Showing Posts For Aiglos.2907:

Open up ALL Order Asura Gates after level 70?

in Personal Story

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

What would be the point of having access to the other orders, when we are put into a position to choose ONE order to join.

Regardless if they all join together in the fight against Zhaitan. You chose ONE order to join, not three. Therefore, it would be a complete waste of time to implement that, in the personal story in the first place.

You align yourself with just one order, and that’s it. You don’t have access to the other orders, their HQs, their weaponsmiths/armorsmiths etc.

If you want to join the other orders, roll another toon.
If we could just finish the personal story and go visiting all the other orders because they ‘joined in a war effort’, defeats the entire purpose of alignment, and there would be no point in doing the story on another character to experience the other orders.

You’ve completely misunderstood my post, and also went off on a tangent

I do not want access to the other Orders’ services. I do not want access to their quest lines, their vendors, their armorsmiths or their office parties. I agree with you, because it’d be a bit pointless being aligned to a specific Order. I am fine with this aspect.

I just said that I want all the Asura gates to Fort Trinity open after the pact formation. The rationale being that all Orders should want you at Fort Trinity fighting Zhaitan doing whatever you need to do. That’s it. It’s immersion breaking otherwise.

I do not want all the other Order privileges. They certainly have no reason to kit you out or divulge their deepest darkest secrets. They should at the very least, allow you access to the fort that they are all occupying.

Is that clearer?

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(edited by Aiglos.2907)

Focus - The underappreciated weapon

in Elementalist

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

I definitely won’t be taking a focus in general PvE unless it was… maybe for a dungeon or super hard hitting events?

I feel that I could have killed generic things faster with a different weapon thus negating the need for that defence. What I would think is that there are going to be situations where just killing things faster is a better defence than being defensive. There’s no point tanking some risen mob with focus abilities when I could have burst it down with minimal effort. The focus cooldowns are too long for general PvE play, at least for my tastes.

Unless it’s a hard hitting and/or competitive environment (where I think the focus could shine) there is zero incentive for me to take the focus over a dagger or staff in general PvE play. So it’s not that I don’t appreciate it, it just doesn’t offer anything useful for me personally.

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I'm new: Elementalist or Mesmer?

in Elementalist

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

Both are fun, I have both because I occasionally get bored of one and then enjoy the other. I am only referring to my personal experiences in PvE:

Early game was definitely easier as a Mesmer in my opinion. Their clones/phantasm/illusions stuff can be quite interesting. In PvE I do find the class becomes a bit of a repetitive chore. However they have niche uses and people seem to like them in dungeons for various portal/stealth related reasons. They are generally seen as a strong profession though. Note that you may come off worst in zerg fests, where your skills come out too slowly to ‘tag’ mobs.

Eles I found to be a late bloomer class. I think they become much better once you start making headway with traits and gear. So about level 30 onwards. They have a good mix of offensive and supportive abilities. I do think that there are fewer ‘viable’ builds for an ele, but they’re still pretty cool

In PvE their learning curve is basically learning about attunement swapping and making the most of your combo fields and finishers. Not attunement swapping effectively will make it seem like the class is underpowered, which can lead to frustration. So they can be very fiddly at first!

Personally I’d make both and see which you prefer. Bearing in mind, you’re likely to get a pretty skewed view of how the class functions in the early levels, because they don’t really begin to shine until later on. It will let you experience the class mechanics though. So maybe just have a play around and see what you like.

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Divinity's Reach - Adult Playground?

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

Definitely agree. I’ve spent much time crafting in Divinity’s Reach, only to hear:
‘aaaaaaaah’ or ‘oooooh’ pleasured moans from some random female ambient noise.

It plays on a regular basis if you stick around long enough in the crafting areas. There are several different versions of the female noise too.

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"The Battle of Claw Island" is impossible

in Personal Story

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

I personally didn’t find this mission difficult. I pretty much just ran straight to her and everyone ignored me. I rezzed her and we fought our way back with little trouble. Having said that, I could have been lucky with the position where Mira dies.

I was also careful with picking my targets. Occasionally it’d seem like I’d be swarmed with mobs, but they’d be busy fighting random npcs, so I used that as an opportunity to complete whatever objective was assigned. Swiftness skills might help with all the running around, although as a ranger… I don’t know what options you have available to you. I was an ele, so running around wasn’t a problem for me.

Otherwise yeah… I’ve done this mission on two occasions and it was fine. I won’t rule out the possibility that I could have been just really lucky.

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Not liking Elementalist lack of survivability

in Elementalist

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

I found playing the ele extremely irritating at lower levels… from about 10-25 I think it’s quite an underwhelming profession.

Once you get beyond that point and start making headway with traits, it’s actually pretty good! So my advice is just to stick at it. Try to get power/toughness/vitality gear when you can.

