Guild Wars 2

I was hoping someone could tell me what I’m doing wrong, but I feel that whenever I pvp at all, I seem to not deal any damage at all while also being stupid squishy regardless of how I build my character. I’ll run into thieves that deal 75% of my max hp with one back stab and then when I try to do that with a thief, I won’t do nearly as much. What factors should I consider? I’m tired of people just straight up owning me while I can’t do it to other players. Not even the newbies. I’m not referring to just my thief, though. Any of my characters. I’ve tried switching up the spvp runes and everything, but still drop in two to five hits.

Homicidal Toaster.5836:

I seem to not deal any damage at all while also being stupid squishy regardless of how I build my character. I’ll run into thieves that deal 75% of my max hp with one back stab and then when I try to do that with a thief, I won’t do nearly as much.

Sounds like you just haven’t mastered Guild Wars 2 combat yet. I recommend you try a build that is extremely forgiving and beefy, while still being a huge threat to squishy players.

List of builds to try:

• Hammer/Longbow Warrior: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vIAQJASTjMdUFaZIGewJaAB9QDrCuQ9wO2w4IVQMA-ToAA1CnIKSVkrITRyisFNKYJC

• Shortbow/Sword&Dagger Ranger: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vMAQNAV8YjMq0sa/K+qQ0ago9ITmHTsC839oUniUFsqB-TsAgyCpIATBmDMDYSwsgN8Y5xeBA

You should beat players in hotjoin just by running these builds alone. Better players have often mastered the art of putting down Warriors & Rangers, but like I said, most new players don’t have the experience to deal with the Warrior & Ranger’s passive presence on points.

I would suggest the following:
- Make sure you have a good build. If you are running thief, look up a 10/30/0/0/30 “trickery” build. Runes and sigils are also important so that you get the procs you want.

- Check out twitch.tv to watch some high-ranked players streaming (although not as many do nowadays) and ask any questions. If that doesn’t work, go into a dueling server and spectate a thief to see what he is doing. You might even ask him and he might type some things out.

- When it comes to bursts, find out the actual combinations they are using and PRACTICE them on dummies. A lot of times those burst thieves are hitting you with more than just backstab (it is a few abilities that all proc in very quick succession so it seems instant). A common backstab combo is:
Blackpowder (from a little range) —> Heartseeker + steal (so that you get the stun from the 30 in trickery and so that mug procs before heartseeker finishes and gives you stealth)-->backstab. You are also likely to get an air/fire rune proc too. Other professions try to get similar things to happen, but most bursts are never just 1 ability.

-Always check your damage log after you died to said thief so you can see the order that individual things procced. Its not great, but it helps try to figure out what was doing what damage and what really happened.

- Finally, if you are playing in zerker gear, you will drop very quick to other zerkers if you don’t dodge the right things and use your profession defenses (spammable evades, blinds, and stealth for thief) effectively. If you want to burst, you have to learn to live with the risk of getting bursted yourself. If that doesn’t fit your playstyle and you do better with something that survives more, try a different build/profession that has combat that matches your playstyle. You will have more success with a non-meta build that is tailored to your playstyle than trying to “force a square peg into a round hole” so to speak.

Homicidal Toaster.5836:

I was hoping someone could tell me what I’m doing wrong, but I feel that whenever I pvp at all, I seem to not deal any damage at all while also being stupid squishy regardless of how I build my character. I’ll run into thieves that deal 75% of my max hp with one back stab and then when I try to do that with a thief, I won’t do nearly as much. What factors should I consider? I’m tired of people just straight up owning me while I can’t do it to other players. Not even the newbies. I’m not referring to just my thief, though. Any of my characters. I’ve tried switching up the spvp runes and everything, but still drop in two to five hits.

If you’re playing a thief, it’s all about learning to be the smoothest criminal in the world. Staying in the fight long enough to get back-stabbed is not the way to go. Every time someone can see you, you should believe that you’re dead and the only keeping you from truly being dead is, distance, Line of sight, blinds, stuns and stealth. Learn to use them wisely.

