Oh, my — the kittens are taking over much of the dictionary.
The lack of condition clear is annoying too. Going offensive on the utility skills isn’t really an option, which kittens damage further.
I leveled up for a while in PvE with Scepter/Focus. Killed things faster than Staff, slower than Scepter/Dagger. I found going through the skills toolkit to be fun, although Earth 2&3 (defense) seem redundant with Earth 4&5 (defense). Utility skill choices definitely need to be offensive, or you really don’t do much damage.
I don’t have much of an idea how to use it in sPvP, however, except for an almost pure single-target conditions approach, because of the difficulty of hitting with the direct-damage skills.
With exceptions rare enough that they could perhaps be explained in other ways, I don’t seem to actually have conditions removed when I use Phoenix. Am I misinterpreting things?
I just got a couple Superior Runes of the Water, but what they do for you depends on build. Most likely, 15% boon duration takes you to 145% of base vs. 130% of base. So whatever boons you’re getting before, add 10% to them and a little more, and that’s what you can expect.
In Scepter builds you’re likely to have a lot of Might and Vigor. In builds were you change attunements a lot you’re likely to have a bunch of shorter-term boons. If you use Glyph of Elemental Healing you get considerable boons (probably Regeneration) from that. If you trait Auras, of course, you’re all about boons.
Those are the cases when the runes might shine.
It’s possible that with my Staff in zergs the runes are sub-optimal.
I didn’t realize fire elementals had blast finishers. Nice.
I would have put the difference between lesser and greater elementals in damage at closer to 20%, but we’re in the same range. I use the dummies in Lion’s Arch near the Mists portals and keep my eyes open.
The greater elementals do also have more skills, at least in the case of the Water guy, whose heals are pretty substantial. (Think 6K or so.)
And to add to what I just posted:
1. Mainly I had green armor and jewelry. I’ve begun to earn my rare/exotic stuff, but I’ve done so in the Cursed Shore.
2. I’ve generally used exotic weapons in the Cursed Shore.
I don’t move well. But even as a stand-still player, I’d say “one-shot” is exaggerated. There’s time to defend and/or heal.
Now, if you’re ganked by too many mobs and can’t escape, there are problems. I die a lot, given how I play. But soloing, including in Orr, is pretty straightforward as long as you don’t often have to fight more than 2 mobs at once. (When I have to fight 3 mobs I make heavy use of my cooldowns.)
I play alternatively with staff, scepter/dagger, and scepter/focus. Given that I’m immobile, I’ve barely tried dagger mainhand.
Maybe I missed it, but even an elementary guide should put more stress on self-comboing with blast finishers.
In particular, there are three different ways to do that with staff Water fields:
- Arcane Wave in a utility slot.
- The trait Evasive Arcana (which makes every dodge roll into a blast finisher).
- The Earth still Eruption (check whether you typed the name correctly above).
Also, self-comboing in a fire field for Might is central to scepter-based builds, and important in other weapon sets as well. Whatever your offhand, put down your #4 Fire skill before Dragon’s tooth, and you get 3 long-lasting stacks of Might, which is like a 3-5% boost to overall DPS (including condition damage). Several other options add to that fun — Arcane Wave for sure, Phoenix in some cases, Earth skills with dagger offhand if you force the issue. With other ways of boosting Might, it’s common to have 8-10 stacks or more, and I’ve had 18 stacks when soloing multiple times within the past day.
I usually miss with Fire Grab when I’m standing still.
Hiya,
I disagree with the disparagement of Glyph of Lesser Elementals. I find the pets last a long time in most scenarios, and indeed sometimes win fights that they conduct entirely on their own. So the tank/damage combination is powerful. That’s without ascribing much value to their additional capabilities, which I indeed do not, although if I’m running without fighting I’ll take a chance on the Air one in hopes of some Swiftness.
Glyph of Elementals, however, is inferior to Glyph of Lesser Elementals if you’re just looking at the Fire or Air options. Why? Because the elementals aren’t that much better, and the cooldowns are much less favorable. On the other hand, the Water Elemental is indeed a strong healer along with its other virtues.
Since I carry GoEH, GoLE, and GoE alike, it’s an easy choice to slot Quick Glyphs, which is only a Tier 1 trait.
Also, a high fraction of the time one can use GoEH in Water. If you need a heal, swap to Water, getting that heal and other benefits. Those could include Regeneration, direct healing and/or a condition/clear, some of them AoE, depending on how you’re traited). They also can include access to further healing and so on from weapon skills.
Then go quickly to another attunement, except in special cases where it actually makes sense to fight in Water for a while.
Every piece of gear you have should be green or better. Trading Post prices for most green gear are only a few coppers more than the price you can sell it back to the vendor for.
Similarly, you should never repair anything except your aquatic helm and back brace, if those. Just buy a new copy on the Trading Post when the old one breaks.
— FC
I’m having a lot of fun as a scepter/dagger glass cannon in landscape PvE, relying heavily on Fire. I have negligible kiting skills, so if I get ganked by too many enemies at once I’ll probably die. But so what?
A single enemy will typically be dead in a few seconds. If I don’t have any pets out to tank, I can blow up a few meleers fast thanks to AoE. Then I heal in Water, and if the ranged attacks aren’t too fierce I have a good chance of beating them.
I’m most likely to die either when I’m faced with a ridiculous number of attackers, or when I do a poor job of noticing that it’s time to somersault out of red circles.