Guild Wars 2

it triggers only on the activation of the skill of that i am 99 percent certain.

and i am pretty sure that it only effects what you have targetted.

MOAR BURNING BURNINATOR!

I believe its just like any other situation where there are multiple sources of an effect.
it stacks in effect or duration.
burn is duration.

The trait is an active effect with the use of the skill. but its different in that i blieve it effects what you have targetted not everything around it…
so like cleansing fire is an ae burn i think but i dont think the trait is.

I have used something like that before.
like this
http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/elementalist#3|17|1119|2481|2817|3975|1027|25|917|1658|0|25|1619|2249|0|0|0|0|0|20|2260|1673|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|28028|28041|49960|49960|49960|49960|49960|25790|48792|0|0|0|0|
25 fire burn on crit, +10 charges
25 air +20 damage to low health, more crit damage on arcane skills.
20 water vulnerability on arcane and signet, +20 damage to vulnerable targets.
plus passives.
on crit: 60 to cause vulnerability, 30 to burn.
+5 damage to burning targets.

20+5+(vulnerability) to most mobs
20+20+5+(vulnerability) to hurt mobs.

Which makes the vulnerability on bow 2 not needed opening up for more conjures.
the air signet is instant which makes it very usable plus it makes up for lost speed.

still not a fan of the +10 charges but i dont use conjures as main damage much.
it could be replaced with another +5 to burning. still the ice bow is very strong and plays like a normal mage so +10 charges with it is reasonable i guess.

These crit chances dont help out lower level players much unless… arcane power counts as a crit which i dont know. if it does then that is pretty cool.

regular weapon skills would be for utility and some burst.
ice bow conjure is .25 seconds so it can be added to combos from weapons.

that is strange as dagger/focus felt.. right to me.
I cycled through atunments popping might and doing damage and busting out FGS and the ax with immunity.

im just better with dagger dagger and off hand dagger has the best pvp skills available.

Also… Some people suck. Stop switching atunments… Maybe…There was a reason for it. maybe everyone had might and the combo fields were all awesome already.
Remember its not all about you.

If you guys were getting your butts kicked in the dungeon it almost certainly is not due to low DPS but just simply bad play on a large part of the party.
Especially when people start yelling about stuff.

But… if when in a pug… Haters gonna hate. Nothing else turns me off of a game faster than kitten holes. I dont care who its addressed to. Save that sometimes its fun to play along with confuse a kitten hole politics…
If you were not getting your butts kicked… Then you are not doing anything terribly wrong IMHO.

Mogar.9216:

lol, this is what you do. Mist form , lighting flash , switch to air for swiftness then rtl . No one can catch you.

Yes totally true for GTFO maneuvers but not so good for keep to keep travel.

Fiery great sword all by itself is a pretty decent map mover though.

I use d/d in a pretty standard setup although i go with 20 air for one with air when its working.
Works pretty good.

runes of the centaur
inscription
healing glyph.

when one with air is working that works pretty well.

ax is the fastest conjure.
no stand still casts. .25 cast time on the conjure.
bow has a .25 second cast as well but it has at least 2 skills that need me to stand still. 4 and 5 i believe.

i dont sacrifice much of my tank with the ax where as bow and great sword have a much higher impact on mobility and thus tank.

the range does not seem to be an issue with the way i use it.
ice bow also has the same range.

Problem with dependance on bow 2 for vulnerability is the single targetness of it.
still water dagger 1 can get multiple targets vulnerable but i never use it that way.

or maybe something like this…
again pve.
http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/elementalist#3|17|2771|2481|1132|3975|1027|30|1664|1658|915|20|1619|1889|0|0|0|0|0|20|2260|1683|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|28028|28041|49960|49960|49960|49960|49960|25790|48792|0|0|0|0|

here glyph of elemental harmony provides burning. no auras.
start from fire with bow 2 to stack burning.might and vulnerability.
then switch to water for +20 to vulnerable targets.
+10 to burning
+10 from vulnerability
+20 from water to vulnerable
+10 from health over 90%
+20 to targets under 33% health
+70% damage.
then arcane power

runes of the centaur here for perma run from air via inscription and moar power.

with fiery great sword the power level will hit about 4k or more assuming might and such.
thats not too shabby.

