Guild Wars 2

Hello Eles! Take a break from not dying ever to post about the new specializations! Either answer my questions directly or simply post about what you feel the devs should know about the changes.

Questions:

1. D/D ele basically had 1-2 main setups, but over all it was 0/0/2/6/6. Now, some people I’ve seen experiment with Fire, Air or Full Earth replacing the 2! Have you tried it and how did you like it?
2. S/F got a slight buff (although slightly bugged) to fresh air, but also lost some damage. How are you fairing with this build currently?
3. Have any of you been trying builds with less used weapon sets like D/F or Staff?
4. Eles got a real chance at a condi build! How have you been running burns? Simply in a normal cele or full condi?
5. Any obscure builds being run like aura share or lightning rod?

The Gates Assassin.9827:

1. D/D ele basically had 1-2 main setups, but over all it was 0/0/2/6/6. Now, some people I’ve seen experiment with Fire, Air or Full Earth replacing the 2! Have you tried it and how did you like it?

Fire/Air/Earth seems all viable, except that Air seems to be a bit weaker in this condi meta. It doesn’t offer enough defense in a condi/power burst. You must take Water together with Air, or play a glass cannon build that doesn’t care about defense.

Fire and Earth are solid but not OP.

Rock Solid needs a buff. It should grand at least 2 stacks of Stability. 1 stack is nothing in this meta, and as a master trait, it’s pretty weak.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

1. S/F got a slight buff (although slightly bugged) to fresh air, but also lost some damage. How are you fairing with this build currently?

I think it’s good, but not great. Survivalbility is higher, and that’s a good thing though. I’d wait more to see.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

1. Have any of you been trying builds with less used weapon sets like D/F or Staff?
2. Eles got a real chance at a condi build! How have you been running burns? Simply in a normal cele or full condi?

Burning duration is really strong. Putting a Bathazar rune + burning sigil on my D/D almost double the burning damage I deal, while only sacrificing a bit of the power damage. Balthazar rune set should only provide 15% more burning duration, and the sigil should only provide 10% more. Buff burning after that if it’s weak. Don’t make the Runes/Sigils carry so much portion of the damage.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

1. Any obscure builds being run like aura share or lightning rod?

A full bunker Cleric E/W/A Ele can 1v2 for a very long while. Maybe we should buff base healing and reduce healing scaling. Or we can also wait and see how the meta settles.

Sunshine.5014:

The Gates Assassin.9827:

1. Any obscure builds being run like aura share or lightning rod?

A full bunker Cleric E/W/A Ele can 1v2 for a very long while. Maybe we should buff base healing and reduce healing scaling. Or we can also wait and see how the meta settles.

That’s a staff bunker, correct? Sounds like an interesting thing to try out.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

Hello Eles! Take a break from not dying ever to post about the new specializations! Either answer my questions directly or simply post about what you feel the devs should know about the changes.

Questions:

1. D/D ele basically had 1-2 main setups, but over all it was 0/0/2/6/6. Now, some people I’ve seen experiment with Fire, Air or Full Earth replacing the 2! Have you tried it and how did you like it?
2. S/F got a slight buff (although slightly bugged) to fresh air, but also lost some damage. How are you fairing with this build currently?
3. Have any of you been trying builds with less used weapon sets like D/F or Staff?
4. Eles got a real chance at a condi build! How have you been running burns? Simply in a normal cele or full condi?
5. Any obscure builds being run like aura share or lightning rod?

I’m throwing D/D all the way to the wayside to use D/F ele with fire/water/arcane celestial, strength runes, with battle/doom.

With the fire aura and might cantrip trait and 3 cantrips and the fire aura from focus, the might uptime is simply incredible, and you should always have 15 stacks or more. It has pretty good sustain, but without stone heart from earth it still folds a bit to coordinated focus fire or thieves/mesmers, but overall its very survivable and does excellent damage. Its mobility is a bit low, but thats its only weakness, especially since the focus skills give a lot to help negate burst through swirling winds shutting down lich+rangers and obsidian flesh helping with thief/mesmer burst.

