Guild Wars 2

And now, a Haiku:

Hold my beer
Posted my Guardian
Meet Jeff
Jeff is a Guardian

@ Fishbones: I appreciate the build & video posting. These things always intrigue me.

A few questions, however. Would you mind terribly to try to update or repost the build? I find some inconsistencies to your video and the build posted.

Like, in your videos I see you having about 16,2k HP when the post shows the HP pool at 15,3k. Also you seem to run the signet of restoration instead of ether renewal.

Now the general gist is made. 0/0/30/20/20 D/F with the runes. and lighningflash & arcane wave. So far so good, point made.

But since this build in particular spiked my interest due to my, similar, gameplay preferences, I would want to ask if you could refine the information :]

Is it just me or is 95% of the Forum some thread complaining about feeling weak?

I actually think Elementalists are doing quite fine.

Don’t be such drama-queens.

Elementalists are in a good spot; the class is unforgiving and requires quick fingers. Step up your game and you’ll be fine.

Boycott… shesh.

“Just” an extra blast finisher.

The Elementalist gets a healing spell that blasts fields and damages in AoE. That is definately not a bad skill. That is really good actually. Healing, blasting, AoE damage in ONE spell.

Like all utilities, it has its place.

Arcane Brilliance may not be the 1v1 healing skill -choice for PvP. But that’s it. Because a skill has counter-play opportunities, doesn’t mean its design is faulty. Get off of your high horse, thinking that you know all about game design and kitten. More skills will follow. Just calm your kittens and try to not be a pretentious kittenhead for once

I recommend the threads from Neko and Zelyhn (in that order) to read up. I found them quite helpful to rekindle with my Elementalist.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Neko-s-Comp-Guide-to-the-Dungeon-Ele/page/3#post3278001

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Zelyhn-s-Advanced-D-F-PvE-Guide/page/5#post3307856

So my opinion will be quite one-sided since I have not played necromancers in WvW.

However, I do played quite a lot of Elementalist.

http://melementalist.com/

This is a site that had me rethink the opportunities that are presented to me whilst playing as an Elementalist.
As I understand it, the WvW meta is condition-heavy, thus probably favouring the Necromancer. However, I feel like the Ele is in a spot where he can actually do it all.

I have seen insane nukers, impenetrable bunkers, and suffocating conditiontists.

However, and this is important, I recommend the Necromancer because he is more forgiving in his play, and easier to learn and adapt to.

If you want to play Ele, you will have to quickly attunement swap, customize your key-binds and everythan. Its worth it, if you really live and breath the fire and air and earth and stuff. But if you want to occasionally go out there and have a cool time with some friends, Necro will probably do the trick.

For leveling purposes, I prefer the stats Vitality and Power. 20 Points in Water are nice. Or 20 in Arcane.
(double dagger)

Not sure if Blasting Staff adds to the dps-output.

The persisting flame trait for longer firefields does – wether or not its worth the loss of 10% would have to be calculated.

About LH: you dont have to be traited for it to do high dmg. Hence my sidenote that there is the possibilty of having a build solely built around LH – but it is also possible here.
With all the %dmg amplifiers, this build could use LH just fine, sitting in fire for the duration and swapping alacrity for burning precision.

30 into fire would make the build lose a % amplifier in exchange for a GM trait that gives might. However, if might-stacks are covered by other group members, he would favour the bonus %

In this case, on a [Staff], I think, 25/10/25/10 pretty much covers it.

You can always swap out your utilities:

[Signet of Fire] will top off your crit-chance.

[Glyph of Storms] and/or [Arcane Bolt] also deal nice additional dmg to groups or single targets.

Another option: just add [Conjure: Lightning Hammer]. You will get bonus precision and crit-dmg, on top of your staff-stats, and the hammer’s auto-attacks hit pretty hard – 3-hit chain, the third hit is the strongest, blinds all enemies hit, and is a blast finisher. This would maximize your damage output, as long as you can manage being in meele range.

