Guild Wars 2

so obviously “when” i get my thief to 80 what should i know about skills and such for getting HP what kind of weapon etc for open world for surviving?

Does anyone know if i equip lets say 6 pieces that all 6 pieces will give duration bonus or the bonuses are a set bonus of having a full set with runes?

Was wondering since heard about all sorts of runes and got 3 more pieces so its about time i start getting runes.

Guys can someone help? what rune should i get for my ele?

Dadnir.5038:

It’s about as ridiculous as the qT guide showing condi reaper as 33-34k DPS and then somehow still not recommending them for most raid encounters.

Come on… repeat after me! “The issue is offensive team support”.
Mesmers drown into support they are invaluable in raid.
Warrior don’t even need to think to grant 25 might stack to everyone and it’s grandma, best buddy in raid.
Ranger add pure dps and precision to everyone for free.
Thief/elementalist have a long history of high direct dps, they are historically good and still have a lot of value, ele being a good provider of usefull fields/bursty conjure and thief the king of trash skipping.
Engi grant more condi damage and don’t bother anyone with non wanted field.
Revenant lack dps but have still some use with it’s boon duration buff and ferocity buff.
The guardian currently hold his own with a good dps and a few usefull utility here and there forgiving it’s undesirable fields.

And the necromancer… is still stuck with undesirable fields, useless (from a PvE point of view) support tools, an abysmal power dps and a condition dps that is highly dependant of ice fields which are undesirable for everyone else.

Guilds that want to speedrun are often on limelight, they showcase their achievement and end up being role model for those that struggle in the end game content. These guilds work hard on their team comp, squizing the best out of all team members to achieve the best result possible. There is high competition for a spot for each classe and when it come to a necromancer that struggle at dps, have inexistent offensive support and lay fields that tend to reduce damage from other more that improving it… well, they can only put aside such a profession.

Players often say that gw2 pve is all about dps. In fact it’s right and wrong, it’s all about how your group can achieve the highest dps possible and for this offensive support is king. The necromancer having a minor dps and close to no usefull offensive support, it’s logical that they are taken lightly.

Anet can pile up as much “condition management” as they want onto the necromancer, this is not a support that will help him to stand out enough to not be ignored in PvE. Vampiric aura add close to no dps, barrier add no dps, revive effect mock the ability of your teammates, corruption are not needed, drawing condition is laughable as team support. This is how a necromancer is seen. If anet’s dev were to just give 1 trait that improve sensibly the team damage on the core necromancer, there wouldn’t be any of those thread on the necromancer subforum.

You are wrong about boon corrupt and condition corrupt, as both abilities are highly useful.You underestimate the power of well of power and boon corruption as both are very useful, especially in tier 2 fractals where you get a bajillion conditions.I actually got a ton of stability from using well of power.Plus:You need to corrupt the stability of the enemy to make boss easier for group, and that is nice.Do you have any idea how many conditions and cripples you get in cliffside tier 2 from fanatics and the enchanters? A LOT!! well of power might as well be a must have since there are so many, and you also get quite a lot of condies as well from underground facility enemies because they spam their ground attack.Plus:Your team if standing near you get lots of stuff from the pulse.Sure it could use a buff but don’t under estimate these my friend.

Personally:What good is shroud if you get cced to death and bursted instantly? and once shroud is down we are sitting ducks.

Also:I’m not so convinced that we will not be focused 24/7 with scourge since the shield can be bursted down faster and it degrades too fast.

Either burst needs to be nerfed so its not so strong as to 1 shot everyone through barrier, or necromancers defenses need to be looked at to be more viable for pvp.

What i see is the build i had:Fresh air is slightly more viable in tier 1 fractals.I was able to move around like crazy, but having to switch between staff and dagger dagger felt clunky.

In some moments the mobility of dagger was better than staff.Dagger for me was especially useful in snowblind because of all the enemies and dodging ice.

Anyone here notice that most of the people you meet in fractals is a necromancer?

