Guild Wars 2

Okay, my regular group and I just ran explorable, We had 3 lvl80s, not all had exotics, a 72 and a 44, and we really dislike what changes we came across.

Spider Queen: She’s fine. Actually, we 2-manned her. The hatchlings, however, deal ridiculous amounts of damage. If they focus fire on someone (which they do), your hitpoints will disintegrate at an insane pace. It’s stupid. The hatchlings were fine before, I’m not sure why you changed them.

The Graveling Scavenger after the Spider Queen is just annoying. He’s not hard, but he spends so much time underground and then, if someone gets hits, spends so much time invulnerable that the fight just drags on.

The Cave Troll is similarly annoying. His one attack is really devastating, yes, but that can be dodged pretty easily. The fears and the dazes are just annoying, though. They don’t make him harder because those attacks aren’t going to kill you. You spend like 25% of your time being CCed, but you need to dodge only once every now and then to never die. Does he even do anything else? I seriously do not remember him using some sort of regular attack like he used to. He’s all artillery now, and he’s way easier but more annoying because of it.

Kohler was in a good place before these changes. He wasn’t too hard and he wasn’t too easy. You had to dodge at the right time and tank his normal damage, and you’d be fine. Not dodging brought you a quick death, and that would happen sometimes, but you could recover. His adds put him over the top, though. We ended up giving up on the fight after 6 or 7 tries because we couldn’t beat him.

Yes, we know to dodge and what to look for. Yes, we know to focus on the adds when they come up. We just couldn’t handle the damage and conditions/cc coming from the adds in addition to Kohler.

His spin to win attack didn’t always play the wind-up animation. Randomly getting pulled in and murdered does not make for a fun experience. I’m pretty sure anyone who says he does less damage with his spin is either lying or wrong. People who say he has less HP appear to be in the same boat. We certainly could not notice any difference in those two things. The only difference we noted is that we were forced to deal with adds multiple times, and we could not.

We had come back to this dungeon last week after not having tried it since November. Back in November, we were able to complete it with some difficulty. The “protect the this and that while graveling mounds spawn” fights were always our biggest stumbling points in paths 1 and 3. When we tried it last week, we were surprised to see how easy those fights had become. Instead of failing multiple times until we adjusted builds and tactics, we got through them first try with a lvl 30 on the team. It was a pleasant surprise, though it was probably a bit too easy.

With this latest patch, though, things went in entirely the opposite direction. What went wrong with this patch is that difficulty was added to fights that didn’t need it, most notably Kohler.

We’re probably not going to try again. We don’t like wasting our time.

Zero.5307:

Elementalist’s are just having a hard time with Theifs imo, just like most classes are. They can hit us for 14K with their first combo easy if their smart. All of the melee classes are a little buff right know it’ll get better eventually. If you having a hard time kiting Bunkering is defiantly the way to go.

Lollerskates, what? Despite our small hitpoint pool, Elementalists have the easiest time with thiefs out of any class.

Here’s a three step guide to success:
1. Roam in air attunement.
2. Hit Shocking Aura when a thief tries to do his thing.
3. LOL all over the thief.

Success!

The actual harder classes for Elementalists to deal with are an appropriately specced Necro or just any well-played Mesmer.

Zeldain.5710:

“The narrow pursuit of exclusive items is not what GW2 is about”?

Hello? Did you really say that? That is the ONLY thing GW2 is about… Legendaries, other skins, etc.

And there is PLENTY of farming to do within those pursuits, and ArenaNet is controlling them artificially… conveniently you can turn to the cash shop.

If not that, then what?

I actually enjoy the gameplay. I actually enjoy playing my elementalist and going out and doing random stuff, challenging myself by doing stuff that isn’t really designed to be done alone. It doesn’t have to reward me in order for it to be fun.

If you think GW2 is all about chasing rare items, then I hear that Zynga’s made a few games you might be interested in.

Also, for the person/people saying there’s no content a guild can do, you could always try the Temple of Lyssa or the Temple of Grenth in Orr. They’re the closest thing we’ve got to raids at the moment, and completing them does require a greater level of organization than your average zerg can manage. I’ve seen zergs of 20+ people fail both temples because of a lack of coordination.

The Temple of Melandru is a bit easier but still plenty difficult. With a skilled tank (has to avoid damage, not take it), you can capture it with as little as 5 people.

Lightning Flash and other teleports used to be able to port you across gaps in beta, but this enabled us to get to so many places we weren’t supposed to (inside keeps in WvW, outside of the map in like every map ever, etc.), thus why it was changed.

Attacking on attunement change only happens with Air, and it’s a noted bug.

Air attunement is a bit strange, but I find it very useful in D/D and S/D and even S/F. Staff air attunement may need a touch of love as it really doesn’t gel with the rest of what staff does. Like wow does the #3 suck. I can never get the kitten thing to hit. Too much control, not enough single-target damage.