Here im trying to get the conjure usable from water.
PvE.
bow
runes of lyssa gives fiery great sword 18 damage with water 25
I dig sharing auras.
signet of air is the only instant cast signet we have.
so you should be able to use it mid stream of bow 2 and whatnot to put a fiery shield up for +4 damage and fury for a 60% crit chance.
so fiery great sword from water after stacking conditions on the target…
20+18+5+10=%53 more base damage.
then make it all crit with arcane power for a bit.
Ice bow from water naturally stacks vulnerability on 2.
bring up a fire shield.
20+4+5+10=%39 more base damage.

need full health.
targets needs to be vulnerable.

http://www.gw2db.com/skills/calc/elementalist#3|17|1119|2481|2817|3975|1027|30|917|918|1658|10|1887|0|0|0|0|0|0|30|2260|1683|1687|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|28028|28041|49978|49978|49978|49978|49978|25790|48792|0|0|0|0|

i am always trying to get waters 20% damage to vulnerable targets to work.
25 air
at least 10 water.
ice bow however does this combo without 25 air just as part of bow 2 which is pretty powerful on its own but 20% extra damage is pretty nice.

I have never really felt the need for the 10 extra charges.

maybe 25 water for +2% per boon
maybe 25 fire for +%10 to burning targets.

full power build could be
20 water for +20% to vulnerable and +10% while health over 90%
30 fire for +10% to burning targets, burn on crit, +10 charges
20 air for Damage to weak targets and auras.

somewhere around +60% damage using the bow.
Then im thinking dagger/focus weapons.

for non 80s move fire down to 20 for burn crit and damage
and then at least 10 water for +20% to vulnerable targets.

I used dagger/focus as the basis for some conjure builds i was working on.
in which case i had the focus for general useage.
stack might.
knock down.
switch to water.
bring out the axe.
ROF
leap
its nice.

im not judging conjures. i use em whenever possible.
im asking serious questions.

“lets” build does not mean i build it for you :p

too bad. elementalist is pretty much the same way.
water and arcane.
anything is likely done better with water and arcane.
how many of those matches are with the necro?

I like forge better than earth myself… Unless you dont take a full set then i guess earth is more focused.

How many pvp games do you have?
I got as far as “Then i an elementalist without knowing what i was doing and i did it very well”

I thought this too as an ele. then i found it did not matter what i played or how i specced i did about the same. I know now that it meant that I played like kitten poo.

I did not know what i was doing or how to put things together. Though i thought i did.

The biggest issue there is that the learning curve on some of these classes is a barrier to entry but more than that just isnt a lot of fun.

However i get a kick out of playing an ele now. Just started my necro so you could be right but i suspect due to your comments that you just need more time and training.

Spend a few hours in the mists.

at level 20 i use it in multiple mob fights.
i spread conditions and DS4 to help them on their way.
I actually pop out of DS pretty liberally and just use it for extra damage and escape.
After playing an ele for a while i am pretty used to using just what i need at the time and moving on.

mesmer.

I like the ele better but the mesmer is easier.
Even an expereinced mmo’er will find both classes difficult to initially fight multiple mobs however the ele can be harder if you are expecting to play a mage.

20% air skill CD reduction.

well there just isnt a widely known build around conjures only how they are used which goes a long way in determining how to make a build that compliments their use.

the biggest issue with conjures is that the ele itself doesnt have a lot of viable build configurations.

My best use of conjures is just to add some spice to how i normally play the ele.

that said here are some of my thoughts on them.

They can reduce dependency on arcane:
using them like a 5th attunment gives more time for attunment delay to recycle.

They can bump up DPS lulls:
while waiting for bigger damage abilities to cool down a conjure can be used to keep the pressure on. Issues here are that the primary ele tank revolves around not getting hit and healing. keeping the pressure on via a conjure reduces both parts of the tank.

