Guild Wars 2

Depends on your class, build, and weapon set ie. skills.

The math isn’t hard to do. The formulas for the differenct types of damage are in the wiki. You can do some testing in the mists and try out everything for free.

For what is most in demand, if popularity is a measure of effectiveness, check out the auction house prices.

For example, there are two sigils that proc might. One sigil on weapon swap gives 3 stacks of might for 20 seconds with a 10 second cooldown and the other sigil on a crit gives one stack for 10 seconds with a 1 or 2 second cooldown. Might affects both direct and condition damage. But, if you don’t crit alot, or swap weapons every 10 seconds, you are not going to get the benefit of that might. It also takes time to build the might up, so the full effect is not noticed for 10 seconds on both. There is much less contribution for short term combat. If you have little to no condition damage then 1/2 the potential of the gear is lost.

In other words, there is no correct answer to your question. There are many different variables and considerations for each piece.

mtl.5921:

DonYawnful.1062:

mtl.5921:

Wolfheart.1938:

PvP leaderboards!

What about for the more pve inclined? :L

Fractals. Higher levels and whatnot.

Man, Fractals it is then.

I am totally the type of player that craves ascended gear >.>

But it could purely cosmetic and that would be fine. I just want shiny hat or t-shirt that says “yup, I did this fractal on the highest level and all I got was this shiny hat.”

I’d be good with that. . .

Lol, you are out of luck. There are many ways to get ascended gear, shiny hats as you say. They are now available thru WvW and Guild Missions.

However, if you infuse them, that shows dedication. That takes alot of mats and is needed to get into the very highest level fractals to deal with the agony resistance.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Infused

magentis must be a new player or he wouldn’t have asked. So, what you also don’t know magentis is that there are not a lot of reasons to rush to 80. Popular dungeons are at levels 30, 40, and 50 and it will take leveling the regular way to those levels to learn your class well enough to be competent. All players who SPvP get scaled to exactly the same abilities and gear at 80 no matter what they are really. All players get leveled to 80 for Wvw and Fractals also, but not in gear and all abilities so there is a penalty, but they are still doable.

IceBlink.4317:

From what I can tell, people use bloodlust over corruption regardless of builds due to well, condition stacks in any sort of team play (even if just two people) potentially being erased by each other (an enemy can only have up to 25 stacks inflicted on it, any surplus wipes the oldest one out of the queue, regardless of who put it on the enemy). So, people would rather up personal damage so they would do better damage. Bloodlust works better when attacking objects too.

Not true. The conditions with the greatest intensity are used. Also, if factors which change the intensity occur during the condition, such as increase or decrease in might, the order is rearranged.

If we did not have attunement swap cooldowns, we would be able to put together skill sequences and combo fields and finishers that we cannot now. The result would fundementally change the way the class is played and its balance. The class would have to be totally reworked.

We don’t have to have to take arcana for attunement swapping reduction. Many players do not.

Essentially you are asking why we have cooldowns at all. heck, lets make every button available at any time. There is no diff if its a attunement or weapon swap or skill or trait or sigil cooldown. They are all cooldowns. Pick your favorite. Start a thread on that. Oh, I guess you have.

Granted I have not leveled my guardian to 80, but in my experience he is in melee combat most of the time. I have seen guardians take a considerable amount of damage over a sustained period of time in Pve, but they stand still doing it, lol, (which is great for confined spaces.) My elementalist has to dodge and roll to evade the damage and is constantly changing attunements, procing combos, and rotating condtions to do well.

The elementalist takes a considerable amount of more work in some peoples way of seeing things. I just happen to like the ranged options of the elementalist and that “work” over standing still or chasing targets to get in melee range, and stand still again.

BlackBeard.2873:

Zelyhn.8069:

Arguably you could say that I left out protection, but well anyone can see its effects, you don’t need calculations for that. On the contrary, it is valuable to have a model that helps measuring and evaluating what your intuition tells you but fails to describe in accuracy.

Zelyhn, I very much appreciate this input, and it is very awesome of you to run these calculations. One thing I would suggest is that you should try to include protection in your calculations as it is an important part of boon duration. In other words, you are currently penalizing boon-duration builds builds that reach higher protection uptime.

To modify the calculations, we say that protection makes
damage = 0.66*(opponent dmg)/armor = (opp dmg)/(1.5*armor)

Where opp damage is a function of power, crit. chance, and crit damage. Thus, the simple modification is:

armor_modified = prot_dowtime*armor_unmodified+prot_uptime*1.5*armor_unmodified = (1.5-0.5*prot_downtime)*armor_unmodified

where armor_unmodified is the base value you are using, and prot_uptime is the percentage of time that protection is up. Prot_downtime = 1-prot_uptime.

From here, you simply plug in the armor_modified where your old “armor” values were.

