Dagger:
Fire #1 – Good damage
Water #1 – Misses too often, vulnerability isn’t good enough to make up for its mediocre damage
Air #1 – Very good damage
Earth #1 – Hits reliably and average damage
I use Dagger.
Fire is very average damage at best
Water – Misses to much and the Vul is rather Meh.
Air – Best Dagger Auto attack we have
Earth – Terrible. Everything else is Multitarget and this one isnt? Longer cast time as well and just very clunky like they designed the rest and then just gave up.
Fire – Think a 1 second burn would be a reasonable addition
Water – Maybe add Torment? Make it so that you can have more than 2 blades up at a time as well
Air – Fine the way it is really
Earth – Turn it into Multi-target and then change its animation and cast time, The scepter Earth Auto is great, maybe something like that but of course at a shorter range.
I think maybe the racial elites can be improved by giving them some shared unique property. Say, they’re more effective against members of a specific other race. Or all other races, even.
(just a wild guess)
Nah, they don’t need that. Some of them just need a few tweaks and improvements. For example – Hounds of B i would really give that a try IF they didnt die in seconds against normal AI mops. If they cant live more than 10seconds against them, they stand no chance against a player.
The Burning should really be improved as well. It needs to be 2-3seconds at base and be increased by player condition duration.
Reaper of Grenth, i would rather it be 2 second duration and proc every 2 seconds than it be 3 second duration and proc every 3 seconds
If you werent using 30 in water and arcana you might have killed him. Offense is the best defense.
I run 0/0/20/20/30. If i had less in Earth and Water i would have been one shot i think. Water and Arcane are simply too important that you can spend many points elsewhere.
This is what i am currently running.
The Heal is changed between Ether Renewal and SoR even though its average it still offers decent sustain. Though i wish it proc’ed multiple times on channeled skills.
The Elite is 90% of the time Reaper of Grenth, should it be needed and right situation i do some times use Tornado as well.
I run with Corruption and Geomancy until i hit 25 stacks and then i swap corruption out for Tormenting.
I still need to upgrade Zinn’s Data Crystal and will likely go for Matriarch’s Quill defensive infusion version.
I would say that Condition builds as an Ele is MUCH harder to use than those of other classes that just have insane options for conditions – Warriors, Thief, Engineer, Necromancer and Mesmer can melt people faster. We rely on such a limited dumber of conditions that we are forced into taking things like Perplexity, Geomancy and Tormenting to keep the damaging conditions as safe as possible.
I do some times miss not having Diamond Skin, but i cant take points from else where, 20 into Water is pretty much a requirement and same goes for the 30 into Arcana
Lesson 1, on using Churning Earth:
1- Make sure you have Lightning Flash ready
2- Cast Armor of Earth
3- Cast Churning Earth
4- Lightning Flash on your enemy 1 sec before it ends
Needing a 90second and 40 second cool down to make it even remotely useable and you would only be able to use it once as the enemy would then be expecting it every time you try it after…
…Says it all about the skill.
Also, how are you calculating the damage? because its from the bleeds, even if it hits that damage is nothing more than POTENTIAL damage, until the very last tick. All the condition removal means no one is going to take the full damage anyway.
A wide AoE. That is EASY to escape from, so that means nothing. Even the Cripple is a joke. A blast finisher….Yay. Nothing more than Might stacking unless you are with a group of course.
It has a base damage of 1092, and power co-efficient 3.25-ish before considering bleeds. For reference, backstab is 806/2.4, and eviscerate is 1008/3.0. Neither of which can hit multiple targets, and both have to have conditions met to be used.
I would argue that the arguably strongest weapon skill in the game should be the hardest to hit with.
I would also argue that it’s uselessness in a 1v1 fight is negligible as there is no mode in GW2 that is balanced around 1vx PvP.
