Elementalist Description

[Coeruleum.9164]

Would you mind changing the elementalist description? On the site it says they lack in physical toughness and I don't think that's really true. I can put my elementalist in celestial gear and take a lot of defensive skills and traits and go take a camp in WvW alone. I'm sure even the toughest elementalist isn't going to be as tough as the toughest guardian but it's really easy to make them tougher than many warriors and revenants, never mind rangers, thieves, and mesmers. I feel like the description makes people come into the game only wanting to make either an offensive glass cannon elementalist who throws fireballs or a healer who throws water when there's a lot more stuff that's feasible and works well. I want to see more big Norn Viking elementalists with the weaver sword who run around making Ragnarök volcanoes and glaciers as they walk and Sylvari elementalists using stone and soil as their shield like a plant rooted to the earth. Glass cannon fireball bomb wizard and glass cannon healing hot springs wizard are nice but I want to see more stuff actually done by people.

[Randulf.7614]

You answered why it is accurate

 

They lack physical toughness, but make up for it in defensive skills/magic and other ways to mitigate damage

[Coeruleum.9164]

Well, rocks and ice are physical and it's not like the Guardian's defensive magic is any more physical. If anything, it's less physical because the guardian is all spiritual and angelic while the elementalist just moves a rock between them and their enemies so the spell hits it. Implying elementalists lack physical toughness is just encouraging people to play glass cannon fireball bomb mages and glass cannon hot springs mages. It doesn't even incline people to play agile characters that can dodge attacks by riding on wind and turning into lightning because being agile is very physical.

[Fallesafe.5932]

I'm sure they'll get right on it.

[Scavarius.6059]

> @"Coeruleum.9164" said:

> healing hot springs wizard

 

jokes on you, my ele heals with his breath. he can also facetank more than most guardians.

on a serious note, ele is fairly squishy, lowest healthpool and base armor, making that flavortext fairly accurate.

[TheLadyOfTheRings.9148]

I don't see any problem with the current description. We might be interpreting "physical" in different ways; the way I see it, it refers to "body toughness", meaning elementalists (and other professions like thief, for example) aren't tough like warriors are. Doesn't mean they can't be strong or produce damage. Every profession is strong (or "tough") in their own way, but that's not what that description is talking about.

[Batel.9206]

*What* toughness? My ele dies if a sparkfly breathes in her general direction.

 

...okay, that's purely because I'm *terrible* with the class, but still. :tongue:

[AliamRationem.5172]

It's just the nature of GW2 design that any class may be many things, despite what the description states. Maybe ele has low base health and armor, but as you say you can beef it up with those stats. It also has other defenses like evasion (especially weaver!) and healing (especially tempest!), so that you may be resilient without necessarily loading up on toughness or vitality to compensate for the low baseline. All classes are capable of doing this and breaking the mold, so to speak.

 

 

[Trise.2865]

The Elementalist has the lowest physical armor (Light), and the lowest base HP (tied with Guardian and Mesmer) in the game. They definitively do "lack physical toughness".

 

You misunderstood that to mean "squishy", which they certainly are not. They, like every profession in the game (and as stated in the description), rely on abilities and strategy to augment their defenses.

[Paradoxoglanis.1904]

Every class can be built as a glass cannon, or an unkillable tank, or a condi dps, or power dps, or hybrid, or support, etc... There are plenty of different elementalist builds across the 3 different gamemodes. The descriptions are really just for lore. They dont describe how classes are actually played.

[Randulf.7614]

> @"Coeruleum.9164" said:

> Well, rocks and ice are physical and it's not like the Guardian's defensive magic is any more physical. If anything, it's less physical because the guardian is all spiritual and angelic while the elementalist just moves a rock between them and their enemies so the spell hits it. Implying elementalists lack physical toughness is just encouraging people to play glass cannon fireball bomb mages and glass cannon hot springs mages. It doesn't even incline people to play agile characters that can dodge attacks by riding on wind and turning into lightning because being agile is very physical.

 

Rocks and ice are physical, but are not part of the elementalist, but conjurations to protect it.

 

> @"Trise.2865" said:

> The Elementalist has the lowest physical armor (Light), and the lowest base HP (tied with Guardian and Mesmer) in the game. They definitively do "lack physical toughness".

