Guild Wars 2

So /kneel still seems to kill you in escort (doesn’t crash the whole raid, though)! \o/

Phineas Poe.3018:

If someone’s intention is to simply AFK their matches to the end of the Byzantium box, the rate in which players gain pips through losses is so slow they’d be better off just running fractals or AB multi-mapping.

I disagree – I’d bet (feel free to prove me wrong) that even AFKing (or refusing to try) in PvP would get you to ascended armor faster than AB multi-mapping or fractal RNG.

Azure The Heartless.3261:

I’ve been looking at a couple of the complains about how poor matchmaking for this pvp league is, with individuals lamenting that the entirety of the leagues regardless of division is a coin flip: Either you get a decent team or a bunch of players who can’t fight.

This seems reasonable enough as an assertion, but I’m also looking at some of the leaderboards, and some of these people have 5-6 losses through the whole season thus far, with every other match they’ve played being a win.

Statistically that -should- be impossible, but yet they appear to be doing it consistently.

It’s a bit confusing. You’d think one-two people shouldn’t be able to carry a whole team, and yet to have a record like that you’d have to do just that.

Is there something I’m missing here? Or did these players win a figurative matchup lottery?

Haven’t read thread, only the original post…but the problem here is that if you place highly initially (during placement) you have a higher chance of being paired with at least competent players. With competent teammates, a truly superb player can potentially carry a team. With completely incompetent teammates (those that lose even when they outnumber the enemy 4-2, for example) a ridiculously good player MIGHT be able to carry, but a good player will get screwed and lose the match even if they won every fight on point they were involved in. The people winning a lot are probably actually ridiculously good (Nos, for example) but also have at least decent teammates most matches simply based on their division.

Look, I’d been away from the game for a little while for real life reasons but I’ve actually always enjoyed the mechanics of GW2’s PvP. I got pretty good at and I think I’ve regained at least some of my old ability. My placement matches went really well as I had teams that actually talked before the match started (even a little) and could use map pings to communicate effectively. Since then I’ve dropped all the way down to bronze.

I’m the first to admit that I’d give someone making a post like this the feedback of “well that’s where you belong then” except that now, having live the experience of ridiculously bad RNG teams, I won’t say that anymore. I’ve (even in gold and silver) repeatedly had teammates who (upon asking) admit that they didn’t really think about the build they were using and that they just heard that you could get ascended gear in PvP this season really easily.

I’m getting paired (often!) with teammates who don’t CARE about competing. I even had one teammate who technically wasn’t idle but who never helped the team. I PMed him after (nicely) and asked why and he said it was because he didn’t want his /deaths count to go up…does that even increase in PvP? I don’t know – but the point is that I’m so tired of getting paired with players like these. It keeps happening now, especially in bronze (which I dropped to partially because of disconnects which oddly happened with GW2 but not any other internet-related product I use – and yes I know that the dishonor system corrects for overall d/cs but still…).

This season, and the solo/duo queue, are a massive improvement. But you made the loot SO good that we’re getting people in ranked that would normally get mocked for bad play even in unranked. If you get paired with these people repeatedly it just makes for the worst experience. I’ve decided to take a break until mid January, after which point I’m thinking the people who just want easy access to ascended gear will be done flooding the queue (but maybe not) and try again.

Seriously, this league season is great but I think it’s being trashed by the rewards.

Evan Lesh.3295:

Ensign.2189:

Polismassa.6740:

2) Your rating is not a pure measure of your skill MMR in a team based game is, and always will be a measure of your ability to win matches.

Just to build upon this:

There are a lot of different facets to ‘ability to win matches’. Players can be good at winning duels or winning team fights or picking winning fights or fighting on the right points or rotating between points or playing good builds for the meta or swapping to the right build for the match-up or filling in effectively to balance your team composition or playing hard every game or not tilting or encouraging teammates and keeping people focused.

Or a whole lot of things I didn’t mention in that run-on sentence above.

The difference between a pro-level player and an experienced but middling journeyman (say, gold level) player isn’t that the pro is a bit better at all of these things. It’s almost always the case that the pro is good at almost all of these things, while your middling, experienced player is good (sometimes even pro-level!) at some of these things, and just a dumpster fire at others.

