Guild Wars 2

I get off my Overload Air in Berserker gear in the new maps just fine.

Given all the restrictions they’re putting on new players such as having to unlock traits, sigils, runes, and amulets, I think the LEAST they could do is do this. Requiring minimum rank to play in the queues would be, in my opinion, a good restriction to regulate the flow of information to new players.

Kjeldoran.3849:

This shows nothing… an elementalist can destroy all those turrets in few seconds with meteor shower, or a ranger with barrage, or every melee classes with cleaves and even those over pillars can be break down with few ranged skills and also remeber that these cant hit under the pillar so there are plenty of safe areas where to sit e destroy them 1 per 1

ps: oh i forget, a team like this would lose easily even against a pug party. Why? All those ppl to cap 1 point? ilarious. This makes gw2 a REAL eSport: you can play the way you like, you can do those… crazy screens but if you don’t really know how to use your class… well, there is nothing you can do

lol

Reroll. The Ranger is the pet class of GW2.

This is not for Dungeons or Fractals or Raids. This is just for those who are struggling to survive in the new maps and want a survivable and easy build that tags well.

The Tempest offers a new playstyle in PvE in perhaps one of the easiest to run builds ever. I present to you my build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQJBIhdSfJUgJ2fJYhJwhJWaAM3J7m9zOsC6AhQhCQA4DC-TxRGABA8gAGS5HI7PQmeCDOhAAq+jUKBJFQgTtA-e

(The editor is not up to date, and “Earthen Proxy” should actually be the trait “Invigorating Torrents”)

This build offers effectively 100% uptime on yourself of all of the following boons:
-Swiftness
-Fury
-Protection
-Regeneration
-Vigor
-Might (often near 25)

The build relies on the fact that the new shouts make it easier to give yourself more auras. Combine this with the fact that overloading also gives you some boons, and with the longer boon duration from Imbued Melodies (Warhorn Trait) + Bountiful Sharpening Stones + Fried Golden Dumplings, you can easily sustain permanent Protection on yourself.

The advantage of this build over other bunker style specs is that it still has very good sustain, even in Berserker gear, mainly due to the easy access to Perma Regen and the fact that “Wash the Pain Away” is a very strong heal (and also great team support if running around with friends!) Furthermore, your earth trait “Geomancer’s Defense”, gives you 10% damage mitigation against nearby foes. Combine this with Hardy Conduit (+7% to Protection damage mitigation), and you are essentially always taking 50% less damage from everything.

This build is also team friendly, giving quite a few boons to allies whenever you use your shouts, and also able to break stun with “Eye of the Storm!”, and if your teammates need a heal, using your Heal Shout to heal them can often save them quite a bit.

(In fact, this build would be really great if Heat Sync actually DID something -_-)

Regardless, I think this is a great casual build to run around with if you’re finding it hard to survive. Also, running around with perma boons is really fun.

The main way you will play this build is trying to get off Air Overload as much as you can. Use Lightning Whip for general sustained damage and waiting for Air Overload. Once you complete an Air Overload, swap attunements, use some skills, and go back to Air Overload. This refreshes the cooldown of Air Overload, and allows you to use it again in 6 seconds. This allows the build to maintain somewhat respectable damage despite taking so many defensive traits.

Overall, I suggest this build to anyone who wants to get some use out of their new Tempest line, and just wants a relaxing stroll through the new maps, without having to take forever to kill everything.

Arcane Shield becomming a stunbreaker would definitely make Triple Arcane builds a thing. Very excited for this change.

In PvE, Fire Staff Ele is the most damage in the game, yes.

But I think most people play things other than this because it’s hard to run in a PUG with that sort of build (incredibly squishy).

For PvP, if going for great damage, there’s a lot of good choices. Thief is good burst direct damage combined with mobility. Warrior has good sustained damage while also being very easy to play and very tanky. Ranger, Engi, and Necro have good Condi Damage builds and are tanky thanks to being able to take defensive stats.

Going back to PvE, Ele does have some really strong DPS-oriented builds. Fire Staff and Lightning Hammer Ele are the best for speedclearing and do really great damage. Again, though, they’re hard to take into PUGs without going down. For that reason, if I PUG, I’ll often take a D/F 30/30/0/0/10 build due to the great defensive cooldowns on Focus.

