Guild Wars 2

New runes of Balthazar might be worth a look. +175 condi dmg, +45% burn duration, +3s aoe burn on heal (10s cd).

Made it look easy, too. Well done.

Guildie friend runs full ascended Zealot armor and apoth trinkets. 1400 healing power+

Nice to have him in your group, but it’s not something you’d want to 1v1 on.

PrZone.4753:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vEAQJAoYhMM6cW4wxBf0ACRhLYCjHhwI0hFF0wMA-zkyAodEEXApFgUngkHLiGb1sIasqaA1DmadR1eEGt6AAHAccgQAKWDA-

I would keep the trait line, but use apothecary gear instead… but then again i like the extra 500 healing power rather than the crit chance and 2k more hp… but that’s just me, it’s all about personal play-style baby

I was running settler’s, and had healing power of about 850, but haven’t noticed a big drop now that it’s down to 540 or so, and 2k+ more HP is nice. Like you said though, whatever works for you. I found that the healing power didn’t help much versus burst and that I’d rather have the extra HP cushion.

SonOfKrypton.4357:

I feel the need to comment about your use of Lightning Flash. :P

It almost seems like you’re using it because it’s off cooldown. I’m not sure if it’s because you’re not used to having it on your bar or w/e but try using Earthquake then Flash to them. Count the dodges then Churn and Flash on them. Flash + Updraft. I personally wouldn’t be using it to land Drake’s Breath. :P

Just my opinion.

A friend told me that lightning flash has a very very short evade in it that could be used to avoid knockback on stomp if timing is perfect. I’m not sure I believe him, but I tried it a few times anyway (and a couple were in this video), and I’m sure you were wondering wtf. As far as I can tell he’s full of kitten, but then I should have known that.

Otherwise yeah I use flash+updraft a lot as opener. Churn + flash really only in groups or when it’s a surprise, and absolutely sometimes flash to close for Drake’s Breath, which is an 8k burn in this build and a primary damage source.

Sometimes after blinking around as thief or mesmer when you play ele you forget you only have one, and on a bit of a cooldown, so your point is well made.

FrownyClown.8402:

Cant watch it from my phone. I used signet of air because the build lacked swiftness which is more important when enemies can kite you. Was a good stun breaker and churn saver. Try that out too

I do use windborne dagger, and find that between lightning flash, RTL, cripple, immob and chill I don’t have trouble keeping up with kiters, for the most part. I should try running that signet so I can go back to vigor on crit though. Hard to drop a cantrip. Would love the option of using a regular utility in the elite slot…

LightningBlaze.4913:

Good gameplay. I enjoy condition builds as well. I find the earth shield to be really fun and effective for the ele with perpl runes. You may want to try it instead of armor of earth for a bit.

Thanks, I’ll try it. I have no idea how to use it but what’s the worst that can happen lol

Posted a settler-based video+build a week or so ago and received some constructive comments from Frowny, ArmaggedonAsh and others (thanks). I decided to keep the build the same, but swapped armor to Dire and runes to Perplexity and give it a go.

This build is still unkillable against condispammers 1v1, and is now more survivable versus burst. It’s very fun to stand in wells, walk on marks, stand in blinding powder, ignore engi turrets, etc., and you have enough toughness/mobility/cc resist to give any power build a run for their money. You will win some lose some against thieves, warriors, and mesmers. You will not die to anyone in Dire gear. Never ever.

With nerf to crit dmg maybe we’ll see a few more D/D condi eles out there. This is all exotics so still a ways to go to see max potential.

Build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vEAQJAoYhMM6cW4wxBf0ACRhLYCjHhwI0hFF0wMA-z0CBodJE1BgWAk6IIZSFRjtsuIasaZwadCp6GYKWQeFERrECQxaA-w

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz6IcCogwSc

Cheers.

Dagger thief is always a risk with such low HP. There isn’t much margin for error there. Even with this toughness CnD and BS can hit for 10k, and pretty much every thief in the world clears conditions in stealth through trait. With extra Hp from Dire gear and/or guard vit stacks it certainly would be much easier. Again I gave this a whirl in only cheap exotics, and without wvw buffs, so there is more potentially there.

