Guild Wars 2

have to say that sword/shield rifle PUG spvp has enjoyable moments.
I have had several fights that were very close and were… fun.

I used the rifle butt to knock people off of ledges im fighting.
the movement on the sword and the range on the rifle make for taking advantages of situations with more variance in the tactics.

I had some 1v1 fights that lasted quite some time and were not just a “rotation” of attack.

I think my ele experience jades this some as the ele is so unforgiving. one or two mistakes is a quick death where the warrior has a little more time to die.

I am not good at the warrior but i the learning curve appears to be not as bad as some.

Im sure they think the rifle is OP when people spec hard into it and do 7k plus damage to multiple targets with killshot.
but… thats typical of these kinds of things.

wait until we get stealth of some kind… did i mention that i hate the way stealth works in due to the way targeting and culling works
he is my 1 second stealth that makes you lose target on me and you can not even see I am an enemy for another second after I leave stealth.. that loss of target is more painful than the stealth.

Im sure they think the rifle is OP when people spec hard into it and do 7k plus damage to multiple targets with killshot.
but… thats typical of these kinds of things.

wait until we get stealth of some kind… did i mention that i hate the way stealth works in due to the way targeting and culling works
he is my 1 second stealth that makes you lose target on me and you can not even see I am an enemy for another second after I leave stealth.. that loss of target is more painful than the stealth.

Lokki.1092:

Crunchy Gremlin.5798:

necro with a staff feels a lot more casterish. try that.
That said… who cares!
do we complain when gandalf whips out a great big sword? Is he supposed to kite the demon around and try to pull out scrolls and whatnot?

ele is the most fun caster i have played. mesmer isnt bad either.

Actually many people did complain about that with Gandalf And Peter Jackson admitted he just doesn’t like wizards all that much. Which is a fine preference.

But I always say that if they made a warrior that could only use bows and rifles, Or a thief that only used 2 handed weapons or sword and board. We would hear the same complaints in their boards. For some reason they decided to pretty much scrap the wizard archetype and replace them with elemental and illusion ninjas. I dont think people dislike the current Ele we are just wondering… “Hey, where are all the wizards at?”

I may try a Necro at some point. perhaps there is where my wizard is.

well i dont care much for how peter jackson did it either really.
all that telekinesis and old men throwing themselves around…
but gandalf did use a sword. foe-hammer or something.

but… yeah wizards…

but the worst part of this game… the name tags. can see them anywhere. almost impossible to hide.

rangers may have some sizable bugs but they are so much tougher then they used to be. I think they are good for a while.

Warrior is pretty solid. The learning curve in the game is kind of broken in that it isnt much fun and leaves me feeling powerless which is true but its me not the class.

Best thing for that is to make your own videos and watch how you play. that is golden training.

So far that i have played… necros are the most wonky in skills and such. some of their skills are so pigeon holed that they do nothing in common situations or are slow enough that they do nothing in their areas of use. eh… i like the necro anyway.

warrior is a pretty cool class. lots of utility and flow between skills.
bolos… well yeah some skills do suck and could use something to make them a little more attractive but they are not broken in themselves. other classes have the same issues with obstructions and what not.

i am not sure why that getting the classes right is always a backseat to getting content but there it is. happy wintersday!

also reading…
read the dd ele guide here. its a wall of text but it will tell you, sort of, where the ele weak spots are.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Guide-Mastering-the-D-D-ele-12-20-12/first

necro with a staff feels a lot more casterish. try that.
That said… who cares!
do we complain when gandalf whips out a great big sword? Is he supposed to kite the demon around and try to pull out scrolls and whatnot?

ele is the most fun caster i have played. mesmer isnt bad either.

Last night while i was working on my warrior spvp skills a charr ele came into the game.
he was a pretty good ele player. kind of a kitten head but skilled.

the thing is that i could hear him changing atunments from some distance. Thats normal but the charr voice… its distinctive and its a bit frightning.

Seriously knowing the guy was good and hearing the voice… It has an effect.

$.02

Something to consider when rolling an ele.

earth has the knockdown in it.
The basic dd ele attack is
air
ride the lightning
updraft(knockback)
fire
burning speed
firegrab
earth
earthquake (knockdown)
maybe churning earth
then water.

that is simplified but eles go earth for the CC chain, blast combos, and dps. that whole chain is big pile of damage and CC where the victim generally can not normally get out of the CC chain without a stunbreaker.

It is a pretty standard rotation.

