Guild Wars 2

Armor of Earth
Protect yourself with earth armor and gain protection and stability.
Duration: 8 s
Stability: 8 s
Protection: 8 s
Breaks stun
90 seconds cooldown, 72 with traits

VS

Mist form
Morph into an invulnerable, vaporous mist for a brief time.
Duration: 3 s
Breaks stun
75 seconds cooldown, 60 with traits (IF it would work, which it doesnt since it stays 75)

Advantages mostly used by other people:
Mist form has less cooldown
Mist forms invulnerability makes it an “OW kitten” button
Armor of Earths protection makes for major dmg reduction
Stability is great

Things i thought of:
Lesser cooldown on Mist form does not matter (aside from the fact that the CD doesnt get reduced by the trait .. Mist Form itself is to blame for this.. Mist form disables all traits while in that form) because you only use Mist Form if you are almost dying. Armor of Earth can be used at the start of a fight, making better use of the cooldown because you activate it way more.
Protection is only 33% dmg reduction.. yes its nice, but is it worth the long cooldown.

So… who do you think should be the winner of the “most usefull” contest :P
(talking about general usefullness… ofcourse there will always be certain scenarios where one works way better then the other)

so.. Mist Form or Armor of Earth?

so.. Mist Form or Armor of Earth?

I run a glass cannon/cantrip build and mist form is the only cantrip I don’t use regularly.

Mist form has it’s place. It’s good in dungeons if there’s a boss attack that’s one shotting you and you need a “backup roll”. Good for stomping and reviving as always.

I like Armor of Earth better because it allows you to keep fighting. Also, with a cantrip build, it provides a whopping 5 boons on activation (stability, protection, vigor, regen, and might) which is a 10% increase in damage output when combined with water’s grandmaster minor trait (2% extra damage for each boon). In other words, it’s both an offensive and defensive utility for me, and since most enemies in pvp open with their hardest burst, it’s an amazing opener to most pvp engagements.

I do solely pve and use both… armor of earth through the earth’s embrace trait (and final shielding)… and I use mist form if my health gets really low, gives me an extra second to use my heal

I use both since they’re great depending on what situation you’re in. I like mist form for relieving heavy focus on you and cheezing behind your allies. Armor of the earth is great for setting up meteor showers, esp in wvwvw where it protects you from being interrupted and getting shanked from behind by burst.

In PvE – neither.
Slot Mist Form only if you are about to really use it – like lighting torches at the beginning of CoF3 or traversing the corridor there.
Armor of Earth is very meh, Earth’s Embrace major trait from the Earth traitline is really enough.

If you want a survival utility skill, Arcane Shield all the way.

For me (D/D Ele), mist form hands down. But there are a few reasons for this…

1. If you have the elemental attunement trait, you get 5 secs of protection just for attuning to earth…so I think that this really overshadows the protection you get from armor of earth. And I think that almost every ele should have this trait…it is that good.

2. I use Ether Renewal, and with that heal, mist form becomes a get of a death free card. I mist, trigger heal, and all those conditions on me go away, allowing me to RTL away when mist wears off. I have escaped huge zergs like this multiple times.

3. I find that the trait version of armor of earth that gives you it automatically at 50% health is a far superior option to having it on your bar. It basically always uses armor of earth “when you need it” automatically, and frees up a utility slot.

I never really like mist form. I am constantly using armor of earth though, nearly on cooldown when I am nonstop pulling, and especially at the start of the fight. I use it almost always pre-emtively when it looks like i pulled too many or the fight will get rough with adds or w/e. For extra defense I like to run earth signet, otherwise I am switching out my last slot to whatever I like at that particular time shrug.
I like having it as a floating because a lot of our conjures are situational, I mean how short of work can you make of the ant hill type mobs with frost bow, eh?

The problem of Mist Form is that you’re doing something wrong in PvE if you ever need it… UNLESS in situations like CoF3.

If you are glass cannon built, you’re doing something very wrong in the first place – eles should never ever spec glass cannon in PvE – but if you are and you use Mist Form, you’re wasting your high DPS potential by not slotting offensive utilities.

If you are not glass cannon, you are doing something wrong if you need those silly few seconds of invulnerability from Mist Form, especially that you can’t fight when in Mist, you still die on traps and you retain all your conditions you had, aka you still can die or stay immobilisied.

