sPvP Rage
There is always an option of defensive/supportive staff, but I agree. If you build for damage you should be on par with other profs.
Oh, I went with tough/vit this time around as well. Think I’m at 3k tough and around 18k hp. Not logged in at the moment but I believe my power was around 2.3k and with the build I had I manage to get around 5 stacks of might, minimum, but even with that I die to heartseekers alone even when the opponent refuses to dodge anything.
I’ve usually had no problem bursting down most people, but again and again, this game boils down to builds. Maybe the thief specced more towards survivability? Have you tried your combo on more than just that particular thief?
On the occasion that I use scepter/dagger, i usually use this:
Start in air → poke with Arc lightning and Lightning Strike until opponent commits.
Once committed, blinding flash to avoid first hit, then updraft to knock down.
Swap to fire and use Dragon’s tooth > Signet of Earth > Phoenix* > Fire Grab > Dust Devil > Earthquake.
*Make sure you get all 3 hits of phoenix on your opponent.
At this point, you can swap to water for frost aura to chill, and air attunement should be back up. Switch back to air and ride the lightning AWAY to put a bit of distance away. rinse and repeat.
That’s just what usually works for me. Hope it helps.
Thats a really hard combo to land to try and burst someone down completely. What is your spec? I run this build that Phantaram posted on his stream (http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.1.2.0.13.0.20.0.4.0.2.20.21.9.24.10.2.6.0.0.0.18.25.0.0.0.0.50.52.0.65.61.72.0.20.0.20.30) It used to run the Bezerkers Amulet which gave a bit more damage but now with the Valkyries Amulet it has way more survivability and healing and I love it. I actually switched over to thief last week, then when he suggested the Valkyries I tried it out and have been sticking to my ele for spvp and tourneys. But anyway a much easier way to win fights is like Voltric said poke with your 1/2/3 from Air. In this spec I usually get some ticks off for 3k so it can lower them about 20 percent or so depending on how long I can delay going into melee range. After that I usually ride the lightning in(or not if I am able to walk to updraft range) followed by updraft, immediately switch to fire and drop dragons tooth and phoenix. You have to be quick but you can land them all during the updraft knock down. I run Arcane blast and Arcane wave in the build so while getting back into range I will drop that as well. A squishy target like a thief will be dead most of the time, if not I just swap back to air and chase them down because they are usually really low health and trying to leave the fight.
If they are tanky then the fight lasts a bit longer but I have 1v1 guardians and warriors before, it takes time and a lot of attunement swapping. After the first big burst combo I mentioned above swapping to earth then getting the knockdown and churning earth helps to get the bleeds down and wear them down as you keep switching to air and fire for dps and water if you need the heal or condi removal. Hopefully that helps a bit.
Arcane wave/blast adds quite a bit of damage to your burst, but I find that I lose the mobility i need to feel comfortable, haha. I usually run lightning flash, cleansing fire, and signet of earth. Just to reiterate again, signet of earth is OP for landing the s/d combo.
I was running a 20/0/20/0/30 build, again just trying it out. The match I was in really only had 3v3. I believe it was a thief, ranger, and mesmer. I’ve given up trying to fight mesmers as I can never tell which is the one I’m suppose to actually be fighting as it seems there’s nothing but clones and phantoms then the mesmer himself goes invisible so I figured screw that. lol.
Anyway, even if he was specced for def I shouldn’t have died to heartseekers alone, ok there might have been other things going off but heartseeker did 16k damage min most of the times. I forgot all about having arcane wave in my rotation as well, I usually use that as well while still in fire to get more might stacks.
DPS vs DPS in a 1v1 situation. Thief wins. He has easier combos, his hits are easier to land (due to him jumping or porting to you with most of them) and he still can still have escape skills at his disposal without giving up any DPS.
signet of earth is OP for landing the s/d combo.
Signet of earth isn’t OP.
Other classes have better and more roots with shorter cooldowns.