Hammer warrior is tricky but there are 2 armor of earths and stability on earth attunement swap so that does help. Doom sigil helps versus healing signet but again, not much room for error against any burst class when your hp pool is so low and your opponent is so resistant to cc (dogged march). Hammer warriors also tend to travel in pairs, which is just bad news for a solo ele unless they’re terrible.

Bursty mesmers tend to have very little condi cleanse, so they’re not bad actually. They pretty much all run sword to immobilize you either to shatter or to make sure zerk phantasm lands, so when they open with the immob (as they tend to) your immunity can save you that initial burst (especially if you did not see them coming).

Bursty guards all do the same thing pretty much. You need to use stability vs binding blades (earth swap), and you really need to avoid the explosion of focus 5. Other than that a lot of the problem of fighting them is burns and blinds, and you should have some immunity uptime on those. Would I rather have 17 or 18k HP for those fights? Absolutely. Can you stand and trade with them the way you can vs condi spam? No. Will you kill a bunker guard? Maybe, eventually, but bring snacks.

The worst matchup is frankly hybrids, like GS mesmers wearing rabid/zerker combos. They can eat through diamond skin pretty quickly and then the condis melt that miniscule HP. All the stability means you won’t get cc’d to death but you can quickly be on the back foot and never fully recover.

As to windborne dagger – in a perfect world I’d rather have vigor on crit (and would switch for a duel if I could ever remember), but if you have spent any time roaming with traveler runes or boon duration for high swiftness uptime, you know how painful it is to run around at the regular plodding pace…

I didn’t know people think it’s cheese. I can understand why. It is OP against certain builds. I think it’s closer to hard counter than cheese.

The 1500ish cushion is small, yes, but with 3k armor a dire-wearer will take a while to get through it. Once they do one switch to water and you’re back to full. The stability means you can’t get chain cc’d into a condi bomb either.

Things I had often read:

1. You’ll never kill anything without points in condi duration

2. Diamond skin is not worth the point investment

3. Condi can only kinda/maybe work with scepter, and probably s/f

4. Just about every other class does condis better/more easily.

5. Rock solid sucks

6. You’re an idiot

So I decided to run full settler gear (exotics only, and no guard stacks) for a week or so with d/d while solo roaming WvW and see how it went. Crazy, right? Turns out, it’s FUN. My guildie told me to record a bit and share it, so I thought I’d post it here also on the off chance someone else finds this playstyle as fun as I do.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vEAQJAoYhMM6cW4wxBf0ACRhLYCjHhwI0hFF0wMA-z0CBodCh03gUHBJvrIasVTFRjVLDWrTIVtATxCybAzrYIqECQxaA-w

It’s true that other classes can condi spam way more effectively, but guess what? they don’t have Diamond Skin. And they cannot kill this build in a 1v1. It’s not even really a contest, and I am by no means a pro ele. I always see Strength of Stone trait in condi builds, but with Rock Solid trait, swapping into Earth during Ether Renewal makes it mostly uninterruptable. And with 850+ healing power, ER is a full heal every 15s. PU mesmers will give up and leave. Engis run away if they can. Necros just die. P/D thieves question their existence. Basically anyone in Dire gear eventually realizes that they can’t win. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but they can choke on it, as far as I’m concerned.

Burst is an issue with only 15ishk hp, but 3k armor helps, and diamond skin is great for negating non-damaging conditions like immobilize, blind, and cripple. As crit damage is nerfed across the board this build will only get stronger against burst. I have no idea how it could get better against conditions. More hp would be nice I guess.

Without making this video too long – I tried to show this build’s ability, even without max gear/buffs/etc. to mix it up in big group fights while solo, to escape roaming groups, and to dismantle condi spammers.

Also – if you roam with a partner, particularly someone with burst damage, this build works great. You will draw player aggro but they will be wasting their time as you can kite/chill/cripple/immob while being resistant to all of those things yourself. Rock solid trait gives aoe stability which is also great for stomps and helps with hammer spam.

Anyway, enjoy/destroy.

