Guild Wars 2

Axialbloom.8109:

All Ele condition builds are inferior to power builds.

The last person to say that, i beat in a WvW duel. Ele Condition build is VERY viable for WvW. Maybe not zergs but small groups and solo it is VERY strong with the right set up. Maybe not as much in S/TPvP as mine seems to be more of a bunker build than a condition build (Settlers Amulet)

nearlight.3064:

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Staff is a terrible weapon for anything outside Zergs and big groups. .

I disagree with this statement, fire staff builds are proven to have the highest DPS in the game for an ele in PvE, and are actually used by top tournament teams. It has a much higher skill cap than D/D, as does S/x, but Its a little much to say that staff is a terrible weapon outside of “big groups”. You can 1v1 with it if you know what you’re doing, but you do need a good team to peel for you, which is a challenge I do admit.

While I don’t play conditions on any class besides mesmer, and only run power/blanaced builds for ele, I thinks its a neat idea that just doesn’t work on staff. S/x and D/x have a few reliable ways to cause bleed and burn and cover conditions, staff really doesn’t, the burning from staff is only on 1 skill reliably, and earth can barely stack bleeds. Water just gives vuln and chill clunkily, and air just does vuln. I guess if you wanted it to work, you’d need perplexity to profit on the many interrupt skills, but still

He is looking for a CONDITION weapon. In zergs it can be VERY strong. In solo/roaming/Small groups it becomes MUCH weaker. That is what i am saying. It might have the “best” DPS in the right situations with the right boons, right traits and everything. That will NOT be the case with a Condition Staff build.

Condition builds CAN work on ele, Staff is just not the weapon to use.

Simply put – Dont.

Staff is a terrible weapon for anything outside Zergs and big groups. In these situations conditions become a lot weaker due to the AoE condition removals that are easily used.

PvE you don’t want to go conditions. It is “okay” in anything that is just playing around. Trying hard level Factuals and such you want to steer away from conditions.

WvW it can be done. I run Condi ele myself, though i run Dagger/Dagger. I roam and do small group stuff, the odd zerg should i encounter one but i never set out looking for them.

http://youtu.be/V1VSzi5apCo

That is my latest WvW video, though the quality i faced wasn’t that great with most of them either being Condition builds or Bunker builds which was kind of boring. I have other WvW videos against more Power based people.

Dee Jay.2460:

I

• Elementalists – Insanely overpowered in WvW. Way too much damage and sustain in WvW thanks to Runes of Strength and constant Protection and Regeneration.

If we need runes of Strength to be good how does that make us Overpowered? surely the issue would be with the runeset, just like it is with all the other classes.

Constant Protection?
That is a 4 point trait for 6 seconds every 10 3/4 seconds, in an attunement that is very little threat and is meant to be about defence

Constant Regen?
That is a 4 point trait for 6 seconds every 10 3/4 seconds or a 20 point trait for Cantrips. or a 2 point trait for like 4 seconds on crit

Or using LONG cool down skills such as Armour of Earth

the Protection, Regen can easily be removed and is pretty important for keeping the only class with low health and low armour alive…

Its typical Anet.

Ele = Punished with longer attunement swaps (aka weapon swap), Slower movement and increased skill cool down (as if they werent insane enough…)

Everyone else = Not affected by weapon swap

Thief = Not affected by skill cool down increase

I think Signet of Restro is okay as it is. Though it seems VERY weak if you use anything other than D/D or D/F in my opinion. You need fast attacks to get as many heals as you can as fast as you can, something that the other weapons don’t have. Scepter is okay but let down by the auto attacks.

Why am i not surprised, having played this game since pre-launch. I actually EXPECT issues when ever Anet does an update – That says it all. All we get is terrible rehashed “content” though i wouldn’t really call WvW seasons content because it’s not its basically the same as every other week you just have Achievements to farm. They even manage to mess THAT up.

All it was is achievements to unlock a chest and some how, some how you still manage to fail at that

the incompetence shown, time and time again is rather staggering, sure they might not be the biggest of companies but to have issues with EVERY update says something they are doing is wrong and they haven’t managed to pin point it and fix it (if they actually care!)

You can be tempted as much as you like. I mean look at those fights. Other than maybe the Ranger fight, in which i nearly had Water Attunement back off cool down anyway i didn’t need to dodge. That is my point. Nothing more. Nothing less. I dodge when i NEED to.