If you need extra 2 seconds to pop your heal or dodge away, seriously slot Arcane Shield – it not only blocks stuff while letting you use all your weapon skills, but also blows up in a critical AoE. Awesome for farming, awesome for dungeons – and the only defensive utility you will ever need on ele once you’ve learnt how to use it.

“The problem of Mist Form is that you’re doing something wrong in PvE if you ever need it… UNLESS in situations like CoF3.”

That’s an extremely narrow minded view to have. I use Mist form a lot when I m grinding DE because It allows me to go in, do as much damage as possible and GTFO in order to maximize MY loot chance. So no, mist form has its place in PvE. If you don’t care about getting as much as loot as possible, I suppose you might be right.

You can jump in with Arcane Shield on you, and not only survive longer, but also tag more mobs with the Arcane Shield’s blast after three blocks
Not only that! Arcane Shield doesn’t restrict you from using your weapon skills!

drkn.3429:

You can jump in with Arcane Shield on you, and not only survive longer, but also tag more mobs with the Arcane Shield’s blast after three blocks
Not only that! Arcane Shield doesn’t restrict you from using your weapon skills!

yes, because clearly blocking 3 attack is sufficient when you are in the middle of a zerg of 6+ mobs right?

You have enough ranged AoEs not to suicide into 6+ mobs at once, especially that you can only tag 5 with one AoE spell.

So how are you doing it? Popping Mist Form, rushing into a group of 10 mobs and what? Dropping Arcane Wave to tag 5 mobs, then dodging away?

So, basically, if Arcane Shield is that good, is it a good option to get the Arcane Adept Trait Final Shielding (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Final_Shielding) ? In addition to the actual skill ? Or only one ?
Does anybody know what’s the hidden CD on that trait ? Because it’s not written anywhere and I highly doubt there’s none obviously.
90 sec like the trait for Armor of Earth ?

It’s not – because there are better major traits from Arcana line.
Arcane Shield utility and Earth’s Embrace all the way, especially that Embrace also pops stability.

drkn.3429:

You have enough ranged AoEs not to suicide into 6+ mobs at once, especially that you can only tag 5 with one AoE spell.

So how are you doing it? Popping Mist Form, rushing into a group of 10 mobs and what? Dropping Arcane Wave to tag 5 mobs, then dodging away?

I had a whole thing written out, then I decided to erase it to ask you this one question. How does popping mist form in that manner make ANY logical sense?

It doesn’t. But then – popping Mist Form for farming or tagging mobs makes no sense whatsoever simply because it locks your weapon skills.

Getting into a group of mobs doesn’t need any blocking or invulnerability.
Popping instant AoEs doesn’t need any blocking or inv and if you do, Arcane Shield is your skill of choice mainly because it tags even MORE mobs for your phat l00t.
Getting out of a group after popping all the AoEs is as easy as proper dodging.

Mist Form is only useful when you have to be stationary and keep your cast bar up on an object or when reviving an ally, as you can start reviving, then pop Mist and keep on reviving, being invulnerable. Same goes for all interactable objects with a ‘cast bar’, like the torches in CoF3 – hit F and then pop Mist to do it the easy way.

drkn.3429:

It doesn’t. But then – popping Mist Form for farming or tagging mobs makes no sense whatsoever simply because it locks your weapon skills.

Getting into a group of mobs doesn’t need any blocking or invulnerability.
Popping instant AoEs doesn’t need any blocking or inv and if you do, Arcane Shield is your skill of choice mainly because it tags even MORE mobs for your phat l00t.
Getting out of a group after popping all the AoEs is as easy as proper dodging.

Mist Form is only useful when you have to be stationary and keep your cast bar up on an object or when reviving an ally, as you can start reviving, then pop Mist and keep on reviving, being invulnerable. Same goes for all interactable objects with a ‘cast bar’, like the torches in CoF3 – hit F and then pop Mist to do it the easy way.

The issue here is you are making assumptions about something YOU clearly did not understand. So let me break it out for you.

In orr, for certain DE the mobs come at you. To maximize your loot chances sometimes it is sometimes necessary to run in and catch the mobs before everyone does. A staff while a nice weapon does not provide enough damage to compensate for their sluggish nature. Fortunately, d/d does provide enough AoE based damage to tag and guarantee you loot if done properly, ofc the catch is you have to be in the face of a lot of mobs usually. The mist form is not a critical part, it just an insurance policy guaranteeing I don’t meet my maker, dying isn’t something I am fond of and it removes my luck sigil bonus.

