Guild Wars 2

I don’t do SPVP. My build is for PVE and WvW, small to large group play. I created this post because I’m curious how you guys adapted to the Feb patch and how you changed your builds.

Build prior to patch
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mcszz9Mz0mlvbmMMvbo0G0xGzocsqVo

Build after patch
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mcszz9Mz0mlNbmMMNbo0G0xGosVsqVo

Trait changes
The nerf to RTL was large enough for me to drop Zephyr’s Boon for Aeromancer’s Alacrity. The shorter cooldown on Shocking Aura and Updraft is nice.

The nerf on boon durations made my decision to drop Zephyr’s Boon and Soothing Disrutpion easier. Instead of using my cantrips to provide condition removal; I’ve opted to take Cleansing Wave which now removes 2 conditions when switching to water.

The loss of Vigor on Cantrip activation and Swiftness on Aura activation was a hard pill to swallow. It allowed me to be very mobile while not attacking any targets; which was very useful. In order to get around this, I decided to drop Armor of Earth for Signet of Air. The constant movement speed increase compensates for lack of swiftness but, Vigor was a loss I couldn’t recuperate. The loss of Armor of Earth reduces my survivability however, Cantrips are no longer used for any other reason other than stun breaks and damage prevention; which helped to compensate.

The loss of Fury on aura activation had me change my equipment by reducing Vitality in favor of Precision.

Overall, I lost Vigor duration; 7 seconds of Protection and Stability, 1 stun breaker and about 2k health.

Did you change anything?

from 0/25/0/15/30 to 0/20/0/20/30

dropped air training and got aeromancer’s alacrity.

up until then it seemed pretty good despite the nerfage… then I heard about the renewing stamina changes.

I was mad, and I still am.

Nothing was changed at all.

It didn’t effect me. I might be a minority here, but I’m not a fan of the Air Water and Arcana build. It is very balanced it’s true, but I think, eventually, and overall, I can have much more balance, and on almost all occasions, produce far greater damage with 0/0/30/10/30 CD build.1300 toughness, 18K HP which me high survivability, and as well as I have 1400 CD, 1600 with sigil, and 1600 power. I can produce around 2.5K from CD alone without any might. My power is high enough for my skills to produce decent damage as well. I also have almost constatly 15-20 stacks of might from Sigil of battle, Eruption combo and Attunement switch.

Mystic.4805:

It didn’t effect me. I might be a minority here, but I’m not a fan of the Air Water and Arcana build. It is very balanced it’s true, but I think, eventually, and overall, I can have much more balance, and on almost all occasions, produce far greater damage with 0/0/30/10/30 CD build.1300 toughness, 18K HP which me high survivability, and as well as I have 1400 CD, 1600 with sigil, and 1600 power. I can produce around 2.5K from CD alone without any might. My power is high enough for my skills to produce decent damage as well. I also have almost constatly 15-20 stacks of might from Sigil of battle, Eruption combo and Attunement switch.

your build is worthless in DE’s, 1v1’s, wvw, spvp and any dungeon with other condition stacker.

ele is not the most optimal class for condi damage.

but hey, if that works well for you so be it.

Razor.6392:

Mystic.4805:

It didn’t effect me. I might be a minority here, but I’m not a fan of the Air Water and Arcana build. It is very balanced it’s true, but I think, eventually, and overall, I can have much more balance, and on almost all occasions, produce far greater damage with 0/0/30/10/30 CD build.1300 toughness, 18K HP which me high survivability, and as well as I have 1400 CD, 1600 with sigil, and 1600 power. I can produce around 2.5K from CD alone without any might. My power is high enough for my skills to produce decent damage as well. I also have almost constatly 15-20 stacks of might from Sigil of battle, Eruption combo and Attunement switch.

your build is worthless in DE’s, 1v1’s, wvw, spvp and any dungeon with other condition stacker.

ele is not the most optimal class for condi damage.

but hey, if that works well for you so be it.

In DE in this game you don’t need more than a few staff damage to complete it. You don’t need high damage at all, as long as you get a few hits for your loot/reward. There are enough loads of people who do the DE so it really doesn’t matter how much damage you do, it will end fast with a huge zerg. In 1v1 it is infact the most optimal, you produce insane damage which is hard to remove (your opponent won’t manage to remove Burning and Bleeding EVERYTIME) and the damage your burning and bleeding are doing will allow you to also dodge and heal in risky situations will your opponent is still recieving damage. Same applies to WvW, but it is also depends. My build is mainly for dungeons, though as I don’t wvw much.