Good but not great players include people that can beat everyone they face in a 1v1 but are constantly engaged in bad fights (trying to kill a guardian on a fully capped point with their thief), people who can’t win a duel for the life of them but pick teamfights they can contribute to well, people who know a single trick (condi mesmer that always goes far!) that sometimes dominates and sometimes feeds, people who often play well but tilt and throw as soon as something goes badly (thus losing games that could be recovered and won).

The really insidious part of this? If you are one of those players, you’re probably really focused on the parts of your game that you are good at, and blind to those that are holding you back. You’re also blind to the good things your teammates are doing (that you are not good at), while their flaws (in areas that are your strengths) are on full display.

Which is why you think your teammate (with the same MMR and similar match win performance) is terrible, and why that teammate thinks that you are terrible. It’s why there’s a pretty big range of play (generally the 75th to the 95th percentile, roughly) that is just an utterly miserable rage-fast, a bunch of skilled but fundamentally flawed players picking at each other’s faults.

If you want to get better, don’t look at that ‘scrub’ with the same rating as you in disbelief. Figure out what he’s doing that you aren’t – because, odds are, that’s what’s holding you back.

slow clap

SO late to the party…but SO good… <3

I don’t understand how people are so upset that the MMR system is creating lopsided matchups < 48 hours after it was initialized. Any attempt to mathematically model “skill level” in any setting (but especially when trying to model individual skill in a team-based environment) will take time to settle on relatively stable value as a baseline. Of course many matches will be weird until this happens. I, for one, know that I’m likely not actually good enough to maintain a platinum rating but that’s where I am until I get enough games in that my own individual performance / skill level can be sussed out from the “noise” of random variation of the skill of my teammates. That’s how these types of systems work.

Do people just not understand the process? Is that why there’s so much whining this early? People expected the new MMR to immediately create perfectly fair and balanced matches all the time?

So I’d been gone from the game since Spring of 2015 (pre-HoT) and based on the forums and general chat I’d assumed PvP was completely awful. I’m still working on my initial 10 matches (I was short on time yesterday) but in the 6 I’ve played so far, 5 were really good games overall (good fights, good rotations, not a total blow out on either side) and I’m 6-0 so far.

So many people in this thread are acting like getting randomly placed on a few bad teams will ruin your rating during the initial 10 – I find that unlikely. However, if you’ve had 5 bad matches in a row and you’re blaming your team each time maybe it’s time to rethink why you’re losing so many matches. Sure it could be bad luck and you’re a great PvPer who happens to get matched with scrubs for 5 matches in a row…or it could be that you’re contributing to losing the match :p

I’m sorry if this has been posted before, didn’t see it using search (which doesn’t mean a whole lot).

I had a stack of Fine Transmutation Stones, and I wanted to combine my Phalanx Armor Skin (which had been applied to PVT armor with Runes of the Soldier) to Temple Armor (Heavy Aurora from Melandru). It worked with the Helmet and Foot Gear from the Temple (which do not have PVT stats) but will not work with the other four pieces.

I think there’s an issue here with trying to combine two same-stat-combination armors (even if they have different skins, and different upgrade items). This is extremely frustrating and means I’ll need to spend more to get more transmutation stones to transfer the Temple Armor to another stat combination and THEN to my old skin (I’ve tried this, it fixed the problem for one piece). That should be stated on the transmutation stone description, or fixed.

Thanks

Cool, thanks for the quick response!

This might have been brought up before, and I wouldn’t know because I only got into PvP somewhat recently. With the new changes to rank point rewards for wins/losses is there a big problem with the rank-point titles (Gladiator, Mercenary, Avenger, etc.)?

I ask because I was watching my progress and was at 28839 through one of the titles, won a match (500 points in hotjoin) and afterwards my total was 28994. That’s only 155 points towards the title which I can’t really understand. Am I missing something? Is this working as intended?

Thanks, and again sorry if this has already been dealt with – please get a better search function ANet!

