Guild Wars 2

For whatever reason, when we killed Subject Alpha at the end of CoE P1 (the submarine path), we got the 40 dungeon tokens and 1g for completing the path, but the submarine never came and the path never actually completed.

I’m a bit bummed about missing out on 20 tokens and 20 empyreal shards, but mostly just cross at the Pact for slouching on the rescue mission.

Shockwave.1230:

Does stone heart work with conjures?

As long as you’re attuned to earth while using the conjure, you’re good to go.

katniss.6735:

Stone Heart is terrible, just like Diamond Skin. Thieves still own you with stone heart on. Stone Heart doesn’t adhere to the increased buff duration from lingering elements and elemental attunement. There are no good weapons to sit in earth attunement with, except maybe s/f because at least the focus has buffs that linger on attunement change. Diamond Skin is way better, but still bad because it is a counter to openers only. You have to fight back up to top up hp all the time to make use of it. Specing 30 in Earth is crap unless you plan on playing burn duration or something like that, that probably doesn’t kill anyone at all. I hate this game.

I’ve actually had pretty good success using a 30/10/30/0/0 build that largely sits in earth while using flame axe. It takes a while to get used to, but I’ve killed virtually every thief that’s tried to gank me and with the barbarian amulet giving me 20k health, I’m highly resilient.

I’ve had games where all of the players have become courtiers and nobody remains on the minimap as orange dots, all of the hiding spots have been checked. However, we are not credited with a win until exactly 4:40 minutes remain. What’s up with this? (attached is a picture of all of the ghosts at the middle when the game ends at 4:40 and the win is credited)

I’ve noticed that the sound for Burning Speed (Dagger Fire 3) has been changed since the latest patch, and not for the best, I feel. The old burning speed had a deep sound to it like Drake’s Breath (Dagger Fire 2) with a nice thud at the end, while the new attack has a high (and obnoxiously loud) whooshing sound followed by a tinny exploding sound effect. This patch has taken all of the power out of Burning Speed’s sound design, and it’s much less fun to use now :c

Yeah, tried to get into the same instance as my friend for both this minigame and the Clocktower to no avail. Couldn’t play this new content with my friends

I’m guessing this is the minigame that the sPvP-happy NPC is supposed to take you to?

As an Elementalist, you’ll never see my utility bar without Mist Form or Arcane Shield.

Because Gates of Madness has the best name out of any server.

Definitely fun for me. It’s a game – if you don’t enjoy yourself, what’s the point?

To Reagle, I’d respond that, yes, I would do the dungeon because it’s the wholesale slaughter of mobs and the crazy mechanics that I enjoy, not the random loot, because lets face it, smashing loot into the ground isn’t quite as satisfying as smashing its carriers.

At low levels, it shouldn’t matter much. If you plan on continuing to unlock new trait ‘tiers’ you’ll get free respecs from the lv40 and 60 books anyways, and retraiting’s pretty cheap. I don’t know what weapon set you use, but I roll with D/D and here’s a few traits that I just about always pick up:

-5pt Water (Soothing Mist) – a nice passive heal, nothing to call home about but generally more useful than other element’s 5pt traits
-15pt Water (Cleansing Wave) – a free heal and condition cleanse (same as Water 5 skill with off hand dagger) every time you attune to water, definitely helps with survivability
-10pt Arcana – don’t remember the trait name, but it gives boons on attunement. Pretty solid trait.
-10pt Air (Zephyr’s Boon) – Swiftness and Fury every time you activate an aura; with D/D and boon duration from Water traitline and armor runes, you can get perma-swiftness from your auras
-20pt Arcana – don’t remember the name, but gives vigor on crit. Helps you dodge more to stay alive, what’s not to like?

Other than that, it depends on your playstyle. Most of your effectiveness will probably come from your weapon setup and your skill with it. Just experiment and see what works for you!

Zelyhn.8069:

Glyph of elemental power is pretty much useless anyway (5s internal cd, yay!).

I agree that if it worked with just half of the list it would be so overpowered.

Apart from in PvP where we have ONE viable build, arcane isn’t so necessary.

I can only imagine the combos: rez glyph for 3 people max health, sandstorm that chills, stacking +20% dmg on vulnerable target with +20% dmg on kded target and +10% dmg in air … this would really make a huge push towards the feeling of being an elementalist, not just a visual effect machine.

Of course some balance would be required then.

To me, that sounds like a way to make glass cannon builds truly viable for ele, as well as giving you a reason to swap to an attunement other than “my cooldowns in this attunement are all up”. Keep in mind that at the moment, few elementalists have all of those traits because of how effective cantrips-based builds are.