In PvE in general, Mesmer has very high theoretical damage (spamming Phantasms) but often ends up on the bottom because of how easily their Phantasms die, and the windup time to summon them; they have some of the best team utility in the game. Thief has astounding Single Target damage with Backstab and great AoE damage with Sword, as well as the utility of Pistol 5. Warrior has great base damage, good offensive buffs, and is very easy to survive in thanks to high base stats. Guardian has very good base damage as well, and access to a ton of Defensive utility to carry your team through just about anything.

Those would be my suggestions.

This is the sort of combo that someone comes up with that doesn’t really understand how to play the Thief and GW2 in general. Backstab is a Power attack and Krait inflicts Conditions. Putting Runes of the Krait on a Backstab build is inefficient and will end with either a very weak Backstab or very weak Conditions.

This isn’t cheese. This is just bad. You shouldn’t die to someone 1v1 who uses such a bad “trick.”

And so they day has finally come. When the update comes, no more tons of boons and free spells on dodge. Eles must choose what to put in that GM tier if they go Arcana!

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/33qrg0/specialization_ama_livestream_notes/

Ele is probably the best class in the game still as it is – it has the strongest build in PvP and the highest damage build in PvE.

Though, once the new elite specs come out, and once raids are released, I think the meta will change greatly for both formats.

Dungeon PvE Speedclear/“Meta” builds:

1. Scepter-Focus Lightning Hammer
2. Fire Staff
3. Dagger-Focus Fresh Air

PvP Meta builds:
1. Dagger/Dagger Celestial Bunker
2. Staff Support Celestial Bunker

Here is the best PvE/Dungeon guide I could give you.

In general though, running a 6/6/X/X/X Ele build can be a bit shocking and difficult for new players. I suggest if you’re completely new running a tanky build (look at the PvP meta builds) but with Berserker gear, and then as you learn the encounters, building out more offensively. I know a lot of players who started with X/X/X/6/6 builds for PvE Ele and then moved to 6/6/X/X/X, but that took a bit of time and familiarity with the encounters. Also, if you ever run WvW or PvP, you should probably just play the heavy Water-Arcana builds that Meta PvP Eles generally play.

Oh, and in general: Berserker for PvE, and Celestial for PvP. Condi Ele is bad in PvE and at best experimental in PvP (a lot of troll builds will win duels and such, but Celestial Ele is a much better teamfighter and generalist PvP Ele than Condi Ele will ever be).

For what it’s worth though, Ele is top tier in both PvE and PvP. It’s not uncommon to see Double Ele in PvE casual-speedclear comps and sPvP comps. So learning the class and its meta builds for its respective formats makes you a very valuable player.

Elementalist might possibly be the worst class when it comes to leveling.

The main reason is you need traits, mainly 30 in Arcana and 15 in Water, for the Ele to achieve a normal level of survivability.

For now, at level 30ish, put points into Water/Arcana. I’ve heard Scepter is a good way to level.

Go for low hanging fruit. Clear the lowest starting zones. Do your daily. Fight stuff way below your level. Try to find the easiest points to level in.

Basically, until Level 60, you’re in for a rough ride. No, it’s not fair, and no, it’s not good design. But tough it out till then, stressing Water and Arcana, and the moment you can put 30 in Arcane and 15 in Water, you will solidly be able to constantly restore your health by just reattuning to Water.

Keep your gear up to date. Go for Power/Vitality dual stat gear and then Knights gear when you get go 60. Eles have a huge DPS and armor and health disadvantage compared to other classes (read: low in all 3 categories). What’s good about us, however, is our broad array of abilities that allow us to have an answer to anything.

So cheer up. Ele is indeed a ton of pain to level and I do feel ANet needs to do something about it. But my advice is stick to Arcana/Water, both to get used to what Eles do at level 80, as well as because it actually maximizes your survivability.

Yeah, it’s viable.

Do it quick before ANet nerfs it again!

Despite some of the poor sportsmanship and fake accounts that have been floating around and ruining people’s golems and seige, I’m genuinely glad that YB has done so well and given SBI such a great challenge. We’ve learned a lot and I’m highly impressed with your server’s siege tactics.

