Guild Wars 2

Just came back after 5 months and suddenly im seeing fiery greatsword on mettabattle for pvp and pve builds? Frost bow to? Huh?

Can I play a real battlemage now lol?

No…

Conjure are still in the same state as always : cluncky and without any great skills. There is no reason to take frost bow and FGS is still your mobility last ressort.

FGS in Pve: Using it purely for #5 is a dps increase on certain rotations. For the new condi build, it also uses #2.
Frost bow is also used almost purely for #4 (as it use to be).

From what I understand, Frost Bow is just there as a means to have some long range attacks while using Dagger/x builds… it’s not particularly great or powerful… just purely utilitary and more valuable in PvP than in PvE…

Frost bow was meta before in a lot of large hitboxes (it used to hit a lot more frequently and harder), now it has become a condi tool for added damage in PvE.

It is not useful for much else.

FGS became useful for some DPS increase in PvE and has always been the “meta” elite skill for PvP and WvW for its mobility (in those game modes it should come with a “do not use in fights” warning). (Except in a long forgotten time it actually did reasonable damage)

Hammer used to have a Lightning Rod build (not meta but fun) in PvP, but then it got squashed into oblivion just because it was good in PvE for its increased damage (it was better than Air 1 on Dagger).

I don’t think Axe was ever useful.

Frost bow and FGS are still somewhat viable fighting wise. As mentioned, range plays a part in the reason. Saw someone running the shield one. Totally too kme by surprise as I wasn’t aware how it worked,lol (I ended having to leave the fight as he was spam blocking/healing everything,lol)

Bigpapasmurf.5623:

Frost bow and FGS are still somewhat viable fighting wise. As mentioned, range plays a part in the reason. Saw someone running the shield one. Totally too kme by surprise as I wasn’t aware how it worked,lol (I ended having to leave the fight as he was spam blocking/healing everything,lol)

Oh yeah there is the earth shield too…. completely forgot about that one

Azel.4786:

Bigpapasmurf.5623:

Frost bow and FGS are still somewhat viable fighting wise. As mentioned, range plays a part in the reason. Saw someone running the shield one. Totally too kme by surprise as I wasn’t aware how it worked,lol (I ended having to leave the fight as he was spam blocking/healing everything,lol)

Oh yeah there is the earth shield too…. completely forgot about that one

Vs a newbie teef (at the time) it was a pain in the butt,lol. Never seen it before (actually had to look it up after the fight to see what the shield thing was) so I didnt know what to expect. It was pretty effective but he was also set up a bit tanky.

Bigpapasmurf.5623:

Vs a newbie teef (at the time) it was a pain in the butt,lol. Never seen it before (actually had to look it up after the fight to see what the shield thing was) so I didnt know what to expect. It was pretty effective but he was also set up a bit tanky.

Yeah, I think it was a bit before or after HoT that shield had its time in the sun for the extra tanky / unkillable build.

Those were horrible days, but I think now ANET probably doesn’t even know there is an Axe or a Shield conjure, they might just remember there is a Hammer.

It was a nice change of pace in WvW seeing someone else run something non meta, even if it confused the heck out of me

Bigpapasmurf.5623:

It was a nice change of pace in WvW seeing someone else run something non meta, even if it confused the heck out of me

Yeah, I wish we had more of that…. Nowadays the “meta” build is supported so much that it far outshines the others to the point of being non-competitive (or, at best, a significant handicap).

The thing I wish ANET would get is that you don’t need to strive for perfect balance on all builds – it will never exist – but if it is at least somewhat viable, it will offer a change of pace when the “meta” becomes boring or for people who like to get creative.

Azel.4786:

Bigpapasmurf.5623:

It was a nice change of pace in WvW seeing someone else run something non meta, even if it confused the heck out of me

Yeah, I wish we had more of that…. Nowadays the “meta” build is supported so much that it far outshines the others to the point of being non-competitive (or, at best, a significant handicap).

The thing I wish ANET would get is that you don’t need to strive for perfect balance on all builds – it will never exist – but if it is at least somewhat viable, it will offer a change of pace when the “meta” becomes boring or for people who like to get creative.

I get Meta, i do…min/maxing for effectiveness. It serves as a great starting point when I am making a new build on a class I havent played in a long time however. I rarely play meta (only do when I am learning how to counter certain classes/builds). Ive beaten MANY meta builds, both my class’s and others. I could push 4.1k power in a fight (thats really trying however) and i rarely see my class do that. I like it. Its different, I dont run SB or Bandits Defense or Staff on my DD. (which are all meta). Its great. I can typically take ppl by surprise.

