Guild Wars 2

Struggling to sustain against their damage. Not asking to nerf DH as I have beaten them with other classes except melee d/d. Some of the DH I encounter don’t even fully understand playing their build yet they do enormous damage all through traps and ranged.

Have they reduced d/d ele population? So many DH now I literally stopped using mine.

I wouldn’t engage – without focus/warhorn for reflects, projectile immunity and straight up damage immunity they are going to tear you apart more often than not, especially when they F1 pull you into stacked traps. Their damage is well beyond the domain of classic d/d sustain.

DH is very flavour of the month currently, because it is not hard to be very effective with it due to it being an absolute power house; so yes, you will continue to see a lot of them.

I’ve been playing DH a lot myself this last week to verify the situation from their perspective. I have an absolute blast dominating most situations I come across on it, especially when I target individuals for my thief companion to +1. Swift deaths everywhere from 1200 range, and if I get into trouble… f1 pull into my traps, and then Heavy Light knockback them through the trap again for even more spike damage.

A bit like trapper ranger/druid. Traps hurt close combat oponents very hard.
I am a focus + shout user and can handle ranged combat well but for classic DD this is a bad matchup. You are better at disengaging so use it :-).
With focus its diffrent. I pull swirling winds at start and look what happens :-). Then i might assault or if he comes counter. I often swap earth and than do the following upon close range combat:
Feel the burn + flash freeze + overload earth and stay close up + fire cleansing flame + magnetic wave depending on what happens (reflect!). I even have obsidian flesh ready if it gets out of hands. Shouts are fully traited. Often obsidian flesh is then the stomp securer. And i run stone heart in earth combinded with heavy 40% protection uptime from shouts + earth overlaod this is a nemesis for zerker builds.
If i need more punch i swap fire.

Long story short, you cannot. To beat a DH 1v1 you need focus. Dagger offhand gets torn to pieces.

Glyph of Elementals and have the Elemental walk into the trap?

do not use tempest LoL
play classic dd ele
armor of earth → walk in → teleport out → kill him → gg

blubberblasen.3901:

do not use tempest LoL
play classic dd ele
armor of earth -> walk in -> teleport out -> kill him -> gg

This is one way to get murdered vs a competent DH; classic dd is still very vulnerable to the amazing longbow damage.

Also, Tempest is totally fine for 1v1 against DH.

i find the focus to be a must in shutting down longbow damage. focus (2 projectile counters) + aftershock makes sure he never hits you with that bow again. I am finding it hard to survive getting 1v2 with a DH on point tho. It might be a L2P issue but i don’t feel bad. I shouldn’t even win 1v2s anyway.

One thing i noticed tho and i’m not sure if its with the ele being squishy overall but even with high prot uptime, scrapper runes and celestial amulet, the traps can get me to 25%. Maybe an issue on me eating the traps, but that damage is amazing.

Honestly offhand dagger seems pretty useless in pvp right now with the insane amount of burst flying around. Focus offers just so much more survivability. And even warhorn has a lowish cooldown magnetic aura which helps a LOT, plus 2 good heals in water.

Humblekain.5418:

blubberblasen.3901:

do not use tempest LoL
play classic dd ele
armor of earth -> walk in -> teleport out -> kill him -> gg

This is one way to get murdered vs a competent DH; classic dd is still very vulnerable to the amazing longbow damage.

Also, Tempest is totally fine for 1v1 against DH.

Tempest won’t solve problems d/d has against DH, it’s all about the weapon skills, if anything, Tempest is even WORSE against DH since you are stuck casting 4s overloads, which against any decent DH means instant death. Aftershock has too long of a CD to reflect stuff.

Tomiyou.3790:

Humblekain.5418:

blubberblasen.3901:

do not use tempest LoL
play classic dd ele
armor of earth -> walk in -> teleport out -> kill him -> gg

This is one way to get murdered vs a competent DH; classic dd is still very vulnerable to the amazing longbow damage.

Also, Tempest is totally fine for 1v1 against DH.

Tempest won’t solve problems d/d has against DH, it’s all about the weapon skills, if anything, Tempest is even WORSE against DH since you are stuck casting 4s overloads, which against any decent DH means instant death. Aftershock has too long of a CD to reflect stuff.

Tempest is a teamfighter that should be avoiding 1v1s and should try to be a secondary point holder and support and whatnot. Leave the 1v1s to the scrapers or the condi reapers or the DHs or even the daredevils.

nearlight.3064:

Tomiyou.3790:

Humblekain.5418:

blubberblasen.3901:

do not use tempest LoL
play classic dd ele
armor of earth -> walk in -> teleport out -> kill him -> gg

This is one way to get murdered vs a competent DH; classic dd is still very vulnerable to the amazing longbow damage.

Also, Tempest is totally fine for 1v1 against DH.

Tempest won’t solve problems d/d has against DH, it’s all about the weapon skills, if anything, Tempest is even WORSE against DH since you are stuck casting 4s overloads, which against any decent DH means instant death. Aftershock has too long of a CD to reflect stuff.

Tempest is a teamfighter that should be avoiding 1v1s and should try to be a secondary point holder and support and whatnot. Leave the 1v1s to the scrapers or the condi reapers or the DHs or even the daredevils.

If we’re supposed to be a +1 class we lack the mobility for it. Warhorn is no offhand dagger, and focus offers no mobility either (and dagger is suicide in the burst meta mostly).

I didn’t say Tempest was the go to solution here, I’m simply saying Tempest can 1v1 a DH.

