Guild Wars 2

Tuluum.9638:

Looks like a sound strategy

I havent messed with signets too much. I only have something like 1300 kills on my scepter, so not much experience yet and my gear is almost all weighed towards crit damage. I have been considering switching my runes for more precision/crit damage though, instead of fury. It worked very well for auras (especially an aura share build), but it doesnt seem to have a great return on just the fury from attunement switch.

Anywho, one of the reasons I like arcane wave so much is its 1500 range. Just love it! I am also traited to gain +3% crit damage and 3 stacks of vulnerability (on any arcane activation, OR signet). With 20% decreased cooldown, I really, really enjoy it. Especially because I didnt have to entirely re-gear!

I have wanted to try out working some signets into it though, especially with the trait that allows the passive ability to stay active. It seems it would work in well with my build, but now I just have to think about the best way to implement it.

Thanks for the inspiration.

(I think you mean arcane blast, but I know what you mean )…. hmm, good point. I may have to play around with arcane a little in that sort of set up.

The other thing with S/F is it has pretty decent defensive abilities, so you can glass cannon a bit more in other areas. Arcane is a good place to do that. I might work on something like you have when I get bored of the signet based build

And thank you too!

Tuluum.9638:

I think that s/f is just something that hasnt been explored yet. I also find that s/f takes more planning and a bit more patience with skills than other ele weapon sets. Its probably why I like it so much. It can be extremely unpredictable, but that also makes it harder to learn situationally.

Thanks for posting your build! As I have been running s/f very effectively (or at least I feel so), I love to see other ideas on how people are implementing it!

edit: My favorite burst is first Dragons Tooth then immediately followed by phoenix into the same area. While that is queueing up in the air for everyone to see, I hit the area with arcane blast and arcane wave, increasing my foes vuln. On the same target as I hit with arcane wave, Ill switch to air, hit Air 5, Air 2, then Air 3. By about this time, dragons tooth has generally fallen and lots of nice little numbers have started to pop up on the screen!

Depending on how the fight is going at that point, I will switch to water to drop water 5 (aoe stun) and more vuln (shatterstone) or earth to cast magnetic surge (for more AoE damage) and then Ill throw on rock barrier while using earth 5.

I typically rest in earth and keep rock barrier up. As always, depends, but typically when the fight begins, I immediately cast water signet and at the same time insta-cast signet of air. People often don’t notice the blind and will blow their opener and the chill will sometimes cause a blow on condition removal. If not, then they’re chilled which lets me position and keep range. I then follow with dust devil when I see their blind used up to renew (1/4 sec cast) and insta-cast simulataneous with magnetic to prep and soften. Flip to air and cast gale while simultaneous insta-casting strike and blinding flash. At this point they likely haven’t got anything on me due to blinds and reflect and are now knocked down with mounting damage. All of that occurs in about 2 seconds. As soon as the knock down is off, I go into fire, drop the tooth, and queue up immediately with earth signet for immobilize followed immediately by phoenix. target offset in the direction I think they’ll run. At which point choices branch a lot more based on what happens.

And of course you have fury on each attunement for that sequence. The signet openers have 1200 range, so you start those up as you race into 900 range.

Anyway, something like that. Things can change rapidly of course (if they have a triggered stability or something, etc… the script can quickly change

Similar to some above, just grew tired of d/d. Been running an S/F build that works fairly well. It’s no d/d in many respects, but it does have some advantages. It is a signet based build which most scoff at, but it works well with this setup.

This is the build if you’re interested: http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fEMQJArdlMG6Nmbw2AG+Aw4BIeQiQhFNUUMDPA;T4Ag0yvEOJ9S9lyJqnMPJey+k7J5TjSmEA

S/F has a fair number of fast recharge, fast casting skills which goes well with the heal signet (in addition that you can spam it and keep the passive with this). I’m on the fence about the utility of the water signet that may be better replaced. Although the additional condition removal is nice and another chill plus that it restores 25% endurance in this build gives it slightly more value. However, the magnetic which removes 3 conditions and is fairly fast recharge (due to trait) and phoenix might be enough cond removal on their own. The number of times that 10sec removal has been helpful have been fairly numerous though.

Anyway, this works well for me in many pvp situations. Takes a bit to l2p it, and ymmv. It’s not d/d, but I find it reasonably “viable”.

EDIT: Note the snow leopard is only for WvW. It’s a free get away card and free by-pass the zerg into keep when needed.

Bair.8240:

Snow leopard grants you the ability to escape pretty much anyone in WvWvW. Pop it, stealth, untargeted charge. Goes further than RtL and I believe you can get it off twice per elite use. Shame to have to use an elite slot to do it though.

This exactly. It’s an amazing escape skill in WvW.

If you don’t happen to have RtL, you can also use it to catch (if you’re backed up by some other plays). Dash, cripple, stealth, wait for back up. Repeat if needed.

You can stealth 3 times in one transform btw.

Also good for getting through the zerg into a fort.

This is a great ele elite for WvW. Especially if you don’t happen to be D/D.

It is also an amazing ground cover skill. You can get across the map in no time.

The need to root to transform (movement breaks) is a bit of a pain, but I’ve been playing Focus offhand these days, so when in trouble, pop invuln, transform, goodbye!

This might be particular to ele’s, whose other elite choices even in class are pretty weak and practically just as special purpose.

In concept, this seems awesome. I’m sure the first attempt will have its stumblings… but this direction, very happy.

Anet, imho, have been very good at improving on past mistakes. Not as fast as certain people would like, but from my accommodating pov, given the monumental scope of the game, they’ve been doing well.

Very excited to see how they evolve this. Good luck to the Anet team on moving this forward!

The finale event was great, my gf and I had a blast. We didn’t suffer from any major lag issues or problems though, so that might have influenced our experience compared to what it sounds like some other people were experiencing.

There were a few hiccups especially when everyone was manning the mortars and spell effects going crazy on one champion (i.e. concentrated fire) where it stuttered a little, but that was all.

The overall structure and scenario of the finale event was great though.

The difficulty seemed fairly well set for our instance group. Initially we just zerged and was kind of dull, but that quickly changed and it was neat to see the hive mind of the zerg suddenly adopt some decent tactics after a wipe early on…. suddenly everyone was “oh, we can’t just crowd and spam”

Thanks Anet. Can be improvements as many have suggested, but this was a great event overall. Especially the finale.