Guild Wars 2

I’ve done quite a few solo tpvp queues, because I had no team to run with. I’ve won about 65% on the first round, about 40% on the 2nd round, and about 25% on the 3rd map with complete pugs and no communication whatsoever. They do need to implement a match making system along with other gamemodes (please implement rated team deathmatch/arenas ..1 v 1 2v2 3v3 4v4 5v5), but queuing solo in tpvp is not pointless right now.

You can’t expect to beat every team in a conquest gameplay with no communication/voice coms and with people you’ve never played with. That doesn’t mean it’s not fun to solo queue, though. It is very rare to get rofl stomped by an organized group when I run with a pug (about 4% or less of the time). When it happens, it is frustrating but I’m not mad because I know they have more practice and have communication whereas I do not. It does feel good when you beat a guild group with a complete pug, you have to admit.

People complain about anything. On another note… I haven’t lost a single 1 v 1 against a thief since the patch, and I’ve fought about 50 so far in tpvp and spvp. They seem to be going in the right direction with balancing thieves, despite bs still hitting too hard. I run dagger/dagger 10/0/0/30/30 cantrip build. Only class giving me trouble right now is extremely bursty shatter mesmers who take off half my hp with one root>>shatter.

I prefer the old method as well, but the new one isn’t game breaking. Making pure burst builds a little weaker isn’t a bad thing. Wish they would bring guardian bunkers down a bit more, though.

I’m not understanding all the “Rangers are bad” comments. I play every class except engineer with ele being main. My condition/trap build (that doesn’t use shortbow) is just as strong as before the patch. I almost never lose a 1 v 1 unless it’s against a very good bs thief, but even then my conditions annihilate them while I’m down. Bunker builds don’t stand a chance, especially after the patch: I stack conditions so fast.
I can however see that power builds and spirit builds are terribly weak after trying them out, but saying the ranger class as a whole is weak is not true. A well played condition ranger is a scary thing.

Start in air: 2 for dmg> use the floater ability (4)> Air cage to stun (5)> 3 to get close/confuse,
Switch to Earth: Sink ability while air cage is still up stunning them again> rock spray in the face> then root them with number 3> 5 for aoe blind
Switch to Water: number 3 and 3 again to blast them while sitting there> 2 then 2 when it reaches them > 4 for the regen (might need it by now)> 5 for the charge back in close and dmg,
Switch to Fire: Heat Wave 5 for the burning and vigor> Steam 3 for blind> Boil 2 for dmg> Lava chains 4 for cripple,

Then switch back to air and repeat with dodges thrown in willy nilly and cantrips for breaking control effects. I do all this, of course, AFTER i use Whirlpool boss mode. As you can tell, I don’t waste any abilities, every ability has a role and switching between attunements pushing only a couple of abilities per is wasting those other abilities (not to mention you get stuck by the attunement recharge rate doing that and end up auto attacking with crap abilities)

Whenever I get on, I’m always down to do tournaments. I play all classes except eng/mesmer. (Guard bunker, Ele roamer, thief conditions, necro conditions, ranger traps/conditions, War hammer) Let me know if you are interested.

I pretty much either start out in water or air for any fight. Here’s an example of a typical 1v1 fight: From air I do: rtl, number 2 spell that gives weakness, shocking aura at same time as rtl, updraft>>>Fire: burning speed, fire grab, fire out of mouth spew #2, fire aoe ring>>>Earth: earthquake blast finisher for lil bit of might, churning earth fake for more might, magnetic grasp to root, earth ring 2 >>>>Water: Aoe chill # 3 and aura of frostiness at same time for chill stack if they attack me, water breath attack for healing/dmg, aoe heal #5, then repeat in similar order depending on what I’m fighting at the time, throwing cantrips in willy nilly to do what I want. I also pop my elite if I see more than 1 person coming at me to help me 1 v 2 or just survive. Dodging is obvious shouldn’t have to mention when to do so. Apply liberally with vigor and changing attunements for the arcane tier 3 trait so you don’t waste your dodges. You might have to cycle through your attunements more than once to kill most people, but it shouldn’t take too long.
This all happens very fast mind you, no kitten footin around. If all of my spells are on cooldown, I will only auto attack with lightning’s auto attack, but only til something else is off cooldown. This doesn’t happen very often luckily, because I can always dodge things and attunement switch for better effect than auto attacking.
Armor of Earth and Mist form guarantee me a stomp as well and are extremely valuable in a 1 v 2 fight when you down a person and want a chance at that 1 v 2 victory.

Hey guys, how’s it going. Figured I’d leave the build I’ve been using lately to great success here for you guys. It has decent killing power and a lot of survivability.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEUQJAoYhImmbwR5gjDAkHn4CLhCEUeMDO2A;ToAA1Cqouxcj4G7Nubk3MEZCB

Some reasoning behind my choices:
10 in fire to get 10% more fire dmg plus the extra power/condition duration always helps.

30 in water for regen removing conditions, cantrips granting vigor and regen (running 3 cantrips), and reduced cantrip cooldown (even with the bugged mist form).

