Guild Wars 2

Now that staff is out of the way, we can actually make a healer that are capable of decent dps!!!

I think regen actually fills up the bar now???
1. Is it a bug?
2. Am i delusional??
3. Dream comes true????

Actually, I think it is better to switch legend off CD since it is the fastest way to regen energy and recycle CD.
Shiro is kinda simple because of Impossible Odd.
Glint take a bit of management to spend your energy correctly and having the right upkeep to maximize boons.
A lot of rev maximization will be about constantly staying in meele range and dodge with UA.
It is indeed simple but many meele class ( thief, warrior, ranger or even staff ele) share the same concept. It is mostly about being greedy to constantly sticking to the target without dying :\

For lower level, Power and precision are good if you like doing damage.
You can get some vitality if you see yourself dieing often.
As for higher level, because of the new expansion, there is no clear cut what is the best stat combination yet. In my opinion, with heavy armor, high survivable capability and good physical damage, Rev is a good candidate for Berserker gear ( Power Precision Ferocity)

Dante.3780:

Vanillea.5764:

In your screen shot, the 1.3k is actually the brutal blade damage. It used to hit as hard as half of a Rift Slash (3rd hit) which shows as almost 2.6k in the picture.

If you look closely you can see that Rift Slash icon is pressed and its animation is ending – there animations are unique enough to distinguish each one of them – so you’re wrong here

As for coefficients – although i do not know them, screenshot shows you 2,5k BB (as i just explained, its not riftslash), just as it does now, so it was not buffed.

The faded 2.6k is Rift Slash, The 1.3k is the second part of Brutal Blade when it comes back.
If you tested Rev in beta as you mentioned, you should know that Rift Slash is the hardest hitting of the chain and there is no way it could be as low as 1.3k

Brutal Blade is not nerf in term of damage.
In your screen shot, the 1.3k is actually the brutal blade damage. It used to hit as hard as half of a Rift Slash (3rd hit) which shows as almost 2.6k in the picture.

Right now, you can notice that Brutal Blade and Rift Slash damages are pretty much equal. If i recall correctly, Sword chain acutallys get BUFFED. It use to have the coefficient of 0.8( prep thrust) + 0.5×2 ( brutal blade)+ 0.9 (rift slash) + 0.3 (explosion).
But now the coefficient is 0.85 1 1 and 0.3, with the difference seems to be 0.15 increase :\

Don’t forget to rate the one above you.

@Purple Miku: I like the color scheme and the fire mage theme. Not a fan of skimpy clothes thou xD 8/10

@Panteri aka Sera Calida: 8/10 for the assassin-looking mage. 0.5 for the sassy attitude :p 8.5/10

I want to thank my friends who took these picture for me. My resolution and photographic skill will not be able to produce the same result….

^8/10
The color scheme complements your skin tone nicely. I would like to see a bit contrast to make it “pop” more.

Here is mine. I like to keep him simple xD

While it is nice for lower level area., mega server can greatly affects the experience of larger community. Organizing guild mission and guild event can be tricky. Limited use of mega server in area that do not affect guild mission is considerably better.

Hi,

My name is Vani and I have been playing Ele since Beta. I originally started in PvP and archived decent success with it. I have switched to PvE around 6 months ago to play with my friends and guildies. I was once into speed run, CoF and CoE. I have experienced many builds with eles, including all the weapon combinations and LF builds.

First of all, I want to show my respect for Zelyhn for his dedicated research about elementalist. Information was not always as available as it is right now and theory crafting was rather difficult.

Then I want to state my opinion about the current discussion about “meta” build. I played LH with optimal group and I know how much damage you can do with it. Thou, I do agree with Neko and Zelyhn: the best DPS build does not mean the absolute build

I don’t run with optimal group anymore. Being in a guild that constantly has 150-200 people playing, I don’t exclude people from groups because they cannot run optimal spec or profession. It all comes down to everyone’s priority:

• If you are interested in clearing the dungeon as fast as possible to save time and resources, then you should run with your optimal group and use LH
• Personally, I enjoy helping people learning the dungeon and more importantly have some laugh with it. Some might find wiping a hassle and bothersome. I find it quite hilarious ( as long as people are not trolling). Many of my most memorable experiences with the game are from dying and rezzing each other in boss fight.