Sunshine.5014:

A full bunker Cleric E/W/A Ele can 1v2 for a very long while. Maybe we should buff base healing and reduce healing scaling. Or we can also wait and see how the meta settles.

For the sake of my fun, I wouldn’t normally want to air this, but your are bloody right. I have played EWA cele dd since the patch and I think it is very strong. But maybe it’s my enemies not playing correctly: they need to get used to diamond skin.

Edit: thank you forum specialist for coming here

I should add a few things:

• Fire is still undesirable for me because of the global ICD of burning ashes (it requires a per-target ICD, then balance from that point).
• We need to know which traits/skills have per-target VS global ICDs (contingengy, GoEP, ok; but how about the rest?)
• I am still not happy with the air adept minor. it is overlapping with too many traits.
• Sunspot is still impossible to land since all fire spells are ranged.

That’s all for now

Fire traitline give so much dmg now. Also i think that blinding ashes are overrated, i have persisting flames and it gives more (imo). Try this and kill everything with cele and strength runes (often i get 25 stack of might and have permafury with cd reduction on fire skills):
http://dulfy.net/gw2traits#build=AgAB_AJUBWQ~

There is an obscure build with Staff and Conjure Earth Shield that beats everything in duel.

Rudy.6184:

Fire traitline give so much dmg now. Also i think that blinding ashes are overrated, i have persisting flames and it gives more (imo).

That’s a problem when one trait is clearly better than another in all cases.

I don’t mean to sound like a **** but what ended up happening with the suggestions in this post: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Report-PvP-Forum-Specialist-Report/first

There were a lot of suggestions and ideas being thrown around there and nothing new from that list ended up appearing in any discussions that ANET had regarding the elementalist changes – well except for the Elemental Attunment stuff – so it pretty much felt like things fell on deaf ears.

I know the ideas you may gather here do not necessarily end up being taken seriously by ANET, but it would be nice to hear what was the outcome of that, if any.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

Hello Eles! Take a break from not dying ever to post about the new specializations! Either answer my questions directly or simply post about what you feel the devs should know about the changes.

Questions:

1. D/D ele basically had 1-2 main setups, but over all it was 0/0/2/6/6. Now, some people I’ve seen experiment with Fire, Air or Full Earth replacing the 2! Have you tried it and how did you like it?

It feels better to have more trait options, but the trait options in earth are not that interesting.

Air and Fire offered more “innovation” in the play with the blind and the lightning rod trait, but what makes it feel “same old same old” is the fact we are still very much trapped in Water and Arcane – Water in particular.

I had hopes for more build diversity, but not taking Water and Arcane is pretty much impossible as none of the other trait lines offers something to compensate for what you lose in terms of survivability.

Also very annoyed that we didn’t get lingering elements as baseline.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

1. Have any of you been trying builds with less used weapon sets like D/F or Staff?

I have played mostly D/D and D/F since the patch hit.

D/D felt weaker in my view, but that is mainly due to the fact everyone and their mother is running a burst spec now a days, which have generally gotten more powerful.

D/F feels better, albeit I am still adapting to the shift. Focus offers a lot more survivability, but again I haven’t been able to get away from the Water / Arcane trait combo to survive no matter the build I ran.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

1. Eles got a real chance at a condi build! How have you been running burns? Simply in a normal cele or full condi?

Tried a few times a condi build, these allowed me to try and shy away from Arcane whilst specing to Fire / Earth / Water. Running traditional bunker / condi.

Loss of fire auras on signet has hit the build in my opinion – though I was never a big signet condi player. Overall I felt it to be lackluster though as other professions can do a condi build miles better, so it feels like playing with a handicap to run an ele condi build.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

1. Any obscure builds being run like aura share or lightning rod?

If running the condi signet build – Fire / Earth / Water – I tried a few times aura share but haven’t been a big fan – was excited in trying aura builds, but felt it was not that exciting to play because unless you spec Fire / Air / Earth, using auras seem lackluster as without fire we don’t get many auras and lose might on fire aura (why that is only on fire aura I don’t get), without Air you lose Swiftness and Fury, without Earth you lose protection on auras.

