Guild Wars 2

Can you guys give an example of how to use the summoned weapons both in PVE and WvW? my ele is a little under 40 now. I don’t want a rant on underpowered ele kitten fluff. I want some info on how to use these weapons. Surely someone has worked out the skilled to use them.

I picked up the ice bow utility but it seems to be not as useful as my regular skills. I assume im not supposed to keep using it for a full fight or it has some situational use.
The iceblock is very powerful but the damage output doesnt seem to be up to par with the rest of my skills.

I try to solo fight pve content that is at about 5 levels higher than i am when i can and the ice bow just doesnt compare to normal weapons. I also try to pug dungeons when i can.

They are extremely weak, because they deny you access to your normal skills. Now, they are fine skill sets, but not worth losing your 20 normal skills.

The greatsword is situationally usefull, since the #1 skill does quite a lot of DPS. The times you can use that are rare though, since in a real fight where that dps matters you’re going to need your attunement skill to stay alive.

Crunchy Gremlin.5798:

Can you guys give an example of how to use the summoned weapons both in PVE and WvW? my ele is a little under 40 now. I don’t want a rant on underpowered ele kitten fluff. I want some info on how to use these weapons. Surely someone has worked out the skilled to use them.

I picked up the ice bow utility but it seems to be not as useful as my regular skills. I assume im not supposed to keep using it for a full fight or it has some situational use.
The iceblock is very powerful but the damage output doesnt seem to be up to par with the rest of my skills.

I try to solo fight pve content that is at about 5 levels higher than i am when i can and the ice bow just doesnt compare to normal weapons. I also try to pug dungeons when i can.

Sure. I can’t speak for all conjured weapons. However, fire is useful for a burn condition build for someone who doesn’t want to attunment swap out of fire. With fire conjure, one can onload all fire weapon skills, cast fire conjure and hit skill 3,4,5. In spvp if built correctly one can achieve burn damage of 13k over 19s with skill 5. Then swap back to fire attunement and cool downs should be down. Rinse and repeat.

Basically just an option to provide more skills for current attunment without switching out of attunement. Unfortunately it’s not worth the skill slot because most skills except fire 5 suck.

This is the only proper way to use the only conjure weapon skill currently worth it at the moment: Lightning Hammer.

Notice how the Elementalist is not the one using Mjolnir (in fact as soon as I summoned it for my dear Ranger friend there I went back to my 4 attunements and my staff).

talking technical details does fast ground targetting make it easier to use these weapons?

It feels like im losing a good deal of the weapons fire power when i swap it away before i have used it all up.

I like to use scepter focus to play a little more defensive than dagger or staff. Ill work a little harder on the ice bow to see how i can make it useful.

The only technical detail you need to know is that the conjured weapons (with the exception of the hammer) are useless in terms of both damage and utility. The only 2 skills on the bow that are worth using ever would be the vulnerability stacking Rapid Fire shot (or whatever it’s called, same as the crappy Ranger longbow one that is a constant stream of arrows) and the confusion stacking Volley (another longbow Ranger ability, only theirs cripples).

And even if you just use those 2, you wasted a utility slot, 1.5 seconds summoning the bow, only used it for 6 seconds, then tossed it because your elemental attunements have spells that do more damage (which is pathetic, because all but 4 spells do god awful damage per second).

I sort of feel this way too but about a 5th of the ele utility skills are weapons conjures. There enough L2P concepts in this game to make me have to believe that these weapons not seeming useful is because its not obvious how to use them. They must have a learning curve steeper then normal. this makes sense to me as the ele itself has a pretty steep learning curve.

so… how do people use them?
go into combat with them cast?
use 2 skills and ditch them?

The elite greatsword is pretty kitten good damagewise. I can only speak as one who uses it with a glass cannon build in SPvP. The damage and mobility it gives you is pretty grand. Suffice to say that you want to use it with many skill points in air, as it one burning skill only, and you will likely not use it nearly as much as the other skills. The other weapons are too lackluster imho. I find it useful only with a high spike damage build.