D/D ele build templates are pretty limited to be effective. most that dont die a lot are pretty cookie cutter.

they generally will go to water after earth while they are waiting to get back to other atunments.
But a real good ele is fluid and uses what is needed.

if you can immboilze the ele as soon as they go fire it stops the burning speed which messes up the whole chain. But to do that you have to not get knocked down by the updraft or recover immediately. its a fast chain.
knocking them down when they tune to water will stop some initial healing but you have to lay it on at that point or they can slip out.

remember that an ele has about 14-16k HP and very little armor/toughness.
hold em down and hurt them.
The primary ele tank is movement. not getting hit.

yeah like was stated… eles like to move. make them stop moving.
also realize that they may just be better at the game then you are. no shame in that.

on equal footing i can beat eles with my pathetic warrior skills.
i run sword/shield rifle with the immobilize on cripple trait.
make them stop. knock em down. stun them. cut them up.
pretty much the same thing for thieves but thieves are easier to kill once the train starts moving.

however a good ele is just good. you gotta be good to dodge the big attacks and stop them.

the basic d/d build does not spec condition. watch for sigil stacks.
If you have no defense then you have no defense.
Dont let them heal.
after they do churning earth, the big rock ae, they will likely go to water. dont let them heal. You can hear them go to water. knock ’em down. stun them.

go to the ele forum and watch some of dapheonix videos. there is one where he fights a rifle warrior and he will not engage him as the warrior dodges enough of the attacks to stop the ele damage train. in fact he generally will note people that do doge and try to not fight them outside of 1v1.

yeah read the guide then go play 8v8 pvp for as long as you can stand.
then pve will be pretty enjoyable.
the pvp builds work pretty well in pve.

at least try to go to heart of the mists and play around with different ideas.

I was doing well enough at level 60 in wvw.
Go do 8man pvp until you get the “i am god” power.

boozer.7815:

Crunchy Gremlin.5798:

boozer.7815:

Strang.8170:

Correct me if i´m wrong, but powerful auras atleast used to work only on auras that you actualy cast. In other words it dind´t work with combo auras or those gained from traits.

Your wrong.

there are some auras that did not trigger PAs.
i think the auras generated from runes and the combo auras generated from conjures.
this may have changed.

powerful auras is indeed a group satisfying trait and people have said more than once that its really really great when used well.

The fire aura’s generated from fire 20 proc PA.

Sure but those are still skills that the ele casts.

have rune auras changed?

have you considered getting runes of the centaur in there?

boozer.7815:

Strang.8170:

Correct me if i´m wrong, but powerful auras atleast used to work only on auras that you actualy cast. In other words it dind´t work with combo auras or those gained from traits.

Your wrong.

there are some auras that did not trigger PAs.
i think the auras generated from runes and the combo auras generated from conjures.
this may have changed.

powerful auras is indeed a group satisfying trait and people have said more than once that its really really great when used well.

staff is not all that bad at support.
wells are pretty good too.
pulsing blindness for 5 secs is pretty powerful.

pve (noob)
level 50 or so necro
scepter/dagger
axe/dagger
blood is power, epidemic, sigil of spite, epidemic

I like to fight multiple mobs this way. at level or 2-3 higher.

ihave to switch out sigil of spite with locust often though.
moving around slow sucks.

bleed them up. them up with scepter
blood is power…
sos (when its available)
epidemic

that is generally pretty satisfying when soloing.
however in a group epidemic cast time is so slow that the mob i have targetted is often dead before the spell goes off… resulting in uselessness.
I dont like dagger mainhand for pve.
its basically just autoattack which is not much fun. it does do damage though.

Moonrabbit.1543:

Wow! I came up with the same trait set-up for a hammer-focused build earlier today. I would think this build, combined with the staff, would be a great way to overcome the range limitation attributable to being unable to swap weapons in combat.

Question: I understand that weapon swap sigils work on attunement change. If I equip a conjured weapon, then would a weapon swap sigil (e.g., sigil of battle) still proc if I change attunments (i.e., while the conjured weapon is equipped)?

as far as i know this is changing. some sigils work or keep their effects some dont but its changing or changed.
search forum.
there is a list here somewhere that explains it pretty well as it was. what it is now or is going to be… something else altogether.

as one of my bosses said to me… Didnt record it then it didnt happen.

spvp 0/10/0/30/30
d/d
cantrips
auras
healing traits
evasive arcana
beserker
forge
sigils. dont take the stack on kills until you can stack kills.
dont take sigils that use the same timer.

my cookie cutter now. I dont use it much…

master that and then explore.

wvw… eh… thats almost like pve.
either you are in over your head or bullying. but what do i know.

It may be more because this is your 4th 80 rather than the ele itself.
It is likely you will feel the same about any of the other classes now.
I have an 80 warrior and an 80 ele. working on a necro now.
The necro is no where near as entertaining as the ele was to me.

