Guild Wars 2

I doubt this could be classified as a bug, but shouldn’t the trait Cantrip Mastery (-20% reduced cool down on cantrips) reduce the internal cool down of Earth’s Embrace (proc Armor of Earth at 50% health)? Currently, it’s set at 90 seconds.

Stability does not appear when hovering over the earth attunement with the trait Rock Solid. It does work with elemental attunement and arcane fury.

“Cleansing Water: Remove a condition when granting regeneration to yourself or an ally. Conditions removed: 1.”

I had a necromancer cast signet of spite to inflict me with 6 conditions. Immediately afterwards I activated healing rain (a water field) followed by conjure frost bow and frost volley (6 x projectile finishers); giving me 6 x regeneration.

However, granting myself regeneration in this way does not trigger cleansing water’s condition removal, as only 2 conditions were cleansed in this process, i.e., only those removed by healing rain.

Is this by design, or is it a bug? Some clarification, please.

From an elementalist perspective, all classes are unbalanced, with warriors being the most egregious example. From the warrior’s perspective, most classes are balanced, and perhaps they’d concede that some classes require a bit more love and attention than others… e.g., the elementalist. These views on balance are neither correct nor incorrect, but relative to what people play most consistently in the current meta.

As such, most of you are arguing semantics. Claiming "most classes are overpowered " is equivalent with saying “a few classes are underpowered.” Fundamentally, I think we all agree that the majority of professions are in a good place at the moment: warriors, guardians, mesmers, necromancers, thieves, engineers, and rangers. All of these classes are viable in tournament play, and all of them bring something unique to a match.

The anomaly is clearly the elementalist. This is why you will find the greatest amount of grief and criticism on that subforum. Once people see and understand that, it will be clear what needs to happen. The solution is not to nerf warriors or anyone else, but to plead with arenanet to bring the elementalist back to a respectable level.

Tyler Chapman.1832:

Seems to be working for me. Do you have any more details on what exactly is happening for you? You are casting flame wall and then using magnetic wave inside the wall, correct?

I’ve retested it by standing directly inside the flamewall (and an inch or two outside it as well) and it does work. My apologies, this is not a bug. However, I must say the small width of flame wall combined with the similarly tiny radius of magnetic wave is making this blast quite difficult to pull off in an actual fight.

Cast flamewall followed by magnetic wave (a blast finisher) within the indicated radius (180), and you will see that no might stacking is produced. I’m unsure if the blast finisher of magnetic wave is defective with all combo fields, or just flamewall in particular. I do know that magnetic wave functioned correctly before the patch.

I believe the difficulty of the current ranking system should remain as is it. Rank in pvp is far more significant than the easy grinding to 80 that goes on in pve. Rank is something requiring an enormous amount of time and dedication. It’s the only reward in pvp worth taking any pride in. Replacing this with a dumbed down system, where everyone can get to 80, or one that undermines the investments made by the current player base, will be an utter disaster; mark my words. It should stand as is to demonstrate one’s long-term achievements. Accordingly, the rewards for these achievements should be increased (e.g., access to unique skins, finishers, account privileges, and so on).

I’d also like to see all non-rank related tournament chests given the chance to produce their own unique set of skins (those not specifically assigned to one’s ranking; e.g., frozen, zodiac, destroyer, and so on), finishers (including permanent finishers), perhaps even coin, gems, or some other currency. Tournament chests should be completely reworked to have some value to players. As they stand right now, their only value comes from salvaging/forging them into unidentified dyes. This is hugely wasted potential.

Glory, as another poster mentioned, could be used as the main currency for accessing a variety of skins, finishers, etc., while simultaneously removing the RNG element. I like this option quite a bit, but I think I would still prefer it if glory could be used to acquire gems, gold, crafting material, or some other valuable in-game currency. If pve and wvw players are able to enjoy these things, I don’t see why pvp are left in the cold.

From an elementalist perspective:

The Good

Immobilize stacking was a brilliant addition. With this mechanic in place, I can finally use arcane power and elemental surge in a useful and productive way. I don’t agree with the naysayers who claim this is going to ruin the game. I believe it’s having the opposite effect in fact, as it indirectly benefits a certain type of build for eles; perhaps the least viable profession in competitive pvp. I’m sure other examples can be found, where this mechanic has been of great help to other underutilized builds/classes.

Staff changes for the elementalist are all very positive. I still find it too cumbersome to be effective in higher level pvp, but I think it’s a serious step in the right direction.

The new conjures are all quite interesting, especially the new ice bow. I’m very happy about this change in particular, as it makes me more effective as an elementalist. I do see the viability of the ice bow in competitive pvp. I’m less sure about the conjure earth shield, flame axe, and lightning hammer, although it remains to be seen what other players come up with. I’ll wait and see before casting my judgment.

The Bad

The changes were simply too mild to bring the needed balance we’ve called for.

The Missing

I’m highly disappointed that nothing has been done to address our innately inferior vitality and toughness. This is a deep imbalance that needs to be addressed. There is no shortage of good reasons for why this cannot stand in the current state of pvp. Our ability to switch attunements is not reasonable compensation for lower vitality and toughness. For one thing, while we have more potential skills at our disposal, our cool downs on those skills are much higher than other professions. Another factor that mitigates our larger skill pool is the fact that, in the course of an actual fight, there is an opportunity cost attached to our use of these skills. What this all means in practice is that we have an equivalent set of skills as other professions. It doesn’t matter if we have more of them than others if we can’t use them to an equal extent. Add to this, the fact that other professions have their own unique abilities: mesmers get shatters, necros get deathshroud, warriors get burst skills, engis get toolbelt skills, and etc. So, can someone please explain to me what justifies this balance? If it cannot be justified, as I believe it cannot, the vitality and toughness of elementalists should be increased. This change alone, I have little doubt, would satisfy the majority of the ele community.