I always said its sad to know what your opponent is running for build even before the fight starts, however as someone once said “If you can capture the element of surprise, you’re way ahead of the game”.

Frost bow is used in PvE against large target. It’s not that great in PvP. Flame Axe on the other hand is pretty great in PvP. I honestly think it’s underrated. Same with Earth Shield. You just never see them because Auramancer and Cantrip builds outshine all other builds.

FGS is a very good conjured weapon. It works very similar to warrior GS but more flashy. All skills have some purpose.

Personally, I would like to see all conjured weapon skills being improved and have them being completely time based rather than charge based.

One interesting thing they can do is to make the shield only affect off-hand skill and axe only affect main-hand skill.

AA on fgs if channeled will track a target. If you do it be thief pops invis it will track and reveal thief. Can close distance with skill 3 after revealed. Fgs has 2 attacks. Melee and range. On teq you can hit twice. Pretty nice cleave against illusions.

Just some tips for what you can do with fgs that I use in wvw small roaming, ganking thieves. Obvi I drop fgs once I have a thief on the ropes but fgs gives you an opportunity sometimes for free.

Since this is a conjured weapon topic, I have a question: as a non-ele, when should I pick up a conjured weapon lying on the ground, and what should I do with it? I don’t know the answers to these questions and I don’t want to mess anything up so I always hesitate and leave it where it lies.

In PvP, Earth Shield is/was also used in Marauder Staff Lightning Rod builds that aimed to use it as additional cc + defense and spike targets down.

From a PvP point of view, I feel like conjured weapons are limited primarily by the general mechanics of conjures. Currently, I find them to be horribly clunky and the 60 sec cooldown feels stifling. The actual weapon skills generated for the most part feel good and can already be fit to some purpose or synergy. This is what I’d like to see:

1) Remove ground targeting and secondary conjured weapon.
2) Reduce cooldown from 60 sec to 30 sec.

Sister Saxifrage.7361:

Since this is a conjured weapon topic, I have a question: as a non-ele, when should I pick up a conjured weapon lying on the ground, and what should I do with it? I don’t know the answers to these questions and I don’t want to mess anything up so I always hesitate and leave it where it lies.

if its ice bow, pick it up and use skill 4 and drop.

if its FGS only pick up for mobility. it will likely negatively affect your build if your traits dont have synergy with conjure skills.

HOWEVER if you are familiar with conjure, and you know what skills you might want to use go ahead and pick it up! i think most of us that use conjure in open world dont mind. BUT if your just gonna pick it up with F cause its there….dont. alot of times i DONT take the trait for additional charges on conjure because i strategic place my conjure summon to grab during my rotation. personally the only fun/useful way to use conjures as an ele is to treat it like an engi kit. spawn it, rip thru skills, drop, do normal skill rotation(my build currently camps fire) once everything is on CD pick up conjure weapon, spam skills, drop, go thru normal skill rotation again. an ele can get alot more value out of an overload while wielding FGS or flame axe.

keep in mind this is how to get the best use of a non meta skill set. your best DPS will liekly to never touch any ele’s using conjures cause there weak(besides ib4). but thats no fun.

i think i wrote a really lengthy post on how to use every conjure a year ago or something…idk if your bored and want to search my history.

hope some of this helps! feel free to bump, hmu here, or in game!

Man, frost bow was the bomb a long time ago. Was my fav conjured skill (still is)

In PvE all conjures are used as fillers to increase the dps of a rotation. Frostbow is quite powerful (cast/pick → 3 → 4 → drop), and it has a strong cc skill (5) which gets used sometimes. In theory “Feel the burn!” is better dps on small targets, but I usually run frostbow nevertheless for the added utility.

When was the last time someone used conjure flame axe?

I bet making the 2 first skills into mele skill would benefit this kit (maybe not to the point of having some player use it but at least I think it would be better).

Overall, I think that making conjure into selfish kit and allowing them to be given to other (like it is right now) via a trait would be the proper thing to do.

I actually keep frostbow when pvping sometimes. I try to bait their stun breaks with a fake lightening rod build and hit rhem with the frostbow stun and prceed to make it rain on them! I whipp it out when they least expect it

I’ve seen a staff ele use shield conjure effectively for the immune and pull. Does decent damage as it sets up a sweet burst.

I’m still waiting for the day they make conjure weapons into kits…

I know that you are thinking, but I can dream, right?!

I used conjure flame axe and I got to platinum with it. It’s pretty useful for it’s evade, might stack and aura. Only useful for support auramancer builds.