Guild Wars 2

I agree on making signets or other utilities stunbreaks but with the way signet actives and some of the passives (cough air cough water) are now….

cantrip stunbreak > signet stunbreak

Even if signets were made into stunbreaks no one would take them because t the actives are lackluster and redundant. (Not to mention that they can’t compare to the defense a cantrip brings)

Eles already have huge access to burning no need for a fire signet that is single target.

Scepter lightning #3 is an instant single target blind on a 10 sec cooldown + Evasive arcana dodge roll in air for aoe blind every 10 sec + The ele surge trait with arcane spells in air for instant blinds aoe and single target that auto crits no need for air signet.

Good access to chill + ele surge trait etc. no need for a water signet that is single target.

Immobilize with dagger #3 earth + ele surge trait etc no need for an earth signet that is single target.

Could you imagine how awesome it would be to be able to choose an aura you apply based on the situation regardless of wep set. Now imagine this new function being applied with traits like zephyrs boon, elemental shielding, and powerful auras. That to me screams versatility.

Day dreams about a 0/10/10/30/20 build with perma group fury, protection, swiftness with insta group auras of all flavors for any situation.

Daecollo.9578:

The funny thing is, they left the necromancer’s version AS IS, its still infinite range teleport back.. and they are getting a huge sustain buff soon.

Dude…..

Are you really comparing necro mobility to thief mobility…….

I don’t even…..

:^{I

Was messing around with signets and I thought to myself:

Signet active effects should be instant cast and instead be auras associated with the element the signet belongs to. (excluding restoration)

For instance:

Earth Signet active > Magnetic Aura 3-5 seconds
Lightning Signet active > Shocking Aura 3-5 seconds
Etc.

Remove Fire’s Embrace completely
“When you activate a signet, you gain a fire shield for 3 seconds”

If something like this were implemented not only would signets become more attractive in general but signet aura builds would also become a lot more practical IMO.

……………..
At the very least rework Fire’s Embrace so that it applies corresponding auras as a secondary effect along with the signets main effect.

Swim.6830:

Myrmidian Eudoros.4671:

Swim.6830:

It’s not every other class. It’s the classes with build in evade in their abilities that probably made you make this thread… such as thieves and rangers.

and Mesmers and Guardians and Eles

You misunderstand. Guardians don’t have an ability that evades in itself. Same for Eles.

Ele: updraft

It’s nowhere near ranger evasion just correcting you.

hackks.3687:

KrisHQ.4719:

I STRONGLY encourage everybody to try the new Dragon Ball Arena when the foodbuff bug has been fixed.
In there you have absolutely no vigor or other sources of endurance regeneration other than the standard.
If you have been playing PvP for as long as me or even longer, you will quickly notice how much you’re actually dependant on vigor in regulalr pvp.
In Dragon Ball you actually have to use your dodges wisely, and I often find myself spamming the dodge key, because I just randomly used them as gap closers or for similar sillyness.

unnecessary. just play a Necro. you’ll either learn to choose your dodges wisely or rage quit.

LMAO exactly this.

I’ve been playing a decent amount of necro and I’ve realized that deathshroud alone is a terrible defensive option in comparison to actual damage mitigation like evades, invul and mobility (ANET IF YOU ARE READING THIS GIVE NECROS A REAL TELEPORT….DS#2). Regardless even with the lack of dodges and oh kitten buttons I’m finding it a lot of fun.

P.S. I now understand how frustrating it is when someone randomly dodges your corrupt boon especially when you aren’t even NEAR them OR ATTACKING them.

P.P.S. Asura necro d/d is the most gangster thing in guild wars 2.

Replace mortar or elixir x with a portal gun kit.

In regards to hgh engi in a team fight grenades are not that difficult to land. In a 1v1 or 2v2 at ranges other than melee it get’s pretty difficult due to hang time. To effectively land grenades at range requires you to be able to predict and control your enemies movements. You also need to make sure to prioritize landing certain grenades over others to increase effectiveness. Imagine if shatters were ground targeted and utilized one clone at a time for aoe damage. Shatters would be easy to land in melee/ teamfights but would have issue at range (without the immobilize from sword 2 of course).