Pyroatheist.9031:

Boonprot.6274:

pza.8024:

Mitsubishi Eclipsed.6732:

pza.8024:

edge no, soil yes. i can already see them war banners used for nothing

There’s something g that already does this. It’s called poison. If you are poisoned while in the downed state and someone tries to war banner you, you will remain at the downed state.

http://www.technobuffalo.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/The-more-you-know.png

sorry to say, but this is simply not true. poison does not prevent war banner rezzing. i couldn’t test myself but i let my guild test it and the result was negative.

It reduces the amount of health gained from bannering. So, if your health is sufficiently low and you’re poisoned, you will not rally from a banner. They’re partially right, but not completely.

That’s not a thing. Bannering doesn’t just add health to your downed bar, it rallies you. Poison is a significant counter to ‘Toss Elixir R’, not to bannering or other straight revive skills.

From the wiki, and personal experience, you’re wrong. It is a thing.

“The banner will revive players for 100% of their total down state health and 100% of their normal health meaning that through debuffs (such as poison and/or agony), the banner’s revival capabilities can be negated to the point that the effected player will not revive at all, and only regain a portion of their downed health. This is a common issue in fractals.”

borrok.9267:

azurerogue.9240:

borrok.9267:

Eloquence.5207:

Clearly, this is a L2P issue.

- HerpsADerPs, Oneofthe12DerPs

I would probably agree if it wasn’t a matter of numbers. The best player in the world will get hit the same with the same set up and variables on both ends.

False. The best player in the world knows how to mitigate damage from key attacks.

The best player in the world will get hit the same with the same set up and variables on both ends

Ah, I see, so you’re saying if both players just tried to face-tank they’d take a lot of damage?

borrok.9267:

Eloquence.5207:

Clearly, this is a L2P issue.

- HerpsADerPs, Oneofthe12DerPs

I would probably agree if it wasn’t a matter of numbers. The best player in the world will get hit the same with the same set up and variables on both ends.

False. The best player in the world knows how to mitigate damage from key attacks.

possessed.2036:

When you have the outnumbered buff siege on bases under attack should fire automatically & the walls get higher ie the zerg loses range that allows them to hit the top of the walls. Doors should be invulnerable to player attacks & only dmg with siege also.Simple

That would lead to amazing strategies like take all keeps, siege the hell out of them, move to different map. Many servers already have trouble getting people to defend – this would actively discourage it.

I don’t object to suggestions to improve game play – but you’re basically saying that YOU don’t like that play style so NO ONE should get to do it. Good luck with that sort of argument.

So then do people who do heal/buff AND tag the lord get double rewards? If I’m doing twice as much actual work in my play style compared to you I deserve twice the rewards.

/sarcasm

I really don’t think you need to reward healing/buffing. It would be really hard to make this fair… You run behind a group tossing buffs and if things get tough you WP – if they cap the objective anyways and it’s relatively soon do you still get credit? What’s the timetable for “recently”?

It’s definitely not hard to heal AND tag the lord and if you don’t “feel” like doing it then I don’t see why you need to get the same rewards.

Nikkinella.8254:

Every other MMO gives rewards/exp/etc for support. I don’t get why this one doesn’t. You SHOULD get loot if all you do is hang back and heal because you’re keeping your team alive.

Except for the fact that they expect players NOT to hang back and just heal… they put it in their info about the design of the game. Damage, Support, Control – and you’re not expected even then to “just” pick 1 – you’re intended to focus on 1 without totally losing out on everything.

Other MMOs reward support because to be at all decent at it you need to commit to it pretty heavily. That’s not true in GW2. Even if you wanted to do that, how hard is it to press 1 every couple of seconds to tag enemies?

Most people probably didn’t respond ’cuz this thread is silly, but I will..

Plenty of ways to pull people off:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Pull

hihey.1075:

I never stomp if the fight I just had entertained me.
I never stomp the last downed guy in a outnumbered fight.
I never kill upleveleds unless they chase me for 30s straight (and I will not stomp them after downing them).

So, am I dishonorable or honorable?

Neither. You’re losing potential Bloodlust points for your server, though.

Zephyrus.9680:

I don’t see what’s wrong. Everything looks like it it’s working as intended.

