Guild Wars 2

We’ve all been there. Perhaps that 1 person DC’ed at the beginning never to return. Or maybe you have a cry baby that doesn’t like the fact that your team is down by 10 and they have no skill to help come up out of the hole and they leave. Now you’re stuck with a 4v5 and statistically speaking, the odds are not in your favor. So here’s my idea for ANet to implement:

1) When you see the “disconnect” symbol on someone’s name, you should be given the option to begin a voting system to remove that person from the team. They MUST have the symbol in order for the vote to be able to be cast. This will avoid anyone trying to kick players willy-nilly.

2) Voting MUST be unanimous. So if someone wants to switch classes, that person can say “switching toons. brb” and everyone on the team will know that they are coming right back (assuming this is done before the match starts). Of course you could still get voted to kick, but the odds of 4 people doing it are probably pretty minor.

3) Once the disconnected person is kicked, a search is sent out by the server to all those who are still in queue. A lucky individual can then be given the option to “Sub-In” or “Continue to wait for new game”. That way the person will know that they can potentially join a match in progress or continue to wait in the queue. Doing this might help the queue times if you’re experiencing those 4 or 5 minute waits.

4) Give some sort of buff to the sub. Of course minor but I’m thinking a sizable swiftness or maybe any point they cap is worth 2 for 10 sec. Something to motivate someone to actually be a sub.

5) Bring back dishonor to those that leave the match.

Like I said, no one likes 4v5’s. And it’s an increasing problem. Maybe the devs can see this as an idea to bring a little fun back in spvp.

Lacrimas.7496:

Soad.7290:

How come the skills don’t just have the PVP and PVE separation like in Guild Wars 1? Because by nerfing skills and classes into the ground in PVP, it affects PVE players. It worked out really well in Guild Wars 1, Dont forget your roots!

Yes, please use separate PVP and PVE skills. Its a perfect solution.

Why not just ask for GW3? These requests for “please separate this from PvP/PvE”. Sheesh. Where do you draw the line? You don’t like something “put it in an area that I don’t really play”. Think of how confusing it would be to new players (which is, I’m sure, what ANet wants) if they come into the game and you have traits and skills all hodge-podge around the board depending on what aspect of the game you’re in. No. You MUST have structure and continuity. There must be some universal truths.

Ohitei.8043:

Mesmer change.

Illusions VI – Illusionary Invigoration. Recharge reduced from 90s to 60s. Moved to Master Tier.

(What is the point ??? Nerf again?) VI/VII/XI is the best combination we can have actualy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Illusions VIII – Dazzling Galmours. Moved to Adept Tier.
Illusions 15 – Shattered Strength – Moved to Grandmaster tier.
Illusions 25 – Illusionist’s Celerity – Moved to Master tier.
(Useless change)

The point is build diversity. It’s sad to see mesmer’s pigeon hole’d into a shatter build. As for your opinion of “Useless changes” on the other traits, rest assured they are not. I am very excited to see IC move down.

I will agree that Dazzling Glamours is pretty lackluster. I would prefer to see Illusionary Elasticity move down. Can’t honestly see anyone spending 20 traits to get that.

Kain Francois.4328:

Problem with Ranger: While pet damage was somewhat balanced at release, the 50% nerf killed our core mechanic hard.

For guiding a stupid AI which cannot dodge, shouldn’t we be rewarded?

I propose we buff the Pet damage, rather than the Ranger’s.

So that a Ranger can be on one end of the sPVP map and their target be on the other (WAY more than a 1200 range) and have that pet with it’s buffed damage kill you? No thank you.

Seven,

Thanks so much for taking the time not only to post builds, vids, and tactics on here but also the 1-on-1 theory builds and advice you gave me in-game. This is incredibly discouraging to hear but at the same time I understand. I hope you excel in life both in-game and out as well you did in GW2.

Take care!

REDCLOUD

I’ve kept my ele @ the bank in LA as a bank toon. I wish Anet would just come right out and just tell people, “We made a mistake putting the ele in the game. Just delete them and roll a warrior.”

I am wanting to roll a pure support build Engi as an alt (I have an lvl 80 Ele now). From what I’ve read up to this point, Engineer should be the best group support class tacking in entertainment along with that. The problem I’m having is that all the support builds that I’ve researched seem to be outdated.

My thoughts were to get the HotW PVT armor (I know AC has the same stats but quite frankly, I think the Honor armor looks awesome). Not sure what runes I should get. I’m also thinking Pistol/Sheild is the best way to go with this as well.

Also getting a little overwhelmed at the different skills/kits as well as the traits.

