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[Guide] DPS Elementalist for PvE

in Elementalist

Posted by: DEKeyzToChaos.7381

DEKeyzToChaos.7381

Changelog
19-Jun-14: Started small revisions, Staff finished
11-Sep-14: Revisions for Sept 9 patch
28-Jan-15: Revisions for Jan 27 patch
5-Aug-15: Updated for June 23 patch
14-Dec-15: Updating for Heart of Thorns

Introduction
This is an overview of the builds I commonly use in PvE. I have used all the weapon sets and think Staff and Warhorn Fresh Air builds are the strongest DPS, and Dagger/Focus is a great balance between damage and utility. I recommend that an Ele swaps traits and weapons to best fit the situation and party. If you have any questions about this guide or Ele’s in PvE, I respond fastest to mail and messages on Reddit (/u/DEKeyz) or contact in-game.

I also have a collection of video build guides.
Playlist of all build videos

Some things I’ve done on my Ele:
Make BIG NUMBERS like a 49k Firegrab
Solo Giganticus Lupicus
17s all Ele Lupi kill using FGS
Clear TA Forward in 7:12 with Staff Ele perspective

Contents

Acronyms

  • AoE: Area of Effect
  • ArBl: Arcane Blast (skill)
  • ArBr: Arcane Brilliance (skill)
  • ArL: Arcane Lightning (trait)
  • ArS: Arcane Shield (skill)
  • ArW: Arcane Wave (skill)
  • D/D: Dagger/Dagger
  • D/F: Dagger/Focus
  • D/W: Dagger/Warhorn
  • DPS: Damage per Second
  • DT: Dragon’s Tooth (skill)
  • Ele: Elementalist
  • EP: Effective Power
  • FB: Frost Bow (conjure)
  • FtB: Feel the Burn (shout)
  • FGS: Fiery Exploit Sword (conjure)
  • GoEP: Glyph of Elemental Power (skill)
  • GoE: Glyph of Elementals (skill)
  • GoS: Glyph of Storms (skill)
  • LH: Lightning Hammer (conjure)
  • LW: Lightning Whip (skill)
  • LoS: Line of Sight
  • OL: Overload (tempest skill type)
  • RtL: Ride the Lightning (skill)
  • S/D: Scepter/Dagger
  • S/F: Scepter/Focus
  • SoF: Signet of Fire (skill)
  • SoR: Signet of Restoration (skill)
  • Zerk: Berserker’s (gear prefix)

(edited by DEKeyzToChaos.7381)

Announcing Fall 2014 Dungeon Speed Clear Open

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: DEKeyzToChaos.7381

DEKeyzToChaos.7381


[DnT] and Gwscr.com Present:
Dungeon Speed Clear Open Fall 2014

Current tournament bracket
Official artwork Imgur gallery by Brazil

The Teams

Teams will register with five members and up to three alternates. Prior to, or during, the tournament, an alternate may take the place of any player who is unavailable however the replaced player may not rejoin the team later. Prize support for the teams will be distributed assuming five players.

Registration

The tournament will have open registration for interested teams. Guilds may fill multiple teams if they have sufficient members; however the additional teams must use a different designation. Only one team per guild will be able to utilize the GWSCR ranking of the guild for seeding, as described below. Register in the official registration thread at the DnT website.

Initial seeding, as well as any necessary byes, will be based on the gwscr.com guild leaderboard. Cut off for the seeding will be the close of registration, any change in the leaderboard after registration occurs will not alter the seeding or bye distribution.

The Format

The teams will be paired up prior to each round for a best of three dungeon path speed run contest. The three paths for the round will be selected at random from the pool of eligible dungeon paths. No team will be required to run a specific path two rounds in a row.

The teams will begin their run at a synchronized time using time.gov. The team which finishes the path with the lowest time will be the winner of that path. The first team to win two paths advances to the next round.

The runs will be broadcast live on Twitch.tv. At least one member of each team must be able to stream in order for a team to participate.

The dungeon runs will be regulated and timed according to the Guild Wars Speed Clear Records www.gwscr.com restricted rule set.

If a team causes – intentionally or otherwise – a scripted event to bug a dungeon and prevent further progress or to unfairly advance progress, that team will be disqualified and their opponents will get a win for that path. In order to prevent excessive “unintentional” script bugs from occurring, the following paths are banned: Ascalonian Catacombs Path 2, Sorrow’s Embrace Path 2. Additionally, Arah Story is banned due to its length. Other paths which have script bugs have known workarounds to avoid the bug.

Final judgement for any disputed results or questions will rest with Guild Wars Speed Clear Record staff.

The tournament will be a two day event with the preliminary rounds held Saturday, September 27 and the conclusion held Sunday, September 28.

Questions or Help

Should you have any questions regarding any aspect of the tournament, please post them in the official tournament thread on the Death and Taxes forum.

If you would like to donate prize support (gems, gold, gemstore items) please contact the event host in game @ (nike porphyrogenita.8137) or via the DnT forums.

(edited by DEKeyzToChaos.7381)

[Guide] DPS Elementalist for PvE

in Elementalist

Posted by: DEKeyzToChaos.7381

DEKeyzToChaos.7381

Dagger/Focus
Dagger/Focus is a self-sufficient weapon set excellent for difficult situations such as high level fractals. It has a mix of offensive skills from dagger and defensive and control skills from focus. Note that Fresh Air builds such as this do not do well in situations in which you can’t crit such as against structures.

Tactical Weapon Skills

  • Burning Speed (Fire 3) is an evade and places down a 4 sec rectangular fire field that deals damage and burning every second and ends with a damaging burst. If not at a wall, start at 300 range away from the enemy and use this skill through the enemy to inflict damage from the field and burst.
  • Flamewall (Fire 4) is a 8 sec rectangular fire field that deals damage and burning each second.
  • Icy Burst (Water 3) damages and chills nearby enemies and is a self-centered blast finisher.
  • Comet (Water 5) dazes an enemy and is a target-centered blast finisher. To aim without a target, look down, move forward, stop, and cast. The comet will land 300 units away in the direction you are facing.
  • Lightning Whip (Air 1) is the primary source of sustained damage in MH dagger builds.
  • Swirling Winds (Air 4) blocks projectiles for 6 sec.
  • Gale (Air 5) knocks down an enemy but deals no damage and does not break stealth.
  • Magnetic Wave (Earth 4) damages nearby foes, cures 3 conditions, reflect projectiles for 3 sec, and is a self-centered blast finisher.
  • Obsidian Flesh (Earth 5) grants invulnerability for 5 sec.

DPS Tempest Build
Fire (Up, Up, Up); Air (Bot, Mid, Mid); Tempest (Top/Bot, Bot, Bot)
For challenging content, swap Harmonious Conduit for Invigorating Torrents

DPS Non-Tempest Build
Fire (Up, Up, Up); Air (Bot, Mid, Mid); Water (Mid, Bot, Mid)

Non-Tempest Build for challenging content
Fire (Up, Up, Up); Air (Bot, Mid, Mid); Arcana (Mid, Bot, Bot)

Tempest build + Scholar’s Runes: 17000 DPS with Truffle Steak
Non-Tempest build + Scholar’s Runes: 13800-13950 DPS with Truffle Steak
Non-Tempest build + Strength Runes: 13000-13150 DPS with Truffle Steak

Tempest builds maintain a very high level of vulnerabilty on Unshakeable enemies and have the potential to stack might and fury with variations on their base DPS rotation.

Non-tempest builds average 5-7 vulnerability on Unshakeable enemies and 9-10 might (Scholar’s) or 13-15 might (Strength). With Golden Dumplings and a Strength sigil, both rotations will sustain 20+ might with Scholar’s Runes.

This self-sufficient build combines the synergy of a high fire field uptime with blast finishers for 100% fury uptime and decent might. Rotations jump in and out of air attunement, which is refreshed because of Fresh Air, to activate Electric Discharge for additional DPS.

(edited by DEKeyzToChaos.7381)

[Guide] DPS Elementalist for PvE

in Elementalist

Posted by: DEKeyzToChaos.7381

DEKeyzToChaos.7381

Rotations
When swapping to air from other attunements, change attunements during the channel of the preceding spell so that non-air spells to benefit from the 190 precision from Aeromancer’s Training. When in combat, have your target selected to benefit from Electric Discharge, which these rotations try to proc as frequently as possible. If you don’t have a target, Electric Discharge does not activate.

Rotation for Fire/Air/Tempest

OL Air – Fire – Burning Speed (or Flamewall for a longer fire field) – Earth/Water blasts if needed – Air – Lightning Whip – repeat

Rotation for Fire/Air/Water

Fire – Flamewall – Burning Speed – Air (after BS completes) – ArW if applicable – LW x3 – Water – Comet – Frozen Burst – Air (before FB completes) – LW x3 – Earth – Ring of Earth or ArBr – Mag Wave – Air – Auto x4

Fire – Flamewall – Burning Speed – Air (after BS completes) – ArW if applicable – LW x3 – Water – Frozen Burst – Air (before FB completes) – LW x3 – Earth – Ring of Earth or ArBr – Air – Auto x5

This rotation will average 9 might, 100% fury uptime, 5-7 vuln, and almost 100% burning uptime.

Rotation for Fire/Air/Arcana

Fire – Flamewall – BS – Air (after BS completes) – ArW – LW x3 – Earth – Ring of Earth or ArBr – Magnetic Wave – Air – LW x9 – Fire – Flamewall – BS – Air – LW x3 – Water – Comet – Frozen Burst – Air – LW x8

This rotation will average 10 might, 6-7 vuln, and 100% fury and burning uptime. Flamewall’s long-lasting fire field is useful when others have a lot of blasts to contribute or when you are frequently interrupting your rotation. Swap to fire about five seconds after Fire is off CD.

If using GoS, use GoS in your first set of LW.

(edited by DEKeyzToChaos.7381)

[Guide] DPS Elementalist for PvE

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Posted by: DEKeyzToChaos.7381

DEKeyzToChaos.7381

Staff
A fire staff build is powerful when others provide might, vulnerability, and fury. This build supplies an average of 4 might stacks and 70% fury uptime plus 100% fire field uptime through synergy between Pyromancer’s Training and Persisting Flames.

