Guild Wars 2

Sorry Moon, I don’t like to post info like that (this is a competitive game after all).

My build works best in small groups (5v5 for example)… in a zerg, staff still seems king. I roam with an Engi friend in RL. You’ll want someone that can stop targets as the S/D build does exceptionally better against immobile targets.

I learned a bunch of technique watching youtube videos on this forum. I particularly liked Lazarast and Kesil 3. In fact, a lot of my build, strategy and sequence uses a hybrid of the two.

I don’t even push buttons when downed in WvW. Sure if its a 1v1 or something or if it is a close fight… or someone nearby is near dead… I’ll fling some poo their way. But, I just accept my fate when downed.

On the rare event that I am not surrounded by bad guys (such as a keep siege), I can heal some and then maybe mist out. But that event is so uncommon that it can be said our abilities just plain sux.

Ride the lightning (RTL). This is by far the most debilitating and frustrating bug in our arsenal when it comes to PvP and WvW.

Nothing is more frustrating than trying to close the distance to fall short a few meters cuz of a bump in the road. And then you sit there and you’re stuck for a few moments… not only have you announced your arrival with the use of RTL (making everyone around you think “ooo elementalist, quick kill” but the start of your entire DPS sequence is now officially ruined.

The logic should be that if we can clear the “bump” with a jump, the RTL should go right over it.

The loot bag… cannot agree more. I agree 100%. If you are going to get something for killing them it should automatically be looted. Trying to find an itty bitty bag with glowing sparklies in the middle of a massive engagement… sux.

Hehe, cuz size matters? Giggity.

But ya, some swords are ridiculously oversized. But I think that it is kinda neat in an artistic styling.

I do believe that there needs to be some sort of logic in place that keeps the population levels of the servers close within a WvW instance. If not, one side always runs away with it and it becomes a constant leap frog match (aka hot potato). Which is never fun really.

I do S/D Cond Dmg build and fare rather well in WvW. Started the build over the last 4 days. Even managed to solo kill a few thieves (which had always been a major issue with the Might-stacking build I had before). I tried doing the same build with D/D but I did not like it as much. I use D/D for PvE mainly.

The reason I did not like D/D in WvW was because of three reasons:
1) It keeps you too close to your target making you ridiculously squishy vs guards, thieves and warriors.
2) A bunch of abilities are too compact with their hit boxes. The lightning whip comes to mind.
3) Unlike PvE where mobs will group up making F2 and W2 abilities hit multiple targets easier, this sort of situation does not occur so much in WvW.

So, to answer your question… yes, I find S/D condition damage build to be very viable in WvW. My caveats with it are that Staff AoE stuff does not do as much damage and that it DOES take some practice and skill to get it right.

My advice, go to Heart of Mists (press H and select PvP on the left side and click go to heart of mists). Inside of there, go to the area to the north where you can fight 1v1 against AI of each class. Get use to them and what you can do to stop them. Will go a LONG way to defeating them in battle.

Just my 2 copper.

Since the original post deletion didnt delete it and because people will likely come here looking, the idea was to lock transfers from a server to any server that is currently involved in WvWvW with that server.

tried to delete, u r right, it is a duplicate

This happens when the keep is in the process of upgrading. You can tell this is the case because you will get the defend mission to protect the workers while they upgrade the keep. 1 person is more than sufficient to do this mission.

I’ve been having a really hard time finding interest in Thief and Warrior. Ele is fun to play because it can be pumped by putting more thought and effort into it. And I agree that it would be great if the level of thought and effort required would cause us to excel moreso than we do now.

I think the biggest issue I have… so you watch these videos of elems. And yes, we can kick some serious booty. I watched a video yesterday that was awe-inspiring. It gave me hope that our class is not totally useless. I made some changes to my build based on it. Things were good.

But, I will say this. In that video, the player was working his butt off. I mean, attunement switching, making his own combos, hitting keys faster than you can see that he hit em… etc… After all of that work, he still had a great challenge in defeating opponents.