10 points into Arcane for elemental attunement is my early game advice. Maybe 10 in fire and 10 in earth (for the awesome emergency earth armour trait). I personally didn’t touch water until very late game and did absolutely fine

Also take advantage of mobs that have terrible pathing. I notice that risen tend to want to run through me and attack me from behind, so just by walking in a funny way, I can reduce the number of hits I receive.

I found my ele life drastically improved when I ditched s/d and went with staff. Especially once you unlock blasting staff (20 points in Arcane), you can easily get by spamming lava font, which is absolutely amazing. Particularly because mobs are so stupid, you can keep them in there all day and it does eat through them quite quickly. Ranged can be a pain so I’ll try to take them out first

Some people also cite lightning hammer as a pretty good ‘tanky’ weapon.

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Open up ALL Order Asura Gates after level 70?

in Personal Story

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

Even though the orders are joined in a war effort they are different groups, just because the U.S. and Russia were allies during WW2 didn’t mean we shared all our technology like we were just one big happy family. Because we weren’t and we knew as soon as the war was over we would be back to our own lives. Same with the orders, if you were the OoW would you want people just roaming around your secret cave just because they helped you fight the dragons.

You’re not just any ‘person’ though. You’re the commander in a unified battle against one of the greatest evils in the world!

It’s not asking to probe into the Orders’ deepest secrets either, it’s using a teleporter to get to the main base, where the unified effort manifests itself.

Obviously this would only make sense after the pact formation/level 70 mission I can’t remember the name of.

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Please bring henchmen and heroes back.

in Suggestions

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

Everyone seems to dislike the henchmen/heroes in GW1? This is a bit surprising for me since I never had any problems with them, discounting Alesia’s monking style. Obviously there were skills that they couldn’t use properly, but their AI was improved on a regular basis and I thought it was a great thing.

I also want to make the point that people said heroes/hench ‘ruined’ GW1 in the sense it made it more ‘anti-social’. To be fair, the game was pretty anti-social anyway, with its heavy instancing the population was going to be extremely diluted between outposts. Heroes and hench were necessary for a variety of reasons, either people had crazy schedules, they preferred to play alone or they just can’t stand incompetence. There weren’t always going to be enough players around to do a particular mission. Ok that’s a bit of mild history lol.

In this (GW2’s) case I think it’s difficult to fit them into regular PvE play because the world is so open. However I definitely think there should be options for story mode dungeons that involve henchmen/heroes so a player can experience the story, without depending upon other players. Of course there can be various other tweaks made to achieve this without the need for h/h introduction.

Otherwise, I think there are perhaps clever ways to integrate them. Perhaps in heavily underpopulated areas, spawn cute little ‘helper npc’s’ that you can recruit and run around in localised areas to assist with combat, and help you not feel lonely. At least this way, it doesn’t become too overbearing.

I really loved h/h, but I do feel it can’t be integrated in quite the same way here.

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Vapor Form fix? Coming sometime?

in Elementalist

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

@Aiglos: Good luck avoiding quickness stomp if you have ~1 sec activation time.
I thappens, yes, but not really that often that I’d have it nerfed(!) as you propose… mostly when I try to heal with water2 in DD but die ;-)

No my intention wasn’t a nerf

You also misread my post. I didn’t say activation time, I just said a ~1 lock upon being downed. Meaning that the skill would only be useable until you actually hit the floor, not mid-cast of a weapon skill.

I just wanted a way to stop it overriding the weapon skill input. 1 second lock was just a suggestion.

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(edited by Aiglos.2907)

Open up ALL Order Asura Gates after level 70?

in Personal Story

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

I feel this is bigger than gate access, it’s an example of the big issue: the Orders are an incomplete part of the game. I explain why below.

I’m hopeful we see Orders get the attention with fixes, features and content.


In Factions we had to choose between Luxon and Kurzick alliances, with some annoyances depending on where you had more (unspent) reputation. For example, if you were seen as a Kurzick supporter, Luxon NPCs like merchants would be inaccessible. While frustrating, I hoped this sort of thing would be axed for GW2. I at least expected some basic level of respect from all the Orders, with exclusive features unlocked for members.

Instead we: choose our Order before the player understands them, locked into our choice permanently and treated like a nobody by the others even after our personal story. No reputation system, no way to gain favor or change representation, no side quests.

To top it off, arguably the biggest impact of our choice is the exclusive access to armor. In Factions we could earn either set of Luxon or Kurzick, which had basic and elite versions. Really, GW2 has taken steps back from this level of quality.

I agree. I think the concept of the Orders is an interesting one, but they just seem completely contrived. I’ve not tried the Order of Whispers yet (so it will be interesting to see how this has changed from GW1) but the Priory and the Vigil are incredibly dull.

I agree that they really need to flesh this aspect out more. Definitely lacking the same depth as Kurzick/Luxon interaction, although I guess Factions was designed around that. For now, I’d just be happy if the other two Orders let you through their Asura gates lol.