This would be the glassiest of cannons.

About[Lightning Hammer]: There are builds that specialize in dealing as much damage with LH as possible.
These builds often have 20 points in the [Water Attunement] for the [Vital Striking] and [Piercing Shards] traits.
The idea would be to stack might and fury, and all the other stuff, then conjure the hammer, swap to water and swing away.

On targets that wont move too much, this build will deal good and consistent damage, at medium range (you want to stay within 600).

I see you mainly using the Fire Attunement, providing the following to the group:

- damage (crits & burning)
- fire fields

The traits and playstyle appear, for the lack of a better word, a bit selfish (as you rely on your teammates (PUG or organized) to provide mightstacks, vulnerability, bleed and regeneration etc. pp.).

If you like I can go into detail and expand my thoughts, but to keep things short:
You sacrifice utility for consistency.

The real question is: what is it that you are looking for.

Hello Elementalist-Community! Special thanks to Zelyhn and Neko! You guys and your efforts really made a difference. I, for instance, have rekindled with my Elementalist thanks to your guidance and input.

I would like to remind everyone (@Jeydra) that they both said in their guides that the “best” way to play is the way that fits your personal style and preference. I really appreciate Z & N for saying this, as I personally find this to be very true. Without wanting to sound too preachy: Have faith in your judgement and opinion.

Experiment with all kinds of builds, gear, weapon-sets and utilities. That is why they are interchangeable. I really try to sound less “american” but this is the beauty of Guildwars2: The fact that you can do whatever the hell you want – and it works.

To those who would argue that this is not the optimal way to maximize ones dmg output and efficiency in a group and for a dungeon I would like to say the following:
1: yes. this is true.
2: who cares.

My intent here is to remind those reading and those posting that there are significant differences in peoples playing environments. A great many do not play in “high lvl” groups and don’t need to concern themselves with min-maxing or optimization.

Zelyhn and Neko have done a superb job of giving their examples and thoughts on berserker-based dungeoning. You should not need to ask questions about heal and utility-spells, sigils, runes, or even gear, as these are all up to you and your goal for your elementalist, and what works for you best.

(for example, I don’t like the ever popular Sigils of Bloodlust, as I think they further punish people for downing)

If you want to deal more dmg, look for opportunities that allow you to deal more dmg. Read tooltips and the effects of runes and sigils etc. and decide for yourselves if they are worth it. Do not let the Tradepost prices influence you.
It takes a lot of playtime to even “sort of figure out” how an elementalist works.
Warriors are more straightforward that way.

I think initially, this was intended as being a guide/discussion thread on berserker based D/F play, and I think Shadowfax, has done great in terms of interaction.

The way I understand it is that this thread has sort of become a discussion for builds in high lvl / semi-organized play – namely fractals 30+

I would not recommend going 30/30/x in a PUG

For those interested in WvW:
http://melementalist.com/builds/
is a nice website for some inspiration/input for what works in WvW – including videos and a stream.
http://melementalist.com/booncondcontrol-cheatsheet/
offers some in-depth calculating for those interested.

Edit: also, for newer Elementalists: check out Neko’s suggestion for key-binding attunements – really helps a lot if you have regular keybord and mouse. (Neko’s – recommendable – guide: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Neko-s-Comp-Guide-to-the-Dungeon-Ele/first)

I liked what I saw.

Here is my Elementalist (D/F) – I screenshot the “preview” window for the neutral background.

Charr Engineer (male) fire-animation bug

Charr racial utility skill [Hidden Pistol] unlocks the Toolbelt ability [Hidden Pistols]

The animation for that ability is incorrect as the pistols are held upward and not forward.

Level or equipped weapons have no effect on this skills behaviour.

(As you can see in exhibit B, sometimes even the muzzle flash points upwards)

Hello Forum,

As a Charr Engineer, having the racial ability Hidden Pistol in your utility slot unlocks the Engineer-Belt ability Hidden Pistols where he practically does the Thief “Unload” thing.

