Guild Wars 2

I have been doing som WvW and sPVP recently but I am about to loose it. I SUCK. At elementalist atleast. I can dominate small groups of 2-4 people with my thief but I don’t want to take the easy way out. I love the elementalist because the diversity and many skills.

Right now I am running D/D (0/10/0/20/30) with very glassy gear but I am tired of dying to cloak and dagger now..

What stats should I invest my 100+ laurels in? Celestial?

Don’t start off with being glassy for wvw pvp. Start with bunker until you become skillful enough to survive long with fewer health and armor.

it depends on your build… but if your build is balanced, its good to have some mix of berserker and soldier… and if it would cause your crit to be too low, mix it with some knight

Build is 0/10/10/20/30

2v1 you could do if you r good

Well first, you’re missing 10 trait points. You might consider putting 10 points into Earth for Stone Splinters and the additional Toughness.

Here is a good analysis by one of the better players out there:

http://daphoenix555.wordpress.com/

I currently have three armor sets in my bags, an all Zerker with Ruby Orbs, a PTV set with runes of the Ogre, and an all Celestial set with two runes each of Water, Monk and Melandru. I usually use the PTV set for world bosses and WvW, the Zerker set for organized PvE (dungeons, fractals) and the Celestial for pretty much everything else. I use a Cavalier backpiece, along with several different configurations of Ascended trinkets (Celestial, Zerker and Cavalier).

I also have two sets of weapons for each combination, Zerker and Celestial. The Zerker comes out in organized stuff, Celestial for everything else.

But as a general rule, you’re going to want to focus on Toughness and/or Vitality in PvP, so Soldier’s or Knights is a good base there, as is Valkyrie for the extra health in the current condition meta. Sentinel’s isn’t bad either, but as Molten Core is no longer available they’re pretty expensive on the TP.

Delloro.9873:

Build is 0/10/0/20/30

Why do you only have 60 trait points allocated?

So even with celestial gear you will be too glassy and wont be able to deal enough damage to make up for it. I’d say go full bunker dd, you wont kill anything but wont die as fast either and can contribute more to group play. Or try and get the hang of a s/x burst build and keep the damage gear, lol but then you will prob miss your thief once you compare the damage, survivability, mobility and playstyle.

OP,
The problem with Ele is that it works against all odds, seriously. It makes sense to give bonus survivability stats to classes that are only melee (as dubious as that is), but all the classes in GW2 have ranged weapons. All the other classes have skills that close a distance gap (except engineer). Other classes have access to damage avoidance more than the Ele, which is also a way to balance ranged classes with non-ranged classes. The sum of all these design choices is that Ele has no mechanic to make up for its designed weakness. The only thing an Ele can do best is lay down a combo field. The current design concept for the Ele is literally a buff bot. Enjoy.

The reason a thief can 1v4 when basically no other class can, is they can go invisible and reset the fight if needed, and stealth stomp.

Anyone who can 1v4 on an elementalist is both very good and fighting very bad players (I would argue the 4 at once a thief can kill are also “bad” players by that standard, but the thief isn’t necessarily “good”).

Skill cap and floor are both higher with elementalist. 20 weapon skills and 4 sets of cooldowns takes more micro managing than 10 weapon skills with a shared resource governing cooldown.

ImProVocateur.5189:

All the other classes have skills that close a distance gap (except engineer).

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rocket_Boots

That & they have 900 range in P/SD or 1200-1500(?) traited rifle so even if immob`d/rooted etc you can still hit enemy players.
Combine that with pressing F1 heal for a huge AoE blast heal or drop a bomb for added blast stealths etc, Engie has it better then Ele.

Bottom line is this:

If you play an Ele, you’re every wizard from Fairy Tail and a certain manga with Dark Schneider in it combined! At 1/100000th the power level.

BUT you look so much cooler than anybody else in the game that its totally worth it! You are the explosion that players walk away from!

I remember fighting 2-4 people on my ele. Then I leveled up a thief and I still kill 2-4 people, but it is out of a zerg of 20 and I get away clean.

Grove.2835:

So even with celestial gear you will be too glassy and wont be able to deal enough damage to make up for it. I’d say go full bunker dd, you wont kill anything but wont die as fast either and can contribute more to group play. Or try and get the hang of a s/x burst build and keep the damage gear, lol but then you will prob miss your thief once you compare the damage, survivability, mobility and playstyle.