Conditions have been ignored in the calculations execpt for a Cleansing Per Second notation. It could be argued that because conditions affect all armor ratings the same, it is a constant. But, there is a definate correlation between condition damage, total vitality, health regen, and the ability to eat some conditions with that vitality and regen while cleansing the only most damaging conditions.

One can look at HOT regen and large heals generally as all healing, but what is generally accepted is that HOTs are the best defense against DOTs and large heals saved when needed to counteract spike damage, and only to bring ones health above one two shot etc range. Consequently, the weighted values of the HOTs and large heals vary and are more or less important in different situation.

Against a condition spec’d class or player, an armor value is worthless. Against a direct damage dealer it is everything.

A realization by a player that he often needs just one more condition removal or just 1000 hit points to stay engaged and continue dealing damage vs. retreat is worth more than any series of calculations.

You may recall that the big uproar over RTL was not so much about chasing down other players, but was about escaping from combat because the builds needed to exit stage right. All of a sudden, the glorified damage builds are not (variable) dealing damage. Another variable unaccounted for. Hold on for a second guys. I am off in a corner healing up or dead. Sorry the might we stacked up is Gone! (another unaccounted for variable) Or the reverse end of that, the bunker builds do so little damage they can be ignored.

I have to agree with ARM on this one. Testing in game and making adjustments is the only way to truly evaluate the relative values of all these variables and how they apply to an individual player. If you are wondering, OP, why I seem to have a kitten against your methods, it is because they are fundementally flawed and lead players to false conclusions if they buy into them.

daphoenix.4283:

…….

I think the biggest question is this:
What is the optimal amount of damage traits vs. defense traits for common situations?
We can easily do the calculations to figure out the right mix of precision, power, and critical damage with the right assumptions. But how do you compare that vs. max EHP, and EHP/s? …….

Ah lol. the Holy Grail…for common situation only, oh shoot.

Let’s simply this as much as possible. This morning I went and bought a Coundrum of Malt necklace 126 Pwr 67 Prec 18 Vit 9% Crit Damage to replace Gwen’s Necklace 85 Pwr 126 Tough 9% Crit Damage. Damage vs. Survivabilty. Which is best?

For me I gained 3% Crit Chance, 1% Attack, 1% Health and lost 7% Armor. I don’t have the precise figures here because I do not have them with me. I didn’t intend to post this. I also rounded off lol preferring not to calculate fractions of a percent. I have just shy of 16,000 Vitality so we can rule out spike damage (variable) getting one-two-three shot (variable). I have high Vigor regen (variable)and am above average on the movement (variable)and dodges (variable) anticipating incoming damage (variable), but still get hit of course. My Vigor is dependent on Crits (variable), however, so I have to remain engaged (variable). I run support (variable)often with a staff in Wvw but often without an effective overpowering zerg (variable)so have to often fend for myself. Prefer s/d for pve but can wield a d/d ok. d/d is especaily effective for soloing and duoing supply camps and of course solo and small group Wvw. I prefer Glyph of Elemental Harmony. I only have 15 in water but still can generate alot of regen (variable). I prefer to have a big heal when it is needed (variable)and run with Glyph cooldown reduction for that and Glyph of Elemental Power (variable). I run with the Elite Elemental. Ice is fine in Wvw (variable), but I will also use fire for dps in WvW (variable). I run with Runes of Lyssa so the Elemental clears all conditions and grants all boons on use. I like that alot, except I often use it as a desperate last measure and die before I can cast it (variable).

Common situations? Against what classes and popular builds?

My answer is that I am just going to try out the new necklace and see if I notice much difference in my loss of armor. I’ve been squishier. I found I was forced to take alot more toughness with the ascended items than I had before with crafted items. I was able to fine tune every stat, not anymore with ascended. I use a rule of thumb. Carry only as much defense as I need to survive until I can defeat the other guy the way I like to play. If that doesn’t work, change the way I play and/or change gear. Very scientific

Only 4996 to go Most are pretty easy, just time consuming. Map completion, jumping puzzles, explorers, crafting, special events. The list goes on and on as you can clearly see. Try the jumping puzzles in Lions Arch to start. That should give you, 30 more? Only 4966 to go.

oZii.2864:

ARM.3912:

Wow so you are saying that with more healing power, you heal for more? Great post!

You obviously don’t understand what his post said at all smh /fail attempt rofl

I think he did. He was just distilling the thread down for humor. The fact is the analysis is fun but is not a measure of much of anything. There are so many variables left out and assumptions made that the conclusions lack merit. Combat is so fluid that the value of the constants change during battle which means they are not constants anymore. The OP acknowledges this but then does not, because he cannnot, account for it in his calculations.

It’s all very entertaining but elaborate nonsense. Or, as he said, if you have more healing power you heal more.

For example, his methods would tell us that the elementalists’ three healing skills have a ranking of effectiveness and are constant. Yet, any elementalist knows they each have their uses and all are better than each other under different circumstances and/or builds. Under certain circumstances, they each are also almost entirely useless and have no value at all.

covenn.7165:

People saying GoEP is weak ?! Really?

