Guild Wars 2

This wasn’t at all a means to say I’m concerned with the effectiveness of dueling when it comes to D/D. My only gripe was with the icon that sits on my character. I win tons of 1v1s with D/D and it would just be nice to know that I’m not megaphoning my next move via an icon that shows what combinations of skills are coming next. Maybe I could use it to my advantage but just haven’t given it enough thought due to preference.

PinCushion made a good point. The fact that this is apparent across all classes, which I did not take into account, is frustrating. Why is it that we have to see everything about our opponent through icons where we can go “Oh its a signet warrior, let me handle him this way…”? In GW1, we never knew what was coming until we saw it. A spirit being placed, a glyph going off. I completely agree that the build variety at the moment is sufferable and that causes some grief we see. Once builds are diversified, then maybe it won’t matter so much. Until then, this has given me plenty of thought. Thanks guys.

You’ve missed my point with his “work around”. All I’m suggesting is just a way to reduce the obviousness. Regardless if you “do the obvious”, if I swap from Air to Fire to do Burning Speed and then instead of the flame grab, swap to Earth, my opponent can suggest that I am going to follow up with a variety of skills based on an icon he sees.

He does not have to watch my hands, he can watch my portrait and make judgements based on something that is visible the moment I am targeted. It is not the same as watching for stability, as that pops up on a moment where you cannot specifically predict it to, but seeing what attunement your opponent is in is constantly throwing red flags. It is a complete waste to hold off on opportunity to “confuse your opponents” like I mentioned earlier because you’re dropping your attunement cooldowns when you could be just as unpredictable as any other class. Maybe the guide and your post is indicating Eles “need to display their attunement”, which if that’s the case and that’s your opinion, that’s all I was asking for. A necro can hold a staff and while I’m busy dealing with their attacks, they switch, but nothing shows me they’ve swapped until I take a moment to focus on their character or I get hit with their swapped weapon and I can not be sure what’s happening. See my point?

I’ve been dueling some of my higher rank friends (40-50) and something has come to mind. I feel like the moment I swap attunements, they know exactly what’s coming. I can try and mix up my skills by swapping to another and maybe missing their expectations, but that’s disadvantageous to me as I lose out on part of the rotation (dagger/dagger for instance with air, hitting your RTL and your updraft, and sometimes the fact that I may want to updraft in melee and the moment I swap to air, its a >! DODGE NOW<). The cause of this, I feel, is the fact that our attunements are shown as a buff, which in reality they’re not, but that icon is like a “If you know ele, here are the skills they’re about to use”. In a party setup, seeing the buff is fine. But, Ele’s are the only class that have this “Hey everybody, I’m about to RTL, ok here comes my flame grab next” sort of tell that I feel takes away from the surprise of PvP and the dynamic of combat. Hide it from your enemies and that way it’ll be similar to engineers where you don’t know what kit they’re swapping to until an attack comes your way.

I ask to the Ele forums, does anyone else who pvps feel the same way? Do you think it would be better for the icon to be hidden from foes in PVP scenarios? I’m curious of your opinions on the matter. Thanks to all who read and/or respond!