So what do you do when the conjures are on cool down?
what do you do to get out of the losing fight?
How do you tank?
how do you deal with conditions?
where do want to use this build?

the linked build above looks to keep regen going along with damage reduction and i guess dodge.

I have used focus in point capture or defense situations in wvw. keep or supply depot capture/defense.
I use it also when running with a group.
Not solo or open field stand offs though.
My skill with focus is not great. I use it in dungeons as well.

Basically any situation where i dont need a lot of mobility. But… Most situations need a lot of mobility.
The GTFO ability of RTL is a security blanket of extraordinary magnitude.

Dagger focus… still plays a lot like dagger dagger to me. Fast and furious.

However being that i want to be able to use my DD setup in most situations requires me to build DD friendly which i do not think is the best way to use dagger/focus.
still too unskilled with it to know really.

Anyway no QQ here please. Please dont say how you dont use them and keep gripes to a minimum save where they are deficient in the specific way you use them.
Just the facts maam. How do you use conjures?

take a look at this thread to get some inspiration

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/How-do-you-use-conjures/

any other ideas?

start with this one.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Guide-Mastering-the-D-D-ele-12-16-12/first

There are others here that should be stickied as well.

Our people are dying, Senator. We must do something quickly to stop the Federation.

Why dont we have an ele guide sticked for kittenus sakes.

I mean really. come on mod help these guys out.
They should not have to search the forums or make sensational posts to get this basic info.
daphoenixs d/d guide post may not be for some reason perfect but it convers all kinds of stuff and should help these guys.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Guide-Mastering-the-D-D-ele-12-16-12/first

For some reason we dont get things stickied in the ele forum much. I guess the people with said power dont feel the guides are good enough for it…
There is a lot of needed information flowing around in the posts.

i did all my post 40 leveling using d/d…
the basic combos of ride the lightning, updraft, burning speed, blah blah blah works pretty sweet.

For low arcane stuff it may help to have a conjure available like the ax. lots of burning takes care of mobs pretty well. It helpped me in a few situations… However the ice bow is fairly powerful in pve. It was dropping mobs before they got to me. much like a classic caster.

i went with 20 air and the rest in water as soon as i could. I had to have one with air when it was working so my arcane was low.

now there is a the signet of air which is better.. and i guess actually works.

most stuff is nearly dead after that initial opener…
i did not upgrade my AC level 35 armor until i hit 50 or so… I did upgrade my weapons though.
The ele’s “don’t get hit” tank is really good.

although when i started my d/d leveling i starting doing my personal story and just soloing stuff in general. So how well that works in groups and such… i can not say.
I think… in dungeons i would prefer something with the focus in my off hand.
Might still go with dagger focus as i like that playstyle too.
I tried using staff but its a different beast and i found that if i stopped using d/d for a while i got rusty and had to spend some time getting my combos smooth again.

KirinDave.6451:

I had a really hard time up until I stopped trying to make scepter work and just gave in to the D/D pve world. It’s sort of amazing how well it works at low levels; it’s by far the easiest character I’ve ever had.

The strategy for large pulls is simple: dart in; kill one enemy, run away until you’re full, then run back in. With current gear, almost nothing in low levels can take the abuse you dish out in fire nor can they hit you if you dart away with RTL or scoot off. Perhaps it helped that I played thief a bit first and realized how powerful positional awareness could be. Enemies have hit cones and turning speeds just like players do, and you can LOS most enemies just like you could do to a player.

It took me a long time to get into d/d. On its face it wasnt wanted i wanted from a caster and it seemed to me weak… yeah… well i did not know.
Then i got into doing my own stubborn thing…

Dagger dagger is likely the easiest weapon set to get good at as it has several natural and effective AE combos.
But i was sold on scepter/focus for the first 50 spvp games or so.
When i got good enough at spvp d/d that i could hold my own and got a little tired of it. I started working on getting my level 40 ele ready for wvw.
I have heard and i experienced that d/d if pretty great at pve. Not only does it work, I liked it AND it got me -better- at pvp with the ele.
Its all around excellent.