I can see why its not so strong in some circumstances, but it is extremely powerful in WvW. I would actually consider it borderline over powered in the hands of a good player. Putting a stun break on it basically only resulted in the ele class losing a viable stun break though…

Glyph of storms is useful in earth, but it would be more useful if it could be cast at max range and was more responsive.

I hope it is effective in Wvw lol because I use it there alot with the staff aoe skills. In a situation where crowd control is needed, poping the glyph in water for the chill, followed by frozen ground for a chill, static field for a stun and chill, unsteady ground for a cripple and chill, and meteor storm for dps and a chill would seem to be a solid strategy. Or some variation of that. Sometimes the static field is needed first. Anyway you slice it by whatever combination, it puts a hurt on a group of players offensively and defensively. The aoe nature many staff skills ensures that it will proc often and with the glyph cooldown trait, it can be up most of the time.

The weakness portion of the glyph isn’t half bad in theory and would put a serious hurt on a precision build dps character. Cripple isn’t useless. In fact, crippling someone in a aoe seems like a perfect match.

I don’t see it as a defensive skill for the caster, but as an support skill for the squad used this way.

As a stunbreaker and defensive tool, it is good in situations when i can expect to be stunned and attacked in melee range. For example, when I am roaming or in small groups and can count on being singled out and engaged. The random nature of the proc of one of the conditions is not nearly as important as the stunbreaker in those situations.

VOLKON.1290:

There’s a gear treadmill? Dang, I must have missed it while buying my new amulet with laurels I got for doing dailies.

Lol, that’s kind of funny. I get the daily just from playing the game. It’s free stuff. Before I sign off for the day, I’ll take a look and maybe have to grind out an ore node or two to finish up. Boy is that tiring. In fact, I better go lay down.

Not alot of specifics there, and spvp is all about specifics. Like, what specifically were the sequence of skills used against you by the players who stomped you? For example, if you are targeting an engineer and he has some turrets set up off to the side somewhere having a free shot at you, no wonder you got stomped.

PinCushion.7390:

Staff is pretty great in group play, once you swallow the 20 Arcane Required pill.

You don’t need any special gear, or special build beyond that. Your job is very simple.

If you want people to move away from something you drop Meteor/Ice Spike (and Eruption) on it.

If you want them to stop moving toward something you drop Ice/Air/Fire fields on it (and Eruption).

If you want to buff/heal your allies drop the relevant field near them (and Eruption).

If you want to do aoe damage just dump your damage skills in a large melee, where people can’t really see what’s going on (and Eruption).

Most important rule of Staff Ele. NEVER NOT ERUPTION!

Nice. So true. Players talk all the time about moving out of our fields. In a large battle, there are fields of one kind or another everywhere the opposing player wants to go or be, if the fields are placed well. The elementalist ranged aoe skills are strategic weapons. They deny an area to opponents unless they want to pay the consequenses.

Dps min/maxers will point out that our conditions can be removed, but there is only so much condition removal a character has. For the sake of argument, say an advancing zerg has cleansed an elementalist’s chills, cripples, weakness, and stuns to get to the front line. If he could then cleanse our burns, bleeds and immobilizes, one has to wonder what he is doing about all every other classes conditions, take confusion to mention one very powerful one.

mathras.2450:

I’ve been reading through the forums, and have a few questions.

Firstly, I see that staff is described as a “support” weapon in WvW. I’m guessing that means it’s not viable for solo/small group roaming?

…..

Staff works real well in small group wvw in all ways except one, single target dps and aoe dps that is effective for pvp combat. The cripples, stuns, immobilizes, and freezes from skills and Glyph of Elemental Power are very effective. With a build that grants high vigor and some swiftness, keeping one’s distance is not a problem. Neither is preventing players from running away. It’s killng them that is the issue unless the others in the group are doing that well. So, if I get caught out in the open running and have not switched out of staff, I can survive often, but not be at my best.

Very simply, dps is highest for small aoe and single target in melee range with daggers and this is what is needed in small group and single combat. The ranged aoe is best with staff. The scepter is in-between, combo ranged and melee. We don’t have good ranged single target dps at all.

Whatever build we go for, we have to have condition removal and self healing. Many of our builds don’t have the hit points to eat up conditions and damage like many classes. The is why you see so much water and arcane traits. Even in large groups, we get hit with many conditions, especially if we get up close to the front where we have to be placed to land our staff aoe. The 1600 range is the farthest effect of the aoe circle. To place that aoe circle where it does the most good, we want the mob to be as close to us as possible and that is juicy target range for opponents.

If it make you feel any better, you are not the first player this has happened to.

There is some swiftness available in just about any build. If we didn’t have the “redundancy” as you refer to this as, we would have few options available to us that we would be forced to take for what is a very neccessary ability in PvP.