We’re coming from t7, the land of the organized 5ish roaming groups, and yeah so far it’s quite a bit different. More giant zergs but also more solo and duos and unguilded small groups. Which is great news for those of us who play solo quite a bit. Loving t6 so far, and if it stays this competitive I’m happy to stay here for a long time.

Someone else mentioned getting stuck. On my guardian earlier today during an event I somehow teleported into one of those spider cages. I relogged, didn’t fix it. So I just went to WvW and then logged out later. I didn’t want to waypoint out of the cage because I didn’t have any of the points close by and was exploring that zone.

Do they think I purposely bugged myself into the cage? Why on earth would I do that?

Ticket submitted.

While I ultimately agree with PAXA that there ought to be more small group PVP and less zerg (I transferred from higher tier like others so that I could find more small fights), I have no idea how you are “promoting” this playstyle through mockery, walls of boring biographical text, and blatant trolling.

As a mostly solo or duo player I could make the same pointless argument you do – why so many 3-6 man guilded roaming groups on HoD and NSP? To a solo player PAXA is a zerg. You choose the number 5 as being the basis for “real PVP”, and then frequently run in groups bigger than 5. Too small for a zerg and way too big for most small groups. Talk about a niche market – no wonder you’re frustrated.

For any solo players t7 is waaay different than t8 was. You run into so many more roaming groups and fewer solo, and they tend to be organized and just better. Other solo guys know what I’m talking about if they’ve tried to 3v1 or even 2v1 GT, SPCA, XOXO, tM and probably a couple others I’m forgetting. Should solo guys whine that it’s harder to find the fights they enjoy best? And that anything other than what they’re doing is not real PVP? Yeah, no, you’re right that’d be stupid.

So I’ve received 2 separate 72 hour bans for naming violations. Nothing super rude or anything, more grey area, but I understand why Anet chose to take this action.

In both cases I have had these names for months (hundreds of hours of gameplay). So needless to say it is a surprise when all of a sudden you get booted out and get the 72 hour ban message.

What I’m wondering is, now that gem store name changes are in place – why not offer this as an alternative to the ban? Seems like a win-win. I would gladly pay for a name change to have my account reinstated, and I’m sure you’d like to have my money.

Sarsbear.3469:

Punch.4231:

Very sorry to PAXA for not fighting you on the terms that suit you best. Please accept my deepest apologies. We will form several small super-tanky voicechat-coordinated focus-firing roaming groups and then PM you their positions around the maps (away from cap points because who cares about those anyway amirite?) See you guys out there!

If only there were some way for 5man groups to compete on an even playing field without interference. Hmmm, no. Nothing coming to mind.

PAXA believes all 3 servers in all 8 NA tiers are bad. Many in this thread seem to think Jscull is speaking about SF, he is not, he is speaking in generalities. All 3 servers in all 8 NA tiers spend their time in blobs pressing (or clicking apparently) 1 because they think that is how the game was designed. PAXA doesn’t want to fight pre-arranged 5v5 fights, we want to play in a dynamic open world pvp environment where small groups roam searching for other small groups to fight around objectives that were designed for small groups to fight over. It doesn’t need to be even numbers, it doesn’t need to be fair.

There are 13 objectives on each BL map, not including sentries, and the majority of players group up and fight at 2. Again, group size limited to 5 players, boons limited to 5 players, AoE limited to 5 players, the majority of siege can be built by 5 or fewer players, majority of actual players play in blobs of 20+.

I get it, and I don’t disagree.

Jscull frankly I wish we had more 5-8 men groups. But to assume everyone is in a zergball is silly. Some of us run solo or with 1 other and look for small fights. Which doesn’t help you either lol. Hopefully that changes for both of us.

Irony.8056:

I’m glad you “broke it down” in your own opinion. Its FACT TIME NOW.

Fact #1. Before free transfers FC/ET was a ghost town for more then half of the day, everyday. I would run around till my food buffs wore off before I’d run into an Et/Fc player. Also there was PROOF of some people in one of the reputable SF guilds HAXING keep gates.