As a staff ele I find [Water 2] and especialy [Earth 2] abilitys very hard to land. Even with use of CCs.
So yeah, this is one of those posts. Was messing around doing some sPvP this morning, trying to get my combos down and all that jazz and this is what seems to happen everytime:
Me – Ring of Fire > Phoenix > Dragon’s Tooth > Fire Grab > Dodge (for the Evasive Arcana but only if I need to dodge) > swap to Earth > Dust Devil > Earthquake > Churning Earth
That gets the horrible Thief down to 60% hp, no dodging, then he kills me with a few Heartseekers. Gotta love it.
And now that that is complete, back to dying.
First things first, your build and the way you play that build mean everything in this game. If you are just running in and blowing all your cool downs there is a good chance that you are not looking at where/how you are casting them and just running through all the buttons. As an elementalest it is easy to get into a state of mind where you think you have to press all these buttons in the correct order to do the most amount of damage. This leads to many people that I see prefiring the spell combo without lining up their target or taking into consideration their opponent or their options. As an elementalist this is huge. As a class we are not meant to just charge in and DPS like madmen like other classes can. We are meant to be the brains of the battle field.
I see so many people on the forums saying “We can’t 1v1 x class and we are trash” or “we have to use 10 buttons when x skill only uses 3.” People need to understand that this is not a game based on 1v1. There is no dueling in this game. If you want to pvp like that then you can roll a class that is good at lurking about and pick one guy out to kill and then lurk some more. An elementalist in most cases, not all, should be played with a wingman. When you have someone to work with you become a powerhouse. Elementalists have so many options to shape and mold the meta of a battle with the use of their different fields, AOE, CC’s and buffs. If you want to play just sPVP and run into the fray and get some kills that is fine. You can probably find a great D/D build to get you where you want to be. But if you want to play in skilled PvP and say that the elementalist is weak I would have to argue. Perhaps it’s the fact that the game has only been out for 2 weeks and you just so happened to pick the class with the highest skill ceiling. I encourage you to stick with it and find something that works for you. I’m running a S/D build that focuses on roaming and I can also play bunker if I need to by switching our my D to F or just using a staff. I hope that you stick with it and find a build that suits your play style.
So Eles are only useful if they get carried by another class.
Anet balance so good.
So yeah, this is one of those posts. Was messing around doing some sPvP this morning, trying to get my combos down and all that jazz and this is what seems to happen everytime:
Me – Ring of Fire > Phoenix > Dragon’s Tooth > Fire Grab > Dodge (for the Evasive Arcana but only if I need to dodge) > swap to Earth > Dust Devil > Earthquake > Churning Earth
That gets the horrible Thief down to 60% hp, no dodging, then he kills me with a few Heartseekers. Gotta love it.
And now that that is complete, back to dying.
First things first, your build and the way you play that build mean everything in this game. If you are just running in and blowing all your cool downs there is a good chance that you are not looking at where/how you are casting them and just running through all the buttons. As an elementalest it is easy to get into a state of mind where you think you have to press all these buttons in the correct order to do the most amount of damage. This leads to many people that I see prefiring the spell combo without lining up their target or taking into consideration their opponent or their options. As an elementalist this is huge. As a class we are not meant to just charge in and DPS like madmen like other classes can. We are meant to be the brains of the battle field.
I see so many people on the forums saying “We can’t 1v1 x class and we are trash” or “we have to use 10 buttons when x skill only uses 3.” People need to understand that this is not a game based on 1v1. There is no dueling in this game. If you want to pvp like that then you can roll a class that is good at lurking about and pick one guy out to kill and then lurk some more. An elementalist in most cases, not all, should be played with a wingman. When you have someone to work with you become a powerhouse. Elementalists have so many options to shape and mold the meta of a battle with the use of their different fields, AOE, CC’s and buffs. If you want to play just sPVP and run into the fray and get some kills that is fine. You can probably find a great D/D build to get you where you want to be. But if you want to play in skilled PvP and say that the elementalist is weak I would have to argue. Perhaps it’s the fact that the game has only been out for 2 weeks and you just so happened to pick the class with the highest skill ceiling. I encourage you to stick with it and find something that works for you. I’m running a S/D build that focuses on roaming and I can also play bunker if I need to by switching our my D to F or just using a staff. I hope that you stick with it and find a build that suits your play style.