Another problem with this patch was the lack of attention to overpowered builds and classes. Let me put it this way, if the highest dps build/class in the game cannot win in a 1v1 situation against an equally skilled player, using a defensive build (bunker), there is a deep imbalance in the game. If it takes 2-3 players to down a single guardian or warrior then you’ve essentially made the game unplayable, as you will have to match the other team, bunker for bunker, to compensate for the disadvantage. If you have a team, for example, composed of 3 skilled bunkers, then either you require at least 6-9 players to respond to them properly, or you must match them 1 to 1 and hope to capture the point before they do. This has the effect of forcing the meta into adopting a high number of bunkers, devaluing and fracturing the viability of other builds and classes, each with their own unique contribution to make. Until something is done to address the asymmetry of power between bunkers and dps classes, the meta will be dominated by a monotonous bunker or die mentality that is truly unhealthy for the game.

I use scepter/focus and do massive burst using fresh air/frost bow. I won’t explain how, exactly, but rest assured, it puts all you scepter/dagger, dagger/dagger noobs to shame.

1) Rewards and progression (as we already received 1 balance patch recently, I think we should begin focusing on rewards and progression as soon as possible).
2) Balance/new traits & skills (this is just as important as #1, but given the numerous changes on October 15th, I think we should take more of a wait and see approach)
3) New game modes (these would be wonderful, but I don’t see them as essential at the current time)

Noticed this works when carrying the orb in Spirit Watch. Hopefully, that’ll stay in the game, as it’s the only useful effect I can find for this trait…

Don’t know about you guys, but I’m more than a little kitten ed right now. Take a look at arcane power and arcane wave, both of those skills have had their base damage reduced by nearly 20-25%, which means 40-50% for crit damage. These skills used to have a base damage of nearly 900 with zerk amulet, now they have a base of 685. Is this some kind of sadistic joke? I know I’m not making a mistake here.

What makes this even more disturbing is the fact that they actually buffed warriors even further, giving them even more healing power. So you give an already overpowered class even more power, and nerf the least viable of all the classes. This is absurd!

Josh Davis.6015:

Skills like Super Speed and traits like One With Air set movement speed to the cap. The difference between out-of-combat swiftness and the movement speed cap is very small and won’t be very noticeable.

You’ll mostly notice the effectiveness of these skills when you’re in-combat, as you will be considerably faster than someone with swiftness. It will also reduce the effectiveness of chilled and crippled while under the effects of Super Speed type movement buffs.

Hope that clears things up!

I have to agree with the other posters. This was false advertising. What good is 100% increased movement speed if it doesn’t apply to straffing, dodge, backpedals, leaps, evasive rolls. That’s what makes up the majority of combat mobility, not forward movement speed. It doesn’t even apply outside of combat. And it last for 1.5 seconds. This is completely useless. You guys have ruined an amazing idea here. Quite honestly, you’ve made a mistake.

DiogoSilva makes a great point. I’d like to see the range of flame leap increased as well.

I was deeply cynical about the state of the ele previous to any announced balancing changes, and cautiously optimistic after hearing the patch preview/livestream. Now, I’m quite literally thrilled by what the devs have done to improve our profession.

Let’s not underplay what the devs have accomplished in this patch. It’s quite clear that we received the most love and attention relative to the other professions. A host of new quality of life changes (better skill and player targeting, condition floaters, immobilize stacking, the fix to tornado + lyssa runes, etc), while not directly addressing the ele, will have significant impacts on our ability to play our profession well.

The changes to staff are impressive (a host of increases to our blast radii, bug fixes, tool tip updates, faster projectile velocity, a completely new and very useful skill on earth #4, higher base heal on water blast, new animations, and etc.).

The changes to conjured weapons are profound. I’ve always liked conjures, and unlike some players, have used them successfully in competitive tpvp. Previous to this patch, the majority opinion had been that conjures were cool, but out shined by the relative benefits of other utilities (mainly cantrips). However, with these changes, I think players will receive just enough benefits to finally see the true viability of using a conjure. Ice bow, earth shield, flame axe, and lightning hammer, offer so much utility now that you’d be silly not to seriously consider them in your next build.

And let’s not forget superspeed (especially in a fresh air build)… If this were the only change to the ele in this patch, I’d still be mildly satisfied. I think this is precisely the kind of boost to our combat mobility we’ve been needing to help engage/disengage in those clutch situations. I, for one, will be traiting this skill immediately.

Let it be recognized then, that the devs have listened to our complaints and feedback, and have taken appropriate action by affording us with a unique and interesting set of tools to help us compete. Let’s not act like a bunch of spoiled children and pretend they don’t care about balance, or have some vicious hatred toward eles. Let’s stop the moaning and QQ’ing, for just a little while, and give Arenanet the +1 they deserve for this incredible update.

Zelyhn.8069:

The meteors’radius was increased by blasting staff

I don’t think so. As I said, it’s not the meteor shower’s area of effect radius, but the blast radius of each meteor that was increased. If blasting staff increased the aoe radius AND blast radius, it still wouldn’t explain the increase. Remember, blasting staff increases the radius of staff skills by 60 units. Currently, the blast radius is 90, with blasting staff it would only be 150, not 180, as indicated in the livestream. So, at the very least, it was bumped up by 30 units, similar to fireball and water blast.