I just need some pointers as to where to start. Again, I really want her to be a support build or bunker build engi (not really into the glass cannon stuff).

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

UPDATE:

I guess I should add I’m primarily going to use her in PvE.

This is more of a loaded question than I think you realize. Staff works for some while it doesn’t work for others. D/D works for some while it doesn’t work for others. Same can be said for all the weapons.

I’ve seen some pretty effective and smart staff ele’s out there. I know this doesn’t answer your question but there’s no simple answer for what you’re asking.

Robert Hrouda.1327:

The problem we are seeing a lot of that is causing this, is that people are skipping mobs and rushing through things, and it breaks their scripts when the players activate something while the NPC is stuck in combat.
We try to find and fix scripts in those areas to decrease the chance of it happening though, so details about where and how the NPC broke, and what your group was doing (don’t fret about admitting to rushing or exploiting something) will help us in identifying and fixing the problem.

Robert, I will admit to rushing through and skipping mobs. The problem I see is that people don’t want to invest the time and effort it takes to clear an area for a few whites and a couple crafting mats. And there is only a slight exaggeration to that statement.

I know this has been said before but ANet should really consider taking out the NPC’s and the dungeon’s reliance on them. I, for one, am happy when an NPC dies; it means less of a chance for our plan to fail. For instance, in HotW, Honor Claw, when revived, will immediately go in to an area we have not yet attacked as a group. Rytlock does the same thing in AC Story.

I personally feel it’s somewhat of a high expection to think that players want to kill every single mob in an instance.

Jon,

Thank you for restoring my faith in your team. It’s not necessarily quick fixes that I desire as much as it is acknowledgement.

I’d love to see YouTube vids of these. I have the AC daggers strictly for their glow & fog at night. I always tell my guildies it’s because there’s orcs near by. XD

Shhhhh!! Don’t scare the devs off our forums please! He said theres going to be a hotfix. I don’t want another 2 month span of no interaction with them.

I’m actually ok with it. Like was mentioned before, it’s only a 1 second difference PLUS now cannot be removed by boon removals. I think it’s fair.

Side-note:
Holy crap a dev posted on our forums! A rare-sighting!

I disagree with the CD or any delay on the skill. I will admit, there were a few times that I triggered it just like you said. However, this only made me become more aware of my HP.

Just have to adapt. Heck, we’re Elementalists. Be water, my friend.

Can you tell us what weapon she’s primarily using? I’m going to go out on a limb and say staff. Personally, if I had to choose 2 elements, I’d go with Fire & Water. Very difficult question though because I do use Earth quite a bit. Air while all the others are on CD and I need a “fill in”.

I’m going to preface with this: there may be points where what I’m about to say comes off rude. That’s not my intention at all.

I fear your g/f might have chosen the wrong profession based off your description. Attunement switching is a MUST. I do it incredibly often and I don’t know a good elementalist that doesn’t. This is almost the crux of the elementalist. Stray from there and it really doesn’t matter on gear, build, runes and sigils.

Just my 2 cents.

@Shazor, not trying to be a troll, but those questions are pretty much answered in the first few posts of the thread. The latter questions you had are answered in his video commentary.

Yeah, I saw “LFG” posts spamming for the other dgns prior to FotM. Haven’t really noticed a change.

I somewhat agree with Asagi only because FotM is a little different in the fact that when someone dies, there’s no way to waypoint up. It’s either carry on as a 4-man group, go back and get the poor soul that died, or everyone die and retry from checkpoint. Any other dungeon I could care less. In fact I’m usually the advocate; it’s your repair bill. But now this is more team oriented than the dungeons before. So I think it’s a matter of accountability; I know that this toon has worked up to the level we are about to go in. Not carried on the coat-tails of an alt.

Heimlich.3065:

Empty slot is too powerful to be a Grandmaster trait. Coincidentally, Empty Slot is also our best Elite and best Conjured Weapon.

Nerf this please.

I just LOL’ed here at work reading this and caught akward stares from my peers. Thank you for this.

I love how some are saying, “But they fixed the other skills! You’re just looking for a reason to complain!” Look at it like this, I’ve seen warriors say that Vengence doesn’t trigger in dungeons; that if they use it and kill a mob in a dungeon, they’ll still die. Let’s say that the devs fixed this and said, “Well we never intended 100 blades to hit each time, so we’re only going to make it hit once for the same amount as the first hit. We’re also going to keep the animation.” Warriors would throw a fit! That’s what we’re facing. There wasn’t any complaints about EA Blast. Why? Because no one found it a threat.