The 15pt Earth trait is very useful since it applies cripple. It’s great for evading folks that have closed into melee with you. The fire one isn’t as good, but dagger elementalists certainly have no trouble making use of it.

Lingering elements doesn’t actually work with most things, and that is a problem. It works with Soothing Mist, but not really any of the other 5pt traits. It also doesn’t work with any damage bonus traits. What else does it work with? I’unno.

The 2-seconds of fury on attunement change is actually incredibly useful for stacking duration, especially if you’ve got boon duration buffs on you. Between this and Zephyr’s Boon, it’s easy to get perma-fury.

I think the best part of GW2 is the large amount of ad-hoc cooperation between players. It’s something I’ve never before seen in an MMO setting. In most MMOs, you largely stay by yourself unless you’re forming a group to accomplish something. Random folk are often seen as nuisances to someone doing quests. People basically never randomly start working together without any coordination or without using the group mechanic.

That’s completely different in GW2 because it’s there’s no reason not to. You might not talk to anyone, but you’re actually interacting with other people far more than almost any other MMO.

DeadlyRush.1620:

See that? That is why melee is weak. This same problem happens when the game got out and everybody could not kill the fire elemental boss event. The AOE around was crazy and only range people could kill him.

Call me insane, but I always found it easier in melee. Its AoEs seem to focus on ranged folk while almost ignoring close melee (standing in it is much safer than standing by that bridge).

The main reason people couldn’t kill the fire elemental is not because it was mean to melee but because it could casually one-shot anyone and everyone. I wrote a very enthusiastic report about it during one of the BWEs; I believe it started with “WAY TOO DIFFICULT”, caps and all.

shrewd.5319:

They have an ice shield with low cd that applies chills on every hit

It’s a 40-second cd, by the way.

OldRodKS.9758:

How does fast ground targeting work with lightning flash? Wouldn’t it just port you where you already are? I assume by “fast ground targeting” you mean the option that drops the ground target spells at your feet?

It only drops it at your feet if you click the skill. If you use the skill’s hotkey, it’ll drop the AoE wherever your mouse is pointing at the time.

aydenunited.5729:

On a seperate note, since I don’t know… are D/D Ele’s supposed to be able to heal at this level? Is there a certain build that grants them both good sustained damage + good self heals?

There are builds that let them do quite a bit of healing, but the damage on those builds is fairly lackluster. Although they can keep a good, sustained stream of damage going, they can’t burst at all.

These builds are usually 0/10/0/30/30, clerics amulet with a trait that makes their auras give them swiftness and fury for a duration in combination with boon duration runes and the 25pt water trait that gives +5% damage for each boon on the elementalist.

So the ways they get boons are as follows: A very few skills give boons outright. Switching attunements with the Elemental Attunement trait (every ele has this; every single one) gives a boon based upon which attunement you switch to as well as 2 seconds of fury. The auras give swiftness and fury. If the elementalist really goes at it, they can keep 5 boon on themselves most of the time. Swiftness and Fury are easily made permanent. The Renewing Stamina and Soothing Disruption traits can basically give permanent vigor as well. Regeneration is up more often than not, and might can be had from finishing combos.

For healing, this comes from a mix of things including specialization towards healing power and toughness with just a bit of vitality (I like going clerics amulet with knight’s jewel). First of all, the Elemental Attunement trait gives the player regeneration when switching into water attunement. Then on top of that, the 5pt water trait gives a second regeration buff (not actually regen, so it stacks) that is applied whenever the player is in water attunement; the duration of it is extended by the 15pt arcana trait. Further, the 15pt water trait makes switching into water attunement an AoE heal equivalent to the dagger #5 skill. A further trait can cause it to cleanse a single condition. Finally, the Evasive Arcana trait (grandmaster major arcana) fires off this same heal when the elementalist dodges in water attunement (10-second cooldown).

So here’s what happens when an elementalist is getting a little low on health:
1. They switch into water attunement. This will heal them for around 2400HP and give them the two regeneration buffs (heal for about 400/s combined)
2. They will dodge, healing them for another 2400HP.
3. If needed, they can use their #5, which would be another 2400HP (has a 45-second cd).
4. Frost Breath can heal for another 1000 or so while dealing damage.
5. They’ll probably pop off Frost Aura and Frozen Burst while they’re there.
6. They’ll promptly switch out of the attunement so as to start the 9-second cd to switch back in. Not too much is gained from staying in water attunement for extended periods.

They can do this once every 9 seconds or so, and that’s before they even dip in to their #6 (some prefer Ether Renewal for the extreme condition removal, others prefer the healing signet for a constant stream of healing without needing to activate it).

So yes, D/D eles can heal quite a bit if built correctly. They can also partially negate the loss in damage from speccing for survival by keeping a lot of boons on themselves at all times. It’s not fool-proof, though. It requires a modicum of player skill in order to make actually effective. Countering it requires keeping track of their cooldowns, trying to trick them into using their heals when it’s not really necessary and then smacking them with some CC and going to town.