No need to respond. We’ve made out, finally.

Ok, this is a very unusual bug. Me and my team, as well as the other team, are trapped in a pvp tournament (in temple of the silent storm). We’ve been trapped here and can’t escape! It’s been like this for the past hour and it doesn’t seem to end no matter what we try. I can log out of my main character, but it still says that I’m in a tournament. What can we do?

Is there anyone online that can help us?

Malcastus.6240:

I don’t think it’s 6 seconds. I went back and watched the video again and saw (pretty sure) 2½ seconds protection per person pulled. That was with 30 arcane, I believe. We’ll see tomorrow.

It was actually 7 1/2 with 30 arcana; 6 seconds without.

So, I caught a glimpse at a couple changes not mentioned explicitly in today’s stream. I paused the video at several points and noticed the following:

Meteorshower’s damage radius (not storm radius) was increased to 180 from 90. I’ve always felt something was off about meteorshower since the last patch update because it was doing drastically less damage than before. If this means what I think it means, the blast radius from each meteor has been doubled; or increased by 30 units like fireball.

I found some of the changes to conjure earth shield quite interesting:

The old conjure earth shield reads as follows:

1. Shield smack: smack your foe with the magnetic shield (130 range). CT=3/4s / CD=0.
2. Crippling shield: throw your shield in a line, crippling struck foes (900 range, 2s cripple) CT=3/4s / CD=8s.
3. Magnetic surge: unleash a magnetic force, surging at your opponent and dazing them (2s daze) CT=3/4s / CD=12.
4. Magnetic shield: pull your foes to you with magnetic force (600 radius, 600 range) CT=1 1/2s / CD=25.
5. Fortify: use magnetism to envelop yourself in a shield, becoming invulnerable (3s invulnerability).

The new conjure earth shield reads:

1.1. Shield smack: smack your foe with the magnetic shield (130 range, 1 stack of bleed for 6s) CT=1/2s / CD=0s.
1.2. Shield smash: smash your foe with the magnetic shield (130 range, 2 stacks of bleed for 6s) CT=3/4s / CD=0.
1.3. Crippling shield: throw your shield in a line, crippling struck foes (450 range, 2s cripple) CT=3/4s / CD=0.
2. Stone sheath: block the next attack and cause bleeding to foes around you (240 radius, 3 stacks of bleed for 6s) CT=2 1/2s / CD=8s.
3. Unchanged
4. Magnetic shield: pull your foes to you with magnetic force. Gain protection for each pulled foe (400 pull, 600 radius, unblockable, 6s protection per foe) CT=1 1/2s / CD=25.
5. Unknown.

That’s a whole lot of protection from the #4 skill. That along with the block on the #2 combined with the large stacks of bleed off #1 and #2, makes for a pretty impressive build option I’d say. I’ll be even more blown away if they improved the #5 skill.

Hopefully, all of the conjures were reworked to a similar extent. If so, I’d say this is an extremely favorable patch for the pvp ele. fingers crossed

^ 6.5/10

This is what my ele looks like in pve and pvp.

A little background… I’ve mained an elementalist for over 6 months. Over that time I’ve played a considerable amount of casual and competitive pvp (currently rank 45). Yes, I’m frustrated with the state of the profession in this area of the game. Yes, I think it’s a real problem and that anet is largely at fault. And yes, I don’t think they take our criticisms very seriously. I’m not sure if this is due to a lack of experience or interest on the part of the devs, or if it’s the intricacies of the profession itself, that are hindering a proper response to this issue. But the ele is most certainly not ok. This upcoming patch, and surely the one to follow, will do very little that I can see to improve this state of affairs. All I can do is suggest a few changes, informed by my own experiences, and the experiences of those I’ve played with. I have zero expectation that any of this will ever happen.

Staff

Fire

• Fireball: Decrease cast time from 1 to 3/4 second and increase the velocity by 20%. Lower base damage slightly.
• Lavafont: Add an eruption immediately after casting and/or apply 1 second of burning per tick.
• Flameburst: Add a burst effect within a small radius (90-120) for aoe damage.
• Meteor Shower: Increase impacts between meteors (make it closer to firestorm) and/or increase base damage.

Water

• Water Blast: Increase aoe healing impact radius to 360 and increase velocity by 20%.

Air

• Chain Lightning: Move this to the #2 skill. Increase base damage to match a 6-8 second cool down.
• Lightning Surge: Move this to the #1 skill. Increase cast time to 3 seconds and turn it into a channeling skill.
• Gust: Move this to the #4 skill. Rather than push foes in a line, it releases a cone-shaped aoe knockback. Increase cool down to 40 seconds.
• Windborne Speed: Move this to the #3 skill.

Earth

• Stoning: Increase velocity by 20%. Decrease weakness duration from 3 to 2.5 seconds.
• Shockwave: Increase immobilize duration to 2.5 seconds. Increase bleeding from 1 to 4 stacks. Increase duration to 40 seconds.

Scepter

Fire

• Flamestrike: Decrease cast time from 1 ¼ to 1 second.

Water

• Ice Shards: Add 20% projectile finisher.
• Shatterstone: Make it explode after 1 second rather than 2. Increase radius from 180 to 240.
• Water Trident: In addition to to healing it also applies regeneration. Increase radius from 180 to 240.

Earth

• Stone Shards: Increase bleeding duration from 6 to 8 seconds.

Dagger

Fire

• Fire Grab: Make it easier to land this attack successfully.

Water

• Vapor Blade: Increase vulnerability duration from 6 to 8 seconds. Increase base damage.