Go to dueling servers, look at the people that win most of their matches, if they arnt a condi mesmer/thief/war/engy then copy their build and try that out in duels. The main difference between good players and bad players is skill usage.

Button mashers will just wail on the keyboard and usually waste the majority of their skills on dodges/blocks/blinds etc. You need to figure out a solid rotation for your build and focus on that before branching out and focusing on other important things such as:
-predicting the optimal movement of stealthed people (what would i do if i was them)
-what skills to dodge from each class
-when to effectively random dodge in teamfights
-how to position in team fights (los/ 1 person max on the point whenever possible)
-knowing when you or your party is going to go down to ensure a fast res
-map awareness to know where your team and the enemies are

People may say this game has a low skill ceiling, but if you want to consistently kitten on those noobs then focus on what I listed (there is more but I just listed the basics). Otherwise you can just be another free kill for any half decent player.

Another important thing, make sure you are turning your character with your mouse instead of the keyboard, and never click to activate skills. Also try to play with fast ground targeting so you can eyeball the ranges of enemies skills better without having to check if the circle is green or red.

Homicidal Toaster.5836:

I was hoping someone could tell me what I’m doing wrong, but I feel that whenever I pvp at all, I seem to not deal any damage at all while also being stupid squishy regardless of how I build my character. I’ll run into thieves that deal 75% of my max hp with one back stab and then when I try to do that with a thief, I won’t do nearly as much. What factors should I consider? I’m tired of people just straight up owning me while I can’t do it to other players. Not even the newbies. I’m not referring to just my thief, though. Any of my characters. I’ve tried switching up the spvp runes and everything, but still drop in two to five hits.

What ever you do, you need Toughness. That is why Conditions are so used. No Power amulet has Toughness but the Condition ones do.

What this means is that no one wants to be trying to PvP and face a thief who will insta-gib us before we can fight back. And if we survive the opening strike they just stealth and do it again (except this time our panic button was used and our heal is on CD. GG).

Thanks to that, I speak for myself, I joined the throngs of Condition users. The moment I did that I went into a PvP spree just for the SHEER AND UNADULTERED PLEASURE of finding thieves and mocking their opening strikes to then curb stomp them (or watch them run ashamed and with their tail between their legs as I cap the point).

I speak of thieves, but I could mention warriors (never so much as managed to put a decent one under 80% as they did/do brutal damage while tanky + regen + immunities + stuns. I could dance around one for thirty seconds hitting non stop and perhaps shave 20% HP. The moment i ran out of tricks and endurance to dodge they’d stun me once and go to town. Bam bam, dead. GG).

Or mesmers (stun, leap, blurred sword skill + 3 explodey clones. Did you use your stun break? Well, too bad, the immobilize is not broken by a stun break. Did you use an immobilize breaker? Well too bad, you can’t use an immobilize breaker while stunned. GG).

The answer to all of this? Toughness. Not Vitality, mind, that just makes you a sack of HP that your heal can’t refill.

Kanto.1659:

No Power amulet has Toughness but the Condition ones do.

soldiers amulet says hi.

Thank you guys for all your input. It was very helpful.

So what would you guys recommend for a staff ele?

Homicidal Toaster.5836:

So what would you guys recommend for a staff ele?

I recommend you don’t play staff Ele until April 15th. Cleansing Water is getting a revert to the old, OP version. The group condition removal you can get with Staff 5 and other water traits are out to lunch.

i feel the same way and i think alot of people do. im a mesmer and i feel like no matter how many attacks i do people can just heal and block forever and i never get to a point i can kill them. depending on who i am vsing i can survive for a decent length but i only ever feel like i am stalling

Chaith.8256:

Homicidal Toaster.5836:

So what would you guys recommend for a staff ele?

I recommend you don’t play staff Ele until April 15th. Cleansing Water is getting a revert to the old, OP version. The group condition removal you can get with Staff 5 and other water traits are out to lunch.