For elementalists, both the normal utility glyph (Glyph of Lesser Elementals) and elite glyph (Glyph of Elementals) incur two separate cooldowns:

1. When the glyph is used (glyph goes into ‘locked’ mode on the skillbar); this cooldown is not affected by the trait that reduces glyph cooldowns by 20%.

2.When the elemental dies, either due to its timer ending or its health running out (skill is no longer ‘locked’ on skillbar), cooldown is set to the glyph’s base cooldown instead of subtracting the time that the elemental was alive during. Curiously, this ‘true’ cooldown is affected by the cooldown-reducing trait.

This is evidently a bug, considering the fact that Warrior banners are similarly summoned by a long-cooldown utility and have a ‘lifespan’, but go on cooldown at the moment of placement rather than the moment when they disappear.

TL;DR: Elemental Glyphs have a bug in their ‘locked’ state that causes the skill to go on full cooldown when the elemental disappears.

Attached are examples of the initial ‘locked’ cooldown and the second trait-affected cooldown.

1. The ability to give permanent party-wide swiftness makes moving around with friends a LOT easier.

2. Ride the Lightning off of cliffs. Nuff said.

3. The ability to conjure one of 4 moderately-constant elemental pets, all of which have floating bits and/or are scorpions made out of lightning.

4. Ether renewal. Feel like the Avatar every time you heal.

5. Zippimg and weaving around as a D/D ele has been the most enjoyable PvE playstyle I’ve seen so far.

Vissarion.6509:

So Vapor Form isn’t get your HP to 50% anymore, haven’t found anthing at patch notes, but noticed today, anyone else??

I assume you’re talking about the downed skill? That was patched a while ago.
Also, not sure if this counts, but fire-attunement glyph of storms apparently functions like a longer utility slot Lava Font – used it pretty often in the new weapons facility dungeon.

Humposaurus.5764:

The "new"glyph of storm still deals less damage then arcane wave/blast and has a longer cooldown. Signet of Earth does not compare to mist form or the utillities I mentioned above.

Also since ppl are finally starting to pull mobs together through skills or LoS warriors AoE is far far superior then our measily AoE.

I’m talking about s/d and d/d setups here, not about staff which is IMO the worst weapon setup we have for both PvE and PvP, not only in damage but also in healing and supporting.

Two things. 1. I’m speaking from a D/D perspective. 2. Glyph of Storms does not do less damage than arcane wave, lol. Also, fire storm acts as a pulsing AoE (like Lava Font on staff) and ice storm acts as icebow 4. Included picture of fire-attune glyph of storms hitting 3-4 golems – couldn’t get all of the hits inside of the dialogue box.

If you’re talking about PvE, try out the new Glyph of Storms and Signet of Earth. Storms is pretty much the definition of AoE and is now essentially fire staff 5 slotted to a utility skill. If you find yourself in want of toughness, Sigil of Earth gives something like 200 tougjness, which is a pretty respectable amount. It’s not like you need to slot all cantrips to survive normal PvE – try something new!

JonPeters.5630:

The ICD is on the caster, however on AoE regen application it applies AoE regen, then an AoE cleanse, then applies the ICD. Make sense?

Glorious ANet response, I have missed you so. Also, if I understand correctly, then the ICD doesn’t interfere with water 5 on staff, so some good news for staff

Since I run only Battle, inform me if I’m mistaken, but I thought that you couldnt use Battle and Energy together because of ICDs? Other than that, I don’t see what merits a nerf, as the reason why other professions might not weaponswap is that they have decent damage tied to their auto attacks with the 2-5 skills being supplemental. On the whole, eles don’t have any real reasons not to swap, and much of the Arcane traitline is specifically designed to encourage swapping. So… Maybe ANet could ‘fix’ eles tripping swap sigils so often by just buffing auto attack damage instead?

In 1v1 combat, mist form is less useful, yes. It’s still nice for safely rezzing people in the more annoying dungeons, though (probably Fractals too, but I haven’t tested it myself yet). Other than reading/stomps or zerg escapes, yeah, you’re better off with arcane shield.

Arganthium.5638:

katniss.6735:

Thieves were nerfed?

Not this patch (for the most part), but in the past we’ve gotten tons and tons of hate that has contributed to our getting nerfed, yes.

Speaking of this patch and thieves, glad that an “alternative” weapon set such as Sword/Dagger is getting attention for at least one profession! Here’s hoping that ele build improvements are somewhere in the creative pipeline as well

Yep, just got error 42:6:3:2158 when I tried to log in. Previously got booted from the game, the client told me there was a connection problem or something of the sort.

From what I’ve tried of it, Mesmer seems like it’s a pretty neat and fluid class to play with the illusions and teleports and whatnot. As an 80 Ele, I also totally understand where you’re coming from with D/D, tried to make a warrior alt and it just doesn’t feel the same. It’s funny, really – the Evasive Arcana nerf-fix is what actually pushed me to try D/D, and now I can’t see myself going back to anything else.