There really is no learning curve to using the things, their 5 skills are simply not better than your 20 as a collective. And they take up utility slot or elite slot (not that any of our elites are particularly flashy or powerful). The fact they prevent you from using utilities like Cleansing Flame, Mist Form, or Armor of Earth alone is a pretty big reason as to question their overall value. Sure you could talent them to break stun, but what good is a 1.5 second cast stunbreaker?

I appreciate you trying to find a way to break the weapons, but many have tried, myself included, and the best use I found for any of them was the Hammer using the combo in the video above (only I actually used the Hammer as well for double the AoE blind and healing) while learning dungeons; or using the Earth Shield when during siege attempts and using the Magnetic Pull to pull people off towers/keeps and onto the ground so the zerg could kill them (hella fun, just not hella useful compared to Meteor Shower).

Personally, I love the Forst bow. Granted, it has limited use, but it is a utility skill. Not everything has to be about DPS. An elementalist should always be shifting attunement, always looking at the situation and how to make your skills work. Frost Bow brings some very good utility to the table.

• #2 is a 100% projectile finisher, meaning that ontop of the stacking vulnerabilty you can get even more conditions/effects out.
• #3 is an AoE chill effect. Chill is a very powerful effect not easily found. It allows for easy kiting and control of mobs.
• #4 is sick AoE damage, not including the confusion. Used all your big AoE nukes in your attunments and waiting for their CD? Just layed down some snaring field like Earth Staff #4 or Water Staff #4? Lay waste to the enemy – super effective in tight spaces.
• #5 a 3 second disable. This sort of CC can really turn the tide of a fight.

Conjure weapons are not intended to ‘replace’ your atunement spells. They are intended to compliment you or fill in your weaknesses. Think about how you can combo them with your other abilities for support, control or damage (the ANet trinity). I assure you, there is a wealth of fun and power in those conjures.

My elementalist uses summoned weapons quite often, and I believe that a lot of elementalists just don’t know how to use them.

Consider that most elementalist summoned weapons have a fairly low cooldown. Therefore, you don’t really need to hang onto them constantly. Using them effectively is mostly about knowing when and how to drop them in order to give you more skills for your combos.

Summoned weapons are also excellent for setting up combo fields. Flame axe gives you a jump finisher and a fire field you otherwise would need daggers for. It also inflicts burns more efficiently than your fore attunement skills. Lightning hammer can create a crowd-controlling lightning field and offers a jump and a blast finisher as well as a launch (though you’re better off changing to daggers earth for your blast). Ice bow gives a ranged harrassment option to a D/D ele who otherwise would need to be in melee all the time, with the additional threat of a prolonged stun from Ice Bow 5, which WILL force a dodge on a smart opponent in PVP.

Earth Shield is kind of useless and I haven’t unlocked greatsword yet, but most of the time when I summon these, I set up a combo field or use the crowd control abilities, then immediately drop the weapon and go back to my usual rotations.

Lightning hammer is good for making your ranger buddy look good (they can abuse their haste and the hammer’s 1 spam).

Frost Bow is good for an incredibly gimmicky chill spam on some dungeon bosses.

Earth Shield is good for trolling WvWvW defenders by yanking them off of walls.

None of these things is worth sacrificing a utility slot and wasting time not being an elementalist for however long you have the weapon in hand.

Summoned weapons have, essentially, two purposes:

a) provide for a limited means of weapon swapping
b) support your team

If you run with a dagger/dagger build, you lack effective ranged options. Popping a frost bow gives you that. Similarly, there may be elements within the other summoned weapons that complement your build, in the manner of a weapon swap.

The summoned weapon utilities are unique in the game, in that they provide both you and an ally with those alternative weapon skills.

~*~

I’m a staff elementalist. I have a lot of support and utility. I have less raw dps. I mostly stay at medium range in a group (I move between ranges to best spread blast effects through my combo fields). There are times when I can tank things, but mostly when I get into close range it’s either because I’m kiting, I’m trying to get the enemy to stand in a combo field, or I’m about to escape to a different range.

Fiery Greatsword is my constant Elite Utility Skill. It lets me switch into a high-dps weapon set that allows me to move into and through melee range. It drops another sword for an ally. It’s one of the few ways I can reliably score kills in WvW, though I have to be careful with it, because it will get me killed quickly if I use it improperly or get overconfident.

