Guild Wars 2

PW was never a problem,

It was quickness that’s the issue.

PVE you can’t beat the defensive applications of the Scepter / Focus.

In big champion boss fights I occasionally switch out to the staff just for the 1200 range spells.

Just select it and copy and paste the link directly, the forums don’t like semi-colon’s

I made a suggestion about nearly the same thing here:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Where-is-my-Geomancer-Hydromancer-Pyro-ect-ect/first#post356375

But basicly yeah.

Make it a 30 point Grandmaster trait called “Pyromancer, hydromancer, ect ect” that you have to get, then you unlock a 2nd weapon set but available only in that aspects you have unlocked it for.

Here is basically the issue with the Elementalist.

Limitations:

Specifically Trait limitations.

Lets say you spend 30 points in Earth to get 3 traits, 20% on bleeds, Faster earth spells regen and 10% more damage while in earth.

That’s 30 points to support exactly 1/4th of your spells.

So now 25% of your abilities do improved damage/recharge ect ect.

Now as great as those abilities may or may not be, an Elementalist can’t survive in one aspect, in fact it’s detrimental to stay in one aspect.

So you switch and those 30 points you spend are now useless.

It wouldn’t be an issue if you could instantly switch back to that aspect.

But you can’t, so how do you deal with this situation?

You pick traits that are generic as possible, that help over multiple aspects so you can at least get the most benefit out of your traits therefore making your build stronger.

When it comes to those generic traits there are only a few in every trait tree which makes are builds exceptionally stagnant.

Personally I would like to see something like this: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Where-is-my-Geomancer-Hydromancer-Pyro-ect-ect/first#post356375

But to solve the issue we either need traits to become more generic so that more aspects benefit from them or an ability to become more specialized so there are better rewards to staying within an aspect and capitalizing on our traits.

Yes. But there is a big difference between having skill and useful skills.

Sure ele’s have tons of skills but most of those are so much chaff unless you are spec to utilize them.

The point is the things you are spec’d to utilize you very little skills to maximize it and further more have to switch away from those spec’d aspects to be functional as a ele.

One of the things I’ve kinda missed about the original GW’s was the pure forms for Elementalist. When I first heard about GW and then GW2 is to make a Geomancer Elementalist.

So where did they go?

I know that the current form of GW2 doesn’t really support the idea of running a pure Geomancer, I mean sure you could stick in one Attunement but anyone that plays Elementalist will tell you that’s a really bad idea, and even then you only have the 5 skills.

So I got to thinking about the best way to represent a more “Pure” aspect form of Elementalist and then it hit me.

In each one of the Fire, Air, Earth, Water aspects have a Grandmaster Trait called: “Pyromancer, Aeromancer, Geomancer, and Hydromancer”

These Grandmaster traits once selected would allow you to equip a second weapon set with zero cooldown between switching. BUT! the weapon set would only be unlocked for that Aspect.

So If as an Elementalist I was running Dagger Dagger and lets say had 30 points in Earth to unlock Geomancer I could equip a second weapon set, lets say a Staff for ease of use.

I would still have all the regular Dagger Dagger skills but when in earth Attunement I could weapon swap to gain access to Staff Earth Attunement abilities. Switching to another aspect would switch me back to Dagger Dagger weapon set.

Also if you spent 30 in Geomancer and 30 in another aspect lets say Water to get Hydromancer, you would gain access to the 2nd weapon set for both of those aspects.

Anyways I thought it was a great idea and a nifty suggestion for people that like to run a more themed type of Elementalist.

-Crow

How the?

If you can do it pre-match you can do it during the match. Anyone else having issues doing things like this?

I mean a mesmer gets up there and he could train a whole team with portal.

Vampiric should syphon 25, with Blood thirst it should siphon 38. Test it out on the NPC’s if you are now gaining 38 then it’s working correctly. If your only gaining 25-29 from the pets then it’s not working correctly.

Honestly what bugs me the most is the redundancy.

Just by switching around their activate skills with other innate skills it would be so much more flexible.

We have what 2-3 birds that give blinding slash, why not switch one of those birds out to give 20sec Swiftness ability on activate.

Or we have what 4 piggies that give forage? why not start switching out some of their skills with other ones so we don’t get so much redundancy like instead of simply x4 forages get some Charge, or Gore or leap attacks going.

There are good pets out there but it’s just kinda blah because there is no real difference, so what’s the point to having them?

There isn’t a lot of incentive to go with sword dagger

The combo ability isn’t all that functional as it will move you according to your positioning and not your targets and doesn’t hit even remotely hard enough considering the cost.

