Guild Wars 2

Yo, what’s up everybody?

It’s your friendly neighborhood Zoose here. I just wanted to share my current build with everyone that I’m running post patch. It’s still S/D, but it’s got some changes to it that create a lot of insane burst potential. Feel free to share it and discuss here.

Sorry I haven’t been so active on these parts of the forums. I usually tend to just do podcasts, and talk to people via voice/stream instead. :P But this time it’s a video!

http://youtu.be/Ex7Bt8faeBQ

It’s funny how the trait “Fresh Air” has it’s internal cooldown bugged at 3 seconds. I foresee a needed fix which will be a nerf to the trait.

Zooseybaby, Ken here. I don’t get a chance to play much ele these days, but with the 20% while knocked down trait, couldn’t you go double arcane + lightning flash to updraft into fire grab people that don’t or can’t stun break?

The build: http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-k34;2B2-U0c4-N-Z0;9;5T-9T;156A;15;004BIN;4G3G3G3G35Bc

The combo (starting from Air): 4 5 2 F1 5 lightning flash double arcane

The idea of course being to hit with both arcanes before grab finishes casting and put burn on them from that. Should be able to 100-0 most GCs, no? As for condi removal, scream at your Guardian

You could also go 5 2 4 F1 5 double arcane if you are already next to them and want to save lightning flash.

This would be workable if cleansing fire and lightning flash were stun breakers. As it is, you either have poor condi cleansing (2 condis / 10-12 seconds + cleansing wave) or no stun breaker. You won’t burst down most necro/engi builds before they can react and then you’ll melt to condis, and you won’t be able to burst down most heavy roamers like valk ele or bm ranger and you’ll just get CC’d (0-1 stunbreaker) and pounded into the dirt with no toughness or healing.

I wanted to like fresh air, but what you give up is more powerful than the burst you gain in 90% of situations.

cymerdown.4103:

Zooseybaby, Ken here. I don’t get a chance to play much ele these days, but with the 20% while knocked down trait, couldn’t you go double arcane + lightning flash to updraft into fire grab people that don’t or can’t stun break?

The build: http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-k34;2B2-U0c4-N-Z0;9;5T-9T;156A;15;004BIN;4G3G3G3G35Bc

The combo (starting from Air): 4 5 2 F1 5 lightning flash double arcane

The idea of course being to hit with both arcanes before grab finishes casting and put burn on them from that. Should be able to 100-0 most GCs, no? As for condi removal, scream at your Guardian

You could also go 5 2 4 F1 5 double arcane if you are already next to them and want to save lightning flash.

Haha yo that combo sounds like it’s just a freestyle! It looks pretty solid though if you can get it to land. And yeah you would 100-0 a lot of people with grounded, but then if they stun break that trait is kinda worthless ya know?

I just prefer the fresh air because it’s reliable. But there are def some situations where Grounded can be way better. BTW grounded only works with knockdowns, so I think updraft is bugged where it won’t work with grounded. I haven’t tested this yet though with the new patch.

Ah ok, because it’s a blowout and not a knockdown? Boo, although the combo may do enough damage even with fresh air since with that trait you could hit F3 at the end to get one last zap in and also have the blind ready for stomping. I’ll test it when I get some time, if you or someone else gets to it first lemme know how it goes And yeah, it’s a bit all-in, but 1 shotting someone out of a fight is also pretty strong as I’m sure you know

Hey Zoose, Kaane here. Great video as usual. With this build, after the SOAC, I have tried to play a couple tPvP and find out some weakness with this build as listed :

1/ You will most likely lose on 1on1 fight, assuming you both on the same skill level.
2/ Lack of Condition Removal.
3/ Lack of Stun Break.
4/ The burst is not as much as I expected.

In short, the build lacks of Survivability, compared to most of other GC class. The dps is not as much as other GC class (test it with my friend Guardian balanced build stand still and after finish my burst, he still has 30% of his health left and I am screwed). My opinion on this is you either go all out,no defensive and kill OP in one short (build like Cmc) or being a bunker. There is no between line.

cymerdown.4103:

Ah ok, because it’s a blowout and not a knockdown? Boo, although the combo may do enough damage even with fresh air since with that trait you could hit F3 at the end to get one last zap in and also have the blind ready for stomping. I’ll test it when I get some time, if you or someone else gets to it first lemme know how it goes And yeah, it’s a bit all-in, but 1 shotting someone out of a fight is also pretty strong as I’m sure you know

yep, Grounded/Tempest Defense only works on hard knockdowns, so you would only be able to use it after earthquake (which isn’t really bad if you pull off the quakeflash combo)…or you have to exploit warrior’s hammer burst knockdowns..(yeah, warriors… XD)

Stealth.9324:

Hey Zoose, Kaane here. Great video as usual. With this build, after the SOAC, I have tried to play a couple tPvP and find out some weakness with this build as listed :

1/ You will most likely lose on 1on1 fight, assuming you both on the same skill level.
2/ Lack of Condition Removal.
3/ Lack of Stun Break.
4/ The burst is not as much as I expected.

In short, the build lacks of Survivability, compared to most of other GC class. The dps is not as much as other GC class (test it with my friend Guardian balanced build stand still and after finish my burst, he still has 30% of his health left and I am screwed). My opinion on this is you either go all out,no defensive and kill OP in one short (build like Cmc) or being a bunker. There is no between line.

Yeah, this spec is going to be more much more useful in a real fight because of how much dmg you can do quickly and then be getting out (in real games I use RTL to disengage). So you can do a hit and run type of thing, but sometimes I slot mist form, sometimes I slot arcane shield, and against triple condi teams I slot cleansing fire.

I may go 20 arcana and 20 water to see how that works, I’m not sure.

Zoose, what do you think of this?

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-k34;2R0-U0-5gM-Z0;9;5T-JJ;159B;146-04-UN;4Ewk2Ewk25BX

(arcane mastery and stop drop ’n roll are still up to debate >.<)

My preliminary testing has been positive, but I can’t test this against good opponents right now (having no team sucks :p) so I don’t really know if this would work or not

Love your vids Zoose. Been playing this in tournies. So much fun.

Shar.3402:

Zoose, what do you think of this?

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-k34;2R0-U0-5gM-Z0;9;5T-JJ;159B;146-04-UN;4Ewk2Ewk25BX

(arcane mastery and stop drop ’n roll are still up to debate >.<)

My preliminary testing has been positive, but I can’t test this against good opponents right now (having no team sucks :p) so I don’t really know if this would work or not

I think that build is good. You can dodge more with energy sigil too, haha so it’s not bad at all ^^

It’s just a different way of playing imo through those traits. I kinda changed to Hoelbrak runes cause the -20% condition duration atm for condi teams.

@Jsu
Thanks brah. You’re the man!

Zoose.1640:

I think that build is good. You can dodge more with energy sigil too, haha so it’s not bad at all ^^

It’s just a different way of playing imo through those traits. I kinda changed to Hoelbrak runes cause the -20% condition duration atm for condi teams.

@Jsu
Thanks brah. You’re the man!

I’ll have to give Hoelbrak runes a try…I’m worried about the -x% condition duration affecting the base duration instead of the modified one >.<

Very nice video! Thank you for that, appreciate it a lot. Do you think the current condi meta is unfun to play against and condi’s are too strong now?