I also think that speedruning is very efficient but not the best and definitely not the only way you should run dungeon. In general, speed running focuses on stacking, might stacking and burning mobs down. I don’t find it challenging and I don’t feel that I am growing my skill as a player when I am speed running. There are many mechanics of the game that you can ignore if you are running with an optimal groups.

As a pvp veteran, I am quite spoiled with ele’s utility in a group set up. I find myself running 0/20/0/20/30 most of the time. Yes, the dmg is rather mediocre but I enjoy the play style and it works on most situations.

I would encourage people to use the guide in this forum as reference and not guideline to develop your own playstyle and reference.

Best,

Mojo.7986:

Arcane VI – Renewing Stamina. Moved to Master tier.

S

You really need to take a step back and think about what you are doing here. I don’t know of a single D/D ele that is right in the head that gets into melee range without that trait. Squishiest class, closest range weapon set, and you put the vigor up another 10 points?

No, Renewing Stamina is still an adept tier. Arcane Retribution, Arcane Resurrection and Elemental Attunement are moving to adept

I would like a rework for Shatter Stone . The current version is underwhelming and too similar to Ice Spike in Staff.

Here are some of my opinions:

1. The delay is fine but the cast time could use a reduction. 1s cast time is a bit much as you could do more by just auto attack in water. 1/2s or even 1/4 s cast time seems reasonable to me.
2. It could have a more unique and interesting second effect such as one of the below:
   *10 stacks of vulnerability in a 10s CD (instead of 4 stacks with 2 s CD)
   *Remove a boon when hit
   *Remove a condition to self or ally in the AoE
   *Chill for 1 s
   *Do double damage to movement impair foes.
   *If foes is chill or cripple, extend the duration by 2s (Similar the Air Blast from Engi’ Flamethrower which extends the duration of burn by 2s)

I dont mind if the CD is adjusted to match the effect. As of now it is a spam-able skill that is not worth to spam

In a similar note, Ice Shards (scepter water auto) could use soem adjustment as well. It helps to proc crit or effect, thou the dmg is rather lacking. You hurts yourself more than your enemies if they have retaliation. Not to mention, Air auto and Earth auto are also multi-hit and can fulfill the same roles.

It wont not reset the skill in Air Attunement. I dont want to see Perma Shock Aura Pls.
Refresh Air Attunement means a few thing:
More Swiftness which S/D and S/F need
More Fury uptime.
More Static Discharge and Lighting Strike in Scepter because it has 5 s CD.

Because Fresh Air only has 5 sec CD, you Air Attunement will barely on CD and it will compensate the lack of auto attack damage.

To take 30 in AIe, you would have to sacrifice point in water or arcana. However, the dmg increase will be ridiculous, especially for S/D. Double Air Burst is a nightmare

Fire Grab can end fight very quickly because people don’t expect the burst if you hit it. It is currently one of ele strong finishing burst, so I don’t think the CD is too long.

PistolWhip.2697:

Something to point out is, Ele’s were never meant to be the masters or one of the best at mobility, survivable etc. They are meant to be kinda good at it all, which they can still be. it just means they can’t be really good at particular things as per Anet’s design philosophy.

Kinda good, like not as good as thief, warrior, ranger and engi? Excuse me but RTL is the ONLY mobility skill for S/D, a spec that the only source of swiftness is from switching to air( or blow your glyph of harmony). Now taking away the ability to use RTL out of combat makes a S/D as slow as necro and guardian.

RTL nerf is bad. The new rules is: You can chase ele because they cannot escape but ele can’t chase you because…oh because they can’t

Now RTL just has more counter:

RTL to thief/ mesmer = No Go because they are gonna stealth and you will have 40 s CD.
It is not rare for RTL to not hit, there are so many things you can do so that an ele will whilf RTL. CD nerf + Range nerf together are ridiculous. Not to mention you cannot use it to travel anymore. What is with making thief the most mobile class? It is not like they aren’t not already are.

PinCushion.7390:

Ptolomy.6984:

I still don’t get why they don’t realise that they are making critical hits on the non bunkerish eles every patch thus kinda force us more into bunkering…
They just take and take and don’t give anything in return…
Or am I seeing this wrong

You’re seeing it wrong. The goal is to take the Cantrip Ele build down a notch while also buffing other builds. They mentioned buffing Staff, but none of the interviewers were very interested in that so ANet didn’t talk about it much.

