Guild Wars 2

So the other day, I was playing hotjoin, which does nothing more than infuriate me. when I came across a champion magus running an S/F build who literally kitten d me several different time across 3 matches. She used frostbow 5 and 4 to devestating effect. Then I tried my iteration of what her build probably was (zerker ammy, strength runes, and I ran 0/6/2/4/2 for traits) and tried to use the bow on her, but she used earth focus 4 to reflect the frostbow 5 after dodging the icestorm, and then finished me with the firey GS. It was humilating.

I kept playing with this build, and while its burst potential is very good I am very bad at playing it properly because I die if I thief so much as presses F1. I do really like the focuses defensive skills though, but I still need help.

So would it be better to run a more defensive fresh air S/F build with say celestial? Then I’d feel like the damage would fall short.. And are my traits okay?

nearlight.3064:

So the other day, I was playing hotjoin, which does nothing more than infuriate me. when I came across a champion magus running an S/F build who literally kitten d me several different time across 3 matches. She used frostbow 5 and 4 to devestating effect. Then I tried my iteration of what her build probably was (zerker ammy, strength runes, and I ran 0/6/2/4/2 for traits) and tried to use the bow on her, but she used earth focus 4 to reflect the frostbow 5 after dodging the icestorm, and then finished me with the firey GS. It was humilating.

I kept playing with this build, and while its burst potential is very good I am very bad at playing it properly because I die if I thief so much as presses F1. I do really like the focuses defensive skills though, but I still need help.

So would it be better to run a more defensive fresh air S/F build with say celestial? Then I’d feel like the damage would fall short.. And are my traits okay?

I’ve got alot of ideas for you but in the end you just need to try out variations of the build you just mentioned to see what fits your playstyle. I’d be leaning towards a Tempest Defense Spell Slinger build to maximize damage output. (doesn’t the 5 on frostbow work well with tempest defense?)

A few short tips:

- grab arcane shield and lightning flash. Playing glass S/F without both of these is suicide

- Try to be very mindful of your positioning. Keep your distance and get on top of elevated positions so people can’t just run up to you

- Spec really heavily into damage. The build you describe is fine if you find you have might up at all times. Consider scholar runes to increase your free casting damage massively. 66002 is another option with a lot more duelling potential. I personally prefer it because of the burst condi cleanse from 4 into fire. Air + fire sigils is pretty much a given. Battle is okay but not great (even with strength runes, fights don’t generally last long enough to make good use of this sigil)

- You cannot run from a thief with S/F, but you can blow him up. Thief damage is nothing compared to what you can produce. Try to see the thief coming, and don’t panic if he jumps on you. Pop a cooldown and put as much damage in him as you can.

- I’d advise against ether renewal in most matches. People can easily negate the heal by hitting you once or twice. Both other heals work better in my opinion

- Auto-targeting on.

- Lots of exercise. Glass S/F is harder than D/D

Positioning is the most important one. For example on graveyard, dont stand on the point, but hop around the tombstones. Run in to blow someone up, get back out.

Thanks for your advice! I actually tried going with a slightly more defensive 0/6/0/4/4 build, that took vital striking and cleansing wave, and elemental attunement, all the boons help me survive I guess. I didn’t fight many thieves tonight so I need to work on them more. I was vulnerable to glkittenter members that blurred frenzy gank me from behind or the side where I can’t see though, when my defenses are on CD, and warriors gave me some trouble because they’re too tanky to burst quickly and have enough control and mobility to come out on top if they focus me…, but most of the other classes I annihilate. Rangers are pretty much free kills unless they’re really good, and necros can’t withstand it unless they fear lock me.

I still need to work on positioning, but I feel like I’m getting better at it. I just need to be better at engaging from where I won’t be focused, and noticing when I’m about to get focused I guess.

Anyway I think I want to use this build/playstyle for small group play in WvW. What sort of gear would be ideal for that? Since full zerk is less viable there. I was originally planning on getting a mix of ascended celestial and knight’s armor (slowly from fractals) and for trinkets I can slot an array of things, for amulet I could run zerker, zerker/valk, knights or celestial, for rings I can run zerker, zerker/valk or knight/cavalier, but for accessories right now I only have one zerker and one celestial but in a few weeks I’ll either get another zerker another celestial, a PVT or a knights depending on what works the best..

And for a backpiece all I have right now is an ascended cavalier back, but I should be able to get zerker or PVT from fractals in a while. And for weapons I have zerker exotics, but I’m slowly upgrading to ascended once I make more than 200 gold and or possibly make a legendary focus lol.