Guild Wars 2

Hi,

maybe I am doing something wrong – I’m fine on land with staff or d/d but underwater I am hopeless. I have been trying to get the skill point in Malchor’s leap (the underwater north/western one) which is guarded by a veteran and 2 adds – no chance. I hardly do any damage and get hit from their auto attacks for serious amounts of damage.

Since there is no pet underwater to take aggro from you and since auras and such which gives you some respite on land are also nonexistent … add to the fact the new penalties on being downleveled and the stuff the statues now produce (the skill point is right next to a statue) …. gave up after 8 tries or so that always ended with one add down, the vet hardly damages and the other add maybe about half life and me, of course, being dead.

Tips, anyone?

Definitely not a water pro but I’ve found some success using Fire #2 in conjunction with Water #3 for might, then water #2 and #5 for very high damage attacks. It seems like Lightning #1 has the highest auto damage if you can land all 3. I haven’t seen much from earth though.

Water is really all you need in water. Of course, when waiting on cooldowns, the other ones are decent time fillers.

Just remember to throw up the Ice wall before you do Tidal Wave. This forces the mobs to hold still and allows for the chance to finish off a stack of mobs with 1 Tidal Wave hitting for every hit. Missing Tidal Wave sucks.

In all honesty though, I have found every other class to be superior in water. The only saving grace was the old Whirlpool, before they nerfed it 3×.

We’re actually pretty good underwater if you know what you’re doing. The problem is that it requires more practice than other classes, just like eles on land require more practice. I suggest taking some time to exclusively fight underwater. You’ll begin to get the hang of it.

Like the guy above said, water attunemet should be your base attunement when fighting underwater. Suprisingly, it hits the hardest. If you’ve traited heavily in water, the defensive bonuses just for being in water combine nicely with the damage.

If you’re a high crit junkie and have 25 points in air, you can combine the grandmaster minor trait (weak spot) with the piercing shards water major adept trait to great effect.

Whirlpool, even after the nerfs, still hits really hard and knocks people around. Don’t forget about it.

Updated your gear? I’ve often seen people try to fight with a trident a dozen levels or so below their own. Use rare trident, possibly exotic if you have the cash and you will melt stuff underwater.

I just swim circles and flip flop from fire, earth, and water with the odd exception of going to air for skill 5

Lure mobs to seafloor (or wall or any obstacle).

Use water4.

Then water5 towards the floor (or wall or any obstacle) .

Profit.

Incoming Water5 nerf!! You heard it here first.

Learn where our CCs are and how they work. Earth #5 is a very nice AoE blind.

Learn our combo finishers+fields. This is important in general, but many people disregard underwater combat even though it got a somewhat recent (in december I think?) patch to add a lot more finishers/fields for underwater combat.

Earth is our only decent consistent condition damage underwater. So if you’re condition damage, take note. And if you’re not, don’t bother with earth (the autoattack at least).

Lightning #1 is our best autoattack if – and only if – you can land all 3 projectiles on a single enemy. This usually requires you to be at least at mid range.
If you can’t land all 3 projectiles, water #1 is our best auto attack.

Water #5 has extraordinary OP’d damage. It’s just very, very difficult to land even some of the hits. Using your environment and CCing helps, and practice makes perfect.

Water #4 grants aoe regen if I recall correctly. It’s always useful to know where your heals are.

I don’t really enjoy underwater combat, but, if I must do it, I usually do just fine.

Yeah as Timebomb mentions learn the combo skills, like skill five on earth and then do arcane blast for the AOE stealth.

It’s also about timing, skill 2 on water fires a slow moving projectile which you can then detonate on the second press. If you time it just right it can do loads of damage. I’m a Mezmer by default so found an Ele weird at first but once you learn what you can do they are really fun.

Btw, I didn’t know they nerfed whirlpool? So they took away 2/3 of the damage did they?

Thanks everyone. Learned a few good tricks here.

Gallrvaghn.4921:

Lure mobs to seafloor (or wall or any obstacle).

Use water4.

Then water5 towards the floor (or wall or any obstacle) .

Profit.

Incoming Water5 nerf!! You heard it here first.

This is probably the best damage we (or any class really) can do underwater. Also works with Earth 4 if Water 4 is on cooldown. The trick is aiming your Tidal Wave (Water 5) perpendicular to a surface so you don’t move out of range of the enemy you’re drilling.

A note about Earth 5 – projectiles flying through it will miss and mobs inside it will have blind reapplied to them. It’s very good to use.

Fire 5 will give you vigor and, if used close to an enemy, causes a good deal of burning.

Boil (Fire2) + Ice Wall/Detonate (Water 3 x2) is nice for might, but after using your wall, know that you have to get close enough before Detonating to get the Might boon. I have Zephyr’s Boon, though, so I typically use Boil + Tidal Wave for the Fire Aura+Fury/Swiftness. Boil has a quick cooldown, so you can alternate the two combos.

Thanks for the tips – I was fully in exotics (minus breathing piece and backpack) – and yes, I have the 80 breathing thingy + an exotic trident. Problem with this skill point is that there’s a few veteran sharks aroudn it you do NOT want to invite to the party … so you’re confinded to doing small circles while 2 adds + the vet have a go at you in addition to the statue’s AoE.

I finally managed to get the skill point but it took a long, long time and a few respawns of the adds, sigh.

Having read through the tips I got some new ideas to try out – in a more frtiendly environment, though.

Earth 5 + explosion/leap = stealth

Don’t underestimate long-lasting burning application with point-blank Fire 5. If you can afford to get in the enemy’s face before using it I recommend doing so.

Very useful thread!
Though I was wondering: what utility skills do you guys use underwater?

i prefer arcane-spells or maybe earth-armor

I use signets of water, air, and fire. The passive speed buff of air is very handy moving through the lake in wvw. Activate water early and often to ruin a player’s day. I like the pre and burn fire gives me, but your mileage may vary.