Tactical Weapon Skills

  • Lava Font (Fire 2) produces a 4 sec circular fire field
  • Burning Retreat (Fire 4) is an evade and produces a 6 sec rectangular fire field that may be stacked under a target if used into a wall or corner
  • Healing Rain (Water 5) is a large water field and cures conditions
  • Windborne Speed (Air 4) gives swiftness to nearby allies.
  • Static Field (Air 5) stuns foes with each pulse and is a lightning field
  • Eruption (Earth 2) is a blast finisher
  • Magnetic Aura (Earth 3) reflects projectiles and can be aurashared
  • Unsteady Ground (Earth 4) and Shockwave (Earth 5) can prevent enemies from moving out of a Lava Font

DPS Tempest Build
>20000DPS, trace might and vuln.

DPS Non-Tempest Build
17000 DPS, trace might

Arcane Non-Tempest Build
Sacrifices about 10% in Frostbowing modifiers for more survivability from Renewing Stamina and Final Shielding

(edited by DEKeyzToChaos.7381)

[Guide] DPS Elementalist for PvE

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Posted by: DEKeyzToChaos.7381

DEKeyzToChaos.7381

Base Tempest Staff Rotation, no Frost Bow
Glyph of Storms (Air) – Overload Air – Fire Attunement– Lava Font – Meteor Shower – Lava Font – Overload Fire – Lava Font – Fireball x3 – Lava Font – Fireball x3 – Lava Font – Fireball x3 – Lava Font

Then repeat:
Meteor Shower – Air Attunement – Chain Lightning x2ish – Overload Air – Fire Attunement – Lava Font – Fireball x3 – Lava Font – Overload Fire – Lava Font – Fireball x3 – Lava Font – Fireball x3 – Lava Font -

Staff Tempest Rotation with Frost Bow
Glyph of Storms (Air) – Overload Air – _Fire Attunement– Lava Font – Meteor Shower – Lava Font – Overload Fire – Lava Font – Fireball x3 – Lava Font – Fireball x3 – Lava Font – Air Attunement – Conjure Frost Bow – Ice Storm – Frost Fan – Frost Volley (50%ish) or Glyph of Storms – Overload Air- repeat italicized skills

Base Staff non-Tempest Rotation
Eruption – Air – Glyph of Storms – Fire – Lava Font – Meteor Shower – Lava Font – Fireball x3 – Lava Font – Fireball x3 – Lava Font – Fireball x3 – Lava Font – Fireball x4 – repeat from 1st Lava Font

Staff non-Tempest with Frostbow
Eruption – Fire – Lava Font – Meteor Shower – Lava Font – Air – Glyph of Storms – Water – Conjure FB – (Deep Freeze) – Ice Storm – Frost Fan – (Frost Volley or Ice Spike if Fire is not up) – Fire – Lava Font – Fireball x3 – Lava Font -Fireball x3 – Flame Burst – start rotation 1 from first Lava Font

If you need a Deep Freeze to open: Glyph of Storms (Air ) – Conjure Frost Bow – Deep Freeze – Ice Storm – Frost Fan – start rotation 1 from first Lava Font

(edited by DEKeyzToChaos.7381)

Developer livestream: Ranger PvE guide

in Ranger

Posted by: DEKeyzToChaos.7381

DEKeyzToChaos.7381

Looking forward to seeing the devs’ take on rangers in PvE. Based on [DnT]‘s experimentation, we have come up with a melee sword-based build:
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/84268-the-perfect-dps-ranger-guide-for-real/ (not to be confused with Eugene’s Ranger Build)

Examples of PvE ranger play:
5 ranger Lupi speedkill (41 seconds): http://youtu.be/UikyW7ITpmQ
5 rangers vs Simin: http://youtu.be/EPRFNsBqac8
Ranger POV in 5:27 CoF P1 speedrun: http://youtu.be/PWQ-39_C8LI

(edited by DEKeyzToChaos.7381)

[Guide] DPS Elementalist for PvE

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Posted by: DEKeyzToChaos.7381

DEKeyzToChaos.7381

Profession Overview
The Elementalist is a light armor profession with low HP. Its unique mechanic is the four elemental attunements that each provide a set of weapon skills instead of having two weapon swaps. This gives an Ele 20 weapon skills instead of 10.

An Ele can equip six weapons, including one aquatic:

  • Dagger: Main hand and offhand. High burst and mobility when using dual daggers, good might stacking and sustain when using dagger/focus. Main hand dagger provides a fire field, one blast finisher, and one aura. Offhand dagger provides a fire field, two blast finishers, a leap finisher, and an aura.
  • Focus: Offhand only. Good support, defense, and single-target control. Focus provides a fire field, two blast finishers, and one aura.
  • Scepter: Main hand only. Weak auto attacks, good burst and might stacking when paired with dagger, good might stacking when paired with focus. Scepter provides access to two blast finishers.
  • Staff: Two-handed. Low DPS except for fire. Good in WvW for fields and AoEs, and useful when running through trash mobs. Staff provides fire, water, ice, and lightning fields, one blast finisher, and one aura.
  • Trident: Two-handed. Trident provides fire, lightning, and smoke fields, one blast finisher, and one leap finisher.
  • Warhorn: Offhand only. Tempest only. A unique mix of offensive support and damage. Access to a fire field, a might/fury copy skill, water field, two hard CC’s, one blast finisher, and an AoE blind.

This yields six weapon sets that are generally useful in PvE:

  • D/F has good DPS and many survival skills and is very strong in difficult content, enabling an Ele to stack some might, have decent sustained DPS, and access survivability skills.
  • D/W has great DPS that makes it a worthwhile consideration over D/F. With overloads, its damage is comparable to staff, and it can help buff a party with fire fields + blasts and boonsharing as well as defend it with CC, immobilization, and blinds.
  • Staff is also top in DPS and is stronger than all other Ele weapon sets on targets with large hitboxes such as Gorseval or Lupicus.
  • S/W is a viable variant on D/W, bringing more blasts at the expense of lower cleave damage.
  • D/D has burst combos that make it devastating against targets with low HP, but doesn’t have blast finisher availability to keep up with D/F in utility while being comparable in sustained DPS.
  • Trident an Ele’s only underwater option and should be played like D/F or D/D except DPS in Fire, swapping attunements as necessary and using blasts as they come off cooldown.

Since an Ele will die in a few hits, it is important to understand game mechanics, know enemies’ attacks, dodge, and be aware of your positioning. PvE enemies can be LoS’ed for ideal positioning, but your group needs high DPS for you to survive stacking. Having a Guardian who knows when to use Aegis or a Mesmer with group distortion also helps. When fighting, use dodges and evades to mitigate attacks, and once a mob is positioned, remember to use your 300+ range attacks to your advantage. If you are having trouble surviving with a full DPS build, do not hesitate to swap in some Marauder’s gear or grab a utility or two for your survival – the best way to learn a fight is to succeed with a more defensive build.

Unlike PvP, PvE enemies usually have slow attacks, enabling an Ele to focus on maintaining a good rotation. When practicing a rotation, I start at the Indestructible Golems in the Heart of the Mists (DPS Trials Waypoint), then giants and ettins in open world PvE, then finally dungeons.

(edited by DEKeyzToChaos.7381)

[Guide] DPS Elementalist for PvE

in Elementalist

Posted by: DEKeyzToChaos.7381

DEKeyzToChaos.7381

Ele’s have a variety of combo finishers (mostly blasts) they can use in their and others’ fields to provide a variety of effects to those standing within 360 range of the blast. These effects include boons to the party and conditions enemies. By blasting in a fire field, for example, an Ele can provide might. Because of this self synergy it is preferable to be near an enemy – even when using staff – so that an Ele can quickly reach her or her fields to apply blasts and benefit from the effects. Note that if two fields are placed on top of each other, the first field placed will react with finishers, so if a guardian partymate wants to use a symbol for DPS, ask him or her to wait until a fire field is down.

Weapons, Armor, Trinkets and Consumables
Weapons
Use Berserker weapons of the best rarity that you can afford.
Daytime sigils: Use Force/Air for general group activities, Slaying/Air for single targets and Slaying/Force for groups if available.
Nighttime sigils: Use Night/Force for general group activities and Night/Slaying if available.
Other useful sigils: Sigil of Strength is strong in solo situations, and Sigil of Energy is useful for difficult content.
Budget alternatives: Sigil of Hydromancy, Fire, and Leeching are useful budget alternatives. Sigil of Accuracy usually causes an Ele to run into crit chance cap but is also acceptable in suboptimal situations.

Armor
Exotic: Full Zerk. Assassin’s armor is okay but often less economically feasible. While learning to play, use some defensive armor such as (in order of lowest DPS loss) Marauder, Valkyrie, Knight, or Cavalier, swapping out to Zerk/Assassin shoulders, gloves, boots, chest, pants, and helm, in that order, as you become more comfortable with content. Try to keep your gear one step out of your comfort zone.
Ascended: Both Berserker and Assassin armor are strong. Predominantly Berserker gear is stronger when using a Fresh Air build, while Assassin’s Armor is stronger with fire-centric Staff builds. Suboptimal balances of Berserker/Assassin are typically <1% DPS difference.

Trinkets and Infusions
At the ascended level, use Assassin accessories and otherwise Berserker trinkets. When prioritizing gear upgrades, improving the rarity of your trinkets will result in some of the highest DPS/survivability increases. Prioritize offensive infusion slots if you plan on eventually using Precise or Mighty Infusions. Mighty Infusions are in general a safer choice in order to avoid 100% crit chance cap, though having 2-4 precise infusions is easy to work with.

Runes

  • Runes of the Scholar are the highest DPS option.
  • Runes of Strength are 7% less DPS but enable better Might stacking. They are most beneficial in S+LH rotations and D/F soloing.
  • Runes of the Flame Legion are an economic option that could be higher DPS if one can’t maintain a 50% uptime of a Scholar’s bonus.
  • Runes of the Ranger are strong with Staff and D/F if using both Elementals for high companion uptime.
  • Runes of Rage, Runes of the Ogre, and Runes of the Eagle are third-tier options if Flame Legion ever gets too expensive.