I find this all very ironic due to the fact that we were going to invite our friends to play. If they came in these forums, it’d be like a horrible date with a bunch of problems and they would bail out the bathroom window.

I fear the “rain” of rares and exotics are going to hurt the market in a big way.

I SMH at the people who keep saying “EA blast was a bug! It was fixed!” There’s a word for EA Blast: Seredipity. As “unintended” as it may have been, it was fortunate for EVERYONE. It’s not like Ele’s were rolling in party wiping mobs with the blast. Damage from the blast was minimal.

Here’s the facts – EA costs 30 trait points. Nearly half of the allotted trait points you receive total. You had to use evasion to proc it. Like I said, Ele’s weren’t party wiping zergs or anything with the blast. So what were we doing? Using it in fire to add stacks of might not only to us but to allies around us. Using it in geyser to for Area Heal. Occaisonally using it in Static Field for Area Swiftness. So it wasn’t some buff that only Ele’s were receiving. ALL benefited from EA Blast, not just the Ele.

So as “unintended” as it may have been, why not just say, “Hmm. Serendipitous.” and just leave it alone?

I’m somewhat surprised to not see this mentioned but I have noticed a pretty big dip in dungeon drops. I used to be able to run dungeons and get gear that would almost fill my inventory up. Now we take on a group of 6 mobs and get MAYBE a few crafting mats? And that’s no embelishment.

Has anyone else noticed this?

Agreed. Using D/D and laying Ring of Fire, switching to earth and doing Magnetic Grasp and gaining the fire aura did not apply the trait and give it to everyone. Kinda of a bum thing too.

I also believe it’s listed in the Elementalist bugs that is sticked in this section.

OneBloke.7264:

Dear devs
Rock deserves to be nerfed, paper is ok though

Yours,
Scirssors

Lizard is bugged. Spoc is OP! :-)

Where are people getting the notion the devs are going to nerf the bunker build?

@DanH have you played an ele? If so, to what level? I assure you, the bunker build takes more effort than your glass cannon thief build. There’s an ARRAY of skills that we have to use in order to kill someone rather than just spamming a few keys.

I’m glad you couldn’t kill this ele. Ya know what? There’s going to be a few other players you can’t face roll in the game. Instead of QQing to the forums, why not adapt? Because I gurantee, that’s what WE are doing. Now go practice kid before it’s your bedtime.

This is EXACTLY what I was waiting for! Thanks so much phoenix! One question for you if you have time: I am a faithful user of Ether Renewal. My build was very similar to yours in that I was 0/10/10/20/30 and I was using Obsedian Flesh especially when I was using a staff so the channelling would increase toughness while healing. I also find it to be an AMAZING condition removal. And with only 15 sec CD it seemed the most viable. So my question is why use the Glyph and not Ether Renewal?

IndigoSundown.5419:

My main use for scepter is in TA, on the Volatile Blossoms, since staff 1 attacks are too slow and getting into close range with the Blossoms is contra-indicated due to extreme chance of face-plant. The only thing Scepter has going for it is range.

I have to disagree with this. Air 1 on staff with the blossoms? You take out 3 per shot because of the ricocheting it does.

It’s blocked for me.

So what are some good staff skins (aside from Eternal Rest)? I have the CoF staff but am a little disappointed at the “flashlight” look it has.

Perhaps the design team needs to look at this. Granted, first and foremost I’d love to have the crucial bugs fixed first. But to see this as one of the final projects is pretty discouraging.

Naqaj.6219:

Just be glad your Legendary doesn’t shoot rainbows …

No we just make rainbow foot steps everywhere we go. >_<

Holy crap. I just YouTube’d the Quip. Seriously for some “end-game” weapons, they are pretty disappointing.

I am a staff elementalist. I have dabbled with D/D and S/D. But when push comes to shove, I revert back to staff. So I casually work towards getting a legendary as most do. Until I saw what it was. The Bifrost. I have a male Sylvari ele and this does NOT look like it will mesh well with my character. I was wanting to strive for a full gear of Arah armor because not only do I like the specs, but I think the armor looks sick! But I couldn’t see myself running around in full Arah and a Bifrost.

I’ve looked into the Meteorlogicus which looks awesome, and the Incinerator looks amazing, however, my play style is to nuke from the back.

Anyone else have similar thoughts?

@daphoenix

You sir are a major credit to this community! I’m really glad you posted your d/d build & gear as well as showing how well it does in PVE. I’m not much of a PvP’er nor do I have much motivation to be one. I enjoy the PvE aspect engaging mostly in the dungeons. That being said, I fear the d/d build isn’t much help there because it seems as though it forces you to become range. Do you carry an emergency staff on you?