A huge chunk of people i meet are necromancers, i even get like 2 necromancers in my team a lot of times.

I don’t know if its just me but boy are there loads of necros in fractals.

I am working on monk rune from ascalon is that the best one?

Ok good PHEW!! i thought they had nerfed that useful ability.I would have been angry at ANET because its needed for dealing with cliffhanger and a lot of tier 2 places.Actually:i think unholy martir could be buffed a bit to eat more stacks would be amazing.Just imagine eating 5 stacks of bleed from each person.

WHY?!!! it was so useful.I could get life force and remove condies from my team in exchange for life force.Where is it?

This ability was absolutely amazing and yet we still have that kittened ability relentless pursuit.This ability was so good when grouped in cliffside because we could turn condies into life force and eat everyones condies keeping them clean.

I got a question how come D/d isn’t meta? i was messing around with D/d and it has fairly good cc and mobility, especially number 5 for air and earth number 5 cc.

hey feanor? do you do D/D?

i like the idea of actually using rise.It would be amazing for the uncategorized level since loads of adds.

Thing is:In a lot of the fractals enemies die far too fast to contribute with epi.First you gotta build dots then cast epi and hope every enemy isn’t dead before then.Casting chilled to the bone and rise for an example you can dps multiple enemies and the pets act as if dots dealing dmg to 1 or more enemies.YOOA is a aoe debuff AND!!! it adds dots.In tier 2 and 3 fractals enemies have stability buffs, and necros are useful at corrupting boons and adding conditions and debilitations.

Granted plaguelands Can be useful in niche moments such as bosses,It might be quite good vs that boss rabid babbit boss in that level where old tom is for contributing to dps on 2 enemies at a time if they are together and def could be used for padding in mai trin “IF” you could get the guy close to mai trin while using it for extra dps.Could be also used on the 3 kitty golems in chaos as well if they are all brought close together for dps.Those kitty robots are also a good place to use Epi, but usually my team is busy zerging 1 down instead of getting them all together.Another place where Plaguelands can be useful is on ice golem and mech suit since you get loads of adds.Problem is:Most of fractals are without lots of adds.A lot of these abilities are niche abilities and i really don’t like how plaguelands has a 2 min cd(1 min 20 sec if built into it) Cd seems far too long for me.

So what do you guys think? i’m finding you are all weaklings and chilled to the bone shout my favorite aoe shout attack since it feels faster for aoeing enemies.Epi is good but in a lot of circumstances i’m finding it less useful for common enemies because they get zerged down by the team in seconds.

My favorite area to use epi is on the ice golem/mech suit and also its very useful when using it on the rabid bunny in that same level where old tom is.

See my issue was:I was trying to solo enemies and ended up dying 99% of the time.I was air/arcane and tempest line with tempest shield fresh air build(not bolt to the heart) and i went with earth line for extra defense.

I was messing around with dagger/dagger build using earthquake and wind attack to knock down enemies and run past em.

meh 80 seconds seems too long even when traited.30 sec would be awesome.

I was messing around and their survivability is a mess.

I was doing everythign in my power in maguma and i was getting frustrated i died like 21 times and got like 11-12 monster kills.They are sooo squishy and i had earth build, i mean jesus.

Give their protection and downed state some serious survivability buffs please?

Just tested someting.So i can actually wield fiery greatsword change to fire use tornado then air ele and use overcharge air, this is AMAZING!!! i can actually get stacks of might.No wonder you guys recommended this.

Plaguelands sucks.I tried it on pof demo and it has a 2 min cd, and thats waaaay too long to be useful.

I think i get it.Overcharge fire gives 10 stacks of might, so if i do that first i would get a nice damage bonus, and if i combine that with say all the other fire attacks i do really good dmg.

There are a few things that have been bothering me:

1:Qtfy on fresh air build says after i use overcharge air and the lightningstorm sigil, i should go and use meteor then summon fiery greatsword.Is there a reason for that?

2:Lava font to be useful has to be reapplied every 15-20 seconds to get most benefits on bosses.

