Guild Wars 2

I’ve come up with a burst combo that deals a lot of damage in a few seconds. It can be initiated from 900 range mid cc making it difficult to avoid. I realize this isn’t exactly practical, the idea was to make an ele cheese combo.

-Earthquake
-Lightning Flash mid cast to target from 900 range
-Cleansing Fire
-Arcane Wave
-Fire Attunement (ideally you would use this after lightning flash)
-Fire Grab

Build is 30 30 0 10 0, 10 in water for vital striking(+10% dmg above 90%hp), scholar runes

UPDATE: Here’s me using a this combo in a build I actually use. Yes I realize he used frenzy.

UPDATE: Here’s a vid showing the damage capable without bolt to the heart or a frenzied target. Notice how I have shocking aura and protection up the entire time and before those are gone I’m invulnerable making the stomp.

You can switch to fire attunement while casting earthquake, right after lightning flash. You also have time to lay down a ring of fire before your arcane wave for might and still get off your fire grab before they get up from knock down.

The fire grab damage is fun to giggle over, but the damage you’re doing means they’re under 25% health and triggering Bolt to the Heart. It ends up being mostly overkill damage.

Caffynated.5713:

You can switch to fire attunement while casting earthquake, right after lightning flash. You also have time to lay down a ring of fire before your arcane wave for might and still get off your fire grab before they get up from knock down.

The fire grab damage is fun to giggle over, but the damage you’re doing means they’re under 25% health and triggering Bolt to the Heart. It ends up being mostly overkill damage.

True but you still get +20% for grounded (stunned or knocked down opponent), +10 for burning, +10 for fire, +10 for scholar runes, +10 for vital striking. On a light target golem at above 25% health knocked down this build does 12k fire grabs.

900 range combo in which all the moves have 300 range?

reikken.4961:

900 range combo in which all the moves have 300 range?

What I meant by that is lightning flash has 900 range, which allows you to get the jump on someone. Also youtube vid incomming, target happened to be afk but whatever.

Yea, I would say this is not a 900 range combo. Most of those skills require you to be within 300 or so radius (really close).

Will these erase all QQ’s about bs thieves??

They’d have to be deaf not to hear Churning Earth and not think something’s up, but there is still the initial surprise of the teleport. Bear in mind that without stability it’s a one-trick pony- the first time they may not think the elementalist has the teleport and eat the combo. Second time they’re more likely to use blocks, interrupt Churning Earth or CC the elementalist.

It might be more repeatable in a team-fight but the other team will also gib the elementalist who just spent all of their utility slots.

WhimsicalPacifist.2943:

They’d have to be deaf not to hear Churning Earth and not think something’s up, but there is still the initial surprise of the teleport. Bear in mind that without stability it’s a one-trick pony- the first time they may not think the elementalist has the teleport and eat the combo. Second time they’re more likely to use blocks, interrupt Churning Earth or CC the elementalist.

It might be more repeatable in a team-fight but the other team will also gib the elementalist who just spent all of their utility slots.

It’s not churning earth. Lightning flash is a 900 range teleport and you can use it right before earthquake lands, making it incredibly difficult to dodge. At that point the target is knocked down and the entirety of the burst (outside of the lightning flash damage) is delivered during the cc. A lightning flash + earthquake almost never gets dodged in hotjoin, although in tournaments it might work once but afterwards they would catch on.

I stand corrected. One question then- what’s the escape plan?

Just goes to show that every class, including the elementalist can have burst. It is not just limited to thieves and warriors, despite popular belief.

lol 14k crits

WhimsicalPacifist.2943:

I stand corrected. One question then- what’s the escape plan?

make sure air is up, and ride

imho there are better burst builds…
put 15 points in earth(skilling stone splinters – 5% more damage within melee range) for damage+cripple at attunement to earth and engage with:
updraft+shield of earth->fire attunement(damage, dunno if it will hit, should if you did the updraft right)->burning speed ->fire grab ->earth attunement(damage+cripple)-> finish up with the heavy hitters on earth attunement.