So there in lies the issue I think most elementalists have with teh class. We can start to compete but only once we do everything we can to get there. I mean, we have to spam keys, know cooldowns, know effects, watch the opponent and know what their animations and effects are, etc…. where as, almost any other class can get by without doing all of that work. Now, I don’t mind that all of that work may be needed… but in the end, after doing all of that work, we START to compete. Our damage level and CC ability gets on par with every other class.

One would think that if we expend that much energy, we should exceed the normal dps. After all, we are putting more effort into doing dps than any other class is having to do. So it would only stand to reason that the work/effort should pan out to more dps. shrug

Just my two copper.

80 elem with 54% complete
Teens with 2 other toons.

Hello, I have a question. Has anyone been able to finish the Krytan Explorer Achievement?

Before answering (even if you have 100% exploration), please open the H window, go to Achievements, select Explorer and see what Krytan Explorer is currently listed as. If it does not say 175/175 then you do not have it completed.

Mine has been stuck at 171/175 even though I have explored all of the maps (including jump puzzles). Not sure if I am missing something, if they are bugged, or what…

Thanks.

This is my PvE build sequence. Using D/D.

Start in Earth.
Attune to Air (hits with lightning)
Move towards them to close distance
Once in range, you will begin whipping
Use A3 – grants a stun defense when they hit you
Use A2
Use A5 – interrupts them, knocks em down and counts as an evade
Use A4 – puts you right on top of em again with them on the ground
Attune to Fire (does damage to anything near me)
Use F2 for 1 tick of damage (adds burning) – unless multiple targets as it is a full frontal
Use F5 – Fire Grasp – does damage to everything in front of me

Any solo mob is likely already dead. In bigger fights or AOE fights, I would…
You will have aggro by this point, so go ahead and dodge backwards
Use F3 to run through everything and do PBAOE
Use F4
Use Arcane Blast
F2 again for full effect
Switch to Water
W2 for full effect (full frontal)
W3 to chill everything around you
Most likely W5 to help with healing unless you’re doing quite well
Switch to Air (lightning strike)
A2
A3 – if you are taking damage
A4 – aoe everything around you
Switch to Earth
E4 – interrupts everything and gives you some time to do the next step
Arcane Shield – protects you to finish the next step
E5 – big aoe

Most likely everything is dead now… if not, you can pretty much continue the sequence until completion.

NOTE: I would not recommend this for PvP or WvW.

Most likely, it is like the shock aura which currently only effects hits by melee.

Wish I could get a refund on my slot skills… Purchased a bunch of them and they ended up being useless or terribad… never use em, wouldn’t mind getting the points back to spend on something else (like legendary’s).

ahahahahahahah.

I needed a good laugh to start my day. Thanks.

And yes… I’ll agree that if you are in a group where your side consistently outnumbers the other side and your side has good players… yes, we are definitely overpowered. 0_o

What I find hilarious is that even with all the cards stacked in your favor… your health hovered at 1k for quite a while.

Cave trolls smell a little like mildew. Forest trolls smell like moss. Forum trolls smell like shame and dung.

Anyone have a link to aforementioned blog?

I was originally gonna say the Skales I think (the one’s that invis) but I found that if you treat em like a thief, they die really fast (just spam autoattack).

So, now it would be earth elementals. The insanely long cripple is somewhat ridiculous.

Actually on second thought, I’d have to agree with the dual wielding pistol pirates. That is some serious instagank (I’m an ele).

It really is. Alt is a thief and I remember making the comment last nite over vent that its like cheat mode. You don’t die. You do sick damage. And its 10x easier (no attunement dancing or odd combos).

Nice quality video (as always).

I don’t find myself in a position where I can’t buy something i want… But with the cost of the legendary weapons coming up… that may not be the case anymore.

@Byona – some impressive stats. You take Glass Cannon to the extreme. How do you feel about the survivability? Especially in an WvW situation? sPvP? Do you feel like your damage is on a level competitive with other classes?

Also, why can’t we get to 100% crit chance?

Had to sacrifice some Crit Damage… it use to be up to 67… but I switched a bunch of Crit Damage gear for Toughness gear. So I prioritize on Power, Precision, Toughness… while trying to keep crit damage high.