Lol, what? Just that ONE skill made the staff viable? Right now I try to nuke people, but even when they sit in my AOEs, I do no damage. In PvE, I completely destroy everything with the staff (except in Arah), but when I bring the same build to PvP, it does no damage at all. Needs buff?

Homicidal Toaster.5836:

Chaith.8256:

Homicidal Toaster.5836:

So what would you guys recommend for a staff ele?

I recommend you don’t play staff Ele until April 15th. Cleansing Water is getting a revert to the old, OP version. The group condition removal you can get with Staff 5 and other water traits are out to lunch.

Lol, what? Just that ONE skill made the staff viable? Right now I try to nuke people, but even when they sit in my AOEs, I do no damage. In PvE, I completely destroy everything with the staff (except in Arah), but when I bring the same build to PvP, it does no damage at all. Needs buff?

I beg to differ, zerker ele does insane damage if people stands in the AoEs, lingering in them for 1 or 2s can prove fatal. What is your build?

Homicidal Toaster.5836:

Lol, what? Just that ONE skill made the staff viable?

You really twisted what I said. He mentioned he liked staff, so I merely brought up a skill that will be much better when the patch hits. Cleansing Water is not just a staff specific buff, lots of Ele builds can apply regeneration.

Homicidal Toaster.5836:

Right now I try to nuke people, but even when they sit in my AOEs, I do no damage. In PvE, I completely destroy everything with the staff (except in Arah), but when I bring the same build to PvP, it does no damage at all. Needs buff?

Player skill issue. Focusing your efforts on point pressure and especially downed bodies will ensure you are maximizing your effectiveness. Staff ele, by design, is extremely weak against off-point or mobile enemies. It’s just a matter of recognizing situations where you will be effective in, and putting yourself in those situations as much as possible.

Staff Support is viable right now in coordinated tPvP. I see it being a situational, optimal pick after April 15th.

There’s only one good team that runs Support Staff in tPvP, here is his stream:

http://www.twitch.tv/chubbsz

My issue is that I do focus on point suppression, but they just leave the point briefly to kitten on me and then they cap the point while I bleed out (if they decided not to waste their sweet time stomping me).

Homicidal Toaster.5836:

My issue is that I do focus on point suppression, but they just leave the point briefly to kitten on me and then they cap the point while I bleed out (if they decided not to waste their sweet time stomping me).

Are you going alone vs several people? your post makes it sound that way. You need to position yourself so that the enemy doesn’t see you until it’s too late if you’re glass staff ele.

Uhtameit.2413:

Homicidal Toaster.5836:

My issue is that I do focus on point suppression, but they just leave the point briefly to kitten on me and then they cap the point while I bleed out (if they decided not to waste their sweet time stomping me).

Are you going alone vs several people? your post makes it sound that way. You need to position yourself so that the enemy doesn’t see you until it’s too late if you’re glass staff ele.

Yep. staff elementalist is only truly effective inconjuction with another player. the other player puts pressure while you stand back and do stuff. The issue with the ele is one wrong look and they drop really really fast.

silvermember.8941:

Uhtameit.2413:

Homicidal Toaster.5836:

My issue is that I do focus on point suppression, but they just leave the point briefly to kitten on me and then they cap the point while I bleed out (if they decided not to waste their sweet time stomping me).

Are you going alone vs several people? your post makes it sound that way. You need to position yourself so that the enemy doesn’t see you until it’s too late if you’re glass staff ele.

Yep. staff elementalist is only truly effective inconjuction with another player. the other player puts pressure while you stand back and do stuff. The issue with the ele is one wrong look and they drop really really fast.

Running a support Ele means that you aren’t really going to die, fyi. Still brings decent point pressure.

Chaith.8256:

silvermember.8941:

Uhtameit.2413:

Homicidal Toaster.5836:

My issue is that I do focus on point suppression, but they just leave the point briefly to kitten on me and then they cap the point while I bleed out (if they decided not to waste their sweet time stomping me).