Sure it rips a boon, but so does Sigil of Nullification. Now if it stole boons and gave them to you or there was a trait to do this, this might be worth the reduced damage output, or ripped 2 boons or blinded them, dazed them, or whatever. But as it stands it is very short end of the straw, as if your looking to do damage you have to rely upon the auto attack.

I was tempted to make a post about this exact thing.

Gets even more awesome when you go 30 in critical strikes for 100% crit while in stealth.

As Once you use Black powder then Heartseeker, you are stealthed on the Leap attack and the heart seeker has 100% chance to crit, but because the attack gave you stealth it doesn’t kick you out, so you follow it up with a backstab.

Depending on the situation i’ll either stay in to kick their teeth in with the Dagger and pistol, or switch weapons to the Pistol Dagger combo use ability #3 which stabs’ them and shadowsteps me away from them to continue to beat them down with the pistol at ranged. I typically do this for massive melee’s so i can get the burst off then back out of the fight to avoid most of the aoe.

Then switch weapon sets, Theif ability 3, blackpowder, heartseeker, backstab – Rinse wash repeat.

It’s an exceptionally strong way to play thief, laying in some really nice damage without exposing yourself.

You know I tried this out, and only really had moderate success with it, All my efforts keeping chill up on them where nifty but it really decreased the damage output.

However I just went ahead and changed up the traits and the utilities a bit to run a full on MM that keeps up the perma chill, and I’ve got to say it works exceptionally well. The chill slows the guy enough so when the pets stop to attack, the attacks land and the shadow fiends ability to teleport to target and blind (which chills) is also nice.

I’m kinda digging it. Don’t get me wrong there are still massive issues with the pet AI and in big melee’s your pets just kinda wander around but in tighter 2v2’s it’s mean.

Thx for the idea to get the ol wheels a crank’n.
-crow

My pig is called: Kissyface

There were a few times when I’ve ran into people starting tourney’s outside of their starting area (Literally capping right as the game started)

And a few other times i’ve noticed people starting the match with Flesh reaver (26 stacks and it spawns) or 25 stacks of Bloodlust ect ect.

But I haven’t seen it lately, which makes me think the Sept 25th patch took care of it.

I always figured there would be a trait that increased damage dealt by 2% per condition you are suffering from up to max 50% extra dmg.

Some thing called like “Pain is Power”

I would be fine with moa if it Also made the Moa immune to damage and CC’s.

Sort of a Soft CC, I take you out of the fight for 10 secs.

Whatever your build it’s almost a requirement to have 10 points in Honor. Simply put “Wrathful Spirit” is simply too good not to take. Once your aegis goes down you gain 25 secs of retaliation (not sure if this has been nerfed, but it used to be 40 secs, which mean you had perma-retaliation)

Even so I want to say it’s 25 secs, and with 10 more points in Virtues you can get the 25% longer retaliation times to make it extremely mean.

Retaliation is power-based so with no power amulets you’ll hit for around 266, with 3k+ power you’ll be hitting for close to 400 dmg every time you are hit, it is simply too much damage to ignore at this point.

Retaliation right now is a mixed back.

It’s power based, so the higher power you have the more damage it will do. With no Power amulets it hits for around 260, with full 3K+ it is hitting for close to 400

It’s just about impossible to tell if someone has it up (beside the obvious of know there is a reason that guardian with the GS planted that)

In small dose’s like (3-5 secs) it’s just about worthless.

In large dose’s like the Guardians 40 secs of retaliation (they may have nerfed this down to 30) once aegis is removed it is ridiculous how much damage is chalked up to Retaliation.

Personally I think it really needs to change.

My 2 cents is to simply make it hit for around 400-500 but make it stack in applications. (In like 5, 10 and 20 depending on the applications) Every time you get hit it deals damage to the attacker and it pulls 1 application of Retaliation off the stack.

You must have your amulets and traits set up differently.

I easily do 2.9k each way to the medium dummies with no other buffs besides the fury, my video’s are accurate and I stand by what I said. In the heat of combat considering the stacks of might, buffs and other features hitting the 3.5k crits in combat is very doable even more so with 25 stacks of Bloodlust.

I wasn’t try’n to lead you astray.

I am using the x5 runes of the scholar and x1 rune of divinity, zerker amulet

Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1Dz4ZVYwBQ&feature=youtu.be

I’ve been having a great time with it in Tpvp and sPvp just because of the surprise factor, I just gotta be patient and not clip Whirling Defense like i do in the video’s.

And yes it’s very bursty with very little in the defense department, but then again you can put tons of traits and abilities into defense for the ranger and really have very little impact.