I had a ton of fun today just busting zergs on the YB BL. Since we can’t really capture anything, we just went around killing people, and that was more fun in WvW than I’ve had than the entire season.

Thank you.

This is a really simple request.

One of the things that really breaks Fractals is the horrid way in which Defiant goes passed 5. This is terrible. It means that we cannot use CC to deal with enemies in an intelligent manner, and instead must rely wholely on other mechanics instead. While I don’t think Defiant was the best way to deal with the problem of chained CC, at least have the decency to keep the Defiant stack to 5 in a Dungeon so that it will at least work properly.

Directly inspired by: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Defiant-and-new-awesome-boss/

This is actually a pretty reasonable request. There should be more WPs in some dungeons, I feel. Some have them way too far back and it just gets tedious running again, should you fail.

We have all been asking this question, every day, ever since the game was released.

Pretty sure in Condi Meta, we still wouldn’t take Necro, so people who are fantasizing that by arbitrarily making Direct Damage terrible we can somehow backdoor Necro into becoming ‘meta’, it’s not going to work.

So here’s the thing.

In people’s opinions, yes, Spirit Ranger is considered “cheese” because it’s very easy to play. If you value people’s opinions over your own effectiveness or preferred playstyle, then I suppose you could play something else.

However, at the moment, Spirit Ranger is still the best support build for the Ranger, and it is probably the strongest built for the Ranger in PvP at the moment.

My advice? Don’t bother with what people feel is cheesy or not, if you’re focused on being effective. Most of the complaints about Spirit Ranger are for how effective it is for so little effort. In my opinion, that’s really not a reason to stop playing it if you want to play Ranger. Why wouldn’t you play what is both highly effective and easy to play?

lordhidetora.3189:

Saint.5647:

lordhidetora.3189:

I love seeing it for CoF…because you know, god forbid it takes me 5 more minutes to do a dungeon. My game time is very valuable, and maybe those 5 minutes that I don’t spend in the dungeon, I will spend farming somewhere else in orr.

give me a break.

Reference to AC or CoF [ X ]
Bitter PHIW attitude [ X ]

Dwayna forbid indeed. Five more minutes in CoF is pretty much another CoF.

That’s right, I better play this game like it’s my fulltime job. Edited after reading next post, ty for clarification. I play how I want, and I am effective. I res people, I put out decent damage (not close to the almighty warrior, but enough to help and make a difference), I don’t go around pressing 4 on LB when I see the rest of my party trying to burst something down, I make sure I don’t pull random mobs, and I don’t die on command. This is of course, once in a blue moon when I do dungeons on my ranger, because I’m scared of running into people like OP, even in causal PUGs for dungeons.

I’ve learned to just run them with my ele or guard, and people won’t say anything.

RSLongK.8961:

lordhidetora.3189:

I can’t believe this is an issue, lol.

Why would anyone pick a ranger if they don’t want to use a bow?

[snip]

I melee with my ranger.
I like it more than all my other 8 melee characters. Once you master the 1handed sword you attack and dodge at same time, its beautiful.
Fashion Meta > Meta > PHIW.

I love 1 handed sword on ranger. Honestly I love all weapons on ranger and I use them where I see fit. But, I guess I just like the “pew.”

This obviously doesn’t mean I sit there hitting 5 on longbow and then going back to auto attack when people are stacking in a dungeon.

I would rather have a ranger that knows what he is doing in a dungeon, than have a warrior that facetanks everything he sees with zerker gear and asks to be ressed every fight, or a guardian that spams virtues without having no clue what he is doing.

Why on earth would you put yourself out there trying to troll everyone, only to later fold up and become all defensive, trying to justify your playstyle to the internet? :P

Straight-up simple question. Why does Fire Aura have have such a ginormous cooldown?

I really do want to know, and I hope every Ele out there bumps this thread until we get a good answer.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

I hate it when I do AC with random players, only to find out that we are not doing enough collective power as a group to destroy the burrows in time. Either they have too little offense in their build, or their survivability is so poor, that they are eating dirt in mere seconds. I don’t even think it’s a case of them being bad players. They just happen to have a build that does not maximize damage enough for them to finish the dungeon.

I consider myself a pretty average-skilled player, and I haven’t had issues with this encounter since the AC revamp. Honestly, if you are consistently having issues with this encounter, it’s probably at least partially your fault.