Are you going alone vs several people? your post makes it sound that way. You need to position yourself so that the enemy doesn’t see you until it’s too late if you’re glass staff ele.

Yep. staff elementalist is only truly effective inconjuction with another player. the other player puts pressure while you stand back and do stuff. The issue with the ele is one wrong look and they drop really really fast.

Running a support Ele means that you aren’t really going to die, fyi. Still brings decent point pressure.

He said he was trying to nuke people though, I doubt you can do that with a support staff ele.

Yeah, I want to blow people up.
Such fire. Much crispy. Wow.

@OP. You have to understand that many of the people who play in PvP have been doing it for a long time, so you will die a lot at first. You just need to keep at it. If you want to fast track the process, I recommend the following spec.

Engineer
x/x/30/30/x

Stand on a point and spam bombs and grenades and you’ll be fine.

Homicidal Toaster.5836:

Yeah, I want to blow people up.
Such fire. Much crispy. Wow.

Glass staff ele is difficult because while people can hunt you with precision, your attacks will be wildly inaccurate and ineffective when they take the fight to you. You will have to use teamwork to overcome this inherent advantage of glass staff ele, and if that’s unsuccessful, it’s a super liability. My advice is to work on recognizing when those critical times are that you need to be nuking the point, and convincing your team to peel for you. Otherwise, your Staff Ele isn’t going to be showing any better results.

I merely suggested that running support makes the Ele much more self sufficient in dealing with enemies taking the fight to them, and provides great support benefits. It really removes the importance of landing all of the staff’s wildly inaccurate and easily dodged counter-pressures. And for those critical times when point pressure is needed, the support staff ele brings a modest amount of that, too.

style.6173:

@OP. You have to understand that many of the people who play in PvP have been doing it for a long time, so you will die a lot at first. You just need to keep at it. If you want to fast track the process, I recommend the following spec.

Engineer
x/x/30/30/x

Stand on a point and spam bombs and grenades and you’ll be fine.

Bad advice imo, thatll just teach him to be a punching bag that never tries to dodge because of 800+ hps

A fun build that relies entirely on your positioning – you die when people look at you :

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vEAQFAWnMISJD2yA2MArEGACPCghCEFso8YnYqB-TkAg0CnIqRVjrGTNyas1MEB

If you still want some survivability although you’ll still die if you’re focused :

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vEAQFAWhMM6Z25wwBr0AQ4RAMUgogFlH7MjNA-TkAg0CnIyRljLHTOycs5MEB

Homicidal Toaster.5836:

My issue is that I do focus on point suppression, but they just leave the point briefly to kitten on me and then they cap the point while I bleed out (if they decided not to waste their sweet time stomping me).

Even a zerker ele is support dps at best. Just like others have said, wait until the patch and then see if eles can be brought up to a better place. There’s probably nothing wrong with how you’re playing, just that eles are in a really bad place right now and needs some buffs.

SuperHaze.4210:

Homicidal Toaster.5836:

My issue is that I do focus on point suppression, but they just leave the point briefly to kitten on me and then they cap the point while I bleed out (if they decided not to waste their sweet time stomping me).

Even a zerker ele is support dps at best. Just like others have said, wait until the patch and then see if eles can be brought up to a better place. There’s probably nothing wrong with how you’re playing, just that eles are in a really bad place right now and needs some buffs.

He said he was doing no damage as zerker ele, so again, I beg to differ. There is certainly something wrong with how he’s playing it.

Uhtameit.2413:

SuperHaze.4210:

Homicidal Toaster.5836:

My issue is that I do focus on point suppression, but they just leave the point briefly to kitten on me and then they cap the point while I bleed out (if they decided not to waste their sweet time stomping me).

Even a zerker ele is support dps at best. Just like others have said, wait until the patch and then see if eles can be brought up to a better place. There’s probably nothing wrong with how you’re playing, just that eles are in a really bad place right now and needs some buffs.

