You’re on to something here. Why is it that they don’t remove retaliation from those abilities completely and keep their cooldowns and potency as it is? Retaliation is shared amongst all the other classes too so I doubt we can change the way it works. Every class would need to be adjusted
Also!! once you are confident and if you are spec’ed into the right build (lots of heals and mitigation), you can eat a warrior’s burst on purpose or pop a block. The idea is to stand still n just whack him to death. If done successfully, he’ll return crying and you’ll see a new ‘guardian is OP’ thread :] I actually tend to do this a lot when I recognise my opponent’s skill level or equipment is not a threat.
Just stand around and pretend you aren’t phased by his attacks like a juggernaut. Of course, please don’t do this if your opponent is an actual threat. Guardian is one of the few classes that can have some fun like this.
As for actual advice, the scepter’s immobilization is a very valuable ability because we lack reliable ways to stop the opponent from escaping at a range (besides gap closure).
Hammer is very viable, and Greatsword would be a more support orientated weapon for condition removal and occasional group CC. In tPvP, you could really run either of those as long as you are designed to be the best fit for your assigned role in the team. Hammer’s playstyle being a little bit more difficult to adjust to… but according to several therads on here, it’s viable for competitive pvp.
I’m not sure if your topic was worth a new thread considering how many players have given the same advice on all elementalist related issues.
In reply, I was wondering if your advice would be helpful to those who PvE or want to solo PvE in harder places. And in PvP, would your advice make things easier or just display that elementalist needs far more effort than it should?
I can’t relate to the sentiment that Shield 4 is hard to use, it’s not the same as just hitting a shout but a 600 AoE Cone isn’t that hard to hit.
If you’re running Mace/Shield, chances are in the dungeon you’re sitting on the mobs letting them swing at you instead of your thief and caster. If you’re trying to do a good job, you’d be facing the mobs away from them and strafing when needed. This means you can easily find the time to shoot it off as you’re facing your group. What happens if the Crusher in Arah is facing your group when he swings his cone? Everyone dies..The same tactics apply to Sword/Shield which is a slightly more offensive and mobile iteration of the set up.
I usually run Scepter/Shield with my hammer as I find it a great way to peel for others in dungeons. Seeing as it’s a range weapon, you have a lot of wiggling room and the luxury of not having to be near mobs to use it means you can both use SoA to project the party from projectiles, knock stuff off them. If you aren’t restricted by range, rotating your mouse quickitteno shoot off protection isn’t that demanding.
“If I knock them back they just walk back!” Don’t sit and hold the bubble if no projectiles are coming at you, use the knockback to give breathing room then detonate right away and immobilize, blind or block depending on which 1h you are. They only get right back onto you or your teammates if they don’t move, which is what everyone should be doing more of as the combat in this game is more movement based than others.
The only unattractive aspect about shield is possibly the cool downs, but mechanically it performs extremely well as an off-hand.
I see the appeal in focus and I love it when I solo or am in a more offensive role, but for group settings I see it the Shield has having the superior skillset when it comes down to being able to come through for them in the clutch. The bouncing blind is great, but does not help that much against multiple fast attacks. With the shield you either prevent the damage from being too extreme or interrupt the most threatening blow at the right moment and that to me is more valuable.
I understand that the shield’s skills can be effective but the cooldowns are far too long to justify for its effects. For example, engineer’s #4 shield ability is 30s long and also has projectile REFLECT and knockback. Since ours is more group orientated and absorbs, our cooldown is 1.5x longer than theirs?
Anyways, I really do not suggest using a sword/offhand + mace-shield combo using 10/30/30 build or any variant close to it unless you have symbol-boosting abilities. Since PvE is mentioned in the thread title, I’m going to assume for dungeons and dynamic events you’ll want a ranged weapon? Or maybe atleast an AoE weapon that covers the faults of 1h sword. Try to choose a weapon that covers what you can’t do well with sword in the most dire of situations. One that changes the difference between life and death when you have your sword out
I’d like to also point out just because your build is 10/30/30, it does not mean you CAN’T use GS ;] Although from a pvp perspective, it’s just better to use scepter shield
I have the very same dilemma with the exact same build. My solution was to buy and carry Hammer, GS, Sword, Scepter, Staff, Shield, Focus (almost everything except torch).
My sword and focus would always be equipped but depending on the situation I would really quickly press H and drag the appropriate wep into my secondary slot ASAP before each encounter.
Sword/Focus & Scepter/Shield is great but only for 1 on 1 encounters… otherwise you won’t be able to tag everything in events or effectively wipe entire crowds.
For me, I use Staff a lot in the secondary slot since it’s just more versatile and provides constant ranged AoE (this provides many benefits like being able to hit through trees/walls/pillars and never having to worry about ‘obstructed’ or ‘misses’ with its large arc). The swiftness is also great for travel
Greatsword can be useful too but sometimes I feel like it can’t keep up with some events that move too fast or kill too fast. Staff fixes that issue and any other weapon can’t compare.
It doesn’t matter if the elementalistist is in a good position or not. We have a larger issue where many players don’t even INVITE elementalists to parties because they have the impression we’re weak. It’s gone to the point where many people in the general population assume we’re weak (due to many bad experiences with others or themselves) and are willing to ignore our class.