Is that it? It needs to be much higher considering its near impossible to land compared to a skill that is used from stealth…
I have used it, with 74% Crit damage and 1,600 Power it deals about 4k crit damage. Yet, take 6-12k damage from a skill that is a 4 second cool down and even taken more than 12k damage before…
I have to seriously disagree with it being “too powerful” It is not powerful enough for a grandmaster trait. You can still get killed by condition classes with it due to the fact that its only 10% health. That even on my previous full Condi Necro was easy to get down, a few Life Blasts would easily deal about 2k damage EACH against Ele.
How about its changed to rather that immunity when above 90% health its a duration decrease 50% at all times. THAT is a grand master trait. All condition builds run 40% duration food as well as points into there duration tree anyway.
It’s also:
-One of the highest damaging skills in the game (in the top 5 as I recall)
-Causes 8 stacks of fair duration bleeds
-Has a wide AoE
-Is a Blast finisherShould it really be a surprise that this is the most difficult to land skill in the game?
- Easiest skill in the game to prevent damage from.
- Easiest skill in the game to prevent damage from.
- Easiest skill in the game to prevent damage from.
- Easiest skill in the game to prevent damage from.
Also, how are you calculating the damage? because its from the bleeds, even if it hits that damage is nothing more than POTENTIAL damage, until the very last tick. All the condition removal means no one is going to take the full damage anyway.
A wide AoE. That is EASY to escape from, so that means nothing. Even the Cripple is a joke. A blast finisher….Yay. Nothing more than Might stacking unless you are with a group of course.
Ash, are you NA or EU?
I am on EU
This is your problem. You don’t want to learn facts because you’ve convinced yourself that your ideas are completely true already. It’s like you have some sort of “I suck” religion.
You will never do well if you won’t listen to other people and consider their suggestions/ideas. A pro player who sticks with their build if it gets nerfed to hell… isn’t actually a pro player.All i know about him was that he was using 2 Legendary daggers
Do you know how much more damage legendary gear does compared to ascended? Or even exotic? Hint: it’s not over 9000.
Like i said, i don’t have to prove anything. I couldn’t care less if a bunch of people on the internet don’t believe me. I know what happened. I know the damage i took, was it a fluke? who knows all i do know is that i took 16k damage in ONE hit from Backstab.
Did i say it was, simply stating that i know what he was. The fact he can afford 2 Legendary daggers you can bet the rest of his gear was ascended as well. Shows the thing that Anet said wouldn’t happen – That being Power creep has been in the game pretty much from the start.
As to the person that says he got crit for 16k… do you have any evidence? The burden of proof is on you. I find it very hard to believe that you got hit for 16k with 1.6k toughness, even if the thief was running the 15% dmg signet + all glass.
I have no need for proof. I know it happened. That is all that matters to me. Who really cares what people online think…
All i know about him was that he was using 2 Legendary daggers and used Bask Venom.
Actually, thieves need major nerfs, while eles only need minor buffs.
All they need is a 30-40second cool down on Backstab. The skill hits for WAY to much for it not to have a cool down, well i guess the 4 second delay on being able to use stealth again is a minor cool down. But for a skill that can hit up to 16k+ It needs to be at least 30-40seconds.
A skill that requires the player to be positioned behind his target, within stealth, and needs to be traited to assure a crit, is hardly in need of a ridiculously long cool down, let alone 30-40 (more than some heavy duty utility skills in this game). I know everyone has been on the thief hate train since this games release, but lets not “fix” something by breaking it. Actively nerfing a skill into uselessness is NOT how one fixes a game, no matter how much YOU dislike it.
Like stealth is hard to get, they can perma stealth with ease in most builds. So that means nothing. Oh so hard to get behind someone when they dont know you are there because you have perma stealthed up to them…Oh wait.
They are on the “hate train” because it has SO many broken mechanics that mean that its an easy class to play:
Stealth: Broken
Burst damage: Broken
Initiative: Broken. Plus a failed experiment by Anet.
