I think that may just kill the Arcana line for me. I never liked using it too much as it was and don’t like idea of having it be 1 of 3 picks; at least before I only had to put 10 (2) or 4 points it in. Also, it no longer has Blasting Staff, so… Well, let’s just hope things are improved a bit before Heart of Thorns launch.
Personally, I’d wait and see what new legendries are like. I was working towards Bifrost on my Ele before, but since I’ve came back I decided to just put that on hold. I never really liked the look of the Bifrost much (Chaos Staff skin is just as good imo) and I mainly wanted it to have a legendary weapon. For now, I am just wishing for an elementalist themed legendary staff that changed based on your attunement… (and breaking my bank finishing Ascended armor…)
The other week I thought of an interesting Elementalist mechanic and thought it may fit what the Tempest could be. So now I decided I would share this idea and somewhat of a prediction.
When I think of Tempest, I think of storms. And it may just be the Glyph of Storms, but storms make me think of AoE. I also don’t think we are getting an F5 skill, at least not as a new attunement of anything crazy like that.
Mechanic
My idea for the Tempest instead involved a meter that would go next to or above the attunements. After swapping to an attunement, after a 5 second delay, the meter would begin to fill with the attunement. After 45~ seconds, the meter would fill completely and get a bit of animation to it (e.g. fire meter would have burning effect). This meter would do two things:
- Based on how full it is, it will give you a stat buff varying with attunement. So Fire would get Power, Air would get Precision, Water would get Healing, and Earth would get Toughness. So at level 80 a full meter may give +200 or such to a stat to give a bit more benefit for staying in a single attunement for a while.
- But this would still fit in with Attunement Swapping. When you do swap attunements, the bar is instantly drained and used to create an AoE around you. The size and power of the AoE depends on how full the bar was. So the AoE from a 10% Tempest Bar would be rather small and weak compared to a 100% one. The AoEs would also vary with attunement; with Fire being damage, Air being knockback, Water healing allies, and Earth dealing lesser damage and crippling.
The idea is to give a new dynamic to swapping by encouraging players to stay on attunements longer for the buffs and the AoEs when they do swap. So instead of swapping to Earth for 6 seconds to cast a couple spells, you may want to wait a bit longer until the AoE charges first. I could also see it working well with Traits. For example, there could be one to remove the 5 second delay and increase charge rate (lowering the 45~ seconds to 30~). Another could add effects to the AoEs like burning for Fire, Regen for Water, Bleeding to Earth, and Stun to Air.
Skills
As for the new skill set, after giving it some thought I decided Mantras would be a good fit for the Elementalist. Mantras need to be charged before they can be used, but this could tie in well with our attunement swapping. And by that I mean the effects of the mantra could vary depending on the attunement you charge them in. For example, let’s say there is a Mantra that fires a projectile; I could charge it in Water, swap to Fire, and then active it and get a Chill projectile (Water) instead of a Burning one (Fire).
Weapon
As for the Weapon, I am going with Sword as that seems to be the case. At first, I was disappointed when I heard this, but then I realized it may not be a melee ranged weapon. We have seen the other mage professions use close combat weapons for ranged magical attacks (e.g. Necro’s Axe, Mesmer’s Greatsword). So my guess is the Sword will be a mid-range weapon, around range of scepter, but with a focus on AoE attacks. Some skills may require a shorter range or benefit from being closer though, but I think this would fit the sword nicely. Also, I expect there will be at least one skill were we stab the sword in the ground for an AoE.
Anyway, that is my Tempest idea/prediction. It may not be the best idea, but it certainly would be an interesting change for the Elementalist.
Both would probably work well, but I’d lean more towards the engineer. That is because I know it has access to a lot of blast finishers with the toolbelt skills (every turret once deployed). The guardian does have a lot of fields, but I can’t remember if they have any finishers, especially blast finishers, to make good use of them. And personally, I’d say the Ele’s fire and water fields are more useful than the guardian’s light, so the guardian fields could end up getting in the way at times.
Also, from what I’ve seen the Ele and the Eng do play rather similar in some ways. Both lack a weapon swap and make it for it by attunements (ele) or kits/tool belt (eng). So I could see those two being a great pair.
Since the update, I decided it was time to re-evaluate my build and look more into runes. I did check out the DPS guide at the top of the forum, but despite playing the Ele since launch, that still seemed way above me >~< Pretty much, I am looking to make sure I am going with acceptable gear choices and that I pick the a good rune set and don’t waste a bunch of time and money.
So here are the main questions I have:
1- What runes would you suggest for me (for each armor set)?
2- Are my current gear sets good choices? Should I look into another set like Celestial?
3- What trinket set should I infuse for Fractals?
4- Any suggestions of things to try with my trait build?
First, I should mention that this is for PvE and that I mainly do Dungeons and World Bosses. Second, I want to note that currently I play the Staff exclusively, but I would like to start learning the other weapons and would prefer if my gear choices would be acceptable for all weapons, even if they are best with Staff.
Currently, my main gear set is Soldier’s Armor with Berserker’s Trinkets. I also have a set of Berserker’s Armor so I can swap for full Berserker’s if needed. I also have been working at a Soldier’s Trinket set so I can better mix and match as needed. I did look into Celestial before I started crafting my Ascended Soldier’s armor and I decided it just wasn’t that useful for me; but now that it got buffed I am reconsidering it, but I probably would still get Soldier’s and Berserker’s sets first either way.
For Fractals, I am unsure if I should put my AR on Berserker’s or Soldier’s Trinkets. I have currently only been to Level 19 and below so I am unsure which set would be the best choice for the higher levels. I also would want the set to be a good pick for all my characters, so I am kinda thinking Soldier’s may be smartest choice.
Before the update, I have been using Orbs and Crests, but I recently tried Runes of the Flame Legion on my Soldier’s gear as placeholder until I got a final rune set. I heard a lot of good things about Runes of Strength since the update, but with their price I want to be sure before I buy them. Also, I doubt I could pull off Runes of the Scholar; between a bit of lag and skill, I don’t expect me to stay above 90% health enough to benefit from them. Besides those, and possibly Dolyaks, I am unsure which to try.