I think the ranger is much like the Elementalist in that the best defensive builds are the ones where you kill the other guy before he can hurt you.

How is a stun break on use, life force on hit when under the effects and another stun breaker (essentially) on return to original position a nerf?

Any other abilities out there that have 2 stun breakers, swiftness and gain life force when hit. I’ve started running this instead of Spec Protection just because of the above.

Pets do damage, provided you can immobilize the guy long enough.

I was messing around with the off-hand Axe and started crunching some numbers on some dummies and was pleasantly surprised by how much damage this little gem can put out.

Path of Scars was hitting people without toughness amulets for 3500 (one way!) then coming back and nailing them again for another 3500 (if it crit again)

Whirling Defense is very nice, especially so on ranged type’s of professions like other rangers, engineers, thieves (Though dagger storm isn’t reflected or deflected for some reason) elementalists and ranged warriors.

I wish I could either move while in Whirling defense or it would block melee attacks but overall I am quite happy with the damage it puts out. Pretty much like the ranger’s version of 100 blades, though not Quite as powerful but can be if you lock down a ranged class and open up on them.

Here’s the build I was using: (Though note, I only use x5 Runes of the Eagle and x1 Rune of Divinity to Maximize the Crit Damage)

http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.6.3.4.15.21.5.4.20.16.133.143.145.301.152.2.2.9.378.0.0.391.392.396.411.412.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.10.30.20.5.5

And here is the Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHtVo4f5zps&feature=youtu.be

I just thought I’d post up what a nice bursty combo this can be. (Just so you know the thief didn’t lay a finger on him, he tried too!)

Set up is:
Call of the Wild
Winters Bite
Hunters Call
Muddy Terrain
Entangle
Pet F2 Ability usually fear or immobilize
Switch weapons –
Path of scars
Whirling defense
Finish them up with auto attacks as necessarily.

I try to keep Hunters call and Whirling defense as close together as I can but keeping them within the damage of Whirling defense takes priority.

Hope this gives you guys some ideas. =)

-Crow

It may be minor but a more dynamic effect for retaliation on the player itself rather than the refracted little glass shield that is rarely visible inactive let alone in the heat of combat. Perhaps show them surrounded by blue or purple aura/flames

For those of us not “Bar watchers”

-Crow

I recently hit 30 in my PvP rank and it’s becoming abundantly clear that I am amassing a crazy amount of glory with absolutely nothing to spend it on. I’ve already gotten everything I want from the lvl 30 Wolf Rank, at this point I am essentially just stockpiling it.

It occurs to me that this issue is only get to get worse the higher level I get which presents a problem with stagnation. (At least IMHO).

This is what occurs to me to implement:

First Off: Materials
Allow 50 Arcane orbs to be inserted into the Mystic Forge to make 1 Arcane Shard
Allow 50 Arcane Powder to be inserted into the Mystic Forge to make 1 Arcane Shard
Allow 10 Arcane Shards to be inserted into the mystic Forge to make 1 Arcane Sliver

This will allow us to keep farming materials without hitting a cap and the item being useless.

Second:
Allow 50 Rank tokens to be turned into 1 Rank token of a higher LvL.

(For instance if I farm 50 Rabbit tokens and turn them into the mystic forge I’ll get 1 Deer token. 50 Deer into 1 Dolyak, 50 Dolyak into 1 wolf, 50 Wolf into 1 Tiger, ect ect)

This still allows me to not only farm, but gives me a goal to farming to slowly (every so slowly) unlock the higher tier gear.

Third:
The above suggestion could be used for Free tournament tokens, but I am unsure what it should give as a reward? Possibly a Random Rank token lvls 20-70?

Here is my favorite Bleed build

I think you are really missing out with the Runes of the Orrian, they are fantastic for bleed builds.

However this one may be a bit more fragile than the one you have but it more than makes up for it with it’s Chain, Stuns/fears, immobilze’s.

Yup.

It’s like being a thief with only 4 initiative that only recharges every 15 secs, but it is the best burst possible. =)

So I went line by line avoiding the flaws and pitfalls of our broken and shattered class to come up with a design that gave us the absolute best burst possible for a necromancer.

I don’t think it’s possible to obtain anymore burst than this puts out. Thought it feels like you have to get the stars to align to pull off the combo, when it does happen it’s nice. Though most of the time you’ll end up getting run down or kite’d trying to make it happen.

It really frosts my cupcake that I have to not only take wells but a major trait to try and hold someone within melee range just so i can get a cycle or two off with my dagger. The thing should come with a cripple at the end of it’s Necrotic Slash cycle.