Food

  • Bowl of Seaweed Salad for Fresh Air rotations
  • Plate of Orrian Truffle Steak for Staff rotations
  • Experimental Remnant or Bowl of Asparagus and Sage Salad as an economic alternative to seaweed salad
  • Slice of Candied Dragon Roll, Omnomberry Ghost: Lifesteal food for difficult content
  • Dragon’s Breath Bun: Optimal when clearing small groups of enemies such as in open world or some dungeons if salads aren’t an option
  • Minotaur Steak: Precision/ferocity food for everyday
  • Plate of Steak and Asparagus: Power/precision food for everyday
  • Birthday Blaster: All stat food (better than Minotaur Steak) with +%karma for open world

Utility Consumables

  • Slaying Potions: Use in situations with many enemies of the same type.
  • Skale Venom: Useful in high level fractals. Attacks that affect foes as well as you or your allies (Phoenix, Vapor Blade, Water Blast) may apply the effect to you or your party.
  • Toxic Sharpening Stone: Use with staff or offensive Fresh Air builds if not using slaying potions or Scale Venom.
  • Bountiful Sharpening Stone: Use with aurashare builds if not using slaying potions or Skale Venom.
  • Bountiful Maintenance Oil: Use with staff or D/F if not using slaying pots AND not using Signet of Fire.

When with a Ranger with Spotter
If not using a salad, use Sweet and Spicy soup instead of Truffle Steak. Utility consumables unchanged. Alternatively, swap out 150 precision worth of gear or use another utility instead of Signet of Fire.

Other Useful Items

  • Fire Elemental Powders from Jhales Coalgrip in Fireheart Rise for fire fields or additional DPS in tough situations. They have a 30 minute cooldown.
  • Harpy Feathers (6 sec CD) from Forager Hitkiti in Harathi Hinterlands, Ash Legion Spy Kits (60 sec CD) from Kyra Sharptracker in Plains of Ashford, and other stealth consumables for deaggroing at the end of a trash run or communing with a skill point.

(edited by DEKeyzToChaos.7381)

[Guide] DPS Elementalist for PvE

in Elementalist

Posted by: DEKeyzToChaos.7381

DEKeyzToChaos.7381

Scepter and Hammer
Builds that combine Scepter and LH are strong because of their solid damage and high group buffing potential with their own fire fields and blast finishers. S/D+LH rotations provide 12-18 might, S/F+LH provides 21-24, and both can maintain fury if traited. Scepter/Hammer builds are relevant only when Tempest is unavailable.

Tactical Weapon Skills

  • Dragon’s Tooth (Fire 2) is a target-centered blast finisher, damages, and burns. To aim an untargeted Dragon’s Tooth, look up, walk forward, stop, and cast. It will appear 300 units away in the direction you are facing.
  • Phoenix (Fire 3) is a ground-targeted blast finisher. To hit an enemy with both paths and the blast, aim it behind or inside the back half of the enemy.
  • Ring of Fire (Dagger Fire 4) is a 6 sec self-centered circular fire field that deals damage when cast and burns foes that cross the fire ring.
  • Flamewall (Focus Fire 4) is a 8 sec rectangular fire field that deals damage and burning each second.
  • Fire Grab (Dagger Fire 5) deals massive damage to burning enemies. Use at 300 range to hit your target.
  • Ice Shards (Water 1) is the auto attack used if LH and FGS aren’t up when using a build with Piercing Shards. Use Shatterstone (Water 2) off cooldown if the enemy is relatively stationary.
  • Cleansing Wave (Dagger Water 5) heals and cures a condition on nearby allies.
  • Comet (Focus Water 5) dazes an enemy and is a target-centered blast finisher. To aim without a target, look down, move forward, stop, and cast. The comet will land 300 units away in the direction you are facing.
  • Arc Lightning (Air 1) is the auto attack used if LH and FGS aren’t up when using a build without Piercing Shards. Spam Lightning Strike (Air 2) with it.
  • Blinding Flash (Air 3) is a single-target blind
  • Updraft (Dagger Air 5) is a medium-distance launch that deals no damage.
  • Swirling Winds (Focus Air 4) blocks projectiles for 6 sec.
  • Gale (Focus Air 5) knocks down an enemy but deals no damage and does not put you in combat or break stealth.
  • Dust Devil (Earth 3) blinds foes along its path
  • Earthquake (Dagger Earth 4) is an AoE knockdown and self-centered blast finisher
  • Churning Earth (Dagger Earth 5) is a self-centered blast finisher but DPS loss in LH rotations.
  • Magnetic Wave (Focus Earth 4) damages nearby foes, cures 3 conditions, reflect projectiles for 3 sec, and is a self-centered blast finisher.
  • Obsidian Flesh (Focus Earth 5) grants invulnerability for 5 sec.

(edited by DEKeyzToChaos.7381)

[Guide] DPS Elementalist for PvE

in Elementalist

Posted by: DEKeyzToChaos.7381

DEKeyzToChaos.7381

Scepter Dagger LH Build
Fire (Top, Top, Top); Air (Bot, Bot,Top); Water (Mid, Bot, Top)
14500 DPS, 12-15 might per hammer with scholar runes. Use for fights under 45 sec.

Scepter Focus LH Build
Fire (Top, Top, Top); Air (Bot, Bot,Top); Water (Mid, Bot, Top)
14000 DPS, 18 might per hammer with scholar runes. Use for long fights.

Since PS Warriors are very common, it is unlikely that an ele should need to run these builds.

S/D Non-Conjurer Rotation
Hammer 1: Lightning Strike – Ride the Lightning – Glyph of Storms (Air) – Fire – Dragon’s Tooth – Ring of Fire – Arcane Brilliance – Phoenix – Fire Grab – Water – Conjure LH – LH auto chain x4 – Air – LH auto chain x1 – Drop Conjure – Lightning Strike – Ride the Lightning – Fire

Hammer 2: Dragon’s Tooth – Ring of Fire – Phoenix – Pick up Conjure – Water – LH auto chain x1 – Arcane Brilliance – LH auto chain x4 – Air – Drop Conjure – Lightning Strike – Ride the Lightning – Fire – Dragon’s Tooth – Ring of Fire – Phoenix – Fire Grab

S/F Conjurer Rotation
Hammer 1: Dragon’s Tooth – Flamewall – Phoenix – Air – Glyph of Storms (Air) – Lightning Strike – Earth – Magnetic Wave – Arcane Brilliance – Water – Comet – Conjure LH – LH auto chain x6 – Fire – LH auto x2 – Drop Conjure

Hammer 2: Dragon’s Tooth – Flamewall – Phoenix – Earth – Magnetic Wave – Arcane Brilliance – Pick up LH – Water – LH auto chain x6 – Fire – LH auto chain x2 – Drop Conjure

(edited by DEKeyzToChaos.7381)

[Guide] DPS Elementalist for PvE

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Posted by: DEKeyzToChaos.7381

DEKeyzToChaos.7381

Slot Skills
While many slot skills have niche uses, I will cover the ones I frequently use.
Healing Skills

  • Arcane Brilliance: Moderate, quick heal and self-centered . It is a DPS loss in most rotations but can help stack might.
  • Wash the Pain Away: Reliable group heal.
  • Ether Renewal: Big, slow heal. Useful for clearing conditions when you won’t be interrupted

Utility Skills
Arcane: Because arcane skills hit for critical damage, they will proc Fresh Air.

  • Arcane Wave: Ground-targeted blast finisher on a 30 sec CD
  • Arcane Shield: Blocks 3 attacks over the next 5 sec and is a stun breaker. Useful to avoid a hit without interrupting a key skill
  • Arcane Blast: A 1500 range projectile finisher. Useful for long range pulls.

Cantrips: Useful defensive skills that can help you in a tough spot or trash run

  • Armor of Earth: Only utility source of stability, though Mist Form can also be used
  • Cleansing Flame: Fast condition removal
  • Lightning Flash: Medium range teleport. Use while channeling Meteor Shower to move to a safer position or Churning Earth to move next to the enemy before the burst.
  • Mist Form: 3 sec invulnerability. Useful for reviving allies or if you run out of dodges. It will make you lose any held conjures.

Glyphs

  • Glyph of Elemental Power: Adds a chance for skills to inflict a condition on enemies based on your attunement at the start of GoEP’s cast. Cast in Earth for cripple, Air for weakness, Water for chill, or Fire for burning. It is a stunbreak.
  • Glyph of Lesser Elementals: Summons an elemental, dependent upon attunement at the end of cast. Useful in open world PvE for something else to take aggro
  • Glyph of Storms: Creates a storm based on attunement at the start of the cast. Cast in Earth for a 10 sec AoE blind or in Air for the most hits plus an easy 15 vuln on a boss for about 10 sec.

Signets

  • Signet of Fire: Adds 180 precision at level 80, applies burning when activated
  • Signet of Earth: 3 second immobilize when activated, adds 180 toughness at level 80
  • Signet of Air: 25% speed boost, blinds when activated

Shouts (Tempest only)
* Feel the Burn: Roughly the same DPS contribution as Arcane Wave and works well with shout/aura traits.

  • Aftershock: Provides a group magnetic aura for projectile reflects

Conjures
A conjure replaces your weapon skills. You may use the skills 15 times (25 with Conjurer) over 60 sec. You also create an environmental copy of the weapon that persists for 60 sec. Once picked up, charges last for 60 sec.

Frost Bow: FB5 will take out roughly 1/2 a breakbar in dungeons and fractals. FB4 is useful against targets with very large hitboxes like Lupicus or Gorseval, and FB3 is always great to pair with other skills.

Lightning Hammer: The auto attack chain has a high damage coefficient, and AoE blinds and is a blast finisher on the third hit. LH 3 launches, LH 4 is an AoE that does damage on par with GoS, and LH 5 creates a Static Field which stuns enemies. If fighting a large foe or a group of foes, are not solely responsible for stacking might, and have the Conjurer trait, you may use your last charge for LH 4.

Elites
Fiery Greatsword: High DPS conjure also useful for running. Turn off Auto-Targeting in game options. If auto attack is left on, it can be interrupted by other skills but waste charges. If you press 1 to attack, the skill cannot be interrupted by other weapon skills but can be interrupted by pressing the Esc key or dodging. FGS 2 applies burning.

