Raye talks about Elementalists - Beta blog post

[Raye]

More likely, I will be swapping to the wrong element, trigger an AoE in the wrong place, and trip in my own ice field and fall on my face. On earth spikes. That are burning.

I effin lol'd. =D haha.

[Gorani]

It is hard to appreciate the Elementalist in the very early levels that Raye played hers due to the slow unlock speed of skills over all attunements. Remember that you have to unlock 20 skills instead of 5 for each weapon. The speed was much criticized (not onyl by me here, but other people at the official forums) during the last BWEs but there have not been any changes on that topic.
Also, you do not start out with Air & Eartm magic from the beginning. Those two attunements gradually fall in, like the weapon swap at level 7 with other classes.
Since swapping in and out of attunements requires you to have skills across all attunements (remember, there is a cool down on swapping of 15 sec), the problem comes full circle. It gets better the more you advance, though.

The problem of hitting the right attunement at the right time, with the intended skill is a matter of organizing your key binding layout and how fast you can move your fingers across the keyboard. Perhaps it is the most difficult class specific mechanic to master, because of that.
I have not found a way to arrange my "activates" with my Razer Naga, so that I am really happy with it. Perhaps I should try to get the swaps to some sort of shift+key binding.

[Raye]

I actually have not been using my razer naga much in GW2, which I found shocking really. I think it's because they made the game very easily controllable with the keyboard alone. I only ever use the mouse to drop the AoEs that require it. I might have to play around with my mouse more.

I do fully intend to take my ele all the way to level 80, I plan on taking every class to level 80 =D I do believe everything gets way better later on. That was true in gw1 too.

[Alaris]

Well, for me execution should be ok, but remembering what skill does what would be harder, especially that as a alt-a-holic I tend to swap profession and weapons all the time. At least with a given weapon combo, I can memorize what does what fairly quickly especially that I tend to bring melee + range, or support + range.

But elementalist sure sounds fun when you learn the profession well.

[bearsfwd]

My favorite thing to do with my ele in BWE1 and 2 (I focused on mesmer, warrior, and ranger in BWE3) was to be using a staff and aggro and enemy. When the enemy was making its way to me, I'd set up a meteor shower over me, and a lava font under my feet. Once the enemy was stuck in the AoE storm, I'd use burning retreat or flame burst, depending upon how close the enemy managed to get to me. This allowed me to do massive damage by getting the enemy trapped in the meteor shower knockdown on top of the lava font, and then, the added burning for even more damage. Usually after that, if it was successful, I'd let fireball clean up (or lava font again if it had recharged before the enemy fell).

[Alaris]

Sweet.

I think I'd like to try that trick, but start in earth for the protection, flip to other elements, and finish in fire... I bet you can pack in more damage even ;)

[Gorani]

Not sure if that still works that well, as the AI got a lot smarter in the BWE 3 at avoiding running mindlessly into AoE fields.
I used pretty much the same combo during the press BWE when we had to fight off Sons of Svanir in that fort just south of Svanir's Dome. It was the most epic moment yet in my GWE experience, as I was pretty much the last Norn standing on top of the battlement which I "Burning Retreated" to and finished off the warriors rushing towards me. When I came down again and started reviving about half a dozen players, Fae ran in the fort from the south and started rezzing there. Like I said...pretty epic moment.

[shawn]

-Conjure Flame Axe.
-Burning Retreat.
-Flame Leap, which triggers the combo and gives you Fire Shield.
-Ring of Fire.
-lol
-Profit.

[Redean]

From what I played, I found it really difficult (not impossible) to combo of my own fields. However I did play with a friend who went warrior and found it a lot more rewarding to arrange the right field at the right moment where he would try to figure out the best finisher to suit rather than me scrambling out any finisher I could with a sub-par effect.

Sent from my Sony Tablet S using Tapatalk 2

[kokabel]

When playing my ele around people, I find myself placing my fields for other people, rather than for the mobs. I like seeing all the combo hearts pop up all over, screaming 'Burning', or 'Frost Armor', 'Area Heal', 'Area Might', 'Vulnerability' etc. It's awesome. I'm really liking that ele can be played as such a support-oriented profession if needed.

That said, I'm still pretty bad. I spent some time in Ascalon Catacombs having my butt handed to me, as I would occasionally be too busy trying to throw down some heals, when I really should have been throwing a blind onto the thing charging right for me.