And that is why mist for is important. If you want to make money really really fast you do DE especially grenth and the wave nature of the mobs especially at the stage after the priest is dead d/d is the best thing you can have if you are solo. A staff just sucks anyways.

I’m maining an ele since the release, been to Orr farming for long hours. Been to the probably ‘toughest’ mob farm out there, aka Grenth’s, many many times.

With my d/d set on, i’m at over 3k attack, ~2850 toughness and nearly 19k health. There’s literally no reason to slot Mist Form, wasting my DPS/mob-tagging potential – Arcane Shield / Arcane Wave / Glyph of Elements is not only enough to survive (yes, with d/d), does not only deal extra dps, but also each of those skills let me tag more mobs.

What i’m saying is – if you’re wasting a utility slot for Mist Form just to be sure you don’t die when tagging mobs, Arcane Shield is not only enough to dodge out, but may also tag more mobs for you.

Like you said, if I m slotting mist form to not die, does it make any reasonable sense to slot something that only absolves 3 hits, when I can slot something that makes me invulnerable to nearly all hits?

This is my take on it:

Mist form = Versatile Preemptive strike or Get out of jail free card
Armor of Earth = Is not

If players are using MF soley as a ‘o crap’ button and using it only just before they die, they are doing it wrong.

Mist form is a free heal, free utility use, free escape, free invuln stun break, free regen, and free dps if you spec for the last 2. And whats more, specing for the last 2 trait wise allows Vapor form in downed mode to do the same.

I use mist form almost exclusively as a preemtive strike, or when im about at 50%. In pvp at the start of a fight, when used at the right time, it completely nullifies an enemy’s initial burst and cooldown use, while allowing me to chill damage and arcane blast him. In a sticky situation if there are too many to handle, you can use lightning strike to get distance while invuln and then RTL away immediately after while everyone is chilled.

When health drops a bit below 30 to 50%, you can use it to drop a quick heal and regen, while chilling and damaging the enemy as you heal to full.

When enemies or teammates are down, it can be used to finish/revive without any chance of interruption.

When downed, coupled with the lava font trait, enemies trying to finish you take MASSIVE damage from both the lava and vapor form. I have finished multiple attackers in downed state as well as pve mobs while downed due to this tactic. It also makes enemy players in pvp want to keep their distance which gives teammates a longer time to revive you.

Having used both mist and armor of earth for a long period of time, i personally have stuck with mist form while dropping armor of earth. While the stability and and boons are a great option, the damage decrease doesn’t cut it as well as the invuln i get from mist form.

But depending on build, the usefulness will vary.

@silver – yes, because Arcane Shield potentially tags 5 more mobs for loot, while Mist Form does not.

I use both, as well as flash combined with Ether Renewal. I die maybe once every 3 games in sPvP and can go hours in WvW without dying. D/D spec who loves to initiate but knows when to leave the fight.

drkn.3429:

@silver – yes, because Arcane Shield potentially tags 5 more mobs for loot, while Mist Form does not.

I am sure that extra damage is to die for.

@arcane shield – 3 hits is barely enough to give you time to dodge. I feel like it’s more of a waste of a utility that MF. and MF can tag more mobs and do more damage than AS if you spec for it as well as give you time to heal up.

It’s not the damage – you said yourself you’re there to farm mobs for loot, and you need to tag them to get a chance at looting their corpses.
3 blocks are enough out in the open, and if they’re not, you’re just doing something wrong – wasting dodges, running glass cannon or hop into the biggest group without any thought. The Arcane Shield’s blast is, however, enough to tag all the mobs hit, potentially granting you more loot – and you’re not locked out of using your weapon skills in the meantime.

drkn.3429:

It’s not the damage – you said yourself you’re there to farm mobs for loot, and you need to tag them to get a chance at looting their corpses.
3 blocks are enough out in the open, and if they’re not, you’re just doing something wrong – wasting dodges, running glass cannon or hop into the biggest group without any thought. The Arcane Shield’s blast is, however, enough to tag all the mobs hit, potentially granting you more loot – and you’re not locked out of using your weapon skills in the meantime.

The truth is…it really doesn’t matter, it’s PvE..even more, it’s just zerg DE PvE.

If his using mist form is working for him, then that’s all good. It doesn’t really matter if arcane shield is more “efficient,” all he has to do is damage the mobs and walk away.

If it was PvP where having every possible edge over the other players mattered, then I could see all this back and forth. But seriously, if he is using mist form and is still happy…then who cares?