I run with all the weapons. They are all the way to go. Depends on the situation, the battle, the boss, the party, Pve or WvW, etc. I use one build for all the weapons. I switch weapons in a dungeon and in WvW allthe time and I am not about to waste time retraiting. If you think 12.3 health is pathetic, I agree. I agree because I would die too often with that health the way I play. I recommend to set that to a level you can live with, so to speak.

In other words, play the way you like with what you like and how you like. I for example would not be caught dead with a build designed to stack might. I’ll cast a fire field. Let the other players build their own might! I have better uses for my utilities. Does that mean my Ele is kitten? Absolutely not.

Make adjustments until you get a fit. That is part of the fun of the game, experimentation. And the goal of the game is fun. Well, at least for me.

process execution.8014:

It’s odd really, because the elitist mindset of the guardian/warrior community on these forums has grown far beyond any actual grounding in the reality of the game. The zerker war/grd/mes team composition for farming dungeons is only optimal if your teamplay is also optimal. But honestly, optimal teamplay is quite rare in reality (with the exception of perhaps CoF P1 simply because of how much it’s run).

I main a guardian but recently I’ve been levelling my ele (currently level 53) by pugging AC. And honestly, the versatility of the ele has made the whole experience so much more enjoyable than it would’ve been on my guardian, because when the zerker warrior is downed for the 10th time it doesn’t affect me as much. I can Lightning Flash past traps, demolish burrows with Ice Storm, and pump out ~15 stacks of might to the party without breaking a sweat.

But that kitten zerker warrior, who spent half the fights on the floor, will still come on the forums and proclaim superiority to all other specs. My advice is to smile sadly and jump back in game with the most exciting, dynamic profession in GW2!

Have to agree with you there. I would add the zerker Ele who needs RTL to disengage and heal and who felt that change was a major nerf, never acknowledging the lost dps of his character while disengaged but never failing to lay claim to superior dps. Or the zerger groups whose speed is not based on defeating the content, but by bypassing the content entirely in quick step time, yet claiming it is the dps and skill that, lol, ran by the mobs?

Back on target, I think PinCushion is the clearest, most concise, answer. In PvP, we don’t have the ranged, fast casting, dps dealer we all wished to find. The lovers of the ranged magic user were told we had to become melee dodgers, lol, in light armor. Our ranged dps was a weaker, slower, aoe version insufficient for small party combat. We were told we needed to compensate for our lack of pure dps by providing support and crowd control. This isn’t simply what we expected to find!

Have I acclimated? yes. Do I begrudge those who wish for more? Absolutely not! I am an old D&D kind of guy. Baldur’s Gate kind of caster. My fireballs would wipe towns off the map, friend and foe alike. Now my fireballs are a small aoe auto-attack. Having come from very successfully playing a Loremaster in that other game, I am not terribly unhappy, but I was hoping for the glory days of old.

Zelyhn.8069:

…….I would not say that precision is more important than critical damage. To an extent you are right, but there is no direct link in the allocation of stats between the two, so the ratio may vary and it makes comparison more likely to be inaccurate. Also their effectiveness is interdependent.

……..

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Critical_hit

The table clearly details the direct link between critical chance and critical damage. In many cases the difference is negligible to be sure.

Forestnator.6298:

Baladir.2736:

You can get more of everything, without Celestial gear. The advantage of Celestial is simply the ability to get high amounts of magic find without sacrificing another stat too much. If a player is interested in only in stats and not magic find, he is far better off mixing and matching other gear. That is not to say a piece or two isn’t helpful in filling out a build, but full Celestial? At the end of a build with that, add up all the stats and the total points are simply not there. Magic Find eats up too much.

No you can’t. Pls do math before talking kitten.

Yes I can. I did it long ago. I have every classification of gear on my ele and some of every stat. He is not min maxed. He fits my playstyle having just the balance of toughness and vitality I need to survive. I depend on vigor trait a great deal for defense and built enough crit chance to proc that reliably and in fact also give a proper balance of crit chance and crit damage which provides the majority of my dps. See chart:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Critical_hit

My condition damage and healing power is just where I want it. In parties with condition damage maxed on a target, I still see my condition damage tick.

I was able, with difficulty, to incorporate the ascended gear which does not give nearly the customization options of exotic gear plus jewels.

Balance does not mean every stat is the same lol. That is not balance because every stat does not have the same weight. That is why celestial does not represent balance. I do not want similar numbers for power and vitality and toughness. That does not give my character balance. Critical damage without proper amounts of critical chance is wasted. The few previous posts that claim such cool stats do so only after adding in all kinds of stats from “other” stuff to get to where a decent built starts. Add the “other” stuff into a decent build and the results are much better.

