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So yeah... Developers.

in Warrior

Posted by: Ushio.7138

Ushio.7138

Ele’s water attunement line has healing built into it, so does the dagger ‘2’ for necromancer.

These are what he meant, please don’t take this out of line.

Other classes have things like: Protection/Retaliation/Regeneration/Healing/Sustain built right into there basic weapon sets/attacks while we do not, that is the difference.

Depends on your weapons. S/F for Ele has no healing outside of the pitiful Water Trident. D/F has no healing. Staff heals are on such a long CD you’ll get them off once per engagement, and only get benefit if you can somehow stand in them for extended periods of time. The Necro dagger 2 doesn’t heal very much at all and is a long channel. However, the Warrior warhorn has AoE vigor and weakness, as well as condition removal on very friendly CDs. At an absolute BASELINE (0/0/0/0/0) level, as his post mentioned, the Warrior warhorn would outperfom either of those.

I never disputed that other classes have access to methods that are easier to enhance with traits, as well as being better enhanced by traits. But that laundry list of “baseline sustain” other classes have was simply incorrect.

So yeah... Developers.

in Warrior

Posted by: Ushio.7138

Ushio.7138

Examples:
Guard: Virtue of Resolve, Protection/Regen utilities
Ele: Water attune regen. Some water weapon skills and water fields. Protection utilities.
Necro: Deathshroud/Lifesteal
Thief/Mesmer: Sustain is more complicated here, but essentially comes from evasion via clones/stealth, blinds, dazes, stuns, etc. Far more difficult to quantify, but no less effective in practice.
Engy: F1, Protection/Regen utilities.

Ele has to trait for water attune regen and Necro has to trait for lifesteal. Those aren’t baseline abilities. And to pull out weapon skills is unfair, considering that at 0/0/0/0/0, the Vigor and AoE weakness of call to arms will probably provide more damage mitigation than an Ele’s geyser or cleansing wave, or a Necro’s Life Siphon would heal.

While it’s undoubtedly true that other classes have an easier time speccing for superior sustain, you can’t overstate these “baseline” abilities.

Why do people complain about eles...

in Elementalist

Posted by: Ushio.7138

Ushio.7138

I’ve mained Ele since launch. It’s been really sad to see how the class has been handled. It’s lost a lot of usefulness while not really being given much in return. D/D was and always has been the best build, but has seen nothing but nerfs with nothing else being buffed enough to be viable. S/D is okay, but if somebody dodges right when you’re hitting your big burst, you’re pretty much screwed. Other classes can achieve burst builds with at least marginal survivability. S/D only survivability is to kill the target before they kill you, because there just isn’t enough damage mitigation available and healing (Ele’s main “defensive” mechanism) can’t keep up with how glassy you are. I will admit, it’s extremely fun though. Enjoyable playstyle is really the only thing keeping me on my ele. Of course it still works pretty well as a support class in PvE, so there’s that, too.

I’ve recently moved to playing Guardian in sPVP and every time I see an Ele, I look at it as a free kill. As an Ele main, it’s heartbreaking.

D/D Builds??? (Sky Pirates Patch)

in Elementalist

Posted by: Ushio.7138

Ushio.7138

There are no white creatures in pvp.

They were talking about WvW! In sPVP, yeah, the RtL was a huge boning of ele’s mobility.

Also, I dont even feel like elementalists were nerfed. They nerfed one trait and moved around a couple of stun breaks (which isn’t even really a nerf) while giving us quite a few buffs. People were upset that we were required to go 30 into water and Anet made it not necessary. Everyone should quit using the same build they’ve been using since launch and realize that d/d is stronger than ever.

