Guild Wars 2

Hey guys, so this is supposed to be a guide on how to counter and successfully destroy your enemy. Since eles are an extremly awesome allround class we are capable of doing almost everything. Taking that as a given i want you guys to tell me about your experiences of fighting against other professions and how you won.

The terms are:

- sPvP only, WvW is due to food and server buffs not compareable
- 1on1 situations. I know the ele can shine in group scenarios especially with the staff but consider this being a guide on how to counter in an 1on1 situation.

I’ll start:
Enemy: Warrior
Weapon set: Scepter/Focus (Dagger)
Playstyle: Since my enemy is a warrior i highly expect a 100b GS user. Knowing that, i always have my finger in the reach of my mistform in case i get kd’ed so 100b doesn’t get me. The rest of the fight is really trivial. Most warriors have a great dmg capacity but lack in healing abilitys. Therefore i stay ranged and just burn his lifes slowly but steadily. If i make sure i can outrange him it’s a timetaking but easy victory. Even if he runs something else like double axe or Sword/Shield it’s a mere survival game. Stay ranged don’t let him get too many hits —> gg.

Enemy: Thief
Weapon Set: S/F (D)
Playstyle: I actually don’t know too much about thiefs. Whenever i die in 1on1 situations to another profession i start looking up their skills and even create a pvp char to test them. So next time i know exactly when to strike and when to dodge. This (almost) never happened to me by a thief. Their playstyle is quite generic, they get invisible —> a birst is incoming --> i dodge, use arcane shield, … and when they use their pistols it either didn’t do enough dmg or i countered it with focus air 4 or earth 4… never experienced much trouble with them. If they land their burst though it can get quite ugly since you have to react really quickly if you don’t want to die.

Lucas of the Desert.2165:

Enemy: Warrior
The fight is really trivial.

This makes my warrior sad.

Mikemad.2495:

Lucas of the Desert.2165:

Enemy: Warrior
The fight is really trivial.

This makes my warrior sad.

Don’t be. He assumes the warrior will not use one of their many gap closers and CC abilities and not use ranged weapons, for some reason.

Once an ele pops their mistform, usually they have lightning flash for extra stun breaker and mobility but that’s it.

So basically you’d want to force them to pop mistform early on, then proceed to apply as much DPS as you can. Now, they can run away with RTL, but that either removes them from the fight or puts them just nicely in range of your rifle if they start legging it back towards you. You would have to watch for projectile reflection/absorption though.

I think warriors get a bad rap because there’s so many 100B users out there… people even forget that warriors have some really nice single target DPS on rifle. You can’t really kite a warrior, you just turn it into a ranged fight.

scepter is the new op? I can’t ever kill anyone with it. Not enough damage.

weaponset for killing anything = d/d, it has the highest potential in 1v1 out of any other weapon set.

I also like staff, it works against bads. My favorite ability is magnetic aura on killshot warriors or other ranged professions.

Gaudrath.6725:

Don’t be. He assumes the warrior will not use one of their many gap closers and CC abilities and not use ranged weapons, for some reason.

Once an ele pops their mistform, usually they have lightning flash for extra stun breaker and mobility but that’s it.

So basically you’d want to force them to pop mistform early on, then proceed to apply as much DPS as you can. Now, they can run away with RTL, but that either removes them from the fight or puts them just nicely in range of your rifle if they start legging it back towards you. You would have to watch for projectile reflection/absorption though.

I think warriors get a bad rap because there’s so many 100B users out there… people even forget that warriors have some really nice single target DPS on rifle. You can’t really kite a warrior, you just turn it into a ranged fight.

Yea its not so much that I have a huge amount of trouble with eles, Im just really sick of going on the mesmer/ele forums and seeing all the “lol warriors are no threat”.

It’s more that there are so many bad warriors.

I was never stating that warriors are bad i just told you about my experiences in sPvP. The majority of players i played against were either not able to dodge or used the well known bulls charge – 100b + frenzy combo. Other builds are of course more difficult and more challenging to counter but when i play sPvP that’s the advice you’ll need most in the fights.

I use Scepter/Focus the most time, well aware that it is dmg lacking but i’ve had better results with that weapon set than with D/D.

Also this post wasn’t supposed to be a discussion of my builds or how i play. It’s suppose to gather informatiom on how to counter which profession in an 1on1 scenario. I’d love to hear about your situations with enemys like mesmers, guardians, engineers, …. and how you counter them with whatever build you are using (i run 0/25/0/15/30 atm but i think of sacrificing a bit of arcana so i can max air or improve in water/earth).

Alright since i play as d/d ele:

Many fights are really similar to ur pve rotations… just keep in mind, not worth it to fight other bunkers, fight gcs. if the gc seems mobile, put immobilizes, freezes, cripples, and knockdowns.