Pinder.5261:

First of all, thank you everyone for the responses. Helpful stuff.

Lokki.1092:

Your character level/traits/weapons will help us a lot in helping you.

35. D/F for PvE stuffs, Staff for WvW sieges and sPvP. Traits aren’t set in stone. In sPvP I’ve enjoyed 30fire/20earth/20arcana, and 20air/10earth/30water/10arcana But things change, and I haven’t Ele’d in sPvP for a while now so I have no real commitment to those builds.

Jericho.4521:

Another factor would be swapping between damage, defense, heals, and control. There’s no good way to explain this, I think it comes with experience. You’ll have to learn how to swap to which attunement as necessary in general when the situation calls for it, based on what skills you NEED to use, not to just spam.

This is, probably, the part where my tactics fall apart. As an Engie I’m well accustomed to swapping skill sets based on the needs of the situation. If anything, I feel overwhelmingly adapted to this act. So much so that, as an Ele, when I swap to Water for one moment, then attune to something else, it frustrates me that I cannot immediately return to water again, and my control of the situation simply begins to fail.

This is pretty much the whole reason why we Elementalists have cantrips. If you haven’t bought any with skillpoints yet, I’d highly recommend buying Armor of Earth, Lightning Flash, and Mist Form when you can. They give you amazing defensive abilities + stunbreak for those moments where you panic or your finger slips and you accidentally hit F2 instead of 2 or something of the sort.

I don’t think there’s an actual reason for this; more likely, this is a bug, and come this Friday, we’ll probably see both of em at either 3 seconds or 7.

An interesting proposition. However, as wonderful a fantasy as this is, it would be all but impossible to implement when the real problem is how events scale. I’ve read topics like this before, and the best that I’ve read suggested a different difficulty modifier than just the standard HP increase or extra reinforcements. Essentially, what I’ve seen work both in theory and in-game is event enemies gaining zerg-breaking abilities. Case in point, Risen Priest of Balthazar in Straits of Devastation or the Champion Karkas during the event. Now, sure, those events had some issues with them (Balthazar fearing into AoE, Karkas not showing up due to rendering issues), but painful AoEs would certainly get players more mobile and therefore more actively involved in combat than they are now. Going back to previous suggestions, I heard one that included, as scaling additions to a standard melee zerg by the enemy, ranged troops and later siege weaponry set up behind the melee forces. Easier to implement and (from what I can tell) also increasing PvE ‘difficulty’.

Hmm. Apparently the blast finishers have been brought back for earth-attune rolls, as suggested by numerous people here. Well done, fellow elementalists

Kymaera Stormweaver.1069:

What annoys me more than this change is how when I dodge, my character now dodges towards the enemy when I’m actually trying to dodge a different direction.

Do you use the specific ‘dodge’ key-binding? Directional dodges are a lot more reliable if you double-tap the appropriate WASD key or whatever else you primarily use to move.
Also, all of you who haven’t tried D/D yet, try it. It still has decent room for support functionality and does a considerable amount of damage.

Michael.3279:

My current build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWhImKbwR5gjDAEFvYyQRIbUeMzO2A;ToAgzCmoqxUjoGbNuak1M+4AC

I find the signet/cantrip traited builds to be underwhelming in practice.

I’ve got 30 in Arcane for the reduced attunement swap cooldown, boons when switching, and larger staff AOE… I still have EA for lack of anything better to choose.

20 in water and earth mostly for the healing/vitality/toughness.

Ran this build on Fractals level 1… 4-man. 2 of us were lvl 80, 1 was level 40, 1 was level 33. Had no problems.

Your link doesn’t work. Aside from that, I’m assuming you’re running a staff-based build? How’s the damage and survivability for that build for solo content (say, in Orr)?

EDIT: @Oranisagu: Define “blast finishers every few seconds”. Also, don’t be so fast to refer to the recent D/D changes as “buffs”, as Magnetic Grasp still bugs out and leaves you stuck. Not sure about Ride the Lightning, as I generally PvE and don’t encounter a whole lot of moving targets.

I don’t know about other people, but I’m personally rolling with a D/D setup similar to the one mentioned above and in other topics. Though not as good kitten D or Staff used to be, it’s still a feasible playstyle.

That’d be nice. Maybe set the limit a little higher than 5 to accomplish the “group of people banding together” feel, but other than that, yeah.
Also, in terms of the event rewards: 20-slot bags and exotics are all very well and good, but I’d personally prefer an armor skin themed to the event to display your participation to the world.

Gintoki.6405:

dont worry though, because next patch im sure they will give warriors a staff so yeah.. itll be fine..

And then my metamorphosis into the Warrior will be complete.

Already using a tribute Warrior alt by the strapping name of Elie von Roflstomps.