It would have been nicer if we had more options to get aura and if all trait lines had something that buffed the effects you get from any aura. This way you could spec more freely and have interesting mixes with auras.

I have been playing mostly D/F Air / Water / Arcane with lightning rod. It is fun to see the lightning proc and get that bit of extra damage in. It feels strong with my Celestial D/F build as I think I am pulling good damage with it by hitting 1-2k depending on the glass level of the target and the number of might stacks I have.

The worst part about feeling backed into a Water/Arcane corner is that when the elite spec is added, that’s probably going to make us all run Elite/Water/Arcane.

So much for build diversity.

Koviko.3248:

The worst part about feeling backed into a Water/Arcane corner is that when the elite spec is added, that’s probably going to make us all run Elite/Water/Arcane.

So much for build diversity.

Yeah, at the end of the day that is pretty much the state of the elementalist in my opinion.

Nothing has been done to make the meta step out from the X / Water / Arcane – ANET even recognizes that it is a major issue on build diversity, but the way they were trying to fix it was completely wrong – i.e., lets nerf it so people spec to others. And then when the patch hits they simply gave up on trying to fix it.

I mean if you force us to choose the build that is least weak, you are not giving build diversity. ANET should have leveled the other trait lines to actually make us consider different options with good results.

Same goes for our skills. Our elites continue to be terrible and we have no skill capable of taking the position of our cantrips in our regular utility slots (not considering tornado on this as just slapping a “cantrip” name on it does not make it good).

In order for Ele to step out of water/Arcana, other utilities must be buffed to include more defense options when traited.

For example:

• Arcane: when traited, give 1 stack of Arcane Shield every time an Arcane skill is used, last 3s.
• Glyph: when traited, give 2s Resistance upon activation.
• Signet: when traited (Written in Stone), give 3s aura, depends on the signet. Air: Shock aura, Fire: Fire aura…

Without a good defensive set of utilities, all Ele will continue to run Cantrips, and there fore will continue to run Water.

yep thats why i run water. Especially now. So much condi cleanse and cantrip buff with soothign disruption. I was tempted to run glyphs with air, but it feels like defensless.
My cleansing flame and stop,doge,roll are so great….

The Gates Assassin.9827:

D/D ele basically had 1-2 main setups, but over all it was 0/0/2/6/6. Now, some people I’ve seen experiment with Fire, Air or Full Earth replacing the 2! Have you tried it and how did you like it?

DD has now 2 setup viable and no more: 10011 and 00111. The first one beeing more dps oriented the second beeing tanky oriented.
Air is to weak.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

1. S/F got a slight buff (although slightly bugged) to fresh air, but also lost some damage. How are you fairing with this build currently?

Havent tryed cause fresh air still bugged, silly question ^^
Plus till Scepter got his rework, it’s even more a silly question …

The Gates Assassin.9827:

1. Have any of you been trying builds with less used weapon sets like D/F or Staff?

Slightly off topic i think: staff in wvw has one build way above others: 10011
Lightning rod is dead cause fire provides far more dps. Earth is pointless cause it’s not what will help you survive FP class.
=> From 2 build to 1

The Gates Assassin.9827:

Eles got a real chance at a condi build! How have you been running burns? Simply in a normal cele or full condi?

10011 cele with power overwhelming (hoelbrak rune, was lazy to swap): one full drake breath without cleanse bring a thief from full to ~30% life

The Gates Assassin.9827:

1. Any obscure builds being run like aura share or lightning rod?

Using 00111 triple signet build, but its not that obscure, its the strongest 00111 build, just no one is realizing how crappy diamond skin and stone hearth are aand how kittening strong healing signet is with perma passiv, air signet was always strong, and earth is super strong contrary to what people think.

PS:
Aura build will 75% become meta in wvw once people in this game mode will stop keep playing warrior as pre-patch
(opti melee 5man group: 3guard, aurashare, necro)

The Gates Assassin.9827:

2. S/F got a slight buff (although slightly bugged) to fresh air, but also lost some damage. How are you fairing with this build currently?