Air

• Lightning Touch: Add a 2 second daze.
• Ride the Lightning: Increase range from 1,200 to 1,500.

Earth

• Impale: Increase range from 300 to 600.

Focus

Fire

• Flamewall: Double the effective width of the flamewall.
• Fireshield: Grant an additional 3 stacks of might when cast.

Water

• Freezing Gust: Increase base damage.
• Comet: Make it easier to land this attack successfully.

Air

• Swirling Winds: Add aoe swiftness.
• Gale: Increase knockdown duration from 2 to 3 seconds.

Conjured Weapons

General

• Remove charges.
• Make conjured weapons a secondary weapon set.
• Allow them to be cast instantly (like engineer kits).

BlackBeard.2873:

Yea, the skill-ceiling on the ele is VERY high. However, there is the whole risk vs reward thing. Even playing at the skill-ceiling you will be barely par with other classes played at the mid-level. You literally have to outplay your opponents just to keep up.

Couldn’t agree more, sadly.

cheshirefox.7026:

just figured this out, huh?

Honestly, I see a lot of crying on this forum, and find most of it irritating. This is not me venting my emotional dissatisfaction. This is me giving an honest appraisal of the ele after playing the class almost exclusively for 6 months, the majority of which has been in pvp.

Let me start by saying that I love playing my elementalist. It’s possibly the most visually stimulating, complex, and challenging class I’ve had the pleasure to experience in GW2. In particular, I’ve spent a lot of time trying to master the profession in spvp/tpvp (currently rank 43). Until recently, it’s been my opinion that the ele is “fine”; not especially underpowered or overpowered relative to other classes. Until recently… I’ve attributed most of my failures to my own mistakes and imperfections as a player. “The elementalist is potentially very powerful,” I said, “if only I could coordinate my attacks just a bit better,” or “if I could just find the right build,” I kept telling myself. I told myself these things over and again even after being defeated by some very inexperienced players.

I am now ready to admit, however, that I’ve been disillusioned about the state of the elementalist in spvp/tpvp. I believe the devs are suffering from the same misplaced idealism. I want to be clear when I say that the elementalist is only “potentially” balanced. It is potentially balanced if you can time your attunements perfectly, memorize every cool down and build, master every skill combo, keep track of every boon and condition on yourself, your allies, and your enemies, avoid all the potentially devastating aoe fields in your vicinity, anticipate your opponent’s invisibility/invulnerability/block, and somehow… magically target your enemy in a sea of clones/phantasms, minions, pets/spirits, and etc. If you can do all that, you’re certainly a better player than I. Unfortunately for me, and the vast majority of players, this potential “balance” evaporates under the fact that it requires an inhuman skill level to reach it. In psychological terms, there is simply too much cognitive load to play the elementalist effectively in a competitive pvp context. That is the main problem to my mind.

It’s well known that the combat system in GW2 is complicated. We like this for the most part, I think, as it adds a high level of challenge and personal satisfaction to the game. However, when it comes to the elementalist vis-à-vis other professions this complexity becomes unmanageable. This is an intangible aspect of the game that isn’t spoken of very often. But please consider the amount of effort required to create this kind of confusion. The necromancer easily summons his minions, the ranger his pets/spirits, the mesmer his clones/phantasms, and the thief can drop into invisibility at any time. In each case there is very little skill required, and yet each one is able to generate this immense confusion for other players. What is the cost of these game mechanics? None that I can see. The mesmer, necro, ranger, and thief can all dawn full berserker and retain their survivability due to their abilities. Warriors, guardians, and engineers, on the other hand, can cope with these mechanics fairly well. For one thing they have higher base defensive attributes, and can attain a reasonable balance between dps and survivability. What does the elementalist get? The lowest base armor and vitality rating, which forces us into a purely defensive support build that renders our damage output meaningless, or a full offensive burst build that spells instant death in almost every pvp scenario. The hard truth is that there is no middle ground for the elementalist. There is no way to make up for the massive advantages that have been so generously afforded to the other professions.

Make whatever excuses you want, Arenanet, but this is not my fault as a player. This is your fault, for not taking seriously the difficulties we face in a pvp environment.

BlackBeard.2873:

I would really like to see this build in action, because many of those utilities are unviable, and your complete lack of stability/only 1 stun-break makes you unable to deal with condi or power-burst (no health, even though you have some toughness). How do you even land anything on a good thief, deal with ranger spirits/evade spam, or survive vs. a stun-lock warrior who can ignore your condies. I only bring up these classes b/c they are the most common right now.

I think it comes down to execution: How you chain your skills together, and how quickly you can move between attunements. I’ll give you an example:

1. starting in air, blinding flash + lightning strike
2a. earth, glyph of storms/sandstorm
2b. optional, sometimes I’ll use obsidian flesh to protect my frost bow attacks.
3. frostbow, either ice storm or deep freeze depending on the situation.
4. once frozen, 5 seconds, I’m free to move into fire uninterrupted
5. in 5 seconds I tend to go ice storm (50% self-interrupt), flamewall, pheonix, flame shield, dragon’s tooth (2 blast finishers), air gale (knockdown while coming out of deep freeze), another blinding flash + lightning strike, water, comet (3rd blast finisher and chain interrupt), freezing gust, earth, magnetic wave (4th blast)
6. at this point I’ll either go into a healing rotation, blast them down with more condis, or hit tornado (to let skills cd and uncap point).