@drkn.3429
You could be right but to me AS offers no real benefits that MF doesn’t offer and even better. The damage is not sufficient enough to outweight the fact that in 3 hit it still breaks while MF provides me the opportunity to heal while escaping, which in turn allow more damage overrall. Since you are can get back into the fight faster.

MF is good if you’re not that good with ele, if you’re in an unknown dungeon, doing something for the first time. MF might be good if you’re running glass cannon build and one hit from a boss eats 3/4 of your hp.
But for open-world PvE, every second you’re not tagging mobs you’re losing potential drops – AS not only doesn’t lock you out from tagging, not only grants enough protection for all the mobs to die to the zerg at a temple/defense event, but also provides additional mob-tagging for loot.

Drkn, I will definately put it on my bar when I’m running with a zerg in open world content, my problem is, i rarely run with the zerg =X

Arcane Shield isn’t a stunbreak so I’d never use it in PVP or WvWvW. Personally, MF has too much utility in PVP or WvWvW not to use over Armor of Earth. I love the invulnerability but I can see why some people like AOE.

drkn.3429:

MF is good if you’re not that good with ele, if you’re in an unknown dungeon, doing something for the first time. MF might be good if you’re running glass cannon build and one hit from a boss eats 3/4 of your hp.
But for open-world PvE, every second you’re not tagging mobs you’re losing potential drops – AS not only doesn’t lock you out from tagging, not only grants enough protection for all the mobs to die to the zerg at a temple/defense event, but also provides additional mob-tagging for loot.

I would almost say that MF is near required if you are playing D/D skirmisher/vanguard in WvW.

When you’re going to be constantly leading charges into enemy zergs of 10+ players, or harassing them as they move…you seriously need a way to escape. I don’t care how good of an ele you are…10 players focus firing you is gonna kill you if you don’t have some form of invuln for when it happens.

MF the trait earth is more than enough.

You guys must have ignored the part where i outlined that i’m talking about PvE, even though i did so twice.

Because the topic seemed to have evolved, my stance is:

Mist Form = Very versatile. I’ve mainly been Dagger/Dagger so it offers a near certain chance of escape when you need it. You can also use it to keep rezzing or bringing up a downed ally for a known amount of time. It does, however, lock you out of doing decent damage. I’ve tried the trait that lets you deal damage and chill foes while in Mist Form and it’s not bad but defeats the purpose of the ability.

Armor of Earth = Indispensable as a COMBAT defense tool. It also helps with those interruptible skills like Churning Earth, breath attacks and Ether Renewal. Combined with the trait that grants toughness while channeling and it makes an even bigger difference. Combined with the Water trait that grants % damage for each boon and it can boost your damage noticeably for its duration.

Arcane Shield = I’ve never been a huge fan of. In my eyes, as a defensive tool, it lacks because it’s not a stun break and it only blocks 3 attacks. The thing about that is, lots of attacks accumulate over several hits, doing the majority of their damage on the last hits. Basically, it’s giving you the chance to dodge the big hits but if you don’t, then AS fails you. Not only that but the damage on break is only good if foes are around you…which means you didn’t dodge before it broke.

Mist Form means you can do crazy stuff like initiate combat and get away with it. Armor of Earth is for when you know you’re going to get hit and helps absorb it. Arcane Shield is for when you want to cause damage from being hit?

Not bagging on AS but I’ve not used it much and find it a waste compared to Arcane Wave which does nearly twice the damage in the same radius, has less than half the recharge AND is a Blast Finisher.

If you have room in your build for Arcane Shield, you need to swap it out for Arcane Wave.

…this is all IMO of course.

The only thing that stops Armor of Earth from being more awesome than Mistform is that annoying little bug that caps the boon duration to 8 seconds.

I mean, what’s the point in speccing into Arcana if some skills just blindly ignore it?

Arcane Shield and Armor of Earth is good to keep your pressure while Mist Form help you to loose pressure from other players. It depends on your playstyle and builds.

Personally I like Mist Form because of its juking potential. Arne Shield wont protect you from something like Hundred Blade, Pistol Whip, Blurred Frenzy,…..And Armor of Earth CD is just a tad long and it doesn’t give you protection against cc :P

Vanillea.5764:

Armor of Earth CD is just a tad long and it doesn’t give you protection against cc :P

Actually, it does. Just not against everything, but it does protect you against ‘most’ of it. And for about twice (should be three times) as long as Mist Form.