3:Overcharge air would be up again by the time you cast lava font and meteor shower spell.

4:meteor shower would be less useful on smaller targets, so it would be less worth casting?

5:why fiery greatsword over ice bow?

I got more to ask guys so bear with me:

Qtfy says that i should take summon fiery greatsword and according to what i saw the fresh air build is, it says:Go use overcharge use lightning then use lightningstorm then go fire throw meteor use lava font then go fiery greatsword and then back to air ele charge.Wouldn’t you have to constantly apply lava font for it to be useful? I am messing around with fresh air build and right now my luck is far too low at a whopping 17% critical hit chance.

So i was wondering:I heard that orvercharge air was nerfed, so is fire now more worth getting?

Right now i use staff and fire ele and keep lava font while throwing fireballs at enemies and using firestorm sigil to keep dmg on as long as possible, or does air still do more damage?

Qtfy says according to it that some raids are better with fire/arcane as that is where i got my build.

To be truthfull, necro is kittened outside shroud for escape and stability.Once you are out of shroud you are as good as dead when a thief or warrior burst you down instantly.I can’t wait till scourge comes out.I am hoping that it will fix this problem because boy is it frustrating to be instantly killed and camped by others due to how vulnerable they are.

DeceiverX.8361:

Flow-

You just really don’t get it… SoS is and was a better trait than Soul Marks or any staff-using power reaper outside of hyper-organized sPvP groups. The shroud flickering and movespeed which cannot be corrupted, stripped, stolen or removed in any way, shape, or form were what made the trait actually worth taking.

The only buff it has now is when flickering shroud for non-shroud movespeed. But that’s pointless because if out-of-shroud movespeed was super important, you’d run warhorn or SotL instead; both of which were very potent in their own rights.

I also ran axe before it got buffed so there’s no need to lecture me. I actually ran SoS + A/D + GS before people started moving from Soul Marks and before any of the kits were buffed because they have amazing potential when played well. If you really want to go digging through my hundreds of posts since HoT, you’ll find me saying that and a large number of people (who since moved to A/D + GS + SoS disagreeing with what I had to say. I tried staff for the initial few weeks of reaper, and while silly when comboing SS into Chillblains’ poison field for 24 poison stacks, it wasn’t very good.).

I think OH dagger is just as good in a majority of settings. The higher cooldowns and ease-of-dodging marks (which have longer cast times, more obvious tells, etc.) isn’t worth the tradeoff. In a larger group fight or heavily-organized one where the necro is babysat? Sure, it’s a good kit. But are the gains really oh-so-strong? Not really.

GS is the better PvP weapon over dagger. It almost has been from the beginning. AA chain 1/2 and Nightfall/Grasp make the kit astonishingly strong. Gravedigger is absolute garbage, but a power reaper shouldn’t be camping outside of shroud any longer than necessary to a few essential GS hits.

CtD gets overridden by the Signets of Suffering trait necessary in conjunction with SotL for the movespeed bonus. I typo’d the trait out of it. This occupies a trait slot replacing CtD as well as a utility slot which could have previously been swapped into depending on matchup or environment (Cleanse/Stunbreak are obviously very much necessities in a power reaper build, a typical “best combo” being Suffer and SA).

You consistently seem to fail to recognize the merit of the old SoS movespeed bonus, which is why CtD can’t realistically be traited since an aggressive power reaper depends so much on the movespeed from the Signet trait: It cannot be removed. A power reaper/thief matchup used to be fairly winnable – if not easy depending on the thief’s kit – unless the thief was astonishingly good at abusing Daredevil (and often needed to also be running Acro for HtC due to GS’s capacity to CC-lock/instakill a thief with one well-placed and well-timed GDarkness+shroud combo). Swiftness can and will be stripped, stolen, and corrupted. By every profession. It only takes an interrupt and the right sigils and it’s gone. Or a thief stealing with BT or LS which now out-paces you by a huge margin without the swiftness (also, S/D thief was buffed and is run much more often now, so good luck maintaining it), or a mesmer with GS3 which is already at range and probably running chronomancer, or another necromancer turning it into cripple from any number of corrupts (such as scepter AA) and laughing as you get ganked and can’t even play catchup.