Eles might not be the most optimal in mastering CD, I can agree with you, but CD will allow Elementalist to produce far greater damage (key here is IMO). It is well known eles DPS isn’t the best, or as it should. I’m also playing warrior as my main, and the damage differences are a joke (zerker wise).

Went from 0/10/0/30/30 to 0/0/10/30/30.

Didn’t like trying to extend boon duration after the nerf. Liked the armor of earth more and went mix pvt/cleric’s instead of trying to go for precision

Mystic.4805:

Razor.6392:

Mystic.4805:

It didn’t effect me. I might be a minority here, but I’m not a fan of the Air Water and Arcana build. It is very balanced it’s true, but I think, eventually, and overall, I can have much more balance, and on almost all occasions, produce far greater damage with 0/0/30/10/30 CD build.1300 toughness, 18K HP which me high survivability, and as well as I have 1400 CD, 1600 with sigil, and 1600 power. I can produce around 2.5K from CD alone without any might. My power is high enough for my skills to produce decent damage as well. I also have almost constatly 15-20 stacks of might from Sigil of battle, Eruption combo and Attunement switch.

your build is worthless in DE’s, 1v1’s, wvw, spvp and any dungeon with other condition stacker.

ele is not the most optimal class for condi damage.

but hey, if that works well for you so be it.

In DE in this game you don’t need more than a few staff damage to complete it. You don’t need high damage at all, as long as you get a few hits for your loot/reward. There are enough loads of people who do the DE so it really doesn’t matter how much damage you do, it will end fast with a huge zerg. In 1v1 it is infact the most optimal, you produce insane damage which is hard to remove (your opponent won’t manage to remove Burning and Bleeding EVERYTIME) and the damage your burning and bleeding are doing will allow you to also dodge and heal in risky situations will your opponent is still recieving damage. Same applies to WvW, but it is also depends. My build is mainly for dungeons, though as I don’t wvw much.

Eles might not be the most optimal in mastering CD, I can agree with you, but CD will allow Elementalist to produce far greater damage (key here is IMO). It is well known eles DPS isn’t the best, or as it should. I’m also playing warrior as my main, and the damage differences are a joke (zerker wise).

About the 1v1 part – You’re using staff right?

If you’re facing enemies that don’t get out of eruption’s way… I don’t even know man.

0/10/0/30/30 – daphoenix build with toughness and Healing Power as main defensive stats

still the same.

Look for me nothing changed, it’s not as easy to stack vigor but you can use cantrips for that. I longer fights I still get plenty of my boons and outlast every single person in Pve or WvW.

If you consider 5 (!) seconds on pretty strong gap closer, the end of your build (believe me people have been whining about it) then you are doing something wrong.

Oh and Berserkers eles (on the squishiest class but whatever) don’t get a say in this. If you are too reliant on one skill to save you because you went full glass cannon then you are doing something wrong.

Never go full glass cannon, especially on elementalist.

It didn’t.

0/10/10/30/20
D/D Battle & Force
Berserker’s Amulet w/ Soldier’s Jewel
Divinity Runes

I’m doing fine.

JonSnow.5610:

0/10/0/30/30 – daphoenix build with toughness and Healing Power as main defensive stats

still the same.

Look for me nothing changed, it’s not as easy to stack vigor but you can use cantrips for that. I longer fights I still get plenty of my boons and outlast every single person in Pve or WvW.

If you consider 5 (!) seconds on pretty strong gap closer, the end of your build (believe me people have been whining about it) then you are doing something wrong.

Oh and Berserkers eles (on the squishiest class but whatever) don’t get a say in this. If you are too reliant on one skill to save you because you went full glass cannon then you are doing something wrong.

Never go full glass cannon, especially on elementalist.

People whine about ONE second nerfs in mobas and other games, and you think that 5 seconds isn’t significant?

Oh boy.

Before I was ele 0/10/0/30/30 valk or soldiers depending on what’s needed.

After patch, I was mesmur

Didn’t change at all except now i’m warrior and loving it. Would probably run ele for TA though.

went from 0/15/0/25/30 to 0/20/0/20/30. Having RtL on a higher cooldown blows my PvE rotation so I need it. Bolt to the Heart is more useful than bountiful power because I no longer have 4% extra damage from perma swiftness/fury.

Also went Soldier’s/Berserker’s to Knight’s/Cavalier’s.

Most of us have learnt how to play the ele well. I feel sad for the newcomers that will curse the class even more. Anet, u didnt balance the class, if anything, its a downward movement

Most players are still complaning…
I heard some of them even complaining about vapor form health reset…

Nuff said..

In the meantime ele is op because is too mobile and thieves are not……

Now you cannot kill a thief with your ele even if the thief is bad (and they fail their burst because if they succeed you die) he will simply get away easily and anet is happy.
Seems all they care is to defend that class from every possible threat….