Also the only utility your wasting is elixir b which is supposed to be used for your benefit much like warriors signet of rage. In regards to the elixirs on the tool kit you can either preserve those for condi cleanse or for the might stacks as well as RNG buff which is the intended purpose of the build. No Engi in their right mind wastes elixir r or elixir s (weather in the tool kit or stun break solely for more might stacks). Couple all this with the fact that you are vulnerable to burst, boon steal, and can be overwhelmed by mass conditions leaves an impression of a high risk high reward build.

So yeah…grenades are not that easy to land consistently.

Noince.7364:

Arheundel.6451:

Noince.7364:

Arheundel.6451:

6 stacks of confusions…can deal 24k dmg in few secs if not paying attention

Do you even play Mesmer? If you did…you realize you just made a fool of yourself.

Do you even play other professions?
Rabid amulet mesmer- 350+ confusion dmg -ele caught during rotation with EA trait- bam 12k dmg in 2s due to those 6 stacks of confusion.

I know mesmer players just dodge and press F1-F2 given that those aoe shatters got almost the radius of meteor storm while being instant..but at the very least you could learn what your profession does…sigh these fotm rerollers…

From 24k to 12k. You halved the value. Ok. But no, not now. Maybe in WvW before the nerf (Confusion does half damage in both spvp and wvw). But CURRENTLY, there is no way in hell, 6stacks of confusion will deal 12k damage. And shatter radius is melee range around the explosion, so no, not chaos storm radius.

You might as well just say you weren’t paying attention and stood still for 2s inside 100B. Cause that’s what you’re saying spamming enough skills per second to clock 12k confusion damage from 6stacks in 2s.

Just to clarify he’s talking about the individuals fire balls from meteor storm not chaos storm. Also with 50% reduction in pvp it would be very rare to be able to receive that amount of damage in the duration of 5 stacks of confusion alone. I could only see that being possible if lets say a d/d ele was spamming through rotations or a ranger was autoattacking with quickness failing to notice the debuff.

These ideas have probably already been suggested but w/e:

Dancing Dagger: Lower initiative cost by 1 initiative. Raise cripple duration to 8-10 sec.

Cloak and Dagger: Apply 10 stacks of vulnerability for 5 seconds. (3 stacks always seemed so random to me)

Death blossom: Increase base damage to around (3x) 400.

@ Jportell

Winner of worst condition removal goes to warrior

: ^ I

@ TRON

So you feel like a warrior O.o?

avoid mindwreck
interrupt/blind/avoid phantasm summoning spells in general
avoid illusionary leap

avoid dragons tooth
avoid melee range when ele applies shocking aura
avoid burning speed
avoid rtl (usually leads to updraft and if it misses ele cant run)
avoid firey greatsword whirl and rush

avoid heartseeker at low health
avoid cloak and dagger
avoid infil strike
avoid L strike
avoid? steal

avoid sleathed jaguar/ popped signet of wild/hunt and sick em.
avoid traps

avoid magnet
avoid bombs

avoid bolas
avoid arcing arrow
avoid combustive shot
avoid kill shot
kite when utilizing frenzy

avoid marks
avoid deathshroud 4
avoid lich form autoattack
kite plague form
avoid dark pact
avoid wells
avoid flesh golem charge

Off the top of the head too lazy to continue

So you want a counter to counter the counter against bunkers? For the most part these thieves are still squishy they die just like anything else just in a less stealth like manner. Bunkers on the other hand can’t kill anything so…yeah countered.

f you want a sort of boon dealing machine as opposed to a boon stealing machine look to the mesmer maybe O.o? Chaos storm as well as full runes of lyssa with signet of inspiration to cover for you? A little nullfield play to quell the thief and his stolen boons? Maybe a arcane thievery > signet of inspiration combo to reapply those stolen boons? Trait for boon removal on mind wreck to eliminate the boons on the thief completely? This could quite possibly be a reason to run a double mesmer comp maybe? Mesmers peels for the guard with moa and such? Guardian feels like a warrior now? O.o

The most realistic strat you would probably use out of all that is the chaos storm on top of guardian to get some breathing room as well as a short application of short lived boons that are essentially useless in terms of stealing. Null field could find some play maybe?