I drop it in fights in dungeons with high-HP foes. With me and an ally attacking the foe with a Fiery Greatsword, we can bring it down quicker.

It’s a complement to my staff.

Were I running with dagger/dagger, I’d consider using Frost Bow. I’ve spent less time testing the other summoned weapons and how I’d want to use them, but they all have a purpose.

They’re not meant to replace your 20 attunement skills. They’re meant as a form of weapon swap; grabbing different weapon skills than you currently have available to you.

i have been forcing myself to use the frost bow in some AC runs and i am starting to warm up to it.

The ice block thing on 5 is very powerful but it gets blocked by other players and mobs i think which sucks a great deal but it does freeze some bosses for like 3 seconds i think which is like the longest stun in the game isnt it? Often times when i use it i see “obstructed” come up… the other abilities do not seem to have the same issue.

the heal effect on 1 heals twice on each attack… I am not sure why that is. maybe because its firing two arrows at ones?

so for borrows i use the stackable fire scepter skills and while those are resolving i switch to the bow and start the ice storm and that isnt too bad.

sometimes i get stuck in the bow though meaning i forget i have it out and am not using my skills or it disappears and burn one of my higher cooldown skills.

I see that the passive effects of attuenments still work when switching. i am wondering if the weapon sigils also work when switching attunements when the bow is out.

I’m personally a big fan of the Elite, Conjure Fiery Greatsword. I start with 3 (Fiery Whirl), through the group of enemies I wish to kill, they all get Crippled for a short duration and take a decent amount of damage. Follow up with 5 (Firestorm), which I place slightly ahead of the enemies moving towards me, then a 4 (Fiery Rush), immediately following up with a very quick 3 to get out of range, then either let 1 auto-fire away as I kite or throw in a 2 (Fiery Eruption). Enemies are usually dead before I get to the end of that though.

Haven’t really had too much goes with the other weapons, since I find the Arcane Wave, -Shield and Glyph of Lesser Elementals—which I use mainly as a enemy distraction in PvE—to be more useful. I do kinda like the Conjure Flame Axe though, throwing the 2 (Explosive Lava Axe), followed by 5 (Flame Leap), 4 (Ring of Fire) and lastly 3 (Burning Retreat). From time to time I switch to that instead of the Glyph.

I think one of the important steps in using these two skills/weapons respectively are to make sure that you actually target the enemies you wish to engage with when conjuring them, as they have some decent Burning damage at their spawned location on summoning.

I tried Lightning Hammer while leveling several times, because I like the weapon. Never got it to work properly due to melee range being a no-go, even with frequent blind procs. Also D/D Fire does more dmg.
Ice Bow is currently one of my utilities when doing dungeons, because it has really solid aoe dmg and the heal shot is nice. While soloing I’d only switch to the bow for a short time, to burn the 2 aoes and maybe the super-freeze, then go back to regular attunements, because skill 1 lacks punch obviously.
I haven’t found a use for Earth Shield and Lava Axe yet. Lava Axe provides combo fields, but D/D Fire and Staff do that as well, and the Shield is kinda useless.

I also use GS Elite in PvP, because Ele glyph is rather gimmicky, in PvE I will use Ele glyph though, because the Earth, Water and Lightning Elementals are great.

Lava Axe is unique in that it will burn an enemy near the spot where the axe is summoned. A nice 5 second burn, which is quickly stacked on further by Axe 5. It’s ranged dps with autoattacks is also solid, and if you drop the weapon and returnto dagger/dagger fire attunement, you can use it to place down 2 firey rings at once.

i always run with the ice bow in my D/F build. It provides me with a solid AoE attack that is stronger then Meteor Storm against things like trebuchets, and graveling burrows thanks to the smaller Radius. The number 3 skill is surprisingly effective. If you fire it point blank it will proc a very very long chill which can be game breaking in PVP and useful on some bosses. The number 2 skill has it’s uses, but the long cast time makes it subpar in pvp unless u channel it while in mist form/obsidian flesh, the first being much better and harder to see. The 2 skill is great in pve for the extra damage and vulnerability. Dont use it much in PvP tho although its a good ranged option. However after you use the skills you need at the moment you drop the bow asap as its damage and support options are subpar outside of their niche uses. Pick up the second copy ~15 seconds later to get a second use out of it. Not 2 shabby.