A more versatile burst build would be 20-10-25-0-15 or 20-15-25-0-10.

This is the reason because ppl have to stop complain about thief. Thief can do burst damage but after all he have to run away or he die. Elementalist can burst and still have no cd (because of attunement) to fight.

I think the problem of elementalist is that change attunement don’t have the right cooldown.
Ele : 20 skill to spam in fight.

nice burst !

next time go 5 earth in first and after teleport and make you combo

I have a counter: I am invisible, I hit you, you die.

innocent ouarior.1954:

I have a counter: I am invisible, I hit you, you die.

??
just shadowstep away.
It’s a stun breaker.
No need to think about anything :>

Add a video against a NON AFK dude? and the spec they could have been running could have been glass cannon which isnt the best way to show off the combo as not everyone in the game runs glass cannon

all i can say about this combo – fun gimmick but not viable thx for the OP input .

6+ abilities and not including the attunement swapping. Thief could do just as much if not move damage with less time and using less cool downs and from stealth

atm max fire grab i could achieve on light golem is 15.8k

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

6+ abilities and not including the attunement swapping. Thief could do just as much if not move damage with less time and using less cool downs and from stealth

Just went into the first full server I could find. Oh my, not a single thief. Don’t they know how awesome thieves are? Quick go on every other profession forum and let everyone know how awesome thieves are.

I still think you would be happier with the results from:

Earthquake
Lightning flash
Fire attunement 3 stacks of might sigil of battle
Cleansing flame +1 might
end EQ
Ring of Fire +1 might
Arcane blast +4 might
Fire Grab +1 might

You’re missing out on a good chunk of extra damage if you’re just going for the pure lulz overkill number. Of course, then you might accidentally kill him with the 5k damage ring of fire and not get your big fire grab money shot for the video. Dilemmas dilemmas.

As far as key bindings go, I would bind keys that I’m going to use right after each other to the same key and add a shift/ctrl modifier.

4 Earthquake
shift 4 lightning flash
E fire attunement
Shift e cleansing flame
4 ring of fire
ctrl 4 arcane blast
5 fire grab

Cosmic Teapot.9162:

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

6+ abilities and not including the attunement swapping. Thief could do just as much if not move damage with less time and using less cool downs and from stealth

Just went into the first full server I could find. Oh my, not a single thief. Don’t they know how awesome thieves are? Quick go on every other profession forum and let everyone know how awesome thieves are.

So you had a match without a thief..that means nothing, i have had matches with no Thiefs or Mesmers that does happen you know. Still ALOT easier to do that sorta damage combo as a Thief then having to jump attunement 2 or 3 times and use 6 abilities and hope they cant/dont dodge anything

If I were to run this in sPvP for fun, i’d run S/D (rather than D/D, you use no mainhand dagger skills in the combo) and follow up the flame grab with a quick ring of fire, then air attunement swap (electric discharge), lightning strike, blinding flash. You can then RTL—> updraft if they’re not dead and keep attacking, or turn and RTL away as an escape route.

That adds like 5k+ extra damage that’s all instant and gives a 2nd knockdown or escape route. I might have to try this sometime just for the lulz, we all know it’s not really viable outside of sPvP zergfests, but it could be very fun to mess around with occassionally

So, you sacrifice a 50 sec cd stunbreaker and condition removal for a burst sequence that an opponent can foil with a single stunbreak and dodge.

What will you do then waiting 30+ seconds for arcane wave and fire grab cooldown?

This gib setup is a sham given its reliance on finding newer PuG players. The cooldowns are too long com[ared to other classes.

Cosmic Teapot.9162:

Just went into the first full server I could find. Oh my, not a single thief. Don’t they know how awesome thieves are? Quick go on every other profession forum and let everyone know how awesome thieves are.

errr… I havent run into a match with less than 2 thieves in two weeks.
Maybe because I only play one hour a day. I also play PUGs, maybe the horde of glass canon thieves are a PUG thing only.

