Showing Posts For Aerian.2751:
Whirlpool? I’m sorry, I’m completely lost, where is whirlpool? boggled
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/List_of_elementalist_traits
Whirlpool is what the Tornado elite skill becomes when you go underwater.
Underwater attacks don’t do as much damage as the land ones do but you have a ton of CC and other control methods underwater. Use those a lot, switch attunements as needed, and never stop moving. You can dodge underwater just like on land and when combining that with the many movement abilities we get underwater, it helps to avoid damage a lot. I also use Arcane Wave underwater because its damage underwater seems significantly higher than weapon skills so it gives me a little bit of burst that underwater Elementalists are otherwise lacking. Armor of Earth or Arcane Shield or Mist Form all work underwater and are great for helping with survivability. Things take a while to kill but with as much CC as we have underwater (almost twice as much as other classes) we can survive a lot.
Not every class has a “+50% damage while downed” trait. The elementalist, for example, does not. The elementalist only has one trait that does anything to downed state at all and its a short duration very short range aoe around us when we go down. The Number 2 downed state ability is a channeled immobilize that does absolutely nothing to stop or interrupt a stomp. At least that short duration fear the necro has interrupts the stomp giving you another precious few seconds for an ally to show up. The elementalist downed state #3 ability has its uses because 3 seconds of invulnerability is nice however in PvE, the mobs just follow you for 3 seconds and stomp you the moment it ends and in PvP, unless you are in a big group fight, it’s not gonna stop you from getting stomped for the same reason.
I think that the single biggest problem with the Elementalist is the downed state abilities. Mist Form can be nice in PvP if people aren’t paying attention but it doesn’t stop mobs in PvE from just following you for 3 seconds before they finish you off. The immobilize on the number 2 is completely useless though. In PvE, ranged mobs are already at range and immobilizing them doesn’t stop them from shooting you to death and melee mobs are usually already close enough to kill you when you get downed that the immobilize doesn’t keep them away. In sPvP, the immobilize might stop a ranged player from stomping you for a few seconds but in my experience, most fights take place in relatively short range on top of the point where the second or so before you can use the immobilize is enough for them to close the distance to be able to stomp you.
So my suggestion to fixing the downed state is to either change the number 2 ability entirely to be a knockdown (call a meteor from the sky that knocks them down maybe) or change it so that every tick of the current ability has a chance to knock them down (30% maybe). Either option would make both PvE and sPvP much better in my opinion.
With that though, I think that Vapor Form should also have a slight health regen (enough to equal a single cast of the Necro’s Life Leech downed state ability) so that in PvE it gives us a tiny bit of extra survivability so that when the mobs follow us for 3 seconds, its not just delaying the inevitable but giving us a chance to do enough damage to possibly have a chance at rallying. In sPvP, it’s not likely to make nearly as much of a difference because of the cooldown but it still would add that tiny bit of extra help. I know that Vapor Form already resets the downed state health bar to 50% or so but that second 50% never seems to last as long and I don’t think it’s quite enough so an extra little bit like the amount done by the necro’s life leech seems reasonable to me.
I know that’s 2 ideas and not one but they are both for fixing the downed state which is one thing so it still counts…
If you jump before you hit the skill, it seems to work most of the time. If the mob is coming towards you already or going perpendicular to your path then that seems to be when the skill is most likely to get stuck.
Earth tree is okay by my opinion all except for churning earth, its damage is REALLY low for what it does plus its cast time is just silly. Casting it most of the time pretty much means death.
I don’t know about you, but Churning Earth hits like a truck when I use it. And it rarely results in my death unless I’m alone in a big dynamic event. With S/D if you use Dust Devil and Earthquake first, then by the time Churning Earth is done casting you will have taken little to no damage. Plus I have Armor of Earth and Mist Form as 2 of my utilities, both of which can be cast while Churning Earth is casting to make sure it finishes without me being knocked down or otherwise one-shot. In PvP, Lightning Flash can also be used to teleport yourself mid-Churning Earth cast to make sure it hits running targets.
I always thought elementalist was super weak underwater too until I started attunement swapping more. Auto attack damage is admittedly pathetic but with attunement swapping and using a variety of abilities it at least halves the time it takes to kill things. I’m not gonna claim that makes it awesome but it does make underwater bearable in PvE instead of irritatingly unbearable.
Open with Boil and Lava Chains. Switch to Air for Electrocute and Lightning Cage. Switch to Earth for Rock Spray as they close. If that doesn’t kill em, switch to water, Detonate Ice Globe, Detonate Ice Wall, Tidal Wave to finish them off and heal up on the way to the next fight. That seems to kill most things just fine and for the rest there are 2 blinds, a sink, a float, a heal that also sinks them, and vigor for extra dodging to keep you alive.
Plus we have almost twice as many movement controlling/CC abilities as any other class which is pretty awesome for avoiding fights or kiting just about anything. I can’t say how useful it is in sPvP though because I generally avoid the ruins on that map and just stick to dry ground.
Dagger Main Hand’s Cone of Cold only has a 10 second cooldown though it’s healing is fairly low and the cone shape and short range can make it hard to heal with it. The scepter 3 skill, Water Trident is 20 seconds as is the Staff’s Geyser. Traits can decrease cooldowns by 20% but that only makes Water Trident and Geyser be 16 seconds and Cone of Cold only drops to 8.
I asked the question about speed stuff stacking and also did a little testing myself and as far as I know, only the fastest speed buff matters. If you take Windborne Dagger, then the 5 points in Air is useless because you still only go 115% speed. If you take the air trait that gives you up to 25% speed after spending time in air, then you just get 125% and nothing more. Swiftness does 33% but that doesn’t stack with the 125% so your total speed with swiftness is still just 133%.
You can also use Lightning Flash while casting Churning Earth to move it’s explosion into the midst of a big team fight without them having time to dodge.
I was looking through the traits and skills the other day and just for kicks and giggles decided to see if I could combine a couple of them to get a really high speed air build. The 5 point minor in air claims to give a 10% speed boost. The Signet of Air claims to give a 10% speed boost. The Arcane IX major trait claims to give a 15% boost when using a dagger. If the percentages are added, then with just those I should be doing 35% but as far as I can tell, the actual speed increase is slim to none. The only trait that seems to give any noticeable increase in speed at all is Air IV which gives up to 25% speed for staying longer in air. However with the Signet of Air, Zephyr’s Speed, and Windborne Dagger, I should already be seeing a noticeable increase in speed that I’m not actually seeing.
So my question: Has anyone done any testing with these to see if any of them actually stack or how? Or are they bugged?
I’ve found that if I jump and then Ride the Lightning, I am significantly less likely to get stuck on ground geometry but it’s still not a guarantee.