Lastly, I would like to mention my build and see what everyone suggests I try. Before I was running 4/2/0/4/4 with Internal Fire, Pyromancer’s Alacrity, Bolt to the Heart, Shard of Ice, Cleansing Wave, Arcane Mastery, and Elemental Attunements. I use Arcane Brilliance, Arcane Shield, and Arcane Wave for my skills. The last utility and the elite vary, but I tend to focus on Frost Bow and FGS.
Recently, I decided to drop Elemental Attunement in favor of Burning Precision to go with the Flame Legion Runes (and get the grandmaster minor in fire). But Persisting Flames is proving very temping, but I don’t want to drop Internal Fire or Pyromancer’s Alacrity. I would personally like to keep the 4 points into Water for Cleansing Wave as well, but would be fine with removing if given good reason. I also seen Stone Splinters is a popular pick so I am considering trying to fit that in.
So I think that cover it. I am kind of thinking that I may want to go with the Fire Field and Might Stacking focus, but then I question which armor set would get the Runes of Strength. Probably would want to go for Berserker’s armor then and swap over to Soldier’s trinkets… Anyway, what are your suggestions?
Thanks for the replies. So it seems it is more of a staff and pve thing than just me. I do use Air a lot for travel, especially in WvW where I also tend to use for 1 skill for tagging mobs. I’d expect the CC and crippling skills to be much more useful in PvP and WvW, but most champion and such are immune to it so kinda kills the attunement I guess. I do try to chill and cripple some bosses like the Archdiviner in fractals though.
So I guess the two things is should improve on is trying to combo Eruption more with fields, but with my lag it has proved to be very hard, and to study more on professions and combos so I can know what fields to use when (e.g. what professions are likely to make use of Static Field for Vulnerability…it gives that off projectiles, right? XD).
Okay, my first attempt at this was far too long, so I decided to rewrite. Simply put, do you think I am making the best use of the attunement mechanic in the given situations?
I’ve been playing Ele as my main since launch, but I’ve been away a while and upon returning I found I seem to swap less than before. I use a staff, with traits focused in fire damage and water for healing, and arcane skills, usually with frost bow. I tend to mostly run dungeons and world bosses and the build works fine.
But I tend to spend most my time in fire, and only swap to water to heal. I usually end up using frost bow as a weapon swap instead of my other attunements. And while I know why I do it and think it is for the best, it just feels wrong to do. For most mobs, including world bosses, I tend to just use fire and swap to water if I run into issues. But even for dungeon bosses, it seems I don’t get a lot out of air and earth, at least over frost bow and such. The only skill I’d really use on Air is the staff 2 but due to its long cast time I wonder if it is worth it; the rest are CC that bosses tend to resist. On Earth, it feels to have a similar problem with Air since the aura is situational and the movement skills are a lot like CC and often don’t matter. Eruption is the only one I probably should use more, but with lag and attunement recharges, it is can be hard to combo with lava font.
So do you think I am using the attunements well enough with the staff? My main concern is that I am focusing on fire/ice bow more and that I could be doing better and helping team more by swapping, but I currently just don’t see a reason most of the time. Thoughts?
(edited by BioMasterZap.4350)
Yah, I’m not really good at avoiding auto attacks XD
Anyway, I did some WvW with my engineer earlier. It is still lower level so I didn’t have all the traits, or skills, but I had enough to get a good feel for the build. The kit swiftness is amazing; especially for WvW. And I loved the Elixir Gun, defiantly keeping that. I didn’t really use the Flamethrower much, so I will need to revisit that. I didn’t have Rocket Boots unlocked, but I would like to still try them.
However, I did find the Bomb kit a bit underwhelming, at least as far as the 1 skill goes. It didn’t seem to be too impressive with damage nor the radius of the attack, and I guess I prefer things that work at range. The Grenade kit worked much better for me. I’m almost tempted to go for 30 in explosives for Grenadier and replace Bomb kit with Grenade; but I’d need to drop to 20 Firearms or 10 Tools for it.
So I am thinking Rifle with Full Berserker (maybe some Knights) and on swap/crit sigils (probably battle and fire/air/earth). For skills, Healing Turret, Elixir Gun, Grenade Kit, Undecided*, and Supply Crate (*thinking Flamethrower, Bomb Kit, Rocket Turret, or Rocket boots). Then traits something like 30 Explosives (II/VII/XI), 20 Firearms (IV/V), and 20 Tools (VI/IX); or drop to 10 Tools to gain 30 Firearms (and XI). That sound like a decent build?
Thanks to everyone for the help. I think I got a much better understanding of how to play the Engineer now, which ironically seems more like the Elementalist than I expected XD Pretty much, I learned the following:
-Try the Rifle, pistols not that great. (Originally, I found the Rifle to be lacking and since the Pistols were nearly same range I went for them. But now with kits to fill in for the rifle’s lacking features, it will probably work better for me).
-Focus on blowing things up, with Bombs or Grenades. (I think I’ll try Bombs over Grenades to start, but I’ll have to experiment with the different kits again to see which I prefer).
-Swap between Kits like a madman to get the most of the skills. (After using attunements and conjures, I think I should be good with this one).
-And try to trigger as many combos as possible. (Will probably take me a bit to learn them all, but once again, think I know how it goes well enough.)
Well, I guess I have a bunch of kits to test and find the right balance for my tastes. But at least I have a better idea of how to spread the traits and what to focus on with my build.
Recently, I been playing with all my characters, one for each profession, and for most I have an idea of what I want to do with them, or at least am interested in their possibilities. But after playing with my Engineer a bit, I just can’t find anything I like about the profession.
I think I know why this is though. My main character is an Elementalist, which seems to be in a similar boat to the engineer. Both don’t have weapon swaps and instead rely on profession mechanics for additional skills. Both also are very versatile in what they can do (I thought Eles were the Jack of all Trades until I looked around this forum XD). So I guess I can’t help but compare my Engineer to my Ele, which is probably a bad thing to do but I can’t help it.
To me, it seems that Engineers need to trait more into a specific role rather than just having a bunch available off the bat. The problem is none of the ones I see look like something I’d like to play. Turrets are interesting, but it seems like it would be a pain to constantly move then around for most things (like pve exploration). Kits seem interesting, but so far I have not found any kit I really prefer over pistols. I did consider Elixirs and trying something more supportive. And not sure if much can be done with gadgets alone.
