Guild Wars 2

When I told that you eventually run out of condition clears due to the chill, some assumed that it was a melee issue.

First of all, I am ranged. Reapers actually apply some considerable pressure from range too. As a marauder staff tempest, I am pretty sure I would lose the fight with simple auto-attacks against carrion.

How do you cleanse condition when you’re chilled back everytime you do that condi cleanse? You eventually run out of options.

The mallyx I’ve seen constantly have Stability on them. I was not talking about resistance. And I know that it is not exclusive to the condition part of the class.

It seems like they always have stability on them… And it lasts for a pretty long duration.

Without Tempest Defense, I am not sure where any non-tanky elementalists would be right now. Probably on Revenant.

ragnarokda.1805:

To add to topic:

Reduce cast time and make second weapon drop on you. (No ground target for fluidity)
Still think base CD should be 30 and have that work for FGS as well but tone down its power a bit.

Why would I want to nerf the conjures by limiting the possibility to cast the second one where I want? Base CD of 30 seconds would be too strong.

Okay I posted it on reddit.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3uqv7m/tempest_defenses_damage_increase_does_not_work/

Sunshine.5014:

Can someone please post this on Reddit? The devs read and reply there all the times. This forums is dead.

I don’t have reddit. I think I’ll see if I can subscribe there.

Icebow and Conjures in general are still in a very sorry state.

Let me give a few ideas thrown together.

Conjurer : Combine One with Fire and Conjurer together as a single trait.
New trait to replace One with Fire: Element of Purification : Applying Fire Aura cleanse 1 condition and increases damage condition damage by 5% and damage by 5 % for the duration of the Aura.

Conjured Weapons

-Reduce initial cooldown to 45 seconds from 60.

-Reduce Fiery Greatsword cooldown to 150 from 180 seconds.

-Improve visibility between allies’ and enemies’ conjured weapon.

-Drastically reduce the delay to pick up Conjured Weapon (or Bundles) when already on the floor.

Conjure Earth Shield

Passive stats : -Remove vitality from the passive stat gains since it is immediately lost when the Conjured Weapon is discarded.

-Add Concentration (20% boon duration) to the passive stat pool.

Stone Sheath : Increase radius to 360. Each enemy hit grants two seconds of Retaliation. Reduce cooldown to 5 seconds from 8.

Magnetic Surge : Add a Leap Finisher to the skill.

Crippling Shield : Add a Projectile Finisher to the skill.

Lightning Hammer

Static Field : Allow the wielder to move while casting. Allow to target the field in the area instead of a Point Blank Area, 600 range.

Wind Blast : Improve damage to match Guardian Hammer’s Banish.

Auto Attack : Reduce auto attack windup to match the indicated cast time.

Conjure Flame Axe

Ring of Fire : Update this Ring of Fire to match the current iteration of Ring of Fire on Dagger.

Auto-Attack : Rework the auto attack to include a chain in melee.

Conjure Ice Bow

Auto Attack : Completely rework the auto-attack. Fire a shard of ice that shatters on impact, Bleeding and dealing extra damage to enemies behind the impact. 320 (0,6) damage ; 2 stacks of bleeding for 5 seconds, 384 (0.72) damage. 900 range.

Frost Fan : Increase chill duration to 2 seconds from 1 seconds (to compensate the chill stack limit). Struck enemies and allies now leave a regenerative mist on impact that pulse heal every seconds for 204 (0,2) over 3 seconds.

Ice Storm : Do an evasive leap away from target area while shooting a volatile shard of ice. Detonate midair for multiple explosions of ice. Detonates into 5 shards that cripple and bleeds.

I play my own build all the time. Although, it does not mean they can’t be meta potential. Most of the meta we see these days are from broken builds roaming free. So it’s like a battle of Titans and Gods. Mallyx Revenants vs. Chillaids Reaper…Who will win?!

Then you have all the in-betweens that struggles against those extremely sharp builds. My sharp I mean builds that do their things perfectly. Condition Reaper must have the harshest condition pressure seen in a long time.