Note that I have several stun breakers/evasive maneuvers: several blinds, arcane shield x 2, earth’s embrace, swirling winds/magnetic wave (against projectile), obsidian flesh, and dodge obviously. With my high toughness, healing power, and condi removal the low vitality is a non-issue, in my experience. It will be very hard to 12k damage, my full health bar, without me getting the chance to evade/cleanse/heal/interrupt. The whole point is to maintain control of the fight. You should be the one locking the enemy, not the other way around.

BlackBeard.2873:

Wait, you play focus in pvp (lol), in a mode other than hot-join? And you aren’t insta-ganked from thieves or signet of spite condi-bombed from necros? I have tried focus for the condi-cleanse on earth 4, but could just never actually deal enough damage to kill anything, and couldn’t last as long as /D without movement or healing. Can you give some idea of your spec and where you are actually using it effectively?

No, I do quite well… I get ganked by necros frequently, but that’s about it. After much experimenting with different builds, I’ve settled on scepter/focus as the best option.

My three primary stats are:

• 1455 condition damage
• 3 109 armor
• 744 healing power

Traits: 0/0/30/10/30

• Earth: earth’s embrace, serrated stones, diamond skin.
• Water: cleansing wave
• Arcana: final shielding, elemental attunement, evasive arcana.

Utilities: ether renewal, arcane shield, glyph of storms, and frost bow.

Sigils: geomancy and superior corruption.

This is a heavily defensive/cc oriented build that excels in uncapping points and playing the bunker/support role. Offensively, though, my main skill rotation has the effect of stun locking a single target for 9+ seconds while executing 4 blast finishers and massive burning/bleeding. This and other tactics will murder many players cold. That’s all I’ll say.

Look, if you really wanted to, you could use doom sigil for added poison (+ increased condi duration from fire, runes, and sigil of venom). It’s entirely possible to have burning, bleeding, and poison on your foe at the same time. Example: glyph of storms (while attuned to earth, inflict bleeding) flamewall, fireshield, phoenix, flamestrike, and dragon’s tooth all for fire, sigil of geomancy/doom to inflict bleeding/poison on swap, gale, stone shards, ice bow, ice storm for more bleeding. Factor in the condi duration from fire/runes/sigils, and you can maintain all 3.

BlackBeard.2873:

I understand what you are trying to say, but have you actually tried using the skills you proposed. Ether Renewal is not viable at even mid-level pvp as the long channel makes it a “kill me now” button. You could try to use earth, but that means that you are sitting out of earth so you can actually heal, so your condi ele isn’t stacking one of its condis. Cleansing fire works 1 time, but cannot keep pace with the condis which will just be re-applied in 5s, and is utterly useless against non-condi classes (not even a stun-break).

I use arcane shield, final shielding, earth’s embrace, obsidian flesh, strafing/positioning to prevent channel interrupts. This is an over-hyped QQ non-issue. Cleansing fire is merely one means to cleanse conditions, not the most important means. I rarely use it, personally, but if I were sufficiently motivated to beat a necro/engi, I would use it.

Nova Stiker.8396:

I think you meant to say ‘it works beautifully against bad players.’

Venom thieves, stun lock warriors and terror necros will pretty much destroy you their own condition damage no matter how tanky you are.
Bunker bomber engineers will tank your attacks all day long and troll with self revival.
Don’t get me started with Spirit Rangers.

A condition damage elementalist will never beat my power elementalist, I can even be naked and it will end with a stalemate.

Obviously, your skill level will need to scale to meet your opponent. That has nothing to do with the raw capability of the build relative to other professions.

I have little trouble defeating condi thieves, stun lock warriors, or spirit rangers. I’ll admit the obvious that certain necros and engi builds can be extremely difficult, but then every class has a weakness; this is no disadvantage. With the right modifications, there is no reason this kind of build couldn’t defeat a similarly skilled necro or engi (e.g., using Melandru runes, Ether Renewal, Cleansing Fire, etc).

Please don’t confuse your own experience playing an ele, with mine or anyone else’s. We all have different play-styles and techniques, strengths and weaknesses, etc.

Here’s an idea. If you’re so confident, why not try dueling me in-game? I’ll record it for everyone to see how you killed or stalemated me with your naked power ele. laugh

I have no idea what you guys are complaining about.

I run a condition build using scepter/focus + frost bow in tpvp and have plenty of sustained damage. With 1455 unbuffed condition damage I do 700 damage per tick burning, and around 4-500 damage per tick bleeding. That’s close to 1,800 damage per second on average when combined with my other attacks (semi-buffed from blast finishers, support boons, and etc).

I use shaman’s amulet, diamond skin, and runes of undead to achieve those numbers. Sigils are geomancy and superior corruption.

Keep in mind, this is an extremely defensive build. The primary goal is not to match thieves, warriors, or necromancers in terms of raw damage, but to outlast the enemy using high toughness/healing power + sustained damage.

It works beautifully when played properly.

There have been numerous reports about the disturbing aggro mechanics affecting elementalists in high level dungeon encounters (the problem could be more widespread, I don’t know). What I do know is that something very imbalanced has happened that causes bosses and champion level mobs to target elementalists almost exclusively, making these encounters practically impossible to complete.

We’re all mostly in the dark here, so a dev should really step in to explain to us why this has happened, or if they know it’s a bug, what they plan to do about it.