With that being said, how do you think I should try an engineer? I don’t expect it to be played like an Elementalist, but I am just not seeing the builds I could use to differentiate it from my Ele. And just to note, the advice I am looking for is for casual PVE; I doubt I will be using my Engineer for WvW or Dungeons or such.
So if you have any insights into how Engineers function or suggestions for builds, let me know.
Yah, after spending some time of the champ train, I too got a bunch of the bags and tried to find any use. Seems there is none, which is kinda sad.
I did think of an interesting idea that could make them semi-useful though. You know those +1 agony infusions you get in fractals and how you can upgrade them but drastically raise the cost each time (2 +1 and another item make 1 +2, 2 +2 and same item make 1 +3, and so on till it takes absurd amounts). What if these bags could be used for something similar? So you could take 2 colored 5 slot bags and put together, maybe with another item, to get a 6 slot, or maybe go right to 8 slot even.
It would be tricky to balance just right in the costs, but I could see them eventually turning into 20 slot bags, probably costing a bit more than buying a 20 slot, but I’m sure some people would like the option of decking their character in various colored bags. And for lower levels it could provide a simple way to work on increasing bag size, maybe even by avoiding crafting, and in a way that makes sense (get some 5 slot and turn into 8 slots, then later take a couple 8 slots to make 10 slots, then when that isn’t enough, take a couple 10 slot and make a 12 slot and so on). Eh, just an idea anyway.
Well I can see Legendary Armor happening someday. The appeal of armor that can take on any stat is rather appealing on its own, but it probably would be fixed to weight class (or else every character you own could share 1 set of armor).
I would expect it to be crafted piece by piece rather than all at once, but the overall cost probably won’t be that high. From what I’ve seen for ascended armor crafting, the full set is roughly 3x the cost of a weapon, with only the body using about the same amount to craft. Given the difficulty of Legendary weapons, it could end that each part would be a good bit less than Legendary weapons so the full set would cost about twice as much, but maybe require a greater variety (e.g. dungeon tokens, gifts, etc).
As for the looks, I think the best way would be to add a few different styles, maybe even just 1 set for each armor class. For the armor, I think the real advantage lies in the one thing it can do that weapons cannot, which is dyes. With some armor, dyes don’t do much, but imagine Legendary armor having dye slots for their special lights and what not.
Anyway, I see Legendarys being more of something for visuals than stats, since original that is all they really were for before the pick any stat stuff. So for the armor, I see it being more of a single set for armor weight that you can customize with dyes over several radically different styles. Some people may dislike having a limit choice in appearance, but that is kinda already the case for the weapons; I know I am personally not a huge fan of The Bifrost’s appearance but still been working at it since it is the only legendary staff (so far anyway).
I pretty much agree completely with what CountzuCrytus said. I’ve personally been using Soldiers (Pvt) armor with Crest of the Soldiers as upgrades with Berserker Jewelry and Staff. It may not be the best way to balance the stats, but it is simple to do and works rather well. I find this balance gives me enough defense and damage for most situations; but I also got Berserker Armor and Knights Jewelry (would prefer Soldiers have yet to get it) to swap into if needed. Celestial is also a very nice set from what I’ve seen.
So I would defiantly recommend getting a set of Soldiers (Pvt) gear to start, maybe with some Knights or Berserkers trinkets.
Personally, I never had a problem with points 1 and 4. I never pvped much so I can’t comment on 2 either. I would say that the traits could use better synergy.
The elementalist is meant to use all 4 attunements at once, but the only line that really supports that is arcana. Trying to do a balance between the 4 while still using some arcana is near impossible because there are always traits that seem vital to that attunement you seem to miss. I ended up doing a 20/20/10/10/10 with a focus on fire which works rather well for my needs.
However, compared to other professions, like the Necromancer whos traits just flow so well, our trait system sucks. When I planned my elementalist traits I am pulling out my hair deciding which I have to cut since I don’t have enough points to make the core build I want. When I planned my Necromancers trait, I was able to focus around minions like I wanted and the rest just feel into place without the feeling that I missed a huge mechanic of my profession.
So yes, the traits could still use work. Personally I think the 5 point minors could just be added directly to the attunements and some of the basic traits could replace them to make it feel like you need to invest as much in each line. Although most of the grandmasters, as well as other traits, seem a bit to focused on a certain attunement to really be of value most of the time.
As for point 4, I been playing staff since beta and never had any problem with it in pve. In pvp, it may be another issue, but I’d assume pvp would be left to point 2 and not mentioned twice. Although I will say some of the attacks are a bit too slow to hit the monster in time before it dies in some areas.
For point 1, I never had this issue. I have used 10 in water and 10 in arcana with no cantrips and I have learned to survive rather well. Once again, if this is purely focused at pvp this may not be the cast. And while I never compared the number closely, I have heard and do believe that other professions, like warrior, can easily surpass our defense while dealing more damage as well. But when playing other profession I always end up missing the versatility of the attunements for a quick condition removal, heal, speed boost, aoe, finisher, stun, or such.
I have been using this build for a long time now, about a year. I may have posted it before, but I been considering tweaking and though I’d share it again. As the title says, this is a casual build, not meant for any one thing besides playing the elementalist and not limiting myself. I use it for general exploring, wvw, dungeons, world bosses, and most other parts of pve and I never had a problem with it.
Now I am not claiming that this is an amazing build, because there are probably better builds for certain tasks (e.g. one focused on dungeons). But this one suits me and when looking over the traits I realized there was none I really wanted to change. So, here it is.
Build:
Traits:
My traits are 20/20/10/10/10. I like the variety that it gives me. I focus more on damage than defense, but I realize I still need some defense or I’ll be too weak for the build to be all around. When I am not doing anything too intense, I tend to stay on Fire Attunement and drop lots of AoEs (usually do this for general pve and world bosses, swap a lot in dungeons an wvw).
In Fire Magic, I have Internal Fire (VI) for the 10% more damage. For the master, I have Pyromancer’s Alacrity (VII) for the quicker recharge, mainly for Lava Font. In Air Magic, I use Quick Glyphs (III) are my Adept. I did have Inscription (VIII) as my Master, but I recently changed it to Bolt to the Heart (VI) instead.
In Earth, I have Earth’s Embrace (III) to help with some defense. In Water, I have Cleansing Wave (V) to help with condition removal. In Arcana, I have Elemental Attunement (V) to help with swapping. I don’t really care for the Arcana line much and don’t see it being worth it to invest in it for Blasting Staff or Evasive Arcana.