He said he was doing no damage as zerker ele, so again, I beg to differ. There is certainly something wrong with how he’s playing it.

Maybe he shouldn’t be trying to take a point as a staff ele (or an ele at all) and zerker staff eles aren’t great 1v1 against a thief unless you take EA, AS, and/or mistform (which would still make it tough), but eles are really at a disadvantage overall. Zerker staff eles rely on positioning and team fights in order to be effective. He might do better as S/D fresh air, but that’s not what he’s running so for his situation, he’s limited to the role of support dps. A zerker staff ele can wreak havoc with a hammer war as long as he can keep his distance and the warrior is CCing for him to keep the enemy in his AOEs.

Instead of just saying that he is playing ele wrong, you could maybe offer some suggestions…

SuperHaze.4210:

Uhtameit.2413:

SuperHaze.4210:

Homicidal Toaster.5836:

My issue is that I do focus on point suppression, but they just leave the point briefly to kitten on me and then they cap the point while I bleed out (if they decided not to waste their sweet time stomping me).

Even a zerker ele is support dps at best. Just like others have said, wait until the patch and then see if eles can be brought up to a better place. There’s probably nothing wrong with how you’re playing, just that eles are in a really bad place right now and needs some buffs.

He said he was doing no damage as zerker ele, so again, I beg to differ. There is certainly something wrong with how he’s playing it.

Maybe he shouldn’t be trying to take a point as a staff ele (or an ele at all) and zerker staff eles aren’t great 1v1 against a thief unless you take EA, AS, and/or mistform (which would still make it tough), but eles are really at a disadvantage overall. Zerker staff eles rely on positioning and team fights in order to be effective. He might do better as S/D fresh air, but that’s not what he’s running so for his situation, he’s limited to the role of support dps. A zerker staff ele can wreak havoc with a hammer war as long as he can keep his distance and the warrior is CCing for him to keep the enemy in his AOEs.

Instead of just saying that he is playing ele wrong, you could maybe offer some suggestions…

I suggested two builds that ensure he will do damage. Staff ele is an easy prey for a thief anyway, that’s even more true for a berserker staff ele. In any case if you wanna do decently in PvP these days, the first rule is not to play ele.

Uhtameit.2413:

SuperHaze.4210:

Uhtameit.2413:

SuperHaze.4210:

Homicidal Toaster.5836:

My issue is that I do focus on point suppression, but they just leave the point briefly to kitten on me and then they cap the point while I bleed out (if they decided not to waste their sweet time stomping me).

Even a zerker ele is support dps at best. Just like others have said, wait until the patch and then see if eles can be brought up to a better place. There’s probably nothing wrong with how you’re playing, just that eles are in a really bad place right now and needs some buffs.

He said he was doing no damage as zerker ele, so again, I beg to differ. There is certainly something wrong with how he’s playing it.

Maybe he shouldn’t be trying to take a point as a staff ele (or an ele at all) and zerker staff eles aren’t great 1v1 against a thief unless you take EA, AS, and/or mistform (which would still make it tough), but eles are really at a disadvantage overall. Zerker staff eles rely on positioning and team fights in order to be effective. He might do better as S/D fresh air, but that’s not what he’s running so for his situation, he’s limited to the role of support dps. A zerker staff ele can wreak havoc with a hammer war as long as he can keep his distance and the warrior is CCing for him to keep the enemy in his AOEs.

Instead of just saying that he is playing ele wrong, you could maybe offer some suggestions…

I suggested two builds that ensure he will do damage. Staff ele is an easy prey for a thief anyway, that’s even more true for a berserker staff ele. In any case if you wanna do decently in PvP these days, the first rule is not to play ele.

totally, if you want to be effective don’t play an elementalist. elementalist are consider so bad that whenever an ele is sported on the opposite team, the other team usually consider it a 4v5 match.