I Have done the math. I know on my elementalist the trade off on condition vs. direct damage vs. critical damage for the skills and weapons I use. I know the dimishing returns and when to stop putting points into those stats. Power, vitality, toughness, condition damage, healing power, precision, and critical chance are not equal stat point to stat point to one another.

I think OP you have completely misunderstood what this and other achievement games are all about. You take a set of rules for a professional event (entry paid for and with real $ rewards) and are applying them to a game for fun which is free btw.

For example, there is no way anyone got the win in the Karka crab toss because, totally by chance, everyone was wiped by the karka roll and the only survivor just happened to be holding the crab. It required team work and people up for fun and laughs.

Another example, let’s ban Messmer portals, btw for guild puzzles and jumping puzzles. All puzzles.

Guild Challenges allow non guild members to compete also and the feature is designed into the game. So, when is a challenge for a guild, not?

Any of the PvP seasonal games that do not allow for teams to enter, just random matchups.

So, when is a race not a race? When it’s for fun. A sack race at the picnic. No, OP , you don’t knock the little girl to the ground to win. Yes, you do fall so she can.

If Anet wanted a real race, there would be substantial prizes.

You can get more of everything, without Celestial gear. The advantage of Celestial is simply the ability to get high amounts of magic find without sacrificing another stat too much. If a player is interested in only in stats and not magic find, he is far better off mixing and matching other gear. That is not to say a piece or two isn’t helpful in filling out a build, but full Celestial? At the end of a build with that, add up all the stats and the total points are simply not there. Magic Find eats up too much.

Jesse.1592:

So running 0/20/0/20/30 and really getting curious about 0/10/10/20/30 now that the new earth trait truly is 10% dmg increase. Now we can use zephyrs for the aura and fury/swiftness while also picking up some toughness and a 10% dmg increase.

What are people’s thoughts? Viable or too mixed to be effective.

Oh amd mainly referring to wvw mix Zerg and roaming.

I won’t assume what the 20 in Water gives you or what you would be losing. If you go 15 in Earth and 15 in water you get Earthen Blast on Earth attunement for a 3 second cripple. Cripples stack in duration.

Don’t forget that condition damage can change after it has been applied by the stat Might. So, if might goes up or down, the condtion damage is changed and the order of the conditions is resorted.

Not that this changes the argument, but…yeah that constant rechecking with thousands of players eats alot of cycles.

Somehow the balance issue has been completely ignored here between player and NPC. Take the level cap off conditions and guess what comes next? Condition mitigation. Be careful what you wish for.

Dafomen.7892:

Legendary = endgame …now thats a good one.

Couldnt care less

Amadan.9451:

…
when raids with ascended weapon will be implemented the legendary weapon will be increased in stats unless of course you transmuted it…
or so i think, they never ever bothered to tell us how it will be handled

Well, I guess thats because Anet had no idea when in panic they introduced ascended items to hopefully prevent the mass exodus of our beloved “stat-grind is endgame” folks without having a thougt out plan other than “yeah, we will introduce more ascended stuff later and then change legendary stats”
Yeah…all planned ahead….suuuure.
And if people really believe the PR stating Anet planned ascended stuff before release then I just nod and smile.

There have always been upgrades in gear, expansion plans, and increases in level caps expected. Legendaries will increase accordingly. What any of this has to do with ascended gear eludes me except that it is the first of many upgrades to come.

TooBz.3065:

On my first run I did queensdale, kessex hills, gendarran fields, hitathi hinterlands, bloodtide coast, sparkle fly fen, mt maelstrom, straights of devestaton, malchor’s leap, and then cursed shore.

When I encountered the Sylvari, Asura, Norn, and Char areas later I had had very little exposure to them, so they seemed new and exciting.

That’s the experience I had. I started a new character with a differenct race and profession and started out in a fresh new starter zone.

In 1v1 PvP situation, defeating an opponent would be difficult with staff. The damage is primarily aoe and short on single target damage and many of the best skills can be avoided. Healing is much better now after the patch since we can now cast Healing Rain on the move and follow with a combo finisher, and I guess staying alive counts as dps lol, but then what dps is there?

Caffynated.5713:

^ auto attacks are almost the only abilities you have that will hit a moving target and they’re all poor damage.

I’m sure you really hurt the grass with your epic eruption, ice spike, lava font combo, but players just walk out of it.

Again, a situation where skills are put to the wrong use and then used to invalidate those skills and indeed the entire class.

notebene.3190:

TooBz.3065:

But to continue in the same region, go to the waypoint in the Godslost swamp and head south though the circular portal thing. (I think it’s Swamplost Haven Waypoint)

This will take you to Kessex Hills. Do the heart here and head east.

To comment further, I disagree with the other posts who recommend checking out other 1-15 areas. You’re already ready for the next zone (maybe a little underleveled). The way experience works in the game, I think it’s more efficient to do content at your correct level. Plus it makes the story feel more natural.