Diamond Skin was created with the purpose to try and stop all the condition builds from running pure condition damage, Though it hasn’t really worked. I have had LOADS of times where people don’t know why i am immune to the conditions and have to actually point out the trait.

Once someone goes Hybrid, it becomes a totally different fight though. The problem is once they go Hybrid you might as well not have Diamond Skin in most cases because you just won’t be able to get back above 90% health. Maybe if you are running Focus for the Earth skills but you lose so much more than its not really worth it.

That would be the Necromancers fault, he is getting punished for running the kind of build that is MEANT to get punished by this trait. The moment he decides to even go slightly Hybrid the match would be a very different story.

If the Necromancer doesn’t run Signet of Spite they can be beaten some times without using Diamond Skin but requires other specific traits and skills, such as Ether Renewal – it can be done, but its more often than not defeat.

I have already encountered SO many more Zerk/damage builds that i have gone back to using Stone Heart in some of my fights, though against any ele i still use Diamond Skin. I know my build is countered by it as well, doesn’t really bother me. Rather than saying how it is broken i am making tweaks to my gear to try and see if i can make it hybrid enough to beat it without going too hybrid that the conditions suffer.

i know a few Ele that i duel often. So i just get them to go with Diamond Skin and what ever else they would like to and see what changes i make and see if they work. So far its been hit and miss. Though, i think i will get to a time where its more hit than miss. Just need to find the balance.

It is defended easily as several others have pointed out. Not everyone wastes dodges. If i am in no threat. I won’t dodge. Now you can spam dodges at auto attacks or what ever. Not everyone does that.

I prefer to save mine for when/if they are needed and seeing as how most of them builds were condition or bunker builds, i didnt need to dodge. I don’t run EA so dodging has NO benefit – well other than dodging an attack that would do minimal damage to me anyway.

As for Lightening Whip. So you go into Air, use what ever skill(s) you want and then leave right away? Sure, its not amazing damage but the damage is decent enough and its AoE damage. Hits fast, and means you gain more healing from Signet of Restoration – the more and faster you attack the more and faster you are healed….

You do know without Diamond Skin ele will get crushed by most condition builds right? You would have to go 30 Into water, take Ether Renewal as a bare minimum. Just to MAYBE counter SOME condition builds…

As for The others. Arcane Shield Is normally used around 90% health. Some of the fights i will use it early because when do you think most of the burst comes in? Some of the fights i can’t tell right away what build they are using so its best to be safe than get melted.

As for CC, Stopping them attacking and allowing me to attack is fine enough reason for me to use/try to use it. Sure some times i use it when its not really needed. Though can be great followed up by other skills. PLus when you use Ride The Lightening its good just to knock them down from the start so you can switch and go right back onto the offensive.

I think you will find, Switching to any Attunement every 9 seconds gives me plenty enough Bleeding due to the long duration, plus the Poison as well. Bleeding is nice but its not the be all and end all of Ele conditions. I would have to use Impale 4-5 times to get the same damage as i get from switching Attunements and proccing geomancy. Geomncy is 3 stacks for 16 seconds, every 9-10 seconds. That is very solid on its own. You don’t need to be spamming Earth auto which is rather terrible due to its range and such.

Mister Fluffkin.7358:

ArmageddonAsh, you just don´t want to discuss. 1 word of critisicm for your holy condi build(which isn´t dealing much condis btw) and you simply talk plain nonsense, putting words in my mouth i´ve never said.
Where did i said to random dodge? I explicitly said to dodge “big” animations, nothing else. Because thats how GW2 combat system works if you fight something else than green equiped tanks…

You showed us your gameplay, i critisized that you didn´t dodged a single time, while dodging is without a doubt the basic core mechanism of this combat system, ask any dev! Silly you can´t stand such a critisicm, so it´s just pointless to discuss with you…

I am happy to take criticism to improve my build but you going on about me not dodging is not criticism, it is pointless. I had no need to dodge. I gain NOTHING from it. The damage i am taking in most of these fights is easily healed. Why would i want to waste a dodge on attacks i know are no threat?

That is what you don’t seem to understand. You dont dodge for the sake of dodging or dodge some pointless auto attack. You dodge something you know is a threat. Such as hammer warrior, Backstab thieves. Full condi builds when running DS and Bunker builds are NOT a threat. Thus why would you waste dodges on them? just to not take a few hundred damage….