Book collecting, Skyrim style? Count me in.
It’d be a nice addition to the Priory, or failing that, the Home Instance.

Yep. I always think of stomps as finishers, just completely forgot about the whole “combo-field” mechanic for a second xD

And signet isn’t actually half-bad for a D/D ele in a combat situation; Ether requires a continuous channel, something difficult to pull off during combat, and Glyph has a relatively high recharge rate as well as requiring you to be in water to make the most of the 25sec cooldown. The scary thing is, I can actually imagine these things being possibly nerfed in a class that has very little viability remaining as it is.

Yes, please. Make the flames a dyable segment of the armor, and do the same to pieces of armor like the starting helmets, many of which can’t be recolored.

So, a heavy-armored Elementalist… I can imagine the facerolling now.

A well-thought-out post; though it’s unlikely to be implemented, it sounds pretty cool!

Muspilli.6273:

Eliminating the nerf of Support/DPS potential from the discussion/argument. This simple change has removed the enjoyment/FUN FACTOR from many builds.
This UNINTENDED mechanic allowed for one of the most immersive experiences I have ever had in any MMO to date.

It’s that simple, and Yes it could of been handled much much better.

I am one of the many considering D/D as illustrated by the view count of this post:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Tanky-DPS-Elementalist-Videos-11-14-12/page/6#post803151

It has risen from 10k to 50k over this week. We are still here! We enjoy this class immensly!

Please divulge your thoughts and desires of this change/fix ARENANET.

Having watched that video, I can imagine the next profession patch notes:

Elementalist

• Mist Form no longer allows the casting of finishers as intended
• Signet of Healing’s effectiveness has been reduced by 50% to scale with other healing skills
• Swiftness boons on the Elementalist have had their durations reduced by 33%

This is supposed to be a leap finisher? I’ve personally never seen this happen. Also, I still occasionally get stuck in place while casting Magnetic Grasp, just floating there in the Grasp animation until either something attacks me or the 2-second cast duration ends.

I’m going to start off by saying that I’m pretty new to these forums, and I don’t know a lot about how they work. This is where most of my suggestions stem from.

Regarding the ‘bubbles’ to the left of posts in the forum… could someone in ANet’s forum department put a description of the meaning of the ‘preview bubbles’ somewhere within the forums? I assume the red bubble with the ArenaNet logo on it means a dev response, but what does, say, the red ANet bubble with an arrow on it mean? Put it in the FAQ section, or better yet, put it into the icon’s tooltip!

Now, in terms of those threads that have received a dev response, I’d like to be able to easily find that response without having to search through dozens or even hundreds of pages, as they tend to be incredibly informative on the subject at hand. Perhaps you could make it so clicking the ‘response bubble’ gives you a list of permalinked dev responses to the topic, or you could even put it in the top “Add Reply / Subscribe” tabs inside of the topic. It would make finding and acknowledging ANet responses much easier.

TL;DR: please add info about the ‘response bubbles’ next to topic title to either the FAQ or the icon’s tooltip, allow easy linking to dev posts

EDIT: Just figured out that the white arrow denotes your own reply. I think it would still be beneficial to explain this to newcomers such as myself, however.

Judging by the lack of a response over the past 4 days, I’d say that’s a safe bet. Well, I guess it’s time to join the horde that is D/D eles. Though referring to us as a horde is admittedly laughable.

By the way, anyone who says that EA gives 4 spells, which makes it useful, I just tested out EA in Heart of the Mists as it is now. Here are the approximate stats on the dodge-spell effects:
Water: Heals for ~1k health
Earth: Cripples for ~1sec, 1-stack bleed for some period of time
Fire: Regular burning fire, same as you could get from any Fire Attunement ability that applies burning
Air: Blinds for 5 seconds

I don’t know about you, but I don’t see anything there that isn’t already covered by pretty much any combination of ele weapons. Not only that, but some of them, like the Earth one, seem to be even worse than anything that attunement can normally cast.

The effects of these ‘spells’ without blast finishers are not worth a GM slot. A dev answer as to what they’ll do with this trait would be nice, but seems unlikely given what I’ve seen so far.

AoE-heal / staff eles, you have my condolences. Might-stack eles, you can still scrape out something similar by going scepter/dagger (Earthquake, Churning Earth, Phoenix, Dragon’s Tooth whenever its blast finisher is actually added back in, Arcane Wave). I’m just thankful that I didn’t buy the order staff that I wanted before this patch.

The idea of creating a thief just keeps getting more and more appealing. Is it possible to spec into stealth to such a degree that you could theoretically get up to where the carts are before having to uncloak?

Is this normal? I figured that this might have been because of the influx of new players and the corresponding strain on the servers. (Which would, admittedly, be pretty cool)