Except that one of the stunbreaks was put on GoEP, which should never consider being used for that purpose. Taking stunbreak from CF was a fine decision, but taking it from LF makes zero sense. If anything it should have been removed from Armor of Earth (though the crazy high cooldown and meh effect would almost assuredly make the skill completely unused). BP was probably a fair nerf, but the thing is: Ele is extremely lacking in survivability. Our main source of defense is healing and boons (and I guess mobility, though we hardly have any left to spare). So, going into Water and Arcane is pretty much necessary if you plan to play D/D, considering that unlike other classes, we can’t swap to a ranged weapon if need be. We’re locked into melee range, and since we have the worst base stats and our main defense mechanisms are reactive, we’re forced to invest heavily in defensive trees. Getting nice bonus damage out of a tree we’re almost pigeonholed into was helpful. I don’t think it’s a must-have, nor do I think it was entirely unfair, but it was a pretty big hit to D/D.

D/D is far from being stronger than ever. The positive things ANet is doing here and there for the class usually don’t impact D/D in a meaningful way.

D/D Builds??? (Sky Pirates Patch)

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Posted by: Ushio.7138

Ushio.7138

it was suposed to be a roamer…
Once.

It still is, you just have to know how. And if roaming for you means kiting and fighting 8 people around some terrain obstacles, then no.. Not anymore – There’s been to many nerfs to properly do that.

However, you should still be able to fight a couple at a time, especially if its not two D/D thiefs.

Roaming also means getting around the map fast. Which D/D can’t do anymore because of the ridiculous 40 second RTL cooldown. Every single profession besides maybe Mesmer and Necros are now faster than us.

You can still get around decently if you target a far off white creature and RtL into it to get the 20s cooldown.

As for OP, I use a 0/0/20/20/30 build. Stone Splinters makes up for the damage lost with BP nerf, and Rock Steady is just great. You also can’t overlook the 15 minor that damages and cripples around you when attuning earth, since I usually engage with fire, then swap to earth, that’s really nice. The rest is pretty standard. I use full Knight’s with a mix of Celestial and Zerker accessories.

Still trying to get utilities worked out since the cantrip nerfs though. I keep arcane wave for the increased damage output and blast finisher, then usually take LF and MF. Been considering switching arcane wave to arcane shield for another stunbreak while keeping some increased damage output.

was fun, not now

in Sky Pirates of Tyria

Posted by: Ushio.7138

Ushio.7138

I’m in full exotics (berserker MESMER) and the lasers are laughable even with the golems pulling me.

I’m playing with pugs, on a dd ele.

I finished the dungeon last night with pugs on a dd ele. It really wasn’t that bad. We had a couple of people die on the part where you breached the door. Wiped once on the golems because nobody knew how to do it, then had a couple of deaths on the final boss.

You just need to get good. Bring a staff for the golems. Stay as far away as possible and use frozen ground to keep your distance so they can’t pull you. Rock steady 2 secs of stability is super helpful if you see them winding up for the pull.

Prepare for serious nerfs next week

in Elementalist

Posted by: Ushio.7138

Ushio.7138

While I do agree that the bountiful power nerf will decrease the efficiency of the D/D ele x-x-x-30-30 builds, I think it’s mostly negligible and doesn’t detract from the ability to stay alive, which is the main purpose of going bunker, outlasting your opponent. If you want to do some serious damage, you’ll have to go and try out some new builds. And with the changes to the air traitline (Fresh Air sounds like an awesome trait) you will be able to do just that.

The glyph of elemental power sounds to me as the best glyph to put a stun breaker on. I’m pretty sure it will break stun first and then start casting the glyph itself. At least that would be the logical thing to do.

Overall I’m pretty excited about all the changes coming our way, it’s good they’re shaking up the whole meta all at once instead of releasing small patches all the time. At least like this people will have to figure out new builds and the meta will be rocky for quite some time.

That’s fair. But the way I see it is that baseline survivability is so ridiculously low for an Ele that you’re pretty much forced into taking at least 15 in water if you want any hope of not dying the second someone looks at you, and attunement recharge rates are so key to gameplay that you need at least 15-20 there to be effective. While the Water and Arcana trait lines are awesome enough that it’s not a big deal, it’s hard to promote build diversity when so many points are tied up just making the class playable. Skills like Fresh Air might make it possible to go 10 Arcana (let’s face it, you’ll never make a build without EA) and still rotate effectively, but we’ll have to see.