Perma Stealth: Broken
Perma Evade: Broken.
when you spend like 90% of your time in stealth. It says a lot
when you spend most of the fighting spamming evades/dodges. It says a lot.
Actually, thieves need major nerfs, while eles only need minor buffs.
All they need is a 30-40second cool down on Backstab. The skill hits for WAY to much for it not to have a cool down, well i guess the 4 second delay on being able to use stealth again is a minor cool down. But for a skill that can hit up to 16k+ It needs to be at least 30-40seconds.
When have you seen it hit up to 16k+ on a level 80? I used to run ALL GLASS (full zerker 20/30/10/10) and the most i think i ever got backstabbed for was 12k. I’ve only seen backstabs that high on uplevels. Even then, i’ve firegrabbed uplevels for 20k+ so its not really a huge feat to hit that hard.
I dont disagree that thieves can be frustrating to fight but there is so much misinformation on this forum.
I have seen hit hit 16k, because it has on me. This was when i had just over 1,600Toughness and 18k health….
It DOES happen. Most of the time its in the 6-12k range, but it DOES hit that 16k depending on the build.
Or you could switch Attunements, and keep dishing out hard hits with great utility… Lets not act like Elementalists don’t have cool downs on par with almost every other class in the game, AND have access to four weapon skill bars on the fly. I’m not saying Eles are amazing, but part of the problem I see with a lot of Eles in WvW is that they stick to one attunement and never switch. It is the equivalent of a Warrior who never switches weapons; it makes zero sense.
The Problem with ele:
1) forced into Water and Arcane trait lines
2) forced into Toughness and Vitality gear
3) Insane cool downs on defensive skills that are WORSE than comparable ones of other classes who also deal better damage, have more health, have more armor and more sustainability.
Some classes have no need to switch. A Hammer warrior for example, Most Thief builds for another example. I could EASILY go whole fights on my other classes without even needing to think about switching weapon – Ele have no choice thanks to the fact they have insane cool downs on weapon skills that mean they are mostly just auto attacking most of the time.
Our attunements will NOT save us. It will simply delay the inevitable against certain builds/classes.
Actually, thieves need major nerfs, while eles only need minor buffs.
All they need is a 30-40second cool down on Backstab. The skill hits for WAY to much for it not to have a cool down, well i guess the 4 second delay on being able to use stealth again is a minor cool down. But for a skill that can hit up to 16k+ It needs to be at least 30-40seconds.
Still… you are running an aggressive build with 1(!) condition removal skill (and not a very good one), and complains about conditions being strong. It doesn’t exactly help your case.
You have got plenty of defensive options at your disposal, and we all need to compromise.
Erm….
You do know that i can change traits and utilities on the fly right? My traits and skill change throughout my time in WvW. Don’t be silly and assume that everyone runs the EXACT same build and never makes changes to them during the night.
So. In short. You are wrong.
Or…just have it with like a 1second ICD.
Why would it need a cool down? We don’t really have that much access to Chill anyway.
The last good set of skins were Zodiac weapons, The Zodiac armor was a HUGE let down though.
As if the problems of this game revolves around Healing Signet.
I would say this 8% nerf has become a joke about Anet competence. This clearly highlights that Anet does not know a kitten about balance or don’t want to know. We are waiting months (even years) for things that should be done weekly. sPvP is a joke. Now for them to make it E-sport is like for me to get to Mars.
I found it hilarious when i first heard they wanted to make it an eSport. They have NO idea how to balance the game. I said from the start S/TPvP will not become an eSport because Anet doesnt have the skill required to balance it.
…Just reduce the cool down to 5 seconds. Keep the current traits with a 10 second cool down and i think it would be fine. change Arcane to increase/improve something else. What that could be i don’t know – Maybe Weapon Skill cool downs or something?
The PvP is this game (S/TPvP) has always been poor the sad part is that rather than getting better it has gotten worse.
