Guild Wars 2

Hi,

I rarely go into this forum so if by any chance someone already posted something like this (which I believe that this is the case) I am sorry, no spam intended.

Since I began playing MMORPGs (and even before that) I realized that I am a PvP lover. I played WoW for a few years and I was ADDICTED to PvP arena. When GW2 came out I heard outstanding reviews about this game so I decided to buy it, and rushed to PvP the moment I could (which was obviously right when I finished the tutorial). I joined a few PvP guilds, leveled my main (an ele) to 80, and went both sPvP and WvW several hours a day. It was and still is great fun, no regrets!

However after hundreds of hours of PvP I started to miss the arena format of WoW. I am not a WoW fanboy, but I really liked how it is simple yet complex to play. I always felt like I had to improve and enhance my battle abilities along with good co-operation. The point in GW2 (at least from my point of view) is that when you play sPvP there are additional several mechanics that you must take into consideration (like distance between points, or treb or forest creatures etc) which might affect your profession choice and/or play style. This feels like that if your team has a good profession/build mixture and it co-operates well, your abilities in battle are (slightly) less important.

Then I discovered these “king of the hill” private arenas. It is basically the same as WoW arena, two players or two teams play one against another to the death. I found it so fun playing I almost forgot about conquest for a while, but very often I couldn’t enter these arenas because they were full (this is an indication that I am not the only one who likes this kind of play) and if they weren’t, I needed to wait like 10 minutes before I was able to play. There are a few more problems with these arenas: no ranking systems, so players don’t feel like they make any progress, but just play for practice or for fun. In addition, the maps in these arenas are not well designed for deathmatch since they are conquest maps. Also since this is not an official sPvP format there are none official competitions of this kind (as far as I know).

I ask myself why this format isn’t officially included in the game. I don’t have any knowledge in game designing and very little knowledge in programming, but since this is such a simple format I tend to believe that it is quite simple to create. And its not that arenanet has no time to do that – The upcoming expansion includes a new “stronghold” sPvP format which as far as I know is not what I am talking about.

I really think that something like this should be in this game. Just plain PvP with no additional mechanics, two teams testing their skill in battle against each other. Whether you agree with me or not, I would like to know why.

tl;dr – Wouldn’t it be cool to have a deathmatch arena format in this game?

The Game Slayer.7632:

Seems really unnecessary. And it would break the game too.. Why not just add more conjure traits?.. It’s a bit ridiculous.

Break the game? Necro lich form and fiery gs have the same cd, however if you try to fight a power necro in lich form with your fiery gs then the necro will wreck your face. Furthermore, a lich gains 916 precision and 916 vitality while the fiery gs grants 260 power and 180 condition damage.

Besides, everything can be balanced by adding lengthy cds or reducing damage for certain skills. The things i presented above was just a prototype of an idea, it could (and should) be changed in many ways if by any chance something like this would really be added into the game. But the general point is that one of our elites MUST to have some kind of a buff. They have such minor effects (in terms of face to face combat) they are almost useless.

And it still really bothers me there are two fiery conjures, could have been nice if one of them was associated with arcane.

Hi,

I feel like the ele elites in spvp / wvw are kinda underpowered in comparison to other professions. In PvE you have fiery gs which Is nice for boss battles, and in wvw you can use it to run away or chase enemies, but except of glyph of elementals you have no elite that helps you in a face to face combat, and the glyph is much inferior to other professions’ elites such as mesmer moa or invisibility, every necro elite, engi supply crate, ranger rampage etc.

I was thinking and it kinda bothered me that ele has two conjures that are associated with the same element (fire axe and fire gs), so I was trying to come up with an idea how to change it and one of my ideas was to change the fiery greatsword to an Arcane Greatsword.

The point of this sword is that the number 1 skill (auto attack) will be an arcane skill, and each one of the other 4 skills will be associated with each one of the elements (fire, water, air and earth), delivering a condition and gaining a boon. The elite itself will count both as a conjure and an arcane skill (which means it will benefit from traits that associate with these types of skills), summoning it on top of enemies deals damage to them and maybe dazes them briefly (instead of fiery gs burn), and the bonus attributes for picking it up would be 260 power and 180 ferocity. It should have a super cool model too. I tought of a few options what each skill of this sword could be (if you have better ideas let me know):

Skill 1 (Arcane): Does damage and always crits, counts as an arcane skill so it has great synergy with Air(VII), Water(II) and Arcana(XII).

Option 1: Arcane Slice / Dice / Strike (melee chain attack). First two attacks deal damage and always crit, last attack deals more damage, crits and dazes enemies in a cone (could work well with Air(XIII)

Option 2: Arcane Barrage (short – mid range attack). Pretty much like Flaming Wave (fiery gs skill 1) but shoots arcane missiles instead of fireballs. Always crits, maybe daze on the last missile?

Option 3: Arcane Ray (long range attack). Like mesmer auto attack on greatsword, but always crits.

