My Staff ele just loved playing defense in Stronghold. “You shall not pass!”
Seriously though, the game mode is pretty great and while it takes a bit more teamwork to get done right, winning feels really good. More Stronghold please! <3
My Tempest loves floating around in her water bubble mount.
1. Tempest (Overall): 3
I’ve tested Tempest out in PvE and PvP. While I love the animations (Water bubble and riding rocks!! <3) it felt a bit lackluster. Almost as if, I could be doing more. Warhorn is a niche, boon support weapon and offers very little in the form of direct DPS, or mitigation. I’d rather run my trusty staff! Only Tempest build that really impressed me was a full Cleric’s healing build with staff.
2. Traits: 3
Seems to go great with Auras and not so great with anything else. Wish we had a better source of stability in the traits though. If AoE is on cool-down and I want to overload… look, it gets frustrating when even in PvE I get constantly blown out of overload.
3. Warhorn: 2
Only my opinion. Felt like its use was extremely “narrow” and situational. In PvP when caught in 1 v 1, I missed my extra dagger, or even my focus. I hated being caught out in the open, all alone with warhorn that provided so little in the form of dps and defense.
4: Overloads: 3
I sorta get the idea behind overloads. Sadly my super evolved form of the elements didn’t feel all that powerful. I get better healing out of staff, in water with a blast than I did with water’s overload. The might on fire was pretty nice to spam. Air felt mediocre at best and the only really good use of earth’s overload was when I could hide between my team members and throw down okay-ish damage with it or when I needed to run away. The cool down’s weren’t as harsh as I first thought they’d be.
5. Healing Skill: 2
Situational at best. Some friends told me they were able to heal their entire party (easily) for 6k+, but I didn’t get the chance to verify this. If that’s true, then I’d probably change my vote to a 4.
6. Utilities: 3
Tried out the shouts and found that they didn’t offer anything new. Suppose that they could work. Besides, with Cantrips being the go-to line it would take something truly impressive to get me to switch away from cantrips.
7. Elite Skill: 0
REALLY situational, and even in a pre-made sPvP team my teammates barely saw much of a difference when I used this skill. Perhaps we weren’t coordinated enough, but if it was that difficult to setup for us, then imagine the usefulness of this skill in an ordinary PuG team. Just wish somebody could have said:
“Wow! Thanks for that amazing cd reduction!”
:( feels under appreciated
8. Animations & sound effects: 5
Love the animations and the sound! Sure warhorn still has a bit of an annoying “tin” to it, but the other effects. <3 Zen water bubble mounts for everybody!
Overall Tempest lacked hard DPS. Either I failed to get a build that could push the numbers without being too glassy, or this is an inherent problem with the spec. Support via healing and boon sharing was pretty amazing and in my opinion a definite redeeming quality. Even though this is something we have been doing for a long time without Tempest. As for weapons, I’d still much rather run with my trusty staff than warhorn though. If Tempest was meant to be a support spec then it did it’s job pretty well.
I agree with Swiftwynd!
Tempest in Clerics gear (I love staff so stayed with staff) worked wonders in Stronghold. At one point I managed to keep the Lord alive and saw it down three players, with me just spamming water and the occasional cc skill. It is insanely strong in that sense.
I found it much harder to try and get a DPS build going. I’d be either giving up all my survivability and mobility, or simply lacked the sustain to land some hits. But perhaps Tempest was never meant to be an all-out dps spec, and rather healing/boon sharing?
Try doing the daily pvp. It is quite easy and you can get a couple of spirit shards there rather quickly. I forgot the actual amount as I don’t even bother opening them, but one small bag contains around 3 shards!
I would love seeing this implemented. It couldn’t be that difficult to do, right? +1
Ulion, thank you for your reply. I agree, Water works amazingly well with cantrips and it sure lends a lot of weight to our support and sustain capabilities. I’ve been trying to mix up water, air and fire, with staff and the cantrips and a zerky trinket.