The forum post is here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Aggro-since-June-26th/first#post2545134

Again, there are many of us out here who would love some help with this one…

This needs to get fixed. I just came from the Svanir fractal and the Ice Elemental was nailing me with lightning strikes and knockdowns every 3 seconds; same deal with the veterans. It was unbearable, I could barely heal and dodge fast enough to survive. I’ve played this very same fractal at least 100+ times and this has never happened to me. My group seemed entirely clueless to the fact that I was drawing all the aggro. This is truly broken and unfair. I hope the devs see this and fix it immediately. This can’t go on for 3+ months… My only char is an ele. What am I supposed to do until this gets settled? Stop playing in dungeons? They’re about to revamp the reward system…. PLEASE FIX THIS!

Thanks Stalefish, I’ve taken your suggestion and have put up a small video montage. Hopefully, this will showcase what I’m trying to accomplish with this build. Keep in mind I’ve been a staff, dagger/dagger, and scepter/dagger ele for a long time. Focus has taken some adjustment. I’m sure with a bit more practice this build will be a lot more effective than illustrated. I’ve done what I could in the limited time available ;-) Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BJrkmuMMvU&feature=youtu.be

Greetings!

I wrote a brief guide introducing my scepter/focus elementalist for those looking into a radical yet viable build for competitive PvP (works well in PvE too). Feel free to let me know what you think, whether friendly or critical, either in this thread or in the comment section on intothemists.com.

Diotima’s Obsidian Archer of Wintery Wrath

As the previous user noted, the Superior Rune of Lyssa’s 6th effect does not work with the elementalist’s tornado. Why is this? To me this is a serious issue as it takes a very interesting build for PvP off the table. It’s been 3 months and this has received no attention. Please do look into this…

I agree with tom.7468, this mini-game is perfect as is. Every game I play I see the same thing: players ignoring the passiflora. I mean, seriously. Learn to outsmart other players by cutting them off from those rations… Remember, they’re a limited resource. If we all competed for these at the beginning there would be far fewer to go around, and overall games would be shorter as we would be forced to attack others for their supplies.

Nothing needs tuning, polishing, or whatever. What needs improvement is people’s understanding of how to play this mini-game.

Some of you simply don’t understand the nature of this mini-game, nor good strategy for that matter. How do you think someone manages to get a stockpile of rations and hide? It’s because those players are out harvesting the many passiflora on the map. It’s your fault as a player for letting them obtain so many rations.

The right strategy would’ve been to cut these players off before they got a chance to fatten themselves up. This is actually telegraphed within the first 30 seconds of the mini-game. Figure out which players are going after rations, then stalk them from a distance. This way you’ll at least have the opportunity to land a well placed tactical strike before they can run away to camp in an obscure location.

Clearly, it takes time to gather 6-10 rations. It also places the player at risk of attack since they’ll need to forgo effective fighting weapons for a larger supply of passiflora. Within that time frame they are extremely vulnerable, and so it’s up to you as a player to become aware of their intentions and actively interfere with them. Of course, some other third party could then do the same to you. And the cycle continues until one of you is left standing.

Meanwhile, you need to avoid mist walkers looking for revenge. If you’ve been turned into one then you should realize that you have many tools at your disposal to take down camping players. Obviously, call target on them if you catch site of them. This will alert all other downed players to their location. You can also use alarm traps for this purpose. Even the person hiding at the top of the jumping puzzle can be taken down with the right planning and just a little cooperation from other players. . .

All of this adds up to a highly complex, unpredictable, and thrilling little mini-game where there is no guaranteed winner. It’s a stunning success by any reasonable person’s standards. A 10/10. So, please, stop trying to improve it with your terrible suggestions.

Truth is, some of you just haven’t had the adrenaline rush that comes from a good win. You haven’t played against all the odds and come out on top. You’re bitter and you came to these forums to vent; where, unsurprisingly, you come to find other sore losers still raging from their last defeat and ready to sympathize with you. “No, it wasn’t us!” “It was that evil game!” “kitten you Anet!” Seriously, just get over it. The game is meant to be hard. But it’s also incredibly rewarding if you stick with it… Play some more… learn why some of us are having the time of our GW2 lives playing this and stop WHINING!

Dan S.7928:

1: The hunger ticks… make it whittle away health at that rate, you have to have more ways to keep it at bay. I searched EVERY crate at four sites in a row and found no food at all, and subsequently perished. That is not a game of skill or strategy, that’s just dumb luck.

There are over a dozen passiflora strewn over the map… These all give you rations and are all clearly indicated on the mini-map… They’re also in the same spots in each game, which makes them strategically important locations to concentrate on. Smart players use the grace period to sneak past others to stock pile rations. If there is only one player gathering passiflora it means they can safely hide in an obscure location after the grace period and avoid detection almost entirely until everyone starves. I’ve won countless games with this strategy. It gets a lot more interesting when most players go after these limited resources. In this situation, you have no better choice but to trip up these other players and fight them for their supplies. It’s a battle of wits, and it gets a hell of a lot more fun and challenging when everyone knows what they’re doing.

Dan S.7928:

2: The headshot mechanics. After getting the “Obstructed!” message several times while shooting in completely open fields, being killed mid-dodge even more times and even twice been shot through solid rock, I’d say the collision detection needs quite a bit of work. And when it DOES hit, it may just say “Hit!” and do the same amount of damage as a regular shot. Frustrating.

I suspect the arrow 5 attack could be slightly buggy at the moment. This has only been a problem for me a total of three times in over 100 games played. First two times happened when my dodge coincided with the arrow’s trajectory, and the last one hit me through a solid wall. At most this a minor bug fix/polishing issue.

Dan S.7928:

3: When it’s ten times easier to score as a ghost, you need to rethink the name “Survivor”. Or at least give ghost kills less value. (But then most would give up on the high score achievement. This could be offset by halving the required points.)