I am now lvl 80 and I’m beginning to review my stats more carefully and compare them to a friend (who is a lvl 80 engineer).

So far, I gotta say we are lacking a LOT. So… I was wondering what everyone’s stats are and what everyone considers to be good stats.

So, please, reply with what you would consider a good target level for stats or what you currently have. Which ever.

As I am the one asking the question, I don’t know what is a good target level.

Here are mine configured as “glass cannon”:
Power: 1897
Precision: 1950
Toughness: 1410
Vitality: 916

Attack: 2685
Condition Damage: 100
Critical Chance: 53
Critical Damage: 54
Armor: 2165
Health: 11237

Thanks!

Are you sure your siege weapon wasn’t lava font..ed.. as well?

If a mage is in range to put a meteor shower on you, it is highly likely that the same mage was in range for lava font. Lava font is a more directed spell (smaller aoe) and do a fairly sizable amount of damage. And, it has a fast recast. Plus, it can be positioned onto a wall in a way to damage people and siege equipment placed on the wall.

The best defense against meteor shower and lava font is to kill the mage. If you visit the elementalist forums, you will find that we generally believe that this is not a difficult task. For meteor shower, have a ranger friend find the guy with his arm in the air standing perfectly still…. a few shots should do it.

kublai.8694:

Huh? It’s the opposite. Ele is awesome at WvW. They are weak mostly in dungeons because glass cannon kiting builds don’t work (you will get 1 shotted by ranged mobs). When you are forced to spec defensive, damage drops off way below other classes. So you’re basically relegated to support duty and setting up combo fields.

In a dungeon, I actually use Scepter/Dagger. The extra range afforded works well. Gives me more time to switch to defensive skills, etc… Sure, it hurts DPS a lil but it increases survivability.

If the group sucks, I use a Staff… but I rarely find a need for that.

PvP and WvW on the other hand… let’s just say there are a lot of classes that seem to do more damage with more ease than I… and seem to be better able to withstand damage than I.

So ya, I stand by my original statement.

I focus on… Precision, Critical Damage, Power… followed by Toughness/Vitality. But then, I focus on a Might/Critical trait build. They call me Mr. Glass.

What’s sad is that our class is quite capable at PvE… problem is that once you move to PvP and WvW, ya, ur screwed.

It took some practice but I’m in the same boat as others being able to take multiple mobs at the same time… without kiting. I’ve never been a fan of kiting so I never really learned how to do it.

Here’s a simple series that works well for me. I use Dagger/Dagger. Pull attuned to air with ride the lightning. At the end of RTL, use updraft which is an immediate dodge and knocks all opponents near you down. While using updraft, switch to fire (can’t remember skill name but its #3)… use #3 to get back to the middle of the fight… #3 ends with an AOE effect and is one of our biggest Direct Damage abilities. Now, if there are multiple targets use fire ring and fire grasp, begin to autoattack and position yourself so that all the mobs are in front you. Then hit number 2… be sure to hit everything in front of you. At this point, you may have taken some damage (you’ve been totally offensive up till this point) so switch to water and cast your healing glyph…if the situation is really tough (5 or more mobs), I also use Arcane Shield at this time to protect me while I heal. While in water, go ahead and hit #2 again to hit everything in front of you. If you need extra health, hit #5. Water’s primary attack is an automatic aoe in front of you (in a line) so it doesn’t hurt to stay here if the situation warrants it… but also realize that it is one of the weaker auto attacks. At this point, I switch back to air. Use Updraft to knock everything on its butt and then hit RTL to get to your target and begin whipping on it again. Be sure to spam 2 and 3 when they are up anytime u are attuned to air. They are fast casts. Usually by now, everything is dead for me. But your results may vary based on traits.

Hope that helps.

Cave trolls smell kind of mildewy… jungle trolls smell a lot like compost and dirt… forum trolls smell like shame and a steaming pile of crap… The OP wreaks of the latter.

My understanding (I have not verified yet) is that the “weapon swap” event occurs when you change attunements.

