Guild Wars 2

Had several friends report that this ability is currently able to block Siege weapons. Is this a bug or “working as intended”?

boozer.7815:

Had several friends report that this ability is currently able to block Siege weapons. Is this a bug or “working as intended”?

Yes it blocks and this is definitely a case of working as intended.

Confirmed it does so, as to working as intended I would assume so. A little more hate to pour onto our class. It does take at least 2 players with 20 in Air per treb to be effective, add more into the mix if none have Air traits to switch out.

Why 20 points in Air?

20% air skill CD reduction.

Even if it isn’t working as intended, it’s fairly easy to counter.

shhh quiet or it’ll bee fixed :p

Navzar.2938:

shhh quiet or it’ll bee fixed :p

Just in case they do read this, the guardian’s shield bubble can be used to the same effect…

If we’re going down, I’m making sure we’re taking guardians down with us :P

TwoBit.5903:

Navzar.2938:

shhh quiet or it’ll bee fixed :p

Just in case they do read this, the guardian’s shield bubble can be used to the same effect…

If we’re going down, I’m making sure we’re taking guardians down with us :P

Thieves as well with smokescreen.

Hmmmmmmm Morrolan, now you’re onto something!

Smokescreen with some blast finishers by the people who aren’t the current anti-projectile person in the rotation would be a fantastic aid in protecting the group since you’ll be pushed hard once noticed.

Technically Swirling Winds is a defensive skill so won’t break stealth, gotta test this tonight!

Sometimes when i’m blocking trebs, usually with another ele, after about 15 mins or so, i begin to realize how pedantic my actions feel…sitting there, taking turns casting swirling wind, even though i am helping my server.

then i think about the person on the other end, that has been mashing “2” for 15 mins on the treb, only to see “immune” pop up over and over.

it’s that thought that keeps me going, lol.

Scrambles.2604:

Sometimes when i’m blocking trebs, usually with another ele, after about 15 mins or so, i begin to realize how pedantic my actions feel…sitting there, taking turns casting swirling wind, even though i am helping my server.

then i think about the person on the other end, that has been mashing “2” for 15 mins on the treb, only to see “immune” pop up over and over.

it’s that thought that keeps me going, lol.

This made me smile. I hadn’t thought about it like that before, this will definitely give me more motivation to sit there longer

it gets better, it doesn’t say immune… it says nothing. So the person thinks they missed and adjusts the shot. It’s glorious

Does this mean golem’s bubble works too?!

How about eng shield skill that reflects? Altho its kinda small would be really badarse to block treb shot

Or theif elite dagger storm bouncing treb shot back !!??

no… nor golem buble nor dagger storm block treb shot nor does any skill that REFLECT… only skill that DESTROY projectil work against cata/treb shot… and swirling wind is the only one that does this (as far as I know…).. this is why ele are always the one that have to do that job… the only other way I know for blocking treb/cata shot is a smoke fiel placed in front of the target that will turn every shot passing over it in a MISS

Reflects don’t work, only spells that destroy projectiles.

smoke screen from thief and sanctuary from guardian both block treb/cata shots, its just extremely hard to aim due to small area covered, and long cd.

emikochan.8504:

Reflects don’t work, only spells that destroy projectiles.

Nope, reflects work (they don’t reflect but they BLOCK) as long as the treb crashes down ontop of the reflecting person and not hit them with the blast, I only know this because I’ve blocked more than my fair share of trebuchet shots with Whirling Defense and Magnetic Field (w/e reflect on ele staff is), granted every single one of those was unintentional…

Durzlla.6295:

emikochan.8504:

Reflects don’t work, only spells that destroy projectiles.

Nope, reflects work (they don’t reflect but they BLOCK) as long as the treb crashes down ontop of the reflecting person and not hit them with the blast, I only know this because I’ve blocked more than my fair share of trebuchet shots with Whirling Defense and Magnetic Field (w/e reflect on ele staff is), granted every single one of those was unintentional…

Does that protect the wall or piece of seige equipment that is being protected? I think that jist of what many are saying is that an Elementalist can prevent any damage to anything the treb is targeting.

The only way to prevent damage (afaik) is to destroy the projectile or put it into a miss state (via smoke screen). In these situations, the projectile is rendered useless and all siege equipment, players, walls, etc. remain unscathed. I used to be able to catch enemy treb fire using Obsidian Flesh (Focus, Earth 5) fairly regularly, but haven’t had much luck in the last week or two (maybe bad luck, maybe ninja fix). When done correctly, the projectile is destroyed before it has a chance to damage anything.

I haven’t had luck with reflects, though (Focus Earth 4, Staff Earth 3, or Mesmer Feedback), but they may be equally difficult to use.

Bsquared.3421:

Scrambles.2604:

Sometimes when i’m blocking trebs, usually with another ele, after about 15 mins or so, i begin to realize how pedantic my actions feel…sitting there, taking turns casting swirling wind, even though i am helping my server.

then i think about the person on the other end, that has been mashing “2” for 15 mins on the treb, only to see “immune” pop up over and over.

it’s that thought that keeps me going, lol.

This made me smile. I hadn’t thought about it like that before, this will definitely give me more motivation to sit there longer

the guy on the other end using a macro dude

Baladir.2736:

Durzlla.6295:

emikochan.8504:

Reflects don’t work, only spells that destroy projectiles.

Nope, reflects work (they don’t reflect but they BLOCK) as long as the treb crashes down ontop of the reflecting person and not hit them with the blast, I only know this because I’ve blocked more than my fair share of trebuchet shots with Whirling Defense and Magnetic Field (w/e reflect on ele staff is), granted every single one of those was unintentional…

Does that protect the wall or piece of seige equipment that is being protected? I think that jist of what many are saying is that an Elementalist can prevent any damage to anything the treb is targeting.

yes, but as i said the treb needs to hit directly on the reflect(s) which is often a lot smaller than swirling winds, just saying it’s possible not that it’s better.

Guardian Shield #5 also works, afaik. It is just that Swirling Winds are really easy to use, since they don’t require any precise positioning or timing.

Gaudrath.6725:

Guardian Shield #5 also works, afaik. It is just that Swirling Winds are really easy to use, since they don’t require any precise positioning or timing.

Boom, this, i personally like Swirling Winds the most, but that’s just me. I do miss when it reflected projectiles though, that was really fun… but kinda made focus way too strong imo.

Seems a bit hardcore to go 20 in air to lower the skill recharge rate so that you only need two eles with swirling winds instead of three to block incoming siege equipment. Destroying the siege equipment would be more effective. Assigning an entire class to seige defense is not a good use of resources for a commander.

Sometimes it is impractical to impossible to down counter-siege especially if supply is low.