But yeah Aoe/Dps/Focus fire is the counter to counter the counter against bunkers. That or buff mesmers boon stealing/elimination/application abilities even moreso.

@ OP Engi stealth is possible albeit limited. Using bomb kits # 4 and utilizling blast finshers. Overcharging flame turret to produce a smoke field then blast finishing into/ self detonating the flame turret and even the cloaking device trait in the inventions line.

Apparently from what I’ve heard in beta Engi used to be able to attain stealth periods that rivaled thieves but since then nerfs have been applied.

I would advise you to be a bit more patient with the engi. If after some time you still cannot get into the class then look elsewhere. I chose engi/ele/thief over mesmer because i prefer a more active playstyle over a passive one. While Engi’s sat first seem to be lackluster when fully realized we are nowhere near useless team fight wise. In large scale were still looking for a niche but in small scale fights we can be pretty ridic.

Engis have access to:
Stealth
Water fields (quadruple water blast finisher possible while playing solo. A Well cordinated team can go higher)
Most CC in game
Able to provide boons (RNG…) as well as cleanse condis
Access to almost every condition/boon in game
Rival Eles in amount of blast finishers
Ability to self ress or auto ress others
No rotation/ Unpredictable
Great Debunkers/chokepoint fighters/bunkers
Access to varied range weapons from 1500 (traited) to 130 (looking at you toolkit ;D)
Great at creating diversions (hard to ignore all that CC)
Supply Crate: The GG of small scale combat (also a blast finisher…use your imagination…)
The list goes on.

Edit: ^ All this is what makes it fun.

The reason I find Engi down state weak is:

1. The damage from #1 is nothing to write home about. In a downed fight vs any class at around the same downed hp you will lose. You cant even use the #2 as a means to interrupt downed players and if the downed enemy isn’t near you #3 becomes useless as well.

2. Both interrupts from #2 and #3 can be mitigated through blind, invul, stability etc

3. Engi #2 has an obvious tell and cast time like Warriors #2 and in some scenarios even misses through “obstruction”. So even if you wanted to use it for “support” you have to risk a hit/miss or just get mitgated by step 2.

4.(Personal Note) When downed as an engi I have never felt more hopeless. I could have been playing like a pro during a 3v1 to then finally get downed and now I’m just reduced to being your kitten. The enemy knows it. I know it. Its rather humiliating.

Enemy downs Engi

Enemy: So much for that. If it means anything you were rather annoying (smirk).

Downed Engi: YOU THINK THIS IS OVER!?! TASTE MY GRAPPLE HOOK FIEND!!!

Engi throws grapple hook but misses due to “obstruction”

Downed Engi: …

Enemy: …

Enemy: LMAO

Enemy stomps the Engi

Back at the waypoint

Engi: Fml….

TheOneNOnlyGeneralBama.9586:

Our turrets are fooled by everyone , they shoot at what exists and what don’t. Remember that.

….This thread made my morning.

Ele down state is only good in certain situations. Like with a team or an ally. In solo situations (away from tower doors and water) it can probably be considered one of the worst downed states in the game. The downed damage #1 isn’t anything worth mentioning and the #3 is rather useless.When an ele goes down solo it’s gg. Teamfights are another story. When a mesmer goes down solo or even in team fights the confusion in combination with the teleport plus phantasms is something to be wary of.

P.S. Engi down state is terrible in both team fights and solo. When you go down it’s always gg. Warriors as well to an extent.

azuzephyr.7280:

wads.5730:

people that think mesmer downed state is bad is either

1. new to game
2. bad at game
3. only PVE and bad at it.

