Guild Wars 2

The virtue of justice grandmaster trait does not work when you are a Firebrand. here’s a video.

https://youtu.be/Fi3dwSne9vQ

Also, the tooltip for it is bugged, because for some reason you reduced the duration of the justice passive on Firebrand to 1s base instead of 2s base (or 4s in PvP), and Permeating wrath is still showing 2s and 4s.

Eternal Armory, which should add burning to the strikes of spirit weapons, doesn’t do that. I noticed in testing it did correctly add burning to the strikes ONCE out of 10+ tests.

Also, when Permeating Wrath is traited, Zealous Scepter no longer grants might.

Sorry Evan, I don’t think I like this idea. I mean, maybe I’m being selfish but I really enjoy having more choice even if some of the things being eliminated would only be used in niche builds. I love niche builds.

Is one of the problems that a new set of elite specializations will be too hard to balance with the amount of sigils we currently have?

It’s a bit better than before. I’ve had some very nice success with it so far this season.
https://youtu.be/OtqeQGCNInE

Build:
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vJAQRApc8enMdAVhgtkCmkCElileADpG0D6eGBgW4S7t62dDvA-TJhAAB/dSAsa/h8LDAwTAAA

Thanks, great suggestions Xyonon!

Wondering about the Sigil of Concentration though. Won’t you have some rough low-boon duration downtime between some weapon swaps?

Also, looks like you had a much nicer rotation than qT for your 17.5/15k dps there. I guess in that case Condi is pretty much identical dps to your Power.
Except, were you using Ascended equipment? Because in my 17.5k/15k dps tests I only have exotic stuff all over. Then again, that was when I was using Berserker runes, so it probably all evens out w/ chronomancer runes.

I like your take-away too, Xyonon.3987. I will be prepared to use either build, depending on the situation. Love it!

Oh wow, and I just tested it by keeping up one iAvenger the whole time, and you STILL get 12k dps!

Chris McSwag.4683:

Even if you hit 100% boon duration, timewarp/well of action as your only sources of quickness wont be enough to keep quickness up permanently.

The build also uses Tides of Time, but I think you’re right. It looks like this is only keeping up ~95% quickness duration on everyone. I wonder if the ~2.5% party dps loss is greater than the 5-7k dps gain from the build…
If everybody on the team did an average of 20k dps, 2.5% of that would be 5k dps total.

But considering you’ll miss or mess up some quickness-giving skills, probably having an over-kill of quickness is a better idea. Hmm. Chronomancer runes may be necessary. But that’s like a 10% dps loss

Edit: Oh wait, that’d still be more dps than the berserker version.

I just tested it (attached image – ‘reaslistic buffs’) and you only get 1k dps less with Chronomancer Runes, which is still a 30-50% dps boost from the power version of the build. O.o

Hornet.6357:

In regards to the Traveler runes variant; The 5th and 6th Rune bonuses sound a bit wasted on paper for condi. Have you considered replacing these for trapper runes? The two piece trapper bonus would give you an additional 10% condi duration.

I had not considered that. That’s a great change It’d allow you to do this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQRAre7KWyNK0fYJmhyAY1at6VtWvVA-TVSAQBA4kAsuFGio6PjbCi0eCAFafgppEMkK/Co+BSBE4cL-w

Im also going to do a test replacing some gear with rampagers to see if that ups it some more.

You make good points for the most part. This is why I probably needed a pro-mesmer to talk to while doing this video.

Not sure what you mean about how not using Chronomancer Runes makes it so that I don’t give my party permanent alacrity (Chrono runes don’t give alacrity). You mean quickness I guess?

I thought 100% quickness was covered by this build, but perhaps the extra little bit of quickness from the runes that you get yourself and then share out with Sig of Inspiration is utterly essential and I didn’t know it?

I was doing 15k on the golem using the qT benchmark “realistic buffs”, so yeah 14k sounds about right. The benchmark video was only doing 10k though, and wasn’t even using the shield alacrity phantasms, which made me think this was a step up from that. If the alacrity phantasms were used, it would have probably been more like 4k dps on that benchmark.

But still, these are very sound reasons as to why you’d choose not to use it.

Thanks for your feedback. I might still use this garbage build in those situations where people don’t care that I’m not killing adds.

*going to sleep now

Here’s the link to the vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnjyTf4Rai4
There’s tags on the vid for each section of the info for it (rotations, gear, etc).