A full FGS rotation against a very large target (such as Lupi) is: FGS 4 – 3 – 5 – 1 – 3 – 4 – 1 – 3 – 1 – 5 – 4 – 3

You may cut this rotation off after the second fiery rush because the DPS drops off.

Glyph of Elementals: When it is unsafe to FGS, an elemental is a useful boost to DPS or can draw aggro so that you can safely DPS. Elementals are immune to Agony. The summon is determined by your attunement at the end of the cast. Elemental activated skill CDs are affected by alacrity.

  • Fire: Best DPS against groups of enemies
  • Water: Low DPS, has an AoE heal.
  • Air: Best DPS against single targets, attacks at range, and applies swiftness
  • Earth: Low DPS, great at holding aggro

Tornado: An Ele’s only aquatic elite. Can be used for stability or throwing around enemies.

(edited by DEKeyzToChaos.7381)

[Guide] DPS Elementalist for PvE

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Dungeon Tips and Tricks
This section is still under construction but will contain notes about what utility skills I use in particular situations as well as where I stand to avoid some damage.

Building Stacks
With the many changes to stacking sigils and organized group dungeon running strategies, most groups do not use stacking sigils. If you choose to use a stacking sigil, in most dungeons it is possible to build 15 stacks.

  • AC: Spiders that trigger the Spider Queen
  • TA: Nightmare vines and spiders or archers in the old paths, spiders and other mobs in the first room of the new path
  • SE: P1 has Inquest along the way to Nokk (but not recommended). P2 has Dredge with the first few champs. P3 has Dredge along the way to and following Volkov
  • CoF: P1 doesn’t have much stacking material. P2 has devourers, and P3 has the mobs around the torches and first boss as well as waves of enemies.
  • CoE: Icebrood up to and including the first champ plus the 4 golems. In P2 and P3, stack on the exploding golems and risen after the ele-loving Mark T-B34RC3 if you lose your stacks.
  • HotW P1: First room of enemies or enemies preceeding Aldus
  • Arah: Infinitely spawning Risen plus spiders. If you lose your stacks, there are some paths with places to refill. In P1, there are the Champ Corrupted Illusions. In P1 and P2, there is the group of risen just before Lupi. In P4, there is a group of weak risen followed by a group of spiders following the Priest of Melandru and also the wraiths at Priest of Grenth.
  • Fractals: Each fractal resets your stack count, but it still can be worthwhile in Aetherblade, Molten Furnace, and Urban Battleground.

Fractals
I recommend using D/F and Staff for high level fractals due to its survivability, DPS sustainability, and still decent conjure pairing. A DPS scepter-hammer build also works well for low level fractals.

I provide multiple recommendations for utility skills. If you are comfortable with an encounter, take more DPS oriented utilities such as SoF, LH, or FB. If you are less comfortable, take defensive utilities such as Arcane Shield and Mist Form. Use ArBr if you want the blast finisher, otherwise choose a heal appropriate for the situation. Many of these bosses move around which make FGS+LF risky, but it’s always an option if you prefer that.

Aetherblade
Trash: LH and GoS (Earth) for blinds, and use FGS to melt mobs. Use LF to blink past puzzles.
Golem Room: Use D/F or Staff with GoEP (Air) if not using a LoS FGS spot. Good utilities are SoF, ArW, FB GoEP (Air), ArS, and Mist Form.

Aquatic Ruins
Rotation: Fire 2 – ArBr – Water 3 – Water 3 – ArW on enemy in fire field for 9-12 might. Continue with Water 2 – detonate Water 2 – Air 5 (on krait) – Air 2 – Air 1 until Fire is off CD – Fire 1, 2 until ArW is off CD, then repeat. Fire AA is best for cleaving.
Krait: Good utilities are ArBr, SoF, ArW, ArS, GoEP (Air), Whirlpool. Use Whirlpool on second group.
Jellyfish: Good utilities are SoF, GoEP (stunbreak, preferably use in Fire or Air), ArW, ArS. Air 4 and Earth 4 can interrupt the swallow if you cast it as soon as you see the tell. Hover near allies outside of kick range. Use Whirlpool to clear adds.

Cliffside
Cultists: Good utilities are SoF, LH, GoS (Earth), GoEP (Air), ArW.
Archdiviner: Use Energy Sigil. Good utilities are GoEP (Earth), ArW, SoF, LH, ArS, Mist Form. Use GoE (Earth) for a facetank or GoE (Air) for DPS.

Mai Trin
Use Sigil of Energy and Dagger/Focus. Use Swirling Winds when you see her pistol shot. Dodge her lightning projectile spin, and stay out of close melee unless keeping her in a blue field (use Obsidian Flesh to tank). Good utilities are ArW, GoEP (Earth), SoF, ArS, Mist Form, Cleaning Fire. Use Elite when bursting at the end of a phase.

Molten Duo
Chain Swirling Winds with other projectile protection. Good utilitiles are SoF, ArW, FB, LH, ArS, Mist Form. Use GoE after one boss is dead.

Molten Furnace
Good utilities are SoF, ArW, LH, GoEP (Air), GoS (Earth). Run past the enemies at the end of the tunnel toward the steam walls, LoS, and use GoS (Earth) and FGS.

Snowblind
Bonfire: Stack might for lighting the fires. Use Swirling Winds, Arcane Shield, and Obsidian Flesh as needed.
Ice Elemental: Good utilities are LH, FB, ArW, ArS, GoS (Earth), Mist Form. Use elite after grouping vets.
Lornarr: Good utilities are LH, FB, ArW, ArS, GoEP (Earth). Near the end of icicle phases, place a fire field for blasts. Elite may be FGS or GoE (Air).

(edited by DEKeyzToChaos.7381)

[Guide] DPS Elementalist for PvE

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Solid Ocean
Good utilities are SoF, GoEP (stunbreak), FB, GoS (Earth), LH. Don’t use GoE.

Swampland
Use Ether Renewal, Lightning Flash, and Signet of Air or swiftness to run wisps. Don’t use Mist Form.
Mossman: Use Energy Sigil. Good utilities are GoEP (Earth), SoF, ArW, ArS, Mist Form. Use GoE (Earth) for a facetank that won’t spin. Chain Swirling Winds with other reflects. LH at your own risk, Mossman doesn’t like people who make big numbers.
Bloomhunger: Good utilities are SoF, ArW, LH, FB. Elite may be FGS or GoE (Fire or Air).

Thaumanova Reactor
Trash: Good utilities are SoF, ArW, GoEP (Air), GoS (Earth), LH, FB.
Ooze: Good utilities are SoF, ArW, LH. Chain LH Static Field with other CC’s to keep little oozes away.
Turret Room: Use Arcane Shield, Mist Form, and Obsidian Flesh to get through the room. Use Cleansing Flame to hit the two panels at the back.
Superheated room: Use Lightning Flash to run first cooling rod. Use staff to help your party stack swiftness and regen.
Anomaly: Good utilities are SoF, ArW, FB, LH, GoEP (Air), ArS, Mist Form. FGS at your own risk. GoE (Air or Earth) is useful.

Uncategorized
Harpies: If not stealthing, good utilities are GoS (Earth), LH, ArS, SoF, Armor of Earth. Chain Swirling Winds and weapon CC’s.
Champ Room: Good utilities are SoF, ArW, FB, GoEP (Air), GoS (Earth for vet, Air for others) Mist Form. Use GoE at start or as soon as only 1 is left.
Stairs: Obsidian Flesh and Swirling Winds counter the bars. Use Lightning Flash to hit 2 switches.
Old Tom: Stack might, use GoE (Earth), and then stand behind the elemental. Good utilities are SoF, ArW, FB, LH.
Raving Asura: Good utilities are SoF, ArW, FB, GoS (Earth), Mist Form. Use GoS (Earth) and Elite when all 4 golems are up.

Underground Facility
Switches: Use Swirling Winds, Magnetic Wave, Earth Shield, Obsidian Flesh, Arcane Shield, Mist Form to stay alive on a switch. Use GoE (Earth) before passing through dredge for it to pull aggro.
Rabosvich and Clown Car: Good utilities are SoF, ArW, LH, FB, GoEP (Air). Elite should be FGS.
Ice Elemental: Use Energy Sigil. Use 2 DPS utilities and 1 stunbreak (Arcane Shield, Mist Form, or GoEP). Do not use GoE.
Dredge Powersuit: Use Energy Sigil. Use Swirling Winds for bombs. Good utilities are SoF, ArW, LH, FB. Do not use GoE.

Urban Battleground
Trash: Good utilities are GoS (Earth), ArW, FB, GoEP (Air), LH, SoF.
Ashym: Good utilities are SoF, ArW, LH, FB, ArS, Mist Form. Elite may be GoE (Air or Fire) or FGS.

Volcanic
Trash: Good utilities are GoS (Earth), GoEP (Air), ArW, SoF, FB, LH. Put on Signet of Air if running stones.
Champion Shaman: Max melee. Good utilities are ArW, SoF, FB, LH. Elite should be GoE (Air).
Legendary Imbued Shaman: Use Sigil of Energy and Dagger/Focus. Chain Swirling Winds with other projectile protection during phase changes. Good utilities are ArW, GoS (Earth), FB, LH, ArS, Mist Form. Use elite GoE (Earth) to draw aggro at phase changes.

(edited by DEKeyzToChaos.7381)

[Guide] DPS Elementalist for PvE

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References and Useful Links
Special thanks to Kitsune, Neko, Guanglai, and Zelyhn for formulating much of the Elementalist theory that I use, as well as many other elementalist theorycrafters who have asked me great questions.

Assumptions for Effective Power (EP) and Damage per Second (DPS) Calculations
Effective Power is a score that is based on attributes and damage multipliers granted from traits, gear, food, buffs, and boons. It can be used to compare builds that use the same weapon. It does not use any information about a build’s rotation or rotations, so two different rotations for the same weapon would have the same EP even though they could have drastically different DPS. Since I don’t use rotation information, I use the attunement with the highest total damage modifier – so as a result ranking builds by EP gives a different result than ranking by DPS.