I think the OP is referring to the fact that they have Signet of Rage instead of Battle Standard – maybe it’s broken and they can’t equip it?

Calm down, MAGpie, the OP already said that he maybe just misinterpreted that evidence. No need to continue freaking out.

I hear you, and I’m from BP. But before you take a stance on what happened and how, you should see this thread: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/wuv/wuv/Unsportsmanlike-conduct-between-servers/first#post3246350

Since DB controlled ALL of SBI and EB this morning, people began to think the same thing was happening between SBI and DB that you’re now stating is happening with BP and SBI. It’s just about which between DB and BP have more coverage when SBI is not active (all of today), imo.

This morning when DB had great coverage it was the exact opposite story (it seemed to us). So it’s all about perspective.

I’m also from BP, let me make that clear before this post…

A couple of points:

1) There is no reason to be upset or surprised by unsportsmanlike conduct, this isn’t a sport and it’s not meant to be friendly or even fair.

2) As someone from SBI mentioned above, they stomped on DB for most of yesterday and the day before both in DB BL and EB. Claiming that they are intentionally handing DB the win seems odd (though, I guess, possible).

3) The only way I would even make the claim that SBI was intentionally letting DB win was if, while DB took their stuff, SBI guarded the structures to make sure BP couldn’t interfere. I didn’t see this happen. If it did NOT happen, then SBI’s lack of presence during a time could have just as easily handed BP the PPT if we had enough coverage.

4) I’m sure SBI is exhausted from hitting us so hard all week that they needed some nap time before reset :P

Bottom line here is that there doesn’t seem to be any real evidence of them collaborating (and MOS shows that they’ve already retaken their BL – if they were handing DB the win why would they bother?). And even if they were handing them the second place in this match up that’s not something that should be looked down on. If ANET wants to give us such unbalanced match ups then this kind of thing happens (even if I don’t think it’s happening now).

Too lazy to read, but here’s my solution…

Any server that hits first place should be deleted and its guilds should be randomly distributed between other servers. For reals! God I’m so good at balance, I’ll take $10000 for that, ANet!

Ok, I’ve only skimmed the second page here, but people are still going back and forth over whether these things are “broken.” Let’s be clear, just because you don’t like grind or vertical progression doesn’t mean that any instance of grind or vertical progression IS broken – it just means you don’t like it. And that’s fine, but they are two separate arguments.

Let’s say that in full exotics / ascended you run around 3000 attack and you hit your average heavy armor opponent for about 600 damage per auto attack. Now you get your 115 ranks invested into guard killer and you get your 5 stacks. Congrats! You have 3100 attack now. What would your damage increase to? Around 620. That’s a 3.3% bonus to damage output.

If you instead had 3500 attack against the same opponent you’d now be hitting for around 700 damage. If you got guard killer at this point and boosted yourself to 3600 attack you’d hit for 720 damage (a 2.86% damage bonus relative to your pre-buff damage).

This leads me to argue that the +100 power is not terribly broken, and certainly shouldn’t make the difference between a new player winning a fight or not so long as they have geared/built properly (which is an issue with or without guard killer).

Let’s look at what +100 condition damage would do for a condition build with 1500 condition damage (I don’t play these types of builds so I have no idea what most of them run) that applies burning/bleeding/poison (let’s say 10 stacks of bleed). With 1500 condition damage, 10 stacks of bleed is 1175 per second, burning is 703 per second, and poison is 234 per second. This provides a total dps of 2112. If you get +100 from guard killer you’re now looking at 1225 from bleeding, 728 from burning, 244 from poison for a total of 2197. That’s a 4.02% bonus from guard killer to your cleans-able condition damage. That’s not looking too broken either, because a 4% damage boost (while useful) should not make or break a new player interested in trying out WvW even in a 1v1.

I’m not sure the best way to deal with the +250 vitality except to restate my argument that it will only really make a noticeable difference for surviving initial spikes. It’s not like having more maximum health provides other benefits than being able to take more damage before you need to heal (since most classes in constant combat will not be healed to full).

You can hate the idea of these trait lines all you want, and you can disagree with their being appropriate for a game that early on promised little to no vertical progression – but calling them brokenly OP is a stretch.