But here’s the direct build link itself if you want too:
Berserker Rune Version:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQRAra7encfCFoh9fCmfCUrhlcjqeVr1btMAWtWD9HWiZA-TVSAQBS7JAER1fyoSvxN9JkKDAwJBQg7PEQ9DTTJIpACcuF-w

Traveller Rune version:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQRAra7encfCFoh9fCmfCUrhlcjqMAWtWD9HWiZoeVr1bF-TFSAQBZU5XA1PAgTCw4m/MNlgS7JAER1fK0+DkCAm5WA-w

Edit:

Due to suggestion from Chris McSwag, I am replacing the Berserker Runes with Chronomancer runes. You lose only 1k dps (still retaining 3-5k over the power chronomancer build) and gain all the quickness you’ll ever need.

Any chance the cost is going to be changed for these runes?

Bumping because I’m going for them now, and it’s super ridiculous.

Straegen.2938:

Tried this build last night and got destroyed by condi builds. I will play around with it a bit more but something like Sigil of Generosity is likely a must. It is also best as a dueling build since its damage output does not scale to multiple targets well.

Huh, that’s weird. I never had a problem against conditions, with the stealth and shadowstep… If you’re still having trouble even after using dodges to remove all movement-impairing conditions before going into stealth, I still wouldn’t recommend Sigil of Generosity (as you’re not really getting any crits with the gear setup).

You’re right about it being best as a dueling build. You have to be plenty crafty against multiple targets.

Can we see a GIANT T-REX Saurian stomping through the forest as an event in one of the jungle maps?

The funny thing about it is that the more of these thiefs there are roaming together, the less effective it is because there’s less stuff for everyone to interrupt :P

The more popular it gets the worse it gets!

>:]

/15 characters

The guy that made that build is an kitten -hole

Tman.6349:

This is not bugged. Your seeing the ‘damage’ from the ‘Vampiric’ minor and the ‘healing’ of ‘Vamp Rits’. Life leeching mechanism is kinda wonky as it’s not direct 1:1 and instead treated as a damage and a heal (other times the damage or heal can show up as [Leech] in the combat log. This has been a problem with Leeches in the combat log for a long time.

Yeah, it might just be the combat log that’s wonky… but little hits of 20dmg were popping up on the target as well.

Also, my Vampiric minor is supposed to be hitting at 44. (that one was showing up on the enemy, but not in the log).

Very very strange.

Not sure if I’m just being stupid or not, but I think Vampiric Rituals might be bugged.

The tooltips for the wells show 69 dmg and 68 healing per tick for me, but the what actually happens is only 20 damage and 73 healing…

Is it bugged or am I forgetting something?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fJAQRApc8ejMdU2ZXI2dQKigfgC5M0CGDgj+UFocNSDA-TpBHwAAOCA82fQwJAo8BBIwDAAZZAA

:3

I think exclusive rewards are necessary and good for the game.

The main argument put forth by OP is that he should be able to get all rewards in the game by playing the way he likes to play, without needing to do anything he doesn’t enjoy doing. In this case, the thing that he enjoys is PvE and nothing else.

What if we take the argument a step further and imagine the play-style that OP preferred wasn’t PvE or PvP, but instead simply hanging around Lion’s Arch, talking in map chat, buying gems and working the Trading Post (which is something some players enjoy doing). Ohoni, are you saying that ALL REWARDS in the game should be attainable through this play style? Essentially a pay-to-win model? It’s a valid play-style…

Sorry I missed it! I completely forgot in the end

Oh noes! I have not been selected Still hyped!

I have now found 7 songs that I might do.

Oh god. I want to put my name down… Boottspurr.

Why would I do this to myself? kitten now I have to find instrumental songs?!? Crap.

Edit: ok, everyone can stop panicking now! I think I found a song.

Ulion.5476:

That high burst ele build is just a glass cannon. With the cantrips he can run from most fights but if the wind blows on him he dies and using most of his cd for that burst. Still celestial can do comparable burst and be able to take a hit.

I’m confused as to how this relates to the conversation.

Also, celestial gives a burst comparable to berserker?

I don’t know about 5-6 seconds… But there’s always this:
http://youtu.be/Y5rpPFp0Hic?t=43s

Nova Stiker.8396:

Because it is really, REALLY terrible XD

This is the kind of Elementalist that gets 1-shotted by a backstab or blows up instantly in a teamfight.

Hell, any mobile opponent can eat the damage, avoid even more incoming damage and just shred the glassy Elementalist apart.

You can’t really solo or fight in teams, other than showing off, the build is worthless.

Yes. Once again, I would like to encourage nobody to use this build. You will be sad.

I love it… but it’s not for normal people.

Junkpile.7439:

So what boost ele got? I haven’t notice any difference.

No change. This has been around since the beginning of the game, but nobody’s been using it.

The Game Slayer.7632:

Now the next part is hard to do sometimes against a player with everything on cooldown. You probably already do it every day. All you need to do is sneeze in the general vicinity of the ele, and he/she goes down.