Like somebody else said, it can’t break stun then cast, or else you’ll have it on a 3s CD by rupting it yourself. Unless they can somehow give the stunbreak a CD separate from the skill itself? My initial thought was that it would become instant, but I don’t see that mentioned anywhere and all the glyphs have you draw them in the air. Kinda silly to take that out for the one glyph that breaks stuns.

Definitely with you on the shaking up of the meta. I really like the way they’re doing this and I think the coming weeks after the patch will be fun as new builds pop up since it’s SO stagnant right now.

Prepare for serious nerfs next week

in Elementalist

Posted by: Ushio.7138

Ushio.7138

Bountiful power is a pretty big nerf. Losing 5-7% constant damage is a large amount. If you don’t invest in water, it’s tough to survive any amount of firepower. BP mitigated some of the damage you lose by being forced to invest in a tree just to reach a necessary level of survivability.

The big one to me that nobody seems to be mentioning is the Glyph of Elemental Power stunbreaker. Not only is it a pretty poor choice of a skill to be a stunbreaker in the first place, it has a 1 1/4 second cast time. What good is that? By the time you break the stun, it’s already done what it needed to. So moving the stunbreaker there is pretty much taking one away from elementalist.

I really like the staff changes, as it was my weapon of choice for a long time, but some of these reduce the viability of already viable builds, while not really creating anything that can match them. Fresh Air, among other things, seem like steps in the right direction, while some changes are really just head scratching. It seems like other classes got improvements to already good builds (Warriors CD reduction on all heals, torment for Mesmer & Thief) or changes that could potentially create viable builds (Reduction on CDs + Stunbreak & Stability on wells for Necro plus boosts to Death Shroud, big upgrades to sword & traits that synergize with cripple/immob for Warrior, huge buffs to rupt skills for Mesmer)

solo pve staff build ?

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Posted by: Ushio.7138

Ushio.7138

I played through most of my leveling-up process as a solo-staff ele with this build, and it was mostly painless.

Most of your damage will come from fire, especially when running around maps doing events and killing trash mobs, so going 10 points for Internal Fire helps speed up most of your regular-solo play. The 20 in air is pretty self-explanatory. You can change out Bolt to the Heart for Inscription if you want. At least 10 water for Cleansing Wave is absolutely necessary. I like to go 20 for the healing ripple minor and reduced CD on cantrips. At least 20 Arcana is a must for Elemental Attunement, Blasting Staff, and the Attunement recharge reduction. Dropping 10 from anywhere to pump it to 30 and get Evasive Arcana isn’t a bad decision.

I went mostly Berserker with some Knight’s armor for damage, since you have great range and probably can’t put in enough toughtness/vit to survive any real firepower. Rely on your heals. Utilities are really whatever you want. Glyph of Storms is useful since fire is decent AoE damage and Earth is AoE blinds for defense. Cantrips provide some protection since you’ll be alone most of the time and CC can be brutal. If you go for Inscription, dropping Armor of Earth for another glyph skill and dropping Cantrip Mastery is probably a good idea. Glyph of Elementals is a must, the earth elemental is a total bro. For dungeons, I’d usually drop fire, go 30 into water, get Cleansing Water, and be more support-y.

Your early priorities should be 10 Arcana, 10 fire, 20 Arcana, 10 Air, then whatever you want.

Your 5 Favorite Things About your Ele

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Posted by: Ushio.7138

Ushio.7138

1. Ability to synchronize well with nearly any other class you might play with
2. Ice bow 4 skill
3. Having 4 attunements to swap through emphasizes on-the-fly thinking and adjusting
4. Great combo potential
5. Rtl