The only change I have considered is dropping Earth to take Fire up to 30 for Pyromancer’s Puissance (XII), but for the moment I decided against it.
Skills:
As I said in the title, I use a Staff. I do have daggers, but I rarely use them because I prefer the staff and it works for me. As you probably picked up from Quick Glyphs, I use a few Glyphs. I have Glyph of Elemental Harmony as my heal, Glyph of Storms for extra AoE, and Glyph of Elementals as my elites. My other utility are Arcane Shield for extra defense and Arcane Wave for the blast finisher.
I usually just stick to them, but sometimes I will swap out one, usually Glyph of Storms, for another skill like Signet of Air for the passive speed or Conjure Frost Bow for the AoE. I haven’t use Fiery Greatsword in a while, since before it was buffed, but I did like that so I may swap to that as my elite sometimes. I also will consider Glyph of Elemental Power, mainly for stun break, and Cleansing Fire for condition remove.
Gear:
As for my weapons, armor, and trinkets, I have a couple sets and am considering a new one.
My weapon is a Berserker Staff with a Superior Sigil of Fire for extra AoE on Crit, although I did consider a Soldier’s Staff with a Sigil of Battle as well.
I have a set of Berserker Trinkets, some ascended, which I use most of the time. I usually pair them with my Soldier Armor, which uses Crest of the Soldier instead of runes. I like the balance the two sets give between crit and defense and it has become my main pairing.
I also have a Berserker armor set with Runes of the Balefire, but I planned to replace then with Ruby Orbs and never did. I swap to that when I want to focus more on damage, usually in places where I take no to little damage. I do also have a set of Emerald trinkets, but I planned to replace them with Soldier Trinkets, but rarely use them.
I also have been considering going for full Celestial since I have a Celestial Staff and Ring lying around. I think the Elementalist is one of the few professions that can really pull off Celestial, especially with a build like mine. Still debating it, a celestial is very hard to get, but it may be a better alternative to having two sets and offer a better balance. And if I remember right, in total celestial does give more stats, although my defense would probably end up lower than if I did full solider, same for my crit.
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Well that is my build for the moment. It has worked well enough for me for nearly a year once I learned how to combo with the staff and move around in combat. If you are looking for a casual build, maybe this, or parts of it, will work for you.
If you have any suggestions for trait changes, feel free to post them. However, I do prefer stay 10 in arcana and have a nice balance of the rest. Also, let me know if you think a Celestial Set would be worth perusing.
Personally, I just stopped trying to do living world. Which is rather sad, but it is the best choice. I like how living world tries add more to the game, tell stories, and keep things changing. But it just moves far too quick and has too much. Back when it started, I kept up with most of it, although I never got all the audio logs and I was busy and missed the final dungeon (which was really disappoint). Then I did manage to get most of the released after that. The main one I missed were ones like Dragon Bash where you had to eat all the candy, launch all the fireworks, and fight all the holograms. Since the announcement of releases every two weeks though, I pretty much stopped trying.
I think the main problem is that a lot of the content from living story is geared towards active players. Most of it seems to be stuff you can easily do if you play daily or every other day. For example, if you are out exploring the owrld already, stuff like holograms from dragon bashes or the drop boxes from the sanctum are easy to get. But if you don’t have the time to run around for hours a week and tend to just log on occasionally do something like a dungeon, those achievements are such an hassle. I have to go out of my way to run around the world just to try and find those silly little things for the achievement.
Maybe part of the reason is that they aren’t present in all forms of content and are mainly limited to the open world. It may be that way to encourage people to go out into the open world, but that is the wrong way to do it. When the election story was up, the events in queensdale was swarmed and I could barely get to many in time. The story achievements didn’t help make the area more playable by making people want to go there, it just had masses grinding the events making it harder for people actually there outside of the event.
Overall, I do like a lot about the living story. I like how you get the rewards from the meta achievements. I just don’t like how many of those achievements along the way require out of the way tasks and grinding of silly things. I don’t mind if it wants me to launch a few fireworks or eat a some candy, but the amounts required for that stuff seem way higher than they need to be. I don’t think anyone, even the people who play daily, really want to spend their time doing that. More of the achievements should be about trying things once and watching the story unfold than the silly grinding.
I do like how stories are posted on the website to give more depth into things. Although I also feel like a lot of the stories feel a bit worn after a while. Like I don’t mind we went back to southsun cove, but it just felt the same as the first time. Very little seemed to be added or changed. There were some nice new events and the story wasn’t bad. But the landscape was the same. No vistas were added. No new creatures or anything. The aetherblades are starting to feel the same way. I am tired of them being behind everything evil of late and wish they could take a week off to let some new threat, even an old one like the inquest, do something for a change.
Also, I don’t see why so much of the story is temporary. If players did it later does it really take away from it that much? I mean I did the dungeons out of order yet I still enjoyed the story of them. Hopefully more permanent content, like dungeons, are added with the stories in the future.
In conclusion, I wouldn’t really say living stories are bad as is. I feel they move to quickly and don’t focus enough on the story aspect of it. I don’t mind if there are some silly, grindy achievements, but I wish they were scaled back far more. The first living story is probably my favorite because it was mostly going around and watching cutscenes as it unfolded. I wish we had more things like that than things that make us put off things we want to do to go spend an hour working on an achievement.
I really do hope the living stories become more slowly paced. Because currently I am not around enough to get the monthly achievement and having living story on rapid fire isn’t making me want to try any more. I just see it as something I won’t get to finish so it makes me want to avoid it and do other things, outside of guild wars 2, that I can see through more easily.
I really loved how they told the story for frost and flame so far. The simple dialog cutscenes instances were just great and I wish they were used more throughout the game.
Bit late to comment, but I agree with the above poster. Soldier’s is just amazing. I recommend you have a full set of that because it works well with most builds. I’d suggest looking into Cleric Trinkets to swap if you wanted to swap in some healing power. I prefer to use one type of armor and another type of trinkets just to make it easier on myself (especially when it comes to runes). As for weapons, I always base them on the skill sets of the weapons and what I usually like to do with it. So if you always see yourself using daggers for healing, then Cleric would be nice. But if you also see yourself using daggers for more tanky of things, I’d say Soldiers would be better choice.