It is pointless to talk about viability of spec with fresh air still having icd. Get this fixed asap then we can talk. Without that any input will not be all that helpful but here goes…

As it is fresh air seems to be playable but I find myself lacking damage to kill or even put pressure on some targets – mostly but not limited to (bunker ranger, bunker necro, cele engi, non glass eles). Survivability seems to be better which is good news, but by nature that spec is not meant to outlast opponents. Fresh air got to output heavy damage to be really useful in both solo and team fight but with defence increase for other classes and damage nerf it doesn’t always seem doable.

Other then above many issues fresh air had still remain true after patch. Got to pick defensive traits, got to run amulet with vitality to even stand a chance surviving(which now means we get less damage then other classes with higher vitality), hardest hitting spell(DT) still require setup of other skill which cooldown is longer then most stun breaker cooldowns making that combo impossible to hit in 1v1 against half decent opponent. Elites still are not worth calling elite, some of scepter skills still are lackluster – fire auto attack hurts me most at the moment. The reason for that is:
-if opponent dodges phoenix or somehow it didn’t crit or FA is on ICD still getting FA proc with that long cast fire auto attack is painful. For such long cast flamestrike sure doesn’t do much for us, and if that didn’t crit either(or got dodged/blocked/blinded) well then we really are in trouble.

But as I’ve said it is pointless to discuss state of spec with most important trait being bugged, it could make big difference but it is hard to say if enough.

Zelyhn Lekovitch.2867:

• Sunspot is still impossible to land since all fire spells are ranged.

I suggest to remove currently dmg effect of sunspot and make it proc Staff fire 3 skill which have less dmg but in other hand apply 2stacks of burn and the most 1200 range and on target use.

I would post some other suggestions with commentary why:

Earth:
Serrated Stones: 5% more dmg vs bleeding foes, bleed you apply 20% longer.
Changes:
5% dmg can remain, but bleed increase make into: bleed you apply with scepter earth autoattack and dagger off hand earth 5 last 50% longer.

// In that way it is more specific to way we apply bleed, but more rewarding. If I wanna bleed build I can be restricted that far. //

Change #2:
Enemies around bleed out in downed state 50% more efficient.

// Imo we lack something like that and it suits that bleed theme in that trait. //

Earth:
Diamon Skin: conditions can’t be applied to you while above 90% health.
Changes: add secondary effect while below 90% health every 10s drops 1/7 of lenght Unsteady Ground for 1s duration.

// In that skill the case seem to be that it work for 10% of our jumping hp pool. In offensive skills that restricton could be understand, but not rly in that defensive one.
1/7 of lenght Unsteady Ground also make our deffensive less transparent, which is our problem that we have many tremoundous skills. It will make syngery between earth and air cuz of lightining rod: which will dmg and weakness. //

Change #2:
Add third effect: while rez summon circle made of Unsteady Ground for 3s duration and radious 120, 60s cd.

// We have not any effect that proc something while rezzing, currently arcana master trait proc aura after rez and 10% speed of reviving isn’t something uncomonn. //

Arcana:
Arcane Precision: Chance on crit to apply condi based on attument.

Changes:
Add secondary effect: when use arcana skill you lose 5 endurance and enemies in 1200 radious lose 10 endurance.

// In that way arcana utilities gain new mechanic more interesting and it kind of brings me exhaust from original gw2 when I fought about it, now we can “share” that kind of exhaust with our foes. //

The Gates Assassin.9827:

1. D/D ele basically had 1-2 main setups, but over all it was 0/0/2/6/6. Now, some people I’ve seen experiment with Fire, Air or Full Earth replacing the 2! Have you tried it and how did you like it?

I’ve tried fire and and earth (together with arcane+water) for D/D and find earth still the best for celestial eles, with fire close though – it offers a lot of damage, but not having protection on auras really hurts especially when you get auras for switching to fire. And I really find all 3 grandmaster fire traits to be lacking.