I see, so what you’re saying is Elementalists are the one class that can’t be used in a 1 on 1 basis and should only be played with another person. Great!
And running through 8+ abilities, using combo fields, against someone that refuses to dodge a single attack once and only uses 1 ability in return is completely fair. Using the rotation I mentioned earlier takes at least 10 seconds to pull off and puts just about ever major damaging ability I have on CD but that is only enough to knock off ~40% of a class that uses 1 ability 90% of the time.
I could care less if I can win every 1v1 but when I have to go through every freaking ability I have, with each element, in order to get a person to 50% then something is wrong. I don’t mind losing a fight when I can look at the damage list and see 10 abilities being uses, but when all you see is 1 freaking thing then it’s stupid and needs work.
So Eles are only useful if they get carried by another class.
Anet balance so good.
This is a very big problem in a game without the supposed trinity.
Ele is pretty much forced to be a support class to be anything decent in PvP and unfortunately support is only as good as the people they’re supporting. Yes great support can be the difference when the DDs clashing are close in skill, but the moment the enemy DDs are simply superior there’s nothing whatsoever that support can do.
A good DD however can make the difference by whiping the enemy DDs and after that the support can either run or get killed by said DD. In a game that’s supposed to have done away with the trinity where every class was supposed to be a viable option there should not be a class that only becomes viable the moment you run with an organised team that knows what they’re doing and more importantly know what you’re doing to make the most off it.
I’ve noticed something kind of interesting with most of the squishy thief builds. You can’t play like you would a mage in WoW, where you make room run away and try to set up your shatter combos. Instead just go full on offense.
rtl -> updraft -> dt -> phoenix -> circle of fire -> arcane blast -> fire grab -> arcane wave.
Once this combo is over, if he’s still alive because you kitten it up. Switch to earth and
blind with earth 3 -> earth 4 knockdown, earth 2 armor
switch to water throw some heals down and put on the frost aura
switch to air and blind him, hit him with air 2 once
switch back to fire and phoenix circle of fire where he’s most likely in stealth right now.
This is kinda how fight goes, use your blinds and knockdowns in earth and air to get you room to heal until phoenix and circle of fire are off cd. Use the arcane build with valkrie amulet as stated above.
Now if they have a bunch of toughness and run death blossom build things start to get hairy, just remember switching to water will clear some conditions.
(edited by graybush.4361)
it does burn my britches when I cycle through 3 stances blowing skills and I die to heartseeker spam or crossfire spam
i work so hard to die to a person pressing 1 button =/
I would suggest don’t use a staff in SPvP the staff is currently lacking in terms of other weapons, its way too hard to land our abilities when people are moving around. Id come up with another weapon combo and you will find it much more fun.
So Eles are only useful if they get carried by another class.
Anet balance so good.
You’re exactly right. Elementalists need a massive buff. All classes have their advantages and disadvantages but the ele only has disadvantages, and yes. I do know how to play the elementalist.
Here is what shocked me. In every game every class whines on the forum how kitten they are, usually they are fine.
They blame their loss on another class being better and not personal skill.
Last night I noticed u can sort your pvp games played into a pie chart so u can see how much u play your four classes. Then you can also see wins by class thus letting you see the ratio. My win ratio with my ele is actually the lowest. I have more wins on my warrior than my ele with far less games played.
But that goes to effectiveness. I found the warrior easier to use with far less playing time and creates a higher impact in fights. The result is more fights won and more games won