Yeah, you are correct in that Tempest is better suited to a team fight but this does not invalidate it’s ability to 1v1 a DH if it has to or chooses to, for whatever reason.

Celestial Tempest especially will generally never die vs a DH 1v1, especially running focus/warhorn offhand with Aftershock as a shout. The downside is that celestial Tempest will also not really kill the DH either, as the DH defense and healing even on a marauder amulet can out sustain a Tempest with this setup who cannot comfortably overload. If the Tempest owns the point in conquest and can avoid the DH’s on point trap, this is viable, especially if the Tempest can rely on an ally rotating to kill the slow moving DH who won’t be able to retreat in time – in fact, a DH on an effective team won’t solo assault a point and a Tempest on an effective team won’t really solo hold a point either so this hypothetical situation is unlikely in competitive pvp, but it’s true nonetheless.

Anyway my original point in this thread was don’t bring dagger offhand to a 1v1 with a DH and expect to win, instead use your mobility to rotate elsewhere that you can be useful instead of dead. If you want to 1v1 the DH with a hope of success, bring focus offhand or warhorn.

This is the main problem i encounter from beta2 on. :-) Mobility. The rest works. FSG helps a bit but i hate being forced to use air signet or traitline :-).
And funny is i can 1:1 with my S/F condi tempest quite well + have more team suport with shouts. I eat most power builds and die to a lot condi ones… I am fine with that. Last matchup was a power reaper + rifle warrior i won.. and the condi ranger splatet me a bit later .
Offhand focus und you get the DH. Its that simple :-)

Tempest has an easier time vs a DH then say ele but that kind of the weekness of d/d over all if ppl can keep you at ranges then your going to die before you can kill them. The best trick is to let your aura do work if they are kiting you go for an earth aura or an frost aura to slow them down if they jump into melee use lighting aura.

Wasn’t saying Tempest is good for a +1 either. They’re mainly good for sustaining in even numbered fights.

As far as DHs go I’ve been able to kill them just from them being stupid enough to use true shot against a mag aura or earth focus 4.

I haven’t been killed by a DH in a LONG time. Part of it is all the reflects in the Tempest kit… But the big thing is using Focus 5 properly. DH sitting on/near a point – you can bet he’s trapped it (I know I do!). So just walk in with Focus 5 popped and you negate 100% of his trap damage and most of his utilities.

If he throws down a second round of traps you’ll have to mitigate that with dodges and/or Overload Earth. If you are playing a good Tempest build you have massively more sustain than any DH, so after his traps are down you just kill him with combined condi/power pressure. Honestly I think D/F Ele does extremely well against DH. Don’t run D/D, it doesn’t seem to fit well with the current meta.

blubberblasen.3901:

do not use tempest LoL
play classic dd ele
armor of earth -> walk in -> teleport out -> kill him -> gg

Hey just to point out, Tempest has an easier way to do this without needing to use two utilities with a 75 and 40 second cooldowns.
Engage in earth with earth overload which has 3 stacks of stability and swiftness, proc all the traps then leave out of them, and get reflect aura afterwards which likely cleanses his burn stack and heals you back to full.

Arutha.9874:

blubberblasen.3901:

do not use tempest LoL
play classic dd ele
armor of earth -> walk in -> teleport out -> kill him -> gg

Hey just to point out, Tempest has an easier way to do this without needing to use two utilities with a 75 and 40 second cooldowns.
Engage in earth with earth overload which has 3 stacks of stability and swiftness, proc all the traps then leave out of them, and get reflect aura afterwards which likely cleanses his burn stack and heals you back to full.

Never thought of starting fights in earth. Gotten so used to opening fights in air or fire. Maybe the key to playing tempest is forget how to play ele?

Outsider.6051:

Arutha.9874:

blubberblasen.3901:

do not use tempest LoL
play classic dd ele
armor of earth -> walk in -> teleport out -> kill him -> gg

Hey just to point out, Tempest has an easier way to do this without needing to use two utilities with a 75 and 40 second cooldowns.
Engage in earth with earth overload which has 3 stacks of stability and swiftness, proc all the traps then leave out of them, and get reflect aura afterwards which likely cleanses his burn stack and heals you back to full.

Never thought of starting fights in earth. Gotten so used to opening fights in air or fire. Maybe the key to playing tempest is forget how to play ele?

Pretty close, Earth Overload for Stability entering fights, Then Air into RoL Updraft into Air Overload hopefully gaining Shocking Aura on completion, if not then Fire Attune for Burning Speed Ring of Fire Firegrab Overload, then back to earth for another fire aura from Leap and might with After Shock, Earthquake, Dodges and Churning Earth if not pressured.
That is ideal dummy PvP rotation I think, with water for extra cleanses.
Also if you feel your being kited too much FGS has superb synergy with Tempest due to good weapon skills and buffed stats affecting overloads and shout damage, while maintaining Regen Vigor and Cleanse.(the backbone to a good cele ele build)

Outsider.6051:

Never thought of starting fights in earth. Gotten so used to opening fights in air or fire. Maybe the key to playing tempest is forget how to play ele?

The key is to adapt.

Starting a fight in earth is the best way to prepare the fight, mitigate the first burst rotation and set up an area where you get a lot of protection. Starting a fight air means you’ll get a fresh air reset sooner and be able to cast your earth spells before entering back to air. This is a more agressive approach.

Do NOT forget that air overload and earth overload are both even stronger once the cast is finished, with the downside of being locked to a specific area. I often precast air overload before jumping to melee so I can immediatly swap to another element, get my reset and think about what’s coming next.