I think it is cool and properly priced. If it were any cheaper, it may be “too good” of a thing. If I have the spare $ I’ll probably be one for my Ele (my main character) but I doubt I’ll get it for any others. I hate having to carry tons of tools around and it will be nice to be able to mine all ores with the same pickaxe (I hate using my black lion or oricalchum or such on mithril or lower). I bet we will see more tools like this in the future, maybe even another pickaxe with different animation.
Well, I didn’t review racial skills but I don’t see either giving a notable advantage over the other for a thief. At least between those two races. Although, if you only/mostly like human for a 120g armor set, I’d say sylvari. Why? It is more likely that they will come out with new armors you like better than human t3; but I doubt you will ever be able to change base racial looks.
Well I am probably a bit silly, but I plan out traits and then armor. Then food is more of an afterthought of “what food compliments my build”. 2 reasons for this:
1-I just forgot about food.
2-Sometiems it can be very costly and I want my build to work fine without food.
However if you know have the $ and know the food will make a huge difference (e.g. gives 10% crit chance which makes that trait now useful) it certainly should be considered.
Very long and thorough reply. I guess when you explain it in more detail I can see the how the aoe is less than staff. Personally, I wish staff had a bit more damaging AoE. And you can see how a weapon to rival the range of the staff with aoe and stronger single target can be worrying to a staff player like myself. I mean I love staff, but longbow does sound very good if used right.
I probably should have noted the radiuses of the skills a bit more. But when you don’t have a listed recharge and damage it can be still be vague. Although I personally wouldn’t have listed damage and recharge; it gets too tricky to balance and is best left for professionals =P
While I still feel it could have a better assortment of more “unique” skills, it does seem like a nice choice. You seemed to have put much more thought behind this than I originally assumed.
Also, one thing that would be nice to see more of is chain skills for ele. I am not sure if your Fire 1 is meant to be a chain or just an alternate possibility. Either way, I could see that being a nice thing for a longbow. Pretty much arrow, arrow, arrow with a condition/effect.
Side note: I am not sure if they said they are adding more weapons. But I do remember a comment about possibly adding 2h axe in the future when someone questioned why it isn’t there. It is probably more likely to see brand new weapon types than current classes getting current weapons though.
Just to mention a bit more on what I was getting at. The staff doesn’t have a ton of AoE to start with, or at least damage wise. On Water and Earth, the auto attacked are single target. On Air, it does bounce which is nice AoE but can also over aggro easily. And while Fireball is AoE, it is a very small radius and slow cast time.
So your Water 1 is pretty much exactly the same as Staff 1 in terms of AoE. Earth 1 just bleeds instead of weakens, which isn’t a bad thing. The other Auto Attacks are single target though, but I would be more worried that they just outclass the staff’s attacks. It is hard to tell without range, cast time, recharge, and damage on skills though.
Still, the longbow offers about as much aoe as staff while having stronger single targets on the 1 attacks. You see how that could just end up becoming the better weapon. I mean Sun Spot sounds like a stronger Lava Font. Heat Strike sounds like a stronger Flame Burst. Salamander Tongue seems to turn any shot into a slightly better fireball. So the staff really only has Meteor Shower over the Longbows fire; but as awesome as it is against some things, it is a total waste against others so I don’t think it would be a deal breaker to lose.
I understand that Water should keep in theme, but it just looks a bit too similar to me. Also, the vulnerability attack sounds a lot like the frost bow’s vulnerability attack. The air 2 sounds a lot like a quicker version of the staff’s 2 for blinding. Earth 2 sounds bit like eruption, which is probably the most notable aoe damaging skill outside of fire.
How would I suggest to improve it then? The best thing I can think of is to change order of the skills. They are usually arranged in order of recharge. So I expect Sun Spot to be the quickest to recharge on the weapon. I’d rather see the AoEs moved to 4 or 5 for most skills and more powerful single target attacks on the 2 and 3. Also, moving around some of the effects to different spots will help it feel less like a staff copy. E.g. water’s chill could be 2 and vulnerability 4.
I am all for a stronger long range single target weapons for Eles. I just would prefer it feel like the opposite of the staff; not like a staff with a few more single target skills and less support aoe. If this were to be a weapon, it would really concern me that it could just end up being a better version of the staff for everything due to the number of short recharge aoes and higher single target spike. Considering I get half my good staff AoEs from utility as it is, you can see how this weapon could have a bit of an issue there.
As for a bow being fitting for a ele, I guess I am more use to the old sterotypes of classes. (e.g. mage=staff, ranger-bow, warrior=sword). A bow conjured of frost seems perfectly normal. But a bow made of wood is just weird =P Then again I didn’t expect eles to have daggers and they ended up pairing well with the profession, so who knows…
It may be a bit silly, but I used a staff for this XD The main thing I used was Lava Font. I have it traited so fire skill recharge 20% quicker and deal 10% more damage so that helped. The trick is to cast it as soon as monsters become vulnerable. This is because the first tick of damage is right as you cast and it casts pretty quick. If your too slow, it will take a second to damage again, which can be too late. Fireball rarely reaches in time. Arcane Wave is another good choice if you’re not afraid to walk closer.
Daggers probably work better if played right, but I still haven’t got hang of them.
As mentioned before, a Team is the best way to make sure you get drops.
Personally, I am not too sold on the idea. There are two reasons for this. The idea of an ele using a longbow does seem odd to me. Then again few profession do and it isn’t that bizarre. Still, I just don’t like the idea much.
The main thing is that this weapon doesn’t seem to offer anything “new” really. It doesn’t look to be focused for single targets or aoe, more of a mix of the two. Same for direct damage and conditions. I mean compare your suggested water skill to the staff’s water skills. I won’t say they are exactly the same, but they are very alike (aoe heal for 1, vulnerability for 2, heal for 3, chill for 4, bigger heal for 5). I just don’t see any reason why I’d run this over staff, unless it just proves to be a stronger version of the staff.
If eles do get another weapon, I am hoping it will be something more unique from the weapons they have. This just looks too much like a new staff to me.
You can play without swapping. Although you should know how to do for when you need it. What do I mean by that? Most of the time my ele is on fire. I even have a couple traits that only affect fire to help with damage and cooldowns since I am on it so much.