Narkosys.5173:

I have sources just like others and also see/play the game + what people in the industry are saying.

So you don’t have any, then. You’re just pulling this stuff out of your kitten 100% of people who are secretive about their sources are lying about them and the statistics they made up.

Put up or shut up.

rmBossa.4621:

its not even a standard cc but one that is more frustrating, a knockback. Not only do you lose the ability to act, but you lose positioning and the duration is quite long. And the ele has several.

And by several, you mean 2: Earthquake, with a 45-second cooldown, and Updraft, with a 40-second cooldown.

It’s interesting that you would use it for general use. I only use Scepter/Focus in extremely specific situations, and by that I mean I only use it in Caudecus’s Manor and the Lt Kohler fight in AC explorable. The damage mitigation, especially from ranged attackers, and ranged burst make it useful in these situations. I usually slot Glyph of Storms with it since the Earth storm is amazing (it’s basically a temporary invulnerability field).

For general use, though? I prefer D/D. I’ll also sometimes switch into S/D for the extreme burst and might-stacking (oh so much might stacking) if I know I’m going to be going up against single, tough enemies that don’t move around a lot.

If you can get a good amount of both toughness and healing power, then an elementalist becomes one of the best bunkers in the game, second only to Guardians. You’d be amazed at the level of survivability a well-specced elementalist has. You’d think they’re squishy, but you’d be oh so wrong. Healing power is extremely worth it, as is the 15pt Water trait. I also really like the heal on Evasive Arcana in water attunement.

To put things into perspective, I did a few tests. My elementalist with his gear at level 80 has 741 healing power. I also had him specced for 70 healing power in the heart of the mists. Here’s what some skills healed for between the two builds:

Skill: 714 healing | 70 healing
Frost Breath: 314/tick | 196/tick
Ether Renewal: 780/tick | 636/tick
Cleansing Wave: 2166 | 1316

The 15pt water trait and the water dodge on Evasive Arcana heal for the same amount as Cleansing Wave. So the difference between someone specced for heals and someone who isn’t can be quite dramatic, especially if they don’t have the traits that allow them those extra two heals. Being able to pop into water attunement and then dodge once in order to recover some 4300HP is nice, especially since you can do it every 10 seconds. It more than doubles the healing you can do, and they’re both AoE, so it can benefit your team if you position yourself well.

An elementalist using the Powerful Auras trait (grandmaster water trait) with D/D or D/F along with Elemental Shielding and Zephyr’s boon makes for an amazing support character, especially if you also spec for boon duration. Keeping protection, Fury and Swiftness on your team in addition to Soothing Mist (5pt Water trait) and the boons from Elemental Attunement is crazy awesome.

The healing and regeneration from simply going into water attunement is enough for many situations, and Frost Breath heals for almost as much as Geyser does, so the auras that D/D or D/F give you access to make them the best choices. D/D is probably a better choice than D/F because it allows for better combos with RoF, EarthQuake and Churning Earth.

As an added bonus, the 25pt Water Trait means that you’ll be doing a decent bit of damage while you provide all this support to your team. It’s pretty nuts.

Bvhjdbvkjf.1987:

I’m confused about this bit… if the whole test was simply determining which auto attacks kill faster the first point seems to fit if you swap any weapon for the word ‘scepter’. Comparing auto attacks is an incomplete test so of course air on scepter will not achieve maximum DPS.

The point is that Scepter Air’s #1 and #2 are unique in that using #2 will not interrupt #1’s channel. The auto-attack sucks exactly because the #2 and #3 skills can be used without interrupting it.

Earth is Scepter’s best auto-attack hands down. It does the most damage, counts as a channeled skill (for Earth’s Focus), and counts as a projectile finisher to boot. The only drawback is that it sucks against objects.

The problem with Fire’s auto-attack is that you can apply burn all day long even without the auto-attack. It tries so hard to be like Earth’s auto-attack, but it uses a condition that stacks duration rather than intensity that is also commonly available, and it doesn’t have a finisher attached to it. It’s outright awful, probably the worst auto-attack in the game.

You guys need to do some might stacking before doing a churning earth bomb. Multiple elementalists coordinating to stack might can get themselves to 25 stacks easily within a few seconds.

Killthehealersffs.8940:

Narcarsis.5739:

How would that be me agreeing with you? There was NO time for him to do anything. You can dodge thief burst, you can’t dodge what’s on that video. Mesmer damage is NOT justified.

Its justified my friend :P
As long as there are classes that an do the same , the Mesmer should do it :P
As Jumper said , he had 0.25 sec time to react , like the rest of us when we get stunned by Basilisk Venom :P

I respect Jumper and his skill , but i love to see those 1 sec TKK in all classes :P

Excellent, we have another supporter (and it’s not just you, there’s so many in this thread) for my idea that an Elementalist’s Churning Earth should one-shot anyone who gets caught in it. Multiply its damage by 3 and have it put on 24 stacks of bleeding.