Damage per Second estimates can help compare builds that use different weapons or builds that use the same weapon and different rotations. It involves calculating the damage each skill would do to a single target under the assumptions of a particular build over a (often) repeatable rotation and then averages that over the duration of the rotation. Under both perfect and average conditions, I assume optimal rotations for DPS and vulnerability.

For perfect conditions, I assume:

  • Sigil of Night or Air, Slaying Potion or BiS other consumable, Discipline and Strength Banners, Signet of Fire
  • Sigil of Force
  • Ascended weapons and armor with appropriate food and stacks
  • 2600 armor target
  • 25 Might and Vuln
  • 100% uptime on Fury
  • 100% uptime on self above 90% HP
  • 100% uptime on enemy Burning and Bleeding
  • 100% uptime on self full endurance
  • 100% uptime on 5 boons on self
  • 100% uptime on within 600 range of the enemy
  • 3.33% uptime on enemy being CC’ed
  • 9% effective modifier for Bolt to the Heart

For average conditions, I assume:

  • Sigil of Night, Slaying Potion, Discipline and Strength Banners, Signet of Fire
  • Sigil of Force for non-staff builds
  • Ascended weapons and armor with appropriate food and stacks
  • 2600 armor target
  • 15 Might and Vuln
  • 100% uptime on Fury
  • 75% uptime on self above 90% HP
  • 75% uptime on enemy Burning and Bleeding
  • 50% uptime on self full endurance
  • 100% uptime on 3 boons on self
  • 100% uptime on within 600 range of the enemy
  • 1.67% uptime on enemy being CC’ed
  • 9% effective modifier for Bolt to the Heart

(edited by DEKeyzToChaos.7381)

Best dungeon Builds Per Class?

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Neither of those builds are the best builds for their respective classes.

[Guide] DPS Elementalist for PvE

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Fresh Air Warhorn

Warhorn is a pretty strong offhand with some interesting utility through boonshare, CC, and a water field. It pairs well with both Dagger and Scepter mainhands.

Tactical Weapon Skills

  • Heat Sync (Fire 4) grants might and copies might and fury to your allies
  • Wildfire (Fire 5) is a large, long-lasting fire field
  • Tidal Surge (Water 4) is a small heal as well as a knockback
  • Water Globe (Water 5) is a water field
  • Cyclone (Air 4) is a hard CC
  • Sand Squall (Earth 4) is a blast finisher and provides magnetic aura
  • Dust Storm (Earth 5) blinds and cripples foes

DPS Build
19000 DPS in raid gear

Party Support Build
17000 DPS in raid gear

Dagger/Warhorn Rotation
Overload Air
Fire Attunement
Wildfire
Air Attunement
Glyph of Storms (optional)
Lightning Orb
Lightning Whip until OL is off CD

Overload Air
Fire Attunement
Burning Speed
Air Attunement
Lightning Whip until OL is off CD
repeat

Scepter/Warhorn Rotation
Overload Air
Fire Attunement
Wildfire
Dragon’s Tooth, Phoenix if blasts are needed
Air Attunement
Glyph of Storms (optional)
Lightning Orb
Arc Lightning + Lightning Strike until OL is off CD

Overload Air
Fire Attunement
Phoenix
Air Attunement
Arc Lightning + Lightning Strike until OL is off CD
repeat

(edited by DEKeyzToChaos.7381)

[Guide] DPS Elementalist for PvE

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Announcing Fall 2014 Dungeon Speed Clear Open

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In the scheme of things, an event this small does not take much organization. Having multiple decision makers would unnecessarily bog down the organization process. Sure [DnT]‘s name is on this, but Nike is the head organizer and doesn’t pass all of his decisions to a guild committee to discuss – and I think his way of doing things works just fine.

I’m unhappy that people feel like their feedback was not taken into account, but there were avenues to provide it on the game forums and on the DnT guild forums. Additionally, people mailed Nike their opinions on the tournament, what was great, and what can go better next time. A lot of great rule changes and format changes came from those discussions, including:

  • No restricted team comp
  • Rezzing allowed
  • Less “downtime” between dungeons facilitated by an automated path picking system
  • Centralizing rules enforcement and timing under gwscr to minimize [DnT] involvement in match winner determination
  • Fixing the size of windows when Nike is streaming two teams

After all the feedback, Nike then sent a draft of the new rules to leaders of prominent speed clearing guilds for feedback.

I, for one, still would like some sort of big penalty for a team wipe, but that didn’t make it into this ruleset. Do I complain to Nike and say, “My opinion wasn’t listened to!”? No, I am happy to support him as he has taken the lead on this cat herding endeavor and is doing a kick-kitten job (kicking kittens is bad, kids, don’t do it or you make me cry q.q). He is happy to do the work, so if he doesn’t want my help I just stay out of the way and enjoy NOT having to do something myself to get it done.

I expect we will again solicit feedback at the conclusion of the next tournament. If some people get together and say, “We want to host the next tournament instead of [DnT],” I’m sure [DnT] would be happy to support in any way we can instead of complaining that the next tournament doesn’t have our name on it. For once I’d be able to participate, assuming I agree with the rules

Why do I die so fast?

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Save dodges for those attacks that have starting animations. An alternative to dodging is using a skill that will interrupt the mob, such as one that will apply daze, stun, or knockback. If the animation is slow enough, then you can even just strafe (probably q or e for you if you haven’t messed with key bindings) around to the back side of the enemy.

One thing about dodging is that instead of dodging outside the area of effect (which can take 2+ dodges), time your dodge so that you will be in the middle of it when the attack’s damage would hit you. And you can dodge to the side or forward by double-tapping the appropriate directional key OR by holding a directional button and pressing v (of course, I’m not in front of the game right now, so I may be getting that slightly wrong).

If you’re on ET, I’d be happy to help try to troubleshoot!

Acquiring gear lvl 60+

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Honestly, I would save your money for level 80, where you don’t have to worry about outleveling your gear any more. Spend a few silver on the BLTC – or if you’re into crafting, start crafting weapons/armor for those easy levels – to get competitive greens and slap some cheap sigils or crests (at level 65, I think) on them. You can get cheap but sturdy karma weapons from the WvW vendor if you feel like your damage is lacking, too.

I’m not sure of the existence/names of specific exotic/rare sets below level 80. I’m just afraid that by the time you earn the resources to get it, you’ll be ready for the next level up of gear.

Is my ele's PvE build good?

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Check out Glyph of Elemental Power instead of Signet of Fire (think about this: Meteor storm or Glyph of Storms + burning), and also look into Arcane Wave – that blast finisher is awesome with all the fields that a staff ele gets.

Trait-wise, swap out Earth XII for Earth VIII (20% longer bleeds) or possibly Earth IV (5% more damage to bleeding enemies – I think even when not in earth attunement).

And if you don’t have a sigil you love, get yourself a Major/Superior Sigil of Battle (2/3 stacks of might (20sec) on [attunement] swap, internal cooldown of 9 seconds) for more might-stacking awesomeness.

Ranger DPS in Dungeons

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Anet! I need a LoJack trait for my conjures now. The rangers keep on stealing them >.>

Tarnished Coast full - I want in!

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@beezer: Server transfers are free for now, so just watch TC. You can move your current character over or start a new one. I believe the button to move servers (or “Move Worlds” as it’s called in GW2) is in the lower left corner of the character select screen, but I’m not looking at that screen right now so I could be wrong. I would hope that Anet will implement paid transfers only after they implement guesting.

Maximum DPS ele weapon

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I’ve been working on some new rotations and have managed to find slightly higher damage scepter-hammer rotations while working on some projects with Nike. These rotations are pretty easy but they aren’t great for PUGs because your DPS drops significantly after 40 seconds. Still testing and tweaking, but the current numbers are:

Fire staff 6-4-2-2-0: 14475 DPS
S/D+Hammer non-conjurer 5-5-2-2-0: 13990 DPS
S/D+Hammer non-conjurer 6-6-2-0-0: 13805 DPS
S/F+Hammer non-conjurer 5-5-2-2-0: 13585 DPS
S/F+Hammer non-conjurer 6-6-2-0-0: 13375 DPS
Fire staff 6-6-0-0-2: 13335 DPS
S/D+Hammer conjurer 6-6-2-0-0: 12965 DPS
S/F+ Hammer conjurer 6-6-2-0-0: 12725 DPS
D/D 6-6-2-0-0: ~11500-12500ish DPS
D/F 6-6-2-0-0: 11580 DPS

Scepter actually has about 5 seconds of decent burst and for the non-conjurer rotations a 20% modifier on only the LH portion was less of an increase on DPS than a 10% modifier overall.

5-4-0-5-0, which I have in my guide, is still better than 5-5-2-2-0 for FB/FGS damage as long as you don’t need the vuln and is still a very build if your group is prestacking might, has fury covered, and if you want conjurer. If you’re not prestacking might, 5-5-2-2-0 is better than 5-4-0-5-0 according to my current calculations (but they have different rotations).

These numbers assume 25 might and vuln and full uptime on all modifiers. Used Berserker armor, optimal food, scholar’s runes, night/force sigils, potion, no stacks, no EA or Spotter, no infusions. The method that I used for these particular numbers (used as part of the project with Nike) I’m not as happy with but are within 0.5% DPS of my standard methods.

(edited by DEKeyzToChaos.7381)

Gear on a budget.

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I would recommend going full berserker over a split or even full assassin’s these days – when assassin’s is better than berserker’s, its increase is minimal; but when berserker’s is better than assassin’s, it’s better by a few %. Berserker’s/Knight’s should only be used while learning – then move toward full DPS equipment as you start learning fights.

Why do the Berserker’s parts cost too much? You can easily get Berserker’s armor from doing normal dungeons – CoF, CoE, and Arah specifically. Arah can be pretty challenging, but CoF path 1 is very easy, and CoE 1 and 3 are also popular. Trade those tokens in for exotic (orange) armor – specifically for parts that are expensive to buy on the TP. The dungeon token vendors are on the east side of LA near the crafting stations. When searching on the TP don’t forget to search for Zhed’s set as well as the crafted sets.