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Vapor Form fix? Coming sometime?

in Elementalist

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

One issue I have this this skill is that its activation is way too sensitive. Has anyone else noticed vapour form triggering when you’re still alive (but close to dying) and using the #2 skill?

Basically if you activate a #2 skill while you’re still alive, but die during the process, you occasionally end up instantly vapour forming. This is actually extremely annoying, since it adds downed penalty and often puts me in a worst situation than before. I think the skill itself needs to be locked for ~1 second upon death, to stop this from happening.

Otherwise I think that the downed penalty should be removed from PvE vapour form.

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Open up ALL Order Asura Gates after level 70?

in Personal Story

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

I think (would need to test this to be sure) you can go from Trinity TO any of the orders, but can only go FROM your own order. Which just raises further questions.

This is correct

One thing that I have notice is that, once you visit the orders HQ its will let you pass if you decide go back, but if you exit the HQ you are automatically restricted from using the gate. They really need to unrestricted the gates once you complete the quest where the base fort Trinity is Establish.

I think this is also the case. Can’t remember with 100% certainty… although once you leave the HQ, you are definitely not allowed to go back through the gate if you are not a member of that Order.

Obviously very silly, especially since we’re all meant to be united at that point

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December 03/12/12 Update

in Elementalist

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

Hell yah! Thanks so much devs.

And Methodic, seriously I can’t believe you’re still complaining about this…rejoice my brother!

Rejoice in what, exactly? What is there to rejoice in? I would gladly rejoice, if there was something worth rejoicing over.

Okay, so they should stop fixing issues… got it.

Personally, thank you Arena Net.

In his defence, I do partially agree with him. These things shouldn’t have been broken in the first place. The last update they added/changed the functionality of dragon’s tooth and conjure weapons. They should have worked then.

So while I’m happy they’ve fixed the skills, he has a very fair point.

I am happy about EA though

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December 03/12/12 Update

in Elementalist

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

Not really. They only fixed a few bugs and added what should’ve already been there.

Evasive Arcana’s Earth-specific blast finisher is strange, though.

I do agree with you here…

The cynical side me is thinking that they have purposely been breaking ele skills, so that they can fix them later and be praised by the ele community for it

Although I am happy to have the fixes lol.

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December 03/12/12 Update

in Elementalist

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

Elementalist

- Updated elementalist conjured weapons to appropriately apply attributes to all players that pick them up.
– Dragon’s Tooth: This skill’s blast finisher now triggers at spell location, instead of character’s location.
– Electrocute: This skill now has a maximum range and line of sight requirement.
– Impale: Fixed an exploit with this skill’s interaction with Signet of Restoration.
– Arcane Resurrection: This trait now applies five seconds of aura to allies affected by it.
– Evasive Arcana: This trait now has a blast finisher while attuned to earth.
– Elementalists will no longer get into a state where they aren’t attuned to any element. This commonly results in the player’s skillbar being empty.

Interesting stuff… Yay for earth EA blast finisher!
fingers crossed, hope it actually works

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Open up ALL Order Asura Gates after level 70?

in Personal Story

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

I can use all the asura gates (OoW/Vigil/Priory). All the NPCs guarding them recognize me as the Commander and let me pass.

Really?

I’ve completed the personal story and the two other Orders still won’t let me through their gates at all.

So maybe what myself and OrianZeta has experienced is a bug? Does this affect anyone else?

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What the Ele Community Agrees On

in Elementalist

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

@ mainly MethodicMockingbird (and partially Bvhjdbvkjf)
(Sorry lost my ability to quote )

No, I actually think Kuthos hit the nail on the head and that you’ve both missed his point entirely. He’s not advocating spvp as the method to balance skills! Both of you seemed to have thought that, but it’s not what he is saying. It’s a shame you didn’t read the follow-up post properly either

I think you’re absolutely fine to give your opinions. I’m mainly a PvE player
So I do partially agree with your post! Just to point out that I would really love there to be a PvE/PvP split in terms of skill balancing. However, I would have to agree with Kuthos, in the sense that some weapon sets aren’t popular, because they’re just not as effective as others even with the right spec.

We do need to keep in mind that everyone will have a slightly skewed view on how things should function. I think he made a good point in that people are much more likely to experiment with skills/traits/builds in spvp and have them actively tested against competent players. Not AI. I would think in this case, it is easier to see where professions have shortcomings.

However! He did not say that spvp should be used to balance the game. He made the point that in PvE, pretty much anything works. Which is true. You mentioned in your previous post that specced in any direction, elementalists are ‘fluid and versatile’. If that’s based on purely PvE experiences then… do you not think it could also be that the gameplay is just artificially easy? You could spec into nothing and probably get the same results. If you try experimenting in a different format of play, then you may see things aren’t as diverse as you think they are.

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Open up ALL Order Asura Gates after level 70?

in Personal Story

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

I can’t remember if this happens upon completion of the level 70 mission… but…

The Asura gates at Fort Trinity let you travel to the 3 Orders.
However in reverse, you’re only allowed to use the Asura gate for the Order you joined.

