mesmer, unless they're noobs).

Please note that my PvE chars also double as PvP chars, I like the versatility a PvE char brings, they also look better.

I've been an elementalist and have seen every element been used throughout my elemental career.

There is something that has changed:
-elementalists used to be able to do more damage to mobiles (i.e., there weren't as much elemental armor on mobs)
-Wardens are now popular (even though I have been playing warden/upport since betas, groups always demand a fire nuker) because people have seen their power. Factions increases their damage and knockdown potential. Also Ash Blast is a way to give blindness.
-Water magic is always regarded as crap because it does little damage. However, I feel it does very well in a support role because of the hexes. In Factions, Water Magic gets mor eof these hexing goodies.
-Air Magic is good for single target spiking, but not in PvE. In PvE it is good for blind/weakness infliction. Earth magic is the better candidate for Knockdown.

All of this is IMO.

I have been most a necro the entire game, but i did manage to make a level 20 ele recently and i gotta say, with the aoe nerf for pve, they really aren't as affective as the necro or mesmers... Not sure about the new ele skills but they do look like alot less of the aoe type are included.

Just cause of the fire AoE nerf, everybody has been complaining. I've been playing an air elementalist in PvE forever (before the nerf). They are still very effective (1.1 million experience can't be wrong ).

Yup, Thats what my ele is also!

I think that ele's need to examine the other capabilities of the profession now that's all. It's certainly still worthwhile to make an elementalist so long as you get away from the mentality of being this mass group damage dealer. Ele's can lay down all kinds of nastiness with air magic. Water with it's hexes makes for a great support character, E/N with curses and water magic anyone? Earth magic can make warriors and rangers nastier with knockdowns and snares. The defensive capabilities on a party wide scale with the wards in earth magic make for a great support character as well. If you still want high damage though why not try air magic based around say chain lightning? I know it always seems to put a hurting on clustered parties when I run through PvE. Elementalist is still a very viable class just look at the alternatives instead of wanting be the standard nuker.

the thing is anet from the start made the elemenatal class to be the mass damage dealer. It is far from that now.

My mesmer 1 on 1ed an Eearth Elementalist during an FvF during the FPE and she got destroyed.

Considering i was using a build to defeat warriors/sins/rangers, i had no anti-caster spells.

Churning Earth and unsteady ground x.x

Perhaps that was the original intent but now it's time to adapt. they put the other elements in there to give some flexibility to the class. If they just wanted mass damage all the spells would be fire magic. I'm just saying that now that AoE mass damage spells no longer have the same utility it is time to explore other options with the class.

Earth eles are a bit more effective in Factions than in Phophecies, and Spiteful Spirit will only be imported into Cantha. As a hybrid defensive / offensive character earth elementalists should be attractive. Fire elementalists are going to be complete garbage in factions though, if you want to go that route you're better off doing most of the prophecies content first.

Peace,
-CxE

Of that is the case anet has even me a reason not to play the game.

I never did like fire other than the flashy flames ^^ I've always been earth ele and sadly the only time I got to play ele was in pvp specifically in tombs(HA) and gvg, it was fun.

Anyway, I'm thinking a mesmer would be great, it would practice my interrupting skills and mesmers are underappreciated for the kind of important work they do. So unfortunately, I'll probly go w/ a mesmer or a ritualist depending on what each classes are good.

I'm not worried about skills not in cantha since I'm merging so I get all content. Still I'll probly make this char last, Necro and assassin first then depending on how useful ritualist are, I'll decide between rit or mesmer.

Its sad about eles though, Fun class, but simply not worth it atm. Maybe they'll thrive w/ subsequent updates, but yeah, even in pve, high end monsters tend to be fire based = useless fire ele. Air ele is I dunno, great single target dmg but w/ exhaustion cost. Earth ele FTW, although I'll probly have to sell my millius pillar to someone, probly wont be needing it at all.

Earth ele with a ritualist item can potentially, tank quite good... silver armor is almost like another gladiator's defense that trigger by spell (gladiator's defense + silver armor = new farming). While Earth's Constant AoE are really powerful, although I doubt they will be use too much.

Fire ele are practically unreachable with those PBAoE spammage, in a narrow area, they would be decent. Aside from that, they have rely on the old core skills. Double Dragon is pretty decent thou, but you would want some hybrid with water or earth with this.

Air... air in PvE is quite pointless it seems. You basically would be spamming and spamming and spamming the same few skill all the time. For PvP thou, that gust can be annoying as hell if buff we faster skill recharge. Ride the lightning seem like it was made for PvE monsters instead of players.

Water's elite is interesting, especially mirror of ice (10 recharge with 60 duration... O.o). They are practically immuned to all damage dealing spell at this rate. Although I am kind of dissappointed in the damage dealing spells. I guess water is the "defensive element" and Earth is now the "offense/defense hybrid".

Glyph of essense defies rezmer.

Second wind is pretty bad, rather not have so much exhaustion.

Energy boon is like the new OoB.

If they put in an elite that remove the .75 sec aftercast delay... Fire would be far more deadly.

Can anyone grab anything from ANET saying that "Ele's are supposed to be the mass damage dealers". I don't think I ever saw that, anywhere. Like all the other classes, they have flexibility to serve multiple roles. While I think ele needs the most buffing of the classes, I think that people are too pidgeonholed into the *idea* that eles should be mass damagers, and that fire OBVIOUSLY should be the best element for doing damage. I think people need to experience the other lines, minus water (until it gets a buff) to pass judgement.

i never use my ele. hes just a waste of space IMO

It's in the book. Page 92: "Elementalists summon the powers of earth, air, fire, and water and command them at will. They can inflict more damage in a single strike than any other profession." I'm 90% sure that they stated that on the website when the game first came out, too.

Oh good! Another "How badly do elementalists suck?!" thread!

Francis, you have a very poor comprehension of the matter. The thread started out as "are eles worth to make?" and subsequent responses are the opinions that they suck. It was never about eles sucking, its just people who have experiences w/ them giving their thought.

I have an air ele that I've been playing for quite a while. I use Lightning Orb, Lightning Strike, Enervating Charge, and Lightning Touch, which is usually enough to kill 2/3 of an enemy's health bar from that combo alone. None of those spells cause Exhaustion, which is nice because I have monk secondary so I can use heal/protect spells for my party too. Works real nice since I always go with all henches and the hench monks could usually use some help and I have tons of energy.

I made another ele for the Factions PVE weekend so I could check out the new skills, and it was really fun! Most of the skills available to try were from the earth line, but I was able to make a really nice damage dealing/protection build without having any spells that cause exhaustion. And as far as I remember, that was just from using Earth spells. They added a lot of earth skills, so I like earth a lot more now, and I'm guessing they added a bunch of water skills too, so it seems like there will be a lot of fun and well-rounded builds you can make with an ele using Factions since they seem to be giving more ways of playing without feeling the hurt of the AoE nerf.

I'm no wish to add to the seemingly endless 'nuking sucks' arguments, but there's one very factions specific point I'd like to make.

Ritualist mobs.

All those hoards of spirits that we'll be seeing are going to make charging into enemy formations very hard work. It seems to me that no class (even mes with Unnatural Signet) is going to be better at dealing with them than a good fire ele. You want to sit next to your spirits and taunt me ? Then you'd best be prepared to do it with a Meteor Shower landing on your head and a Fireball flying down yout throat.

Also, I think x/E looks better than ever. Rt/E with Wards ? How tasty can you get.