Guild Wars 2

This is a tangent from a tangent in the “what are thieves good for” thread.

So my scepter/X ele has a fire field and Arcane Brilliance + Arcane Wave + 4 blasts on weapons. With some gyrations, I can stack 18 might before a fight starts.

But then those skills go on cooldown and I lose all that damage (and healing, and perhaps scholar bonus) in the fight. Also, it might take a while to do a pull or run to the fight, during which might runs down. And if your fire field is on cooldown as the fight starts, you maybe can’t get it down again before e.g. smoke. And people run off and start the fight during your pre-stack. It’s seldom as neat as I want.

Sometimes I think it would be better to just stack might on the target as the fight starts. But if I’m might stacking then, I’m not using icebow 5.

It’s a bit simpler if there’s also a staff ele who can do the icebow 5, and I’ll pick up their spare (noone else will) before conjuring my lightning hammer.

So, what do other people do?

Also, what about weapon swaps? I’ve tried running staff, pre-stacking with just 4 blasts from scepter/x, and switching to staff where I can use Earthquake + Arcane Wave + Arcane Brilliance on a lava font after ice bow. I’ve had mixed results.

The great thing about scepter, and one of the main reasons to even run it, is the fact that it allows you to stack might mid-fight without too much difficulty. Take LH as a utility for the extra blast from the first auto chain, you should be able to get off all your s/f blasts and one auto chain mid-combat, as long as the combat doesn’t require to lose too much time dodging.

Though personally I enjoy prestacking to 25 via weapon swapping, then going in with staff, but that’s typically in a more organised setting where I know people will also be blasting my fire fields.

It solely depends on the pug you’re in.

Pre stacking is only efficent when engaging the boss imedietely, if not you will lose your might stacks and the whole ‘using every skill-thing’ pretty much gets worthless. So stacking might before a fight depends on the pug and te boss you’re facing.

In most cases I prestack and change to staff.
S/X damage is weak in every scenario. So relying on its auto attack shouldn’t be your primary goal.
LH also isn’t that great if there are no other party members providing fire fields. You will just grant random boons to your party – maxing your personal damage at the loss of your party’s potential higher group damage.
So you would be better of creating a rotation while granting might to your allies.

Also since you’re not running world records, it’s not that of a big deal when stuck in one attunement.
The next question would be what’s your build. You can’t run one for every weapon type.