Not in the slightest. I’m in full celestial armor and my offhand dagger is celestial and I’m running cavaliers, zerk/valk, pvt trinkets and my toughness is between 1750-2400.vthats also with 16.5k hp.

You just need to used the proper build and spend your traits accordingly to achieve the best results. I’m using a s/d burst/sustained dmg build.

Treborlavok.3504:

Grove.2835:

So even with celestial gear you will be too glassy and wont be able to deal enough damage to make up for it. I’d say go full bunker dd, you wont kill anything but wont die as fast either and can contribute more to group play. Or try and get the hang of a s/x burst build and keep the damage gear, lol but then you will prob miss your thief once you compare the damage, survivability, mobility and playstyle.

Not in the slightest. I’m in full celestial armor and my offhand dagger is celestial and I’m running cavaliers, zerk/valk, pvt trinkets and my toughness is between 1750-2400.vthats also with 16.5k hp.

You just need to used the proper build and spend your traits accordingly to achieve the best results. I’m using a s/d burst/sustained dmg build.

I don’t know man, I don’t quite agree. I have a few armor sets for my Ele, 3 variants(including celestial) for a s/x build, have run a s/f burst/dps build with success (as much as an ele can get) for the past few months, that last stealth nerf to arcane skills hurt but whatever,thats Anet. IMO the slight gain in survivability from celestial doesn’t make up for the loss in power.Its still not enough damage output or sustain compared to other classes, especially a thief.
PM me if you want to share/discuss builds, cool that you’re having success with it.

Grove.2835:

Treborlavok.3504:

Grove.2835:

So even with celestial gear you will be too glassy and wont be able to deal enough damage to make up for it. I’d say go full bunker dd, you wont kill anything but wont die as fast either and can contribute more to group play. Or try and get the hang of a s/x burst build and keep the damage gear, lol but then you will prob miss your thief once you compare the damage, survivability, mobility and playstyle.

Not in the slightest. I’m in full celestial armor and my offhand dagger is celestial and I’m running cavaliers, zerk/valk, pvt trinkets and my toughness is between 1750-2400.vthats also with 16.5k hp.

You just need to used the proper build and spend your traits accordingly to achieve the best results. I’m using a s/d burst/sustained dmg build.

I don’t know man, I don’t quite agree. I have a few armor sets for my Ele, 3 variants(including celestial) for a s/x build, have run a s/f burst/dps build with success (as much as an ele can get) for the past few months, that last stealth nerf to arcane skills hurt but whatever,thats Anet. IMO the slight gain in survivability from celestial doesn’t make up for the loss in power.Its still not enough damage output or sustain compared to other classes, especially a thief.
PM me if you want to share/discuss builds, cool that you’re having success with it.

O no I’m not denying that knight or zerk wouldn’t be better if you’re looking to min/max a build. I just think that celestial is our best choice to get that all around hybrid between a glass cannon and a bunker. That’s also why I run beryl orbs for the extra 120 power 12% crit dmg and 84 vitality.

Plus with the thief, in order to get their best burst, they’re super glassy. But they have the benefit of being able to drop combat and the best mobility in the game.

Edit: just wanted to add, if you’re going to use celestial gear, it depending entirely on what traits and build you want to go with.

ARM.3912:

I remember fighting 2-4 people on my ele. Then I leveled up a thief and I still kill 2-4 people, but it is out of a zerg of 20 and I get away clean.

Against horrible opponents even an ele can go against 4 players and win. In this game 2v1 is impossible to win if you face 2 good players regardless of the profession and build you might be using. A good bursty ele is all that is needed to defeat any type of thief easily.

Atrophied.8725:

Delloro.9873:

Build is 0/10/0/20/30

Why do you only have 60 trait points allocated?

Running 0/10/10/20/30, was not in my right mind when posting.

I started out playing with PVT gear and a 0/20/0/20/30 build but I was so frustrated beacuse, you know, I could kill very few. Partly because you need to nail the combos to get any decent damage (which I didn’t) so after 10 minutes of fighting its time to just run the other way.

Bursty S/D build was a lot of fun for a while but against some builds and classes it barely scratched them. Very fun against other glassy players thou

Delloro.9873:

I have been doing som WvW and sPVP recently but I am about to loose it. I SUCK. At elementalist atleast. I can dominate small groups of 2-4 people with my thief but I don’t want to take the easy way out. I love the elementalist because the diversity and many skills.

Right now I am running D/D (0/10/0/20/30) with very glassy gear but I am tired of dying to cloak and dagger now..

