Guild Wars 2

It is stupid (in a bad sense). Every time I try to make use of my rotation I end up downed. This is so kittening frustrating because mobs deal so much damage. I’m running with a cele gear, but it doesn’t matter because I just can’t take any hits inside Maguuma maps. Overload Air has such a small radius that I’m forced to be very close quarters with the boss, and then the boss’ PBAoE just knock me down every single time.

Am I doing a wrong rotation? Or bad gear for such a melee-ish gameplay? This is so frustrating. I try to run a DPS Fresh Air build but it ends up being too stupid to try casting it and end up downed.

I died a lot trying fire overload. But not to long. I learned fast when to do it, to move and if interruped to continue :-).
I use flash freeze right before the overload + the 40% protection helps a bit.
In cele gear it should work.
And its much harder to pull it solo.

Wolfric.9380:

I died a lot trying fire overload. But not to long. I learned fast when to do it, to move and if interruped to continue :-).
I use flash freeze right before the overload + the 40% protection helps a bit.
In cele gear it should work.
And its much harder to pull it solo.

I was trying to use Fresh Air build against Tangled Depths meta event’s Gerent. kitten… I wonder if such thing is possible for these kinds of bosses? If I stop DPS’ing it could be a huge loss of damage against him. I might aswell camp fire for this one.

Your signature says “PvE deserves harder content” and you’re complaining about the difficulty of the content. Sounds like you’ve got some experimenting to do.

Dunno, I don’t have a problem fully casting the overloads and I’m playing as a berz tempest, so I guess you’re just not fully accomodated to the change. Get the stability while overloading in the tempest specialization and it’ll be way better. Also, the range of air overload is larger than you seem to think. You have to run around the mobs, kite them until you fully casted it.

Ghotistyx.6942:

Your signature says “PvE deserves harder content” and you’re complaining about the difficulty of the content. Sounds like you’ve got some experimenting to do.

What one thing has to do with another? I’m seeking help here so I can be a better elementalist in order to overcome the new difficulty. Actually, that’s the whole point of this topic: seeking advice.

Somehow.4769:

Dunno, I don’t have a problem fully casting the overloads and I’m playing as a berz tempest, so I guess you’re just not fully accomodated to the change. Get the stability while overloading in the tempest specialization and it’ll be way better. Also, the range of air overload is larger than you seem to think. You have to run around the mobs, kite them until you fully casted it.

I’m a very visual guy, so maybe the actual radius went missing in my eyes. I’ll experiment more tonight, thanks!

I get off my Overload Air in Berserker gear in the new maps just fine.

I’m doing quite fine using Marauder mix with zerk.

The survivability is ok-ish, not getting one shot, and the damage is really good.
Mobs die before they can kill you.

I think the problem is Celestial damage is way too low compare to marauder/zerk.
That’s probably the reason you die.

Try picking some defensive traits when you’re roaming though. Utility helps, such as mist form/earth armor/ arcane shield/Rebound.

Celestial gear is just not that great. The power is just way too low, vitality is not that great of a stat, and neither is healing power or condi dmg (unless you are building for condi, but then you wouldn’t use celestial at all). Basically, celestial siphons too many important stats so you can have points in those stats that are much less important.

Things that can help if you are having trouble getting downed while using an overload:
1) spec Air/Earth/Tempest. Earth gives you an insane amount of protection from using skills/overloads.
This might be the only thing you need to do, but
2) if you are still having trouble while in full zerkers, consider using cavalier’s armor for the extra toughness.

I personally play in lazy-mode (well, as lazy as one can be in the HoT maps at melee range). I took a build from Vernificus (sp?) on this forum, and I really like how tanky it is while retaining good damage overall (roughly 20% less dmg than a full glass/scholar build but you have WAAAAAY more survivability).

The build is Air 1 3 2, Earth 3 3 1, Tempest 3 3 1. Utilities are mostly shouts for the auras, though I also use glyph of storms to help burn down bosses. Use dagger/warhorn. Dagger is zerk, warhorn is knights(both are ascended), armor is cavalier’s (exotic), trinkets and back are all zerk (ascended). Runes are Scrapper, sigils are whatever you personally prefer, and the food I use is Nopolitos Saute (70 tough +10% boon duration) and the cheapo precision oil (5% of toughness/3% of vit).