For runes, obviously Strength (LH) and Scholar (Staff) are your best choices. Less optimal choices include Runes of the Flame Legion as long as you’re often using the Burning Precision trait, Runes of Hoelbrak, and maybe even Runes of Rage or Runes of Water (though Water is the most defensive). I haven’t run numbers for DPS/EP on those set because I’ve been working on a few projects with guildmates, but it’s on the list of things to look at.

For weapons and sigils, exotic weapons shouldn’t be that expensive but you can also use dungeon tokens to buy them. Obviously work on getting the weapon set you use most often, but having the others ones in your bag can be useful (such as pulling out a staff to stack swiftness before a long run). For sigils, Sigils of Force and Strength should probably be your first two for staff or MH dagger builds, but Force and Battle is a little better for scepter+LH (if you even need the extra might from a sigil – if not Frailty instead of Battle is fine). I know Force is pretty expensive – I guess Strength/Frailty until you can afford a Force? Stacking sigils have been nerfed to the point where they’re no longer efficient to run in dungeons, so I wouldn’t bother with any of them.

Note that there is a Sigil of Night which is an excellent sigil to have when you start diversifying your weapon collection. It’s a higher damage modifier that only works at night – I’m not recommending it as one of your first sigils because it’s a little expensive and it doesn’t work in most fractals. For night time instances, the highest DPS sigil combo (short of stacking) for high direct damage builds is Night/Force.

Meanwhile, you’ll also want to work on getting Tailoring, Artificing, and maybe even Weaponsmithing to crafting level 500 so that you can create Ascended (pink) equipment while doing some world bosses to get Dragonite. The Orrian temples as well as Dragons and Jungle Wurm all give a good amount of Dragonite when successful.

For trinkets, get Mark of the Tethyos Houses as your necklace from the PvE or WvW Laurel Merchants. You’ll want one each of Althea’s Ashes and Magister’s Field Journal, which you get from the guild commendation vendor (you can earn commendations from guild missions once per week). If you don’t get them as drops, get a Ring of Red Death and Crystalline Band as your rings. Since all ascended equipment is account bound and since Berserker’s trinkets are part of the PvE meta for almost all classes, you can move these around if you want to play another character.

(edited by DEKeyzToChaos.7381)

Farming the same herb 3x plus?

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Seconding that it’s the bugfix at work. Not once have I been able to gather a non-rich node multiple times – until yesterday. Patch hit, and I was able to farm herbs twice occasionally! Should help even out some of the absurd herb prices a little.

Also, the god-bandits have multiple threads.

Fractals of the Mists Guides

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Thank you Fenix! Excellent efforts. There is already a very thorough guide (granted, from a guardian perspective) at FotM level 48 in existence: http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/84006-guardian-video-guide-for-fractals-of-the-mist-shown-at-48/

Is my ele's PvE build good?

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Yes, documented on wiki. Go to the PvP area and try it out for yourself! If you run Superior Runes of Monk and Water with a Superior Sigil of Battle, then you’re pretty much guaranteed a permanent 9 stacks of might.

Note that the Sigil of Intelligence was bugged for a very long time and may very well still be bugged – for that sigil, attunement change doesn’t count as a weapon swap.

Maximum DPS ele weapon

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D/F is fine, and going D/F+LH for PUGs is a nice, safe way to go at the expense of a couple blast finishers (or if you use those blasts, some DPS – note that the D/F burst combo I listed did not include any of your blasts in water). I personally enjoy the playstyle of D/F as well (okay, I enjoy all of them except maybe staff because it’s boring). My point above with burst number isn’t so much that D/F is bad as much as it is that Scepter burst is pretty solid and shouldn’t be overlooked.

D/F Fire 4 into a wall gives you a coefficient of either 2.4 or 3.6 (plus the flame burst at the end) if a mob were to stand in it, so yes, it is very powerful and greatly boost D/F DPS. I assume 0.6 (plus burst) for my general calculations since a lot of small bosses will only be hit by an average of one tick per second if they’re moving around. By that same logic, Burning Retreat on staff into a wall would also greatly improve staff burst – going from an unwalled coefficient of 0.8 to a walled coefficient of about 4.8 (going by the wiki).

In a lot of situations even with group pulls, there’s a boss, vet, or some sort of tougher mob mixed in that will require the extra single-target DPS of a Lightning Strike, so I think it’s valid to include. Fire Grab does have the long CD which is problematic, but even swapping that out for OH focus gives you another viable burst rotation with more blasts ready to go.

That number (11,580 DPS) was calculated with the D/F auto. Since unwalled D/F burst is slightly lower than unwalled scepter burst, D/F hammer is more like 12.3k DPS under 25 might/vuln, fury, banners, consumables but only cleaves for 11.5k. Again, with Scepter you stack might and do crazy damage, but with Dagger you don’t get to do both at the same time. The other builds also tend to take Arcane Lightning instead of Fresh Air for higher cleave damage.

Guesting is Coming

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: DEKeyzToChaos.7381

DEKeyzToChaos.7381

Being in a guild with representation on both NA and EU servers, this will put a damper on our plans to run dungeons and explore together.

I have a few other concerns, some of which have been touched on already.
1. How will gathering node access be controlled? What if I party with people from two other servers, and then we run all of our characters up to the Rich Ori Vein? Or, dare I say it, bots take advantage of this (since we all know they’re in guilds too) for +200% materials. While some of the raw mats are bottoming out near vendor prices right now, I’d like to see some of them still have some value!
2. In this thread it was said that a guest will gain influence for a guild. Will that guest also get any guild bonuses from active upgrades?
3. De-partying: If I accidentally hit “leave party” while guesting, will it kick me back to my home server immediately? I am a clutz sometimes…

Any RP groups around Borlis Pass?

in Players Helping Players

Posted by: DEKeyzToChaos.7381

DEKeyzToChaos.7381

I don’t RP, but Tarnished Coast has a wonderful RP community. You can guest to TC to participate if you don’t want to move servers. One source of RP event information is http://www.guildwars2roleplayers.com/.

(edited by DEKeyzToChaos.7381)

I'm a terrible warrior

in Players Helping Players

Posted by: DEKeyzToChaos.7381

DEKeyzToChaos.7381

I’m sure someone has the build made up on one of the character builder sites, but here’s an overview of how I learned the glass-cannon (or near-glass-cannon) warrior:

Weapons: Greatsword/Rifle while you’re learning new content. GS has great DPS, the rifle has decent DPS at range while you’re taking a breather and letting your endurance regen because you’ve dodged too much. When more comfortable, go with Greatsword/Axe+Mace. There’s a lot of sigils you’ll want to play around with, but while you are gearing up, go for Major Sigils of Battle, Bloodlust, and Force (or a Ruby Orb) distributed such that you won’t have more than one of each equipped over all of your on-land or in-water weapons (yes, I know I’m simplifying here). You’ll eventually upgrade to superior versions on your exotic weapons, but the major ones still help!

Armor: Start with a balance of knight’s and zerker’s armor. If you keep on dying, swap in a bit more knight’s, then work your way up to getting used to more berserker’s while acquiring more exotics.

While working in masterwork and rare gear, give yourself a little more oomph by getting some Crests of the Shaman, or, if they’re cheap, Crests of the Soldier. If you are having issues surviving, swap out your currently rare berserker’s chest, legs, or helm for a (even masterwork if rare is too expensive) knight’s piece, but save your zerker’s stuff for when you are more comfortable.

For a very long time my Exotic armor was Knight’s Chest, Legs, and Head with Zerker’s Shoulders, Gloves, and Boots, and to min-max the balancing, I used emerald jewelry and put in exquisite ruby jewels. I’m moving to more berserker’s gear now, but that’s because I’m getting more used to where to move/stand to avoid attacks. The wiki has a table about how many stat points you give up on a piece of armor for 1% crit damage on exotic level 80 gear. If you don’t plan on having a decent guard in your party, aim toward a full set of Superior Runes of the Soldier for your armor (starting again with Crests of the Shaman/Solider while farming gold). If you do plan on having a decent guard, then slotting your armor with Ruby Orbs will give you even more oomph.

Traits: If I recall correctly, a GS offense warrior trait distribution is based around 20/30/0/0/0. I prefer 20/30/0/0/20 myself.

Utilities: should be (6) Healing Surge, (7) For Great Justice, (8) either Shake it Off or Frenzy (not sure if it’s still in vogue after the recent patch), (9) either Banner of Discipline, Banner of Strength, or On My Mark, and (0) Signet of Rage. Pretty much use 7, 9, and 0 whenever you can, 6 whenever needed, and 8 as needed if SiO or 8 whenever safe if Frenzy.

General combat: Enter melee using GS 3, 5, or even Bull’s Charge if you run it; stay in melee for as long as you can while activating GS 2 whenever possible; GS 3, run, or dodge out of melee when you start feeling the pain, switch to rifle, use rifle 1 and 3 all the time, 2 and 4 when you want the cc. When your endurance and health are back up, enter melee again.

Other tips: Line of Sight EVERYTHING! The bane of the full glass warr is spread out ranged enemies, so run around a corner so that they have to chase you to have a clear shot at you. I know it’s not much of an accomplishment, but my glassy warr “tanked” CM story because we LoS’ed all of those ranged bandits to get them to clump in melee.

Yeah, oversimplified, but I hope it helps! Ping me in-game if you’d like!

(edited by DEKeyzToChaos.7381)

[Guide] DPS Elementalist for PvE

in Elementalist

Posted by: DEKeyzToChaos.7381

DEKeyzToChaos.7381

Did some updates, but not complete. Video updates coming soon.

(edited by DEKeyzToChaos.7381)

Better sustained DPS in Dungeons/Bosses, etc

in Elementalist

Posted by: DEKeyzToChaos.7381

DEKeyzToChaos.7381

I know the standard slot skills for this build are Arcane Brilliance – Lightning Hammer – Arcane Wave – Signet of Fire – Fiery Greatsword. Instead, maybe try Ether Renewal for a heal if you need condi cleanse, and take Arcane Shield instead of Signet of Fire. If your party isn’t LoSing enemies, you can also take Glyph of Elementals instead of Fiery Greatsword and hope that your earth elemental holds aggro so that you can position yourself out of cleave range. And while I’m loathe to suggest this because I love Arcane Wave, you can take Armor or Earth for protection if your group isn’t already providing it, Mist Form (though you’ll drop your conjure), or Lightning Flash.