Also, you think the definition of a condition build is by the number of conditions you apply? My Conditions deal high damage or have a reason behind them. I don’t need to spam loads and loads of conditions. That is the point of my build. High Burning damage (800+ per a tick, no Might) High Bleeding damage, long Poison duration as well as Chill, cripple and the odd Vul.

The point is, you are criticizing something that doesn’t even make sense. Saying i should be dodging more, in fights i was in control and under very little threat. Who does that? Apart from bad players.

Now if it was fights against such a Hammer warrior or a Thief and i never used dodge then yeah you would have a reasonable criticism but to say it in fights that i had no NEED to dodge is rather silly

KieronWolf.5108:

You do know that Elementalist has a minor trait that gives a 10% damage boost when endurance is full, right (With his build this minor trait is active)?

Also, Diamond Skin makes you immune to conditions. If the opponent is running equipment that grants very few power, his direct damage will do nothing and the ele can heal right through it due to his healing signet and high regen up time. Anything that applies a condition will not be applied.

So no, he doesn’t NEED to dodge because there isn’t any threat. The 10% damage boost is probably the better trade off. If the opponent was running a hybrid or power based build. Then yes he would probably need to dodge to stay alive.

That is the point he seems to forget, when facing Bunkers and Condition builds when using Diamond Skin/Stone Heart the damage is SO minor that you can nearly out heal it just by attacking. He seems to think that if you can dodge, dodge it doesnt matter what the actual skill is or even if you need to dodge – dodge anyway.

I have already mentioned that against things like Hammer Warriors or actual zerk/damage builds then i of course dodge but against Bunkers and pure condis (when running DS) you take SO little damage that you have no need to dodge. Even the CC isn’t enough of a reason in these sort of situations because you can be up and back to full health in mere seconds anyway.

Lol, “nothing but excuses” – surely not actually needing to dodge wouldn’t be an excuse. I mean if you play that way spamming dodges (guessing you run with EA as well) that is fine. Some of us prefer to dodge things that are actually a threat – a Condition class spamming conditions with low damage against Diamond Skin is no threat. A bunker is no threat. So why dodge low damaging attacks?

Of course if it something like a Hammer Warrior then of course you dodge, did you see any in my fight? Because i must have missed them…

Oh yeah ranger slime, when using Diamond Skin – that is SO much of a threat – Not. Like i said. You use dodge to dodge something that is a THREAT. If a skill does low damage and inflicts no conditions – why waste a dodge?

You have plenty of ways to get around all of them without needing to dodge…
You have Arcane Shield, Armour of Earth, Earth Attunement (increased toughness) as well as other weapon skills like Burning Speed (Evade) You might like to dodge every time its up.

I prefer to dodge something when needed, even at 5k health against anything bar a Condi class i have ways to get health back up quick, so i can SAVE a dodge for a time it IS needed.

Dodging when you dont NEED to dodge, this is the thing you seem to not be understanding. If you dont need to dodge. You shouldn’t. You mean like using Ride The Lightening and then going into Updraft? Yeah that isn’t mindless button bashing. Sure it would be great if it interrupts but the fact that it gets them down on the floor is what is important. On the floor dealing no damage to me while i can swap attunement, go Fire and burn them, Go earth and lock them in place.

To say that a Knockback/Knockdown is wasted/button bashing if it doesnt interrupt something is rather silly. You dont use them JUST to get interrupts out you can use them offensively as well you know.

My equipment? Yeah i am running No Ascended weapons or Armour. Accessories which pretty much everyone that does WvW has now unless they are very new. So after getting told that Perplexity is the reason i win and now with that gone it is now my gear is the reason? O.o

Your points are pointless and very baseless. You assume that because someone doesnt dodge that it makes them bad, ignoring the cactual fights most of which i didnt even need to dodge to begin with. You can happily spam dodge if that makes you feel like a “good” player. I will continue to dodge what i think NEEDS to be dodged. Not dodge for the sake of dodging.

As i have already said, most of them are either bunker or Condition. That is why so many of them are rather poor when it comes to damage. I do hope that changes with FSP this week, had some good fights with them before.

Not needing or even thinking about changing Diamond Skin all week really says it all about the roamers that i encountered. As for buffs, Nothing i can do. I mean i could just ignore all those that aren’t buffed and only fight those that are….