Anyone who gets caught in an AoE that has a 3.25-second activation time and can’t get rid of the bleed before it kills them is obviously a terrible player whose opinion shouldn’t be listened to.

Galrond.5972:

Eruption explosion time reduced by 50%

I don’t think anyone would want this. Sure, we may be able to hit enemies with it, but we wouldn’t be able to use its blast finisher to do self-combos any more. It’d be a horrific nerf, actually.

If you want to focus on DPS in dungeons, then Scepter/Dagger is probably the best choice for you. With Ring of Fire and all its blast finishers, you can get huge amounts of might. NPCs tend to move less often than players, so Scepter doesn’t face the same hurdles it does in PvP. The #2 Earth skill will also help your survivability somewhat.

Be prepared to kite no matter what role you’re in. If you’re focusing on DPS, then yeah, you’re going to be squishy, so be prepared to kite even more. Taking huge damage dumps on enemies isn’t going to save you since most enemies in dungeons can take a large amount of beating.

Combo fields combo fields combo fields. They’re super-important and can accomplish many things. Coordinate with your group to put out and make use of combo fields in an effective manner. With S/D, you have a lot of blast finishers. If you choose staff, then you have a lot of fields and should become familiar with the Eruption→Geyser combo.

If you find yourself dying too much to contribute meaningfully, then reconsider the direction you’re going in. Speccing for healing and toughness with a bit of vitality is a successful strategy for elementalists. In PvE, I run a 0/10/10/20/30 build and can leverage my healing and mobility to do a fair bit of tanking while still dealing respectable damage.

Really, in most dungeons, being able to stay the course and keep the fight going for a longer period of time is a more successful strategy than trying to finish the fight as quickly as possible. Preventing a wipe by keeping fights going while waiting for teammates to return is an important skill, especially in tricky fights like Lt Kohler (that will one-shot anyone who messes up a dodge).

The most important thing to remember is that you need to revive downed party members before they become dead. Any party member can and should do it. Make it a priority. The only thing that should be placed before the revival of downed teammates is your own well-being (because being downed while reviving a teammate doesn’t do anyone any good).

DiogoSilva.7089:

I’m going to try a D/D build now. Here’s my sketch for it:

+20/ +20/ +20% might duration from three different runes.
Sigil of Battle and Sigil of Bloodlust.
Berzerker Amulet.
30/20/0/10/10
Spellslinger, PP, Zephyr’s Boon, Bolt to the Heart, Soothing Disruption, Renewing Stamina.

What do people recommend for fire’s major trait? I always have trouble with that one. EDIT: Maybe I should take out the points in water for something else?

For the other Fire Major trait, get Internal Fire. Many of your most damaging attacks are in fire (Dragon’s Tooth, Phoenix, Fire Grab, Burning Speed), so having them do 10% more damage is a good thing. My build put 20 points in arcana for the boon duration and also for Arcane Retribution, which is actually quite good if you’re going full glass cannon.

I tried a 30/20/0/0/20 boon duration, sigil of battle, full-berserker’s build last night in hot-join sPvP using the new and improved Bolt to the Heart and Pyromancer’s Puissance. I switched between D/D and S/D as my weapons.

One thing PP doesn’t mention is that you have to be in combat to get the buffs.

D/D can make insane use of Pyromancer’s Puissance. The auto-attack fires off very quickly. You can get into combat very easily, and you’ll basically remain in combat until the other player is dead. If they run away, then you can easily get yourself 15-16 stacks of might from just the trait, never mind Spell Slinger, sigils, or combo fields.

S/D doesn’t make as good a use of it, but it’s still very beneficial. You can have many stacks of might on you at all times.

Any half-decent build is going to work well in hot-join, but this build did rather well despite its extreme squishiness. I was very happy to churning-earth bomb people for some 7k damage, then drop another 7k on them with cleansing fire and fire grab. Heck, I could launch myself into small groups of people like that and drop a few in just a couple of seconds. It almost guarantees a victory if I have backup. This almost certainly couldn’t happen in tPvP, but it’s still a fun time.

The problem with keeping protection up 100% of the time is that it means switching attunements and using combos as soon as you can perform them. The rotation required to keep it up is, by itself, fairly vigorous. This locks you into certain patterns while fighting, which isn’t always the best idea. Indeed, going into Water attunement just for Frost Aura is probably not a good idea. We want to be able to save that bit of burst healing for when it’s needed.

In a practical fight, it’s probably not going to happen. We should be switching to our different attunements at our discretion rather than blindly forcing ourselves into this rotation and very potentially locking ourselves out of valuable skills in the process.

