Guild Wars 2

okay, i was in spvp… i was holding an area solo, and from basicly across 2000+ range a solo elementalist rushed me. i believe it was the burning speed ability, because i have a friend who plays ele and it looked exactly the same, but my friends didnt cover ANYWARE NEER the sheer range and speed that this guy’s did. he was on me in less then a second from a massive distance, and when he hit me, i was at half hp (23k max hp) and i was knocked down. i used shake it off, i’m a warrior but by the time i got up, i was dead. he killed me(a warrior) in 1-2 seconds from 23k hp.
ive never encountered this before or since, and i’d really like to try it, and my friend does too. can anyone explain how this is even possible? its probly a fairly new build, and hasnt gone public yet….. but kitten.
ive faught ALOT of elementalists, but NONE have come close to what this one guy did.

lets recap…. his rush had incredible range over 2000+ i definetly wasnt expecting him to close that gap so quickly thats for sure. and he had some kind of cc/knockdown.
and his burst dmg was so massive i was dead within 2-3 seconds flat, with no time to react or regain any ground/heal.

i have yet to see anyone else use what he did, i’m counting on you experanced ele’s to figure it out, and make this build public so we can all use it

i’m sorry i dont have more details, i was so incredibly supprized by it, my mind basicly went blank before i could gather any info. i didnt even get his name

And so it begins …

But seriously he probably used a combo like this.

Kryden.5817:

okay, i was in spvp… i was holding an area solo, and from basicly across 2000+ range a solo elementalist rushed me. i believe it was the burning speed ability, because i have a friend who plays ele and it looked exactly the same, but my friends didnt cover ANYWARE NEER the sheer range and speed that this guy’s did. he was on me in less then a second from a massive distance, and when he hit me, i was at half hp (23k max hp) and i was knocked down. i used shake it off, i’m a warrior but by the time i got up, i was dead. he killed me(a warrior) in 1-2 seconds from 23k hp.
ive never encountered this before or since, and i’d really like to try it, and my friend does too. can anyone explain how this is even possible? its probly a fairly new build, and hasnt gone public yet….. but kitten.
ive faught ALOT of elementalists, but NONE have come close to what this one guy did.

lets recap…. his rush had incredible range over 2000+ i definetly wasnt expecting him to close that gap so quickly thats for sure. and he had some kind of cc/knockdown.
and his burst dmg was so massive i was dead within 2-3 seconds flat, with no time to react or regain any ground/heal.

i have yet to see anyone else use what he did, i’m counting on you experanced ele’s to figure it out, and make this build public so we can all use it

i’m sorry i dont have more details, i was so incredibly supprized by it, my mind basicly went blank before i could gather any info. i didnt even get his name

It is basically a glass cannon burst build, someone posted a video on the forums. Basically if the ele used Ride the Lightning, which is a long range gap closing ability followed by Lightning Flash, a 900 range teleport chained with Earthquake, a 2 second knockdown, followed by Fire Grab and Arcane Wave it does quite a lot of damage, but if they miss they are more kittened than a warrior who misses a Frenzy combo, since they have used all 3 utilities to pull it off and are made of paper.

So did he kill you from 23k hp or from 12k hp? Reading your post it sounds like 12k hp and you dying from ele burst with that amount sounds very reasonable if you did nothing to avoid it.

If he charged from a long range and then knocked you down, it was probably ride the lightning + updraft; possibly bugged animation didn’t show the lightning ball.

From there, it’s into fire for burning speed, ring of fire, and fire grab, possibly with arcane wave and/or arcane blast. That will do a little bit of damage. ^.^

He could use lightning flash just before the end of burning speed to extend the distance out to maybe 1200-1400, but there’s no knockdown in fire so I would still guess it was RTL + updraft.

If he did that, he could follow it up ring of fire, fire grab + arcanes, then switch to earth/air to knock you down with earthquake/updraft, but unless he was using a sigil to proc quickness, that probably would have taken longer than you’re suggesting was the case and I don’t think he would have had the damage to finish you that quickly in earth attunement. Air would be possible. Updraft then RTL back to the target to mop up with a few lightning whips, but again, that’s stretching things out well past the 2-3 second window that you’re describing.

i didnt see a lightning rush, if the graphics kittened up, thats fine, but he covered at least 2000+ ground, with burning speed. he did about that much dmg like whats shown in the video, but much faster, and i was at full hp, 23k…. theres no mistaking burning speed. it was a massive fire trail, and a burst of flame, from over 2000+ range… the fire trail was incredibly long, probly about 2.5x the normal length of that ability ive seen and the speed was rediculus. having seen the video its posible to do alot of dmg on knockdown, so maybe it was that combo or similar. but it DEFINETLY was burning speed that covered the massive ground. not teleport, not lightning rush. i highly doubt it was a graphical error, the animation was the exact same.

Its impossible for him to have covered 2000+ range with burning speed alone.
It’s also impossible for him to have knocked you down without earthquake or updraft.

Moreover, the current ele burst build relies heavily on switching to fire while on the target. he would have had to be in fire, go to earth (or air) to KD you, then back to fire almost immediately to have burst you down.

So either
1. You’re making stuff up regarding the time between him damaging you and your death
2. He’s hacking
or
3. You’re mistaking what he did.