Back on the subject of positioning – when you aren’t LoSing things, try to stand at their back, near max melee range for hammer and at that full 300 range when using D/F. You can’t dodge all of a boss’s attacks in prolonged battles, so smart positioning helps. And learning where to stand and what to dodge (and when to dodge it) just comes with practice.

It also sounds like you’re concentrating too much on your rotation. I know it’s super, super boring, but practicing on the golems or vet giants in Cursed Shore is useful. Try to get to a comfort level with your rotation such that you aren’t looking at your cooldowns or hunting for keys to press. Don’t fret if you’re falling behind on “the” rotation because you’re interrupting it with dodges, heals, and repositioning yourself – it’s more to show what you should be striving toward, not what every ele everywhere is expected to pull off in every situation.

Maybe even swap up your keybinds – I use ESDF for movement and the keys near it for my 6-0 skills because my little hands just can’t stretch that far! So if there’s something you’re doing that makes you think, “This key is hard for me to accurately press with everything else going on,” then maybe think of giving that skill a different home.

Another thing that definitely makes it harder for eles to thrive is indeed poor partymates. There really isn’t anything you can do to prevent others from stealing your hammers other than putting them slightly away from the group – and even then that’s far from foolproof. On top of that, a low DPS group means you’ll run out of dodges, and if the other party members aren’t using their skills to help protect the party, then you may very well die with a scepter-hammer setup. So I highly doubt it’s all your fault that you’re not performing as well as you’d like. Maybe use an energy sigil over one of your DPS sigils to give yourself a few more dodges.

The reason why I recommend scepter-hammer over dagger/focus for general dungeoning is because in a solid group, scepter-hammer will bring the most to the table and s/d+hammer is the highest DPS. If pugging or bringing inexperienced players through a dungeon, feel free to swap to dagger-focus – chances are you’ll fight light and water fields to get your fire field down anyway. Once the feature patch hits, it will be easy to swap builds when out of combat, so you’ll be able to adjust after one or two encounters in the dungeon.

PvE Elementalist ... advice?

in Elementalist

Posted by: DEKeyzToChaos.7381

DEKeyzToChaos.7381

Good DPS PvE builds that are truly in the spirit of what an Elementalist does best don’t use staff. The staff DPS PvE build that is boring to play, brings little party utility, but puts out big numbers: http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/85568-lh-is-the-new-bearbow-the-real-staff-dps-build-for-manly-men/

If you would like trait advice, see Neko’s and Zel’s guides which are stickied at the top of this forum. Neko focuses on Scepter-hammer but has a bit about staff, Zel focuses on Dagger/Focus. Both provide relatively high DPS builds that also bring a lot of utility to a party.

Condition damage Ele’s are not very strong in PvE, so just aim for full zerk armor + a full set of superior runes of the scholar or superior runes of the ranger. If you have problems surviving, use a mix of knight chest, helm, and pants with zerk everything else.

About to hit 80, looking for some advice.

in Players Helping Players

Posted by: DEKeyzToChaos.7381

DEKeyzToChaos.7381

I’ve been level 80 for less than a month, but this is what I’ve found

  • Run through Straits of Devastation and Malchor’s Leap to get to Cursed Shore. The top portion of Cursed Shore has some sparse enough areas that the instant respawns won’t be at your feet
  • Explore Frostgorge Sound. You’ll get a couple of level 70+ exotics (to keep, salvage for ectos, or sell on BLTC for some money) for full exploration
  • Try dungeons, starting with AC. You will get some gold and drops, but the main thing is to get to get to EXP mode and farm those tokens. You can trade the tokens to specific vendors in Lion’s Arch for exotics, runes, sigils, …
  • Start that alt! It will give you a different PvE experience. I have a high level thief and elementalist and am leveling a warrior now. All three play very differently.
  • Also, a lot of classes can contribute at low levels in WvW by taking out errant dolyaks and capturing lonely sentry points even by themselves. If there’s 3 of you (all low level), you can probably take a supply camp!
  • Scrap cheap drops using basic salvage kits, but focus on selling until you get a more comfortable amount of money. Then think about salvaging yellows for ectos, saving greens to throw into the MF for a chance at yellows, etc.
  • If you like being social, join a guild, make some dungeon running friends, start posting in map chat, whatever. Having people to joke about how many times that dungeon boss just owned you makes things less tense.
  • If the game feels boring, take a break. It’ll be there tomorrow.

Hope this helps, and look me up in game if you have any questions!

Operation: Union - Bringing Players Together

in Players Helping Players

Posted by: DEKeyzToChaos.7381

DEKeyzToChaos.7381

Welcome Nate! Invite sent. We have several gamer couples in our fellowship already, and we would love to meet your wife as well.

Also, welcome everyone else! I look forward to meeting (and dungeoning with) all of you fine folks.

So why are AH guardian builds...

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: DEKeyzToChaos.7381

DEKeyzToChaos.7381

PVT is cool only after playing berzerker all the time. You can afford dancing around, making mistake here & there and let your friends doing all the hard works, and rez them at the right time. And last one standing too. Just don’t let they know you wear PVT so transmute all your gears to CoF gears. Ugly but safe.

And make sure you keep your matching CoF zerker set with scholars runes in the bag to ping.

THAT’S why I’m always faceplanting in our fractal runs, you guys all switched to PVT and didn’t tell me

Ohhh snap! He got wise to our shenanigans. Quick everyone, to CoF!

Back to the original topic… I had a shout heal hammer warr, and she was great for facetanking stuff in the old AC while my guildmates shot from a safe distance away. When we started attempting HotW P1, though, I noticed a huge difference in how well an AH guard could hold Ginva’s aggro (Ginva would stick on the guard for the whole battle) compared to the shout heal warr (couldn’t be less interested). Of course the shout heal warr was more effective at saving said guildmates when they continued shooting while Ginva was reflecting projectiles…

(edited by DEKeyzToChaos.7381)

Warrior, Mesmer, Guardian only fractal groups

in Fractured

Posted by: DEKeyzToChaos.7381

DEKeyzToChaos.7381

The leader board will determine who is your group, not necessarily class.
PvE revolves around 2 things : DPS and Dodging.
Those that advance to high level fractals, regardless of being heavy, med or light, will be those with the skill to evade and earn their keep. It will be a skill thing.
If you make it to those levels you will be acknowledged.
Rangers in PvE are a poor class on a whole, you don’t need the new Fractals to show you that.
Thieves have their place and I think the new mechanics will strengthen that.
Fractals teaches you a lot about how to play, and I know that even rangers are powerful in a group build, running high end PvE.

Actually, PvE revolves around 3 things: DPS, dodging and reflects.

Not really. For example, in the Snowblind fractal, trying to dodge everything would be like trying to dodge rain. The fact that the midboss is a construct renders Zerker gear useless anyways.

Zerker gear is still good for dealing with the adds before your reflects run out.

I had been scaling up in a group that ran one guard, one mes, a warrior that would swap to thief at times, and either two warriors or a warrior and an ele. We’d swap around who was on guardian duty and thief duty because we were progressing 3 warriors, a mesmer, and an ele. Was certainly more enjoyable than the standard 2g/2w/1 other setup – even when we had to figure out how to fight the Uncategorized boss with no guards.

Other than rangers, I think all classes can do pretty well in fractals. I’ve been in groups with necros that keep blind, weakness, and other conditions up. Thieves can also help keep up blind and weakness and have plenty of cc in addition to all that stealth. Rangers have frost spirit, spotter, and entangle, but their best weapon is bound to send them flying off a ledge in Cliffside or Uncategorized or root them at the wrong time in Urban Battleground.

Dredge Suit Melee Duo @ 80

in Fractured

Posted by: DEKeyzToChaos.7381

DEKeyzToChaos.7381

We’ll miss scale 80 and the challenges it and FotM 50+ have provided us and other gamers for the past (almost) year.

Operation: Union - Bringing Players Together

in Players Helping Players

Posted by: DEKeyzToChaos.7381

DEKeyzToChaos.7381

Grats to everyone who joined us for a guild rush this past weekend. I certainly had fun expressing my inner quaggan

Looking forward to another rush next weekend!

PvE Elementalist(Dungeons/Fractals/Solo)

in Elementalist

Posted by: DEKeyzToChaos.7381

DEKeyzToChaos.7381

Hello everyone, I just made an Elementalist yesterday and it’s already level 80 with full zerker gear and trinkets. I have no clue how to play ele as far as what builds to run for what dungeons or traits. I really like staff but I am not opposed to using other weapon sets. Can anyone give me a link or a guide to what to use for each dungeon,etc.

Staff probably isn’t great for solo play, but when fully buffed it can be very powerful in organized dungeon groups. Personally I don’t find it to have the the same harmonious balance of DPS, support, and defense as D/F or the offensive support of scepter+hammer. Staff DPS in fire is great, but as soon as you swap out to heal in water or control in air or earth the DPS is awful. I think someone has already linked my guide, which has a rundown of the builds for each weapon set and some basic rotations for each.

Or what weapon set is considered the best atm? Like I don’t want to get kicked from a team if they see me using “x weapon”

If you’re looking for “zerker only” groups on LFG, they’ll probably expect you to run Scepter/Dagger + Lightning Hammer or Scepter/Focus + Lightning Hammer. If there’s another ele already running scepter+hammer, then you can go full fire staff DPS. Dagger/Focus isn’t necessarily low DPS, but it doesn’t buff groups quite as well as scepter+hammer – not a problem in groups where everyone knows how to prestack might and help keep up might on their own, but possibly problematic when you really are responsible for keeping up half (or more) the might and possibly all the fury for your group. Of course, if your group is wiping every 30 seconds, D/F gives you better access to skills that help you keep alive while keeping damage up (and is what I use for soloing).

… or not blasting “x field” at “x time.” If anyone understands what I’m asking for , please feel free to reply or message me in game. BTW I’m coming from Engineer.

For eles, you put down your fire field and blast it, then continue DPS. If you’re staff, you just stay in fire and spam 1, 2, 5, and possibly 4 if you can use it into a wall and use arcane skills to blast your field. If you’re scepter+hammer, you conjure your hammer and then dps with that. If you’re dagger/focus, you swap to air for a few, swap out for another blast, and then back in – kinda like as if you were swapping in and out of kits on an engi.