This is irrelevant. The last one standing is the one rewarded with the splendid chest, not the highest scoring player. If your only goal is to win the achievement, then yes you could score quite a bit as a mist walker. But again, who cares about a measly 5 point achievement? If you play even semi-casually you should get it within a few days of play.

Dan S.7928:

Last but certainly not least, it’s Southsun. Every time content is added there, EVERYONE abandons the place the MOMENT rewards are no longer plentiful.
Let’s see how many will still play this in a few months.

I predict you’ll be thoroughly proven wrong on this one.

Alphard.6529:

Actually, 20% critical chance = 420 precision

You’re absolutely right. I based my calculation on current adjusted base stats (1,534) and divided the total critical chance (33%), yielding 1% crit chance per 46 precision. 420 precision is indeed what you get if you ignore the base stats and calculate only the total raw equipment bonus (618), dividing that by the total crit chance (29% without the 4% initial crit chance). In the end though, whether it’s 1,000 or 420, we’re still getting a massive bonus with perma fury.

UTILITY SKILLS

• Healing: Signet of Restoration
• Utility #1: Signet of Fire
• Utility #2: Signet of Earth
• Utility #3: Signet of Water
• Elite: Glyph of Elementals

FIRE TRAITS (20)

• Flame Barrier (Minor): While attuned to fire you get a +20% chance to cause burning against melee attacks.
• Internal Fire (VI): +10% damage while attuned to fire.
• Sun Spot (Minor): Inflict damage at your location when attuning to fire.
• Fire’s Embrace (IX): Signets activate a fire shield for 3 seconds.

AIR TRAITS (10)

• Zephyr’s Speed (Minor): Move +10% faster while attuned to air.
• Zyphyr’s Boon (I): Auras grant fury and swiftness.

EARTH TRAITS (30)

• Stone Flesh (Minor): Gain 1 toughness per level while attuned to earth.
• Signet Mastery (II): Signet’s Recharge 20% faster.
• Earthen Blast (Minor): Damage foes and cripple them when attuning to earth.
• Elemental Shielding (V): Auras grant protection for 3 seconds.
• Enduring Damage (Minor): Deal 10% more damage when your endurance is full.
• Written in Stone (XII): Maintain the passive effects of signets when you activate them.

ARCANA TRAITS (10)

• Arcane Fury (Minor): Grant yourself fury for two seconds on attunement.
• Elemental Attunement (V): Fire/Might; Air/Swiftness; Earth/Protection; Water/Regeneration.

The stats, armor, trinkets, weapon set, utilities, skills, and traits are included below for those interested in the specifics.

STATS

• Power: 1,668 (not including might stacks)
• Attack: 2,664 ^
• Precision: 1,568 (1,728 with Signet of Fire)
• Critical Chance: 35% (68% with Signet of Fire, Sigil of Acccuracy, and Fury)
• Toughness: 1,768 (1,928 with Signet of Earth; 2,178 with Rock Barrier; or 2,558 while in earth attunement)
• Armor: 2,688 (2,848 with Signet of Earth; 3,098 with Rock Barrier; 3,172 while in earth attunement)
• Vitality: 1,468
• Health: 12,291
• Healing Power: 552 (up to 974 with Kralkachocolate Bars + maxed out Superior Sigil of Life)
• Condition Damage: 852 (not including might stacks)
• Condition Duration: 20%
• Critical Damage: 83%
• Magic Find: 77%
• Boon Duration: 10%
• Attunement Recharge Rate: 20%
• Agony Resistance: 35
• Consumable #1: Kralkachocolate Bars (6% vitality + 5% toughness is given as a bonus to healing power / lasts 20 minutes)
• Consumable #2: Potent Master Sharpening Stones (6% toughness + 4% vitality is given as a bonus to power / lasts 1 hour)
• Sigil Bonus #1a: Superior Sigil of Life (+250 healing power with 25 stacks; switched for 1b)
• Sigil Bonus #1b: Superior Sigil of Generosity (60% chance to transfer a condition on critical hit)
• Sigil Bonus #2: Superior Sigil of Accuracy (+5% critical chance)

ARMOR

• Head: Celestial + Rune of Divinity (+30 Power/Precision/Thoughness/Vitality/Healing Power/Condition Damage; +5% Critical Damage; +3% Magic Find)
• Shoulders: Celestial + Rune of Divinity (+25 Power/Precision/Thoughness/Vitality/Healing Power/Condition Damage; +4% Critical Damage; +3% Magic Find)
• Chest: Celestial + Rune of Divinity (+55 Power/Precision/Thoughness/Vitality/Healing Power/Condition Damage; +8% Critical Damage; +3% Magic Find)
• Hands: Celestial + Rune of Divinity (+25 Power/Precision/Thoughness/Vitality/Healing Power/Condition Damage; +4% Critical Damage; +3% Magic Find)
• Legs: Celestial + Rune of Divinity (+40 Power/Precision/Thoughness/Vitality/Healing Power/Condition Damage; +6% Critical Damage; +3% Magic Find)
• Feet: Celestial + Rune of Divinity (+25 Power/Precision/Thoughness/Vitality/Healing Power/Condition Damage; +4% Critical Damage; +3% Magic Find)