Also. If you want a neutral environment you don’t pick the one that limits your build, removes all your gear and limits what you can use – Just go to OS or even just duel in the world, i know i have had plenty.

As i have said, this build works okay in S/TPvP but its not an S/TPvP build, the stat difference alone is rather big. Though i have tried doing Duels in 1 Vs 1 servers most seem rather insistent you use the amulets they decide are okay and not the ones that work for your build.

The only real CC people you want to dodge with are either Engineers or Hammer warriors. Other than that it is again not needed to waste dodges on something you know wont have that much of a risk of killing you.

After all, i have NO form of Vigor at all so i have to save my Dodges for the RIGHT time and it just so happened that this week all i encountered was Bunker and Condition builds. No need to dodge a bunker that is doing no damage and no need to dodge a condition build that can’t apply conditions. Of course, this is all just my opinion. Why go defensive when you have no need to?

Yeah that is the point of this game, Show me any part in the video where me not dodging cost me? The reason i didnt dodge, i had no need to. Pretty much that simple.

Again, you think its “nooby” not to dodge, despite the fact i was at very little risk in most of the fights, maybe i could have against the Ranger but in the end, again i didnt need to. You don’t dodge for the sake of dodging if you have no need to. Maybe if i was running EA and i was getting something out of it then i might have other than that, when you are taking rather low amounts of damage a little CC won’t suddenly turn the fight on its head.

The problem is, your criticism is wasted. Not once in any of the fights did i NEED to dodge. That is my point, i don’t dodge just because i can. None of those fights would have ended differently had i dodged. Most of them ended with me being near full health as well.

Sure, YOU might love dodging and rolling around with all your Vigor (i hope) but not every dodges for the sake of dodging. I CHOOSE when and if i need to dodge and it just so happened that i didnt NEED to dodge. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Dahir.4158:

Firstly, condition ele is not as good in pvp as it is in wvw. We lack the sigils/runes that actually make us good, and yes I’ve tried it. Secondly, why should we resort to playing pvp anyway? WvW is way better. If you think the food buff is bad then why does -40% condi duration exist? (I’m sure you’re using +40%, right Ash?) It’s there for a reason so don’t blame us condi ele users for using food buffs.

I have been running my ele as pretty much the same in SoloQ as i have in WvW. It has several problems such as the stats are NOTHING alike, in SoloQ i have about 12k health, that is about 4-5k less than just being in WvW.

That being said, it works well enough. Will it go into professional Tournaments of course not but this isn’t one of those builds i use it to have FUN. Personally, i find WvW much better. The lack of build options the fact that pretty much everyone in PvP is either Bunker or Condition build is rather meh, the lower stats, stat options and such ruin it for me as well.

I do run 40% food, as do most condition builds in the game. So i don’t quite see the point in mentioning that a condi ele is using something that all condition builds use anyway…

As most of our conditions aren’t that high of a duration without them is it kind of needed. Though i currently have

40% Duration for all conditions with Poison and Bleeding having higher duration. No using Perplexity now either so people can’t cry when they lose saying i only won because of Perplexity and people saying condi ele is only good because of perplexity. I do plan on trying out other Condition runesets in the future.

sorrychief.2563:

-SNIP-

yep, i kinda suck at choosing music for my videos :/

Isn’t that what every condition build does?
Though i am tinkering the build again, reducing the Vitality and seeing if i can get some Power into it as well. Against Bunkers and Condition builds nothing will change, it is the zerker and hybrid builds that i need to think about.

Where do you see me kiting? I have to stay 100% melee to continue to deal damage and inflict conditions. I only have things like Updraft and Earthquake as CC, maybe Magnetic Grasp if it decides to work but that is more to stop them running away than anything else and Updraft and Earthquake have INSANE cool downs

phaeris.7604:

-SNIP-

The problem is, Diamond Skin was INTENDED to be like this, i have had loads complain as well and told them, even had a few people i know show them just how easy it is to counter just by going Hybrid.

The problem is everyone seems to think if you go conditions you MUST only concentrate on condition damage. This sort of mentality is what Diamond Skin punishes and is trying to stop.

For example. I have faced a ranger on another server LOADS of times. When they go full Condi they stand no chance and we both know it when they change up and go hybrid it becomes another story and it is me from the start that is on the back foot. I can still win, but i can still lose them as well it is nothing like the current fights where from the opening seconds you know if they are pure condi they will lose.