While I have some defense, I’m still quite glassy even though it is hilarious to drop meteor shower on a point and watch the enemy melt. Earth on the other hand doesn’t seem to work well with staff. Perhaps it would be better with scepter and maybe a condi trinket? Not sure…
Humblekain! Welcome to Guild Wars and of course the ele! You will love this class. We provide a lot, and pre-patch had builds that were useful in every single aspect of the game. I understand exactly what you are saying regarding Arcana. I feel all empty when I dodge and there is no magical boom(!) to accompany it. Also, without Arcana dodging is purely defensive and offers zero offensive capability. I loved the blast finisher we had in Earth, or the blind, or… well, you get it. At the moment it seems like Arcana is a must if we want to be able to work well together in a sPvP team.
Exactly like the title says; are we being forced into running with Arcana in sPvP to be effective?
I main Ele since shortly after launch and have endured the ups and downs of our class stoically. I’m experienced enough to be able to run with various builds from Zerg Staff to Cele D/D and even the fun Fresh Air build! After this patch I thought it would finally be possible to drop the Arcana line and mix it up with something else that provides a bit more… flavor.
Sadly, after experimenting I find that I am either a long-range nuke that needs constant healing and protection from my team, or at best a semi-effective bruiser. I guess all I am looking for is a viable sPvP build that doesn’t force me into running with Arcana. After all, isn’t variety the spice of life?
What are your thoughts? Did anybody try experimenting with a build that revolves around three elements?
Facing one barrage engie in ranked pvp isn’t such a big issue, but having to fight three of them on mid is quite a challenge with such a broken trait! What made it worse is they were a guild group. <3 We gave them a good fight, but against those odds… Hope they fix this soon.
Sorry for the engie main players that will now have to try another build.
This is great!
I’ve actually used shield #5 a couple of times in Skyhammer to knock enemies off the lazer cannon platform. x) People rarely expect a move like that and I feel like such a troll for doing it.
On the other hand, the only real value I get from shield is minimal protection and interrupting enemies from stomping, absorbing projectiles and that is about it. Still, I use it for now.
Would be wonderful! I miss playing my necromancer and this tiny improvement would convince me to hang up my ele’s staff for a bit.
I simply adored the Anise and Canach combo!
More of them please!
I find the above speculation fascinating. And the Sylvari culture is easily my favorite culture in Tyria. I wanted to ask – Do you remember the fight against the nightmare corruption when you start a new Sylvari character? Why does this corruption take the form of a dragon? If I recall correctly you had to kill the corruption before it takes root within the dream. Surely this is evidence that the Dream can be corrupted, influenced or altered. Remember that Ventari himself is reciting his “laws” as you walk through the dream.
^— This has been one of the very best suggestions to date.
I want a Sylvari Hound for my Sylvari Mesmer. She would look so incredibly cute riding one!
I don’t mind not being in the spotlight.
The way that I see it, my characters are all the “go to girls” which the heroes consult when they want results, and not stories. It feels refreshing for a change to not be the main hero, but a support, secondary hero. If you think about it, it also fits in with the Living Story idea. Compared to real life, only about 5% of people actually influence and steer events directly. The rest are all support characters.
Argh, I need coffee.
Ah! A positive thread!
Things I do like about this update is -
Wow! Thrilled that they will be finally fixing this. Mind, I have become so used to it that I hardly noticed it anymore. There is actually a work-around to this issue – simply never let your Life Force drain out to 0. Whenever I exit Deathshroud before it drains out, I have immediate access to my heal and other skills.
Or have I just been lucky?
in Battle for Lion’s Arch - Aftermath
Posted by: DayLight.9603
That explains a lot!
Same happened to me. Only later on did I see the little maintenance oil station and I though – “Wow! A free boost! Thank you Vigil guys!” Won’t buy it again though.
Agreed. Death Nova is a pretty awesome trait for a Minion Master. Especially since we now are able to have more little Horrors out on the field as well. Every time one of them expires it creates a pretty big poison field.
Thank you for the advice everybody!
Much appreciated!