33% Air CD reduction is amazing and making d/d air so much fun again, though you are REALLY squishy if you run it because air offers basically no additional defense. I’m having quite some fun with a soldier amulet+intelligence signet fresh air build though.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

2. S/F got a slight buff (although slightly bugged) to fresh air, but also lost some damage. How are you fairing with this build currently?

I never liked scepter because when you did you burst and the enemy isn’t dead you’re almost a free kill if you use zerker stats. And scepter doesn’t really offer sustained damage or healing like dagger does which is what celestial wants.

I did try various S/F fresh air builds recently though and I think that all of them offer way too less damage (compared to what basically all other classes can now burst) in light of it basically having almost no defense or sustainability.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

3. Have any of you been trying builds with less used weapon sets like D/F or Staff?

Haven’t really tried staff since the patch. D/F does pretty well though, always did, with fresh air or other more offensive builds.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

4. Eles got a real chance at a condi build! How have you been running burns? Simply in a normal cele or full condi?

Tried both, a full carrion build with 11k health and celestial. And while both do good damage I feel you still give up too much for a true condi build: you basically need to remove some cantrips for some attunement-neutral conditions and you’re basically forced into fire for the burn on crit, and arcane for the condis on crit (instead of vigor on crit). I don’t understand how there isn’t some earth trait that offers some additional bleeds while outside of earth attunement.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

5. Any obscure builds being run like aura share or lightning rod?

If not running celestial counts as obscure, the “truly fresh air” d/d build from IntoTheMists is really fun and seems pretty viable with soldier amulet. And I did run – and have fun with – a pretty obscure ultra-tanky earth/water/arcane soothing power condi build: http://intothemists.com/guides/5724-tanky_condi_ele

And like always I still feel that ele disables have way too long cooldowns to make lightning rod viable over fresh air (outside of wvw staff) – our disables are long cooldowns and/or casttimes and/or need the enemy to hit you in melee to actually disable. There’s really no point in focus water 5 and air 5 having such huge cooldowns.

Ive been playing around with FEW, celestial D/D with doom and batlle. Runes of the adventurer (for boom duration and condi duration). Going to try with runes of fire or baelfire…

The burn on dagger main hand with burning precision and fire aura gives you some nice burn ticks. The combo of FEW seems to provide a good cover for the lost of arcana. You get good vigor and regen from soothing disruption, great protection from elemental shielding and perma fury with persisting flames.
The 2 traits boost your condi dmg to great values and with all the might you get some nasty burn stacks.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

1. Have any of you been trying builds with less used weapon sets like D/F or Staff?

In PvP I’m running D/F since my first match with Ele. First it was 0/0/2/6/6.
Now its full earth water arcane.
ER, Earthshield, Teleport and Mist form. Pre Patch FGS, now Elite Glyphe.
Celestial and Rune of Balthazar. Bleed and poison on weapon swap.

Many people say water #4 with focus is weak. But having a range chill is just awesome to use as gap closer. RTL might be better when you are in 1vs1. In team fights your mates can also close the gap when enemy runs away.

Love the skill combination on Air, especially agianst rangers.
They always start with ranger skills -> swirling winds.
No range? Ok, I go melee -> shocking aura, followed by lightning touch when aura ended.
Now the dmg part on fire. #3 and #2. Meanwhile I sure got some dmg.
Water Att, Watch out for heal to interrup with #5 (doesnt work most of the time xD), #3, (+3 Might), #2
Healing on earth #5 or glyph use. Im running the earth trait with 33% less earth cool down. This way I get more secure stomps and secured heals. The reduced condition duration on me is not so worthy since I can remove them very often. Diamond skin is also active.

Or starting in earth to reflect longbow #2

When the time comes where defending your point is important I use the following combo on an approaching enemy (you can’t belive how often it works. It’s like the don’t have condition remove or stabilty at all).

Air 5, Earth 3, Leap on Earth 3, Water 3, Water 4, Fire and attack
You win about 9 seconds.
Doesnt work on guardain because of aegis.