Eles can give themselves a lot of protection, yes, but I don’t think many will be keeping it up 100% of the time in any practical scenario.

Nonlinear.9823:

arguably the worst ele skill.

I’m torn between Glyph of Renewal and Shatterstone.

The glyph at least serves a unique purpose, something no other skill can give us. At the same time, though, it’s just a zazzed up version of something we can do without a skill. Is that zazz worth it? Most would say no.

Shatterstone, on the other hand, does not serve a unique purpose, and it has been mathematically calculated to be detrimental to anyone using it in any rotation. In every case in which you can use Shatterstone, using any other skill instead of Shatterstone will put you in a better position. I think Shatterstone is a viable contender for worst (correctly working) skill in the game.

Say you’re limiting yourself to just water attunement on the scepter. Is Shatterstone a good choice? NOPE! Using just the auto-attack will do more damage.

Say you’re limiting yourself to using just #2 skills on the scepter. Is Shatterstone a good choice? Heck no, every other scepter #2 beats it by miles.

Say you want to stack vulnerability on something. Is Shatterstone a good choice? It’s not awful for this, but you can do just as well with less effort while dealing more damage simply using Vapor Blade in conjunction with on-crit proc like the Air and Arcana grandmaster minor traits. As an added bonus, Vapor Blade will at least do something if your target moves around.

Sorry to disappoint you, but welcome to every MMO forum ever. I think most people will expect to see that sort of whining of the forums of every single game in existence and thus won’t be very turned off by it. If they’re surprised by it, then they’re naive, quite frankly.

Rika.7249:

And I will always fear an elementalist more than a warrior. Churning Earth can come out of nowhere.
100b needs to be initiated with something beforehand, or I can literally out-WALK it before it does any reasonable damage. It needs bolas or bulls-charge or something alike to be even considered a threat.
I’m keeping Quickness out of here, because I believe that’s the heart of the problem. Yes, that makes sense.

Hold on just a moment, you can’t say that Churning Earth can come out of nowhere while simultaneously explaining that unless some other skill is used with Hundred Blades, you can literally WALK out of it. You can’t say that Churning Earth can come out of nowhere while leaving quickness out of the discussion.

Churning Earth can’t come out of nowhere. Show me in the skill description the part where it comes out of nowhere. It simply can’t, not by itself, anyways. Only when used with Lightning Flash can it suddenly appear. Lightning Flash is to Churning Earth what Bolas or Bulls Charge or Frenzy is to Hundred Blades.

Churning Earth needs to be initiated with some other skill or you can literally WALK out of it before it deals ANY damage. HB at least deals some damage up-front, so you get something out of it when it fails.

If you want to discount the use of other skills with Hundred Blades to make your argument sound better, then you’ve also gotta discount the use of other skills with Churning Earth, which won’t make your argument sound better at all (which is why you didn’t do it and why I’m calling you out on it).

We’ve basically been told that eles will get a reduced fall damage trait and that the Frozen Mist and Cleansing Wave traits will be combined to make room for it. Perhaps some other ele traits will be revamped, such as Windborn Dagger, which would do essentially nothing even if it wasn’t bugged.

A lot of people seem to be wishing for bunker ele nerfs, but nobody’s mentioning buffs for the other sorts of eles. Wouldn’t you like to see ele builds other than just D/D bunkers? I think we all would.

Chriswck.6490:

Jasher.6580:

Rika.7249:

There’s no one-shots in the game, with the exception of Kill Shot and Backstab against really absolutely nakedly squishy targets.

100-blades hits X times. It’s not like it’s something that just falls from the sky and is unavoidable. It has a long cast time. Here’s a solution: Walk away. Dodge. You know it’s coming. You have NO excuses to not do anything about this one-trick pony build.

If you decide to eat the whole thing, then sure as hell you deserve to die.

The “LOL NOOB JUST DON’T GET HIT” argument is getting old. The point is, giving one ability the capability of taking your life from full to zero isn’t balanced. This “one trick pony” apparently doesn’t work on good players… only bad players right? So why have it in the game? To frustrate bad players and discourage them from playing pvp?
Obviously because it doesn’t work on good players am I right?

And 100b isn’t the only offender. I am looking at you too Thieves.

That is exactly why it is still in the game. If 100b successfully one shots the majority of good players, then perhaps your question will be slightly more substantial.

Clearly, you see the distinction between good and bad. This means that any bad players can get better, if they simply try. Granted, it takes time and perhaps a few more tries just won’t do yet. But saying L2P is getting old as an argument, when evidence clearly points in favorable of it, simply reflects your reluctance to accept how it is.

Honestly, the sooner you accept it, the sooner will you learn and move on to better things.

Yup, and that’s exactly why it’d be absolutely fine to have Churning Earth one-shot everything it hit like it rightfully should, as it is hands-down the single most difficult to use and easy to avoid skill in the game. I thank everyone here for the tremendous support they’re giving my idea. Almost everyone in this thread is making some really good arguments for it.