I’m slowly adding more attack in the equipment….i just need EA in water/earth for pve and considering the long queues i cannot change build.

Razor.6392:

People whine about ONE second nerfs in mobas and other games, and you think that 5 seconds isn’t significant?

Oh boy.

I’m not saying it isn’t significant. But looking at the skill in a general view of our entire skill set, I don’t get what the problem is. You can still stack permanent swiftness (!), not every profession can.

Most people who are mad about this are berserker builds and honestly I couldn’t care less about those builds. Far too reliant on one single skill to save you out of a difficult situation.

Everyone is blowing this change out of proportion and think that Anet is bringing out the Nerf bat on the elementalist. They’re not.

JonSnow.5610:

Razor.6392:

People whine about ONE second nerfs in mobas and other games, and you think that 5 seconds isn’t significant?

Oh boy.

I’m not saying it isn’t significant. But looking at the skill in a general view of our entire skill set, I don’t get what the problem is. You can still stack permanent swiftness (!), not every profession can.

Most people who are mad about this are berserker builds and honestly I couldn’t care less about those builds. Far too reliant on one single skill to save you out of a difficult situation.

Everyone is blowing this change out of proportion and think that Anet is bringing out the Nerf bat on the elementalist. They’re not.

they nerf elementalist since release, even staff the weakest weapon was nerfed many times until it was unviable.

(despite some people will say…)

And actually almost any class has access to permaswiftness….
Some could say they are forced to use runes, and what should we say that we are forced to sacrifice traits to just PLAY and equipment to not die to a moa?

Nerf wasn t that light expecially on balanced builds….they could have just hit healing scaling rather than hitting OFFENCE and MOBILITY.

Its like halving stealth + damage to thieves that are way more OP (and i think the main reason why Kills are not important in PvP/www otherwise would be Crystal clear).

LordByron.8369:

Nerf wasn t that light expecially on balanced builds….they could have just hit healing scaling rather than hitting OFFENCE and MOBILITY.

I agree with this part. It was too big of a nerf and it affected random builds more than the lovely bunker ones.

When bunkers were the only ones that should have been hit in the first place…

I currently run these 2 and still can’t decide which one I like more

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAoYhMmmbwx4gjEAEFn4yQhIhIU8QDlCzA;TsAg0CvoMyYkwIrROjkGNE5IysAA

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAoYhMmmbwx4gjEAEFn4yQhIhIU8QDlCzA;TsAA1CnoqxUjoGbNuak1ME5IysAA

@Swim

Go zerker, you won’t regret it

(with d/d I’d put at least 20 points in the Arcana tree)

@golantrevize

Thanks for the advise, but I have played 10 in arcane since start of the game and used to it… I might give it a try though. (I play sPvP mostly)

@Swim

If you go berserker I find Renewing Stamina to be essential for surviving (even after the nerf).

My build hasn’t changed but I do feel a little less powerful with daggers. I notice the RTL nerf more than anything because I can’t always catch people anymore.

Nothing was changed in my staff build, but i´ve noticed static field fix

You could run d/d with the same build and still be just as effective.

The RTL cd change only mattered to someone using RTL every 15 seconds (read as: no one).

The heal change didn’t change the fact that we’re still highly mobile with several ways to create lulls in damage being applied against us.

You can optimize based on the changes, obviously, but you can still be successful without changing a thing.

Kellhus.8071:

You could run d/d with the same build and still be just as effective.

The RTL cd change only mattered to someone using RTL every 15 seconds (read as: no one).

The heal change didn’t change the fact that we’re still highly mobile with several ways to create lulls in damage being applied against us.

You can optimize based on the changes, obviously, but you can still be successful without changing a thing.

The RTL change impacted me too much. RTL was a staple ability. I had it timed perfectly with attunment swapping. The change to 20 sec royally screwed me.

In PVE and PVP it had greatly affected mobility. It was untolerable. My attunment swapping rythm was all messed up.

Arenanet believed that the Elementalist should invest a lot more into the Air tree to get that 15 seconds. It’s a give and take scenario. You want that kind of mobility? Well you’ll have to give up something else for it.

It was deemed too strong in bunker builds in SPVP. Personally I couldn’t give a kitten about that stupid gametype that 12 people play.

You know the “balancing” that this game is largely driven by on sPvP more than anything else (with some WvW changes and bug fixes here and there) right? Though the state of sPvP right now is rather sad… could use some new modes, ranking systems, connects to pve/wvw, etcetc.

