Guild Wars 2

Hello my fellow Elementalists,

As we have all seen in the last few ‘possible update changes’ in zerker armor etc.
Anet is planning to nerf zerker armor.

I suddenly realised today, that that day will be the end of the elementalist who plays staff DPS zerker. Why you might ask? I’ll tell you why….

Cooldowns, as most elementalist who have tried staff probably figured out by now, allot of cooldowns on staff and utilities take forever to get off cooldown once cast.

I will be theory crafting in this topic since the entire details arent out yet and sigils could change everything. But i wanted to know what the general opinion is about this.

Lower DPS means higher survivability right? This sounds good, but im afraid its quite the opposite. The zerker elementalist has a low HP pool and low defensive capabilities, I want you to think about this scenario for this exact problem.

Thiefs, in general already quite a problem for the occasional staff dps elementalist due to backstabbing and constant cloaking when theyr almost downed, just imagine, when almost all your skills are on cooldowns and you cannot use that last spell to kill him since hes invisible. hence leaving you with huge cooldowns, no defenses versus a fast attacking thief. who shadow refugees to heal and then to just kill you with his fast recharging cooldowns ,since you have nothing off cooldown left except fire 1 wich doesnt come close to killing a refugeed thief.

Any decent staff elementalist will cast most of his AoE on himself so if the thief comes close he will need to burn his own HP to try to do damage. And ussually if you do this timely and dodge most first attacks you will scare him off by having a few crit hits and make him cloak and run.

Now imagine your AoE doing less damage, whilst the cooldowns remain the same. Thiefs can now engage inside your AoE taking less damage hence doing more close combat-high-damage And your stuck with everything on cooldown.

Next class; think about mesmers and there clones. less dps means clones stay alive longer, means more surivability for mesmers but the elementalist is left out again due to no health/armor.

Warriors then? This is the easiest for us to imagine, i feel. constant unstun, rediculous high armor/health dps. Only way to defeat this correctly is baiting his unstun on a low stun skill and kiting. Now imagine lower DPS for both. High armor pools get even more reduced damage, the fight will take longer, you cast your CC, theyr all on cooldown and you didnt have enough DPS to take him down whist CCing him. GG.

I might talk very bitter about this. But the fact remains low armor proffesions are hurt the most with a decrease in DPS if they (like the DPS ele) dont have surivability. And the HIGH armor classes take even less damage then before.

And i want to know your, in detail, thoughts about this. Is it really as bad as i feel it will be?

Double sigils will slightly counter this nerf. And if it’s just crit damage that gets the nerf bat, and not the actual damage then we’ll even end up with slightly higher numbers. Especially if you stack force and night.

xsquared.1926:

Double sigils will slightly counter this nerf. And if it’s just crit damage that gets the nerf bat, and not the actual damage then we’ll even end up with slightly higher numbers. Especially if you stack force and night.

I think it depends on how good the remade sigils will be in that case. But im just already pretty alarmed at this stage.

I mean, i like being an underdog hence why i staff zerker ele. But if they want to get rid of even the slightest possibility of winning a 1v1 then i will be very very dissapoint.

xsquared.1926:

Double sigils will slightly counter this nerf. And if it’s just crit damage that gets the nerf bat, and not the actual damage then we’ll even end up with slightly higher numbers. Especially if you stack force and night.

didn t they say they are reducing damage of 2H of 5% because now they consider 2H to have default sigil of force?

So if you put it back the change in dps of 2H won t actually change at all..

LordByron.8369:

xsquared.1926:

Double sigils will slightly counter this nerf. And if it’s just crit damage that gets the nerf bat, and not the actual damage then we’ll even end up with slightly higher numbers. Especially if you stack force and night.

didn t they say they are reducing damage of 2H of 5% because now they consider 2H to have default sigil of force?

So if you put it back the change in dps of 2H won t actually change at all..

This would actually be a very good thing, since it promotes versatility in capabilities of what a 2h does.

LordByron.8369:

xsquared.1926:

Double sigils will slightly counter this nerf. And if it’s just crit damage that gets the nerf bat, and not the actual damage then we’ll even end up with slightly higher numbers. Especially if you stack force and night.

didn t they say they are reducing damage of 2H of 5% because now they consider 2H to have default sigil of force?