BlueprintLFE.2358:

Jasher.6580:

Navzar.2938:

As for the burst damage? Every class can burst, even necros and rangers.

But only Warriors, Elementalists and Thieves can one shot people.

I wouldn’t really even put eles in this category, as its not really feasible for an ele to build that way, in order for an ele to obtain that damage the have to go complete 10-13k health light armor glass and use all of their utilities to obtain that single burst. No condition removal and no defenses or utilities. Not too mention an ele has to pop all his utilities plus swap through a bunch of attunements plus the target has to be burning… A lot of pre reqs for ele burst and firegrab the skill that hits that hard is on 45 second cool down not counting utilities…

Indeed, which is why Churning Earth’s damage needs to be tripled, and the skill needs to apply 25 bleed. It is ostensibly much more difficult to use and hit with than Hundred Blades is. If people think that would be overpowered, then they just need to L2P. Who can’t dodge or interrupt or simply move out of a skill with a 3.25 second activation time? Seriously, every argument people are making for HB not being overpowered in this thread justifies my proposed changes to Churning Earth, so I’m guessing they’d all throw their undying support behind it.

The only one I seriously use in regular play is Frost Bow. If I know there’s going to be an enemy with a large hit-box, I switch the slot that regularly holds Glyph of Storms out for it.

I use it, fire off it’s #2 to get some vulnerability on the target, then fire off it’s #4. While doing that, I move up to the target and then fire off it’s #3 and drop it. I’ve instructed my regular teammates to also use the Frost Bow in that manner when they see one on the ground.

In WvW, #4 is excellent for taking out siege and fortifications. #5 is excellent for trolling people.

Cosmic Teapot.9162:

Sabull.5670:

I just told u it does same damage in the video as atm on live :P…

This, I just logged on and did a 4k arc lightning channel on my standard build than a 6k on a full glass build. Ele damage is fine, it’s just that everyone wants to run a full bunker spec and still dish out glass cannon damage.

Did you do that in the heart of the mists? I tried a glass cannon build there, and 2k was around the upper-limit I could get out of a single channel. This was with a 20/30/0/0/20 build and berserker’s amulet + gem.

Lightning Whip, on the other hand, could hit for around 1300-1700 a hit when it crit.

With Arcane Power, Dragon’s Tooth + Phoenix then Fire Grab could down a heavy golem in around 2 seconds. If only more people would sit still in PvP.

Bsquared.3421:

Perhaps in this vid the ele is purely glass cannon specced with 30/30/0/0/10 or something similar and that’s why he gets these damage numbers.

You’ll note that the elementalist in the video has about 17k HP.

Healing is so worth it. It’s the very basis of all our bunker builds, by which I mean it’s the very basis of our one good build. If you don’t think you heal too much, then you’re doing something wrong.

Be sure to have at least 15 points in the Water trait line. The heal that fires when you switch into Water attunement is invaluable, and it’s an AoE. The heal on EA is excellent, and it’s an AoE. Cone of Cold actually has about 90% of the healing power of geyser, so it’s a very formidable healing skill (it, too is an AoE). The 15-Point Arcana minor trait helps Soothing Mist stick around for a longer period letting you have it up almost all the time, and that’s regeneration that stacks with regeneration, which is pretty nice.

There is just so much healing you can do. So, so much. Much more than any other profession.

JCorcoran.4081:

Does elemental surge work with Arcane Retribution and Final Shielding? Or is it only for arcane skills on your utility bar?

It does not work with Arcane Shield at all, so it has no interactions with Final Shielding. I’m unsure about Arcane Retribution. I’ll have to test that today.

The devs don’t hate us, we’re just difficult to balance because of the breadth of our abilities. The devs certainly don’t want there to be an Ele build that does everything better than every other profession, but it’d be all too easy to enable such a thing given just a few balancing missteps. We’re capable of doing all things quite well from the get go, be it tanking, damage, control or support. So how do let us specialize without enabling us to simply be better than everyone else? That’s the difficult part.

So this is probably why the devs have been apprehensive about tweaking our weapon skills. Changes to those apply to all types of builds. Raising the damage on a skill to help our glass cannon builds also raises the damage on that skill for bunkers. There are some skills for which can universally be agreed that they need help (like shatterstone), but it’s mostly like walking on eggshells.

This means that the deficit in under-performing builds mostly needs to be made up for with traits. This is, of course, it’s own problem because our trait lines are a spiderweb of interactions. We can’t have too many build-defining traits too low in the lines because then every build can incorporate them. We can’t have too many build-defining traits too high in the lines because then they’ll lock us out of options.

The problem as it currently is cannot be solved by merely tweaking some of our traits. There needs to be relatively drastic changes to the structures of a few of the lines (notably Air and Fire, while Arcana’s deathgrip on us needs to be relaxed). That takes a lot of time and planning, so it’s understandable why it’s not happened yet.