You can kill Warriors and Guardians, is it because ele is good? or that Ele is strong? No its mostly due to them being terrible. We have to work SO much harder to get a kill than any other class
Ride The Lightning – Confusion
Shatterstone – Blast Finisher (It explodes!)
Ring of Earth – Evasion Frame or Block (Somewhat makes sense since you get covered by stones). Add torment too.
Lightning Touch – Add blind(?)
Lightning Flash – Blind
The rest seem solid, Ring of Earth really should get a few stacks of Torment, add Confusion to Ride The Lightening, all targets hit get 5 stacks for 6-8 seconds.
Never mind, i miss read it. For some reason i was thinking of Ride The Lightening lol
The 8% nerf is a joke, you can bet the active will be buffed by more than 8% – which is only like 38Healing Per second anyway, like warriors are going going to miss that when they are either:
Button Bashing with Hammer and stunning/Interrupting every 10 seconds
or
Going from one side of the map to the otherside of the map in mere seconds with a Greatsword…
or
Using immunity skills that will mean they will be immune to damage, can still do damage and will still be healed passively…
I would rather it inflict 5 stacks of confusion for 6-8seconds to all those that get damaged by it than us have just another Blast that will be pretty much useless solo.
They have a pet that deals Chill so thought it might have a field, i know they have SO many pets that are about poison, fire and such so it was possible.
Not saying its okay for them to have so many, but the type of pet makes sense…
And Ice, too!
Srsly, you should go yell at them and leave us in peace.
Please.
again i think thats down to a pet, so that would make sense.
A attunement that is about WATER and yet no water field…
A attunement that is about AIR and yet no Lightening field…
Hounds of Balthazar loses a lot if that happens, though, since Balthazar is the god of war and fire
and they are his hounds, not him…
If they can’t add other conditions they could at least increase the duration 1 second is pretty woeful for a 4minute cool down.
Why do rangers have access to fire, water and ice fields, while not being masters of the elements? They can even chuck poison fields down with a pet! I think you should leave the Ele forums for a while and go yell at them for getting more access to fields than D/D Ele.
Poison makes sense considering the pet, Fire field is down to the torch so again that makes sense. Water field is rather annoying.
I am actually considering dropping some of my Condition Damage/Toughness/Vitality gear in order to gain Condition Damage/Toughness/Healing Power gear. Want to try and see if i can hit around 8-900 Healing Power.
Currently, i am sitting at 444Healing Power, Thinking of getting the Condition Damage/Toughness/Healing Power Ascended rings – that is another 202 Healing Power. Taking the Chest item would be another 101 Healing Power so i think it could be done. Would mean a slight drop in condition Damage. Minor reduction really Health after buffs i would hope to still be around 19-20k
I know that, who else has access to Lightening Field? Isnt it just Ele? As for Water fields and Fire fields yeah they are for other classes but for a class that is meant to be in control of ELEMENTS why is it only one weapon that actually gets access to Ice, Water and Lightening fields…
Have you ever actually tried fighting with a staff? Tell me when you can reliably kill someone at melee range who’s kiting you. Then tell me when you can /ever/ kill someone at range without team support distracting them or locking them down.
While staff can do a lot, it most definitely can’t do everything – you’ve just convinced yourself that it does and are running around going “LALALAA I CAN’T HEAR YOU” whenever anyone tries to explain why your ideas are terrible.
It can’t i know it can’t. I don’t like it and never have. D/D has always been much more fun for me. That is not the point. Why can’t Staff be the Range support and D/D be the Melee support in Water?
Why is it that EVERY other weapon either has Fire Fields or nothing but Staff have access to several fire fields, several water fields, an ice field and a Lightening Field.
they trying to say that all other weapons make the ele less of an ele? after all, surely being an ele is part of the reason they have access to such fields to begin with.
What i really wish is that all racial skills had a “type” that was used by one or more classes and could be traited. For instance, Charr have a shout (war cry), a trap (shrapnel mine), and a trick (hidden pistol). Before anything gets buffed, let racial skills be traited by appropriate class traits.