So everyone would have Focus for Earth.

zencow.3651:

Lava Font had an immediate tick back in beta 3 years ago but they felt the guaranteed damage was too strong in PvP

Different versions of Lava Font e.g via ‘Lava Tomb’ and PvE monster sources of Lava Font still do tick immediately.

Really?… Well then. Game changed a lot. A lot.

Yashuoa.9527:

Alekt.5803:

Is there even a balance patch on December 1st?

Sunshine.5014:

No, there isn’t. 6 months per patch. We can stop dreaming; it’s not like ANet read the forums. They read Reddit.

The 7th post on first page especially sums it up a bit. Among the things is balance (limited balance changes for key issues).
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/Fear-not-the-balance-is-here/first#post5803400

Well, most bug fix means buff for ele right now.
I am looking at you Lightning Rod + Tempest Defense.

And obviously, the very bad bug from Rebound + Mist.

It is not really interesting to be taunted for 3+ seconds because of the condition duration.

Is there even a balance patch on December 1st?

The discussion had been going on the Elementalist Forum and it might be nice to have more visibility about it.

There is a one second delay between the instant Lava Font cast and the first tick of damage. Mostly, it gives a very slow feeling to the staff in general. The way it is made right now, the fire field’s animation disappears and the last instance of damage ticks without a field on.

The proposition is quite simple. How about making the first instance of damage on Lava Font instant after the cast.

It is a clever move: it add depths to the PvP side, while keeping the overall dps of the class the same in PvE. With the change, it is more realistic for the staff elementalist and more rewarding to aim the field correctly.

vana.5467:

Da Beetus.1275:

Also, the ticks of damage don’t quite line up with the animation, at least not how I expected to see it. Head to the Heart of the Mists and throw a Lava Font at a target dummy and watch the numbers closely to see what I mean.

This always bothered me.

Necro wells tick instantly when dropped.
Mesmer wells tick instantly when dropped.
Guardian symbols tick instantly when dropped.
Ranger bonfire ticks instantly when dropped.
Lava font ticks 1 second after it’s dropped.

Immediate first tick of Lava Font is one of the smartest change they can bring to the Elementalist. If not the smartest.

BigEvs.6971:

I’ve known about this general interaction for awhile but didn’t even think about chrono block. That’s incredibly frustrating. I’m starting to wonder if tempest defense and lightning rod’s lack of synergy is deliberate. The bug is just too blatant to have been left alone otherwise.

In any case, thanks for the heads up.

I doubt that the interaction is intended. Remember that Tempest Defense and Lightning Rod were both grandmaster traits and bringing the trait to the master tier was a clear indication that both should work together.

I have strong reasons to believe that it was simply overlooked. Just observe the Inscription trait giving only one stack of might. It just shows that things were rushed.

Another example, do you know what actually made Invigorating Torrents/Cleansing Water bug to be eventually fixed? It was someone indicating Grouch in a late night stream about it. The Tuesday after, it was magically fixed.

Da Beetus.1275:

You can only have 1 Lava Font active at a time from the same source. The new cast replaces the old one. The Lava Font that spawns when you get downed (thanks to Persisting Flames) is a separate Lava Font, so that can overlap with the staff Fire 2 Lava Font, albeit briefly.

Also, the ticks of damage don’t quite line up with the animation, at least not how I expected to see it. Head to the Heart of the Mists and throw a Lava Font at a target dummy and watch the numbers closely to see what I mean.

Had to test it just to be sure. I can confirm that it is not the case. You can overlap two Lava Font if you cancel the aftercast with flameburst quickly after.

Don’t get me wrong, I hate that it is that way.

Still bugged. Please help.

If you interrupt a Chronomancer blocking with Echo of Memory with any unblockable skill when you have Lightning Rod trait, you will automatically refresh it because L-Rod procs before the interrupt. (If an attack is blocked, Déjà Vu is usable for a short time.)
Without L-Rod on, (Static Field, Unsteady Ground, Earth Shield pull) the interrupt does not allow the mesmer to use Déjà Vu after because no attacks are considered blocked.

