Guild Wars 2

Anyway, so about the 27th nerf…

I feel is completely deserved. When i started playing D/D on pvp i went trough the whole phase many people has been trough, where i felt D/D was crap, ele was crap, worst pvp class, etc etc.

Now let me give u some context on my ele experiencie so u can see what has made me claim this nerf is deserved: When i started pvping with D/D i was still leveling my ele, i wasnt even lvl 80 on pve, but the pvp seemed so fun i just jumped right into it at level 40ish. I looked up the “best” pvp build for ele and i went D/D even tough i really didnt touched it that much on the pve world.

After been completely REKT on pvp again and again i decided to go back to my leveling on the pve world, but i started leveling D/D as well (i was using staff mostly prior to that point). And i think what happened was that, in order to survive on the pve world i had to really understand all the nuances of D/D and really get in tune with all the skills, cooldowns, and overall usage of the class and weapon set.

Then i went back to pvp (note this was still before the april 15th 2014 patch were we got really strong) and inmediately felt the D/D build a lot stronger. I wasnt the most op class or anything but it didnt fel subpar anymore, and hasnt felt that way since then (obviously there were some pretty op classes, hambow warrior anyone? but i was able to hold my ground and contribute to the team effort. I wasnt dead weight anymore!)

Now, some will think: Wait, so you are saying that playing pve helped your pvp skill? Thats ridiculous!

Actually, is not, and here is my reasoning behind it: For starters like me, the pacing of PvP compared to the pve world was WAY more violent and punishing to actually see what impact my skill rotation had over my foes. This wasnt the case in pve tho, i had the time to start learning to react to incoming attacks or properly using my attunements and combos. Since the pacing was more relaxed, i had the opportunity to disect what was going on, and eventually, the build became second nature to me.

So, why am i telling you all this stuff? Well, any proficient D/D player knows that since april 15th its been an uphill journey for us on the pvp side: The evade on burning speed,the blast finisher on frozen burst, the reduced cooldown on cantrips like mist form and armor of earth, the overall balancing and nerfing of other classes that were overtuned, etc etc.

Oh and also freaking celestial amulet and strength runes (praise the lord). We effectively became the Jesus Christs of PvP and we are holding one of the meta spots right now.

So, this nerf on 27th really doesnt worry me that much. Might with cele amulet is still gonna be PRETTY strong despite losing a 7th of its current power, drakes breath is still a strong condi and sure, we wont get as much health from lightning whip now but, to be fair, is not like we were on the brink of life and needed every single healing point back, did we? We are clearing condis and getting back to full health every 9 secs (if played properly of course) and we have amazing access to protection and regeneration trough most of the fights.

Now, eventough this is a nerf, i think is a well deserved one: we are too strong right now.

I remember the days where D/D was really hard and punishing if u made a little mistake, and u had to be aware of everything. You had to choose your fights cause there were some builds you just couldnt beat at all.Now, after all this time I have founded myself wrecking people without any worry of what spec they were or anything cause i just knew D/D was so strong i would eventually best them. Winning 2v1s and surviving up to 3 or 4 people at the same time eventough im not a full tank spec.

A bad to average D/D player will probably feel the nerf is undeserved, but i think most experienced D/D veterans would agree that we are overtuned right now and Anet had to do some shaving to D/D power to balance things out.

We are still gonna be pretty strong and going nowhere on the meta i think. Also im glad S/F builds are getting some love, since those are my 2nd favorite ele spec for pvp.

Anyway, i wanna know the toughs of the Ele community on this matter.

Also, i know me claiming out of the blue that im a good D/D player without proving is wrong, so hopefully ill make a D/D video guide after the 27th to back up my claims

Thx for reading and see you in game!

ehm correct me or something if what i’m saying is not true (didnt pay a lot of attention to the elementalist changes)….
but didnt all of the things you mentioned already happen? back in january?
in case you meant that well you shouldnt be writing in future then :P

Did I miss something? Is this about the might nerf that already happened?

Oh god, you guys are not going to believe this

I tough the changes were coming in FEBRUARY 27th. I didnt even noticed those were already ingame

Well, i guess this proves that i didnt felt the nerf AT ALL

LOL

Take the post as a personal train of tought and also, im doing that D/D guide anyways

hahah well thats the best answer to this topic xD

OP, you should try to play D/D with celestial amulet.
The class is still hard, very punishing and now it would be much harder( impossible in some come cases) if not for celestial. Try to play a soldier D/D or a valk or even a zerker D/D, the main reason the devs did not nerf the celestial amulet is because they knew that without it…ele would become an accessory class in PvP; far less required. A well played med guardian would ruin your day 24/7 if not for celestial, a hambow would prove to be 3x harder to beat, a well played thief would become a constant life threatening problem.

-With a soldier amulet you may have close to celestial direct dmg, but your condi dmg is lacking, means you won’t beat a good thief or Mesmer, any time soon, and good med guardian would end up out-sustain you and kill you

-With a valk amulet, you get ripped apart from the current condi spamm or even rapid fire rangers…forget the toughness, the low HP means you insta die ..almost insta die

-With a zerker amulet, you may prove to be a challenge 1vs1 for a thief, any build…but a med guardian ( even average one) or Mesmer( again even average one) will rock your world any day of the week.

So is D/D ele really OP?…nah man, it’s only a single amulet, that makes ele truly competitive, OP many may say. Take that amulet away and…..you open the can of worms that’s is ele, the devs know this so…no nerfs to cele amulet ofc, they’d rather nerf the D/D spec ..sad

Wait, what!!! I play zerker d/d (and soon to be d/f) and it’s not even that hard against war/guard/thief/ranger. The encounter that I have most trouble with is against good sword/x/gsword mesmer. Their burst is annoyingly strong even with 100% protection up time. Next would be Power Lich Necro because getting any hit would mean gg for zerker ele. Engi is a fair game though.