However, I also know when I need to switch. Fire alone is fine for a lot of more simple things, like just running around the world or the easier dungeon mobs. But if you get in trouble or if you’re fighting a dungeon boss, it is better to be switching. A few examples. In the Cliffside Fractal I use mostly fire on the mobs. But when we are fighting the boss I am dropping chills, cripples, and immobilize constantly to help team avoid boss’s attacks (if he is chilled and does hammer jump, he goes half the distance and misses. It looks rather funny). I still use some fire as I cycle through on my staff, but it isn’t the only thing I can do. In AC, I am mostly on Fire the whole time. But I also use the Frost Bow conjure a lot to deal with the mounds quickly.
So if you want to play on fire, go right ahead. However, I would suggest playing with all the attunements a bit so you know that does what. It took me a bit to learn, but once I memorized my staff skill and knew what I could attune to for what skills it helped a lot. Then you can just spam fireballs and know what to do when fire alone just isn’t enough.
I decided to look a bit more into a power build for minions. Pretty much, I planned to go for full Soldier’s Gear with Soldier’s Axe and Warhorn (or Focus) and Peril Sigils on both. Goal would be to stack vulnerability while my minions tear them to shreds. I may get this set in addition to a condition set if I have the karma spare. I also considered Clerics armor instead of Soldiers, but probably will just go for the full Soldiers.
Also, I have been planning out weapons a bit more and have a silly question that I don’t want to post in a new topic yet. Condition Duration boosting Sigils do stack, right? So if my main hand and offhand both had sigils of agony the bleeding would be reduced more than if just one had it right? I never read anything that said they don’t stack, but I also never read anything that said they do…never can be too careful with these sigil >.>
I have yet to have anyone request this of my guardian. Then again, he only ran AC for a few days and got level 80 and I haven’t been on GW2 since XD If they did ask me to try and heal a bit more, I wouldn’t be too offended and swap a couple utility around. After all, I did design my guardian with team support in mind.
But it is unreasonable for people to expect every guardian to be a monk for them. Also a bit ironic because no one ever asked my Elementalist to heal them; and while eles don’t have any healing as amazing as Tome of Courage, they can do a good job if they are focused on it (though my ele is a berserker…). So I guess it is mostly a profession stereotype.
I run 0/30/25/15/0 for PvE. This allows me to run D/D or S/D whichever is more beneficial at the time. you get Might on Stealth and Dodge so you’re running with 6-8 stacks constantly. If conditions are not an issue you can switch to blinds on stealth. I like Executioner for S/D and Hidden Killer for D/D depending on your crit%. D/D Backstab is very good sustained single target damage, Fleet Shadow helps here for positioning. S/D is good damage, mobility and AoE.
I run Zerker armor, runes of the Mesmer for S/D and Valks trinkets. Trying to keep my HP over 16k then pushing my damage stats up as much as possible. Runes of the Wurm work nicely here also if you don’t want Mesmer.
GL
Blood~
Thanks for the reply. I’ve been looking more into how the armors would mix and here are the two options I was leaning towards:
-Berserker Armor with Ruby Orbs and Ruby Jewelry with Ruby Jewels: 943 Power, 654 Precision, 64% Critical Damage (About 50% Critical Chance with Traits, excluding weapons.)
-Berserker Armor with Ruby Orbs and Emerald Jewelry with Beryl Jewels: 841 Power, 564 Precision, 358 Toughness, 90 Vitality, 46% Critical Damage (About 45% Critical Chance with Traits, excluding weapons)
Think I should skip the Full Berserker option? I don’t want to be too defense or too offensive with this, which is a tricky balance. E.g. I don’t want to use full berserker and get downed every other fight. Yet I don’t want to focus too much on vitality and toughness and never get downed by have slow kills.
Considering I will be getting 200 Toughness and Vitality from my traits (give or take) I am not sure how much I extra I really need on my armor. With the Emerald+Berly Jewelry I still keep a high Precision while picking up a lot of Toughness and some Vitality. Pure Beryl drops the precision a lot which I am not comfortable with.
Would you suggest using Rune of the Wurm over Ruby Orbs? At the moment I am thinking to just go for Berserker Armor with Rune of the Wurm/Ruby Orbs/Etc and the Emerald+Berly Jewelry unless it is suggested to have a full berserker set for anything.
After taking a look at the Traits, I’ve revised the main post with more of a goal in mind. Hopefully that will make the topic easier to comment on!
Well I did forget about those weapons, but I mean some more impressive and unique skins; not always weapon sets either. The mystic forge gets a lot of cool weapons like Jormag’s Breath, so it would be nice to see more like that from crafting and not just forge. I know some already use gifts and statues from crafting, like the H’Ween Weapons. Still, more like those or maybe even some skins with a brand new process using crafting would be nice to see.
Thanks for the reply. And while Ghost Slaying is one I am interested in for now, Flame Legion Slaying and Undead are other ones I wanted to look into. I listed ghost because I don’t think there is a tradable version of it, so it seems vendor or nothing.
I guess I will just pretend they don’t exist until they get an update to make the recipes worth getting.
I am talking about the potions made by the recipe, not the ones purchased from the vendor. E.g. if I got an Extended Potion recipe on my Artificer and made the potions, would the potions be account bound or soulbound to the artificer. I don’t want to waste 400 tokens on a recipe just to have potions bound to one character.
I thought now would be a good time to look more into my Thief so I had an idea of what gear to get and what traits to be going for.
I know I want a Thief that is focused more around Criticals. I plan to use Dagger/Dagger and Shortbow as main weapons, with 2 Pistols and probably a Sword in invy incase I need them. I reviewed the Trait Lines and I am thinking a 0/30/20/20/0 Build may be best for what I am looking for.
I found an old build I copied that used that spread. It was 30 Critical Strikes (III, X, and XI), 20 Shadow Arts (V and VI), and 20 Acrobatics (II and X or IX). The only changes I am considering to that is maybe VIII instead of X in Critical Strikes and maybe VIII in Shadow Arts too, but those would be easy to change. I have a fairly good idea of what skills to use with the build so I don’t feel need to get into them now.