Besides, you can tape hundreds of crazy numbers videos of pretty much every classes as long as you stack damage on gear and traits. Just put 30 pts into Fire and Air, gear up for full Zerk, push 3 spells and you’ll score 20k dmg. I guess the real difference is that not all professions can be untargetable afterward.

Zenith.7301:

So, you sacrifice a 50 sec cd stunbreaker and condition removal for a burst sequence that an opponent can foil with a single stunbreak and dodge.

What will you do then waiting 30+ seconds for arcane wave and fire grab cooldown?

This gib setup is a sham given its reliance on finding newer PuG players. The cooldowns are too long com[ared to other classes.

I think the OP knows that, he admits this is a gimmick spec designed to do one thing, that is hit a massive nuke (on a bad opponent) once every 45 seconds at a minimum.

The OP admits this is NOT a serious build, it’s called having fun. Some people are taking this WAY to seriously…

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Cosmic Teapot.9162:

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

6+ abilities and not including the attunement swapping. Thief could do just as much if not move damage with less time and using less cool downs and from stealth

Just went into the first full server I could find. Oh my, not a single thief. Don’t they know how awesome thieves are? Quick go on every other profession forum and let everyone know how awesome thieves are.

So you had a match without a thief..that means nothing, i have had matches with no Thiefs or Mesmers that does happen you know. Still ALOT easier to do that sorta damage combo as a Thief then having to jump attunement 2 or 3 times and use 6 abilities and hope they cant/dont dodge anything

I’ve never actually used this build or this combo outside of making that video which took a couple minutes. I’m pretty sure I said that this was a cheese combo, not an every ele has to use this if they want to deal damage combo.

Ele has good burst that isn’t reliant on long cds. For example an encounter I had a few days ago. I was using a more balanced build, I had 25 stacks of bloodlust.

-I see a theif
-I pop shocking aura (rtl was on cooldown so I didn’t do the standard ele rotation)
-I use burning speed
-He hits me stunning himself before burning speed blasts(increasing dmg by 20%)
-Burning speed blast does 7.5k ring of fire does 5k damage and I then finish him off with one auto attack while hes stunned (dragons claw did 3 hits for 1k each with bolt to the heart).

I don’t want to argue about skill or effort involved, the point was that a 25 second cd gave me 5 seconds of auto cc, then I used 2 15 seconds cooldowns and someone died in 1 second flat.

As cosmic already said, I think there are better ways to actually make a burst ele if that is what you are after, however those damage numbers are pretty impressive considering you rarely see that coming from anyone but thieves or warriors.

I really hope that the devs take into account that this build would make Ele’s incredibly squishy and don’t nerf our offense into oblivion once again because of a gimmick build.

Ottigan.2571:

atm max fire grab i could achieve on light golem is 15.8k

I was able to get over 18k. Again this is just me messing around with numbers, not trying to prove a point or anything.

Scyndek.5273:

This is wonderful! Lets give the devs plenty of reasons to nerf ele’s because of hypothetical builds that have no practical use anywhere other than killing training dummies.

Thats really all this video is saying to me, good job on creating it I guess but the only real place this could be used is in the mists against training dummies.

This.

This will be used on rubbish players and they will moan on the forums and we will get nerfed even more.

Ok, so now we only need to figure out how to optimise this to make it ‘practical’.

losing some damage in exchange for utility while still being able to get about 18k burst should be alright, methinks.

A one time per min ele build, you must die alot. Looks fun though

hehe hilarious idd good fun. Managed succesfull combo a few times in my short session I tried, 11k firegrab once.
Mayby more traditional cheese updraft into burning speed + 2x arcanes + firegrab results in extreme burst too, but not quite the same big number.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Scyndek.5273:

This is wonderful! Lets give the devs plenty of reasons to nerf ele’s because of hypothetical builds that have no practical use anywhere other than killing training dummies.

Thats really all this video is saying to me, good job on creating it I guess but the only real place this could be used is in the mists against training dummies.

This.

This will be used on rubbish players and they will moan on the forums and we will get nerfed even more.