/threaten tends to work also :P

Yep, in reality against players, I have about a 10-20% success rate for a down on the opening strike.

It’s a lot more effective at turning the tide of a group fight that’s already in progress by the time you get there; all enemies are distracted and you can turn a 4v4 into a 5v3 pretty fast.

Sorry guys, my bad! Ya the burst is great against stationary NPCs. Although I really like using it against players with varied success, I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone else who is uncomfortable with getting torn up or gets frustrated by not being able to perform a very difficult combo consistently.

My Ele runs it mostly because she’s a bit of a sado-masochist.

It was a stationary npc, but do you think their hit box might be big enough that it counted twice somehow?

I just made a video (for something different), but looking back at it the combat log shows Phoenix hitting 4 times:

http://youtu.be/Y5rpPFp0Hic

I tested it some more on some dummies, and it hit for 3 sometimes, 4 sometimes, and 5 times once in a while…

Something might be up.

Hmm.. I just thought of something. It might be interesting if a guild has to complete certain raids in order to unlock certain aspects of their Guild Halls :P

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Hi Boot,

Your top three priorities can be anything you like as long as they pertain to raiding.

Chris

Thanks! Hmm, that’s a tough one… I guess:

1. Challenging and Instanced set for 5<people<30 where Knowledge>Skill>Comp

2. Interesting new mechanics, possibly embracing other fun aspects of GW2 (incl. jumping puzzles, siege, jumping, dodging, emotes, knowledge of LORE, etc.)

3. Unique rewards that don’t go further than Ascended/Legendary, but give a VERY compelling reason to complete such (what should be) ridiculously difficult content.

>
>
4. Guild tie-in I list this 4th because the above points are technically more important to me, but I still have to mention it because it only makes sense that the raids be tied intrinsically to guilds. (but still be open for invites from the guild/officer to pugs)

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Hi All,

Please list your top three priorities for raiding (Challenging, Instanced, Cooperative, Content)

Mine are:

1: Knowledge>
2: Skill>
3: Raid Group Setup

I will leave the thread open until folks have had a chance to put there top three forward and then I will put forward a proposal on behalf of the CDI group to the team.

Thanks,

Chris

I’m a bit confused about the question. Do you want our top three priorities for how raids are designed? Because by the example priorities you gave, it looks like you mean just the top three priorities for a team to be able to beat a raid…

Otherwise wouldn’t “Knowledge>Skill>Group Setup” just be one design priority? :P

Actually I just noticed this. Pumped up my condi damage, and my retaliation damage is 227 with or without the trait…

Serophous.9085:

For progression, why not do what is done in fractals? Every time you beat the raid, you can apply for the next stage of difficulty, increasing rewards, etc?

That way, organized groups can get increasingly harder challenges, and pug groups can still form and enter.

I feel like each raid should be intrinsically as difficult as can be to begin with. If you simply scale up the difficulty (hp + damage) after beating it, it’s a lazy substitute to a well designed base raid.

It would be cool if you unlock a harder different raid after beating the first one, but I’m not sure it would be good if it just scales.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Hehe you are definitely not late. I can tell you from experience this CDI is going to last a long time which I am more than happy about.

The CDI group or only just starting to settle down into our first topics which is fine but you can gauge CDI time from that.

Chris

17 pages of Settling Down… WOW I can’t. how do you. reeaadd it all? New-found respect, Chris. New-found respect.

I’m getting to this CDI a little late, I’ve been crazy busy this week… I must have missed a ton of info already and I’m not sure where we are in the conversation, but I still wanted to put forwards some ideas I had:

-In my mind, raids would be implemented as guild content as an upgrade the guild would unlock (similar to bounties, etc.) at a higher tier.

-The upgrade would allow the purchase of semi-timegated raid event consumables, purchased through influence, again similar to the activities guilds have now.

-The use of one of these consumables would allow an officer, as well as up to 25 other people (difficulty is balanced for 25, or perhaps there are two difficulty modes: 10 and 25), access to a raid instance for a certain amount of time (TIME LIMIT). I chose 25 because it might be smart to use the Commander Squad functionality with this somehow.

-Members of the guild officer’s party of 25 (or 10) do not necessarily have to be part of the guild, but rewards specifically for the guild would be determined based on how many guild member participated.

-The instance unlocked for the raid would make most sense if it took place in the Mists, but locked off areas in the real world with real world consequences/story would also be very cool.

-I do not think the instance should scale based on party size, it should have one or two difficulties set (possibly for 10 and 25) with different rewards/amounts of rewards.