It is such a shame that the staff doesn’t offer much in PVE. I’ve been running dungeons, mostly Arah, HoTW and AC where I had to constantly swap between three different weapon sets. When stacking the staff isn’t a bad weapon. The bounce always works, and creeps are all perfectly in the AOE. Certain spots the staff was actually pretty awesome, especially in AC (without changing my traits from the phantasm Mesmer build), but mostly, like you said, it was sub-par and I was forced to go back to sword + focus which offered a ton more damage.
The sheer micro management, swapping between different weapons before an encounter gets pretty wearisome! Sadly it seems like I won’t be making that much use of the staff then.
Did anybody perhaps run some figures on DPS for the staff, say with three clones out, attacking with the Winds of Chaos; if you are traited for the extra bounce?
By the way,, I don’t think that the staff is really a long range weapon? At a range of 1200 I barely get the benefit of the boon. Anyways.. what are your thoughts on this?
I really do appreciate your support in this!
Crafting works. I leveled an Elementalist like that ages ago. From 1 up to 80 in one day. Sadly, crafting steals your soul as well as your gold. A lot of gold. I now have a phobia for crafting and never want to do that again. Rather stick to a mix of AC, map exploration and the living story. That way you won’t end up going crazy!
Agree 100% with Konig DesTodes! Bring it on!
Hey everybody!
I need to ask for some advice among the experienced Mesmers lurking around in the forums. I have a level 80 glass-cannon, full Zerker Phantasm Mesmer. Now I love doing dungeons and fractals, and have been doing so since launch! My Mesmer does a great job with her current build, but here is my problem -
I picked up the Kasmeer staff simply because it looked so pretty. And occasionally I take it out now in dungeons, and the more I play with it, the more I want to play “effectively” with it! So I browsed through the builds in the forums, but I cannot seem to find anything that I like, or some of them seem to be a bit outdated.
What I want to ask is this – What Mesmer build utilizes the staff? I don’t want to drop in DPS as we do high level fractals (in an organized group) and I understand how important it is to burst through mobs and critters. I want to be an effective member of the team, do decent damage but also provide some support.
Thank you in advance!
TL&DR: I am looking for a DPS-Staff build for my Zerker Mesmer that I could use in PVE, Dungeons, Fractals and some WvW. Any recommendations?
To me one of the biggest differences between a low level elementalist and a low level necromancer is that the necromancer feels a bit more forgiving. I mean, it is no problem missing a dodge or three on necromancer since you have some innate tankiness that will save you. Levelling the elementalist on the other hand is way more painful. Mistakes lead to your death way easily. Or at least that was my experience with it.
I’m pretty sure that there are some nice guides on different builds and strategies in this forum that could help you out. Just have a look at the stickied posts and good luck!
And don’t let people fool you, the necromancer isn’t a warrior. There is actually a lot of thought that needs to go into the way that you enter any situation. Do you have enough LF? How do you burst? What rotation to follow? Any escape plan ready?
Necromancer is a really fun class. We do pretty well in PVP, excel in WVW and in PVE such as high level fractals, we might not be the best, but neither are we the worst.
^—- Agreed!
The Sylvan hound looks simply perfect alongside my Sylvari mesmer in a mix of cultural armor. But other than open world PVE, the elite doesn’t have much use as it can be easily replaced by a skill with more technical benefits.
I simply love the Sylvari culture! Having played since release, I now have 5x Sylvari characters and all of them look completely different from one another. I believe that there are more variety in the Sylvari creation process than in any other race, except maybe for the charr. And even if we are made up from branches, vines and tree-stuff… we are unique and awesome!
Oh.. and this made me laugh! Smart observation!
“that was a good idea from the moderator to move a complain topic about sylvary from whatever forum it was to the sylvary subforum, where indeed pretty much everyone like it.
Lol” – ramorambo.
Guilty as well! Got 2x necromancers, level 80, kitted out in exotics and ascended gears. The only difference is that the one is a male Sylvari necromancer that runs around with a horde of minions on his tail, while the other is a cute female Sylvari necromancer that specializes ion constant AOE pressure with marks and wells.