At this point, (and after the pact formation), all the Orders are supposed to be united in the war effort right? So isn’t it really stupid that the other Orders will still refuse you, in your ‘Commander’ position, entry into their Asura gates? The enemy is meant to be the giant dragon! However they’ll still refuse you entry because you’re not officially a member of their Order.

I think it’s silly, particularly because lore-wise, they’re hurting the war effort. I know it’s a small thing but… it’s stupidly immersion breaking.

It also means joining the Order of Whispers is a much easier/cheaper journey from LA

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Waypoint Costs are a Problem!

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

They’re a nuisance and they do scale pretty terribly at higher levels. I think the awful scaling is the main issue. Having said that, I don’t think it’s particularly difficult to make up the costs. Normally just by selling random junk I’ll end up with about 2 silver.

They’re still a nuisance though. Admittedly I’d like to see free to travel to the major cities, or even just the home instance.

Another idea is that it shouldn’t cost me 5000k to travel within a level 1-15 zone. It does put me off helping friends out etc. I definitely think costs should change to reflect the level of the map you’re in.

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So, no more blasts on evasive arcana [Merged]

in Elementalist

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

Playing without EA… It’s much more boring!
I find myself rolling into my combo fields out of habit

I’ll get used to it. I definitely don’t agree with the intensity of this change. It should have just been one universal cooldown to stop chain EA abuse.

fingers crossed that it won’t take 6 years for an ele overhaul… well a decent set of favourable changes, in both PvE and PvP.

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Renown Heart Letters

in Dynamic Events

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

Hello

I’ve been playing this game since August, and I only just realised that the NPCs sent you money with their letters. I’m not angry, but I do feel slightly ashamed! Some of them were really generous and put like… 2 silver in. I think it’s very sweet. Although most of their letters have been deleted now

Please tell me I’m not the only one who didn’t realise that they’ve been sending money?

Hopefully they’ve only been sending money to me, because I worry about how financially feasible it would be for them to send money to every player in the game. Some of them are only like… poor farmers.


To open up an actual discussion to cover up my ditziness, does anyone read the letters? Or does it just depend on how interesting the NPC sounds?

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GW1 Style 'Developer Update Notes' possible?

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

I really liked the way GW1 handled skill balancing by linking to a ‘developer updates’ page that explained the rationale behind all the skill changes made. I can appreciate that in most of these instances, the focus of the updates were purely skills based.

In the recent GW2 updates, we’ve had major content additions so I assume the team has had a lot of work on their plate!

I can also appreciate that GW1 style developer update notes may expose flaws in the way that the current team handles skill updates, because many of the recent skill changes are just bugged out skills that don’t function in certain areas of play. Thus I can understand why the rationale is not given, likely because ‘rationale’ is just someone punching the keyboard a few times

Just kidding!

I think it’d be nice to have something to work with though. It doesn’t need to be speculative of the future to give false hope, but I can imagine it’d help people appreciate where they are currently.

So do you reckon this is something that may be considered for GW2?

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So, no more blasts on evasive arcana [Merged]

in Elementalist

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

I guess even this Grandmaster Trait couldn’t evade being made worthless.

I’m trying to wonder if the elimination of this trait was worth it to make a joke like that

I use elimination over nerf, because there is no point in taking this trait in PvE now. (eliminated). Maybe water EA may have some niche use in PvP.

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[Bug]DRAGONS TOOTH: Blast finisher

in Elementalist

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

Yep it’s definitely bugged. However, even if it worked with this functionality, isn’t it going to be really difficult to finish your own combos?

It’s easier to position yourself in a field and trigger the finisher, than it is to ensure that the tooth lands in a field… Actually, I wonder if this new functionality would mean that it only triggers upon landing?

It’s still broken though. This bug fix is like… a kick in the teeth or something

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Great news for underwater elementalists!

in Elementalist

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

Omg! This is epic.

I’m not sure what is more impressive. The fact that we received ‘feedback’ on something or the fact that we’ll now be the most overpowered profession in the game.

Who needs evasive arcana blast finishers when you have underwater conjure weapons?

On a less sarcastic note, I really think it’s a shame that we’re approaching this with such sarcasm. If we weren’t bugged so heavily, I’d sincerely appreciate this. Though I think all the previous bug ‘fixes’ have slowly turned us eles into cynics

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MOAR elementalist bugs pretty plox!

in Elementalist

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

If the two pages worth of patch discussion threads in the Ele forums are not enough to get their attention, I’m not sure moving the discussion to General Discussion is going to help much. They clearly read class forums, they just don’t care enough about the Ele’s to talk with us or make any smart changes to our class.

To be fair, there are virtually no dev posts on the Elementalist forum, so it’s not clear they actually check there.

I think there have been a few posts asking people to stay on topic. Do they count?