Though i get messages from people that haven’t even encountered people running Diamond Skin before which i find strange considering just how strong it is especially in WvW roaming where SO many are condition builds.

oZii.2864:

-SNIP-

Yeah, when pretty much everyone i fought last week was running Condi or Bunker i didnt really have the need to dodge which is kind of stupid. I am hoping with the fact we are facing FSP this week that i encounter some more of the zerk kind of builds that i faced before.

Yeah i mean that Thief in the first fight was pretty much downed within 5-10 seconds simply because of all the burst i had. Changing a few things up has helped in the damage department as well like taking the trait for increased Bleed Duration and 5% damage. Combine that with Geomancy, that is increased duration for that and all bleeds and pretty much a near 100% up time on the damage buff. I just have to get better at remembering what skills will proc it when they shouldn’t (Ride The Lightening is a pain is the kitten for this!) As it procs when you use Ride The Lightening rather than at the end which would be great.

I used to run Consi Necro and Condi Engineer, i got bored of them especially Necro which just seemed like all you do is spam marks with staff, auto attack with scepter and use Signet of Spite. The same could be said for Engineer where they rely on Grenades, Bombs and Tool Kit.

I suck at picking names as much as i suck at picking the music for my videos lol

FinalPatriot.8034:

-SNIP-

of course this is down to personal preference, i am not trying to say this is the be all and end all of Ele builds, because we know its not. It is just an alternative should people be getting bored of what other limited builds we had before.

I play it because i find it fun, of course it is more fun when you are actually facing more than 2 types of build which got rather annoying last week. However, as i said i hope that FSP brings back some of their Zerk roamers as i had some decent fights with them last time.

Though the only Ascended i have are the accessories which are now account bound and i got them through WvW vender or Guild Commendations.

Mister Fluffkin.7358:

-SNIP-

Isn’t all builds about “bashing” buttons. Though i would disagree that my video just shows that. Seeing as i have played Ele from the start at Pre-launch other than a few times where i forget what attunement i am in or getting a little lag when i swap attunement i know straight away what skills i will be going for. Is it really “button bashing” just because you are fast with it? (Naga 2012 helps!)

“Basics of GW2 combat” – Tip, if you don’t need to dodge – don’t. That is pretty much it. Why dodge (unless you have EA) when you have no need to? Like i said, i pretty much faced ONLY Bunkers and Condition builds. Neither are much of a threat.

I mean i had a few Ranger fights and i got low, but why dodge when i can go into Water use 1 skill and be back up to 80-90% health? If i was facing a zerker which i am pretty sure none of the builds i faced this week were then of course dodging would be more important.

Its not a 20 level gain, it will increase your character to Level 20. Nothing more.

Mister Fluffkin.7358:

Crazy stuff, you didnt dodged a single(!!!) time in a 8:50 min video. Gladly each opponent seems to run tanky equip without any damage at all…

Its sad, is it not. I have pretty much not used Stone Heart all last week. All i encountered was Bunkers, Condition builds or Condition Bunkers. I think even a few of the Guardians managed to deal more damage to me than some of the other classes O.o

It’s what i hate about Silver league. During one night i saw a group of about 5-7 people taking camps and they were ALL condition builds. It’s been a while since i encountered a direct damage build in WvW. See quite a few in OS duels but i don’t record them.

My latest Video : http://youtu.be/V1VSzi5apCo

Need to find out how to make it so that it takes up the full screen :/

Not seen this myself but a quick and easy fix should this start to become a thing would be just to make all minions/pets on all classes do no damage to gates/walls.

I have won 1-2 against Warriors and Thieves, Condi Mesmer and Condi Engineer and against Warriors and Rangers. My problem is (which happens ALOT) You will start off a fight say 1 Vs 1 or 1 Vs 2 and before the end you will be in a 1 Vs 10….

I had a fight last week against a Ranger and Mesmer. I managed to get the ranger downed but just as i want about to finish Hammer spamming dude came up just bashing everything he had. So knew i had to go

I do have a 1 Vs 2 fight in this weeks, but its VERY one sided. Both running Pure condition builds, me running Diamond Skin Mesmer ran for the hills but managed to get the kill on the Engineer.

I need to venture away from the ruins i think, they tend to either be solo or in groups of like 5-10 going through them to get to another location.