>

> You misunderstood that to mean "squishy", which they certainly are not. They, like every profession in the game (and as stated in the description), rely on abilities and strategy to augment their defenses.

 

This sums it up perfectly

 

Ultimately, the description of Ele on the site is accurate

[Atomos.7593]

> @"Randulf.7614" said:

> > @"Coeruleum.9164" said:

> > Well, rocks and ice are physical and it's not like the Guardian's defensive magic is any more physical. If anything, it's less physical because the guardian is all spiritual and angelic while the elementalist just moves a rock between them and their enemies so the spell hits it. Implying elementalists lack physical toughness is just encouraging people to play glass cannon fireball bomb mages and glass cannon hot springs mages. It doesn't even incline people to play agile characters that can dodge attacks by riding on wind and turning into lightning because being agile is very physical.

>

> Rocks and ice are physical, but are not part of the elementalist, but conjurations to protect it.

>

> > @"Trise.2865" said:

> > The Elementalist has the lowest physical armor (Light), and the lowest base HP (tied with Guardian and Mesmer) in the game. They definitively do "lack physical toughness".

> >

> > You misunderstood that to mean "squishy", which they certainly are not. They, like every profession in the game (and as stated in the description), rely on abilities and strategy to augment their defenses.

>

> This sums it up perfectly

>

> Ultimately, the description of Ele on the site is accurate

 

I don't care much about the lore, but the description on the site does indeed seem quite accurate.

[Coeruleum.9164]

> @"Paradoxoglanis.1904" said:

> Every class can be built as a glass cannon, or an unkillable tank, or a condi dps, or power dps, or hybrid, or support, etc... There are plenty of different elementalist builds across the 3 different gamemodes. The descriptions are really just for lore. They dont describe how classes are actually played.

 

Yeah, and that's why I think it's kind of misleading. I think the descriptions should describe how classes are actually played. I'm fine with all the squishy eles if that's what people want to do but it seems like there's such a preponderance of them because people don't know what all you can do with them. The squishy eles might be ease of playing because I don't see a lot of CC eles either even though air and earth have a lot of great CC abilities, but just implying eles have to be squishy seems like it might be adding to that trend.

[AliamRationem.5172]

> @"Coeruleum.9164" said:

> > @"Paradoxoglanis.1904" said:

> > Every class can be built as a glass cannon, or an unkillable tank, or a condi dps, or power dps, or hybrid, or support, etc... There are plenty of different elementalist builds across the 3 different gamemodes. The descriptions are really just for lore. They dont describe how classes are actually played.

>

> Yeah, and that's why I think it's kind of misleading. I think the descriptions should describe how classes are actually played. I'm fine with all the squishy eles if that's what people want to do but it seems like there's such a preponderance of them because people don't know what all you can do with them. The squishy eles might be ease of playing because I don't see a lot of CC eles either even though air and earth have a lot of great CC abilities, but just implying eles have to be squishy seems like it might be adding to that trend.

 

I think it has more to do with the advice players give, which is often dominated by the more hardcore set. Many of these players care little for casual content. This naturally skews their advice toward group content.

 

In group PvE ele is played almost exclusively as a glass cannon because it has support. It can be played this way in open world/story, but there are generally stronger builds that are more resilient for this type of play and still deal great damage without support.

[Atomos.7593]

> @"Coeruleum.9164" said:

> > @"Paradoxoglanis.1904" said:

> > Every class can be built as a glass cannon, or an unkillable tank, or a condi dps, or power dps, or hybrid, or support, etc... There are plenty of different elementalist builds across the 3 different gamemodes. The descriptions are really just for lore. They dont describe how classes are actually played.

>

> Yeah, and that's why I think it's kind of misleading. I think the descriptions should describe how classes are actually played. I'm fine with all the squishy eles if that's what people want to do but it seems like there's such a preponderance of them because people don't know what all you can do with them. The squishy eles might be ease of playing because I don't see a lot of CC eles either even though air and earth have a lot of great CC abilities, but just implying eles have to be squishy seems like it might be adding to that trend.

 

Play styles where the elementalist is not purely glass cannon does seem relatively less commonly used. I actually rarely play my elementalist as glass cannon because I personally find glass cannon builds for many classes boring. I mostly play and like the CC and healing aspects of the elementalist.