I agree too. This won’t be used for anything good except for thiefs to state “ele’s can burst the same as us!” When in reality this build is not viable at all.

Blow 3 utilities? no thanks. The op should put a huge disclaimer to say this is not viable. I see this topic raised in so many other sub forums talking about this so called burst.
Nonetheless I applaud those who are constantly thinking of new combos. Rtl plus updraft combo is getting predictable and easy to dodge.

UPDATE: Added a new video. This is using the build I’ve been using since the last patch.
20 30 0 0 20. Regularly hits for over 10k on churning earth, fire grab, and burning speed+ring of fire combo(dmg combined).

Cosmic Teapot.9162:

UPDATE: Added a new video. This is using the build I’ve been using since the last patch.
20 30 0 0 20. Regularly hits for over 10k on churning earth, fire grab, and burning speed+ring of fire combo(dmg combined).

- WARNING-

You’re drawing unnecessary attention and all in the wrong direction, those poor players who were trying to complain about the d/d eles have started using your videos to further boost their false claims.

You have already attracted strong hate on GW2 guru forum with your videos-http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/76072-incoming-firegrab-nerf/, right now I’m unsure of your reasons behind this parade and why you’re so bent on keeping it alive.

I think everybody know that you can reach high numbers on any profession if you fully specc in attack, but the profession lack strong natural defenses , therefore that combo never work in real sPvP..let alone in tPvP

You worry too much. If they nerf anything it will be the way that + % damage stacks, which would have limited impact on any competitive build.

@ OP: My favorite part of your second video, was when the other ele saw you casting churning earth and just kept walking into it like “hmm, seems an interesting red circle on the ground. I should investigate!” LOL

Now at least we know which guy to thank for the next nerf.

The thief whining has already begone thanks to this video…

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Yet-another-Underpowered-class

Caffynated.5713:

You worry too much. If they nerf anything it will be the way that + % damage stacks, which would have limited impact on any competitive build.

@ OP: My favorite part of your second video, was when the other ele saw you casting churning earth and just kept walking into it like “hmm, seems an interesting red circle on the ground. I should investigate!” LOL

I think my worries are well justified, now thx to these ridicolous videos, any bad player who get beaten by a well played ele will come crying on forum using these same videos as an excuse while of course the ele who did defeat them didn’t use at all the same unrealistic build, unfortunately we’re all aware of how much of a drama queen people can be if you give them an inch of opportunity…..and know whiners got a full arm of opportunity thx to the OP

What will happen now it’s another nerf on dmg for the already UP firegrab, whose dmg is actually very low compared to its CD unless of course you become a full glass cannon

Look at the link I posted, thiefs are allready whining like hell about this.

@Aether McLoud

bro i think we got another nerf comming LOL but anyway yea thats funny as hell but i dont think they get that if we actually go full glass cannon we sacrifice so much just to pull off 1 solid kill just way to much of a risk while a thief has barely any risk of getting killed but pulls off his kill with ease thats why most eles now just go the regular bunker build

But i run still same old same old 0/10/0/30/30 build D/D set up bloodlust main hand battle offhand and instead of celestial or soldiers amulet i run with zerker amulet yes i sacrifice alot of toughness for it but honestly kinda worth it cuz u critical fairly often and i can do a little close to the damage he does in the vid with RTL+updraft burning speed combo throw in ring of fire then use arcane wave and usually after that thier pretty much done for lol

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

This will be used on rubbish players and they will moan on the forums and we will get nerfed even more.

Congratulations! You now know what being a Thief feels like!

Dacromir.6207:

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

This will be used on rubbish players and they will moan on the forums and we will get nerfed even more.

Congratulations! You now know what being a Thief feels like!

Now if only we could have near constant stealth and doing such easy DPS by smashing buttons randomly THEN we would be like a Thief

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Now if only we could have near constant stealth

Constant stealth is nice, but all it does is turn you into a mild annoyance. By sitting in stealth, you’re not dying but you’re also not accomplishing anything. If you want to do anything more than a 2k hit every 4s (as a glass cannon), you cannot perma-stealth. Perma-stealth is also easy to counter for people that bother to learn. I’ll give you the quick-and-dirty.

