Guild Wars 2

Everyone complains at Conjures being sub-par and having no place in builds ect however I believe that the majority of players don’t see their potential and just see X amount of damage then think it’s not worth it (Even though they have pretty decent damage).

I’ve played Engineer and conjures work a little like their kits. All I see is people saying their damage is crap however it’s a utility slot and isn’t meant for pure damage so when you think about using them, look at the skills and what they offer, you’re getting 5 skills for 1 utility spot, it’s a kitten good deal!

Now, this is aimed more at bunker builds (Staff primarily).
Most bunker builds run Arcane wave, Armour of Earth and Mist form, 0/0/10/30/10 which means we get armour of earth at 50% hp anyways (Which is on an 90 second cool down), so we get a free utility slot with the same cool down (Un-traited) for free at 50% HP.

My question is, why waste a utility slot on something you’re getting anyways? Sure it’s good for sure stomps and reviving that ally without interruptions however does it really does the cooldown really justify using it?

Don’t get me wrong it’s a decent skill (I think the cooldown is a tad absurd) but you could use Earth Shield and get a daze, an interrupt which pulls people towards you, so it can be used to stop people reviving, stomping or even interrupting that quickness someones just popped on your ally while having a skill that makes you immune to any incoming damage for 3 seconds just like like the focuses E5 skill. Not to mention it is on a 60 second cool down and your allies can pick one up if they need to.

I’ve been using it today (Albeit with a new build I was testing, which wasn’t great) and I got a PM from someone telling me I was a noob for using a conjure, I guess thats why I wrote this to hopefully get some people to see that they aren’t all that bad.

Now I’d like peoples thoughts and what they think.
Don’t be too harsh, I have feelings behind this wall of text. :s

5 skills for one utility slot sounds great.

Losing access to 20 skills for 5 doesn’t.

Azunai.5974:

5 skills for one utility slot sounds great.

Losing access to 20 skills for 5 doesn’t.

You do not loose access, you use the conjure for what you need it for (Much like swapping to an attunement, use the skills and get back out), also you can still swap what attunement you’re in while using them. Heres and example, I was in sPvP at the Graveyard point I was getting low and my water attunement was still in cooldown so I popped the shield and spammed the 5 button like I don’t know what then while I was in the invun state I was able to switch to water (Which healed me), dropped the shield and then get off my heal rotation.

There’s multiple reasons why Armor of Earth is used when Earth Shield is not. The main problem is that Armor of Earth is a stunbreaker while Earth Shield is not. Getting Armor of Earth randomly at 50% health is in no way a substitute to using it on demand. The two skills serve very different purposes, and the trait is merely a nice convenience.

The second problem is that elementalist survivability depends entirely upon our ability to switch into Water attunement at the drop of a hat and fire off a few skills (such as dagger/dagger 2 and 5, and might as well hit 3 and 4 while we’re there) before switching back out of it. We can switch into Water attunment with Earth Shield in our hands, but we can’t do those other things without dropping it.

Earth Shield just doesn’t add very much to any build that would run it, certainly not enough to justify not taking other things.

Curring.9752:

Azunai.5974:

5 skills for one utility slot sounds great.

Losing access to 20 skills for 5 doesn’t.

You do not loose access, you use the conjure for what you need it for (Much like swapping to an attunement, use the skills and get back out), also you can still swap what attunement you’re in while using them. Heres and example, I was in sPvP at the Graveyard point I was getting low and my water attunement was still in cooldown so I popped the shield and spammed the 5 button like I don’t know what then while I was in the invun state I was able to switch to water (Which healed me), dropped the shield and then get off my heal rotation.

The problem is that the conjuring is not fast enough to be used like an instant utility ability. If it was (the targetting also does the delay part in it, not everybody wants the ground targetting without a circle cursor), I think that it will increase the usefullness of those…

@Quizz, I don’t really see the point of having a 90 second cooldown stun breaker, if you’re suing it as a stun breaker you may as well use cleansing fire. Earth shield would also buy you time for when you need to get into the water attunement.

@Ranger, Hmm agreed it would be much better if they just conjured at our feet instantaneously.

Curring.9752:

@Quizz, I don’t really see the point of having a 90 second cooldown stun breaker, if you’re suing it as a stun breaker you may as well use cleansing fire. Earth shield would also buy you time for when you need to get into the water attunement.

It’s a stunbreaker + some other nice things. The other nice things make it an attractive choice over other stunbreakers. That’s why you use it.

Earth Shield just isn’t a good replacement. It’s not a stunbreaker, it doesn’t give stability, it doesn’t reduce incoming damage by 33%, and it requires you to give up your normal skills in order to get a bunch of very situational ones. The fact that is forces you to interrupt your other activities is the most kitten thing about it.

It’s the choice between an incredible defensive buff in addition to our normal operation or a less good defensive set of abilities at the cost of our normal operation.

Curring.9752:

@Quizz, I don’t really see the point of having a 90 second cooldown stun breaker.

It also protects you against future stuns by granting stability. And the reason for taking both the skill and the trait is so you can have the skill twice. Because boons stack, their effects are never wasted even if the auto shield activates right after you use the skill. And they both have separate cooldowns.

I use other conjures, but not Earth Shield. Earth Shield is quite lackluster IMO.

The windup time on the pull, for example… its so long that you’d probably have a hard time interrupting anything other than a revive with it, especially if you have to summon the shield and then cast the pull.

using a conjure just to use 1 or 2 skill (that is what it mean to use it as an attunement as someone sggested ) just mean to have those 1 or 2 skill as utility skill with a long casting time (time u need to deploy the conjure + casting time of the skill) and a 1min cd

at this point u have to see if those 2 skill are on par, plus or subpar with other choice for that slot…

if we talk about the shield we’r talking of pull, daze, and invuln…

invuln is bad… standing still while not being able to use skill… bad version of mist form…
pull is mha… long casting time and it only pair up good with D/D but u already have plenty of way to reach your target so I can’t see why u would use an additional mobility skill (and if u really want there is lightning flash…)
daze is ok an additional cc can sound goo… bu again… casting shield plus casting daze… and melee daze too… is not that great…

comparing conjure to eng keet is a really bad choice… while on a first tought they could seem similar… there are a lot of differences…

1) kit has no cd.. u can swap betwwen a kit and your normal weapon or betwwen 2 kit as much as u want…
2) kit are instant… so u can really swap just for a skill cause it doesn’t take more than the skill cast time
3) kit are designed (and do it pretty well) to be used on par with normal weapon… all kit skill are on par with normal weapon skill… their CD are designed as normal weapon CD…

good info.
I rarely use shield but it does feel like utility to me which is kinda cool for a utility slot.
however the abilities are, as all ele skills, hard to learn i think.

The shield skills must have a place to work.

Likely a better place for it would be over arcane wave.
although if it has one blast finisher it would be a better fit.
I think either ax or ice bow would be better for spvp combat. .25 second cast time vs .75 second for hammer or shield.
for a bunker ele ice bow would be a more likely candidate. healing boost and projectile finisher for regeneration frost volley which means it would deal damage and stack up 10 seconds of regeneration assuming the water field would last long enough.