Also, some class skills arent properly in categories where they can be traited (elites especially).
Finally… i think that some classes have different named skills that have identical mechanics. e.g. symbols=wells, marks=traps. in this case, racial skills should be traitable by equivelent categories. as an example, the charr shrapnel mine (trap) should be traitable by rangers, thieves, and (via mark traits) by necros.
That is an interesting idea. Though for Ele for example, None of the Human Elites fit into any sort of Category that could mean they could be traited.
An idea though would take a bit more of work would be if the Racial elites differed slightly based on the class.
Example:
Ele using HoB – The condition differs based on Attunement (Fire = Burning, Water = Chill, Air = Weakness, Earth = Bleeding)
Necro using HoB – The condition is random between Poison and Chill
Warrior Using HoB – The Condition is Torment
Again, the duration and stacks would need to be a bit more balanced, 1 second duration is rather poor.
I agree they need a buff but I was simply pointing out that the three elites clearly have specified roles that could be applicable in different builds
Yeah it shows how all the Race Elites should be, not quite as powerful as Class Elites but have different ways they could be useful – Power, Conditions, Support maybe?
The helm is the Necromancer one that they pick at character creation, they can be made account bound when you merge the look with another item. The shoulders look like those deathly skin ones not 100% sure.
I think HoB could do with a few tweaks. They die WAY to easily considering the 4minute cool down. The burning they have could be improved as well. Shame they cont offer different conditions based on Ele attunement as well that would be SO useful.
The Elementals we have are rather poor when it comes to conditions and the lack of control of there “Best” attack.
Can’t be done fairly. It would lead to too many cries that you picked the wrong race/class combination and too many unfair advantages in PvP and WvW.
You would almost need to allow a race respect which would pose so many more problems with gear etc.
No, because they would be balanced against each other. Of course they would be weaker than class elites but they don’t have to be as useless as some of them are now.
Why you are upset about the Hounds when you have an Earth elemental? That thing can face tank almost anything even in high level fractals, not only single open world mobs.
Racials are just for flavor. Accept it and move on.
Because the Glyph of Elementals is rather terrible itself and doesnt have that much use in my build. None of them have anything that really benefits my build and the fact the “best” skills they have i have zero control over doesnt help.
And yet I made further posts trying to get my point across. Oops.
Your point being – either run in groups, change weapon or change class
That is simply terrible. We belong to the same class, why is it ONE weapon set that gets the bonuses of being both Melee AND range possible, more options with the ability to reflect projectiles and to be able to slow targets down and make range.
Surely, the class that is in the middle of the fight is the one that could do with more useful fields than just Fire. That is my point. They pretty much designed the Staff and then said “we better not give the other weapons to much options as they can go Staff, weather they like it or not if they want other fields”
For a class that is meant to control the elements and such, its a bit strange that only one weapon set can actually use more than one field type.
No perplex runes in spvp, so no.
Perplexity isn’t the issue for S/TPvP. Its how weak we are with Health and Toughness/amour. Even if they added a Condition Damage/Toughness/Vitality combo amulet all the condition builds would run it and still be ahead of ele anyway.
Is this viable in spvp?
In my opinion – No
it lacks the condition damage/vitality/toughness stats and we need these more than the rest. You either have high health and low toughness or low health and high toughness.
sure you might win some but you will lose more. Though this also depends on your team as well.
Condi ele is the weakest of all condition builds but more balanced. They have little access to conditions and have to make sacrifices to get more. They also cant spam like 5+ conditions on you in seconds. But hey I find it fun to play. Unlike most its not about spamming conditions from the start til the end. You have to use cool downs at the right time or they are wasted. Also I am pretty sure even a dodge spamming thief would still end up with conditions on them. Dodge one condition. Get hit with more while it recharges.
also not everyone has insane access to blocks or immunties and such. So that cant really be used az a defense. An ele for example. Would have to trait. Build. Gear. Exactly right just to counter condition builds and even then they wont win and will still likely die it will just take longer.