Both ele’s and engi’s require very active play (except for DPS staff) in order to maximize their efficacy, so I think you’ll pick up the idea of attunement (and conjure) dancing pretty easily.

Strategy against dungeon and fractal bosses

in Elementalist

Posted by: DEKeyzToChaos.7381

DEKeyzToChaos.7381

For Mai Trin

  • Go D/F because focus is amazing and dagger provides more utility than scepter for this fight. I like having a sigil of energy on one of my weapons.
  • For my guild groups my slot skills are Glyph of Elemental Harmony, Mist Form, Arcane Wave, Glyph of Elemental Power, FGS. For less organized situations, I’d recommend either Glyph of Elemental Harmony or Ether Renewal, Mist Form, Arcane Wave or Signet of Earth or Cleansing Fire, Arcane Shield, and Glyph of Elementals.
  • Heal: Glyph of Elemental Harmony provides swiftness when cast in air attunement, so casting it in air at the start of a barrage phase can make your life a lot easier as you can just walk away from AoEs instead of needed to dodge. Ether Renewal is not a bad choice for when Mai Trin is active because of its low CD and condi removal, but it takes forever to channel.
  • Elite notes: FGS can be some good damage at 600 range out, which means you probably aren’t the furthest away from Mai (so no shadowstep shot) but you won’t be hit by her melee cleave either. Glyph of Elementals can be useful to tank if you have lots of people down, but even the DPS elementals can mess up aggro if everyone is zerk/assassin and make it difficult to kite Mai into the AoEs.

Mai Trin’s Attacks

  • Her shadowshot almost always goes after the person farthest away from her, so just hover outside of melee range. It is blocked by Swirling Winds, Arcane Shield, Obsidian Flesh, and Mist Form, and you will be teleported to her if you use Magnetic Wave or Magnetic Aura.
  • Her melee auto has about a 250 range and 300+ degree cleave, so stay behind her and attack in air
  • Her lightning spin will send out a bolt directed at 5 of your allies near her and will continue until it hits something – which means if you are clumped near a couple party members and they dodge away but you don’t, you’ll eat their bolts and get downed. Dodge when you see her do the Alphard bomb pull stance.
  • Horrik’s attack pattern is usually 2 reds, then 1 blue. Do not stand in the circle for the red AoE and do not stand in the line between Horrik and the AoE circle. The projectile that produces the red AoE can hit you and really hurts. The blue circle still kind of hurts but pulls stacks off Mai, so stand in it for a second or two if it will help pull off stacks.

General jist of the fight:

  • We have one person such as a mesmer, a warr with mace/sword + LB, or a thief stand on one side of the arena outside of Horrik’s aggro range to bait the shadowshots. Losing a warrior or thief in melee is a theoretical DPS loss but since you aren’t chasing her all over and the guard and mes don’t have to bring reflects I think it kind of works out. I’ll have a commentated video of such warrior’s perspective up within a week or so.
  • Everyone else loosely clumps up near Mai Trin to bait Horrik’s AoE. She usually likes to start with a lightning spin at this distance, so be ready to dodge.
  • When Horrik puts down a blue AoE, pop Obsidian Flesh and stand in it if Mai is possibly on you. Facetank everything for 5 seconds, swapping to air or fire for damage, then get out.
  • Use Swirling Winds to block shadowstep shots if you don’t have someone baiting them. Swirling Winds will block that projectile but won’t block the lightning projectiles.
  • When Mai is at 7 – 10 stacks, condi’s won’t stick to her and you do next to no damage. Just kite around using sidesteps and forward running – backpedaling, even with swiftness, is not enough to outdistance her.
  • At 6 stacks condi’s will stick to her. This is when I use Glyph of Elemental Power (Earth) to apply cripple to make melee kiting easier, and when Horrik places down a blue AoE use Magnetic Grasp or Signet of Earth to immobilize her in the field (or facetank with Obsidian Flesh and DPS).
  • At 0-2 stacks we just DPS her down. Swap to fire, lay down a fire field, blast it, and get ready to condi cleanse and heal once she teleports.
  • At the barrage phase we spread out so that one person is in each corner and one person is in the center. My general behavior in this phase is to first heal in air (for swiftness), then run out of nicely spaced AoEs, dodge out of somewhat heavy AoEs, and use Obsidian Flesh or Mist Form in nasty AoEs. If I dodge, I swap to earth attunement. If I’m grazed by an AoE, I’ll either swap to water and spam Water 2 or wait for my heal to be back up to cast in Air again.
  • If someone is defeated during a barrage phase or near the start or middle of a phase, have one person kite while the others rez. If rezzing, put up a swirling winds, then start rezzing, then swap to earth. Use Obsidian Flesh the first time Mai shadowshots in your direction, Mist Form the second, then Magnetic Wave the third so that you don’t bring Mai to the defeated player.
  • If someone is defeated near the end of a Mai phase, partially rez before the barrage and then finish after the barrage is over.

The Ele Meta (Dungeon Speed Clears)

in Elementalist

Posted by: DEKeyzToChaos.7381

DEKeyzToChaos.7381

While it took me a while to give up PF for organized group runs, it really is unnecessary with warriors, rangers, mesmers, and the occasional ember.

For suboptimal groups, 30/30/0/10/0 is okay damage and Zel and I think it’s a lot of fun to play (though he’ll toss that /10/ into earth or arcane). There are a lot of builds similar to 30/10/10/20/0 and 20/0/25/25/0 and the differences will probably be lost in RNG and human errors (some elite groups excluded).

EDIT: I’ve been hanging out with clippy too much. Some of these numbers may have different assumptions because I did the calculations on different days and can’t be bothered to write down my assumptions to remind myself. Also assumed full zerk gear, which probably isn’t optimal for some of these, and sig of fire/arcane blast/lightning hammer utilities.
o 0/20/25/25/0 – Pure % damage modifier build, requires bleeding target (27509)
o 0/25/25/20/0 – If you need vuln, requires bleeding target (27063 – .9837)
o 0/25/20/25/0 – If you need vuln and dodges, requires bleeding target (25857 – .9399)
o 25/20/0/25/0 – If you need charges but not vuln, requires burning target (25685 – .9337)
o 20/0/25/25/0 – 25097
o 30/10/10/20/0 – If you need charges, fury, but not vuln, requires burning target (25485 – .9264)
o 25/25/10/10/0 – If you need charges and vuln, requires burning target (25268 – .9185)
o 30/30/0/10/0 – If you need charges, fury, vuln, requires burning target (24044 – .874)

Double edit: anything with points in Arcana tanks your DPS.

(edited by DEKeyzToChaos.7381)

Armor advice

in Elementalist

Posted by: DEKeyzToChaos.7381

DEKeyzToChaos.7381

For dungeons with a general pick-up group, I would go with Berserker’s if you can stay alive, if not, throw in some knight’s and cleric’s gear. From what I see, most 5-man parties have enough other characters that deal conditions that you may be hitting the condition cap pretty quickly (especially bleed – it seems like everyone can bleed foes).

If you do find that your enemies are constantly burning like Bvh, then instead go with Rampager’s and Carrion gear. D/D fire skills are on a short enough cooldown (compared to staff, at least) that you may be able to make that your main damage dealer.

July 9th Dungeon Changes

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: DEKeyzToChaos.7381

DEKeyzToChaos.7381

Dead, or just really bored. Celestial stats….blah. Skins for achievements, eh fine. Permanent account bonuses for achievements….now I’m an achievement kitten and should’ve been whoring this whole time. Guess I’ll at least be busy doing all Living Story content, doing all jp’s, mini dungeons, goggles etc instead of dungeons now.

Since I’ve been an AP kitten from the start, I will laugh at you as I enjoy my marginally better magic find that really won’t make much of a difference at all in drops! And I wonder how many of hours of CoF I’d have to farm in order to see even one gold more of earnings from that extra gold find.

But in all seriousness, they fixed the ele skill Flame Wall. That alone makes my day.

The Blog post that killed CoF path 1

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: DEKeyzToChaos.7381

DEKeyzToChaos.7381

Well, when combined with:

We want to remove the choice players are currently being forced to make on their gear: “Do I go with better stats, or better loot?” This isn’t in the spirit of cooperation that Guild Wars 2 is all about. As such, we’ll be removing magic find entirely as an item stat and turning it into account stat that improved the odds of rare drops for all your characters.

… I forsee the death of the omnom bar.

[Math] DEKeyz's GW2 Rotation Calculator

in Community Creations

Posted by: DEKeyzToChaos.7381

DEKeyzToChaos.7381

After a lot of development, testing, and HotM golem whacking, I’m ready to release my Guild Wars 2 all-profession rotation calculator for public use.

The calc is designed so that a user can input equipment, traits, and rotations (from a dictionary of almost 800 skills) and the sheet will calculate DPS, heals per second, and survivability – opening theorycrafting to many who have the interest but not the time to develop their own DPS calculator. This comes preloaded with some non-optimized PvE rotations and enables the comparison of up to 5 builds’ DPS graphically. A lot of notes about sampling methods and assumptions are included on the first page of the spreadsheet. For those who do have their own calculators, I hope the data in this sheet are a useful resource.

This tool is by no means complete, and while my testing team has done a great job I am sure there are still bugs and shortcomings in functionality in this beast of a sheet. I would appreciate any reports of irregularities in performance or suggestions.

I would like to thank my two main testers Knox and Obal for their many, many hours of work. Also thanks to [DnT] members past and present and many other players who contributed data, ideas, questions, and feedback; and thanks to [qT], [Ren], and [SC] for feedback on the numbers on a broad scale and their own experimental data for comparison.

I hope that this inspires improved online DPS calculation tools that use the data (and possibly algorithms) provided in this sheet. I know Chase (who is active on Metabattle) has been looking at online implementations and I’m sure he would be happy to have collaborators on the project, and I would also love the opportunity to continue improving my theoretical framework for DPS calculations in a more accessible platform.

As I find and squish more bugs, I will try to keep an updated version on my user page on Metabattle. Happy theorycrafting