We’ll see what happens on the 14th and go from there.

Sabull.5670:

That 6204 dmg on screen is result of 4 full channels, with the small delay between casts it should average less than 400 damage per second. And you know thats horrible, don’t know why the video maker didn’t seem to understand that.

I see nothing good from scepter in that video. Seems exactly same as now.

I’m fairly certain the air autoattack in the video was hitting for a hell of a lot more than it currently does. That ele was able to get over 2000 damage out of a single channel, which is a pipe dream nowadays, no matter how many crits you get, and she didn’t even have any might boons on her.

sorrow.2364:

The fact that thieves have an huge amount of stunbreakers, doesn’t mean that every profession has. Maybe taking thief as example was a sad choice.

Don’t all professions have 4 stunbreakers?

Bsquared.3421:

After watching that video I can see why Ele’s were nerfed hard after Beta. That kitten was so OP. Air autoattack hitting for 1.5k, 2k, 3k, all back to back to back. The guy was killing peeps just chasing them with air auto. Not fun, and severely OP.

It’s not hitting for those back-to-back. The skill tallies up the damage done throughout the channel and also through subsequent channels. So when it showed 2k, that means it had done 2k damage total throughout the channel up to that point. When it showed 3k afterwards, that means it had done 3k damage total throughout the channel up to that point, so only 1000 damage was dealt between those two numbers showing up.

As long as you keep channeling the skill over and over against the same target without interruption, it’ll keep adding to that same tally.

Blaine Tog.8304:

Holy crap, Air 1 used to hit like a truck.

Yeah, it didn’t tickle people like it does now. It was actually the good single-target damage that Air is supposed to be. Dragon’s Tooth and Phoenix, when used together properly, also used to be some of the best burst damage in the game. Those two aren’t bad nowadays, but they’re not like how they were. The payoff for successfully using these awkward skills just isn’t there any more.

During the BWEs, I mostly played D/D (I liked the mobility, and the damage on Burning Speed impressed me), and that made me a rarity. Oh how the times have changed.

beren.6048:

think if they restrict login attempts that lots of people will be locked out because of the hacking attempts going on. My account is linked to my e-mail address, what if someone keeps on trying my e-mail address? I ll be locked out all the time?

Yes, this is a legitimate concern. Locking an account due to failed login attempts gives hackers the ability to perform a denial of service attack at players, requiring only an email address to perform the attack.

Another method is to block an IP after it sends you a certain number of invalid attempts, but that’s easy to get around, and the dynamic nature of residential IPs can lead to it blocking out a legitimate user who hasn’t entered a single failed attempt. Thus, the method is also not very good.

In all seriousness, the email verification thing they’ve got going is a good way of securing accounts. If someone is spoofing your IP address (which is not easy to do if you’re not on the same network) or is intercepting your email, then you’ve got way bigger problems to worry about then your GW2 account.

A hacker cannot access your account unless the login attempt is authorized by someone. They can get your password correct, but they’ll just be met with “Awaiting Authorization” until someone opens up the email that the game sends and clicks on the link inside. These emails cannot be spoofed or tricked since they use nonces to verify the identity of the authorization attempt.

Now, if the hacker also has access to your email, then that’s a problem, but it’s not really Anet’s problem at that point. You’re screwed in a whole host of other different ways if that’s the case.

So to answer my own question, yes, Elemental Surge, Arcane Power and Conjures have some interesting interactions. Things get even more interesting when you add Glyph of Elemental Power into the mix.

The AP+ES combo does indeed work with Flame Axe’s #2 and Earth Shield’s #4, both of which are AoEs, so you can get the effect in an AoE. Earth Shield’s #2 also works, and each throw seems to count as a different attack regardless of how many people are hit (and it can hit twice).

It doesn’t work with Fiery Greatsword’s #5 or #2 or Ice Bow’s #4. I’m unsure about Greatsword’s #3.

It does, however, work with Greatsword’s #1 and Ice Bow’s #2, however each hit is counted as a separate attack. Either way, these two skills allow you to very quickly stack effects onto people.

By having a conjure out, casting glyph of elemental power, switching attunements, and then using AP and attacking, you can shove a lot of conditions onto people pretty rapidly. They’re mostly just debuffs rather than damage and I don’t think very worth building around, but it’s still pretty interesting.

Knote.2904:

LOL I just love the logic here.

Massive aoe thief fear isn’t broken because necro’s are actually good at something in Tpvp!

Yeah, I was wondering why people were discussing the general power level of necromancers as if it had anything to do with the topic at hand.

I also wonder why people seem to be implying that a 1-second (the wiki says 1/2-second, but whatever) cast time is a long cast time. It’s not.