This build is definitely not the top dps, but I think it is about as close as one can get when trying to balance survivability that noticeably helps, especially when trying to complete overloads AND retain good overall damage.

Also, I think the warhorn gets crapped on a bit too much in this forum. Yes fire 4 is horrible and air 5 is meh, but man… Water is almost OP in how much you can heal even without any healing power. Just press water 5, water 3 to blast and water 4. Easily gives you 2/3’s your HP back.

Bhima.9518:

Celestial gear is just not that great. The power is just way too low, vitality is not that great of a stat, and neither is healing power or condi dmg (unless you are building for condi, but then you wouldn’t use celestial at all). Basically, celestial siphons too many important stats so you can have points in those stats that are much less important.

Things that can help if you are having trouble getting downed while using an overload:
1) spec Air/Earth/Tempest. Earth gives you an insane amount of protection from using skills/overloads.
This might be the only thing you need to do, but
2) if you are still having trouble while in full zerkers, consider using cavalier’s armor for the extra toughness.

I personally play in lazy-mode (well, as lazy as one can be in the HoT maps at melee range). I took a build from Vernificus (sp?) on this forum, and I really like how tanky it is while retaining good damage overall (roughly 20% less dmg than a full glass/scholar build but you have WAAAAAY more survivability).

The build is Air 1 3 2, Earth 3 3 1, Tempest 3 3 1. Utilities are mostly shouts for the auras, though I also use glyph of storms to help burn down bosses. Use dagger/warhorn. Dagger is zerk, warhorn is knights(both are ascended), armor is cavalier’s (exotic), trinkets and back are all zerk (ascended). Runes are Scrapper, sigils are whatever you personally prefer, and the food I use is Nopolitos Saute (70 tough +10% boon duration) and the cheapo precision oil (5% of toughness/3% of vit).

This build is definitely not the top dps, but I think it is about as close as one can get when trying to balance survivability that noticeably helps, especially when trying to complete overloads AND retain good overall damage.

Also, I think the warhorn gets crapped on a bit too much in this forum. Yes fire 4 is horrible and air 5 is meh, but man… Water is almost OP in how much you can heal even without any healing power. Just press water 5, water 3 to blast and water 4. Easily gives you 2/3’s your HP back.

Hey, I would like to thank you for your good suggestion of a more defensive fresh air variant. I find that the survivability is indeed much higher compare to my pure dps fresh air sped I do not feel like I lose too much damage with the overload spam either. I’m still playing Marauder + zerk and find a significant survival improvement.

Also I feel like your spec would be stronger with Elemental Basion. You gets lots of health back by your Aura spam. Also I find that Tempest’s exclusive heal is much better than other Ele healing skills. (Cast speed/heal margin/cd/utility value-wise)

Aomine.5012:

Bhima.9518:

Celestial gear is just not that great. The power is just way too low, vitality is not that great of a stat, and neither is healing power or condi dmg (unless you are building for condi, but then you wouldn’t use celestial at all). Basically, celestial siphons too many important stats so you can have points in those stats that are much less important.

Things that can help if you are having trouble getting downed while using an overload:
1) spec Air/Earth/Tempest. Earth gives you an insane amount of protection from using skills/overloads.
This might be the only thing you need to do, but
2) if you are still having trouble while in full zerkers, consider using cavalier’s armor for the extra toughness.

I personally play in lazy-mode (well, as lazy as one can be in the HoT maps at melee range). I took a build from Vernificus (sp?) on this forum, and I really like how tanky it is while retaining good damage overall (roughly 20% less dmg than a full glass/scholar build but you have WAAAAAY more survivability).

The build is Air 1 3 2, Earth 3 3 1, Tempest 3 3 1. Utilities are mostly shouts for the auras, though I also use glyph of storms to help burn down bosses. Use dagger/warhorn. Dagger is zerk, warhorn is knights(both are ascended), armor is cavalier’s (exotic), trinkets and back are all zerk (ascended). Runes are Scrapper, sigils are whatever you personally prefer, and the food I use is Nopolitos Saute (70 tough +10% boon duration) and the cheapo precision oil (5% of toughness/3% of vit).

This build is definitely not the top dps, but I think it is about as close as one can get when trying to balance survivability that noticeably helps, especially when trying to complete overloads AND retain good overall damage.