The class can be considered BAD if many players who fall in the ‘average’ skill-level of the spectrum is not able to play it adequately. By adequate, I mean capable of changing the minds of other party members that an elementalist’s role can’t be replaced by another class. Keep in mind i said average, not some of you better players.
ANet did not design this class for skilled players only and there are many who chose elementalist for aesthetics and the theme alone. Every player (even BAD ones) deserve to play elementalist to a publically accepted minimal. Ele is not designed “proz-only-pls”; Please drop this attitude even remotely close to this when considering the state of the class.
You can’t have all those things at once. (Healing/Ranged healing/Strong melee and ranged DPS/Many conditions removals/Large health pool/etc)
The best advice is to choose 1 role and spec yourself entirely into it. Let your teammates help you cover your weaknesses.
When defending you just want to hold out as long as you can to give your team time; You aren’t always expected to succeed and stay alive. 1 other person should help you out for those 1v2+ situations.
Retreat is very nice but the cooldown makes it a bit iffy. In a sense, it has the same issue as the Shield’s current abilities (where the cooldowns are too long for the effects they offer). In retreat’s case, it takes up an entire utility slot and it’s not like it has a stun break either.
Scepter + Shield is fine considering you can use the bubble to give u some ranged space and cast protection from behind melee. It’s no different than how engineers use shields for a bit of anti-melee. I say our offhand choices are fine and scepter can main as a ranged wep if the projectiles were somewhat faster.
Yes I highly agree this should be VISUALLY LARGER since other players need this information to combo with them. Your friend would not know whether he entered the field yet or not. It’s a glaring issue when it comes to teamwork
Ignoring damage, I hope you realise the skill is already fine as a mobile AoE adrenaline builder that happens to have damage tacked on as a bonus? I mean if you view it from this perspective, other professions would be puking at the thought of what complaints are actually here compared to others. It’s not like the skill doesn’t function or cannot kill or has no beneficial use in any way.
Even if we were designed to not have a real ranged weapon, why is it warriors get to have this advantage then? They already have better shield abilities as well but that’s a whole other topic… I’m just saying maybe even our design is a bit flawed.
While eveningstar is brewing up his surprise, I’ll try to help in the meantime.
Have you tried the mace yet? The symbol it can drop is quite useful sometimes as well as its number 3 block
This isn’t a problem with just ranger alone. As a scepter guardian I have the same issue. In fact, any 1000+ range weapon with a slower moving projectile has this issue plagueing them. ANet really needs to address this universal problem.
I’ve been popularly using this A/D button zig zag movement to dodge boss projectiles in dungeons. It needs a fix
The problem is they have to boost it in such a way where they aren’t even more strong in 1v1 situations (I’m sure many of you agree mesmers are VERY good at 1v1 pvp) while have the buffs be enough to satisfy the idea you’re proposing (as well as other aspects of the game such as PvE)
But if they took away the flanking requirement, you could literally let go of your keyboard and sip on some tea. Lol you wouldn’t be REQUIRED to do too much anymore. The problem is the shortbow is one of the fastest ranged weapons that can stack bleeds. There should be another way to make it more interactive. Or perhaps nerf the bleed a little if we allow it to be applicable on auto-attack
I’m sorry I didn’t spend the time posting a link to an example but..
Meditations guardian is pretty neat for those who are more selfish. All variations of it use 30 points in valor with the 20% meditation recharge trait and the meditation-healing trait. ^^ perhaps someone will link an example
Although you’re right buffing auto attacks would help take a lot of the burdern off of us, I’m just afraid it might demote attunement swapping since utilising other skills would interrupt our auto-attack fillers (in boss fights mostly). You would need to buff our other skills a tiny bit as well as the auto-attacks to make this work out. I agree this is one of the best ways to address the elementalist’s problems.
DrakeWurrum, I understand the point you are making AND everyone likes how elementalist takes skill. However, the current maximum potential ‘cap’ an elementalist can hit from an ‘average player’s absolute-best-performance needs to be raised so it can be more rewarding and friendly as a profession. If a player is only average at a class, it doesn’t mean he deserves to pay a lot more for repairs fees and have his fun robbed.
Mind you, i’m not even talking about the frustration of BAD players, but just AVERAGE players. Player’s who want to choose elementalists may choose it out of theme, or aesthetics. The undesired complexity may… cause some frowning I hope that’s not what ANet desires out of profession; A strictly “SKILLED ONLY PLS” warning sign slapped on to the class.
The reason they don’t outshine are the numbers. By numbers, I mean range, damage, animation speed, etc. The ABILITIES and their purposes are great so if we were given another weapon set…. we’d have too much CC or swiftness(maybe another random buff) or AoE or something.
We’d turn into a utility class that would make engineers cry “why can’t we get another weapon too” every time they make a comparison to us
However, if the fun-factor alone was enough to boast how Elementalist is alright in its current position… I doubt engineer would’ve recieved any buffs at all since BWE1. But that wasn’t the case at all. Their class is now quite fun in its own way and also viable in many situations.
Many guilds rely on dropping conjured weapons to help boost AoE damage and DPS for everyone in the area for WvW. This is usually done before battles. If you make it so it’s party-restricted, you are DESTROYING a tactic used by many large guilds in WvW completely. I’d like to see a different solution instead
I hope that’s not what ANet desires out of profession; A strictly “SKILLED ONLY PLS” warning sign slapped on to the class.