Agree with this post. Last nite I actually made the comment that I wish I could use a Utility ability instead of an Elite ability in the number 10 slot.

In PvE, Elemental is great. It works fine for what it is (a DoT or damage over time for those not quite aware). Don’t expect anything else out of it and you won’t be disappointed. It won’t tank, it won’t do much else. I try to cast it in Fire attunment for the high damage or Water attunment for the healing it provides (which is almost too low to even consider).

In PvP, the elemental is worthless. The Tornado was great for like the first day when people did not realize what it was. Now, you turn into a tornado in WvW you’ll die faster… guaranteed. Plus, it takes forever to change into Tornado form dwindling its usefulness. Needless to say, I rarely hit the elite skill in PvP or WvW. It’s just an empty spell slot to me.

The fix? I see a lot of people complaining (and I’m prolly one of em) that the elementalist is a glass cannon who is more glass than cannon… change our elite skill to be a long reuse direct damage ability.

I keep playing the Elem cuz its my highest level character until I can get my warrior and thief up in level. shrug

Great lists. Love the bug list as you are absolutely correct on all of them. I initially thought that the switching to air attunement bug you mentioned was the lighting auto-cast. But you mentioned it wasn’t and I think you’re correct now. I will try it tonite and see (I’ll clear my traits out of air and stand next to a yellow and switch to air and see what happens).

Please add this bug: Fall damage is still applied when in mist form (we are supposed to be invulnerable). Also Obsidian Flesh does not seem to mitigate fall damage. In both cases, one would think that fall damage would be effected.

And ya, your suggestions are pretty good too. I would add that our elite skills need some love. Tornado Form is a little flaky… never sure when I’m throwing people back or not. Plus, we can still take enormous damage while in tornado form… so couple that with the huge cast time for it and it loses a lot of functional usefulness in PvP. The long cast time on the elemental makes it an almost forgotten ability in PvP. I rarely even remember it is there. Plus without any direct control over it, it is practically worthless. It is bad when you’re playing and you say “wow, I wish I could switch out my elite skill slot for another utility skill.” in vent or chat. But often, I feel that way.

Raedwulf.3712:

Ummmm… why? On any class, I don’t have 5 of each type of weapon in my bag. I know what I prefer & I salvage or vendor anything that isn’t up to spec (haven’t yet found a shield skill I’d waste bag space on on any class, for example). I don’t wish to sound ad hominem, but you are starting to sound as though you want an EZ mode button (in a small way, I’ll grant you)!

No my point is, that you are in a dungeon or you are roaming an outdoor zone with a group or something… or even worse… in WvW. Action is constant, you don’t get a chance to stop and go through bags and say… oo that’s an upgrade or… oo I think i’ll salvage that (although, I have been selling most items instead of salvaging lately).

So you get bags and bags (I’m on 12’s right now, it’ll only get worse with 15’s) full of stuff. You have to keep 2 daggers, a sceptor, a focus and a staff… if you have more than 1 of each of those items (2 for daggers) than you have to figure out which item is which while switching. The list in the H window just puts them all there.

It is a matter of convenience. Why should we be penalized for inventory management when every other class gets an ability of convenience? Again, I am not asking for in combat switching…

Think of it like this… there is a cooldown for a when a warrior switches gear during combat (15s or something like that)… however, if the warrior is not in combat, there is no cooldown. All we’re asking is the same ability… to switch, out of combat, without a cooldown of having to scrounge around your bags.

EQ2 implemented something similar to prevent people from kiting. I don’t remember this being an issue originally, but now I do notice it. It is as if they enabled it since early release.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/Level-scaling-for-dungeons-is-absurd

This topic has been covered already today. Just linking for reference. The point of leveling is no longer a measure of one’s awesomeness. This is a feature that I strongly support. Leveling has been the crux that most MMO’s rely on and it has gotten ridiculous. Leveling in GW2 comes across more as a indication of one’s progress than one’s abilities. You get access to more areas of the map, more dungeons, etc… but your level of awesomeness still requires you to supply it.

Win for GW2!