I say – go ahead and make another character!
Same problem. Several characters, two different computers.
I’m possible the worst player to ask for advice.
I have several 80 characters, two of them necromancers and yes – I’d always suggest that you go with a necromancer as your main!
On Desolation we have several necromancer commanders and they survive perfectly well. The necromancer has access to high damage builds, either single target or pretty decent aoe (sustained) damage. Overall the class feels as if it is in a strong position, in all aspects of the game.
But then.. like I said.. I am proudly biased.
At level 44+ the two of you should already have access to the Ascalon Dungeon, which requires a level 30 character for the story mode and then a level 35 character for the different explorable paths. Trust me, once in a dungeon the game will change for you.
If you are still stuck on content to do, why not whisper me in-game? I’ve got a very friendly guild and we all love doing various content in the game! From fractals (currently the most challenging content in my opinion) to dungeon runs, guild events etc.
My sylvari necromancers are all unhappy that Trahearne has a sword and they don’t. Give us access to a great sword too! Besides, the original owner of the sword was so noble.
Hey Kuduka!
We are about 90 active members. You are welcome to whisper me in-game for more information. Don’t want to hijack Synatics post here.
Hey Synatics!
Feel free to whisper me in game. My guild has TS and we are a bunch of friendly, patient players that love to teach and show people the ropes. Better yet, we are active and on Desolation!
Welcome back to the game!
Curious about the build that you are using, OP. I’ve found that with wells it takes way longer to kill a warrior, and of course way more effort. It is also less forgiving if you happen to burn a skill at the wrong time.
I also haven’t really tried a full spec condition build, so I cannot speak for them. Although I can imagine that it would be a long fight.
On another note, I have found that in PVP, the MM build is extremely powerful against warriors. The little flesh shields protect you and offer a host of CC abilities that ruins life for a warrior. The only thing I have noticed is that a clever warrior will switch to longbow and kill my minions before focusing me. Still, it is a fairly balanced fight in my opinion.
Ah! Before I forget, Necromancers have easy access to chill with the focus, staff and even death shroud #2. Not to mention that we also have access to yet another chill
from blinds, if traited the blinds add a nice chill. (Shadowfiend ftw if you are an MM!)
Add some on swap sigils to gain an extra chill to cool down that pesky, overeager, facerubbing warrior! I have noticed that if you keep on chilling a warrior they become extremely easy to manage and control.
Good luck in your battles!
I love that mark. Sure it was way better when we were able to remove conditions from allies, but heck – have the necromancer ever been a social creature? This mark is fine as it is.
Hey everybody!
I have been playing Necromancer for ages now. Got a cookie-cutter condition build and a standard power build necromancer. My third necromancer will be a hybrid. I love her but would like to hear your thoughts and comments as well.
30/20/20/0/0 – Traited for Greater Marks, Terror, Ranged Wells, Cooldown reduction on the Staff and 20% extra damage against enemies with health below 50%. At the moment she is kitted out in Power/Precision/Condition damage gear.
I’ve noticed that she does great (constant?) aoe damage with staff + wells. For boss fights I switch to Axe and Focus. Wells would be Suffering, Corruption and Power. Elite is sometimes Lich, sometimes Plague – depending on the situation.
What do you think about the build? And what is this build called? Is it a hybrid?
Something in celebration of the Dream, I think. The other races could be involved by the holiday revolving around exposing the sylvari to as many new ideas and experiences as possible and broaden the Dream. They could be invited to the Grove to bring all manner of cultural specialities to the sylvari – food, music, dance, stories, games, combat styles, etc. A lot of the sylvari don’t ever leave the Grove, so it’d be a good way of broadening their horizons.
But of course the Nightmare Court would gatecrash and we have a lot of ruined festivals as plots already
+1! Love this idea, minus the Nightmare of course.
Necromancer in my opinion! Already have three different 80-level necromancers (powermancer with axe, wellomancer and a condi)! The play-style is awesome with enough variability that you don’t get bored too easily. Survivability is also good in PVE and PVP.