So if you put it back the change in dps of 2H won t actually change at all..

I haven’t read that, actually. Got a source on it?

I have a 80 Warrior, Ele, Thief and Engi. Out of all of them, a
staff Ele has always been my favorite. With that said, the Ele still
has glaring problems.

IMO, I think the CDs are way to long on a staff ele. They are supposed to
specialize in AOE right? Hears a news flash: My thief is WAY more effective
with AOE with Cluster Bomb and Choking Gas:

-Cluster Bomb at close range is basically instant cast
-Choking Gas can tag an entire zerg through multiple casts (which is seconds)

In addition, you can stealth when things get too hot! If AOE is not needed,
the Thief obviously shines in single target damage. I only bring this up, because
I would rather be playing my Ele, I really would. But not when another “melee”
class can do faster AOE, better single target burst, AND the best means to
escape and survive!

Is the cooldown problem for staff related to the fact that staff eles want to stay in Fire all the time?

MotherKitten.6795:

Is the cooldown problem for staff related to the fact that staff eles want to stay in Fire all the time?

No. It is not. I am a fully attunement dancing might combofielding CCing ele myself. wanting to be capable of more intensive apm casting but am locked due to constant cooldowns.

xsquared.1926:

LordByron.8369:

xsquared.1926:

Double sigils will slightly counter this nerf. And if it’s just crit damage that gets the nerf bat, and not the actual damage then we’ll even end up with slightly higher numbers. Especially if you stack force and night.

didn t they say they are reducing damage of 2H of 5% because now they consider 2H to have default sigil of force?

So if you put it back the change in dps of 2H won t actually change at all..

I haven’t read that, actually. Got a source on it?

I’ve read last week in balance section somewhere…. since the forum search is terrible i don t really know how to find it…maybe you could ask there and have the same people hanging there answer.

I’m not sure I understand you correctly. What has the topic title to do with the actual post? Are you concerned the thief’s damage relative to the elementalist will be higher?

If that is the case, I can reassure you. Berserker staff eles were and always will be thief food. Non-berserker eles however, have less critical damage than full zerker thieves. If they have less critical damage, then a nerf to critical damage will affect them less than a player that stacks it. This means that it’ll actually be a little easier to survive them. Considering that thieves need to burn their initiative to get the burst to work, they may actually run out of initiative if the fight lasts too long so overall, you’ll have it easier. At least in theory anyway.

As for being able to dps as a staff ele, you can do so with the proper fire traits. But that requires you to hide behind your team for maximum effect, which has been the case for mage-type classes in MMOs for years.

It sucks. I hate ANet for nerfing Zerk. Zerk is all I wear.

Anyway I will just QQ until Anet fixes it, because they are definitely doing something stupid here that doesn’t need to be done. They’re only doing this Zerk nerf thing anyway because stupid PVErs are QQing about how LFG groups all want Zerk and kick them if they don’t ping their Zerk gear.

Thing is, Anet screwed themselves with their game design, because they focused too much on damage and not enough on things like healing and support (“There is no Trinity in Guild wars 2” — by ANet)

That automatically ends with a situation where people gravitate towards DPS as the most efficient way to clear PVE. It was inevitable.

They shouldn’t nerf that because of player whining. They should nerf it only to introduce greater build diversity — which isn’t gonna happen because they are doing it the wrong way (nerfing Zerk won’t fix the lack of diversity), unless they fix core design issues people going DPS in PVE isn’t going to change.

As for how it will affect Staff Eles — yeah it’s gonna hurt.

Cooldowns take too long — and yes we Fire Eles like to stay in Fire all the time because that’s the only attunement that has any kind of decent damage. Water sucks at damage, Air is even worse, Earth is too slow and yeah it sucks at damage too.

However, attunement switching is a core mechanic of Eles so I eventually learned to go around, but thing is there are times you want to keep doing DPS, and switching to water isn’t gonna help that goal. Actually scratch that. Most of the time you want to keep doing DPS, and only rarely do you want to do something else.