It is factually and empirically the worst downed ability amongst any profession within GW2. Now, although your post lacked any form of evidence or credentials, here’s why you’re wrong;

Every other professions’ stomp-blocking downed ability requires an application of stability, stealth, blindness, block or a teleport in order for the stomping character to counter the stomp-block. Unless it’s a Mesmer. The only thing you need to roll the Mesmer’s attempt at stomp-blocking is to cancel and then recast the cast of stomp when they begin the animation for using decoy, this causes them to reveal from stealth before your cast finishes, bam – you have your stomp, no stealth or stability required, easy access to any profession/any circumstances.

Engineer says hi.

: ^ I

IMO there really is no best 1v1 build when it comes to engi (One of the reasons I like the class). It’s all depends on what works for you and what you enjoy playing with.

That being said. For roaming solo play I like to roll with p/s, bombs and elixir gun.. I use rifle barrels trait for elixir gun 1200 range for an actual long range option. Stunbreaker may vary.

P.S. using smoke bomb to stealth on thieves is priceless

Ryan.8367:

Bunch of whining kids who have a class that has the easiest learning curve in the game , the best condi removal in the game, the best healing in the game next to guardian , the most escapes in the game next to thief , and some of the best aoe application/fields you can give to a group next to ranger’s water healing spring field and are complaining.. Utterly ridiculous. You guys have absolutely no idea how well you have it made and you guys are crying like little babies.

You guys are ALMOST as good in playing the victim game as thieves and guardians. Keep it up.

Jesus christ

Play 30/30/x/x/x easiest build by far. Just yesterday I had a 1v10 with this build. Health didn’t even drop below 70%. After the massacre I took on an incoming zerg. Was able to down half before another zerg came in to contain me. I’m telling you man 30/30/yolo build is so OP and so easy its ridic. Did you know the number 11 grandmaster fire trait has a 50% chance to instantly kill opposing players IRL I don’t even know how this trait wasn’t nerfed by now. IMO it should be reduced to 25%. Hopefully then well see some real balance.

There’s a thief guide on youtube by Rainythief. Alot of it is a bit outdated due to the nerfs and such but his channel has interesting stuff ranging from build concepts to the role of a thief. Not so much pve oriented.

Conncept.7638:

Copenhagen.7015:

In pvp Engineer is one of the most common classes.

Because of a single skill – grenade kit.

This

15 char

With gale you don’t have to face target

no particular order

- The feeling of flowing through attunements in combat. You totally feel like you control the character.

- The ele’s ability to be able to synchronize with other classes through combos/supportive abilities. (Example d/p thief drops a smoke field. Ele evasive arcana earth rolls into smoke field for aoe stealth mid combat.)

- The creative combos available especially when using the elemental surge trait. One of my faves is lightning flash → burning speed —> double arcane. Or scepter auto attack in fire→ start fire grab animation → lightning flash mid fire grab → use arcane power(optional). If conjures worked like engi kits the amount of self combos would be so fun ^.^

-The animations

- I like that the class is based around being the jack of all trades master of none. Although I still miss the old RTL the nerfs have put the class more in line with its philosophy.

Mixing and matching armor sets as well as dyeing always helps in making a unique look. You should check out some of the looks people make in the mix and match armor thread.

Arheundel.6451:

Yeah^^!
Thank you for the suggestions, I was finally able to defeat a s/d thief thx to signet of energy and renewing stamina, using a hybrid scepter build 0/20/0/20/30 with 40 crit dmg and 20 crit chance, and lightning strike on crit.

Dodge-dodge-dodge plus lightning strike burst and phoenix used as PBaoe…and he’s down XD

Awesome to hear ^^

Sigil of energy too good for eles

From what I’ve experienced if you are using d/d then it is very difficult to beat a competent s/x thief. They would pretty much have to mess up in order for you to down them.

On the other hand when using a scepter s/x thieves are so much easier to deal with thanks to arc lightning. As long as you have a good sense of when the thief will infil strike and time your blinds and dodges you should be able to win unless he tries to run away (pretty much nothing you can do to chase…i miss you rtl q.q). Above all else you must avoid the thiefs L-strike. IMO the damage is something to be wary of. The boon steal is just a plus.