However, there seems to be an animation bug where the pistols point upward and he shoots the bullets from the stock, instead of pointing them at the enemy (the skill works excellent in every other aspect though).

TL;DR: Hidden Pistols = Barrels upwards, stocks in front – as seen in image

Hello Neko and others.

First things first, thank you very much for all the effort you put into this guide. It has helped me a lot and made me rekindle with my actual “main” (who was replaced by the being known as “warrior” for a longer time).

So, props, good guide, well done, you did a good thing.

My question:
I seem to have difficulties to survive the “wallstacking” of some tougher mobs or bosses (Kohler in AC). I mainly used the Fiery Greatsword.
Arcane Shield and Armour of Earth only help so much.

Edit: nvm, I got it

FinalPatriot.8034:

I named my Norn Warrior, Alexandra Hawke. She’s the smallest build available as I try to RP that she’s only half-norn, half-human. I figured the name of “Hawke” would fit the Norn race while being ambiguous enough to still relate to her human side.

Who knows…

Hawks are like THE animals used for hunting purposes. The other would be blood-hounds for foxhunting etc.
So having that hunting animal / spirit in ones name definitely fits the Norn and their culture.

At the same time, I would say that “Alexandra” is a quite flamboyant name for a Norn, however, since you are going for a half-human RP-approach, considering an RP-perspective, you did well. Apart from the very fitting “down-sizing” of your model, the name definitely implies some form of “higher” education and culture.

For a warrior though… I am not sure… I would have totally agreed on a medium armour-class, or some form of scholar.
(Since Alexandra seems associated to “finer arts” and Hawke to traits like agility and speed)

TL;DR I think the name is quite fitting and works well for your RP-intentions. However, since you rolled a warrior, I feel it is somewhat off.

7/10

My Norn-Warrior is male. His size is like the T-3 armoursmith in Hoelbrak.
this guy
Just like him. So he is not a giant max-muscle-max-height monster-Norn.

I wanted a warrior-esque name and chose Hadrubal

I am sure this topic has been discussed before, and that a merger will probably be in order. However, I would still like to adress the topic of the voicefiles triggered by Human-Specific skills (Prayer to Kormir, Lyssa, Reaper of Grenth etc).

I suggest here that these skills could maybe regain their voicefiles, but on a cooldown.

We all know the hilarity that was hearing a human shout “May Lyssa confound you!” every few seconds, and this has indeed been patched. But removing these files entirely was maybe a bit too harsh. How about reintroducing them, but having them play only once every so often? It would bring back a lot of “flair” to these skills.

I do realize that few people actually use racial utility skills in PvE or PvP that much, since they are not the strongest – due to balancing – but having them in less challenging situations contributes a lot to the “feel” of ones character and I’d like to see (or hear) them again.

On a sidenote: Skill related voicefiles often times become an “issue” for veteran players. Hearing “for great justice” for the thousands time (even though it technically is a “shout”) can become a bit annoying (it’s basically the Lyssa-thing).
On the other hand I do realise that skills like this need some kind of feedback to make them “feel” right…

Or in the case of the elementalist: It is very cool to have him shout something when changing attunement, but after investing into the Arcana-Traits and swapping attunements more often, they get a little repetitive. (I think these voicefiles are on a cooldown anyway, so maybe increasing that cooldown would already do the trick)

An option adjusting / enabling or disabling the audio-feedback of skills would solve this maybe.

What are your thoughts?

Hello Community and kudos to you, if you made it this far into the thread.
I present to you my Norn-Warrior Hadrubal: Directly from my screenshot-folder into your hearts!

And by Odgens hammer! What style!
But wait! Lyssa confound you! There’s more!

Philosopher!
French Girl!
Hunter!
Gatherer!
Scoundrel!
Diva!

What can I say, Transmutation Stones are awesome, I am still looking for Crea Irontooth and if you break it, I break you.