From the OP comment about blowing stuff up and all those things, seems kinda naive, I feel like he/she probably isn’t at the level (I am not even close, so I am not trying to knock OP down or anything) to be average on the elementalist, especially free kill staff.

I kill some people with my current set up/skill. And those people are not Warriors, Thieves, or Guardians. I find that the class I can kill the most is the Mesmer, due to my AOEs obliterating their clones/phantasms. I beat Engineers about 25% of the time, and Necros completely depends on their build; I typically do well against minion masters. As far as Ele v Ele, I haven’t really had consistent results with that.

I’ll post my build as soon as I can.

Homicidal Toaster.5836:

I kill some people with my current set up/skill. And those people are not Warriors, Thieves, or Guardians. I find that the class I can kill the most is the Mesmer, due to my AOEs obliterating their clones/phantasms. I beat Engineers about 25% of the time, and Necros completely depends on their build; I typically do well against minion masters. As far as Ele v Ele, I haven’t really had consistent results with that.

I’ll post my build as soon as I can.

Staff ele isn’t very good 1v1 by design, so no matter the build you’ll probably struggle.

Now in a team fight, land a meteor shower and that’s a game changer

This is my build.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vEAQFAWnMISJD2yA2MArEGACPOghCEFso8ImdqB-TkAA2CnI4RxjjHDPSes8MIA

Homicidal Toaster.5836:

This is my build.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vEAQFAWnMISJD2yA2MArEGACPOghCEFso8ImdqB-TkAA2CnI4RxjjHDPSes8MIA

And you wonder why you die so much.

Homicidal Toaster.5836:

This is my build.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vEAQFAWnMISJD2yA2MArEGACPOghCEFso8ImdqB-TkAA2CnI4RxjjHDPSes8MIA

That’s funny because I offered something that is almost the same (I took Rune of Divinity for the crit damage and berserker amulet since it’s a suicide build). Lava Tomb in fire is definitely better than III since you can rally (sometimes) with it. Battle probably is better too.

In any case : this build relies almost entirely on positionning, if one people with ranged skills sees you, you’re dead. I have two names for this build : suicide spec and roof spec. You have to use the roofs and heigths in general to not insta die. One of the other strong points of this build is to chill/immobilize the hell out of the opponents.

For instance, cast Meteor Shower and switch to earth attunement at the beginning of the cast while activating Arcane Power, and use your arcane utilities on a squishy you have targeted : he will melt. You can then use shockwave since he is already immobilized.

In case I wasn’t clear enough : this is probably one of the most difficult spec to play at the moment and it is not viable in tournament : you will be focused immediately and you will die. It is a lot of fun in hotjoin though, given that you position yourself well. I suggest you try out the second version of glass staff ele I posted a little while ago.

I read a post a while ago that describes this build even better than the names I gave it : “a glass staff ele dies when you look at him”.

silvermember.8941:

Homicidal Toaster.5836:

This is my build.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vEAQFAWnMISJD2yA2MArEGACPOghCEFso8ImdqB-TkAA2CnI4RxjjHDPSes8MIA

And you wonder why you die so much.

If you read the post, I was wondering why I dealt no damage primarily. I expected to be glass with that particular set up, but I was/am not dealing any damage still.

Homicidal Toaster.5836:

silvermember.8941:

Homicidal Toaster.5836:

This is my build.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vEAQFAWnMISJD2yA2MArEGACPOghCEFso8ImdqB-TkAA2CnI4RxjjHDPSes8MIA

And you wonder why you die so much.

If you read the post, I was wondering why I dealt no damage primarily. I expected to be glass with that particular set up, but I was/am not dealing any damage still.

I hope you try out the little trick I mentionned but yes, ennemies are supposed to literally melt with this build, you have to make sure you get into the team fights after 1 or 2 people of your team are already involved. Also you have to make sure ennemies are chilled/immobilized in your AoEs. I have uninstalled otherwise I would have been up for some more tips IG.