Don’t know about the others tho, haven’t enjoyed the options i get out of the Hammer, axe, or shield. GS is great for pve tho.

IMO all summoned weapons have no way of fitting with our playstyle at all, its more of a cool idea someone had and didnt think through when it came to gameplay. Never once during playing and dancing through my attunements have i though “Oh hey, this would be the perfect time to change my range to melee and start hitting these mobs with a sword/axe/whatever”. Why would any elementalist want to be in melee range seeing how squishy we are? Also Why would any elementalist want to lock himself into one weapons skills when he can have 4 times one weapons skills when he is playing normally?

Just remove summoned weapons from the game and replace them with another useful concept. Really, anything would be better, just make them normal skills which summon a greatsword which does one attack and then goes away, that would be much more useful.

Except that all of the summoned weapons except for shield, hammer and greatsword are ranged, not melee. They fit into our playstyles just fine, people just aren’t making use of them effectively.

I generally stick with one weapon at a time, plus lightning flash and signet of storms. Generally Lava Axe or Ice bow to give my D/D elementalist a ranged option, a new method of applying burns, or a jump finisher/gap closer. Since D/D is mostly a melee-range build, using lava axe 5 to jump to opponents and apply a nasty burn, then immediately dropping it and attacking with Flame Grip or earth skills works nicely for when Lightning Rush is on cooldown. Alternatively you can just lightning rush away, turn around, water attune, pop a heal, and kite with ice bow.

One nice thing about summoned weapons is that you can use them while in any attunement. So you can be using a flame axe while attuned to earth, allowing you to lay down fire AoEs to prepare for combo fields with your blast finisher without having to put Fire attunement or any of the other attunements on cooldown.

That said, I would like the weapons to be made a little stronger. Currently they are useable, but if they offered some kind of boon along with their skills, they would be useful. I also don’t understand why Frost bow’s summon doesn’t chill, Thunder Hammer’s summon doesn’t daze, etc. Why is Lava Axe the only one who has a condition on summon?

I use them in any situation really, although Hammer is the hardest cause you have to be melee range. Its a lot of fun bustin in with a hammer on a Elementalist. Ice Bow’s AoE does Extreme Damage to Environment Objects. Like in AC where you have to kill Graveling Burrows.

I only even use them to compliment the opposite side of my range. If i go dagger/dagger i may equip the Frost Bow incase someone gets out of range, and if i go Staff or Scepter i may equip the Lightning hammer (my favoutire hands down – i’d pay cash for the skin on any hammer) incase i have a melee range situation.

Lifelike.5862:

Except that all of the summoned weapons except for shield, hammer and greatsword are ranged, not melee.

Actually the Greatsword is mostly ranged, too.

I use them all the time… when taking screenshots. The summoned weapons are generally cooler looking that the regular weapons =)

Battery.5930:

IMO all summoned weapons have no way of fitting with our playstyle at all, its more of a cool idea someone had and didnt think through when it came to gameplay. Never once during playing and dancing through my attunements have i though “Oh hey, this would be the perfect time to change my range to melee and start hitting these mobs with a sword/axe/whatever”. Why would any elementalist want to be in melee range seeing how squishy we are? Also Why would any elementalist want to lock himself into one weapons skills when he can have 4 times one weapons skills when he is playing normally?

Just remove summoned weapons from the game and replace them with another useful concept. Really, anything would be better, just make them normal skills which summon a greatsword which does one attack and then goes away, that would be much more useful.

You do know that dagger/dagger elementalists are in melee range all the time right? They tend to do quite well without being overly squishy.

I’ll sometimes carry them to cover for my/an ally’s weakness at melee/range. They’re kinda like kits and attunements, you can sit and use the same one all day, but you have so many other options cooling down that you’re better off firing the skill or two you need at the moment and switching to something else again. Their cooldowns are low enough for that and you get two per cast.

Also next time you’re on tower/keep defense, toss that greatsword to a nearby guardian.