Guild Wars 2

Here is the Video. Enjoy, and comment. If you have any questions/comments please post them. I would love to hear what you have to say:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzBV9X6Z07M

The Video

This video depicts our guild running in a group of no more than 8 players. All footage was captured in 2 nights of roaming. I do not profess to be the best elementalist, so focus more on the group, and less on my individual performance. The video was created to educate newer elementalists in our guild. So the first half of the video is general tactics, and the second half (starting at 4:30) is focused on actual mechanics/build.

Elementalist Stacking:

This is a tactic designed for small groups of players (namely, elementalists). It works by having multiple Dagger/Dagger Elementalists synchronizing their “Churning Earth” ability to strike a zerg (or group) of players with overwhelming force to put them down.

The Concept

We unload a huge chain of Burst-DPS every 30 seconds to down unsuspecting players immediately—and start a cascade of rallies to carry us through to the end of a fight. Our group’s cycle is very general/dynamic, but includes:

1) Stealth Phase
2) The Churn Bomb
3) Natural Combat Rotation/hard downing.
4) Regroup phase.

History

My guild and I mainstreamed this concept over a year ago. Since then it has seen many renditions but has remained largely the same. It was main strategy for [RET] and saw churn groups of over 15 stacked elementalists (Dat camera shake…) before it was eventually retired for more flexible strategies.

Additional Videos:

There are many more. Look at my profile for a complete list of uploaded videos.

This…is pretty awesome. Reminds me a lot of Ranger Spike in GW1. I think if WvW wasn’t as massive 24/7 event and was more like Hall of Heroes/GvG, we would see a lot more organized tactics like this.

Thanks for sharing this!

Great vid and say hey to Spoon for me ;D

Mbelch.9028:

Great vid and say hey to Spoon for me ;D

Thanks! I will… Sadly he didn’t star in this video. Too bad too, cause his face was made for TV.

Dahkeus.8243:

This…is pretty awesome. Reminds me a lot of Ranger Spike in GW1. I think if WvW wasn’t as massive 24/7 event and was more like Hall of Heroes/GvG, we would see a lot more organized tactics like this.

Thanks for sharing this!

I agree. Giant 50-man map zergs is a big part of the reason we stopped doing churn bombs in the first place.

Although I’d still be really happy to test a 50 ele churn bomb on a 50-man stack…

Lol if you’re planning to do that, I’ll pony up for a round trip to FA.

KrazyFlyinChicken.5936:

Dahkeus.8243:

This…is pretty awesome. Reminds me a lot of Ranger Spike in GW1. I think if WvW wasn’t as massive 24/7 event and was more like Hall of Heroes/GvG, we would see a lot more organized tactics like this.

Thanks for sharing this!

I agree. Giant 50-man map zergs is a big part of the reason we stopped doing churn bombs in the first place.

Although I’d still be really happy to test a 50 ele churn bomb on a 50-man stack…

Btw, this is semi-off topic, but I checked out the staff sPvP build guides on your channel and they’re pretty awesome. You did a really great job of not just explaining the build, but the logic behind decisions in gameplay, which I really appreciate.

Dahkeus.8243:

Btw, this is semi-off topic, but I checked out the staff sPvP build guides on your channel and they’re pretty awesome. You did a really great job of not just explaining the build, but the logic behind decisions in gameplay, which I really appreciate.

Thanks Dahkeus. If anyone’s wondering the video (I think) he’s talking about is this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDX7lo1xtak

I really enjoyed making that video. I even came up with content for a third, but I thought I’d wait until after the upcoming patch. I’m glad you found it useful

I wish this guy would make more recent videos

KrazyFlyinChicken.5936:

Dahkeus.8243:

Btw, this is semi-off topic, but I checked out the staff sPvP build guides on your channel and they’re pretty awesome. You did a really great job of not just explaining the build, but the logic behind decisions in gameplay, which I really appreciate.

Thanks Dahkeus. If anyone’s wondering the video (I think) he’s talking about is this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDX7lo1xtak

I really enjoyed making that video. I even came up with content for a third, but I thought I’d wait until after the upcoming patch. I’m glad you found it useful

Yup, that one and the part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roANj4g0Skc

The commentary reminds me a lot of Yishis’ videos, which awesome for anyone playing thief or engi in WvW: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCspfGg3_fCOuVxIMvWWBEOw

Dahkeus.8243:

The commentary reminds me a lot of Yishis’ videos, which awesome for anyone playing thief or engi in WvW: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCspfGg3_fCOuVxIMvWWBEOw

I took a lot of my inspiration from his videos. I just wish there was some way for me to give his kind of dialogue without pausing the video. There’s just too many skill drops to convey the message cleanly and quickly.

sorrychief.2563:

I wish this guy would make more recent videos

This was quite entertaining to watch A little too glassy for me though >.<

KrazyFlyinChicken.5936:

Dahkeus.8243:

The commentary reminds me a lot of Yishis’ videos, which awesome for anyone playing thief or engi in WvW: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCspfGg3_fCOuVxIMvWWBEOw

I took a lot of my inspiration from his videos. I just wish there was some way for me to give his kind of dialogue without pausing the video. There’s just too many skill drops to convey the message cleanly and quickly.