I mean, if that’s the case, then an elementalist’s Fire Grab sucks because it has a long cast time (it’s 1 second (the wiki says it’s 3/4-second, 1.5x as long as Skull Fear’s, but whatever)), and we need to have the skill lined up at the end of that period or it’ll miss. Fire Grab also has the same cooldown as steal.

Churning Earth should also simply 1-shot anyone we hit with it because it’s got a 3.25-second cast time (during which we cannot move). That’s three times (actually 6.5x) as long as a “long” cast time. Anyone who whines about getting 1-shot by the game’s slowest and most obvious AoE needs to l2p.

ThiBash.5634:

Unfortunately, unlike Glyph of Elemental Power, Elemental Surge considers your current attunement…so no mass immobilize (mass cripple through glyph + meteor shower does work though).

Would you be able to achieve this through the use of conjures? Have a conjure with an AoE, be in Earth Attunement, use AP. I’m gonna have to play around with this when I get home. The interaction of Elemental Surge with Arcane Power could be one of the most interesting mechanics we get.

Curring.9752:

@Quizz, I don’t really see the point of having a 90 second cooldown stun breaker, if you’re suing it as a stun breaker you may as well use cleansing fire. Earth shield would also buy you time for when you need to get into the water attunement.

It’s a stunbreaker + some other nice things. The other nice things make it an attractive choice over other stunbreakers. That’s why you use it.

Earth Shield just isn’t a good replacement. It’s not a stunbreaker, it doesn’t give stability, it doesn’t reduce incoming damage by 33%, and it requires you to give up your normal skills in order to get a bunch of very situational ones. The fact that is forces you to interrupt your other activities is the most kitten thing about it.

It’s the choice between an incredible defensive buff in addition to our normal operation or a less good defensive set of abilities at the cost of our normal operation.

There’s multiple reasons why Armor of Earth is used when Earth Shield is not. The main problem is that Armor of Earth is a stunbreaker while Earth Shield is not. Getting Armor of Earth randomly at 50% health is in no way a substitute to using it on demand. The two skills serve very different purposes, and the trait is merely a nice convenience.

The second problem is that elementalist survivability depends entirely upon our ability to switch into Water attunement at the drop of a hat and fire off a few skills (such as dagger/dagger 2 and 5, and might as well hit 3 and 4 while we’re there) before switching back out of it. We can switch into Water attunment with Earth Shield in our hands, but we can’t do those other things without dropping it.

Earth Shield just doesn’t add very much to any build that would run it, certainly not enough to justify not taking other things.

DeXyre.6025:

He tested with 0 trait points though, so without Electric Discharge.

What he’s saying is that the air attunement skill is psuedocoded something like this:

Put player into combat mode (this is probably an intrinsic property of the skill and handled outside of the skill’s flow of logic)
—set target
—set auto-attack on
If player has Electric Discharge Trait, do the electric discharge thing
—deal damage
—animation
Switch player to air attunement
—remove old attunement (if lingering attunements, pulse it one last time with a duration of 5s)
—put on new attunement
—change skill bar
—if elemental attunement, apply swiftness in an area
—etc, etc.

The skill that puts us into air attunement is always a range 900 offensive skill, just the actual dealing of damage is conditional on us having that trait.

cznrhubarb.5946:

Avatara.1042:

Does Lingering Elements do ANYTHING without Elemental Attunement or Rock Solid? Seems pretty ridiculous to have a 15 point bonus trait do nothing without a specific skill.

I believe this includes every 5 point minor trait. So water’s regeneration lasts 5 seconds, earth’s toughness, air’s movement speed, arcana’s fury, and fire’s burst-on-hit.

Someone please correct me if I am wrong though.

I believe that was the main intent of the trait, yes, and it does indeed work that way. At the very least, soothing mist does a bit of lingering.

Karl McLain.5604:

We’ll be adding a bit more functionality to this trait in the near future for the earth portion of the ability (this time, associated with the skill’s cooldown), to keep it in line with our general policy of not having a blast finisher in the same weapon set you have a combo field.
Additionally, we’re looking at traits across the board, for all professions, and will be doing some improvements in that aspect as well. We hope to be able to get some of these in for our next balance patch and open up more build possibilities!
-Karl

I can tell you that the people on this forum all feel like the prettiest girls at the ball today with all the dev attention we’re getting.

So if it’s just blast finishers you folks are worried about (and I can see why; they have the most dramatic effects), then what about other types of finisher? I’m sure most of us would be happy to have a whirl finisher. I was disappointed when the whirl finisher was removed from Whirlwind, and Tornado doesn’t count, so it’s left a gap in there that I feel needs filling.

The air dodge is probably the most underwhelming one right now (especially in PvP, as blinds tend to be worse against players than they are against NPCs). Why not make it a whirl finisher? Why not make other things whirl finishers? Swirling Winds has the word “swirling” in the name. I therefore see it as a prime candidate for a whirl finisher. It could easily become Focus’s zazziest skill.