Skill 2 (Fire): An attack that damages and burns the enemy and grants might to the caster.

Option 1: Fire Strike (melee attack). Similar to Maul, one strong attack that grants might and burns enemies.

Option 2: Fire Blast (ranged AoE). Stick the sword in the ground, creating a fire blast that deals damage in a large radius at a target location. Friendly targets inside the blast radius gain might and enemies burn.

Skill 3 (Water): An attack that deals damage and chills the enemy and grants vigor to allies.

Option 1: Frozen Whirlwind (whirlwind attack). Whirl to target direction, damaging and chilling all enemies in your path while gaining vigor.

Option 2: Tsunami (Piercing AoE attack). Similar to shockwave (ele staff 5), sends a huge wave of water in a line, dealing damage and knocking away all enemies in the way while granting vigor to allies.

Skill 4(Air): An attack that damages the enemy and confuses it / leaves it vulnerable while granting fury to the caster.

Option 1: Lightning Frenzy (melee attack). Same as 100blades, each attack give 1-2 sec of fury and 1 stack of confusion / vulnerability.

Option 2: Call Thunder (ranged AoE Attack). Raise your sword towards the sky, calling a thunder that damages and knocks down enemies at target location, delivering confusion / vulnerability to enemies and fury to allies.

Skill 5(Earth): An attack that deals damage and immobilize / bleeding to enemies and grants retaliation to allies.

Option 1: Earth Bind (Large PBAoE attack). Works like rangers Entangle, but inflicts only immobilize (no bleed) and for a shorter duration. Ram your sword into the ground, causing the earth around you to bind your enemies, immobilizing them. Allies in the area gain retaliation.

Option 2: Mass Impale (Large PBAoE attack). Ram your sword into the ground causing stone spikes erupt from the ground damaging and bleeding all enemies in the area. Allies gain retaliation.

That is about it, I think that my favorite set of skills is (this is a melee set of skills):
1: Arcane Slice / Dice / Strike
2: Fire Strike
3: Frozen Whirlwind
4: Lightning Frenzy
5: Earth Bind

And then you could go for very powerful rotations, like 5, 4, 2, 3. This will make the elite more of a combat skill than a run-away skill (wvw / spvp speaking of course). Also it will nerf the fiery gs in PvE (I admit I love dealing enormous damage to a boss against the wall, but this is kinda overpowered in my opinion).

A ranged set of skills would be:
1: Arcane Barrage / Arcane Ray
2: Fire Blast
3: Tsunami
4: Call Thunder
5: Mass Imaple

Tl;dr – the idea is to change the fiery greatsword into an arcane greatsword that grants attacks from every single element and arcane attack in addition, making it a combat skill instead of a run-away skill (wvw / spvp speaking).

WvW Zergs:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQFAWhMMKaW9wzBf0AEAS0AREXqSnavB-T1hFABAcBBY4BBMy+DUp87OdE8pEUS1fCAcA87vB++bO/8zP/8zb6f/93f/tUAMpMC-w

In zergs the small details don’t matter too much. Most of the time the bigger zerg would win anyways. Going scepter is okay but it is pretty much single target damage, therefore other weapon sets better. Going D/D would put us in danger because it means we need to be at the front lines in order to be able to attack anyone, however it is still a legitimate choice. Going staff in a large scale battle is safer and more powerful because staff skills have big aoe and the potential damage is enormous. Just have your staff equipped, spam your aoe attacks on top of as much enemies possible, get to cover when focused down and this is pretty much all you can do.

Therefore I would like to have an ascended celestial staff with sigils battle and fire, with 2 fine mighty infusion, in addition to my daggers.

Healing and Utility:

Ether Renewal
Glyph of Elemental Power
Conjure Frost Bow
Lightning Flash
Alternatives: Every arcane or cantrip spell.

Elite: FGS (mostly for mobility) / Glyph of Elementals.

Traits:

Fire (5) VI, VII
Air (6) VI, X, XIII (or XI)
Arcane (3) V

Food: Bowl of Lemongrass Poultry Soup.
Sharpening Stone (Potent)

PvE

I decided to try and figure out which weapon does the highest damage. At first I thought it would be the dagger, but after testing on target golems I came to the conclusion that D/D and staff have almost identical dps on a single target, the D/D did about 5% – 10% more damage than the staff (depends on trait distribution). Also in PvE situation enemies wont dodge or escape your target areas which makes staff extremely effective in PvE. Adding the facts that staff skills have better aoe, it is more supportive toward allies and its much safer to attack from 1200 range, I believe that the staff is a better choice for PvE. In terms of traits and utility skills the WvW zerg build is also suitable for PvE, just change the food.

Any opinions?