So nerfing the only mobility skill for S/D and forcing people to take Lighting Flash as a replacement is a way to nerf Cantrip Ele? Hmm… I see

Cant even use RTL to chase now.
Ele: Use RTL
Other: let’s see. I will use Swoop, Whirling Blade, Blink, Shadow Step, I.Arrow, Rush, Rocket Boot, Leap,…
Ele: I miss…:(
Other: don’t worry RTL travel further…oh wait! It has 20s CD which is only a little longer…oh wait!
Hmmmm

Puandro.3245:

Attunement swapping eles revolve around fury gain while swapping and might gain from fire attunement swap, battle sigil and lastly any combos being done.

My PvE spec revolves around staying in fire and using http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Pyromancer's_Puissance.

First let me say D/D > Staff but Staff doesnt do too bad, scepter sucks.

Full berserker gear.

Top 10 skills in terms of DPS (Note that i used DPS not Damage) starting from the highest.

Burning Speed
Ring of Fire
Fire Grab (when burning)
Drake’s Breath (Only when no burn is on the target)
Churning Earth
Ring of Earth
Lightning Whip
Dragon’s Claw
Earthquake
Cone of Cold

Even attunement swapping, gaining might and fury it does not do more damage then sitting in Fire, gaining might, and using traits to boost your dps in Fire.

If i take Internal Fire, Dragon Claw does more damage then lightning whip and then the only 2 attacks that do more damage is RoE and CE in earth. Also if the party is providing some Fury it makes attunement swapping even less attractive.

Fire staff is also waaaaay better than any other attunements. Lava font is just too freaking good.

Another thing of just sitting on fire attunement is that you can swap to your CC or heals on demand when you need to.

How can Burning Speed and Ring of Fire with 10 s CD the highest DPS skills xD. They might have high DPC ( damage per cast) because of the short casting time but no where near the top DPS skill. Some candidates for highest DPS skills might be Lighting Whip, Drake’s Breath or Fireball + Lava Font.

You gain DPS because you will stay alive longer to do your damage instead of dying. Given if your are in an easy dungeon, anything works and you can maximize dmg all you want. In a more difficult scenario, especially wvw or spvp, you die before you do any dmg if you don’t utilize atunement swap.

A very simple example, you say switching out of fight you will lose a dps battle. However, if I am another staff ele who is constantly moving and put up my magnetic aura, what would you do to me if you stay in Fire attunement? Lava font won’t hit. Meteor takes forever to channel and you might die before finish channeling. Auto attack and get reflected…? Of course it is an ideal situation if you can just stand and auto atk in fire but sometimes it is not that easy.

Certain keyboard has F1 row right above number row. It will help greatly with the default keybind because F1 to F4 is literally next to 1-5. My utilities are on QERFC

There is a reason why Celestial amulet is not very popular in spvp. Power scale with precision and crit dmg, toughness scale with vit and healing. Celestial gives all stat but not enough for each aspect. You will end up die before doing enough dmg. For a balance build in PvE or WvW, soldier gears + berserker accessories yield a better result than full Celestial

maniolnba.2678:

only 300? lol its not only

Because these 300 stats are healing power and condition dmg….around 150 each :P

I would still take at least Cleansing Wave (trait) because it is an AoE on demand cleanse. I don’t run any rune or food with condition duration reduction and I manage myself fine with just Cleansing Wave. There are exception such as necro corrupted boons,….but as Scepter/Dagger with phoenix and Cleansing Wave( weapon skill) you should be fine even without the rune and food

maniolnba.2678:

its not 130 healing power. Will get 216 from accesories+60 from divinity runes+ 300 from traits so its 576. so its not that low

Traits and Divinity runes, you can have with all different gears. The toughness and vitality from Celestial are just breakeven with normal accessories. Because of the loss in crit dmg, there are only around extra 300 stats from Celestial accessories.The difference between celestial and normal gear combination mostly comes from Healing or Condition Dmg. So it all come down to how much you value the extra 130 or so Healing and Condition dmg

Your power and precision will suffer from Celestial gears. They can be compensated by might stacking and fury. The difference is not much so either option is viable.

The real question is how much you value extra 130 Healing and Condition Dmg? If yes go for it. if no then don’t

Ray.2640:

Has anyone noticed how the last couple of seconds of a fully channeled meteor shower seem to be visual only? I never seem to get any hits off in those last seconds even though there are still enemies visually being hit by the falling meteors.