D/D ele is still a well-rounded play style for either bunker spec or fast assaulting spec. One of the best d/d zerk ele I know is a streamer called Lite. Watching him rekt everything is pure bliss #fangirl.

I am just going to put this out there:

If you were not one of the few that abused LW then the last patch actually gave you a slight buff. Yep.

Iris Ng.9845:

Wait, what!!! I play zerker d/d (and soon to be d/f) and it’s not even that hard against war/guard/thief/ranger. The encounter that I have most trouble with is against good sword/x/gsword mesmer. Their burst is annoyingly strong even with 100% protection up time. Next would be Power Lich Necro because getting any hit would mean gg for zerker ele. Engi is a fair game though.

D/D ele is still a well-rounded play style for either bunker spec or fast assaulting spec. One of the best d/d zerk ele I know is a streamer called Lite. Watching him rekt everything is pure bliss #fangirl.

The environment I see you playing is full of duellists and solo players, yes it’s great I rekt easily also at those level with zerker D/D, I felt like a god.
When you start to go up, you’ll see the difference, there are no duellists or soloplayers, it’s a constant 2vs1, constant prioritized as target, you lose your purpose in the team and you become a liability. Once realized you’re zerker..any smart thief/guardian will stop confronting you at close range from start, you start being targeted by high dmg range class like power ranger or Mesmer and then insta killed by D/P thieves that are shadowing you waiting for the moment to strike you down.

Against competent players who know what conquest is…you stand no chance as zerker D/D. As pure 1vs1 ofc everything changes and zerker D/D 1vs1 looks great but again I’ve never mentioned 1vs1 in my post above

And bunker on D/D? You don’t bunker against good engies, hambows, or any other debunkering spec played well…unless ofc you play Celestial D/D and that was what I was saying, try to bunker a point with anything else and you see for yourself what I mean

Hey,

I don’t just 1v1 with zerker d/d ele. In fact, it’s far greater potential in team fight. It’s true that it’s a yolo build as once focused, it’s hard to getting peeled. But again, most of the time I play d/d ele to support team fight. For 1v1, pretty much thief or engi would fare much better

I think it’s going off topic. What I mean to say here is celestial d/d isn’t the be-all end-all of ele pvp builds, depending on what type of pvp activities you are participating.

Its definetly true weee need the celestial amulet, no question about it. But i mean, why make a case about playing with it or not? Celestial SHOULD be an option on pvp cause they wouldnt let us customize our stats as we desire on pvp like we can on WvW or PvE. Also why make a case on playing with different amulets? A build is a build as a whole, traits, weapons and gear. Elementalist by desing needs variety on the stats for a build like D/D, so is still “fair game” that we have access to those stats trough the amulet system.

But i think you are right with the whole Cele ammulet thing: Maybe shave off some of the stats on cele would be a better balance than nerfing D/D? Cause Cele Engie and Warrior are meta as well because of this amulet.

I mean, im no expert but it seems that any class that can pull balanced condi/power damage, bonus procs like gaining buffs of putting de debuffs on crits, and constant small heals trough regeneration and HPS traits or mechanics, would benefit more from the Cele amulet thant any other amulet, effectively making them a “metabuild” on the current state of the game. So the balancing issue is, at the end of the day, the Cele amulet and not the professions?

I definetly dont wanna se D/D ele nerfed to the ground, has been my main pvp spec for a lot of time and i still enjoy playing it, but it seems that the “Jack of all trades, master of none” desing has gone a little bit outta hand now that beeing the “master” of a particular trade doesnt seem to have much of an impact against balanced builds.

Abraxadrian.1769:

Its definetly true weee need the celestial amulet, no question about it. But i mean, why make a case about playing with it or not? Celestial SHOULD be an option on pvp cause they wouldnt let us customize our stats as we desire on pvp like we can on WvW or PvE. Also why make a case on playing with different amulets? A build is a build as a whole, traits, weapons and gear. Elementalist by desing needs variety on the stats for a build like D/D, so is still “fair game” that we have access to those stats trough the amulet system.

But i think you are right with the whole Cele ammulet thing: Maybe shave off some of the stats on cele would be a better balance than nerfing D/D? Cause Cele Engie and Warrior are meta as well because of this amulet.

I mean, im no expert but it seems that any class that can pull balanced condi/power damage, bonus procs like gaining buffs of putting de debuffs on crits, and constant small heals trough regeneration and HPS traits or mechanics, would benefit more from the Cele amulet thant any other amulet, effectively making them a “metabuild” on the current state of the game. So the balancing issue is, at the end of the day, the Cele amulet and not the professions?

I definetly dont wanna se D/D ele nerfed to the ground, has been my main pvp spec for a lot of time and i still enjoy playing it, but it seems that the “Jack of all trades, master of none” desing has gone a little bit outta hand now that beeing the “master” of a particular trade doesnt seem to have much of an impact against balanced builds.

The balanced builds you mention…..simply blow other ele builds out of existence quite easily if the ele player does no play perfectly and completely outwit the opponent, who on the other hand will need 1/3 of the effort to kill you.

Meh, overall ele is pretty average in PvP with or without the nerfs, the player behind the ele matters.

Meanwhile a novice warrior will still do 3-5k crits or eviscerate you in one shot, regardless if he has experience or not.

DD ele is still the strongest spec in PvP, there’s only one meta build that counters it in 1v1 and that’s SD Thief assuming highest level both classes. Second best team fighting class, best 1v1 class, second highest mobility class… Nerf did nothing.

I don’t think its unbalanced though, it’s just really strong, which is fine, there’ll always be a class like that in any meta.