My main character in Guild Wars 1 was an elementalist named Jayna Arkham. I was still into magic then. And while that game featured three classes that focused on offensive spellcasting, the elementalist was about pure damage. Naturally, I was looking for something similar in Guild Wars 2. What I got was a little different. Right now, it feels like it’s sort of an acquired taste.
The mage-class gameplay that I’m used to goes like this: hit the target from afar then kill it before it kills you. It’s typical glass cannon style. While Guild Wars 2 allows players to do that, it does so with one major drawback: speed. Specifically, the lack of it.
Elementalists in GW2 can only equip three main hand weapons: daggers, scepters and staves. Of the three, staves offer the best distance. Unfortunately, the rate of attack is so slow it makes being a mage feel pointless. What’s the use of a DPS class that can’t kill quickly?
I explored the other caster classes: the necromancer and the mesmer. While I enjoyed the former I didn’t feel like maintaining another pet-reliant character. I already have a ranger for that. I decided to give playing a mesmer a try.