Retaliation is still VERY limited on what classes have access to it. Confusion has a HUGE tell and even then its no threat for a while unlsss used by mesmer. Warrior. Or engineer anyway.
Zergs are much easier to use conditions on midway through the fight never spam them while they are all stacked. Wait for the fight to split them up into smaller groups.
This “Boon” would not increase in duration based on Boon duration and would have low access to it, say from a defensive skill in the 60-75second cool down range. So it wouldn’t be spammable or anything either.
The send the conditions back at target would be there to punish those that mindlessly bash buttons thinking “More conditions, i need more conditions” rather than using them at the right time.
Please, i have been hit for 16k Backstabs before, so i know Thief isn’t fine. However if you go zerker expect to die. It is that simple. What defense do you have against that? Toughness as well as weapon and/or utility skills
what do you have to protect yourself against condition spamming? Health like that is really a counter anyway. Plus likes of Warrior, Engineer, Necromancer and even Mesmer have MORE access to conditions than another class has access to removals. At the VERY best they won’t be abler to kill you – of course you have been forced to take EVERYTHING you can to counter conditions so you pretty much cant do anything else.
Does that seem fair?
great, so now everyone knows about it….
The trait procs for every of the 5 Arcane Power stacks. At least with Fire & Burning, tried it few times and it worked well. I mostly use it with Meteor Shower… lol.
Not that trait. I was talking about “Shard of Ice” Arcane and Signet skills cause Vul when activated. For some reason Using that with Arcane Power gives 5stacks. Which is either 2 too many or 10 less than it should.
First up: the retaliation things was a joke (bloody stupid light fields) and I am well aware that it stacks in duration. Stacks of time are still stacks! ^__^
And let’s look at this whole thing another way – what if I want to increase my reliable single-target damage while wielding a staff? The weapon can’t do that without building very specifically for it (such as chucking utilities and traits into Elemental Surge and immob/chill chaining maybe) because it’s primarily designed around group fights and team support.
What if I want to use a Shocking Aura as staff? I can’t without taking Tempest Defence, because staff can’t use that skill. That’s not right, surely? I ought to have access to stuns on melee attackers instead of an unreliable Static Field that has a cast time.
What if I want to do a leap finisher, or a knockdown, or even a launch? Staff has none of these, but D/D does. What if I want to use my one staff knockback skill and hit anyone more than 100 units away?
Every weapon set is good at different things, and not every weaponset can reasonably be given access to all abilities.
Okay lets look at this shall we. First you can’t compare a weapon set that has to stay 100% melee to one that can be melee or range, that just doesnt work. They don’t need Shocking Aura because they have PLENTY of ways to make range between them and their target.
secondly, They have access to knockdowns. They have more access to CC than the the weaponset that HAS to be in melee….
Gust, static Field, Unsteady ground, Shockwave, Frozen Ground, Magnetic Aura and Burning Retreat all great for making range or for kiting your target while STILL being able to deal damage.
Burning Speed, Frozen Burst, Shocking Aura, Updraft, Magnetic Grasp and Earthquake – how many of them are Melee ONLY.
Making D/D have access to other fields wouldn’t suddenly make Staff enviable, i mean we are ALL from the same class – why is it only ONE weapon set has access to any fields outside of Fire….
Dagger OH = Firex1
Dagger OH = Firex1
Scepter = None
Focus = Firex1
Staff = Firex2, Waterx2, Icex1, Airx1
THIS is what i don’t think is right. All from the same class and yet only ONE weapon has access to more than one type. What happened to wanting synergy between attunements? You can’t have that when having such a poor amount of fields to have access to outside of using staff.
Necromancer has an elite for ALL situations. So i don’t see them needing/wanting to other anything else. They for example would NEVER use HoB other than it being terrible, dying fast, low damage, insane cool down Necro have Golem which is better in EVERY situation.