It is a shame, I’d love to duel you. I can’t actually recall a time which I’ve lost a fair fight to a power reaper running staff; they’re normally just free kills.

I would probably never use dagger.Melee dmg seems real weak, and there is few options to cc or stun or add swiftness on the dagger to make it more melee friendly.

Personally I would definitely go with speed of shadows as the go to ability.Swiftness can be corrupted but you can instantly get rid of all movement impairing disabilities while in shroud, and a second life bar.This adds so much defense that its non tradeable, especially since stability is a huge issue for necromancer.Signet is a good choice to get probably, combined with warhorn.Not sure if both can stack.

Really? i was using qtfy build which seems solid.

The plan:Use fireball and lava font because of fire attunement lava font for main dps constant dmg and use meteor if its a big target then back to lava font again.Oh yeah ocasionally use firestorm since glyph of storm.

Is that unadvisable then?

I changed to staff and was spamming fireball until enemy stopped then meteor shower then lightning and overcharge lightning then back to fire and cast meteor again.

I don’t know if this is recommended or not.It works on immobile targets, but mobile targets move out of meteors range, leading to zero dps.Also:If you are in a mobility required part of fractals, you cannot do that.

I was trying it out with vulnerabilities not noticing anything, did you guys try it out and notice any difference?

I was actually thinking of getting marauder gear for my ele.I was even directed by my guildy towards quantify for a build there, and i was asking around since some of it is directed at raids.I was told my guildy uses berserker and i argued marauder might be slightly better due to combination of vitality power ferocity and precision.

Also:Dagger attack 1 is absolutely terrible.Dragons claw has terrible range and you would be dead if you get that close to a enemy while dpsing.I feel like that first attack needs to be buffed.

So wait:Condi Eles are kittened in pve outside raids? So what do you go for for pve solo? dagger focus? I said dagger focus because of onyx skin thing from earth which gives you protection.

mygamingid.5816:

Axl.8924:

From what i’ve seen i’m starting to get a grudge playing a ele.Maybe having full condi gear but its beyond frustrating trying to survive and getting downed instantly and then using mist to move a few feet away and still die instantly.

This class just feels so squishy and weak that it becomes a chore to get Hero points. I’m not even sure how people can stand tangled depths with all the billions of adds and low dmg.

It’s difficult to talk about Eles, because many players think only in terms of raids and the Raid Meta, where damage is avoided mechanically, buffbots take your offensive performance to otherwise-impossible levels, and someone else provides your heals. The Raid Meta is “meta” only to the extent you raid or otherwise run with the buffbot trinity. In raids, a glass cannon Ele is the most efficient build. Outside of raids, it’s heavily dependent on your capabilities and preferences.

I would expect players to get frustrated playing a Raid Meta build in expansion content without Raid Meta support. GW2’s expansion content isn’t anything like raiding. It requires something closer to a WvW-style build. You have to damage your opponents AND sustain. The Raid Meta doesn’t care about any of that, because it isn’t relevant to raid content.

So the problem isn’t that the player is bad or the class is bad, it’s that the build is being used outside of the context it was built for. No buffbots = no Raid Meta. For example, Berserker’s gear and a crit-reliant build (Sigil of Air, Scholar Runes, High Ferocity) is great if you have Spotter, Banner of Discipline, and 100% Fury uptime. If you don’t have those boons, you’ve brutally nerfed yourself. So what do you do?

Ignoring the defensive side of things, a condi build removes reliance on critical hits. You don’t have to worry about Scholar rune uptime, either. Spec the Fire trait line for Might (1-1-2) and you gain a ton of self-sufficiency. I like vanilla Fire/Earth/Arcane, but am considering Fire/Earth/Weaver. Earth and Arcane both have some nice sustain traits that will keep you up longer than a Fire/Air/Tempest, too.