30 in arcane for the obvious elemental attunement since you should be cycling through your attunements whenever you can depending on the situation, arcane shield at 25% because I couldn’t find anything better, and finally evasive arcana which works really well with me having vigor up to dodge roll more/cleansing wave in water dodge/churning earth dodge all very good

My skill choices: 3 cantrips obviously for this build. since I went 30 in water and have pretty good condition removal already, I opted not to grab cleansing fire and instead grab lightning flash which gets me out of sticky situations or allows me to move faster or allows me to get off some clutch churning earths. Armor of Earth is just awesome for the stability and the stomp capabilities and the defense. Mist form because it’s just amazing invulnerability allowing me to heal up/escape/stomp people.

Heal: Glyph of Elemental Harmony, very good heal. I can heal in whatever attunement I need the buff from: Conditions overload? water heal for regen to remove them. Burst overload? Earth heal for protection. Need more dmg? Fire heal when lowish 2: fold purpose. Need to get somewhere fast and dont have rtl / swiftness from air attunement switch? Air heal for sprint. I don’t use signet because it’s more useful when running a signet aura type build that allows you to keep its passive effects on use. Ether Renewal takes too long and I already have the condition removal.

Elite: Glyph of Elementals. Use on water or air, maybe fire depending on what you need it for. The other ones are crap.

Amulet: Soldiers plain and simple is the best amulet for my playstyle. Die much too fast with beserkers and have far too little health with clerics. I like the power for burst dmg, tougness to survive burst, and vitality for condition builds/burst dmg. Balanced approach.
Jewel: Rampagers. Why? It gives me a little big more crit and condition dmg from my bleeds/burns that I don’t have too much of. It helps round out my build a bit instead of being all power/vit/toughness.

Sigils: Bloodlust for power stacking 5 stack on kill, which adds up fast for that extra dmg you want. Battle for might stacking a little bit ever 8 or so seconds, again giving you some dmg.

Runes: These are more personal preference but Dwayna, Flock, Forge, Grove, Water, Earth, Flame Legion, Hoelbrak, Strength, Elementalist, and Fighter are all very good choices. Choose whichever one helps you the most.

Let me know if I forgot anything or you have any questions. If I had recording capabilities (old laptop), I’d show you how this build works along with how it should be played but I don’t have that right now, sorry.

I play ele as my main, but I also play every other class in tourneys/spvp and I can honestly say that ele is the weakest of them all. Ive been 3 shot (literally took 1 sec to do) by backstab thieves when i had 2200 toughness 18k life s/d or d/d spec in tourneys. This should not happen, period.
I decided to try out a full glass cannon build with 30 air, 30 fire, 10 arcane, with might stacking and divinity runes/ sigil of air+ sigil of battle/ beserkers amulet and arcane blast/the other arcane one that shoots missile . The damage was PATHETIC compared to every other class that ive tried a burst build out on. I think I hit a 9k one time with churning earth and the rest of the time I was getting 2-4k crits maybe a 5k crit fire grab?…. in spvp. The damage to survivability ratio just isnt there.
I refuse to run the tank staff build despite how strong it is at staying on a point (doesnt do anything else tho). I’m not saying glass cannon should be only way to go, I just wish running a balanced spec of 2k power 20k health 1650 toughness 12% crit would net the same results as some of my other classes.
The last comment I’d like to make is that it’s nearly impossible to run a successful condition build on an ele. The only viable one would be a burning and burst type build but that’s not really condition focused. WTB amulet with toughness/vita/condition dmg. (even if it does make other classes condy specs OP :P) Right now if u try to run one with an amulet you will either be around 13k life (making condition builds crap on u even with 30 in water) or 1k toughness (making burst builds crap on u). Other classes aren’t punished nearly this harshly.

“Clearly. And elementalists, they suck because they just arent intimidating enough. All those water spells give the enemy a clear, calm mind. Thus elems are much easier to beat.
Necro and Elem intimidation needs to be brought up to par. Fire elemental needs to be a dragon. Necro wells should have dead babies crawling out of them. Now we have balance.”

lmao. Obviously all eles need to learn how to play and all mesmers are just amazing. Nothing at all to do with balance >.>

Amazing post. I play elementalist as my main and necro, warrior, ranger, guardian as my alts, and I see the problem very clearly (spvp/tourny POV). I run dagger/dagger usually 1600 toughness 20k life 2100 power, mist form, armor of earth, elemental elite, 30 points in water for condition removal, and I still feel weaker than any other class I play on. Trying to run a condition build on an ele? Forget about it. I might switch to dagger/focus and get beserkers amulet and see how that works out.

I use one handed sword right now on my ranger with horn off hand and shortbow on switch and it’s pretty amazing. Not sure what you would add to it that wouldn’t make it OP.

I use the dagger over focus myself for exactly the reasons Diogo posted. The fire focus skills are really not good.

Agreed. Fix this please.

I thought I was the only one having these issues. Very good list. I think they need to buff the conjured weapons before worrying about random people picking them up. As of now they are pretty bad. The ride the lightning bug is the most annoying of them all, especially when I use it as a gap closer and it roots me on the ground 5 yards away.

I’m having some issues with ride the lightning elementalist 4 dagger off hand ability. When I use it in SPVP/tournaments, I keep getting stuck on the ground or something and can never quite reach my target. They aren’t using immobilizes/slows either, I just can’t seem to get the full ride off. Anyone else having this issue?