The SBI v YB rivalry that burned out both servers ruined WvW for a lot of people. That gets my vote.

For my old characters, the Hero Panel always has a notification (the red exclamation point), indicating I have new skills to train. It only goes away when I manually open it up and go to my retrait area, only to see I have nothing to train.

The notification returns whenever I re-zone.

Renewing Stamina is a million times better than Windborne Dagger outside of Open World PvE (and even then, you usually just take Air Signet instead).

This trait had an ICD for 1 year, during which, the Elementalist was completely nonviable in sPvP.

We tried it already and it completely ruined the class’ viability. I vote no.

…where are people going to put all their kittening (myself included)? This sub-forum was a great place for people to vent their concerns and now that it’s gone, it shall be unleashed dispersed all over. Keep it all in one place, for everyone’s sake.

Blaine Tog.8304:

Neko.9021:

To be honest, the power creep done to Arcana Tree and such was crazy, and I want the current D/D Fire Water Arcana Cele Ele nerfed as well.

Hard to do that while leaving the Ele with other viable specs. We rely so heavily on Arcane and Water to stay alive and kicking regardless of which weapons we use.

At the very least, nerfing the damage in Fire (both the trait line and burn application on skills) would go a long way. Right now, Cele Ele does too much damage and sustain. Nerfing the damage and leaving just a bunker would make it probably not all that great. You don’t really see any Earth-Water-Arcana Eles around, for example.

Looks bad. Low damage honestly. Dire Staff Ele isn’t going to do much.

But it JUST OCCURED to me that no one has posted what Eles should probably be running in raids if they want to be DPS (D/F Tempest).

I should probably get on this.

It does not. It’s 2% per unique boon.

Who’s bright idea was it to put all of these fights in little domes with a close camera?

It’s incredibly unfair. I am dying all the time because I literally can’t SEE due to the closeness of the walls.

It’s just plain unfair. I can deal with the challenges themselves, but especially on Liadri, where you have to kite around the wall, it becomes difficult to see anything due to the walls.

Please fix this. Please. It’s making this difficult in a way that it shouldn’t be.

Oh those guides. The ones that unleashed the plethora of Eles that use S/D with no LH. Meh.

Regardless of what he says, make sure to use LH for sustained damage when using Scepter. Scepter’s sustained damage is just a whole new level of terrible.

Dkeys’ guide is probably the best comprehensive PvE Speedclear guide now for Eles. Look at it in the stickied threads in this subforum.

Lightning Rod should be a Master Trait at its current power level, to be honest. It’s better than Halting Strike on the Mesmer because of the Weakness, and the fact that the Ele isn’t supposed to be an interrupt-based class also keeps it from being an Adept trait. But no one will ever take this as a Grandmaster. If you’re not looking at Fresh Air, then even Tempest Defense is just way better.

In particular, effects such as Banners, Spirits, Trait Buffs, Combo Fields, AoE Buff Granting, etc?

Right now, many skills are capped at 5 players. Increasing the cap of some of these to 10 (perhaps just in raids) could help bring some diversity to raid comps.

Even though I find it amusing that timers essentially make damage the most important thing, I think that having a strict, low timer is necessary. Otherwise, a lot of the fear of the raid is gone. You should NOT be able to run more than 2 supports without being punished, otherwise, why not just run 5 Supports, or 10 Supports and lose all fear from all the mechanics?

I also think that splitting up raids in difficulties would split up development resources and, rather than just trying to build good raids in general, they’ll end up skewing towards super easy ones and ones that are far too hard. Keeping it to one difficulty forces them to make actually balanced encounters.

Also, most people should not be able to complete the raids. They’re supposed to be hard. 99% of the content in HoT will be doable by everyone, and raids are supposed to be the hard, instanced, exclusive content, based on sheer skill and organization. GW2 basically doesn’t have this right now.

I think players are just shocked because they’ve facerolled everything up till now, and the arrival of raids now basically show that they, or their group, were not as good as they thought they were. Some people who thought they were gonna do raiding in GW2 may just not be good enough.

And that’s excellent. People should be excluded if they’re bad. GW2 literally does this no where else in PvE. Raids finally give us a way to show who is really good, and who is bad.