I agree with this, especially if there are two of you and you aren’t alone. And that’s where you want to go into Kessex. If you go in by that town in the SW corner of Queensdale, that will seem higher. The mobs are maybe 17-18 through Godslost.

Agreed. Playing areas level appropiate is the most fun. True you get down scaled in lower areas, but not completely. There is much more challenge doing content at the same levels.

Swimsasa Stoon.8936:

spatial surge (assuming target is at 1200 range) – 348 (2 additional targets in beam)
long ranged shot (assuming target is at 1200 range) – 317 (projectile combo 20%)
fireball – 314
hip shot (with rifled barrels for 1200 range) – 251 (pierces targets, projectile combo 20%)
necrotic grasp – 246 (piercing , projectile combo 20%)
orb of wrath – 224
dual shot (with stronger bowstrings for 1200 range) – 212 (projectile combo 100%)
chain lightning – 203 (3 bounce)
stoning – 185 (weakness, projectile combo 100%)
bleeding shot – 155 (255 bleed, projectile combo 20%)
tranquilliser dart (with rifled barrels for 1200 range) – 130 (170 bleed, weakness, projectile combo 20%)
winds of chaos – 111 (chance of 298 bleed / 328 burn / vuln, 1 bounce, chance of might / fury to ally)
water blast – 111 (370 healing)

Spatial surge hits 3 times with 1,5 second cast time 348 dmg:
(348/1,5)x3=696 dps
Long Ranged Shot (1500 range when traited) 3/4th second cast time.
317/0,75= 423 dps
fireball (Attack speed is 1 attack per 1.4 seconds.)
314/1,4= 224 dps
hip shot 3/4th second cast time:
251/0,75= 335 dps
necrotic grasp 3/4th second cast time:
246/0,75= 328 dps
orb of wrath Actual attack speed is once every .8 seconds.
224/0,8=280 dps
dual shot 2x 212 at approximately 1.19 seconds per attack.
414/1.19=348 dps
Chain Lightning 3/4th cast time:
203/0,75=271 dps (more than fireball even if there’s only one target)
stoning Attack speed is 1 attack per 1.35 seconds.
185/1,35= 137 dps
bleeding shot – Attack speed is approximately 0.96 seconds per attack damage is 155+255=410
410/0,96=427 dps
tranquilizer dart 300 damage every 3/4th second:
300/0,75= 400 dps
winds of chaos ( a bit trickier to calculate) 0,75 casting time:
111+((1/3×298)(1/3×328)(vulnerability,might,fury))/0,75=427 dps +boons and vulnerability.
water blast Attack speed is 1 attack per 1.35 seconds.
111/1,35=82 dps….. there’s a heal though….

So now in order:
Spatial surge (696 dps) mesmer
Winds of Chaos (427 dps+perks) mesmer
Bleeding Shot (427 dps) warrior
Long ranged shot (423 dps) ranger
Tranquilizer dart (400dps) engineer
Dual shot (348 dps) warrior
Hip shot (335 dps) engineer
Necrotic grasp (328 dps) necromancer
Orb of Wrath (280 dps) Guardian

Chain lightning (271 dps) elementalist
Fireball (224 dps) elementalist
Stoning (137 dps) elementalist
Water blast (82 dps) elementalist.

Now you know how they compare.
We have the lowest ranged damage, lowest healthpool, lowest base armor no access to fear, aegis, retaliation, torment, any survivability mechanic, bunker spec and mobility nerfed to bits I thought it was just some whining but seeing these numbers I can’t help but just be very very very very very sad.

*
May I also note that this is after the staff got buffed!

For the beginning elementalist who may be tempted to buy into this argument, consider that this argument is limited to single target dps only.

Fireball is an aoe but is listed for damage to one target only.

Chain lightning hits 3 targets but is listed for one only.

Stoning adds weakness with reduces damage done by just about anything including many bosses to 50% half the time, including now crits.

Water Blast is an aoe heal for about 400+ per target.

Any ele who is attacking with their #1 skill more than accidently is not playing the class effectively.

You can do anything, go anywhere and still face a challenge. Have you done map completion? There is alot to see and many adventures.

Blaine Tog.8304:

…….

I find it telling that everyone thinks everyone else is overpowered. That indicates to me that most people are myopic about their profession, and also that the balance is pretty good in this game. Far from perfect and ANet absolutely needs to continue to step up their game, but hysterically screaming about how UP we are is silly and just plain incorrect.

True to an extent. Keep in mind there are players out there who are arguing for arguments sake, simply parroting anothers view with no first person knowledge of their own, pretending to know so they look smart, simply cannot play the class and think those are the reasons, or are arguing from a different persepctive, the latter being your myopic. However, while I agree with you that the class works well, that is because I have accepted what the class gives me. I can’t fault players who want the class to be something different. They would run into the middle of the freeway to try and stop traffic, while I would choose in this instance to stand by the side of the freeway and wave the cars on. I could misconstrue their actions as futile while they could misconstrue mine as pacifist.