After i got my ele figured out… all the other classes have lost their luster.

But… There are a lot of aspects to the game.
Perhaps, as is often the case, the problem is not with the ele but with you.
do something different with the ele.
become a staff master.
explore dagger/focus
use a conjure.

Go for zone completion rather than leveling.
Dont grind.
play different.

The leveling in the game is easy. It just comes. hardly have to work for it at all.
nothing like sitting at the trees in DAOC. it took me forever to get max level in that game simply because it was so tedious.
You really cant avoid experience here.

i generally run with auto targetting turned off.
With the D/D ele is it pretty much required to have that off to use ride the lightning effectively.

hmm. i know how my own class combos work but i am wondering more the best cross class combos. There is also a difference between knowing the basics of how it works and the best way to actually use them.
Sometimes these are not as obvious as it might seem.

my friend has a gaurdian and i have a necro, elementalist, and a warrior. at level 50 or so.
I am mostly interested in overland pve.

Sure we can lay down light fields and such.
Best i guess meaning easiest to pull off for the most effect.

it seems to me that there is a game within the game here of learning how to combo between classes. But i have yet been unable to learn this well.

What are the most effective cross class combos for pve?

Its strange but i feel like the necro staff is the most “caster” of any of the caster classes i have played.

i have been using this.
blood is power, signet of spite, epidemic, death shroud, life transfer

that seems to kills groups of at level mob pretty quickly.
reminds a lot of the ele d/d opening combo except that it takes so long to CD.

eipidemic only being useful in multi target situations is pretty limiting.
I swap out utility skills a lot on my necro. i rarely do that on my ele.

i found a guy in the tavern with all the books but all he did was tell me not to look at his books.

Ele speed generally does not come from swiftness.
Swiftness is more useful for travel from point to point but is pretty slow in comparison to abilities with integral movement.

ride the lightning and whatnot far exceed swiftness speed for burst mobility around targets.

fiery great sword is also a useful point to point travel mechanism.
much like warrior great sword.

videos!
interesting combination of arcane and conjure.
I was always trying to not spec arcane with the conjure.
hammer does have pretty impressive damage.
The bump to crit chance is not bad either. going full power and crit i hit a 75% crit chance with hammer.

Kravick.4906:

Crunchy Gremlin.5798:

Kravick.4906:

Condition and hybrid builds are not the only way you can build a necro for WvW. Unfortunately, I don’t know the first thing about making videos. I have a very successful power based dagger/focus and staff build I’m running that I would just love to show to people.

fraps. free for 30 sec chunks of video

Which is useless for making PVP videos with.

so you do know the first thing about it!
great! check out fraps anyway it still may do what you need.

Kravick.4906:

Condition and hybrid builds are not the only way you can build a necro for WvW. Unfortunately, I don’t know the first thing about making videos. I have a very successful power based dagger/focus and staff build I’m running that I would just love to show to people.

fraps. free for 30 sec chunks of video

i see. so you are saying that unless your flesh worm is cut off you can get pretty deep inside of very defensive objects.

some people want to use their flesh worm to get into things when they dont have a way. That is a game breaker everytime. I would hate to see flesh worm get the nerf.
I havent used my flesh worm yet as i did not know i could put it in things like that.

I am going to start whipping out my flesh worm whenever possible now!

ele really starts coming into their form at about 40 where they can get 20 points into a line.
Only things i had trouble with are defiant mobs and my own feeling of being indestructible.
Pack of 6 mobs 4 levels higher than i am. Check
armor 10-20 levels out of date. check
weapons 5-10 levels out of date. check
some stuff on cool down. check.
Attack!

This was before i started pvp and was doing a lot of dungeons.
scepter focus.

Yea that skull masque is really good.

yeah well hes only level 40

its really hard to take this kind of complaint seriously.
after playing an ele for a long while and reading all the “the ele is a kittens hole” posts and then finding that it really is a L2P issue and the ele is very competent when played well.
But there were a lot of posts very much like this one saying it was junk.

there were a couple of fairly minor issues that made the ele appear to be so terrible.

Being able to do absolutely nothing to stop an immediate stomp. fixed.
Bugs in ride the lightning making it a little unreliable. fixed.
even with these faults though people that could play the ele well did and could kill multiple wvw targets v 1 /
but that did not stop these kinds of posts.

its a good idea to get the basic stuff down first and branch off from there.
the linked d/d build above is pretty standard.
it works in all areas of the game and is very good for understanding the basics of swapping elements, combos for the ele, aura, healing, and how to tank.

for me it was a long road to get to the point of using d/d and then another road to get semi decent with it. Once i got a ways down it though its pretty impressive and feels something like driving a fragile race care might be.

very exciting and pay a lot for mistakes.