-The easiest form of rewards would be various Raid Tokens (received from beating each boss, or even event if the difficulty is many many little baddies), to be traded for unique looking rewards of no higher power than ascended. Also, guild commendations as well as guild influence (from each boss) :P
More Tokens, influence, commendations for 25 than for 10…

-Obviously the MOST IMPORTANT THING about these raids are not that they are necessarily your standard raid structure of kill trash, go kill boss, repeat (similar to dungeons), but THAT THEY ARE DIFFICULT CONTENT. VERY difficult content.

I’m not sure how you guys are going to work that out, but hopefully Dave the AI genius is coming up with some awesome ideas of how to prevent mass rezzing from downed, overcome stacking, etc.

ALSO IMPORTANT is what to do about CONDITION STACKING… With this many people, 25 stack limits will make party comps very strict against condition builds… not great.

I forget the other stuff I wanted to say, but there ya go…

It looks like they’re very close in damage, actually. Earth is probably more reliable too.

The reason they’re so close is because I just realized the phoenix only seems to hit AFTER I’ve switched to lightning.

sorrychief.2563:

Nice video but can you compare the damage between your build and the old full kitten 0/30/25/10/5 burst build?

why do all that when you can be a dirty cheater and bind the combo to mouse4/5?

Heh, I’m not a fan of cheating. And why cheat when you can do it legit? Either way, there’s some tricky mouse cursor related timing/positioning to this burst that can’t be replaced by a macro..

I can try out that trait setup tomorrow (going to bed now) and let you know the difference. I’ve only experimented with 5/6/2/0/1, and different 2/6/2/2/1 +-1 setups so far.

BlackBeard.2873:

This is very fun to watch, thanks for sharing!

One thing though: I pray you use one of those fancy mice or something, or else you are putting your hands through all kinds of pain! How do you actually pull of that burst with the default keybinds! My mind is even more blown!

It’s not so bad, actually. I have my 6-10 skills bound down on Shift, z, x, c, v so that everything is a little closer together. Also, using the hybrid ground-targeting option really helps with the Phoenix/LF part. No fancy mouse, just the official steel series Guild Wars 2 one :P

So yeah, with my setup , my middle finger holds down 3, with my thumb hovering over Z to tap that right when I release 3. Then it’s index to f3, ring to 2, middle 3, index 4 then 5.

Necrotize.2974:

Very cool. What do you find your hardest matchups to be?

And what do you usually do after you burst someone.

Sorry it took so long to respond, it’s thanksgiving day for me :P. I’d say my hardest matchups are turret engis and minion necros. It’s partly because it de-centralizes the damage, meaning you might not crit the player as much as you want. The bigger reason is that the AI seems to have a better reaction time than actual players, and will be able to take you down even after their owner is downed, making it very difficult to finish them.

After I burst, if there’s still trouble, tornado can be really devastating to anything on a point. The cool down to the burst isn’t too long (40s), but your fire cool downs and lightning skills can still pack a punch without the burst. Honestly though, you do need to rely on a surprise burst most of the time, and fight to survive the rest. But again , tornado can be devastating.

You got the burst right! Just remember to cast Phoenix right behind the target, and LF right in front of them.

Here it is: http://youtu.be/_WdcXE-j6qY

Build is here: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQJArYhMM6cWzwnBrEBCAW0AQBY0NQcKIDcErA-TJBFwAI3fgxDAoaZAAnAAA

Fun for hotjoins

You know how if you right click on a player’s name you get a menu with things you can do? What if if you right click on a Siege as a commander, you get the option to prompt the removal/deletion of the siege?

Like, if there’s siege that shouldn’t be there or was misplaced, a commander could right click and “Flag for dismantling”. Then that particular siege becomes available for non-commanders to right click and vote “Dismantle” or “Keep” on that siege. If say 10 players vote dismantle it goes away, but if say 10 players vote “Keep” it gets un-flagged and that particular commander can’t flag it again.

The voting numbers are subject to change :P

I don’t like it one bit. …But that’s because I have no defense at all as a glass Ele and melt to it pretty easily.

ONE THING TO NOTE: It’s not really 1500 range. When getting shot at between ~1300-1500 range, you really just have to strafe and all the shots miss.

LordByron.8369:

Difference between this and fresh air?

LR just gives an extra ~3k dmg to the burst and makes Tornado fun. I run the same traits exactly when playing Fresh Air, actually (and I attempt this burst often while running it too). With Fresh Air and a Valkyrie’s amulet the build is much more solid… but doing this burst is undeniably exciting.

http://youtu.be/bBG2MS0CueA?list=UUY7xwSpkcS3cOno6fo5J8ag

And you can too!

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Boottspurr.9184:

Yup, my bad. Gonna delete mine now.

But totally need to remember to come to the Guild Content CDI to suggest Guild Raids again…

We will be discussing ideas around Guild Raids.

Chris

Have I told you lately that I love you?