And it’s true, ThiBash said it: Glass Staff Ele is always hard countered by Stealth Backstab Thief, it sucks but that’s the truth of the matter. I just try to run away when one of them hit me. Assuming I’m still alive — I’m usually 2-shot by those guys.

sigh

Maximum DPS builds (that means full zerker and traited that way as well,) will see about a 10% decrease in damage. 100% of that reduction comes through crit damage. Your crits will hit for slightly less. Your normal attacks will hit just as hard. You’ll still be specced for the best DPS in the game and you’ll still be able to deliver it. It’ll just be slightly less, on average, than you’re used to.

If I hear one more person with this “they’re nerfing crit damage, zerker and my characters that use it are useless now” nonsense I’m going to tear my hair out.

Kalarchis.8635:

sigh

Maximum DPS builds (that means full zerker and traited that way as well,) will see about a 10% decrease in damage. 100% of that reduction comes through crit damage. Your crits will hit for slightly less. Your normal attacks will hit just as hard. You’ll still be specced for the best DPS in the game and you’ll still be able to deliver it. It’ll just be slightly less, on average, than you’re used to.

Truth be told, a lot of maximum DPS builds are going to have to regear/retrait now due to incorporating Assassin gear, which will no longer be “maximum DPS build” as critting will be, obviously, less important than power.

Berserker is now even more the only option for PvE, nothing will even touch it. No 3/6 Assassin or 3/6 Berserker. Nope. 6/6 Berserker, Berserker Weapons, Berserker Trinkets. Waiting and seeing on runes.

Flissy.4093:

Kalarchis.8635:

sigh

Maximum DPS builds (that means full zerker and traited that way as well,) will see about a 10% decrease in damage. 100% of that reduction comes through crit damage. Your crits will hit for slightly less. Your normal attacks will hit just as hard. You’ll still be specced for the best DPS in the game and you’ll still be able to deliver it. It’ll just be slightly less, on average, than you’re used to.

Truth be told, a lot of maximum DPS builds are going to have to regear/retrait now due to incorporating Assassin gear, which will no longer be “maximum DPS build” as critting will be, obviously, less important than power.

Berserker is now even more the only option for PvE, nothing will even touch it. No 3/6 Assassin or 3/6 Berserker. Nope. 6/6 Berserker, Berserker Weapons, Berserker Trinkets. Waiting and seeing on runes.

You forgot to mention the backpack!

I don’t see how they could nerf scholar runes when it’s rewarding you for staying >90% as an absolute squishy.

We will have to see how ferocity and the sigil upgrade contribute to damage. Power and damage modifier are not being touched so I suspect the difference won’t be significant. I still see my Ele bursting down very bunker players in WvW after patch without being glass cannon.

Ferocity changes are having NO effect on SPvP. None whatsoever. Zip. Your crit damage will stay exactly the same.

It is largely a PvE and WvW change. It’s especially needed in WvW where some people are pushing 100%+ crit damage and nearly-guaranteed crit chance.

Wintel.4873:

Ferocity changes are having NO effect on SPvP. None whatsoever. Zip. Your crit damage will stay exactly the same.

It is largely a PvE and WvW change. It’s especially needed in WvW where some people are pushing 100%+ crit damage and nearly-guaranteed crit chance.

Afaik www issue are conditions and warrior guardian trains that runs sentinel/soldier…..

Only thieves are wearing full zerker…and as Always stealth is the problem
Scepter eles in zerk are easy to kill.

LordByron.8369:

Wintel.4873:

Ferocity changes are having NO effect on SPvP. None whatsoever. Zip. Your crit damage will stay exactly the same.

It is largely a PvE and WvW change. It’s especially needed in WvW where some people are pushing 100%+ crit damage and nearly-guaranteed crit chance.

Afaik www issue are conditions and warrior guardian trains that runs sentinel/soldier…..

Only thieves are wearing full zerker…and as Always stealth is the problem
Scepter eles in zerk are easy to kill.

Anyone in full zerk is easy to kill but if the player is good and/or you let your guard down he/she can defeat you just as easily.

Many that get killed in wvw by me think that my ele is full zerk because my damage is as insane as a glass cannon yet with over 3100 armor and 18k hp along with many defensive skills and utilities I am very bunker. That’s how op ele can be. Will be interesting how less op after patch my ele would be but i have to admit the damage has to be turned down a bit.