Also, will you be striving to get any legendary weapons, and if so, what?

Thanks!

Reevac.1748:

RawkFist.1935:

Couldn’t agree more. I have ran this with guildies non-stop. We don’t care about DR, it’s the joy of “Mad King” says + mob slaughter + boss fight + jumping puzzle all in one! FANTASTIC job on this ANet. =)

Lol I have so many deaths attributed to dodging off the jumping puzzle by accident. I’ve died once to the king.

Not a complaint.

We were in tears on vent watching each other get feared off the ledge. And sides were splitting when we were attempting to land on the chest by jumping from the top area. I think the only thing that would have made it any better was to get a set of goggles and the spin/flip skills that come with them. XD

Couldn’t agree more. I have ran this with guildies non-stop. We don’t care about DR, it’s the joy of “Mad King” says + mob slaughter + boss fight + jumping puzzle all in one! FANTASTIC job on this ANet. =)

Daecollo.9578:

As long as they lower the damage of them down to what 1 handers do.

Or raise one-handers damage by 10%.

Interesting. I haven’t played the other classes so I can only speak for ele. The daggers may not do the same damage per hit, but as far as attack rate they do more in an allotted time. So I disagree with adjusting the damage output.

I am a level 80 elementalist. My primary weapon that I use is staff though I carry d/d for those times that I’m soloing PvE and bored. When I have D/D, I now receive the benefit of 2 Sigils. When I’m staff, I receive only the benefit of 1. Because I’m an elementalist, I do not have the ability to swap weapons in combat. So if you use 2 1-handed weapons and receive the benefit of 2 sigils, I think it’d be fair to give 2-handed weapons 2 spots for sigils.

Thoughts?

Grevender.9235:

Eicherjw.3926:

that’s my arguement, Elementalists don’t do the damage for how squishy they are.

^ this.

Although I am pretty satisfied that Devs started to tweak Elementalist, I will never cease to underline that true balance means:

“I can be oneshotted? fine, then I must be able to oneshot…”

Also, if the Holy Trinity is TRULY gone, then the word “support class” should be banned for good.

Damage: we lack the “punch” in sheer numbers. Devs want us to perform the madness dance with 750+ keys to remember to get that? it’s ok, but at least reward us with an HUGE explosion which truly nukes foes.

Elementalist is fun, very fun, it gives a fast paced experience in almost every moment, but it is not rewarding

I don’t think all these posts are generalized whining, I’ve read posts of good players stating the same, although underlining how the class is still fun to play and far far away from being “broken”.

TL;DR: Elementalist class is fun and not broken, but is not rewarding.

+1 This. It’s not really the “squishy” part that I mind. I knew rolling my toon that he would wear light armor, ergo, would take more damage and probably have less HP. But as others have pointed out, the Elementalist class does not fulfill it’s description provided by ANet themselves “What they lack in physical toughness, they make up in versatility and the ability to inflict massive damage in a single attack.”

This latest patch that was a buff to d/d and the down state was a MAJOR step in the right direction. I think Staff needs to be looked at some point down the road.

Add me. I’d love to go

I ran TA EM going on the Up path, AC Story last night and AC path 2 this morning. Level 80 Ele with full exotic knight’s exalted gear with Rune of Earth set. I notice when I went into the instance since the patch it seems I’m pretty squishy, more so than normal.

Definite change.

Add me. Lvl 80 ele. I love doing those dungeons. Nostalgia. =)

I honestly have never had a problem as long as you met the level requirement. We’ve all been there before.

The only thing that will get you kicked out of our group is not listening.

I had submitted a bug thread in the Game Bugs section but have not seen a response. I’m going to take that as a possible clue that I’m doing it wrong. What I was wondering is that I am an elementalist using staff. My guild and I try to do TA EM and it seems as though the blossoms are constantly obstructed. Even when we are standing right in front of them.

My only temporary fix is that I use fire attunement and have the fireball lob to the blossom. Does anyone else have any ideas to get past this?

Yeah. There was a HUGE improvement done. Granted it was for mostly dagger but still they heard our cries regarding the down state and 1 skill that’s been bugged is causing so much strife in your life? Rome wasn’t built in a day, folks. >_>

I’m guilty of doing the zerg train every now and then. Mostly because it just breaks the monotony of doing dungeons (which I love doing) and/or exploring. Not a fan of sPVP or WvWvW right now.

Good move ANet. =)

Bracken. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bracken
Just got it a few minutes after launch. No rhyme or reason other than it’s a plant name.