Guild Wars 2

There are several old threads on the web for this topic but not having seen them recently, let’s resurrect this:

Arcane Power + Drake’s Breath + Elemental Surge = ~32 seconds of AoE burning without any condition duration.

This seems like a huge amount of damage in PvE where the burning won’t be cleansed. With carrion type gear, you can probably kite until they die.

Arcane Power + Cone of Cold + Elemental Surge = ~10 seconds of AoE chill

Mix and match with other attunements for an occasional blind or immobilize. With Arcane Blast, runners can be caught at 1500 range.

This easily fits into the standard 0/10/0/30/30 build, possibly taking the trait that gives Arcane Power at 75% health rather than the recently nerfed dodging traits.

Arcane Power is pretty buggy and can easily be consumed with less than 5 crits, but using the right skills with it seems like a huge damage opportunity. Non-damage abilities consume stacks. AoE does not consume more than single-target skills.

So what success have people had with builds that use this combo? What builds do you like for it? Can you add to the discussion?

Depends are we talking about PvE or PvP or even WvW.

PvE – 32s of AoE burning – Interesting, useful for solo’ing large mobs. It’s fun and all but only research would show whether it’s faster than just bashing their heads in.

PvP – Condition removal, your combo just got removed.

WvW – Against a zerg, possibly useful, most will still remove conditions, though either way it would still be useful as disruption. Would need a valid build to actually see how useful this is. In solo situation, it will be the same as PvP, condition removal, combo dead.

As for just arcane power, I think there was a pure glass cannon 1 shot build for eles before that utilized it. Fairly funny and almost matches up to a thief spike but then you’re down for the next minute or so. Involves S/D and heavily traiting into fire and air.

For Staff Ele, Elemental Surge + Arcane Power combo examples:
1. Arcane Power → Fire Attunement with Sunspot trait = Sunspot with burning.
2. Arcane Power → Air Attunement with Electric Discharge trait = Electric Discharge with blind.
3. Eruption (E1) → Fire Attunement → Arcane Power (before the blast) = Eruption blast with burning. If you have Sunspot trait, this will not trigger Sunspot to burn or use Arcane Power charge.
4. Eruption (E1) → Arcane Power → Fire Attunement (before the blast) = Eruption blast with burning. If you have Sunspot trait, this will cause Sunspot to burn.
5. Lava Font (F2) → Earth Attunement → Arcane Power = Lava Font with immobilize.
6. Water Attunement → Arcane Power → Signet of Air = AE blind + AE Chill.
7. Earth Attunement → Glyph of Storm → Fire Attunement → Arcane Power = AE bleed + burn.
8. Eruption (E1) → Ice Spike (W2) → Fire Attunement → Arcane Power = Eruption blast + Ice Spike with 2x burning.

dendam.6120:

For Staff Ele, Elemental Surge + Arcane Power combo examples:
1. Arcane Power -> Fire Attunement with Sunspot trait = Sunspot with burning.
2. Arcane Power -> Air Attunement with Electric Discharge trait = Electric Discharge with blind.
3. Eruption (E1) -> Fire Attunement -> Arcane Power (before the blast) = Eruption blast with burning. If you have Sunspot trait, this will not trigger Sunspot to burn or use Arcane Power charge.
4. Eruption (E1) -> Arcane Power -> Fire Attunement (before the blast) = Eruption blast with burning. If you have Sunspot trait, this will cause Sunspot to burn.
5. Lava Font (F2) -> Earth Attunement -> Arcane Power = Lava Font with immobilize.
6. Water Attunement -> Arcane Power -> Signet of Air = AE blind + AE Chill.
7. Earth Attunement -> Glyph of Storm -> Fire Attunement -> Arcane Power = AE bleed + burn.
8. Eruption (E1) -> Ice Spike (W2) -> Fire Attunement -> Arcane Power = Eruption blast + Ice Spike with 2x burning.

Interesting. Problem is that Arcane Power has a fairly loong CD

Gareth.2615:

Arcane Power + Cone of Cold + Elemental Surge = ~10 seconds of AoE chill

Or use the D/D water auto attack and get 30 seconds of AoE chill.

Arcane Power + Glyph of Storm (Earth) for AoE immobilize, blind, bleed, and damage is probably my favorite. Also Arcane Power + Unstable Ground make a nice immobilize wall. Sadly, I don’t think + condition duration affects Elemental Surge conditions.

What about Arcane Shield. Does it trigger the effects of Elemental Surge?

Malcastus.6240:

What about Arcane Shield. Does it trigger the effects of Elemental Surge?

Nope.

The blast of the shield should though. Would be sweet.

Malcastus.6240:

The blast of the shield should though. Would be sweet.

According to wiki, it already works this way.

Glyph of Elemental Power seems to provide a lesser (e.g. no blind, shorter burning, …) version without requiring a grandmaster trait.

dendam.6120:

7. Earth Attunement -> Glyph of Storm -> Fire Attunement -> Arcane Power = AE bleed +

For Arcane Power, the effect triggers for the next 5 spells you use.
How many of those 5 is consumed by the storm? One for each tick? Will the Arcane Power (“Your next five attacks do critical damage.”) ensure 5 crits from one storm?

TheBlueI.3486:

For Arcane Power, the effect triggers for the next 5 spells you use.
How many of those 5 is consumed by the storm? One for each tick? Will the Arcane Power (“Your next five attacks do critical damage.”) ensure 5 crits from one storm?

There is no easy answer for that, except to state that it varies for just about all skills. For example, Fireball consumes 3 charges (regardless of how many targets you hit) whereas Vapor Blade uses 1 charge per cast but applies the chill on the return too. Frozen Ground on the other hand, consumes charges even though it doesn’t hit anything (and doesn’t apply conditions either).

The only way to be sure what a skill does is to go to the Mists and test it.

Arcane Power + Elemental Surge with attunement switch can produce interesting effects.

For area “tick” based spells (Lava Font, Unsteady Ground, Glyph of Storms), Arcane Power seems to be applied based on the attunement when the tick hit. Using Earth storm as examples:

1. Earth storm with 5 ticks of immobilize:
   Earth Attunement -> Arcane Power -> Glyph of Storm -> wait for 5 ticks.
2. Earth storm with 1 immobilize tick then 4 chill ticks:
   Earth Attunement -> Arcane Power -> Glyph of Storm -> wait for 1 tick -> Water Attunement -> wait for 4 ticks.
3. Earth storm with 1 immobilize tick then 1 chill tick then burning:
   Earth Attunement -> Arcane Power -> Glyph of Storm -> wait for 1 tick -> Water Attunement -> wait for 1 tick -> Fire Attunement -> wait for 3 ticks.

For delayed hit spells, Arcane Power seems to be applied based on the attunement when the spell hit. Examples:

1. Ice Spike with immobilize:
   Water Attunement -> Arcane Power -> Ice Spike -> Earth Attunement before Ice Spike dropped.
   Or, Water Attunement -> Ice Spike -> Arcane Power -> Earth Attunement before Ice Spike dropped.
2. Lightning Surge with immobilize:
   Air Attunement -> Arcane Power -> Lightning Surge -> Earth Attunement before Lightning Surge hit.
   Or, Air Attunement -> Lightning Surge -> Arcane Power -> Earth Attunement before Lightning Surge hit.