Unless you’re going to argue that getting 3 stacks of bloodlust also takes equal effort to earning 230 world experience levels (which also require a trade off in NOT getting other skills), I don’t see the problem with it giving less stats.

Turns out, MMOs (almost every one) favor older players. Sorry.

lazorexplosion.9602:

LOL maths

Increases power and condition damage by 20
Gain 50 vitality per stack

20 power * 5 = 100 power
20 condition damage * 5 = 100 condition damage
50 vitality * 5 = 250 vitality

100+100+250 = 450

Exotic gear is trivial to obtain from a huge variety of places. What alt of yours needs to step into WvW in rare gear? The leech skills are only available to players who have sunk hundreds of hours into WvW and give a bigger advantage. Playing an alt or being a new character in WvW is being painfully behind people who’ve played for hundreds of hours of WvW on that one character.

You could easily cut those bonuses, still keep a sense of progression and not make it like new players are wandering around with multiple empty trinket slot’s worth of stat disadvantage.

You’re right, I forgot about power AND condition damage, but most builds rely primarily on one or the other and a boost to both is not exactly the same as +200 to one stat. Still, yes, I forgot about that in my math. But giving +250 vitality gains you ONE thing, more base hit points. That offers an essentially one-time buffer during a fight. You’re not also boosting healing/regeneration/damage reduction so all it gives people is a higher max HP – which is useless after you’ve been in a fight for more than 10 seconds. Sure it’s a nice bonus but it’s not making people all that much harder to kill.

And the +100 power and condition damage is slightly more than you get for having three stacks of bloodlust. Neither of these are entirely game changing. Now if applied fortitude also gave either healing power/toughness/regeneration then you’d have reason to complain about that particular buff. Increasing max hitpoints doesn’t do a whole lot for long-term survival in fights. I guess it could help with surviving spikes?

It would be awesome if defending was more active. Let players actively help upgrade the keep (like the workers do) and then reward them for that. Or let them do something else in the keep that’s actually rewarding. Give exp/WXP/silver for hitting X number of checkpoints around the interior of the keep every 3 minutes – just promote defense and more people will at least consider it who don’t now (yes, I get it, higher tier servers already do this – but are you saying you’d say no to making it more rewarding?).

Other than fixing the WP timer stuff, the other change I’d like to see is that the portal into/out of a keep/tower is de-activated while combat is occuring near it. Why do you get to run through a shut and locked gate when attackers are hitting it? No, make them come out another entrance and have no easy nearby way back in and defending (even if it’s only with a couple people) will become a priority and will make people have to commit to open field battles to save a tower (one gate) if they weren’t defending. This would make scouting a higher priority so you can get a force inside before it falls under siege. I would love this kind of system.

lazorexplosion.9602:

A 450 stat advantage (5 stacks of 50 vitality, 5 of 20 each of power and condition damage) over new players or characters is just insane. That’s not much less than the stats provided by an entire set of exotic armor!

Fighting someone who has those stacks in a small group or 1v1 on a fresh alt that lacks them is so one sided it’s just demoralizing. It’s practically just a free win for having more playtime and punishment for trying to use an alt.

You could literally halve those numbers and it would still be a pretty crazy advantage. It really needs to me something much more like 20 vitality and 10 each power and condition damage per stack, and start earlier in the tree with say max 1 stack at skill level 3, 2 stacks at 5, 3 stacks at 8, 4 stacks at 9 and 5 stacks at 10 so the bonus isn’t just one lump of win right at the end with little progression for partial progression.

A full set of exotic armor (not trinkets, not runes) gives 763 stat points. In what world is the bonus coming from these two traits (which take 230 world ranks to max both) unfair / “not much less than the stats provided by an entire set of exotic armor”? You also have to consider what giving up 230 world ranks loses you (unless you’ve maxed everything) from other bonuses. Also, fyi, 20*5 (guard leech) + 50*5 (applied fortitude) does NOT equal 450. It’s 350. That’s LESS THAN HALF a set of exotic armor (caps for emphasis / comparison to your original argument).