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Constructive Suggestions for the Next Update

in Elementalist

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

This will likely be pointless, just judging from the latest patch, it’s unlikely any dev reads this forum or even plays an ele. We had plenty of “your top 3 changes” threads, and the only thing we got out of that, was making another arcana major trait useless and a fake fix to magnetic grasp. I’m losing hope to actually be constructive.

Aww I really do know what you mean hug

It’s definitely unfortunate, and it crossed my mind that I should have posted this in the warrior forum. It may have been read there

I think they probably will read this though, if only to find out what is working well for eles so that they can nerf it

We’ll see what happens though. I definitely appreciate that everyone seems to be posting honestly and with valuable input.

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Constructive Suggestions for the Next Update

in Elementalist

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

So I thought I’d make this thread.

The idea is to post constructive suggestions for the next update. Since I think we could use a bit more constructive positivity in this forum. Also I would appreciate it if we didn’t have ‘L2P’ or ‘I want to quit GW2’ posts. Pessimists are welcome though!

Slightly off topic…. Incidentally, I’ve just thought of the best idea ever. We pretend that broken skills actually work/have more functionality than intended. During the next bug patch, those skills will be ‘nerfed’ into their intended and non-broken function.

e.g. – Did you know that Windborne Dagger works for staff and scepter? Keep it quiet…

Next patch update:
Windborne Dagger: This skill now only functions for daggers.
Tornado: This skill no longer causes your character to transform into a tornado (because a random change always seems to be made)

Ok, in terms of being constructive and serious….

- Maybe reduce the base cooldown of attunements? Having now put 30 points into Arcana, I am unable to wean myself off it! I think by lowering the base cooldown, it could perhaps encourage a bit more diversity? Just a random suggestion.

- Fire traits could maybe be looked at. Especially flame barrier, which is pretty awful in comparison with other minor adept traits, across both the ele and other professions.

- Firewall could use a bit of love. Perhaps allow it to open up another skill like the mesmer wall (can’t remember the name). Something that allows you to detonate it or something.

I know that they’re not strictly constructive and actually pretty awful suggestions.
I just want to get the ball rolling I guess?

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(edited by Aiglos.2907)

The need of communication

in Elementalist

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

They can’t communicate here when they’re busy discussing the next set of buffs planned for the Warrior class.

Lol so true

I’d really appreciate some comments from the devs. GW1 came with thorough notes on the rationale behind changes and I think this led to more constructive discussion. Players knew why they made a change, and so it saved a lot of heart ache/allowed a much better and focused dialogue from players.

I have to say though, they’re trying to do too much at once. They’re focusing far too heavily on ‘major events’ which is really cool! However skill balances and things essential to the core game suffer as a result.

They also never say anything in the ele forums. I remember the d/d buff post though…

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Thank you for ruining my fun!

in Elementalist

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

And in dungeons ele’s suck, except with evasive arcana build. To support and heal is our only viable role. Area swiftness, might, healing. But now that has been nerfed.

That may be the only way YOU can manage to play your elementalist in a dungeon, but don’t wave your hands around trying to represent the rest of us.

Stop looking at the class through such a narrow lens. Experiment with new playstyles — it’ll support many (many) more than people like you give credit. It can definitely fill both offensive and support roles but it requries different ways of playing both. Imagine that! If all you ever find in your hand is a staff, you’re probably doing it wrong. Just saying …

Just to address this part
“If all you ever find in your hand is a staff, you’re probably doing it wrong. Just saying …”

Maybe in a dungeon yes, it might be worth changing up weapon sets? If you are another profession, who actually has an in combat weapon swap, this is also very true.

However, attunements should make up for the lack of weapon swap. If someone wants to hold a staff in their hands, then they should be able to stand on the strength of the skills and traits involved in that. By changing their attunements, they should be able to cope with a diverse array of situations.

So you can’t apply “If all you ever find in your hand is a staff, you’re probably doing it wrong” that statement, to an ele. An ele should be able to use whatever weapon they like, because all weapons should be strong enough to stand on their own due to our attunements. In that case, and especially in the PvE environment, you have to play what you enjoy. So you can’t make a statement like that for someone using an ele.

If you were a warrior/ranger/mesmer/necro/guardian, then I would absolutely agree with your statement. They need to change weapons, because obviously, they can’t change attunements like an ele can. Thus their diversity comes through the weapon swap. Do you know what I mean?

I happen to really like the staff and EA was a great compliment to that. I found it extremely fun. Admittedly I’m going to enjoy it less now, and I’m going to have to find way to adapt.

I do see your point about experimenting and I 100% agree with that
However people have to do what they enjoy, and that isn’t something you can dictate to them.

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After patch question.

in Elementalist

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

Honestly…the blast finisher wasn’t OP. It was the chaining of blasts that made the skill unbalanced. Small steps in nerfing are needed not huge ones that dismiss entire builds.