Warrior: just laugh at how he can’t do anything against you. laugh. Zerker wars – pop stability or tele away when he bull rushes you and tries to 100b you, dodge their kill shots. You got this in the bag. Save a rtl + knockdown in case they decide to run away with sword/ greatsword. CC/defensive wars – they actually know what they’re doing if you see them in team battles. Thankfully, you have stability utilities. Use them. Try to knock them down instead, and keep immobilizes and such on them. Warriors are generally weak to conditions. And their attacks are straightforward

Guardian: Can be a very long and stupid fight. High chance that you won’t be able to kill each other / u end up running. Generally not worth it unless they’re GCing, even then they’re pretty survivable. First things first – note what boons he has on. Remove aegis with rtl, 5 to knockdown if he has stability. Otherwise, 2 first then 5 for a dodge+ swiftness. Put on shock aura with good timing so u can get the most stuns out of it. Switch to fire, and just spam the skills except auto attack and 4 (be sure to land ur fire grab when he has burning condition), then land 4 when he’s in the circle. Switch to Earth, 4 for knockdown, walk back a bit and roll forward for might, and 3 -> 3 for fire aura for extra mights. Switch to water / air as u please and start fighting again. Watch out for his burns – they hurt. Blasting earth imo is generally not as great of an idea unless u know they’re out of movement/aegis options AND you have lightning flash (imo this skill is a bit of a waste as you need to use armor of earth AND lightning flash to work this effectively in any battle) and it’s hard to hit in 1v1 situations. In 1v1 situations i generally just don’t go after them because they are not worth it, but if they’re gcing in a team situation i could go for him first because he is likely to have less knockdowns. Watch out for when he uses his elites – tome of courage and such – and use knockdowns to prevent him from finishing the spells.

Mesmers: Royal pain in butts. If they’re glass cannon (Greatsword wielding), good for you – always find the real one and take him down ASAP. rtl 4+5 knockdowns, immobilizes, and such cc skills (tornado) are great against them. Try to dodge their shatters and attacks which summon clones and phantasms. Stability will help in this fight as well. If they choose to go invisible go to that area asap and do an aoe knockdown. If you immobilized them just before this happens the mesmer is probably still there or teleported to another place WHILE visible for a brief second. AOE knockdowns are your friends. Then Switch to air 1 and try to find them. Prepare for sudden appearances of clones and shatters, though. If the mesmer wields a staff and has relatively high hp from what you can tell, probably a bunker build. Not worth it, very hard to fight as an ele, find another opponent.

Thief: GC thieves… if you see them first, once again start off iwth the rush and knockdown. They stealth. knockdown. put armor of earth on and summon ur elementals.. They are probably going to backstab you soon. Should they do that, once again either knockdown or switch to water, skill 3, 4 and keep rolling until they run out of initiatives and backstabs. then do whatever you want to them (unless they stealth and run away – you can do a bit of guessing/ aoe knockdowns again). If they spot you first well… ur going to end up as a stone for a bit and a sankitten so put up armor of earth when you can and get ur kitten out of there if you’re still alive. THEN come back and try to kill him. Hopefully you have enough toughness/vit! If the thief is condition/bunker based, stealths a lot, and spams conditions on you… kitten them. Just run away and hopefully the thief goes away. really little you can do to them aside from knockdowns and immobilize/freeze them if they’re good.

Rangers. Just watch out for trap build rangers. go for the main ranger always and freeze / slow down their pets. watch out for entangle – you can hit the roots but i prefer lightning flashing my way out (which gives vigor and regen too).Keep your eye on the bleeds and don’t walk into their traps. They’re both bunker builds but it is possible for you to win (they won’t periodically heal to full like some guards and mesmers and thieves), but it will take while.

Necromancer: can be a huge pain. Condition necro: watch for corrupt boon, keep dodging when they put marks on you, and you should be fine. Power necro: Fight them as you would GC guard. Watch out for plague -only immobilize and chill really works against these guys, and conditions but well you’re not so great for that. Not too much you can do at close range until it’s done. Minion necros: your pbaoes are aweosme against them. Just don’t get kitten by the flesh golem charge and minion explosions.

Engineer – get rid of any turrets that may possibly appear as you dodge. That’s about it. Watch out for them using Elixer s – they’re temporarily invincible.

Eles – If staff, engage and kill them, easy battle. s/d and d/d may VERY WELL END UP HAVING NOTHING HAPPEN BESIDES ONCE AGAIN BEING A WASTE OF TIME, so watch out.
Did I miss any class?

I would like to add a more generalist advice on the topic of you-vs-whatever.

A military strategist once said: “no battle plan survives contact with the enemy”. This is very true.

Often I see elaborate battle plans which rely on your opponent to do exactly what you imagine he would.
If you approach PvP like that, you will lose a lot against all but the most inept or inexperienced.