Anyways build explained in the first video.

2nd Video shows me mow’n down svanir and a few other peeps head to head in the 2nd video.

Hope this tides you over until we get our bug fixes!

Peace
-Crow

Vid1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5doerletbQ&feature=youtu.be

Vid2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaBEdJkd5tY&feature=youtu.be

It’s not a big deal. But if I leave the heart of the mists attuned to Air or Earth, I instantly am able to gain access to it in the PvE side of things. Course I can’t switch out of it or I have to back into the heart of the mists all over again. shrug

Only lvl 2 right now. =)

You have to copy and paste them into a new window for some reason the forums doesn’t like the internal coding of the links

I read what you had to say and in all honesty you lost me at Condition Builds.

I build a hellva condition build, that in all honestly is really the on way I am able to play Elementalist at all. And it’s Fun. It rolls around 1500 condition damage and gets upwards of 1700+ once you get rolling.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fEAQJArdhImmbxR5wjDAkHn4CLjHhohHlCzA;TsAgyCuoay0koJbTumkNNW4wwcDA

Though I agree elite’s are awful.

The staff weapons are not necessarily weak, they just take way to long to cast and the projectiles are a little slow they should be about 25% quicker to cast and faster moving. If this means you have to down down the damage some that’s fine, but it’s annoying to have 1 dodge roll – null out 2 of your fireballs.

The diversity is really limited to the traits, so it’s more a trait issue.

Anyways man peace.

This is my favorite build at the moment:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fEAQJArdhImmbxR5wjDAkHn4CLjHhohHlCzA;TsAgyCuoay0koJbTumkNNW4wwcDA

Deals some pretty wicket condition damage and yet has some really decent ability to both take a hit, and get out of trouble.

It is a nice balance between being able to kill someone (Or a lot of someone’s with that Fiery Great sword) with out going down to the first thing that hits you.

I enjoy it a lot.

Ritual of Protection only triggers if your character is within the well itself when it is cast.

If your character is outside of the well, for instance you have ground targeting the Ritual of Protection does not proc.

The dagger is nice, the problem right now is there is nothing to aid the necromancer in staying within melee range to “USE” the dagger short of the dark pact.

Which is why I personally think the Necrotic Slash should have a Cripple, Chill, or Weakness effect to help out in melee rather than just plain ol life force gain.

So for the time being scepter / dagger and staff are the combo’s everyone is rocking.

You guys honestly think wells are fine?

Even in WvW nobody stays in them for longer than a pulse or two. You guys are paying 60 secs to do 1 or 2 pulse’s on someone.

How can I convey in proper logic that compared to everything else in this game that is absolutely horrible?

Look at our Corruption ability Poison field, that at least lasts 15 secs!

Right now we have 4 Major traits to support something that lasts 5 secs. Wells are Ground Targeting, Well recharge 20% faster, Wells give Protection for 3 secs when cast (But only if you cast it on top of yourself, so what’s the point of ground targeting no?) and Wells siphon Life every pulse (yah for 25 and 29 dmg a siphon)

For an effect that lasts 5 secs and at best you catch someone with 1-2 pulse’s. Now you could use few other abilities to try and hold them inside of the effect but honestly your just throwing good money after bad.

Hence the reason for the dual effect.

Next time you run your wells keep an eye out for how much difference they truly make and how long people actually stay within the field and then realize your giving up a utility ability that’s only usable every 48-60 secs for “That.” And when you realize the “That” isn’t all that good you’ll understand why I am asking for this change.

If DS had an attack that applied Conditions like bleed or poison it would be functional, as is it will forever remain a power based aspect that really is nothing more than a way to tank some hp for conditionmancers

Wells are Horrible. Just be cause they are one of the few things that work on Necro doesn’t make them “GOOD” it just means they work.

Take well of power. It converts conditions into boons. 1 condition into 1 boon, every sec for 5 secs. For a grand total of 5 conditions into boons. Those boons only last for 5 secs. The whole time to get the full effect you have to remain stationary inside of the field.

Worse to get the wells to the fullest effect you have to put 2 major traits, (not to mention the 20 points into curse’s for something that’s not even condition or percision based) Wells are Ground targeting and 20% cooldown on wells.

Even with the other offensive based Wells, you what maybe catch a guy for a pulse or two before they move out of them? Congrats you can try again in 48-60 secs.

That’s absolutely horrible.

Look at the Mesmers Null field. That Rips boons from opponents and conditions from allies all in one pulse and happens if they so much as touch it and it lasts 2 sec’s longer.