XiL.4318:

Crunchy Gremlin.5798:

Rennoko.5731:

It already debuff’s us with vuln….. which means it SHOULD be good/better than comparable other class skills because of that downside.

Recently I have been so irritated with the price we have to pay when using skills and abilities. The long cast times/debuffs/etc. And they are just in-line or weaker than other class skills that are instant cast, and don’t have a backstab effect.

Just about EVERY skill on my mesmer is instant cast, usable while stunned, and powerful. Not to mention the mobility and access to invulnerability skills. Apples to oranges, I know, but still. I still enjoy my necro quite well in PVE, but in wvw it has lots quite a bit of its appeal.

not that i know much about epidemic but vulnerability is a pretty lackluster condition dont you agree? especially 3 stacks.

Unless you are stacking 10+ Vulnerability you aren’t doing it right. 10+ Vulnerability they BiP for 10 Stacks+ of Might and you can actually do damage for like 3 to 5 seconds. If you devote all traits, gear, and Utility to doing that damage….

Yeah which is why the vulnerability on epidemic is not really worth mentioning. +3% damage for 6 secs is pretty much no issue defensively. its more of a bonus to other skills that use conditions.

i played AC story with my warrior over and over before they nerfed the experience.
exploreable mode with a pug can be insurmountable but i have done them a few times.

i took my ele into ac story at 30 in a pug with whatever gear i could scrap together from the market and such.
scepter focus which was more like warrior mace and shield so that is what i used.

So my self made roll was to damage and stack might.
plus protect the group from rangers and other projectiles.

with a couple of rangers with water fields i also got some compliments on my healing.

that was my first run through AC with the ele. less than 5 deaths. no broken armor.

Dungeons are hard. there were a lot of people, at the time, complaining that they were too hard for any class.

So whenever i hear how hard dungeons are… I just have to say that learning to play an ele in spvp is a hell of lot harder but I got a hell of a lot better at the game in general from dungeons and again after doing spvp.

Rennoko.5731:

It already debuff’s us with vuln….. which means it SHOULD be good/better than comparable other class skills because of that downside.

Recently I have been so irritated with the price we have to pay when using skills and abilities. The long cast times/debuffs/etc. And they are just in-line or weaker than other class skills that are instant cast, and don’t have a backstab effect.

Just about EVERY skill on my mesmer is instant cast, usable while stunned, and powerful. Not to mention the mobility and access to invulnerability skills. Apples to oranges, I know, but still. I still enjoy my necro quite well in PVE, but in wvw it has lots quite a bit of its appeal.

not that i know much about epidemic but vulnerability is a pretty lackluster condition dont you agree? especially 3 stacks.

Rennoko.5731:

I run epidemic all the time…. in wvw and pve. Mainly you just use it on the target mob to spread conditions to the other nearby mobs. Pretty much that is about the extent of the tactics with it. It can do some fancy things to guild claimers with the fire buff on, because the spread conditions do not have their durations cut like they would be if applied directly to the claimer.

Just remember to swap something else in that slot on a boss with no adds.

Not having any useful effect on single targets is a pretty big deal. i can see why people would ignore this skill a lot.

Im not class comparing. Just figuring out how to use the skill.
I have a pretty good understanding of how the ele works and i also understand that the learning curve in the game makes things seem like junk when i think i know, but dont know, how to use them.

remember they said, basically, its the personal danger of the skill not its actual effect.

so if they stick to that then the necro will just get more risk when casting it.
add an LOS requirement.
reduce cast range.
maybe give the necro the epidemic as well.
something to make it more dangerous to use.

Excellent covering of scenarios here.

Thanks folks. I was not even aware that it had no LOS restriction!

Yes i can see that it that the overhead of stacking up conditions with epidemic could be fairly limiting factor. preserving an add to use as a multiplier and the timing of at least two necros.
I have seen its effects on adds and that was… a rewarding experience. Mainly in overland events. I have been running the centaur gambit at the bridge and it works to kill adds and on the present pops.