So I’d like to report a bug.

Lightning Rod damage happens before the crowd control. It means that someone blocking or rolling on any unblockable CC will block or evade the Lightning Rod. Moreover, Lightning Rod damage is now amplified my Tempest’s Defense 20% damage increase because the target is not yet considered CCed when Lightning Rod strikes.

PS. This bug has been there long enough. It is crippling and frustrating.

If you interrupt a Chronomancer blocking with Echo of Memory with any unblockable skill when you have Lightning Rod trait, you will automatically refresh it because L-Rod procs before the interrupt. (If an attack is blocked, Déjà Vu is usable for a short time.)

Without L-Rod on, (Static Field, Unsteady Ground, Earth Shield pull) the interrupt does not allow the mesmer to use Déjà Vu after because no attacks are considered blocked.

So I’d like to report a bug.
Lightning Rod damage happens before the crowd control. It means that someone blocking or rolling on any unblockable CC will block or evade the Lightning Rod. Moreover, Lightning Rod damage is now amplified my Tempest’s Defense 20% damage increase because the target is not yet considered CCed when Lightning Rod strikes.

PS. This bug has been there long enough. It is crippling and frustrating.
And yes, it is also in the bug forum: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Lightning-Rod-and-Tempest-Defense/first#post5800962

Well, because the fire field disappears and at least 1 tick remains to tick. There is also a huge aftercast on the Lava Font before it goes into cooldown. Check it carefully, it is the same with Ice Spike; it may be 2 3/4 second cooldown with the trait, you won’t be able to cast it more than once every 5 seconds.

Burtnik.5218:

Slow destroys everything and i dont know who had that briliant idea behind this condition. Now we gotta live with this junk. It also feels like it raises casttime by 100% rathen than 50% btw.

And I am pretty sure slow is bugged… When some chronomancer does a lot of slow, I have this feeling that everything goes slower around them? Is it just because it mess with my brain, or is it because slow last longer than the condition?

nearlight.3064:

Hmm I’m going to try out some wanderer builds soon… but as of now vipers is really cool but only works on classes that can spam active defenses…

And that has a privileged health pool I must add. Looking at you, Revenants… Why do you have tier 2 health???

Slow is an awful debuff in general. There is nothing more painful than slow for a staff elementalist. 1 +3/4 cast times were designed without having slow in mind at the time.
You get destroyed by slow, and if you get quickness, it does not even help Eruption, Lava Font, Ice Spike still since they still have a huge delay to land.

Outsider.6051:

Tried the build for a some matches (15? not sure) and while its a small test size, i found out some stuff:
1.) I only ever used conjures in PvE, and i’ll be kitten ed they feel clunky to use. The cast time makes it feel slow, and i sometimes get kitten having earth shield on me. I can’t drop the shield fast enough to access weapon skills.

2.) I can drop a shout in my utilities for something else. I take feel the burn mostly for on demand protection, but with no elemental shielding it doesn’t matter for me anymore. That said, I don’t get much on demand protection anymore I might considering using arcana instead of water, or earth again.

3.) How does earth shield 4 work? I don’t see the pull happening. I really need to use other utilities more.

4.) This build worked wonders for frontline wvw combat. Pop earth shield, run in the mess of a fight, tank with the shield while using overloads for pressure. I used to run the shield on capping garrisons and keep where the zergs grow huge. earth 2 and 5 helps with survivability.

It takes a lot of hours of play to get the conjures right, in the 3 figures.
Shield 4 will pull 3 targets in the 600 radius area. It works like magnets, you do not need Line of Sight. It is also unblockable.

StickerHappy.8052:

4.) Cantrips also look nice on the Arcane Block slot, Mist form for getting away from DH traps like MAW and LB 5, Another blast finisher is also good for the water field, Arcane blast on a low cd, or Aftershock on a 45 sec cd but gives you more team auras, immob.