@Asum
The change is a double edged sword. your effect is spread out but also your wells last longer. Remember your wells are also Dark Combo Effects so by making it last long you can spend more time chaining “Life Steal, blind, area blind and leeching bolts”

The difference in the trait is to change the focus of wells from being an offensive weapon where you try and lock you opponent into it, to become a defensive “high ground” so to speak where you can cast from within it to gain benefits.

@Fadeway
Fury isn’t even close to being rare and 8 secs of fury for something you have to stand in to get the full 8 sec benefits of also isn’t overpowered. And as I said above, who stands in wells? Only the most unaware people continue to stand in a well for more than a pulse or two.

Isn’t there a token out there that you can get to Get the stats of one type of armor and combine it with the appearance of another type of armor?

It’s out there, you just have to work at getting it. no?

Sides I might wait until I hit 80 for that shtuff.

I know Necromancer is starting to get some love from the Dev’s working towards fixing some issues, viability and builds so I just wanted to offer up a suggestion while it’s still fresh.

Wells are very sub-par at the moment. I could go in a big long spiel about how your paying upwards of 2-4 Major traits to get a 60 sec cool down spell to work for only 5 seconds to only catch 1-2 people for possibly 1 pulse or 2. They are just bad.

So my suggestion is back along what I suggest in the BWE’s.

Make Wells last 8 secs while still pulsing every 1 sec and make Wells a Dual Effect type of ability, something that hurts opponents and helps allies.

-Well of Darkness gives enemies blind and gives allies Fury

-Well of Suffering Damage’s enemies and casts vulnerability and gives allies Retaliation

-Well of Corruption Gives random conditions while converting conditions on allies into random boons.

-Well of Power stacks Might on allies and Weakness on enemies.

Then at the very least if they move out of it or you miss you can still gain a benefit to being in it.

Ritual of Protection – Change this ability to Residual Power – Wells last 12 secs but only pulse once every 2 secs.

Also on a minor note Spectral Skills need a pretty big buff themselves as well, this can be done by replacing Near to Death’s 50% faster DS cool down to Ghost Walker – All spectral skills give 5 secs of Stability when triggered.

That’s my suggestions. Take care guys.
-Crow

Retaliation is Power based as far as I can tell

With full on power build you’ll do close to 400 Damage. every time they hit you.

If your a condition build your only doing like 230 Damage.

I’ve tried about every build under the sun for Necromancer and continuously make builds each and every day to squeeze the last drop of usefulness out of my necromancer.

And honestly friend. Wells are rubbish.

You are using 3 Major talents to support something that only lasts 5 secs and will undoubtedly only hit the guy once before he moves out of the well. That’s just bad business.

Now i’m not trying to harsh your mellow if you like it by all means go for it.

But as it stands wells are so horribly bad.

The only way to make wells better is to extend the time they are up – 10-12 Secs with a pulse every 2 secs.

Or give them all a dual effect something that hurts enemies and helps allies.

Well of Darkness gives enemies blind and gives allies Fury
Well of Suffering Damage’s enemies and casts vulnerability and gives allies Vigor
Well of Corruption Gives random conditions while giving random boons to allies
Well of Power stacks Retaliation and might on allies and Weakness on enemies.

Then at the very least if they move out of it or you miss you can still gain a benefit to being it.

Right now blood thirst is borked. It improves your general life siphon from 25 to 29.

What it does work about it, is it DOES increase your Life siphon #2 ability on MH dagger. So instead of siphoning 200 hp a pulse it will siphon 300 a pulse.

So that part about it works.

Your far better off with Life siphon on critical hits which will siphon for around 300.

On the Dagger Necrotic Slash Chain, I could care less about it giving me Life force, what I would like to see is the 2nd or 3rd chain give Chill, Cripple, or Life steal.

They are hashes.4523:

Carrioncrow.6872:

Terror Trait “Fear does Damage” Currently only hits for 26 dmg, Crits for 44.

It did hit for 400 on my necro, what level are you?

I was using it in a over on the NPC’s in the Heart of the Mist testing out dmg. So lvl80.

It could be that it was power based as I was testing it with no amulets on to get a baseline. But even then 28-400 shouldn’t be that big of a difference with just a power amulet.

I also run the Flesh Golem instead of plague form.

Simply put Plague form never performs and even full conditions the actual damage is exceptionally low. Sure you can spam cripples and blinds but it’s essentially just another form of death shroud to take some heavy damage.

As far as the flesh golem goes I run it strictly for it’s knockdown. I could care less if it actually attacks someone but the knockdown is nice.

Terror Trait “Fear does Damage” Currently only hits for 26 dmg, Crits for 44.