Anybody care to describe how they use it pve?

the ele tank is “dont get hit”
which may sound like a bad deal but the ele is really good at this.
secondary tank is heal a lot.

ele required me to relearn how to play MMO’s in pve. especially casters.

dagger dagger is very powerful at taking out multiple non defiant mobs.

watch some videos.
if the ele is your first character you may want to try a gaurdian or warrior first to a get a feel for the game.

You are multiplying your learning curve if doing the ele first. still… some people, myself included, like that kind of difficulty. so do as you will but create a gaurdian or warrior so that when you get frustrated you have something to fall back on.

$.02

5 targets is understandable.
total stack max and duration are pretty important.
I want to make sure that i understand this.

Assuming two mobs, if 1 necro casts epidemic on mob 1 with a 10 sec bleed and 24 more necros cast epidemic on mob 2 then mob 1 will have cap bleeding for roughly 8 secs?

If so 5 could cast a 10 sec bleed on mob1 for 5 stacks then 5 could cast epidemic on mob 1. 1 could cast epidemic on mob 2 for to apply 25 stacks of bleeding for some duration under about 8 to up to 5 nearby mobs.

I can see that this could be pretty powerful in pve as even medium duration conditions could get multiplied.

is there a way to do it through keep doors?

what hinderes it use in wvw keep defense?

after 25 are they really not applied or just not counted until the stack reduces? ie if its at a 25 stack bleed for 1 sec and i cast a new 10 sec bleed in that 1 sec window then my 10 sec bleed is ignored or just loses 1 sec of effect?

I am new to the necro and have just discovered the power of pve condition spreading.

I am wondering what the limits of this are?
can necros multiply the conditions on targets by spreading conditions from different nearby targets?
spread from boss to add.
spread from add to boss for each extra necro?

are the spread conditions considered new and stacking conditions?

hope they don’t have blasters

signet of air was pointless before however its the only signet that has no cast time. so now it can potentially be used in a high fire trait line and auras without feeling like a wasted slot.

5 points in air gave the same thing before it was buffed and if you were speccing for auras you surely had 10 points in air.

its a sensible change and it opens up the possibility of something other than the typical 30 water 30 arcane builds.
over all fire might be useful now.

I liked the mysteries in the Halloween game. there doesnt seem to be any mysteries in the snowball fight.

I still dont know what hitting the teleport pad with the hammer did.

I also liked that other one has less team vs team and more individual survival mechanics.

i like the giant snowballs and the way different classes have some different abilities but the lack of mysteries is disappointing.

keep at it guys. i look forward to these mini games.

I used focus in dungeons.
I have used it a few times in spvp.
It has some situational uses vs trebs in wvw and such.

after i could stand my own with d/d i got a little better at all ele weapons.
focus has a good deal of group friendly utility.
I also like using focus with conjures. This is how i used it in spvp briefly. they compensate for the lower dps.
I think its also possible to use less arcane in a setup like this.

Ele takes a while to get. the combos are not obvious or terribly easy.
but once i got it I did remarkably better in any build i use whereas before i did horribly in any build i used.
that was spvp.

cznrhubarb.5946:

Good thread. The big one in this list for me was that weapon swap sigils work with attunement swapping.

I don’t suppose someone would want to explain how to properly treb block here? I’ve heard it mentioned before in regards to using Foci. Do swirling winds, magnetic wave, and magnetic aura all reflect treb shots?

magnetic aura does nothing to treb shots as far as i have seen.
swirling winds works pretty good against them.

low walls yeah. i havent tried it either but it should not be any different then any other pull ability. its got a bit of a cast time though.
see above for people talking about using it

Chipster.6713:

Crunchy Gremlin.5798:

How do you use conjures?

I keep them hidden behind my useful utility skills, so that they don’t mess up my gameplay experience… If I could refund the points I spend on them, I would.

You can refund skill points. At least there is a skill trainer specifically for skill points but…
Please stay on topic

one with air was working not too long ago.
it would be nice if there was some indicator to show it was on and what level it was…
be nice if it just worked.