Yes, the last 5 sec deal no dmg It is supposed to deal dmg for 15 sec but I noticed the last 5 sec meteors doesn’t do dmg

Cleansing Wave, Healing Ripple, Elemental Attunement are core of all my builds , direct or condition dmg. Mist Form is also very important. Might be Blasting Staff if I use a Staff. The rest are optional.

How about fist or knuckle,……

Intigo.1653:

Arheundel.6451:

Intigo.1653:

eldain stenlund.4306:

lol.. “massive damage in a single attack” pfff.. lol…

Ok but…

1) 22 stacks of might
2) bonus food
3) fury
4) maybe vulnerability from friendly zerg

Sure ele doesn’t lack damage for sure, but the picture you’ve posted is misleading

I never said it wasn’t, it was just all the effort that I felt like putting into a reply when the original post was this wrong and uninformed.

Churning Earth is still one of, if not the strongest, hitting abilities in the game.

Also, it was 23 stacks and don’t forget the 25 Bloodlust stacks on top of that. Still had pretty bad gear back then, though.

Churning Earth might have the big numbers. But if we are talking about massive damage in a single skill in a group, I would think Meteor Shower is probably the one. Each Meteor might crit for half the amount of CE but CE hits maximum 5 while meteor shower is capable of a much higher number. I don’t have any screenshot because everytime I finish casting MS, i am too busy going around collecting presents on the ground

Each Meteor is an individual AoE with its own target cap. Thou I doubt that with 90 radius a meteor can hit more than 2 targets. Meteor Shower itself doesn’t have a target cap. In a large group of enemy, Meteor Shower is capable of hitting much more than just 5 targets.

But the Bifrost looks nice one ele…..

Human Male and Female because they looks nice in everything. The animation is graceful and the armor is top tier.

Our core is 0/10/0/15/10. The rest is personal preference. You don’t need 30 in water or Arcane. Since attunement dance is a popular play style, many builds have 30 arcane in it. I personally pick 30 in arcane because I like the Grandmaster traits. 30 in airs works. 10 in Fire or Earth works. Most people don’t go deep into Air, Fire or Earth probably because the Grandmaster traits in those lines are situational.

If they put Zephyr’s Boon into a Grandmaster trait, we will see a lot of 30 Air builds.

I think if you feel any other profession is “stronger,” you probably should play that profession because:
1, This is just a game after all. You should play what you like.
2, Ele is strong. Or at least if you like ele, you would feel that way.

You shouldn’t be obligated to play something. If you feel ele is weak or you feel other class is stronger, ele might not be the right choice for you. This is from my personal experience. I main ele and love it. When i try to play any other profession, I feel like I am not doing as much (even if I might actually do).

This is my favorite quote from my friend “If you have to think whether it is worth it or not, it might not be.” Don’t stress yourself over it.

Rating trait individually is difficult. Some build work totally around 1 trait. On the other builds, that same trait could be worthless. Even if you include two score it is still hard to justify the usefulness of each trait. Well some is blatantly bad/good. But a lot of traits has potential and we don’t know yet xD

I think people should stop the complaint about our Arcane and Water lines. They are a blessing not a curse. Other trait lines are pretty similar to what other professions have. We mainly use Arcane and Water because they are exceptionally good xD. The Arcane Grandmaster traits are so so strong. When I play other class. 10% dmg in 1 main hand weapon would be like “Yes!Give me please!!” But with ele, 10% in Fire (our main direct dmg source) would be like “Meh. I can do better than that”…..So i wouldn’t say we are pigeonholed into one build. More like we are gifted with one really amazing build xD

Gorni.1764:

Vanillea.5764:

It is popular because it is easy to play. There are not much to aim as D/D just go in to range and cast. It has the lowest skill floor out of ele’s weapon set.

in PvE Staff or Zepter are by far easier to play than D/D. Also in WvW. It’s just PvP or soloing in WvW where D/D is the weapon of choice – just because the other weapons have mostly fail spell-mechanics for PvP. You’re confusing efficiency with difficulty.

So let me guess, you are a D/D’s fan. I don’t see how D/D is harder to play than Staff or S/D. It has no skill-shot. It is the least punishing to make mistake. All atunement can actually do AoE dmg in short CD. Do I think it is the most efficient weapon set? Nope. Do I think it is easy to play? Yes. I can be wrong but sure I am not confused.