Raptured.9307:

You know the “balancing” that this game is largely driven by on sPvP more than anything else (with some WvW changes and bug fixes here and there) right? Though the state of sPvP right now is rather sad… could use some new modes, ranking systems, connects to pve/wvw, etcetc.

I want them to continue to balance the game and make abilities worth taking despite the existance of SPVP.

Wether we like it or not SPVP is always going to be unpopular. The reason this game is never going to be an esport is because it’s too basic. There’s no depth in the combat system. The Elementalist is the only class that has any depth to it.

Look at the Warrior for comparison. The Warrior is too easy to play and too easy to be affective with. The skill ceiling is so low that you could train a chimpanzee to be a pro.

LordByron.8369:

Now you cannot kill a thief with your ele even if the thief is bad (and they fail their burst because if they succeed you die) he will simply get away easily…

It is for that reason that I’ve begun changing my build to focus more on control and spike damage rather than survivability and sustained DPS. My theory is that I’ll have to avoid the thief’s spike, counter-spike him back, and use control abilities to keep him from running off before he’s dead.

When it works I win. When it doesn’t I die, but I would have probably died anyway. It just would have taken longer.

Culling makes this very very challenging (read: nearly impossible), but it’s a fun game to play.

PinCushion.7390:

LordByron.8369:

Now you cannot kill a thief with your ele even if the thief is bad (and they fail their burst because if they succeed you die) he will simply get away easily…

It is for that reason that I’ve begun changing my build to focus more on control and spike damage rather than survivability and sustained DPS. My theory is that I’ll have to avoid the thief’s spike, counter-spike him back, and use control abilities to keep him from running off before he’s dead.

When it works I win. When it doesn’t I die, but I would have probably died anyway. It just would have taken longer.

Culling makes this very very challenging (read: nearly impossible), but it’s a fun game to play.

Compared to the Frost Mage / Subtly Rogue cooldown fight in World of Warcraft; that is incredibly shallow.

Calae.1738:

Raptured.9307:

You know the “balancing” that this game is largely driven by on sPvP more than anything else (with some WvW changes and bug fixes here and there) right? Though the state of sPvP right now is rather sad… could use some new modes, ranking systems, connects to pve/wvw, etcetc.

I want them to continue to balance the game and make abilities worth taking despite the existance of SPVP.

Wether we like it or not SPVP is always going to be unpopular. The reason this game is never going to be an esport is because it’s too basic. There’s no depth in the combat system. The Elementalist is the only class that has any depth to it.

Look at the Warrior for comparison. The Warrior is too easy to play and too easy to be affective with. The skill ceiling is so low that you could train a chimpanzee to be a pro.

I suggest you look into tPVP. There are no warriors in tPVP for a reason. Strategy AND personal skill are both essential to winning.

Calae.1738:

PinCushion.7390:

LordByron.8369:

Now you cannot kill a thief with your ele even if the thief is bad (and they fail their burst because if they succeed you die) he will simply get away easily…

It is for that reason that I’ve begun changing my build to focus more on control and spike damage rather than survivability and sustained DPS. My theory is that I’ll have to avoid the thief’s spike, counter-spike him back, and use control abilities to keep him from running off before he’s dead.

When it works I win. When it doesn’t I die, but I would have probably died anyway. It just would have taken longer.

Culling makes this very very challenging (read: nearly impossible), but it’s a fun game to play.

Compared to the Frost Mage / Subtly Rogue cooldown fight in World of Warcraft; that is incredibly shallow.

Having not played WoW since Vanilla, and never really PVPed in WoW, I have no idea what this means.

You can’t kill a thief? That’s weird

If playing d/d you can easily hold them off with your shocking aura or even frost aura

Let them keep mashing that Button2 ability, they won’t last long.

It made it slightly worse, as I play a roamer/burst-oriented build. RTL on a longer CD, means you are more likely to die, not being able to escape always and it hurts hybrid and glassy builds way more than it hurts bunkers, so that went wrong for the dev team sadly.

Less regen and vigor made my hybrid build worse and sort of forces me to focus less on damage and more on defensive stats, which is taking it all in the wrong direction. I prefer having as little arcane as possible, but feel I need 10 points for Elemental Attunement and attunement recharge no matter what. My runes are of divinity almost always, as I don’t want to lose too much damage, you know, because ele damage isn’t good to begin with. So no buff prolonging means beyond 10 or 20 arcane.

The micro changes to fire auras and frost armor do little difference.

It is like the devs assume that everyone plays or wants to play a bunker. This game is slowly getting frustrating.

@JonSnow: You can’t hold thieves away with Shocking and Frost Aura only. The CD on Shocking Aura is 25 secs, and thieves can vanish all the time if they go that route.