RJMazz and everyone else that assumes that they understand what the topic is about… please realize we are referring to an Out of Combat gear switch. This is just an ease of use feature and not a game mechanic feature.

Other games resolve this same issue with macros (a la EQ2) that allow you to switch gear easily.

Edit: The issue really gets bad when you’ve been roaming an area for a long period of time and have 5 different types of weapons in your bags of each kind that you can use. Then you have to figure out which one is the one that you prefer… takes time and is just inconvenient.

Ya, it is not changing any game mechanics here. Just an ease of use thing. Hitting H and right-clicking the items you want and selecting equip/equip in off hand… just takes a lot of effort to do.

/signed

The reason why level scaling works…

At level 60, I went with a guildmate who was level 30… another guild mate at level 57… and a final guild mate at 51. We picked up one other random person. Did the entire story mode for the zone and it was quite enjoyable. Even crazier? I got an upgrade to one of my armor slots while in there.

Leveling in this game matters for one simple reason: it opens up content. That’s really it. And it is brilliant. No longer are players mismatching levels with their friends… feeling overwhelmed by having to do a massive level grind in order to keep up with a friend… etc… That is extremely refreshing in an MMORPG and I applaud ArenaNet for a refreshing view on leveling.

On our server, prolly Norn is least played (I play a Norn). Hoelbrak is never instanced while all of the other race’s cities are.

I see tons of mesmers. Prolly run into them more than not. But I rarely see engineers.

That is a good guide. Especially the important part about planning around attunement cooldown (which I neglected to mention in my earlier post). So ya, read that guide and you should have a better idea what to do.

Don’t forget to switch attunements. When using double daggers, I use fire, ice and air quite a lot. If a big hitting ability is down on one of them, I switch to another that I know has recycled.

Focus on Power and Precision at lower levels. I also felt I wasn’t doing a lot of damage until about 12 or so. From then on, I notice when I hit a mob and it is quite fulfilling.

I was able to do this originally… for the first portions of the quest. However, I think if you are on different parts of the same quest, you can’t join. A friend and I were not able to join each other’s for a few quests. Have not tried again since. But it was the part where you join one of the 3 factions.

To further FatManski’s point about surroundings… if you are fighting something ranged and are losing… dodge or quickly move behind another object (such as a tree or rock or wall)… this will force your target to move to fight you giving you some needed time to heal or whatever.

And since everyone else is doing it… I’ve been placing points in Air, Fire and Arcane. At level 55, I am getting close to having to pick one to really specialize in. Be sure to read the special selectable glyph things in the trait tree. They are very interesting. When something references an “Arcane” skill for example, you can see what those are by hovering over the skill and seeing the word “Arcane” in yellow before the description. This word can be “cantrip”, “glyph”, etc… Those keywords are important to understand. Also, in large group fights where lots of mobs are coming, nothing seems to beat a staff. Normal PvE in dungeons and such is a sceptor and focus/dagger combo. Normal outdoor roaming is usually double dagger.

Be sure to understand every ability you have. For example, one of my favorites is the dagger ice primary attack. Its a boomerang that flies out and comes back as long as it doesn’t hit any rocks/trees or anything. It does damage to every target it strikes as it goes out and comes back… it is not as damaging as some other abilities but every time the boomerang hits a target it also adds a vulnerability counter. So angle is very important when attuned ice with a dagger. Also, your fire breath and dragon claw abilities in dagger hits everything in front of you.

We may be made of glass but we’re sharp and jagged.

Changing attunements is important. Here’s how you know… if you look at your bar and you think “wow I wish ability X was ready already”, you prolly should have switched attunements.

Unlike other MMO’s you should really be watching the mob very closely. Watch what they do. See the animation of them throwing their arms back? That may mean they are about to throw something at you… be ready to dodge. Dodge is the biggest asset we get. What’s more, some attunement/weapon combos afford us an additional dodge (such as Burning Retreat). Great for those emergencies.

With all of that being said, I agree that ele’s need to have a slight damage bonus. Being as squishy as we are should have the bonus of being all powerful in the field of damage.