Cool. On a scale of 1-10 how fun / powerful is an elementalist these days? I loved the class before, one of my all-time favorite casting classes in an MMO.
Tempest 7 out of 10 in power.
Weaver 10 out of 10.
Staff Ele is basically dead across all subclasses
Ele has been nerfed to shit and beyond compared to what it once was. Core Ele is shit so you'll want to change into Tempest (HoT expansion Ele) or Weaver (PoF expansion Ele).
Tempest (unlocks Warhorn) is basically similar to Core Ele with slightly better abilities but we get 4 new abilities (F1-F4 keys, one per element) called Overload, which basically channels a new element related ability with the downside of "locking" you out of that element for a few seconds and putting that element on longer CD once you switch out of it. Full support Heal/Aura Tempest is actually decent and can keep up most squads in most Raids and Strikes but most groups outside of fractals tend to prefer Druids, Necros, or Guardians for healing. Fresh Air tempest is what I run damage wise but even played flawlessly I don't top the DPS meters.
Weaver (unlocks Sword) is the meta Ele currently (with sword) and definitely has the most or second most complex rotation in game and centers around constantly rotating elements, and you duel wield elements. Definitely tough to master but you'll top the dps charts when you do.
Doesn't matter what Ele you play we still have the lowest HP and defense by far out of all the classes and sub classes and a single mistake will often down you in Raids, Strikes, and higher level Fractals. For this reason we're actually kinda rare to see as most Eles have swapped over to Warriors/Guardians/Revs as they can basically put out similar dps to Eles but with 10X the survivability and with far simpler rotations.
Both are really fun to play and Tempest and Weaver play differently from each other. For open world PvE, World bosses/Meta events and most fractals you shouldn't have any issues surviving.