The main thing I could use some advice with is the armor and trinkets. The weapons will probably be full Berserker, but I am not sure how I should plan out the rest. I would prefer only have 1 or 2 swaps to my gear beyond the first set. I am thinking something like Full Berserker Armor with Ruby Orbs and Ruby Jewelry with Ruby Jewels as the main set for all out critical. Then I would have a Jewelry and/or Armor Swap. Maybe something like Emerald Trinkets with Beryl Jewels on them. Swap would be some mix of Knight’s, Cavaliers, and Valkyrie anyway. I haven’t done any math yet so not sure if I will go with armor or trinkets.
As for what I plan to use my Thief for, I will probably use it for a variety of PvE. Mostly just exploring although it may be used in Dungeons a bit. I may also take it to WvW, but I don’t WvW a lot.
So if you have any feedback, please let me know. I am mostly looking for suggestions on what gear set(s) to go for. If full berserker is too suicidal for most places, let me know and what you’d suggest instead. Also, if you think I should go for a certain rune set let me know, but personally I see orbs and crests being better for a Critical Thief. If you have any suggestions to trait, I’d be glad to hear them too.
(edited by BioMasterZap.4350)
Well I managed to get 400 Chef and Artificer on one of my characters without breaking my bank the other day (At least $ wise, space was an issue). But I also had a lot of materials saved up and I am pretty sure I would have made more $ to just sell the items. Personally, I think it is a bit too easy to level to crafting. 400 was very quick to get; I even skipped half the inscriptions in artificer.
I do hope that add more purpose to crafting. There are a few things I though of that they could do.
1- Account Bound Crafting Drops: Chef already does this, but if you can’t see it, you’re only way to profit from it is to craft it. So if you could get a 10 Oricalchum Ore Account Bound Drop or Ecto Account Bound Drops it would really help encourage players to craft without flooding the markets.
2- Repairing Items: These would be special Salavage items that you could also repair with a certain level. So you could get a Rusty Sword (Salvage Item, Weaponsmith 400). You could salvage for some materials, maybe Ori even. But if you took it to a crafting station and used your 400 weaponsmith, and maybe some materials, you could turn it into a weapon. Maybe it would be a masterwork, maybe a rare, or very rare chance it could be an exotic. The idea is that most of the time it would break even, but on rare occasions you could repair it to find it is a very rare weapon. Alternatively, you could know what it is as a drop (e.g. Broken Orichalcum Sword) and make them account bound; then you would have to repair or salvage.
3- Unique Skins: Why should the mystic forge get all the unique skins? It would be nice to see some high cost skins crafters could make. It would give more a reason to get 400. Although if some of the skins used account bound materials it would make it even harder to get so more profit.
Just some ideas anyway.
From what I read, Extended Potions recipes are purchased from dungeon vendors for 400 tokens and need 400 Artificer to make. But I also heard they are soulbound on acquire. Can anyone confirm this? If so that is really silly because I got two characters that run AC Exp and would like Extended Ghost Slaying but neither is my Artificer…
Also, has anyone found Ghost Slaying potions excluding the Extended ones? I haven’t seen then listed anywhere. Seems odd how Ghost Slaying is one of normal potions.
Or maybe a 10% chance to summon for each minion skill you have, so 50% at best. While I haven’t seen how they work at 80, I have yet to see where I was glad to get a Jagged Horror. Assuming they still die in seconds at level 80, I only see them being useful for a few seconds of +20 Toughness and Death Nova.
I find it a bit funny that people only suggest Ground Targeting for it. Personally, I think it would be interesting to see it Home on the target instead. Maybe that would be a bit too good then, but it certainly would be interesting. I mostly play with staff on pve so I can’t really comment on what would and wouldn’t be balance. But I do understand how useless it is now.
Actually, I gave it a bit more though and now I am thinking to go for the Apothecary with Unique Ascended combination with Runes of the Nightmare. That way I can skip the Critical focus and go 20/0/30/20/0 like I originally planned for a more tanky minion healing build. Later, if I want to, I could always get a Rabid set and swap over to a more critical build. Any comments on that?
I’ve been looking into armors a bit more and here is what I’ve come up with. The first name is armor and the 2nd is trinkets. It is figuring a full set, evne if not always possible (e.g. back slot). The Rabid+Apothcary and Unique Ascended figure ascended trinket stats (with exotic for earrings) while Rabid is pure exotic; so any that says “with Rabid” would be a bit higher with ascended set. None of these sets figure in Runes. The critical chance also figures 10 in curses.
Rabid with Rabid- 823 Condition Damage, 570 Toughness, 570 Precision [35% Critical Chance]
Rabid with Rabid+Apothecary- 743 Condition Damage, 590 Toughness, 506 Precision, 146 Healing Power [32% Critical Chance]
Rabid with Unique Ascended- 865 Condition Damage, 590 Toughness, 343 Precision, 247 Vitality [25% Critical Chance]
Apothecary with Rabid- 732 Condition Damage, 570 Toughness, 346 Precision, 315 Healing Power [25% Critical Chance]
Apothecary with Unique Ascended- 774 Condition Damage, 590 Toughness, 315 Healing Power, 247 Vitality, 119 Precision [14% Critical Chance]
Why did I only figure in those armors? Because I wanted Toughness and Condition Damage and those are only stat combinations that currently offer it. I consider Knights and Shamans but ruled them out quick; same for Apothecary Trinkets, no exotic version and I lose too much Toughness/Condition Damage with Healing Power main.
It seems I don’t have much of a choice in going with a Critical build =\ I will probably do Rabid with Rabid/Unique Ascended unless a new stat combination comes along. Although considering the Unique Ascended is a new stat combination, I wouldn’t rule it out from spreading to armor someday (it is Condition Main, Toughness and Vitality Minor. Only one rings and amulet with rabid as the “upgrade slot”).
Now for the Runes. Rune of the Undead was a bit disappointing in the end. Since all builds gave the same Toughness, it always gave 275 Condition Damage and 50 Toughness. While it sure beats Crests and Orbs, it just felt like I’d be better off with other runes over just more Condition Damage. So now I am considering Rune of the Nightmare (183 condition damage, 10% condition duration, 5% chance to cause fear when hit with 90s cooldown) or 2 Rune of Lyssa/2 Mad King/2 Afflicted (25 Precision, 25 Power, 28 Condition Damage, 20% Condition Duration, 15% Bleed Duration).