Uploading the video now, should be up in about 3hours.

I disagree with the conditions. We need LESS condition spamming on auto attacks, not more. I personally like Mesmer Greatsword the way it is.

FinalPatriot.8034:

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Finally started the editing for the final WvW tournament video. Hope to have it up either today or tomorrow.

Today… that’s an order!

We’ll see. I have the video and most of the captions done. The hardest part is picking the music

Finally started the editing for the final WvW tournament video. Hope to have it up either today or tomorrow.

Thief – Stealth, Teleport
Mesmer – Stealth, Invul, Teleport
Wrrior – Invul

Mnay classes have ways to make sure they can finish more often than not and i am sure i am missing some, don’t play Guardian or Ranger so they might have some. Not sure about Necromancer either.

I have actually swapped out the Perplexity runes partly due to the moaning i got but also to see if it was really just the runeset that made the build strong – So far, i have found that statement to be wrong.

After changing to Runes of Orr (a LONG time farming!) i have to say i think i like them more than Perplexity. I have 70% Poison duration increase which means near perma Poison uptime from the Runeset and Sigil of Doom, Reaper of Grenth now gives me 5 seconds of Poison every 3 seconds as well.

The Burning, Bleeding and Poison up time i have now is rather insane. I did try 10 points in Fire for even more increased Burning Duration but found the loss in defense to not really be worth it. If Elemental Attunement ever became class mechanic with of course a trait for it to be AoE. I would instantly go 2/0/6/4/2 I can’t lose the points in Water, the 3 point trait is just SO important.

Even without the Burning duration, with all the Fire skills bar one inflicting Burn it isn’t really needed. Having the 20% Bleed Duration and increased damage trait is rather nice as well.

cursE.1794:

dimek.4592:

(efforts/results = efficiency)

Ele must be the most efficient class in the game then

After watching this video, conditionalist looks like a viable option to me. It seems all you have to do is make sure you’re fighting total noobs who are afk as you engage them.

So ignore all the fights where i am attacked first..
Most of the fights are in the Ruins after all, what do you expect. Yet none of them were AFK. Some were semi-AFK sure but does that mean the only reason i won? Of course not.

My final tournament video will be a few days late, taking a few days break from all things GW2.

Finally managed to get Runes of Orr. I now have:

Burning: 75% Increased Duration
Bleeding: 70% Increased Duration
Poison: 80% Increased Duration

Going to give the new build a try in WvW tonight

Littlefeather.8623:

Dungeons are a joke…There’s “certain” ways to run them, you can’t play the way you want to play, if you do than you get the boot. Stacking in a little corner is fast sure, but I’m sure the designer’s did not intend it to be this way. Every dungeon is a burn session and it’s sad, but whatever.

The dungeons in this game are the worst i have played in any MMO….EVER!

Muchacho.2390:

Actually, unless it’s a Thief who just completed a Shadow Refuge, basically no class can get away from me on my Necro. The only exception is a Warrior who saves or uses Zerk Stance after its cooldown is back up to run away. In that case though, I know he won’t re-engage anytime soon, so I just go do something else content with my victory.

I’ve seen many people complain about their Necro not being able to keep people in a fight, and I really don’t know why with all of the chills, cripples, boon removal, and long-range fear capabilities.

I have never had an issue escaping a Necromancer, Though to be fair don’t really need to when they are nothing but a corpse. I can’t remember the last time i had to run from a Necromancer, been even longer since i was caught by one.

EVERYONE knew who would win Silver League. When you allow and seem to promote something that has a NEGATIVE impact on the actual game (server stacking) and allow it for FREE you should really expect this sort of thing to happen.

Until Anet find a way of making it so servers just cant swamp a map take everything in 20-30minutes and lave and stop servers from just blobbing the whole entire time, which has happened with more than just 1 server. Seasons will be pointless.

Then we get into the “rewards”. Rather disappointed (but not shocked) that the reward for the forged weapon, is just a skin and not a very good one at that,. i was personally hoping for another way of getting an Ascended weapon seeing as i don’t have the time or the funds to farm and craft one myself and the RNGods in this game seem to hate me.

Roe.3679:

^ or reduce durations of damaging conditions on power weapons.

They also need to reduce the access to conditions power builds have. Even when its low damage When you have Burning, Bleeding, Chill, Vul and plenty of other conditions on a target it will in the end affect the fight.