You like to raid on occasion? Good news! Condi Ele is meta there, too. The preferred build is Fire/Arcane/Tempest. It’s just a good choice to make right now.

I was told to go power for Ele, hope i wasn’t misinformed.I also get the feeling tempest feels so much more of a support than dps.Every single thing buffs people and or gives them protection.Even the overcharge lightning offers support.The class feels like it has more potential to be a support class than healer druid in some instances, like:Giving everyone protection swiftness etc, and we do it amazingly well if traited.

I also get the feeling i’m probably missing something about some build somewhere because one guy said he could survive d/d or D/f i forget what it was with tempest.

Right now only thing that i’m worried about, is practice.I can’t even prepare for getting gear yet because the new build isn’t out and who knows what stats i will need or how good power will be as weaver, because it isn’t out.

From what i’ve seen i’m starting to get a grudge playing a ele.Maybe having full condi gear but its beyond frustrating trying to survive and getting downed instantly and then using mist to move a few feet away and still die instantly.

This class just feels so squishy and weak that it becomes a chore to get Hero points.I’m not even sure how people can stand tangled depths with all the billions of adds and low dmg.

I notice that the final boss throws a lava ball and does a explosion thing which will down anyone who gets hit by it.

One thing i noticed is:If Ele is downed he is as good as dead.There is zero chance of surviving once a ele is downed.I feel other classes have better chances.Rangers can have their pets heal necros can fear Eles can mist away for a short distance and then hope its far enough usually leading to not being far enough and die.

Dadnir.5038:

If you intend to play scourge you’d probably better spend your money into vitality (at least if the scourge shroud skill stay with a fixed LF cost)

Wouldn’t it for safe bet best to combine 2 pieces of gear?

He will def need some vitality but he is going to need a lot of expertise if he goes condi.Granted those sand shades grant expertise but isn’t he going to need more condition damage and expertise than anything else?

GW2 is not allowing me to select the area to install and i’m forced to rename gw2 setup.exe to GW2.I tried from the site and its the same.I had to go and rename the file and install all the files of each zone manually which is a pain.

How would it be viable as a support class to help scourge necros? i’m not great with thief but i saw a guy say in this forum that its possible for a renegade thief sniper to be helping a scourge necro so it makes me wonder:How would you build a support thief for team support in speed and stuff?

I dunno if its me but on my ele i’m getting destroyed by veteran enemies and champions easily.Granted i got a lot of condi gear but wow this class is weak pre tempest.

Now to get elite spec and find a good build to survive

question:can the lightning bolt or any other stun interrupt the warrior and guardian spin attack?

So many good interrupts such as knockback

Its just that it feels like a pretty strong spec fun to use, especially in pvp.It wasn’t much of a criticism just feels amazing.

I am just wondering because i am having a really easy time stomping people and chilling them and especially if they are trying to escape.

Eles seem nuts with tempest on how good they are.

Asur.9178:

There’s a difference between a choice and a necessity. Some people responding here have not realized that yet.

If you play a deadeye build with renegade sniper you won’t have much survivability.

I think i’l get zerker stats then.

Can i ask you guys something? WHERE DID STEAL GO?

I was with thief on beta testing out renegade and i didn’t see steal anywhere.

Also:Personally i went shadow skill for stealth as thief without stealth and getaway and a rifle is dead.I had shadow trap(Stealth one) the tripwire and that renegade one.

I’l be honest, i didn’t play much on beta the ranger, so i can’t say much.I actually don’t even remember if there was a new weapon.Only thing i remember, is we had some kinda binding with our pets to get their abilities.

As for weapons:

Longbow
Sword/axe

So i can go power precision ferocity and be ok?

So i haven’t been paying that much attention to the new ranger build, but with the next expansion on way, will stats for pve be the same?

I’m about to start focusing on getting my ascended trinkets for stats so i can do fractals and start getting decent stats.