WvW Roaming:

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQJAoYhMM6c2zwwBf0APAC5hv2JKQ5qJfC-T1hIABA8gAuY/BkU+tmeivOhAwpE0Q1fCAcA8bfD++bO/8zP/8zb6f/93f/tUAMpMC-w

The problem with roaming is that you need to balance your offensive, survivability and mobility. Have too little offensive, and you can’t down a defensive or an hybrid opponent. Have too little survivability, and other roaming classes like thieves or mesmers or pretty much every class that can stealth could surprise you and get you low before the fight even began (this is without mentioning that BS thieves could 2 hit you). Have too little mobility, and you will be kited or chased to death.

After stating the obvious I want to talk about weapons.

Staff:
Staff has very high damage potential but it is problematic because staff skills either pulse or require their target to stay at one place to take damage. Since players are smarter than NPCs they just move away from the target area. Luckily staff has some decent CC but it isn’t really enough:
Water 4: Chill can be removed easily.
Air 3: Hard to hit with, can be evaded easily.
Air 5: Useful, but long cooldown, and negated by stability.
Earth 4: Bypassed easily, and negated by stability.
Earth 5: Immobilize can be removed easily.
This is without mentioning that 3 out of these 5 skills could be dodged from and this is extremely ineffective against classes with teleport. Most of the times you will find yourself trying to limit your opponent’s mobility instead of doing any damage, and the damage is not even close to be effective when your opponent is mobile. The staff is not giving too much mobility or survivability to its wielder either so this is a downside too. However, in larger scale battles the effectiveness of the staff increases thanks to the long aoe radius.

Scepter:
I always feel like scepter can’t do enough damage if you don’t go for a fresh air build. Fresh air and scepter have a good synergy since it makes the cooldowns of air attunement and air 2 pretty identical. The most popular fresh air builds are 0/6/0/2/6 and 0/6/0/4/4, which have very good offensive vs a single target, but they require high precision which takes off from the defensive stats and hurts your survivability. Also the condition removal is not that great, especially in long battles. You could go for a focus off hand to increase survivability but then you lose the mobility that comes with off hand dagger, and without your emergency escape RtL you will find yourself dead more often than alive. You also can’t rely on FGS too much because of the long CD. In addition scepter fresh air is mostly single target damage, and it loses its effectiveness when fighting more than one enemy.

With D/D or staff the elementalist can burn enemies for long periods and stack some good amount of bleeds. When going for a celestial build this adds up to the direct damage (especially when stacking might) and the total damage output is very high. The scepter applies less conditions than the D/D or staff and this is another reason not to go for it on a celestial build.

Main hand dagger:
In my opinion this is the main hand weapon a roaming elementalist should go. The damage is good, some skills are hard to hit with but with proper practice you could do substantial amounts of damage. It probably has the least survivability of the other main hands since it is a close range weapon, but unlike the scepter the damage does not depend on a specific build which gives you the option to increase the survivability via your gear set and your traits. Also it has better mobility than the other main hands, especially when having an offhand dagger. Again, you could put a focus in your offhand for more survivability but you most likely will be kited and chased to death, and therefore offhand dagger is my choice.

So one set of weapons would be two ascended celestial daggers with sigils of battle and generosity, fine mighty infusions.

Healing and utility skills:

Ether Renewal / Signet of Restoration.
Lightning Flash.
Arcane Shield.
Armor of Earth.
Alternatives: Every other arcane or cantrip skill (Except of arcane power).

Elite:
FGS (mostly for mobility) / Glyph of Elementals.

Traits:

Air (2) I
Water (6) V, X, XI
Arcane (6) II, VIII, XI

Food: Bowl of Lemongrass Poultry Soup.
Sharpening Stone (Potent)

Hi,

I never write in this forum, this is my first post. I play this game since the release but I am pretty casual, I play once a week for very few hours. Also my native language is not English so I apologize in advance.

Since I got into this game I really liked playing the elementalist (I always liked playing the fireball throwing mage in video games) and I still play it to this day. I have a few low level alts but I barely play them (and if I do its pretty much spvp only).

Since I don’t play that often I don’t generate too much gold and therefore I can’t afford more than one gear set, and I am trying to figure out a build that I could use in the most situations possible.

In my opinion one of the most interesting things about eles is that they benefit from every stat no matter which skill set they are running, especially on D/D or staff. Therefore an acceptable answer would be to go for a celestial gear set, since the total value of the stats combined is higher than every other gear set, and even though it spreads over every single stat this is still very beneficial for an elementalist.

Then I watched a few videos on youtube and I noticed that pro eles tend to combine only a few pieces of celestial gear in their gear set, but they never go for full celestial. In fact, I rarely see eles that have even half of their gear set celestial. After that I created a pure celestial build on one of these build calculator sites and discovered that my build generates about 20% more stats than the pro eles builds I have seen on youtube (I didn’t include might stacks in my calculations).

I became confused so I thought that maybe someone in the forums would have an answer for me. My build is more about wvw and pve since in spvp you could change your gear as much as you like.

Gear:

Full ascended celestial armor with 6 runes of strength and 6 fine versatile mighty infusion.
Ascended celestial amulet with glided infusion.
Ascended celestial rings, earrings and back item with fine mighty / fine versatile mighty infusions.