P.S.
From what I’ve heard boon steal prioritizes defensive boons first. So you can actually create “layers” of boons in order to protect your offense focused boons.

P.P.S. Sigil of energy helps alot.

ehjhey.1894:

here we have…

Medium armor
Chest: Tier 1 Human
Gloves: Tier 3 Human
Head: Conquest
Shoulder: Invader
Legs: Tier 2
Boots: honed Leather shoes

Kinda going for a half pirate/half zorro kinda look I guess. Reminds me of the guy in the princess bride :P

P.S. LOOK I CAN SEE BOTH OF MY LEGS!

WOAH WOAH WOAH…. o-O

Dude where did you get the hat? I’ve been wanting that for my asura engi since forever ago. I NEED TO KNOW!!!!

lmao I love that you shake the camera when you use blurred frenzy XD

If you actually watch the 1v1s and 2v2s that take place in duel servers you would be surprised who comes out on top (especially in regards to class combinations). Its a honest toss up nothing is really concrete.

If anything all your seeing is a good amount of phantasm mesmers with a lack in warriors.

I agree for the most part.

lol this is the second time today someone has mentioned ele/engis getting more weapon skills than other classes.

Long story short:

Eles NEED to switch attunements to be effective in most cases. Attunement swapping is not as versatile as some would believe (example-d/d eles do not have a ranged option from attunements)

Engis do NOT automatically have access to kits. Engineers sacrifice other utilities in the process.

Lastly it is what makes these professions unique.
(example-thief initiative “Why can this profession spam abilities without cooldowns but others can’t?”)
What makes the thief unique.

Hickeroar.9734:

Fishbait.6723:

Hickeroar.9734:

Yeah, they effectively carry 4 weapons around while everyone else gets 2. :-P

^ This is exactly why everyone should be forced to play an Ele` before they`re allowed to do anything else in gw2.

/facepalm

Count it as a light IQ test.

I have a ranger, guardian, mesmer, and ELE.

You do realize using only two attunements would be gimping yourself. Not to mention that you need 30 in arcana just to have attunement cooldowns be on par with the weapon swap cooldowns of other classes.

The intention of blurred frenzy is to allow mesmers a chance to “survive” melee encounters. There was actually a discussion about this on the spvp forums. The topic was about whether or not blurred frenzy should receive a slight nerf. There was alot of response from the community. You should take a look at whats left of it. (It was gutted by the moderators earlier today)

IMO up the damage on all the conjures by around 20%. Make them instant cast. Give some conjures a stun break like earth shield for example and make them work like engi kits except they have a five to ten second internal cool down (preferably 5). If conjures worked like this the amount of combos and moves available to elementalists would be incredible.

SIX PAGES AND GROWING!!! WE CAN DO IT GUYS!!!

I’m just waiting on the buffs for dps eles and most of our utilities.

+1………….(body message length issue)

I know what you mean OP. I like to pick my classes based off reacting and fast decisions. Main reason why I play thief/ele/engi. They give off this feeling of “flowing” in combat to me.

^THIS ON SO MANY LEVELS IN PVE ROFL

hyjaxxx.1584:

Salutations folks. After the patch i have been forced to change a few things on my build as it seems ive been going down much quicker.

I am now running a 0/0/20/20/30 build with the built in earth shield / arcane shield traits and the tumble abilities.

I was running full zerker gear before the patch but that was no longer viable. So i switched all my trinkets to Cav. with Beryl Jewels.

I now have 15k hp 1750toughness (buffed) 3100 attack (w/ sigil)

my crit damage buffed is about 100% and my crit chance now that i have changed trinkets is about 30% ( but with my build i always have fury up) so 50% ish.

Lastly, i removed mist form from my skills and put arcane power in.

All i can say is …Wow! this has really made this toon awesome to play. i think i actually like it more then before the patch. I can make it to the end of large engagements again. and the damage i take is no where near what it was before. I do miss not having mist form..but now that i cant heal through it. id rather not have it.

im running S/D on this build and i dont see myself changing any time soon. if anyone is having a hard time with their S/D ele. toss me a pm and ill try to lend you a hand

jaxx.