If you consider two fully geared characters (exotic armor, ascended weapons, ascended trinkets) one of whom has these two traits and the other doesn’t, here are the relative totals:

Without traits = 2541 stat points (this doesn’t include non-WXP traits either, just gear)
With WXP traits = 2891

That means that people who have earned 230+ WXP Ranks and spent 230 ranks on these two trait lines (that otherwise primarily provide benefits against NPCs) gain a 2891/2541 = 1.137 = 13.7% bonus to stats over someone without the traits at all (or someone who decided to max Siege Bunker, Siege Might, Build Mastery, Repair Mastery, and any one of the siege weapon masteries). So before you say these are unbalanced for a large team arena consider what you sacrifice for the relevant benefits.

For a comparison, you know what else gives you a 13.7% stat advantage over an opponent? If you’re wearing exotic gear and the new player is wearing rare gear. You know what differentiates people who wear rare vs exotic gear? Time investment – the same as these trait lines.

They seem fine to me.

Caliban.3176:

I’m advocating that playing it safe shouldn’t be the most rewarding way to play. Hiding in a T3 keep and avoiding confrontations shouldn’t net you the most points.

Why not?

I find this discussion rather interesting as I’ve often found the reality of defense in WvW much more boring than I think it should be (as I’m sure most would agree). Part of this relates to points made above about map size and WP contest mechanics but it also has a bit to do with the fact that the portals into and out of friendly keeps make entering fairly easy even when the gate you’re near is being attacked.

If you’re inside a keep (and have siege) it should be really easy to defend. If you’re outside as the keep falls under attack it should be really hard to defend. At least on my server currently almost no one actively defends because the zerg can get back in time to save almost anything. This, imo, is sad. Defending should be something that people commit to. Not as action packed as zerg attacking, but then if the rewards for successful defense were better maybe more people would do it.

It would be nice to see a revamp of a number of related features: WP use, contesting (both starting contest and having it remain on), defense rewards (or maybe penalties for failed attacks?), and less access to the interior of objectives under attack.

I think it’s fine to go aid an objective under attack, but you should have to either sneak in, or attack from the outside. I think the portals into an objective (at least the ones near the point of attack) should be disabled as well. Just my opinion, I’m sure a bunch will disagree.

This thread is so precious

Aggro is different for different monsters. The mechanics change for various enemies (perhaps even different for each encounter with the SAME enemy, but I don’t have data to support that). It does seem that bosses tend to retarget more but in a game that’s trying to eliminate the trinity that would make sense.

I enjoy running tome of wrath… full retaliation duration at least HELPS compensate for being vulnerable (of course it won’t save you against a mob) and the ability to give fury/quickness to allies is nice for small group fights. Also, 5 stacks of might with 10s duration every 5s (which can be applied 3 times w/o elite focus trait) is not bad for allies either. Conflagrate actually deals respectable damage in an AoE along with burning (AoE is something we lack, so that can be nice).

Tome of Courage can also be good, though I use it less often personally so I have less to say about it for WvW/PvP. In PvE though it’s friggin’ amazing. It grants +50% toughness/vitality AND protection. For my AH/EM knight/berserker guardian gives me 3800 armor AND -33% damage for 20s. Compared to a reference armor of scholars (1836) that’s the equivalent of 68% damage reduction for those 20s… that’s god like in GW2 terms.

As far as renewed focus – I prefer to use it as a backup. If I’m not doing well, I’ll blow all three virtues at once and activate RF right after. I like it less than the tomes, but I still use it in sPvP most of the time simple because 3s of invulnerability can be helpful. I wish we could use healing during the invulnerability time (like Eles in mist form can).

I listened to your podcast on guardians and really enjoyed it. If I could be there for this event I totally would but I’ll be busy during that time frame. If you do another, please post about it too!

Wow, everyone complains about elementalist. It’s actually my main (I also have an 80 Necro, Guardian, and Warrior) because I think it’s more fun than any other class I have. They’re not that squishy – and D/D has a pretty constant stream of healing, regeneration, and protection (not to mention might [if you use a sigil of battle], swiftness, fury, and vigor).

As far as builds are concerned, check the thread above yours https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Guide-Mastering-the-D-D-ele-3-29-12

Thanks for the skill feedback, Sergo.