What stats should I invest my 100+ laurels in? Celestial?

If every class had a build that let you 1v4 good players those would be the most popular builds.

You can kill bad players 1v4 as pretty much any class.

Thieves and mesmer’s(I have both) excel against players that have no clue what they are fighting or how a thief or mesmer works. Also alot of Mesmer builds in WvW you can just walk away from tbh outside of a glass cannon builds because they threaten you with their damage same as a thief can cause panic if they catch people by surprise if they don’t know how to deal with the class.

Thieves are a different story but if you know how they work then it’s different. OP states he has a thief so I am willing to bet thief probably gives him no problems at all. Now Reverse those roles imagine you walk up to a thief fighting 3 other people and you join in. You think the thief is going to kill all 4 people with you included?

This is what I run in wvw. It doesn’t do much damage, and most of my damage relies heavily on might stacking (blast finishers plus fire aura), but it’s super tanky and heals pretty well (aoe, to boot). I usually try to stay on the move and run around inside enemy zergs. I’ve found I can be a pretty decent distraction from my teammates who are actually doing the damage, and I’ve got decent group support (aura sharing is better, but has less condi removal). I can almost always survive the initial burst from glassy players and heal/condi cleanse for quite awhile. It’s not great for solo roaming, but you can solo camps, and it’s great for both small groups and running with the zerg. (Most 1v1s end in a stalemate or the other person’s buddies showing up, at which point I just bail.)

(Note: I do swap to staff sometimes for mass cc, and I swap out the second arcane trait to get the larger aoe radius. You’re not able to stack much might, though, and you only have one aura instead of three, so that’s definitely just for support and cc.)

Use the attachments to verify my numbers.

We can see that Celestial provides ample survivability. Gear causes a tradeoff between offense and defense. That usually results in Celestial being the better choice if a character wants both offensive and defensive stats. What puts Celestial ahead is that it adds to seven stats, not three. The problem is not in the survivability stats that Celestial gives (Toughness, Vitality, Healing power). The problem with Celestial is in the mediocre Power and Condition Damage. Power needs to be through the roof to make a significant impact. That is why people stress stacking Might. The difference between Celestial and Berserker/Soldier is 600 Power. That is 17 stacks of Might worth of Power. Yes, it is a BIG difference. Again, Celestial has the Critical Damage, but that is why it is best to spec into the Critical line of traits when using Celestial. Mixing gear is probably the best choice.

oZii.2864:

Thieves are a different story but if you know how they work then it’s different. OP states he has a thief so I am willing to bet thief probably gives him no problems at all. Now Reverse those roles imagine you walk up to a thief fighting 3 other people and you join in. You think the thief is going to kill all 4 people with you included?

Yes I do understand how to counter thiefs but I guess I am running a bit to squishy right now because I constantly have to stay defensive. I loose all pressure when I have to heal up because I was too busy doing damage and get hit by backstabs.

I’m gonna toughen up a bit and practice

ImProVocateur.5189:

Use the attachments to verify my numbers.

Excellent sheet, thanks!

Delloro.9873:

oZii.2864:

Thieves are a different story but if you know how they work then it’s different. OP states he has a thief so I am willing to bet thief probably gives him no problems at all. Now Reverse those roles imagine you walk up to a thief fighting 3 other people and you join in. You think the thief is going to kill all 4 people with you included?

Yes I do understand how to counter thiefs but I guess I am running a bit to squishy right now because I constantly have to stay defensive. I loose all pressure when I have to heal up because I was too busy doing damage and get hit by backstabs.

I’m gonna toughen up a bit and practice

Just play with it more I think in roaming around you have to be more aware of who your with. If you are with a thief or mesmer then you are going to get most of the focus fire. Your going to get most of the focus fire in alot of small scale fights unless there is a Necro around. Sometimes it is better just to be a distraction kiting around and let the other people pick off enemies with tunnel vision.

There is a mindset among rpg players that certain roles are tanky. Many players expect those roles to dominate in a 1v1. It is a game destroying expectation in PvP games, and it becomes a selfish demand that devs in every game cater to, for some reason never stated.

Here is the deal. Top players could play OP classes better. They do not have to, so usually they kick back and enjoy the free extra power. If they really wanted to kill the Ele, then they could trait for it and there would be nothing any player could do to stop them from killing Eles en masse.

In conclusion,
1. Play what is most fun for you, and
2. Play to win more than shine.