Back from a little lay off.... Scepters?
Fresh air happened.
Due to the proc from air 15, this trait boosts your damage by quite a bit (a lot in scepter), so a lot of people switched from scepter to dagger because it feels nice to burst a single target every 5s.
But what very few people saw is that fresh air is actually even better for daggers’ sustained damage
Retired elementalist theorycrafter
What happened is they continuously nerfed the elementalist until it was unplayable garbage. Desperate people are trying out the scepter, staff, and lots of new builds but really nothing works like d/d used to. Class destroyed.
Oh yes and also the end of tyria as we know it, because elementalists were nerfed so hard that the elements stopped working at all.
Or maybe ARM is slightly biased
Retired elementalist theorycrafter
But what very few people saw is that fresh air is actually even better for daggers’ sustained damage
as long as developers don’t give us back our mobility, d/d is going to be useful in a very limited number of scenarios.
i was using a scepter before it was cool, but people found a new build other than the 1 bunker build.
scepter offers the best might stacking. I’ve been messing around with a lightening hammer build and might stacking with scepter is crucial to get perma fury with 30 fire traits.
Scepter has always been pretty decent. The only weapon that has changed significantly IMO is Focus, since you can’t block trebs with it anymore.
What happened is they continuously nerfed the elementalist until it was unplayable garbage. Desperate people are trying out the scepter, staff, and lots of new builds but really nothing works like d/d used to. Class destroyed.
It’s unbelievable to me that so many people genuinely think this. This class if fantastic. I just switched over from Warrior a few weeks ago and I enjoy the game so much more. No classes give me trouble in PvP, and PvE is a joke so I can do whatever I want and still be successful there.
Think about it, Ele’s have been nerfed for like 5 straight months (not arguing with you there) but the class is still incredible! Doesn’t that mean Ele’s were OP and deserved the nerfs?
Most pro PvP teams still take at least 1 Ele, in most cases they take 2. Until that changes you have nothing to worry about, the class is great.
The only thing that has been nerfed since release is the brainless elem 0/10/0/30/30 spe faceroll auto-win.
Retired elementalist theorycrafter
scepter offers the best might stacking. I’ve been messing around with a lightening hammer build and might stacking with scepter is crucial to get perma fury with 30 fire traits.
Scepter has always been pretty decent. The only weapon that has changed significantly IMO is Focus, since you can’t block trebs with it anymore.
Yea Scepter was always a solid choice but it gained a lot of hate there for a long time because people couldn’t reliably land the Dragon’s Tooth → Ring of Fire → Phoenix → Fire Grab combo and so it was “worthless.” The same was more or less true with Staff’s ground based AOE abilities so Dagger was “the” choice for a long time.
Scepters are the flavor of the month it seems (and I’m sure that, at the speed the GW2 metagame moves, it’ll be the flavor of the month for many months). The main reason is they slowed down the classic 0/10/0/30/30 spec by removing stunbreaks from Lightning Flash and Cleansing Fire, as well as nerfing Bountiful Power to only give 1% DPS increase as opposed to 2%.
Given that, the build is still incredibly strong. Blinx posted a build here about it, showing its rather strong position in the current sPvP metagame: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Top-Tier-Ele-PvP-Guide
I think a lot of it has to do with speeding up Phoenix and the changning and adding of a few traits (Persisting Flames for PvE and Fresh Air for PvP). It made people more receptive to the Scepter, and indeed, it’s been an underrated weapon for a long time, so yes, it’s nice to see that it’s finally being used. It’s definitely a viable weapon set and I’d suggest looking for Zoose’s guide to the S/D Ele if you’re curious on how to use it.
Don’t forget the changes to aura boons. They halved the boon duration we got from shocking aura and gave frost aura some damage mitigation. Relative buff to s/d and nerf to d/d.
I secretly like that 0/10/0/30/30 d/d has gotten constant nerfs as it limits bandwagoners from just being able to pick up the class and spam random buttons to win. I miss the days when people thought this was a hard class to play. Now at least we’re gaining a reputation as the glassiest cannons but a cannon no less.
With the fresh air trait many eles became aware of the viability s/d already had since beta. Unfortunately many tried and gave up on the weapon set simply because it is not as easy to play s/d than to play with d/d.
Exactly, i played scepter since release and when accostomed to it it is as viable as dagger. Only difference is that you have to pull some extra tricks instead off blasting your foes away with aoes:p
What happened is they continuously nerfed the elementalist until it was unplayable garbage. Desperate people are trying out the scepter, staff, and lots of new builds but really nothing works like d/d used to. Class destroyed.
It’s unbelievable to me that so many people genuinely think this. This class if fantastic. I just switched over from Warrior a few weeks ago and I enjoy the game so much more. No classes give me trouble in PvP, and PvE is a joke so I can do whatever I want and still be successful there.
Think about it, Ele’s have been nerfed for like 5 straight months (not arguing with you there) but the class is still incredible! Doesn’t that mean Ele’s were OP and deserved the nerfs?
Most pro PvP teams still take at least 1 Ele, in most cases they take 2. Until that changes you have nothing to worry about, the class is great.
I would expect exactly this response from the casuals that PvP and PvE attract.
I’m talking about the real game, those fluff parts are not relevant.
With the fresh air trait many eles became aware of the viability s/d already had since beta. Unfortunately many tried and gave up on the weapon set simply because it is not as easy to play s/d than to play with d/d.
Yeah hitting 5 buttons really fast from range is tough! There was this one time on my d/d ele when i was immobilized and being hit in melee by 3 warriors and 2 thieves and I was like this is sooo much easier than nuking from far away!
DeSCEPTERcons kittenes.