Fact #2. See Fact #1

Fact #3. No one here feels stupid , I certainly never looked at your T8 thread. Why would I care to?

You can have your opinion, its just not the fact.

Bonus Fun fact #4. Unlike Kain or Dr, you guys got a crutch from Anet to move up. That fact alone makes you guys all angry everytime it is mentioned.

It’s a fact that means nothing without context, and you clearly don’t understand the system.

I was on DR at the time and it’s a horrible comparison, sorry.

Very sorry to PAXA for not fighting you on the terms that suit you best. Please accept my deepest apologies. We will form several small super-tanky voicechat-coordinated focus-firing roaming groups and then PM you their positions around the maps (away from cap points because who cares about those anyway amirite?) See you guys out there!

If only there were some way for 5man groups to compete on an even playing field without interference. Hmmm, no. Nothing coming to mind.

Wasn’t crying at all, just thought it was funny. Have never seen that many opposing players just hanging out. Was bizarre. Occasionally players from both sides would come over and try to kill one of us, and if they succeeded, laugh/dance/etc. Whatever.

After reading the previous posts in the thread I took out the XOXO zergriding bit, but my dude had already quoted me. He’s quick. And diplomatic too. My bad.

HoD and NSP fighting together against SF. And then check emotes. All class guys.

PAXA and XOXO are like that kid on the other team, who, losing by 30 will tell you – “1 on 1 I’ll destroy you!”

While it may be true it’s entirely irrelevant.

You’ve received a lot of respect in this thread and all you have in response is QQ, and troll posts.

I’ve seen XOXO in zergs btw, so let’s cut the BS.

Respect to all the WvWers who don’t die and run to the forums. Saturday night VLK guys you just kept coming back to Greenlake. You died a lot (numbers not on your side), but you kept coming. You didn’t get the keep back but you tied us up for a while. No ragequitting and no running to the forums crying for a GvG.

People probably saw the inlvun message on the dev when he was downed inside the golem on the bridge and jumped to conclusions. Nothing to see here.

Theftwind.8976:

I just had to shake my head yesterday when 30+ SF rolled into the supply camp I was at. Only myself and the NPCs against 30+ yet members of SF found it necessary to dance on my corpse and laugh when I went down. That takes alot of class, I suppose SF does not understand what chivalry means.

Generally speaking bad players corpsedance because theyre just so excited they actually got a kill. If I get danced on the next players I kill from that guild will probably get the same treatment. Not the mature response but feels good, man.

Rob.7624:

Sadistis.4257:

SS of A-net employee who was in the “invulnerable” golem, there was 2 of them i’m trying to get more Screens

(Was supposed to be posted in last topic)

Hah.
I’m in the picture.

But towards what you were saying.
I see no evidence of invulnerability in that golem.
And infact none of our golems were dmg’ed on the outer gate. Since we sweeped everything and then just built more.

Devs need to play their own game in a live environment don’t they?

Now pipe down with all this talk of SF being super uber cool.
And lets not get another thread locked.

ANet guy wasn’t invuln – actually we burned him down…I SS’d it.

As an aside – lots of good roaming groups (5-10) out there. Sadly we don’t have much of those on SF. Either really small (2-5) or zergs. Random similar numbers cannot compete with organized guild groups, and that’s something we really lack.

Interestingly I fraps’ed a fight earlier where two guardians from opposing servers attempted to kill my guildie and I. Isolated incident? Probably. Time will tell.

t7 is fun so far, but gotta say I’m not sure things like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvWqr2nxTXs&feature=youtu.be will happen again. I can hope, though.

Lot of hilarious things happened in t8, and they will be missed. Not the least of which was this 2-man siege of ET’s Hills.

Tier 8 Gw2 PV kitten rs bsnss. And don’t you forget it.

A video showing 2 fights from the last couple of days. 1 vs. FC and 1 vs. ET

We are hugely outnumbered, but the FC and ET zergs have so many uplevelled players and inexperienced WvWers that they are relaxed fights.

Maybe the FC and ET vets should take a couple of weeks off WvW to powerlevel and gear these poor guys up. That’d get us out of your hair and prepare you for HoD or whomever. Just a thought