And Baladir – that’s actually what I decided to do between posting initially and now. I die occasionally but am usually still up unless several team member go down (and I die ressing or something). WvW is way harder when I’m not with a zerg but I suppose that’s to be expected.

All said I think I might go at least MORE berserker than I have now, maybe keep a few knight’s pieces here or there (especially until I get the guild commendations for two accessories).

Thanks for taking the time to offer feedback!

Another question: I was just thinking it might be worth giving up Elemental Attunement for Renewing Stamina – I know renewing vigor has saved me tons of times (especially before “nerf” but even after as it’s still effective) and at 1200 range I’m not sure how often my allies will benefit from my attunement swap buffs. More importantly, I plan to stay in fire a lot unless the opportunity to drop a couple quick spells in another attunement presents itself, so I’m not sure how often I’ll even get the benefits. This is one I can test out myself, but was just wondering if anyone had any brilliant insights.

So I’ve been running D/D on my elementalist since I hit level 80 (back in December) and have loved it. But I’ve also been playing me elementalist less and less these days. I figured for a change of pace I might totally rebuild back into a staff setup. I have a few questions for anyone out there who runs staff regularly.

Here is some background information:
- The role I want for my staff ele is mostly damage. I’m willing to go full glass cannon but I’m not sure how viable having < 12k hitpoints and < 1900 armor really is – so any feedback here is nice.
- I will mostly play my staff ele in open world PvE, WvW, and dungeons (with an organized guild group).
- I’m pretty set on staff as my weapon, so please offer advice/answer following questions with that in mind.

My questions:
1. I was considering going full glass cannon and using runes of the scholar for the additional damage. I figure if I’m going to be fragile I’ll probably be near full HP or dead – might as well take advantage of the times I’m at full. Is this at all viable? I’m pretty skilled at dodging in content that I know (which is most).

2. If you do not agree with either my armor type (berserker) or my rune choice above, what would you recommend given my goal of glass cannon high damage?

3. I’ve been toying with builds and have somewhat settled on 30/10/0/10/20 for Puissance, +10% in fire, -20% fire CD, +20% < 33% enemy hp, +10% > 90% self hp, attunement buffs, and +staff AoE size. Any improvements / changes recommended here?

4. Assuming you agree with all I’ve said (or have made alternative suggestions) which utilities do you think would be most useful? I was considering signet of fire as one but can’t decide on the other two (I realize I should swap for content – but I mean in general for open world stuff).

You don’t need to answer / address all of these – every little bit helps!

Thanks!

I’m almost 100% certain your damage is reduced when you cancel your cast early. I had a debate with someone about this on Guru and here is an excerpt of my posted results from testing:

I’m using the same gear (though not stable – which again adds more variance working against my opinion) for all tests.

For AoE vs Heavy Targets in Heart of the Mists these are the results (N = 5 per group, 10 total):

Full Cast Mean Damage (standard deviation) = 104231 (6203)
Half Cast Mean Damage (standard deviation) = 68980 (11681)
t-test: t(8) = 5.96, p < .001

Full Cast Mean Number of Hits (standard deviation) = 45.8 (4.1)
Half Cast Mean Number of Hits (standard deviation) = 28.0 (4.1)
t-test: t(8) = 6.91, p < .001

I also tested damage numbers on a single heavy target in the Heart of the Mists, here are those results (N = 5 per group, 10 total). One additional half-cast was excluded as it didn’t hit the target at all (seemed unfair to include floor performance).

Full Cast Mean Damage (standard deviation) = 6931 (1989)
Half Cast Mean Damage (standard deviation) = 3596 (1552)
t-test: t(8) = 2.96, p = .018

Full Cast Mean Number of Hits (standard deviation) = 6.0 (1.4)
Half Cast Mean Number of Hits (standard deviation) = 3.0 (0.7)
t-test(8) = 4.24, p = .003

Anyone else can follow these up however the want. It’s clear (to me at least) that cutting off meteor shower halfway reduces damage overall because of the number of meteors striking either against a group or a single target. I’ll let this thread get back underway now (sorry for the distraction).