5.) Lastly, it requires you to play really skillfully as Full Glass DPS, that said, The Harmonious Conduit trait is pretty much mandatory. Let’s face it, A lot of the classes just poop out CC nowadays. But Invigorating Torrents is really good too with Taking Cleansing Water, hands down. What do you think? (If you ask me, stab on overloads should be a no brainer be a MINOR TRAIT)

5. Can’t deal with condition reapers without it; can’t deal with power builds if I go Earth. I’ll have to consider the stability as luxury. Though, I’ve got used not to have stability. As a result, I just appreciate the Earth Overload much more. In a skirmish scenario, I can promise that the opponent(s) will be forced to use their CC to keep you away when you have Earth Shield on.

Earth Shield 3 —> auto attack while dazed (Tempest Defense synergy) --> block (Stone Sheath) can really make a matchup hopeless. Usually, this combo will be followed by an overload that is refreshed: air, fire, earth are all good for that.

4. Feel free to use anything else than Arcane Shield. If you’re more comfortable with lightning flash, go ahead. Not picking lightning flash is a very personnal preference of mine. And if I am unlucky enough to get stuck in a DH dragon’s maw or a cage, Earth Shield 5 is usually my option. Earth Overload could also work.

Stop, Drop and Roll removes the condition at the start of the roll. Note that it will bring the trait in cooldown even though no conditions were removed.

nearlight.3064:

Also just adding that invigorating torrents+cleansing wave+soldier runes is so much AoE cleanse that you won’t even need diamond skin at all to function, so you can take stone heart. In fact, this setup has even more condi immunity imo in more sitautions, but it doesn’t have the ability to readily share shocking aura, so its balanced by that.

Pretty much that. And I am having some very good results with a Marauder Staff Tempest; that’s something. Air Water Tempest.

Though, the Chill Necro is truly annoying. And pretty much anyone using that build must be taken seriously…

Ryld.1340:

Earth? Do you mean Fire’s Tornado?

I mean the Earth dust storm at the end. It’s also a tornado, no?

The tornado at the end of the Earth Overload is not bringing a consistant AoE. Just try it between two golems when standing at the middle: the first tick will hit and the subsequents will not.

Elementalists usually stuggle outside Celestial. It is because they lack the stat diversity required.

StickerHappy.8052:

Alekt.5803:

Scrapper runes grant the 175 power. There is also some important things to consider in the damage equation of armor vs power vs dmg modifier. Scrapper gives a negative modifier on a damage that is simply too high for toughness alone. Combined with the when crit frost aura, the rune set and the 40% protection, you can be survive in a decent manner.

As for the Viper. I could just do some duels in kitten arena.
Edit: I tried some duel with Viper Tempest, but was too rusty with it. Condition staff and power staff are two different world.
Edit: I managed a few duels on that one. You can see the comparison between Viper and Marauder. It’s clear that Viper is just to be silly. http://www.twitch.tv/aleriedespins/v/27425653

So I decided to go full zerk with scrapper runes. Few thoughts:

1.) I do get the point with scrapper runes, but since you lack prot from auras from earth, the dmg mitigation (frost armor, prot, scrapper runes) will only proc together when you are doing Earth overload right?

2.) Why arcane block? Doesnt Flash freeze give you more in the long run (frost aura + team, heal on auras, the chill and only gets 25 sec cd) Aftershock also works really well albeit the 45 sec cd, I mean you provide more to the team with this two?

3.) The Elite, yes its good for mobility but you have staff swiftness and lightning fields you can blast. It’s also 150 sec cd, Is Rebound not better? Again team aspect and synergizes really well with the traits. I for one like Tornado so much for sheer damage.

4.) Cantrips also look nice on the Arcane Block slot, Mist form for getting away from DH traps like MAW and LB 5, Another blast finisher is also good for the water field, Arcane blast on a low cd, or Aftershock on a 45 sec cd but gives you more team auras, immob.