Yea, Yishis is able to talk through a lot of stuff in a fight without slowing/pausing much, but there’s nothing wrong with doing that to show what’s going on.

Nevertras was someone else who was great at making videos that explained gameplay. He used to make videos for WoW, which were both instructional and entertaining. Here’s an example from one of his more popular videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=yU9xWoajir0#t=325

I totally see more group applying this and then zerg victims complaining and having the ele skill or damage nerf xD. It was awesome to watch!

LightningBlaze.4913:

I totally see more group applying this and then zerg victims complaining and having the ele skill or damage nerf xD. It was awesome to watch!

lol.. I apologize in advance for any nerfs that might befall the elementalist skills.

But really….. when this March patch comes out, this is only going to get better. And if those “Possible” elites are real, and we can get 1s quickness when switching to earth.

Dear lord in heaven.

(but I don’t think they can be real, or videos of this churn stack will go viral and the nerfbat will punch us back into last August.)

Good video!

Spppooooon!!! With his big ears!

Spoon won’t star in my videos. He’s too busy pwning face is OS >.<

Since i play in high level, i dream of someones for doing this! Thank you so much! <3
Very fun ^^

Mattmatt.4962:

Since i play in high level, i dream of someones for doing this! Thank you so much! <3
Very fun ^^

You are much welcome! Im glad you enjoyed it.

Cool video, but blinds man. Blinds.

AoE blind would kill this – Another key reason stealth is important.

There are lots of ways around us. There are lots of ways to beat us. I think that’s inherent with any tactic used against a larger force.

The only thing you can do is try to minimize your weaknesses while amplifying your strengths. And Ele has a lot of weaknesses

actually, aoe blind doesnt rly kill, if u cast chunnin earth, it has 4 waves of cripple before it caststhe dmg, wich is awesome against blinds, tho mostly if i get blind while using it and enemy out of cripple area, i lightning flash on them to get the blind off of me or cleansing fire

Wyrden.4713:

actually, aoe blind doesnt rly kill, if u cast chunnin earth, it has 4 waves of cripple before it caststhe dmg, wich is awesome against blinds, tho mostly if i get blind while using it and enemy out of cripple area, i lightning flash on them to get the blind off of me or cleansing fire

That’s a darned good point

I still find myself getting blinded before hits sometimes. Admittedly, in big blobs its hard to tell the source. Could very well be a plague necro.

Regardless, you’re right. If you lightning flash to target it would clear the blind. I will try to incorporate that in the future.

churn bomb sounds interesting, a very good initial damage + 8 stacks of bleeding
but still i prefer meteor shower stacking adding some ccs, slowing and rooting… and a mesmer for time warp

chris.6583:

churn bomb sounds interesting, a very good initial damage + 8 stacks of bleeding
but still i prefer meteor shower stacking adding some ccs, slowing and rooting… and a mesmer for time warp

Someone brought this up on a different forum.

Staff ele meteor shower is great. Some guilds out there use this to great effect. But they’re best described as ‘artillery pieces’. They support a force—they are, in themselves, not the force.

I have not had much success taking a 5-man team of eles (with staff) up against a force with superior numbers and won unless I had a friendly zerg to stand behind—or high walls to stand on.

But the churn bomb is capable of front-lining (in a manner of speaking)—where staff is not. (but 30/30/0/0/10 is Freakin awesome)

The commentary made the first part hard to watch :/

Yeah, Churn Bombing is an old tactic – the basic concept, to my knowledge, originated from DAoC.

However, one thing I did notice – you never attunement swap right before your Churning Earth goes off. You have the 5pt trait for Arcana but don’t use it; I would if I were you.

Poliswag.8240:

The commentary made the first part hard to watch :/

Yeah, Churn Bombing is an old tactic – the basic concept, to my knowledge, originated from DAoC.

However, one thing I did notice – you never attunement swap right before your Churning Earth goes off. You have the 5pt trait for Arcana but don’t use it; I would if I were you.

Thanks for watching!

Attunement swapping is great for fury. But this build utilizes full fury through auras. If I’m not getting enough fury in this video, then I’ll need to find out which ones aren’t running zephyr’s boon! >:D

The skallywags…

Edit: I had to do a double-take. Yes, fury is up for almost all of the churns. We did miss one or two though. Time for more drilling…