Yes, very nice buff. Shorter cast time, bigger radius of damage per meteor.

People on the forums posting selected clips doesn’t make a case. Accumulated data from testing would and I have not seen any of that.

You will need damage for your aoe but also survivability for your character too. Elementalists seem to be popular targets in WvW. Melee classes will come after us and ranged will target us too. I guess this makes alot of sense, especially given the speed by which they move back out of our aoe circles.

I would recomend Arcane Shield so you can finish channeling your skills and Cleansing Fire for clearing the conditinos that are going to build up during the same. Glyph of Elemental Power has been my third skill for awhile now. Procing Crippling or Chilled on an aoe Meteor Storm is pretty good when you get a chance to lay that down on players in melee combat. Burning and Weakness aren’t half bad either, especially with the improvement to Weakness. Fireball and Chain Lightning are our two autoattacks that have an aoe radius too when our other aoes are on cooldown.

The key is, our range is not necessarily as great as it looks. We want the opposing players in all of our aoe, and that means we have to get up much closer than our 1200 range would indicate. The further the other player has to run to get out of the aoe, the more damage we do and the more damage our front line melee players can do to someone who has their back turned. Getting up closer promotes us as a great target of opportunity of course.

I carry only 15 in water but that gives me W5, Cleansing Wave. Together with Evasive Arcana that is two more condition removals and other additional healing. I don’t underestimate HOTs skills and traits and always have some regen going which adds up to alot over several minutes. I rarely have to stop dps to get out of range and heal. As a matter of fact, using the downed skill Vapor Form is a great way to get to the back line and get half our health back in quick time and that is just how far away from them I often am.

In order for a staff ele to be effective, the dps has to be significant imo. And, to do that best we have to get close and be survivable in my experience. (Having hot keys close at hand for target nearest and target next is something I think you will find very useful.)

Would suggest to the OP that you learn all the weapon sets. They all have their strenghts and weaknesses and tend to compenstate for the other’s weakness. For me it just gets boring anyway to play the same weapons. They each require much different playstyles.

So yes, you can use staff for leveling/pve/dungeons but you won’t always be as effective as when using other weapons.

Yes, you can build for a specific weapon, but there are also good builds that can be used which favor all weapons equally.

Lol. Finally a thread where everyone has a correct answer.

Not to be unhelpful OP, but is your character a glass cannon, a bunker, or a hybrid inbetween? Are you an elementalist, messmer, thief, guardian, warrior, ranger, necro, or engineer? Will your build utilize any healing type skills, utilities or traits? Same for defensive and protection type. Is your build dependent on dodges as in vigor procs? What skill level are you in terms of agility on the keyboard, knowledge of the class and so forth?

In other words, what we kind of do is set up the character the way we like to play or want to try out. Then we put in enough vitality to keep us alive.

Damage significantly increased. Reduced cast time and after-cast times allow more skills to be used in a given time. Off the top of my head I would say 5-10%. Of special note, the increased radius a meteor will hit from meteor storm is a big increase in our aoe. Per the notes, each meteor we see on the screen is now doing damage. I have not verified that with testing. I see an awful lot of meteors.

cheshirefox.7026:

Maladon.5760:

ahah the screenshot you posted is priceless
invader zerg with this poor little asuran in the rain puddle

That is a neat screen shot.

Raif.9507:

Baladir.2736:

XcmGT.3847:

I really like this build, however, you can get destroyed in dungeons if you miss a dodge or stay in too long. I preferred your other version you posted prior to this one, I had more options to heal with evasive arcana…I’m going to add in full PVT gear with Beserk Acc. to see if it off sets the issues I mentioned prior.

/signed. I changed my build and went into the new dungeon last night and really missed my healing. I don’t think anyone can evade those aoes from the cannons on the second boss for long no matter how well they dodge or how lucky they are.

I think this kind of build is more of a PvP kind of thing.

I ran the new instance using a 0/30/0/30/10 build:
Air – Zephyrs Boon/Zephyrs Focus/Fresh Air
Water – Vital Striking/Cleansing Wave/Soothing Disruption
Arcana – Elemental Attunement

and it was fine. Just need to learn how to dodge/stay still during the cannon phase. The thing is don’t dodge unless you have to. Find that little area between the circles and stand still in it and don’t move till you see the red circles again and see that open area and move to it quickly only saving your dodge if you can’t get there in time. I after each dodge I used when I was standing still in the safe zone or even while moving to a new safe zone I would just channel the Air auto attack as 1 channel with Zephyrs Focus will give you 1 dodge.

Nice use of Zephyr’s Focus. Thank you.

Mine seemed to go up, but before the patch. I saw little to no effect when I added Sigil of Accuracy to a weapon, and then one day, boom, very recently, it was all there.