Instead, follow these simple guidelines for PvP extravaganza:

1. Know what you can do
2. Know what your opponent can do

and the biggest one

3. Play adaptively. Don’t have a “plan”. Don’t have “rotations” and “optimizations”. You’re not playing against a predictable computer. What if that GS warrior whips out dual axes on you? Or a rifle? What if your “remove aegis with RTL” gets dodged? What if you Updraft the guard and he has Retaliatory Subconcious traited? If you just go ahead with your DPS rotation, you’ll just nuke yourself half to death, then he’ll get up anyway and kick you the rest of the way.

Having a rotation in your muscle memory and a fixed plan in your head is easier, but if you learn to observe all the minutiae of combat, then you can actually begin to use all your skills in a most appropriate manner and do it fluidly, without thinking.

Eles can learn this lesson early on with the famous RTL+Updraft “Catch ’em” combo. It’s very easy to pull off, and if it works, you just flattened an opponent and set them up nicely for the rest of the fight.

Of course, as you learn quickly (and especially in WvW), it doesn’t work at least 60% of the time. People just dodge you, because they can time your Updraft from the sound of your RTL, nevermind visuals. Because you combo it without seeing what your opponent will do, you just wasted two very valuable skills before the fight has even begun.

So, no pre-fixed and elaborate approaches. Try to develop a fluid, reactionary playstyle.

Disclaimer: this isn’t aimed at any one’s particular post.

Mikemad.2495:

Gaudrath.6725:

Don’t be. He assumes the warrior will not use one of their many gap closers and CC abilities and not use ranged weapons, for some reason.

Once an ele pops their mistform, usually they have lightning flash for extra stun breaker and mobility but that’s it.

So basically you’d want to force them to pop mistform early on, then proceed to apply as much DPS as you can. Now, they can run away with RTL, but that either removes them from the fight or puts them just nicely in range of your rifle if they start legging it back towards you. You would have to watch for projectile reflection/absorption though.

I think warriors get a bad rap because there’s so many 100B users out there… people even forget that warriors have some really nice single target DPS on rifle. You can’t really kite a warrior, you just turn it into a ranged fight.

Yea its not so much that I have a huge amount of trouble with eles, Im just really sick of going on the mesmer/ele forums and seeing all the “lol warriors are no threat”.

They generally do pose no threat to eles because we have earth armor/ cond removals/ tankiness/ so much survivability when u go bunker in spvp; and in 1v1, bunker beats glass. Defensive wars rely more on cc, but once again we have good mechanics against that. Mesmers can easily teleport/ stealth away out of anything, and thieves as well (however mes/thiefs are much weaker against cc wars).

@Gaudrath, he wanted a quick summary/ quickstart guide, i gave one to him. Simple as that, based on battle trends. Ofc your personal experience comes into play, but that gets a lot more subjective and it can drag on for very long which I didn’t plan on getting into. Essentially, what you ARE doing is basically rotations as a d/d ele and in many battles where YOU are the one to engage, it is pretty repetitive.
Ex: dual axe warrior, useless. skill 5. Retal kills them on guard/mesmer. for us, just knock them down or stay away. Rifle, dodge or hide behind a wall to avoid skill 3/ f1, quick switch to water, then back to air to catch up and knock them down. as for guard, it’s easy : just note when he has retaliation / aegis up, as i said (keep an eye on his boons?) killing them is another matter, and it’s just better not to engage a point defend/ bunker. Against a gc it’ s much like any other fight. You were making pretty aimed comments even though you said “this isn’t aimed at any one’s particular post.”

“Of course, as you learn quickly (and especially in WvW), it doesn’t work at least 60% of the time. People just dodge you, because they can time your Updraft from the sound of your RTL, nevermind visuals.” – you just walk and follow them for 1-2 seconds then hit 5… just thought this was an irrelevant detail

Raptured.9307:

“Of course, as you learn quickly (and especially in WvW), it doesn’t work at least 60% of the time. People just dodge you, because they can time your Updraft from the sound of your RTL, nevermind visuals.” – you just walk and follow them for 1-2 seconds then hit 5… just thought this was an irrelevant detail

Not if you blew both RTL and Updraft on a dodge, which is what many people do since they “combo” those two skills regardless of what the opponent does. Which is my point.

My comments are not aimed particularly at you – keep in mind the internet is awash with class-vs-class guides, so the only reason I used parts of what you said is because they were already in this thread.

Generally I find that developing a reactionary playstyle, where you let your opponent extend their reach and expose themselves, then react to it, is better than trying to predict what they will do. Maybe sPvP is different, but in WvW you have so many builds, kinds of players, random factors, that trying to predict anything is an exercise in futility.

The number of “viable builds” in spvp is rather limited for people to fight on par with one another in small scale fights, so once you do play enough duels/ skirmishes, yes you get to predict what they can and will do based on what weapons they have. Other builds usually simply don’t work.