If he’s following the most likely build it’s probably
1. start in air
2. ride the lightning
3. switch to earth and earthquake with lightning flash
4. switch to fire, ring of fire, arcane wave and fire grab
5. target is now dead
(assuming the comment about the 2000 range is accurate. You can easily start in earth if you’re close enough)

The build is glass cannon ele, with runes of the scholar (I think) that give extra % damage if you are over an hp threshold. He’s also probably got vital striking (% damage if he’s over 90% hp) and extra damage to stunned/knockdowned foes, as well as foes under 25%hp, and most likely extra damage to burning foes too.

suggested counters:
First encounter: Youll need a reaction time for this, shake off the KD and roll away immediately. Proceed to then lol@ele as you 3 shot him while he cant do anything
Second encounter or higher: If you see him, prep your stability skill ahead of time, proceed to dodge roll away immediately. He cant stealth, you should always be vaguely aware that he’s coming at you, and his damage relies entirely on you being knocked down, and him being over like 90% hp, neither of which will occur if you’re ready for him. It’s basically a worse version of the thief backstab build.

can you use lightning flash in the middle of burning speed to get a ~1200 range burning speed???

u can use lightning flash in middle of burning speed but it leaves a gap in the fire trail, the op says there isnt a gap and if we take the 2k+ distance to be true, only thing possible is the ele is hacking. otherwise the op is misjudging the distance.. by alot

Kryden.5817:

but he covered at least 2000+ ground, with burning speed.

The distance burning speed covers is influenced by your movement speed. If he covered that kind of distance with just burning speed then he had to be speed hacking.

There are speed hackers with instakill damage macros out there, just saying.

taking a look at combat log when thing like this happen willl make things easy ^^

This is the ele´s Frenzurd hundurd bladerp. He must have built especially for this combo and used atleast 2 utility slots to pull of such a chain. Lots (most) classes can build for a “best case uber critburst” scenario. It is hell to meet them and actually have them land the entire thing on you, but people will learn to counter and these guys will more or less become obsolete.

Like thief bs stuff. Whining have stopped. Or somewhat stopped. Cause people counter the initial burst. Only reason people still die from them is that we start to laugh seeing there ohmygeerd!heartseeker spam everywhere when their plan fails

Maybe he closed the gap using Fiery Greatsword in either air or earth attunement and then ditched the sword to use an Updraft or Earthquake + burst combo as stated earlier. Sadly there is no possible way he could have killed you in 2 seconds unless you were both glass cannons (getting up from Updraft or the animation from Earthquake alone is around 1 second.)

Cosmic Teapot.9162:

And so it begins …

But seriously he probably used a combo like this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEYjdwxHNFQ

i had that used on me before… armor of earth made sure the poor guy didn’t stand a chance >:D

all i can say is if this gets popular, bring a stability utility skill and you’ll never have to worry about this.

Biggest spike I imagine it is possible to get with elementalist. Would probably kill someone with 23k hp

What about a combination of Elemental Surge, Arcane Power, Dragon’s Claw + Fire Grab with a bucketload of +critical damage gear?

Kryden.5817:

i didnt see a lightning rush, if the graphics kittened up, thats fine, but he covered at least 2000+ ground, with burning speed. he did about that much dmg like whats shown in the video, but much faster, and i was at full hp, 23k…. theres no mistaking burning speed. it was a massive fire trail, and a burst of flame, from over 2000+ range… the fire trail was incredibly long, probly about 2.5x the normal length of that ability ive seen and the speed was rediculus. having seen the video its posible to do alot of dmg on knockdown, so maybe it was that combo or similar. but it DEFINETLY was burning speed that covered the massive ground. not teleport, not lightning rush. i highly doubt it was a graphical error, the animation was the exact same.

It was a combo of Fiery Rush and Burning speed.

Could be a very hard to play and weak damage build like all others said. It also could be a player that just uses some utilitys that where not allowed to use in the game if you know what i mean. But you will pusnished for mention that theme here in the forum ;P

One shotting as an elementalist is impossible on a warrior with 23k health, sir.

well the elementalist could’ve been using a firey greatsword to close the gap
the 3 and 4 conbination + lightning flash can easily cover 2k

Which then went assuming that he’s a Dagger off hand ele
Earth 4
Cleansing Flame
Arcane Blast
Fire 5

I suppose it could be possible to dish out 23k damage from 2k range.
Would be pretty crazy though to blow literally everything you have in your arsenal in perfect execution.

I wouldn’t be surprised if this gets nerfed some how once it becomes popular

ele can do 23k within a few seconds though. and yea it would have to be fiery sword then burning speed. I played that burst spec for a week or so for fun but if the target dodges or moves around then the ele has to run away and wait for cds.

but this way to play ist not realy possible in wvw and very hard in the spvp

phyxx.7425:

ele can do 23k within a few seconds though. and yea it would have to be fiery sword then burning speed. I played that burst spec for a week or so for fun but if the target dodges or moves around then the ele has to run away and wait for cds.

Assuming you actually burst them. If they can avoid the damage through
1. invulnerability
2. dodge rolling
3. stability
4. any kind of block
5. super quick condition removal (no burn, no 2x damage firegrab)

then you’re hyper-boned. Practically no utility, and only fire and water attunements up.

It’s basically a riskier version of the thief backstab build. You can see it coming, can counter it in about 5 more ways, it takes about twice as many skill presses and about 4 times as much timing/skill to pull off, oh and if they kitten it up or you stop it then they cant just stealth away and try again. <.<