Always nice to see another s/d ele. Especially dps

If you don’t mind me asking what was your build pre-patch?

………………… (I have honestly felt this as well but please just enjoy the ride)……….

@theCOREYCOLAK

Gotta love that Mesmer build diversity. What classes do you find the hardest to deal with in this build and which do you find the easiest? How do you play it in small groups? Is it like a debuffer who hangs in the back ccing certain targets with assisted damage from phantasms?

…Also this is completely off topic but is your guild focused on wvw?
(I’m on FA as well and have been in search of a wvwvw guild that is not too big)

@Shay

Ah i see what your saying. At a base level with no traits, runes, sigils, and jewels S/P evasion trumps S/D evasion. But with sigils of energy, runes of the adventurer, withdraw as heal spell, signet of agility and whatever other ridiculous things you can throw in the agility on any sword set becomes ridiculous.

I wholeheartedly agree with you there but this level of evasion has always been present. It’s still all about the boon removal though IMO (reason why S/P is not on the rise as well). If not for that S/D would still be claimed as “unviable” in tpvp and for good reason.

The main thing that should be feared is the possibility that boon stealing thieves may soon be able to share the boons that they steal with their team mates. I can already see the QQ for it.

dinominator.9862:

Get that Norn some leathers and a Harley!

LMAO

IMO the golden children are guardians and mesmers not because they get special treatment or anything like that but because they seem to be the most finished classes. Every other class needs reworking/fine tuning.

@ Shay

Heartseeker is only useful when the target has low health. Reason why everyone laughs at HS spammers. Thieves are also vulnerable while heart seeking.

S/D did not become viable because of a reliable evade. It became viable because of boon stealing. Now bunkers have a counter.

If you want an evade you might as well go S/P since S/D evasion is not that long in comparison but with the pistol whip nerf…

Sword auto damage is not that impressive which is why D/X is the burst set. Infiltrator strike has always been good no one denies that but pre-patch there was really nothing S/D could contribute in tourney play.

@ Dest

Zerker amulet has always been 100% viable for mesmers no matter the spec and probably always will be.

I don’t even know what the argument is about. Mesmers can have some insane survivability as glass cannons. Everyone should know this. Some of the suggestions offered will barely effect the class. If eles can get over RTL having an extra 20 sec cooldown than mesmers should be fine with an extra 2-5 sec cool down on blurred frenzy.

In all honesty I don’t even care if A-Net were to apply this change but if they did I feel like it would be completely understandable.

I play DPS mesmer and DPS ele.

IMO DPS Mesmer>DPS ele.

There is a reason why mesmers can trait however they want while wearing zerkers.

There is a reason why elementalists cannot trait however they want while wearing zerkers/valk.

Eles trait for heals and boon procs. Eles do not have an actual “defensive mechanic”.

As to OP i agree. It couldn’t hurt to have blurred frenzy on a 12-15 sec cooldown.

Edit: Root was never an issue on mesmer due to vigor/utilities/shatters.

SoulDealer.5197:

Anti Stealth Traps?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nepysk5rOf4

^ THIS.

You see it in every profession forum. Whenever a counter(regardless of its strength) is implemented people rarely ever jump up and say “About kitten time. Finally something to spice things up.” Can you imagine how good it would feel to still beat somebody with an antistealth field? We also have no details on how these traps will function so it is way too early to be paniking.

And remember WvWvW is not balanced around 1v1s. Its about large scale tactical fights and right now A-Net is introducing more ways to perform said combat tactics. I’m sure in time more traps will be introduced so there really is no need to feel like this is thief only persecution.

The only thing anti stealth fields will promote is smarter gameplay and less cheese. So how about instead of moaning we either avoid dangerous situations like a smart assassin or outplay anti stealth opponents like a Dante must die hero.

From,
Somebody who likes to have a challenge.

Off topic but my favorite thing about mesmer is in the combat mobility hands down.

With the right gear and setup you can be flashing all over the place.

Imagine an s/d troll thief but more “fuchsiaier” (new word).

(honorable mention to mesmer utilities)