Bvhjdbvkjf.1987:

Burrfish.6408:

Things to note

• Scepter’s Air auto-attack is actually incomplete, the #2 skill must be used in conjunction with auto-attack to achieve maximum DPS
• Conjured Weapons perform much better than Scepter or Staff, but they’re a tad worse than Dagger.

I’m confused about this bit… if the whole test was simply determining which auto attacks kill faster the first point seems to fit if you swap any weapon for the word ‘scepter’. Comparing auto attacks is an incomplete test so of course air on scepter will not achieve maximum DPS.

And Why are the conjured weapons placed as they are? Conjured weapons perform 5 skills whereas scepter/dagger/staff perform 20 skills. If you want to compare how conjures are DPS wise you should compare all their DPS ability to all of the DPS ability of any other weapon. Summizing that conjures perform better or worse than any of the other weapons when you don’t have any of the flexibility those others offer seems like your plan to to beat the game using only the #1 skill.

You know why there are posts with combo chains that can maximize your DPS? Because maximizing your DPS can only be achieved when NOT relying on the auto-attack for DPS. It’s nice to know the base damage that auto-attacks can do but spending any time drawing conclusions based on Auto-attacks isn’t going to win you any battles, learn your other skills.

conjures do not “replace” these 20 skills. the replace 5 just like swapping atunments does.
you dont have access to 20 weapon skills at any one time on the ele.
you have 5.
You can actually swap to a conjure and back to weapon skills faster than you can back and forth between elements.

To compare all of the weapon skills the test would be much larger and still incomplete.
Youd have to compare play styles and builds not just individual skills.

The base line in the test has to be done. its science.
now you can branch off and compare what adding condition damage and might does in comparison to the base line.

Ideally these tests should not show that one is better than the other. Just the base line facts.

The tests are fine. the conclusion may be a little off.

I did this last night.
The chest was no obvious. It did not look like a chest to me. its right next to him in this pile of wintersday stuff.
its looks more like a pastel colored coffin sitting at an odd angle.
I got the message my present might in a chest i thought he meant the pvp locker.
went there and then came back to him and from that angle i saw the tooltip to open the chest.

it was a toy bag with no stats. no idea what it does but it went in my pvp back slot and showed as a bag of present on my back.

I found another place like this. its not marked as an event or anything although it was a POI.
The only to know that something is up is to talk to the NPC standing by the bear Shrine. i think it was a bear shrine…

Anyway kneeling in front of the shrine brought the bear spirit out for a fight which then gave me event reward.

I thought it was an interesting effect. I get rewarded for talking to NPCs and figuring out the story puzzel.

i noticed though that in the mists when i switched to a conjure that the hero screen showed my pve weapons…

so… it may not be working 100% correctly

you should do tixx dungeon before it goes.
made 2 gold in one run.

hammer has got to be the best pve conjure for a conjure centered build.

yeah FGS has its uses.
Personally i like the ax better.
You can use it just like you use the FGS but its all around faster and more tank friendly to the ele.

but I liked FGS enough that i did not put much time into the other elites.

If you think of the conjure as an auxillary atunment it will change your views of not having your other abilities available.
you do have them available it is just that the conjure has a much longer cool down than the atunments do.

in pvp the long cast time and the mobility issues make it dangerous.
I have died many times bringing that out.
got some kills with it too but generally an ele needs to be on the move. It the eles primary tank. although daphoenix suggests only moving as needed. Thats harder than it sounds…
the ax on the other hand moves around in a much more ele tank fashion.

i just saw that. weird. Not something i would have suspected i guess.

practicing in the mists it looks like arcane power causes vulnerability on hits… Did it always do this?
i get 5 stacks of vulnerability on targets using arcane power…mists bug?

fiery great sword appeared to be activating the bleed on crit sigil i had on my daggers…

interesting factoids about i guess all utilities but certainly signet of air.
arcane power makes it crit and so it can activate the burning and vulnerability trait and maybe weapon bonuses. i got bleeding from signet of air and i assume that it came from the bleed on crit signet i had.
it also gets might from the fire 30 trait when used from fire.
signet of restoration however does not do any of that.

so if that true… do all utility skills that do damage do this?

bow 2 counts as one action for fires might.
and…
the might is applied after the action takes place so the bow does the whole 5 shots and THEN you get one stack of might.

ax i surely the most build friendly conjure. it just fits with ele playstyle. dont need to build for it imho it just works pretty good as is. Its not as bursty but it does more damage than arcane wave or any other single use skill slot with more versatility.

I guess its versatility is what makes it work so well.