Also, I think the warhorn gets crapped on a bit too much in this forum. Yes fire 4 is horrible and air 5 is meh, but man… Water is almost OP in how much you can heal even without any healing power. Just press water 5, water 3 to blast and water 4. Easily gives you 2/3’s your HP back.

Hey, I would like to thank you for your good suggestion of a more defensive fresh air variant. I find that the survivability is indeed much higher compare to my pure dps fresh air sped I do not feel like I lose too much damage with the overload spam either. I’m still playing Marauder + zerk and find a significant survival improvement.

Also I feel like your spec would be stronger with Elemental Basion. You gets lots of health back by your Aura spam. Also I find that Tempest’s exclusive heal is much better than other Ele healing skills. (Cast speed/heal margin/cd/utility value-wise)

I’m still up in the air with bastion because imbued melodies gives you another 20% duration on protection (and your other boons). I’ll probably play-test a bit more with them both and see which one helps more, though Bastion on its face looks like it could be the winner with how much healing you get from it.

It would help out a lot if you had soft cc to help in kiting, oh wait soft cc doesnt work against champs >.< . Maybe try using the two summon glyphs (earth elemental) to soak up damage while you free cast. Also Stone Heart can add a ton of survivability to any ele’s setup, although the base damage of some mobs may be too high for it to have much of an effect.

Ghotistyx.6942:

Your signature says “PvE deserves harder content” and you’re complaining about the difficulty of the content. Sounds like you’ve got some experimenting to do.

Inflating mob damage with poor telegraphs into 1-shot territory for low tier hp classes is not exactly “hard” content. If you can make content easier with gear swap that causes passive defense, it’s not exactly hard content.

Zenith.7301:

Inflating mob damage with poor telegraphs into 1-shot territory for low tier hp classes is not exactly “hard” content. If you can make content easier with gear swap that causes passive defense, it’s not exactly hard content.

Except it is.
Higher damage and worse telegraphs mean you need to do a much better job at reading the opponent and becoming familiar with them. Either you run the risk with paper defenses where things actually threaten you, or you find some way to reduce that threat. It’s certainly not the only way of increasing difficulty, but it definitely increases the difficulty and requires an improvement on mechanic mastery.
If it isn’t harder content a) what then is it exactly? b) what is harder content to you?

Ghotistyx.6942:

Zenith.7301:

Inflating mob damage with poor telegraphs into 1-shot territory for low tier hp classes is not exactly “hard” content. If you can make content easier with gear swap that causes passive defense, it’s not exactly hard content.

Except it is.
Higher damage and worse telegraphs mean you need to do a much better job at reading the opponent and becoming familiar with them. Either you run the risk with paper defenses where things actually threaten you, or you find some way to reduce that threat. It’s certainly not the only way of increasing difficulty, but it definitely increases the difficulty and requires an improvement on mechanic mastery.
If it isn’t harder content a) what then is it exactly? b) what is harder content to you?

Harder content to me is content that demands tight execution. If I can mitigate it by throwing blinds and stacking aegis, it’s a joke.

The idea of real hard content would be Priestess of Dwayna, where people need to coordinate different tasks, or doing the dredge control room where people have to split off to the switches without using cheese objects like spy kits.

Naturally, GW2 is lacking on a lot of difficulty, and implements the age old lazy way of giving “difficulty” by making mobs HP sponges with inflated numbers that just encourage stacking something like reflects or blinds to trivialize.

Look up Wildstar’s Datascape, or even Genetic Archives. Look at the Blast Furnance in WoW or Blackhand Mythic or FFXIV’s Alexander Savage Floor 3.

Those are content with meaningful difficulty because the difficulty isn’t “more HP and damage”. There is a variety of extra complex tasks with tight checks and many critical points of failure. Tethers to be done correctly, aligning and splitting up at the right times, positioning mobs at certain distances from each other and coordinating teammates into handling each appropriately, responding to encounter specific debuffs and mechanisms.

GW2 has shown slight approaches to meaningful encounters with the first boss of the raid such as the lightning to be split across teammates and displacement orbs, but it’s a very slight mechanism compared to the raid design of many other MMO’s. Wildstar takes the cake by far, but few people know it due to the game’s population fail.