5.) Lastly, it requires you to play really skillfully as Full Glass DPS, that said, The Harmonious Conduit trait is pretty much mandatory. Let’s face it, A lot of the classes just poop out CC nowadays. But Invigorating Torrents is really good too with Taking Cleansing Water, hands down. What do you think? (If you ask me, stab on overloads should be a no brainer be a MINOR TRAIT)

Arcane Shield because it cannot be corrupted and acts as a “pure” stability.
No 1/4 cast shouts because they can’t be casted during a sensitive offensive and defensive rotation.
Protection is from any overload for 3 seconds and from earth shield 4.
The FGS has amazing ratios and increases damage of overloads when used. 260 extra power is very good.
Stability on overload is not as good as you think. Most of what I look for in my overloads are on the first tick anyway (which is instant for Earth and Fire). Regen and vigor on aura will serve a good against condition and general survivability.

Scrapper runes grant the 175 power. There is also some important things to consider in the damage equation of armor vs power vs dmg modifier. Scrapper gives a negative modifier on a damage that is simply too high for toughness alone. Combined with the when crit frost aura, the rune set and the 40% protection, you can be survive in a decent manner.

As for the Viper. I could just do some duels in kitten arena.
Edit: I tried some duel with Viper Tempest, but was too rusty with it. Condition staff and power staff are two different world.
Edit: I managed a few duels on that one. You can see the comparison between Viper and Marauder. It’s clear that Viper is just to be silly. http://www.twitch.tv/aleriedespins/v/27425653

Remove and gain massive resistance to movement-impeding conditions while overloading your attunements. (Base).

Add: You have increased vitality. + Grant additionnal thoughness when channeling.

I thought about some 250 vitality / 290 thoughness (Obsidian Focus https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Obsidian_Focus) figures.

StickerHappy.8052:

Dude, can you please give a link on your two builds? (roc, viper) your twitch channel has em but do not show a link to it.

also on this video

http://www.twitch.tv/aleriedespins/v/25988333

01:05:55 it shows you killed the mesmer with arcane wave, but you dont even have it in your slot, am I missing something?

It was indeed the arcane shield. I did not know it had the arcane wave in combat : S

The name of the build are mostly rediculous names. The Roc is the DS/CES Condition staff a build I used before HoT that got indirectly hit (very harshly) by Renewing Stamina nerf. It’s not a bad build per se, but it’s a lot of effort for not much. But, it might get relevant is they introduce a 1050 condi 1050 thougness 560 pres 560 healing amulet along with a slight rework on some unused elementalist traits.
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Elementalist_Air_DS/CES_Condition_Staff

The viper build is a condition tempest mostly for some style points duels. It’s probably the most dodge roll intensive ele build you can find. (Latent Stamina is awesome here.)
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vFAQFAWn0XC9XiFRAGNA8RgFJAzdxGZzsCLgAwJs4J0CTCA-TJRFABmXGAgLAgS7PgwDAAA

Outsider.6051:

Nice vid! Maybe i’ll try this out later. Did you try other weapon set/conjure combos?

Yes, I tried every conjure comboes. The best conjured weapon is clearly the Earth Shield. The auto attack, you’ll notice, is a gem: the second auto attack can become a double dash closer. And many more. You could cast air overload and once it is done, fortify immediately.

Lightning Hammer seems to be still needing some work from Anet. Static field needs to be targetted at 600 range and being able to cast in-range. It’s clunky overall.

Fiery Axe is good to add some AoE, but the Ring of Fire needs to be changed to the latest version. The auto-attack could be a auto-attack chain in melee instead of the awkward range we got. Fiery axe overall is not bad and it’s very quick to cast, but if you’re Tempest the AoE it brings is not that needed.

Fiery Greatsword is very, very good.