For example. I see ALOT of Power Necromancers running and using Signet of Spite at the very start of a fight. Even with no condition damage, the Cripple, Blind, Vul, Weakness and Poison are just too powerful.

Dahir.4158:

Long live the Apothecary stat!

Very much so
I am a mix of Apothecary and Dire myself

maha.7902:

there will come a day when people realise boon stripping exists

Not for every class. Minus the use of sigils.

Dahir.4158:

And what about the classes that aren’t condi? There were some warriors there.

Some, that came very close to killing you. Though the Healing Power and going into Water is like a 2k heal every 10 seconds as well as healing for casting abilities. Though its decent. At one point you went from around 3,500 to more than 6,100 just by going into Water.

Dahir.4158:

Dolores.5471:

I’ve been flirting with condi ele since apothecary gear came out and I can say its completly possible to do it without perplexity runes

Of course it’s completely possible t o fight without perplexity as condi ele. I mean, it’s possible to fight without armor too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COImA-nA4OU

NAKED.

To be honest, its not that you are a condi ele for why you win – Diamond Skin pretty much shuts down ALL pure condition builds.

Yeah, i do understand the need for Runesets you can’t just buy on the Trading Post but i just don’t see the logic and reasoning behind making these such runesets Soul Bound. What would actually be harmful to the game had these been made Account Bound instead?

FinalPatriot.8034:

@Armageddon,

Ok, I tried out a build almost just like yours based upon how you do your play style and I must admit, I’m very disappointed with it. Honest, I went up against 5 people and I didn’t win! Your build sucks!

;)

Actually, it’s pretty darn fun. I used it tonight as a havoc build and it’s a blast!

Lol, You can even go against SEVERAL Condition builds and win with ease. I had a fight with a Condi Mesmer using GS and Staff (strange i know) and a Condi Engineer. Had they not decided to run (i beat them both 1 Vs 1 already) i would have killed them both but managed to catch the Engineer and kill him.

I even went 1 Vs 2 against a Ranger and Mesmer and would have had them both but a Hammer Guardian came a long swinging his hammer so i had to leave but i had downed the Ranger and the Mesmer was nearly dead. I have gone 1 Vs 2 against Warrior and Thieves and won as well.

Condi ele is VERY under rated in my opinion. I do have some ideas on how to change my build a little bit more, just need to wait until i have the Rune of Orr unlocked. I have 1/6 so far and enough tokens to buy another 2-3 Runes.

The great thing is, i didn’t need to actually change my gameplay style. I was pretty much playing a Condi ele, without the condition build but it is a lot of fun.

The problem with the Big world events are that they bug out a bit too often, to the point you have to wonder if they actually test of any of the content before releasing it. Then most of the fights just aren’t fun.

I can’t remember the last time i was in PvE and was in a fight and thought “wow that was cool” most of it just boring. I mean for the first few fights they can be pretty decent but after a couple of fights it just gets tiresome and just not worth doing (for me anyway)

Chaos.2531:

What professions/builds are able to ‘counter’ ( by that I mean that given players with equal skills and equipment quality, one will nearly always come out winning ) roaming thieves ? How prevalent are they ?

Most condition builds can eat them for breakfast. Depending on the Thief build my Ele has ways to handle them. If they are condi they are mostly a walk in the park thanks to them normally being pure condi and not hybrid. Combine that with my Burning, Bleeding, Poison, Confusion, knockbacks, Chills, Cripples and other skills.

The hardest Thief build i have encountered is the Sword/Dagger evade spamming builds. Even then with my high toughness, Vit, Healing Power it wont be a quick easy kill for them, if they even manage it.

Back stab can be countered quite easily just going into Water and then using Dagger 5 will normally have me back up in seconds and ready to go on the offensive.

As for other classes, i would think any Condition build would be able to beat an equally skilled thief if they know what to expect and can predict what the Thief will do next. If you are a new player then it will be much harder.

If the Blackwater Mesmer is still Scepter/Torch and Staff – Diamond Skin. I have yet to encounter a Mesmer condition build that runs Scepter and Staff that can beat me when i run Diamond Skin.

Scepter and Staff have like terrible direct damage when they are pure condi, Not even sure 1300 Power would be enough to counter my self healing enough to get me below 90% health.