D/D has been popular since beta. Most tournament team run burst D/D ele. It is popular because it is easy to play. There are not much to aim as D/D just go in to range and cast. It has the lowest skill floor out of ele’s weapon set.
Recently there are a decline in popularity but i still see more D/D than S/D or x/F. Thou, there are always gonna be more Staff ele than D/D or S/D. Even if the weapon is not that strong it fits the image of a caster.

Mesmer can have multiple build but Ele’s water/arcana lines are arguably ones of the best trait lines in the game.

Mesmer can burst harder but ele can burst more often

Mesmer has better single target control, ele has better AoE control.

If you play mesmer is stronger then play it. It has always been the fotm along with thief, guardian and warrior

Hmm Warden is good for trash mobs if you have a tank and of course for the projectile reflection. But in term of dps, i think it is lacking. Even if all hits connect, there is still a huge delay between casts (not to mention the cast time itself is relatively long). I think it is around 8s for Warden, 5s for Duelist and only 3s for Swordman. That is why Swordman is superior for dps.

As for the Swiftness, I use rune of centaur. I do miss out some bonuses from rune. But oh well, it makes me a AoE Swiftness goddess so…..

I like focus but it hurts our offensive ability in spvp. In pve anything works I guess

Isn’t Pistol still the best offhand so far?
There are enough AoE Swiftness from other profession so I don’t think we are desperately need the Focus.
PvP wise, focus is ok but not great. The pull is predictable, people will dodge it because of the short delay. 2s stun from afar is a much more reliable cc. Warden do no dmg in spvp and die in a few cleave. Actually most melee clones do. That is why iDuelist is better because it is easier to position them. In term of DPS sword offhand is the best. But who would trade a 1 hit block for a 2s stun anyway.

PvE wise. Warden is still not that great again mobile mobs. Swordsman dies in a cleave. So iDueliist is still more reliable in phantasm build. Of course, iBerserker is still the best since it is AoE and also applies cripple.

Offhand wise, I don’t think other weapon can come close to what Pistol can offer. Just my opinion thou.

Problematic Match-up:
Ele because they can burst or run away. I usually win in sustained fight thou
Skill Match-up :
Other Mesmers of course.
Good Condition/Bunker Engi.
Favorable Match-up:
Guardian: Mesmer can rip boons easily, thus, making guardian very vulnerable.
Ranger, GC Engi: a lot of projectile reflects makes these match up easy for mesmer
Easy Match-up:
Warrior: We have too many stun-break which makes it hard for Warrior to deal with
Thief: They die too quickly against a good Mesmer if they don’t run

gimmethegepgun.1284:

Vanillea.5764:

DT and Phoenix both have decently big AoE so it is not that easy to dodge them in SPvP.

You’re joking, right?
If you hit a DT on someone that wasn’t CC’d it means it was the first time they EVER played against a scepter ele.
It’s hard to hit the brainless PvE enemies with DT except in melee range (because they won’t move), so why would you think it could ever hit a player without CC?

I usually fight on point as I should. Even if it doesn’t hit, it pressures people. In a big team fight, it is not too difficult to hit people with Dragon Tooth. It has 900 range, only 1 s cast and doesn’t root you in place. I would say it is pretty free. Of course you wouldn’t expect to hit a thief chasing you but there are other skills for different situation.

The only way to avoid this bug is to get access to Blasting Staff before you learn any of your staff skills. By doing so the green circle will have correct AoE indication. However, after taht you have to learn the staff skills one more time without Blasting Staff.

Nothing is wrong with scepter. It is a mobile casting weapon. It does a lot of single as well as AoE dmg. DT and Phoenix both have decently big AoE so it is not that easy to dodge them in SPvP. Both of them have really good dmg scaling so they are high reward skillshot skills. Water 2 is probably bugged right now because I think it is intended to have no delay/casting. Air provides good undodgeable single target dmg and control from 900 range. And Earth has good defense/control option.

Scepter is strong. It performs well in any aspect of the game. People just prefer Dagger main hand.

If you are new to the game, put 10 point in water. your dmg might suffer a bit but you will be decently tanky. After you get 15 into water, you are good to go because switching to water is another heal + all the heal skill in water attunement. Ideal solo PvE weapon set would be Scepter/Dagger. If you are more comfortable with staying up close D/D is not bad either. Don’t try staff unless you find yourself doing big dynamic event most of the time. Staff is good but you want to be able to swap attunement a lot with the weapon.