There are two ways to perma stealth. One involves hitting the enemy with a melee attack every 4s, precisely. The Thief will hit you with a melee stealth attack the exact moment that stealth falls off; since they’re not doing damage while in stealth, they aren’t Revealed and they can immediately re-enter. The second involves laying down smoke fields and leaping through them, as Leap + Smoke = Stealth.

Melee stealth is countered by dodging, blocking, or using AoEs. They have to use precise timing while attacking, so you can time your dodge pretty easily. They also have to stay close to you, so you can just spam your many, powerful AoEs and kill them with ease. If they’re leaping through smoke, attack with AoEs and stand nearby. They’ll hit you with their leap, which will deal damage and Reveal them.

I also think you might be talking about using stealth as a glass cannon to escape fights. Yes, that’s true, a thief can escape. However, a thief with glass cannon burst and stealth to escape has no other utility. There is no room left in that build for a stun break, and they have zero to one condition removal (30s cooldown). You can lock them down with CC or immobilize/chill/cripple them, and there’s nothing they can do about it.

Additionally, as an elementalist, I don’t think you have much room to whine about that being OP. You can use Ride the Lightning and Lightning Flash and open a massive gap as well. You can also swap over to water and get powerful self-healing, which is something that Thieves lack. A glass cannon thief cannot give themselves swiftness, but a glass cannon D/D elementalist can give themselves 65% swiftness uptime with Updraft and your healing Glyph. So yes, thieves can escape fights. So can you.

I don’t really see the OP.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

…doing such easy DPS by smashing buttons randomly…

We all know that that’s literally false. However, I will readily agree with the fact the Elementalists require more skill to play than any of the other classes. I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I like that now that I’ve mastered my thief, I have a much harder class to learn. In compensation for requiring more skill, Elementalists have far more tools. If a Thief builds for glass cannon, they have no control and their self-healing is limited to the #6 skill. You can still swap into earth/air for stuns, and you can swap into water for powerful self-healing. No matter what build an Elementalist takes, they will always have a multitude of damage abilities, self-healing, control, and movement. You require more skill, but with enough skill you can become a god.

However, in this specific case, I don’t think you can make an argument of skill. For a Thief to pull off their famed instagib burst, they have to:

1. Activate Basilisk Venom and Assassin’s Signet
2. Begin casting Cloak and Dagger
3. Cast Steal 0.4s through the animation
4. Move behind the enemy for Backstab
5. Backstab
6. Spam heartseeker until they’re dead

For an elementalist to pull off equivalent burst (as seen in this video), they had to:

1. Use Burning Speed from the correct distance
2. Use Ring of Fire
3. Turn to face the enemy
4. Use Fire Grab
5. Autoattack until dead

If you’re really trying to burst, you’d throw in an Arcane Power/Blast/Wave.

That’s not really all that skillfull. If you’re playing an Elementalist like this, you’re required to play with extreme skill to pull it off correctly. That player is keeping track of internal CDs, timing skills effectively, managing positioning, and targetting the correct enemies. Likewise, playing a balanced thief takes far more skill than a glass-cannon thief (although less than elementalist). However, playing a glass-cannon Elementalist like the video I linked is a matter of build, and then hitting a succession of abilities one after another for massive, rapid burst. It’s essentially the same as Thief.

Comparing GC thieves to GC eles is simply ridiculous. Thief is the profession with the most viable GC builds. Why? Because after they’ve done the deed or are surrounded they simply stealth and shortbow away. No other class can do this.

Yes RTL is good but they always see where you are going just like with mistform.

Does sPVP damage really matter? Try using 30/30 in WvW. You’ll be naked in no time from all the deaths. The guy who mentioned thieves, 25k is less than what a thief does with less build-up involved. Especially vs glass cannons. Thieves are completely spoiled. Tired of hearing them defend the class, really.