Guild Wars 2

I keep reading how useful LF is in wvw but outside the trick with churning earth I have trouble seeing what the big deal is. Can someone give specific examples of how you are supposed to use it in wvw?

You can use it to make your burning speed a pretty decent burst, or when your stunbreak is on CD and you need to move, or opening gaps to give yourself room to breathe. Basically whenever you thin ‘I am here and I want to be over there’ lightning flash can be useful.

Also there are a few places you can LF to for a very useful escape.

It can be channeled with everything with a casting time, with churning earth being one of the least useful ( a skilled player will dodge anyway, its not like you just invented something new, he’ll see it coming). Most useful I find burning speed + lightning flash or fire grab + LF

It certainly depends on what spec you run what the uses are, but here are some more examples:

Earthquake (out of range) + lightning flash (at top of jump) is great for catching people off guard and getting a good burst + knockdown out of a telegraphed skill.

As other have said:
Burning speed + LF stacks up the little burn trails on your opponent for a good burst, and allows you to re-aim the skill if not in the right position.

Phoenix + LF – If you flash right when your guy starts to send the phoenix out, you can almost completely remove the travel time, making this near-instant burst.

Other uses:
LF with a channeled skill to keep up the channel and remove yourself from aoes (especially useful for meteor shower).

LF used as a 900 range leap for running or chasing.

LF used to get that last bit of damage for the guy who just won’t die.

LF using verticality to traverse terrain much faster than running around obstacles. This one takes practice, but many hills with a small ledge that require you run far one way to double back are excellent demonstrations. A good example is coming from NW camp in borderlands towards NW tower. The zig-zag slope can be cut off significantly by flashing right onto the ledge about half-way up. Anybody that is running after you will have a hard time keeping up with that kind of movement, which is effectively much further than 900 range running along the ground and doubling back.

Play around with the combos, and you will find that lightning flash is still ele’s best utility. I would take 3x lightning flash if it were possible – its that good.

Offensive:
Free, damage, mobility burst etc

Defensive:
Reposition, cast spells out of opponent range (example cast meteor shower and LF back during channeling becomes a 1200+900 range)

Mobility:
SInce they nerfed the hell out of ele mobility, anything helps

It should have breakstun, but anet obviously hates ele….and if its viable they will nerf it forever.

When casting Meteor Shower on a wall, you can begin casting (on rams for example) then blink away to safety to complete casting uninterrupted.

Start casting Shock Wave (staff earth 5 immobolize) and blink to your target to ensure the projectile hits, burst with fields.

Use blink to avoid obvious tell hits (such as hammer stun) and potentially confuse the hell out of your target. (blink behind him)

The only complaint I have about this skill is how broken it can be, it’s always a gamble when using this skill.

Worth mentioning that LF is the worst offender for the dreaded stuck-in-ground bug that continues to plague the game.

Actually no.
The worst offender is Illusionary leap, by a mile.

My main problem with LF, Blink, and other teleport skills is when I’m trying to blink up to a ledge or on top of my target, is that I sometimes accidentally click on my UI and the blink sends me nowhere. You just teleport to your current position, wasting the cooldown. It happens almost 40% of the time for me because I always lose track of where my cursor is on the screen in the heat of combat. I almost always end up dead in those situations.

Anet, please remove UI from affecting ground target skills!

I love using LF to toy with people. Ya know how SW camp is set up on the borderlands with that little arch over the entrance? You can LF on to the top of that. I trolled a group of players for a good 10 minutes screwing around in that area. They chased me into the camp, i fought them a bit then LF on top of that ledge, they had to run around up the hill to come and get me. i kited them a bit then jumped back down and started running out the camp. By that time LF was back up and i ported back up on top of the ledge and made them chase me again. Alot of fun toying with stupid people.
The same thing can be done with mesmer’s blink and thief’s shadowstep. It’s a hell of alot more trolly with thief because you have shadow return also. Infiltrator’s arrow will also port you up on there as well.

Today, I’ve learnt a bit more. Thank you very much guys!

LF was,is and I believe will always be my favorite utility since beta. There are still so many uses with this utility. I can list hem.
- To use in conjuction with weapon skill combos
- To catch someone
- To gain distance while escaping from zerg.
- To reach higher grounds without going around, climbing or running towards it.
- To deal damage
- To stomp thieves when they use their down kill.
- To go behind your opponent and confuse him where you are.
- To avoid further damage when you are stunned

LightningBlaze.4913:

LF was,is and I believe will always be my favorite utility since beta. There are still so many uses with this utility. I can list hem.
- To use in conjuction with weapon skill combos
- To catch someone
- To gain distance while escaping from zerg.
- To reach higher grounds without going around, climbing or running towards it.
- To deal damage
- To stomp thieves when they use their down kill.
- To go behind your opponent and confuse him where you are.
- To avoid further damage when you are stunned

Please elaborate

Iris Ng.9845:

LightningBlaze.4913:

LF was,is and I believe will always be my favorite utility since beta. There are still so many uses with this utility. I can list hem.
- To use in conjuction with weapon skill combos
- To catch someone
- To gain distance while escaping from zerg.
- To reach higher grounds without going around, climbing or running towards it.
- To deal damage
- To stomp thieves when they use their down kill.
- To go behind your opponent and confuse him where you are.
- To avoid further damage when you are stunned

Please elaborate

Something like this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVi14W_776s