I don’t see any damage being taken by yourself in your log. I also don’t see the burning icon on the golem. I think I know that condition ticks do not show in the log, but was there an initial tick on the golem, when the effect first proc’d?

I noticed the same thing after the patch and cannot explain it either. I have auto-targeting off and promote skill target off, perferring to choose my own targets. In the new dungeon I regularly found my target had switched to a party member.

They have added guild commendations for guild event completions that can also be used to purchase acended gear.

It’s amazing to me how two words, “I know”, can be taken in only the way the OP describes. I can think of dozens of states of mind one can convey to another thru intonation and expression using just those two words. So, how can one attruibute one of those to another based on map chat. No amount of cap lock etiquette and emoticons can simulate true communication, if someone is even aware that is neccessary.

They can convey a simple acknowledgement, a frustration with ones self, a frustration with another. They can be used to end a point in a conversation that has been repeated too often, used to affirm anothers expression of understanding of what we just said, and the list goes on.

I never realized it could also mean, ’Don’t make me feel stupid.", but I’ll buy that for the sake of argument. That could be accomplished by the way the information was transmitted and or received yet still have different meanings than the OP describes. Such as a parent talking down to a child and emphasizing the same point over and over over again and the child wanting to put an end to the conversion. Or, conversely, an adult feeling that they were being talked to as a child and putting, similarly, an end to the conversation. But the conversation did not end, and the OP was blocked. One possible senario anyway. We have no way of knowing.

An ele’s speed boast is an AOE. So, if the ele wants one, everyone around gets one too. So, he could not give one to himself and wait for everyone else around to clear the area before he moves on, or they can wait until it wears off until they move on. The duration of the boon is relatively short.

No doubt the opinion of many would be that a player is selfish in burdening others with the boon they do not want, simply to satisfy his own preferences. On the other hand, requiring that player to do the entire puzzle while staying behind the slower, less agile, players is imposing a play style on that player too. Similar to driving in the fast lane at slow speeds. The seconds it takes for that boon to wear off will rid you of that player as he pushes ahead, a simple solution.

In other words, passively taking no action can have just as much of an effect on another person as actively taking an action.

mercury ranique.2170:

Mauri.1496:

mercury ranique.2170:

If you have completed a map and an update adds a new PoI you do not need it for world completion

That’s not true, it says 98% on my map now that the patch is up and I had 100% on it before the patch. The new POI is currently unattainable it looks like.

My main concern is the other POI that seems to just be “missing.”

Yes it says that, but it isn’t needed
If you got world completion nobody is getting it off you.
This is how the world completion title is being tracked.

The world completion title is being tracked by map completion. Whenever you complete a map the title tracker will mark that as done (and a special completed icon will apear on the map loading screen. If after completing that specifick map a new poi is added you keep that special icon and it will stay marked as completed for the title.
When you have all needed maps completed with that special icon you will get the final reward.

the confusing part is the tracker on the world map. He is tracking all poi’s (and other things) but it has technicly nothing to do with the title, use it as an indication what you need.

I dont think this is true. If you have completed the entire achievement for map completion, “Been there Done that”, of the world, you will not lose it for new poi’s. But, if new poi’s are added before the final acheivement, you will have to go back to maps that have added poi’s, even though at one time you had 100% for that area. At least that is what happened to me.

Essentially, in this game we need to keep moving and dodging. For example, the wiki states distance as a factor, but in many cases the mob will agro on the characters further away for many attacks. The word distance is only in the mind of the mob and even then can be ignored entirely.

In my experience, standing still is one sure way to gain agro.

XcmGT.3847:

I really like this build, however, you can get destroyed in dungeons if you miss a dodge or stay in too long. I preferred your other version you posted prior to this one, I had more options to heal with evasive arcana…I’m going to add in full PVT gear with Beserk Acc. to see if it off sets the issues I mentioned prior.

/signed. I changed my build and went into the new dungeon last night and really missed my healing. I don’t think anyone can evade those aoes from the cannons on the second boss for long no matter how well they dodge or how lucky they are.

I think this kind of build is more of a PvP kind of thing.

Might affects both power and condition damage. The superior sigil affects only Direct Damage which is related to power damage only.

5 stacks of might will increase power damage by 175 at level 80. With the sigil, there is a 10 second cooldown and it gives 3 stacks of might for 20 seocnds. Theoretically you could maintain 6 stacks of might, but in practice you will also only have 3.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Might

As a percentage of your power, that has to be a big percentage, more than the 5% from your Sigil of Force. Plus of course you get the condition damage increase too. You can test the different effects to be sure in the Mists on the practice golems.

Since you do not have a cooldown on the other sigil, you don’t need to worry about sharing cooldowns between sigils.

Cleansing water triggers everytime you grant regeneration. Generosity has a 10 second cooldown to transfer one condition. That is a big difference if you count the regeneration procs you have in your traits and skills, but that is not an answer. Imo it just depends on whether or not you feel you need to have more or less condition removal.