^this. So many times this…

+10000

Yeah and this hits staff users particularly hard. You’re unlikely to really feel it as a D/D person so it might be harder to appreciate.

In PvE, part of the fun with staff was playing a dangerous game by recklessly dodging into your fields, while keeping monsters in them at the same time. You’d be sacrificing your ability to evade for whatever the intended benefit was. This could be for offensive or defensive purposes. So I think it added a very interesting way to play, and good flexibility for a class, especially for the staff.

I can only imagine that using a staff will be significantly less fun now…

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So, no more blasts on evasive arcana [Merged]

in Elementalist

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

Admittedly, I’m very irritated at this.

I think a nerf was needed on chaining, but NOT a complete elimination of the blast finisher. Especially as a PvE person, it added a little extra oomph to staff users and contributed to a good support role. It’s another example of PvP just ruining the PvE experience.

Evasive arcana was also a grandmaster trait. A very powerful one at that, so yes, I think it’s fair enough to nerf the super chaining. Removing the blast finisher is a harsh blow to staff users I think. Why would you even use it now? Especially in PvE, there’s not much point.

Slowly but surely, I’m feeling funneled into very specific ways to play, as dictated by Anet/members of other professions who are valued more highly.

Well, apart from rangers

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Your biggest hope for the patch?

in Elementalist

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

Hopes:
No significant nerfs!
PvP doesn’t influence PvE (split where there is a sizeable change)
Evasive arcana remains untouched!!! (at least in PvE)
Buffs to useless traits

Expectations
As a result of PvP balancing, skills will be nerfed without a split for PvE
Nerf to Arcana traits/nerf to attunement cooldown. Elemental attunement will now only have a 10% chance to give a boon upon switch.
Nerf to fire traits, specifically flame barrier
Nerf to earth traits
Nerf to staff skills
Nerf to flame wall, which will have its cooldown increased and damage reduced.

I’m totally a pessimist.

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Mobs on the entry point to Cathedral of Silence

in Personal Story

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

Just a very minor annoyance but still quite irritating.

After completing this mission I immediately got hit by a giant poison super cloud and then killed by two mobs waiting literally right next to the entry/exit point for this personal story quest. Admittedly it was a little unexpected. I know it’s Orr, but you’d think they’d have a little respect for people just finishing a mission.

So please stop mobs spawning right next to this point, since I pretty much just completed the story and died upon respawn. Also give it shelter from giant poison super clouds.

Thanks

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Sick of dying with one or two hits!!

in Elementalist

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

I used to swear by S/D, that is until I unlocked the blasting staff trait. So I kind of use this:
20 Fire (random, 20% cooldown)
10 Earth (the one that gives you earth armour)
10 Water (erm I can’t remember the trait)
30 Arcana (elemental attunement, blasting staff and evasive arcana)

Utility wise: Glyph of Storms. Plus two dependent on the area. Usually I’ll take arcane wave for the blast finisher. Elite wise: Glyph of elementals (always). Gear-wise, I’m going for power/toughness/ something.

In PvE, I just think staff is absolutely amazing. It’s got me through everything level 40+ (and all the way to 80) without trouble and with good speed. I stay away from D/D and S/D, because I’m extremely lazy. I feel that I can be lazy with my key presses in PvE, and still be slaughtering mobs with little effort.

In PvE, lava font just eats through mobs, because it’s easy to circle around them and keep them in the field (blasting staff makes this easier). If I know the fight will potentially be a long one, I’ll start in earth to get the bleed and cripple, before switching appropriately. Normally, eruption and two lava fonts = death. After unlocking evasive arcana, your damage output/utility rises.For Veterans, you’ll need to stack a few eruptions and use air to reduce the pressure.

When mobs are bunched together, then I never have trouble. Even in Orr. However, density of the mobs mean I can often be approached from many angles, so… if I am unable to kite mobs into each other, then at most I can cope with three ish?

Also just to note that I don’t feel as squishy as I used to be. I want to keep power as the main focus of my build, but my gear has toughness/vitality as an addition. For PvE, I don’t think you should feel the need to invest 30 into water or earth unless you want the traits. At the very least, put 10 into earth and give yourself the emergency earth armour trait. When things get hairy, earth glyph of storms. When things go completely crazy, earth/water glyph of elemental. The only thing that really scares me is fast respawns and the giant hammer risen guy, who does actually one-shot me.

So yes….

Erm also, I do personally tend to avoid fighting wherever possible. In Orr, I can imagine it being a pain for any profession because mob spawns can be so awkward. That can be an excellent survival tip too. I have no troubles with killing things/not being squishy, but sometimes it’s sensible to just pick your fights carefully.

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Random sex moans/groans/noises in towns? Uhhh...

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

Yes! I’m glad someone has posted about this. Whenever you spend enough time crafting in Divinity’s Reach, you hear so much filth going on, it’s disgraceful.