Oh? I think I forgot about the Ironic Bow. Eh. Lol

Don’t forget that a conjured weapon can be used to have a good rotation while you prepare an Overload, and that you can use it to have extra stats while Overloading (260 power for FGS). You could also consider the weapon damage from conjured weapon (needs testing for non-staff). My Earth Shield had the same damage range as my staff for example.

Thanks! I’ll see if I can highlight more good moments (or one showing a mistake that could be fixed) for educational purposes.

For that…I’ll need to remember to put the stream on.

I do not agree with stability baseline. Interruptable overloads means counterplay.

I keep winning my games. I don’t understand what’s going on. And I keep getting players I don’t recognize in my games.

A duel against a condition revenant while in-game at the Waterfall. Marauder Staff Tempest using conjured weapon. Enjoy.

http://www.twitch.tv/aleriedespins/v/26904729

How to escape the worst scenario: http://www.twitch.tv/aleriedespins/v/26903363

Don’t ask for auto-attack buffs on a trait… That’s so foolish because it would invalidate the need help the auto-attacks or make it much harder to justify buff because X traits would make them too strong.

If you’re interested in auto-attacks or stuff to do in-between recharges, consider Conjured Weapons.

Elementalists say hello.

Castion Fortify (Earth Shield 5) does not cancel Overload channels as do most defensive cooldowns, just like Burning Retreat cancels it.

Fortify does not cancel Stone Sheath either.

Actually, it’s the Fortify itself that needs to cancel anything channeled or casted. It’s pretty annoying to have to cancel Stone Sheath to be able to Fortify if said incoming attack is unblockable (Necro Wells, Revenants, etc.)

Bvhjdbvkjf.1987:

Fresh Air allows me to swap to air attunement after a crit, correct? Trying to understand how exactly (on staff) that would be of any benefit…

Well, all elements have a high hitting spell: Eruption, Ice Spike, Lightning Surge, Lava Font.

In between every cast of air bolts you can swap to Earth or Water or Fire during the travel time. Once the bolt hits for a crit, Air is cooldown is already refreshed: simply cast number 2 on Earth or Water and immediately swap to cancel aftercast. With that, you come back to a decent auto attack attunement while also dealing the 0.7 power ratio bolt. You will also gain from the 1200 bleeding damage of eruption.

roelvanesch.2817:

Bvhjdbvkjf.1987:

Alekt.5803:

Bvhjdbvkjf.1987:

Alekt.5803:

Change assassin.

To…?

And why? It would do less damage if I changed lol, objective is to deal more damage since I have no defense. Need to kill stuff faster not slower.

Your idea about being “very dependant” to crit is flawed from the start. You don’t even have fresh air to begin with. With berserker, you have more power, which means that your critical strikes will benefit from that extra power (Crit is a simple multiplier.)

I could bet that your build deals less damage than the majority of max glassy builds with that set-up.

Fresh Air allows me to swap to air attunement after a crit, correct? Trying to understand how exactly (on staff) that would be of any benefit…

Secondly, I tried zerker stats – and when fighting jormag’s claw the highest my base fireball damage ever did was 8k per attack. By simply swapping my gear set for assassins I always crit, dealing a minimum of 10.3k per base fireball to that same meta during the same phase.

If you’re not going to research things and have any viable input please feel free to leave. I’m looking to get feedback supporting my build not scrapping it and starting from scratch on a much weaker version.

The only advantage of assassins to zerker is a higher chance to crit. Thus, on your highest damage attack (which IS a crit) zerker WILL always do more damage. If you are getting higher damage on a single crit with assassins, rather than with zerker, some other factor is in play (food/traits?). Otherwise, these numbers don’t make sense.

He or she is a lost soul. There is nothing we can do to help here.

roelvanesch.2817:

Sounds pretty darn strong, like at least fire GM

I meant…Fire aura procs the burn and might also when blocking the attack (For Arcane Shield and Earth Shield) But most of the time, the elementalist will evade the attack, which does not proc burn and might.

Protection reduces condition damage dealt by 40%;
Boons cannot be corrupted or stripped while above 75% health threshhold.