The only reason they are the “best” isn’t because they are insanely strong but because when it goes wrong and they know they can’t win they can just stealth and run away. They can be countered quite easily by people that know how to play against them and in that sort of situation a thief is VERY likely just to run away than actually fight to the death.

a t s e.9614:

Engineer is the only class that can 1vX due to kiting and AoE damage. So for fighting its engineer but for roaming in general thief or warrior.

Well, that is simply wrong. Several classes can 1 Vs X. It is more about skill than the class you are. Ele can do it and i have done many times. Though you have to know what fights you can win rather than just going in guns blazing.

Andele.1306:

Fractals ARE the pve content balance scale.
Also WvWvW is even less important than dungeons in terms of balance decisions, one could remove it from the game and no functional content would be lost for any real gamer.

I would say Dungeons are at the bottom. Until they actually make them a challenge without the need for fake and bad design and development choices the dungeons will NEVER actually be a challenge.

The ONLY reason they are a “challenge” now is because of the cheap mechanics that are used to make it actually seem tough. These mechanics are made to do ONE thing – kill you, cheaply. Such as normal boss 1 shotting you when you can’t even see them on the screen, that is just lazy as hell design.

i would actually say WvW IS the end game content, what else is there? You got dungeons with cheap mechanics that are mostly boring as hell and still like to bug out alot. You got terrible world event bosses and then cheap and lazy Living Story content that actually adds very little to the game bar just more farming for stuff that isn’t even needed and mostly just skins.

Then you have Factuals that rather than become a challenge and new as you level up all they do is add new “conditions” that you have to farm to protect yourself against and then have it actually no different than level 1 from my experience just they hit harder. No new tactics, nothing actually new just the same old same old just with upgraded stats.

It’s PvE….It’s not hard. The dungeons mostly just use cheap pathetic fake challenge mechanics like normal mobs doing 40k+ damage in a single hit (heap, very cheap!) the ONLY area where your build might matter is High level factuals. Nothing else.

So you base of the whole value of a class on S/TPvP? what about WvW? I have run my Power Necro build in dungeons, factuals and in WvW and done perfectly fine. This assumption that you need conditions other than a select few (Vul, Chill) is rather strange. Sure it is MUCH harder than just spamming easy to apply conditions on people and watch as they die but not everyone wants that.

My build was a Axe, Focus, Dagger and Warhorn build. Concentrating on DS with Reapers Might, Unyelding Blast and Deathly Precision being key traits i would take.

I have encountered MANY Power based builds in WvW that don’t rely on the typical spamming of conditions that Necromancer (among others) is well known for. They are viable, sure they are more work but not everyone wants condition easy mode.

TatsuKan.5412:

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Why not make the commander tag have “Ranks”. The more you take locations, defend places and such the higher your Commander rank becomes. Instead of loot bags when you rank up you could get Commander abilities or something.

Great way to reward karma train commander…

Well, these “rewards” wouldn’t be gold, loot or anything it would just be upgrading their commander abilities which would make sense for veteran commanders who have been in wars for ages with loads of experience.

These sort of rewards could be ability to see players further away, able to promote “captains” and see them at all times on the map. This could be also increased as they gain ranks to allow them to have more captains

To me, i think quite a few would go with different runesets for conditions if the others were actually worth using. Some are interesting but still a bit too weak when compared with Perplexity.

Torment, Balt, Krait and others could really have been something great.

Balt did get buffed but think it could have done with a 4/6 proc as well. Like a 3 second Burn on hit, 25% chance. 20 second cool down would have been decent enough.

Torment really needs to be buffed. The 6/6 is rather weak. Great IF you get the WHOLE duration off. I would prefer that it was 4 stacks for 5 seconds.

Krait just needs its 6/6 buffed and the cool down increased.

LightningBlaze.4913:

Dolores show me a video of you as a condition ele doing efficiently with burning and bleeding without perplexity runes. These 2 conditions aren’t as intimidating to cause any major win against good players.

By the end of the week i hope to have finally unlocked Rune of Orr 6/6 so i will be able to test to really see how good Perplexity is. I think Perplexity is better /more useful in quick burst condition short fights but, i do think that Rune of Orr could really be quite decent.

I was wondering, would it be ever possible to make Dungeon based Runesets account bound rather than soulbound. Its just a slap in the face when you do a dungeon and get a Rune drop on the wrong character and know you won’t be able to use it on another character