I don’t think your video catches the female grunts that I normally hear though. Like a sporadic low moan. I’m sure people must have heard that?

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Please go back to old crafting UI

in Suggestions

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

It’s horrendous. It’s so tiny to click on and drag. I don’t like it all and I really don’t know why they made this extremely fiddly change.

Please change it back! (with removing the 999 cap)

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"Elementalist is not your average mage" tired of this statement

in Elementalist

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

Baah! Lost my ability to quote again

@DesertRose Keep in mind that the GW1 ele had a significant overhaul just recently. One I think was reducing armour on monsters to make ele spells more effective. The other was a redesign of the exhaustion mechanic. So obviously, they thought that the ele was flawed in such a way that they had to massively overhaul it. Or… they just wanted to make it more interesting? Ah well.

Anyway! Yeah I’m pretty sick hearing ‘Elementalist is not your average mage’ statement. Having said that though, I really don’t know what we’re supposed to be. We’re great at group support, but I was always under the impression that there are no defined roles so I dislike people saying ‘eles are not glass cannons’ or ‘eles are awesome group support’ or ‘eles suck’, purely because I don’t think we should be funneled into one specific way of playing the game. The only people who can really say what we are, is Anet, because they designed us! Naturally that encourages people to read the class descriptions and take them at face value, so you can’t blame people for complaining when they are annoyed that ‘eles can’t inflict massive damage with a single attack’.

I actually wish they designed each profession with a unique niche, i.e. healing/damage etc. If everyone can do everything, then it’s just naturally going to favour certain professions anyway. That can’t be avoided. Eles suffer a bit more because their skills are purposely diluted due to having so many. The way it currently is, they’re awesome support because they can set up and finish combo fields and do crazy stuff with aura builds. The skills otherwise can’t encourage much else.

I actually hope they start splitting skills for PvE and PvP soon… Hopefully it’d allow more interesting life to be breathed into the class.

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are the respawn rates intentional?

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

Orr is a pain. Various caves are also extremely aggravating. Dredge and Grawl caves seem to be worst in my experience. Normally it goes down like this:

1. Kills Grawl 1.
2. Jumping Grawl approaches and engages. Another jumping Grawl attacks mid-fight.
3. I’ll kill the first grawl, start fighting the new Grawl. The old Grawl respawns and attacks from behind.
4. Another Grawl joins in the fight.
5. Kill one of the Grawls, but then one respawns…
6. Rinse and repeat.

Most of the time I don’t find it challenging, I just find it extremely irritating. I think mob density can be quite irritating in some areas too.

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Why a weapon switch delay?

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

I personally don’t mind the delay, I guess it encourages a bit more strategy through careful switching perhaps? I don’t know, to be fair I need to play weapon switching characters more.

@Reevac
If OP were an engineer in real life he probably wouldn’t be able to swap weapons, so go easy on the guy.

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Mesmer > elementalist

in Elementalist

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

Current TPvP Team

Mesmer
Guardian
Necro
2x Thief or Thief / Engi / Warrior

Nuff said.

Yay Razarei! I missed you

Anyway from my PvE experience I found my mesmer to be dying significantly less than my ele which is awesome! I really had little trouble with personal story missions, where my ele would hit the dirt pretty hard. Also becoming downed is much less of an issue with my mesmer. When I down with my ele, I pray that there is a low hp monster lying around, otherwise being downed is just a death sentence. With my mesmer, I managed to kill a full health monster two levels above me and rally… I was pretty impressed by that. I just wish eles had a #2 downed skill that was actually useful.

However, I do think that my ele has a much better time receiving loot and obtaining high medal rewards. Surviving is tougher, but I think in PvE at least, my ele has it slightly better for this reason.

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Conscript the dead ships Problem. (Spoilers)

in Personal Story

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

You shouldn’t disturb the poor girl when she’s putting down gangplanks.
If I were her, I’d refuse to put down anymore gangplanks until an apology was given.
Anyway yes, I replicated this issue.

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Trahearne - initial impressions

in Personal Story

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

He comes out of nowhere and pulls a Kormir.

In all seriousness, I do think he’s a cool character. It’s just he does quite literally come out of nowhere and suddenly become awesome. I like to see characters that I know becoming stronger, but he just jumps to greatness with almost zero development in between due to the bizarre pacing of the story.

Although once he does become the pact leader, I don’t like the way you get brushed aside by everyone after you’ve done so much. You’re still acknowledged (rarely), but you’re just a subordinate. I don’t really have the same heroic feeling that I had in GW1.

Otherwise I do like an NPC that can put up a fight, and he makes an awesome meatshield for my elementalist.

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when you kill something on the PS, don't roll the cutscene immediately after

in Personal Story

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

Actually this is an interesting point.

A different (but also related issue) is that I killed a boss monster in one mission and in the split second before the cutscene I could see that he dropped loot. Unfortunately they despawned his body after the cutscene, so I couldn’t loot him

I know it’s a minor thing, but it’s really irritating. He could have potentially had a super special rare item or something…

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Risen...

in Elementalist

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

Risen often hit hard and fast, with their fancy crazy kicks and everything.