As for traits, I am thinking 10 Spite (III), 10 Curses (II), 30 Death (II or V+X+XI), and 20 Blood (V+VII). It is still very close to my original plan, only dropping 10 Spite for 10 Curses and picking up more “on Critical” effects.
Anyone have any comments on these ideas?
I can’t give the best comparison, because my Mesmer is still lower leveled, but I should be able to give some insight. Personally, I see the mesmer being best at 1v1 since a lot of their attacks are single target (e.g. scepter) and their illusions focus on one target and when it dies they vanish. I know mesmers can be very strong, but something about their skills has always made me feel eh. Like using their sword up close just fields weird to me, even though it is a close range aoe. Also, while I don’t mean to say their attacks should be faster, they just feel a bit slow to me. Maybe it is just because it is lower level and at 80 I will see the balance behind it.
Eles may not be the best 1v1, but to me they have the best aoe. If you want to nuke foes from a distance, they can do that reasonably well. With the staff you can provide a lot of support between then 4 elements. I never did much with daggers but I know they are very mobile and can be very powerful when you get hang of them. Personally, I find the ele the most fun to play of all my characters. Whenever I am doing something on another character, I miss having the attunements. Air for speed boosts, water for condition remove, even earth for slowing down foes. I mean I have done dungeons on my guardian as well as my ele, but chasing around foes swinging a greatsword isn’t as interesting as dropping meteor showers and lava fonts all over (although both are probably just as effective).
Personally I prefer ele. Although if you don’t like idea of attunement swapping and frequently moving and casting, ele may not be best choice for you.
I already planned to go condition. Just hard to find the right balance of condition damage and toughness on gear >.< Perma Chill Build does sound interesting; can anyone elaborate on that a bit more?
Also, what is so broken about necros? Either way I will be making a necro and gearing it for condition damage and toughness. And considering necro is my alt, I don’t see a problem here XD
I know power doesn’t affect condition. Personally I find it rather silly how criticals got 3 stats (power, precision, and crit damage) while conditions only got 2 stats (damage and duration), with only 1 on armor. But that is another discussion. Interesting combo with the Curses line though. Although I am not sure if 1 stack of bleeding for 1 second is really worth it. Also, it will be hard to spare 5 without losing something important. Maybe a 0/10/30/30/0 build would be worth trying.
I guess Carrion won’t be armor and instead I’ll have to try Rabid or Apothecary. Also, speaking of runes, what do you think is best to try? Think I should go for a Condition Duration for 27%/20%+15% Bleed? Or Afflicted, Nightmare, or Undead sets for effects? Personally I can see Undead working really well with my build.
I agree that sigils need to be more clear. It is so hard to be sure of what stacks and what doesn’t when planning 1h weapons. The main ones I found that conflict are Critical and Weapon Swap. Sadly those are the two most useful for my ele >.<
I use a 20/20/10/10/10 build. As for my Majors, I use Internal Fire and Pyromancer’s Alacrity on Fire, Quick Glyphs and Inscription on Air, Earth’s Embrace on Earth, Cleansing Wave on Water, and Elemental Attunement on Arcana.
I focus around Fire as my main attunement, but I still can use the others just fine. The Fire traits are for Damage on Fire. The Air are for Glyph Support since I use the Healing Glyph (quicker heal=good) and Glyph of Storms (for extra AoE). Earth is for extra defense and Water is for Condition removal. Elemental Attunement is rather standard to have.
If you prefer signet heal, you can always trait it in Earth instead of Earth’s Embrace (or by dropping 10 from air and adding 10 to earth). Air also has Bolt to the Heart, which should work nicely if you wanted to keep air but lose the glyph support.
Also, Arcana has Blasting Staff which may interest you. I personally didn’t find it too useful. This build probably isn’t the most effective, but it gives me a nice mix of versatility that I find useful.
Also, if you are unsure of what armor, I’d suggest something like Soldier’s Armor and Berserker Trinkets. That is what I’ve been using and it gives me a good offense and defense mix.
I can see an Earth Field happening, but I don’t see big rush for it. I mean, I don’t see how a Lava Font gives Arrows Burning. I doubt the hot air coming off the lava is enough to make the arrows combust and the arrows never touch the lava… So it doesn’t seem that irrational that arrows passing over an Unsteady Ground suddenly have bleeding.
Although I do understand that they don’t want to make Earth Fields since Earth tends to be the “Finisher” attunement.
A torch where the flame changed with attunement? That would be cool. For months I’ve been hoping they make a new staff, probably legendary, that does the same thing (burning on fire, frozen on water, lightning, on air, etc).
As for what weapons I’d like to see added…not many really. Torch would be cool since we do lack off hand options (pretty much all dagger, focus isn’t too common). I would love to see what a torch on fire would do XD I would be interested to see Greatsword, but I got a feeling we’re better off with conjure.
Besides that, I’d rather see brand new weapons not in the game. One person already mentioned Whip; personally, I think may just be awesome for an ele (although it may be just because I find whip a bit symbolic from another mmorpg). I would expect it to be like Vapor Blade is on daggers, only like that for all attunements =P Beyond that, I can’t think of any new weapons types that seem suited for an elementalist.
Don’t worry, I want Toughness, not Vitality. Necromancers have the highest base life already, so I don’t see why I need to boost it any more than the 20/30 in Blood Magic. And I don’t plan to use Rabid since it has Precision on it. But with Carrion as main for Condition main and Power and Vitality minor I get a nice boost to power. Then with the ascended gear I can get Condition main with Toughness and Vitality minor (the upgrade slot has the Rabid stats, so only 18 precision per part). My main issue is finding gear that has Condition and Toughness on it. I may not go with Carrion because it has Vitality but for the moment, it seems to be the best bet.
Also, I am not too worried about condition removal since I plan to stick more to PvE where it isn’t as common. The idea is to be more of a tank with horde of minions. I also want toughness since the grandmaster minor of death magic will help convert it to power. So I guess I am really looking for Toughness main, Power and Condition minor. Too bad no such combination exists =\
Oh, I forgot to mention Carrion (Cond main, Power/Vitality minor). Currently I am thinking something like Carrion Armor with the unnamed stat combo on some ascended items (Ralena’s Band has it, main stats are Cond main, tough/vit minor with Rabid as upgrade component). It does give some precision, but it only 18 per trinket which is rather minor and probably the best way I can get toughness with condition.