I think that they have really bizarre pathing? Maybe because they’re undead and can’t think properly, but I notice they will often try to run around me and hit me from behind.

So I often think kiting towards them messes them up a bit. As a staff person, I’ll use lava font, dodge forward into it. They’ll continually take damage as they reorient themselves. At least I always deal with risen in this way.

Ranged spellcasting risen can be a mild annoyance.

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[Suggestions] Elementalist Weapon Skills Review

in Elementalist

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

Added and changed a couple of things in the OP:

Staff


  • Stoning - Currently has a duration of 3 seconds not the 1 listed on the tooltip

Arcana

  • Evasive Arcana - Currently there is no internal recharge on the blast finisher from this trait (it triggers in every attunement). This is one of the problems with staff support because it can quickly put out 3 AoE healing blast finishers for ~3k more healing than it should be able to. I feel adding an internal recharge of 10 seconds to the blast finisher would help mitigate most of the problems with staff support.

Yeah I completely disagree with your Evasive Arcana suggested change. Agree with Navzar, if that sort of burst healing is a problem then a small cooldown should suffice. Again this is why I dislike skills not being split for PvE.

It’s currently an awesome trait in PvE (and it actually feels like a Grandmaster Trait, it’s one of the best that the ele has, especially for staff users). Bear that in mind too, it is a Grandmaster trait.

Otherwise I think Dragon’s Tooth and Icespike could use a faster drop time…

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I can outrun a centaur

in Audio

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

Also I’m trying to work out why I can hear potentially x-rated noises in Divinity’s Reach while I’m crafting.

Occasionally I’ll hear a female voice go ‘uhhhhhhhhh’, like she’s receiving a very naughty delivery.

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Advice on underwater combat?

in Elementalist

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

AVHero explains it much better than I do. Good job

You won’t be the strongest underwater, but I think the combination of skills on the trident is actually quite nice. Fire seems to play more of a support/utility role, definitely make use of the cripple, blind and vigour here. I’d pretty much just unload your skills, unless you can get a mob bunched together, then try to go for positioning since fire has aoe. Just don’t stay in fire for the damage aspect! Use it to supplement your other attunements.

Air and earth have some nice control skills (flotation, immobilise and sinking) which can give you time to heal up or do damage. Air 1 itself can be quite nice if you’re up in the mob’s face and it is distracted. Otherwise, go to water for the damage and (regeneration perhaps)

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What's wrong with me?

in Elementalist

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

Well this is the elementalist forum. Note that it is ’elementalist discussion ’, in addition to strategy and advice.

I admit, that there are far too many ‘ele sucks’ or ‘ele is underpowered’ or ‘ele is totally fine’ and their many many variants. You’re certainly right about that. However, you also need to realise that, the whole point of a forum is to discuss. Whether or not you like what the people are saying, they’re entitled to their opinion. Their discussion is about the elementalist and sometimes it is constructive, sometimes it isn’t…

Definitely not having a go at you Mr, but your post is a variant of ’I’m tired of ele whining’ threads. So you’re doing a similar thing. You’re absolutely entitled to your opinion, but you can’t really dictate what people should be talking about.

There isn’t much whining in other forums because all other professions seem to be in an (arguably) much better place, in terms of non broken traits and skills- with the exception of Necromancer bugs perhaps. Their forum does seem to be much cleaner than ours though

If anything, you’d think the number of ele complaint posts would tell you something. Either that something is wrong with the profession, or people just like to complain
That’s the point of the forum though right?

I can’t really see this thread going in a positive direction, but I appreciate what you’re trying to say.

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Advice on underwater combat?

in Elementalist

Posted by: Aiglos.2907

Aiglos.2907

Water attunement is where your major source of damage lies. 2, 3 and 5 (is that tidal wave?) deal pretty heavy damage. Well 2 +3 upon detonation that deals the heavy damage, and 5 requires almost picture perfect positioning, but it slaughters.

Actually I think one of the eles weakenesses under water (not sure if other professions experience the same thing) is that many attacks just have extremely poor hit boxes, or maybe collision detection in general is just really poor. Earth I find notoriously bad. Spamming earth 1 and I’ll constantly see ‘miss or evade’. Sometimes I can literally be in the mob’s face and still miss, but otherwise it’s a nice bleed stack which you can throw in. With earth 2 I don’t think I’ve ever successfully hit with it! These projectiles just have a funny flight pattern. Not sure if anyone else notices this?

To deal with ranged mobs… I really don’t know. Both Fire and Earth have blinds, so try to use those. Ranged mobs in general give me the most trouble as an ele, on both land and in the water.

Above all else, remember that what we lack in physical toughness, we make up for in versatility, and the ability to inflict massive damage in a single attack.

cough

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