TRINKETS

• Amulet: Syzygy/Triforge (+54 Power/Precision/Thoughness/Vitality/Healing Power/Condition Damage; +7% Critical Damage; +24% Magic Find w/ Guilded Infusion).
• Ring #1: Lunaria, Circle of the Moon (+43 Power/Precision/Thoughness/Vitality/Healing Power/Condition Damage; +6% Critical Damage; +4% Magic Find; +10 AR w/ max infusion).
• Ring #2: Solaria, Circle of the Sun (+43 Power/Precision/Thoughness/Vitality/Healing Power/Condition Damage; +6% Critical Damage; +4% Magic Find; +10 AR w/ max infusion).
• Earring #1: Celestial Sigil (+38 Power/Precision/Thoughness/Vitality/Healing Power/Condition Damage; +5% Critical Damage; +4% Magic Find; +5 AR w/ infusion).
• Earring #2: Ancient Mursaat Token (+38 Power/Precision/Thoughness/Vitality/Healing Power/Condition Damage; +5% Critical Damage; +4% Magic Find; +5 AR w/ infusion).
• Backpeice: Berserker Prototype Fractal Capacitor (+56 Power; +35 Precision; +5% Critical Damage; +5 AR w/ infusion).

WEAPON SET

• Scepter 1a: Celestial + Superior Sigil of Life (+80 Power/Precision/Thoughness/Vitality/Healing Power/Condition Damage; +10% Critical Damage; +6% Magic Find).
• Scepter 2a: Celestial + Superior Sigil of Generosity (+80 Power/Precision/Thoughness/Vitality/Healing Power/Condition Damage; +10% Critical Damage; +6% Magic Find).
• Dagger: Celestial + Superior Sigil of Accuracy (+80 Power/Precision/Thoughness/Vitality/Healing Power/Condition Damage; +10% Critical Damage; +5% Crit Chance; +6% Magic Find).

I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to take advantage of the new celestial armor stats. In theory, a scepter/dagger build should be most effective for this set-up as it uses nearly every attribute equally. It has better condition damage than any other wapon set, yet still maintains plenty of means for dealing direct/critical damage. It’s also nearly equal to staff in terms of healing skills. I see this build being used mainly for small direct combat situations involving a single boss or small group of enemies in dungeons/fractals, although it should also work well for PvP and WvW.

In the trait department, I’ve been thinking that 20 fire, 10 air, 30 earth, and 10 arcana is the most optimal distribution for survivability and damage output. The 20 in fire is there for the fire shield (IX) trait, which is used with four signets on a 20% reduced cool down w/ signet mastery. This, in combination with Zephyr’s boon (air I) and Elemental Shielding (earth V) grants permanent fury and swiftness, and semi-permanent protection. I’m not sure if most players recognize or have forgotten the enormous value promised by this kind of set-up: considering how 1% of critical chance is equivalent to approx. 21 precision* (making fury a 420 attribute bonus to precision), and how 1% damage reduction is equivalent to approx. 100 armor (an over 3,000 point attribute bonus). The fire shield (mixed with blast finishers/sharpening stones) also means quite a bit more damage potential above just these base states. I opted for Written in Stone (earth XII) to maintain all passive signet bonuses (in this case it means a permanent 160 point attribute bonus to both precision and toughness). Additionally, I included the standard 10 points in arcana for the slight increase to boon duration and attunement recharge rate; along with the arcana V trait, Elemental Attunement, because why not, right?

In summary, the pros and cons seem to be the following:

PROS

1. Permanent swiftness/fury + semi-permanent protection using sigils.
2. Moderate dps (adjusted base stats + signet of fire + sigil of accuracy) to high dps (with might stacking from fire shield/blast finishers + sharpening stones).
3. Very high melee dmg reduction thanks to celestial stats, earth specialization, Signet of Earth, and Earth Barrier (scepter, earth skill, 2).
4. Moderate healing power (adjusted base stats) to high healing power (with max Sigil of Life + Kralkachocolate Bars).
5. Reasonable condition removal (with Signet of Water + Sigil of Generosity).
6. Noticeable improvement to magic find.

CONS

1. Boon duration may become a limiting factor (another reason for maximizing the number of signet utilities)
2. Minimal dodging and endurance regeneration capability (also, no evasive arcana)
3. Attunement recharge rate might be a bit sluggish (slightly mitigated by the cast time of signet utilities).
4. Limited tactics for escape if things go south (no Mist Form, Lightning Flash, Ride the Lightning, cripples, or chills).
5. Limited support skills for boon sharing/healing.
6. Restricted to smaller combat situations; not much AoE/blast potential.

(*) Edited expected precision/crit chance bonus with fury.

Compared to other professions, the elementalist has very few weapon sets to select from. Next to engineers, elementalists have the second lowest number of weapon slots. I realize the imbalance is partially mitigated on account of the engineer and elementalist being able to draw additional skill sets from their utilities/attunements.

Speaking strictly of the elementalist, I just don’t see how our ability to switch attunements or conjure weapons could justify us having approx. 20-50% less weapon slot options when compared to most other professions. While it’s true we have twice as many skill sets as others, it’s also true that elementalist have forfeited this advantage by the fact that other professions still benefit from their own skill types (mesmers get shatter, necros get death shroud, guardians get virtues, etc.).

Also, a conjured weapon is truly not equivalent to a dedicated weapon slot. Among their many disadvantages, conjured weapons a) take up a utility slot, b) have very few charges (only 15 in the absence of the master conjurer fire trait), c) have long channelling times, and d) even longer cool downs (60-180 seconds). The ineffectiveness of conjured weapons should be obvious to anyone who has played an elementalist—even casually. The conjurer weapons might be fun and interesting, but as currently implemented I feel they are woefully inadequate as compensation for our paltry weapon choices.

Overall, my concern after trying most other professions is that the elementalist is unfairly handicapped by limited build diversity. I see at least two ways the situation could be improved. My own recommendation, one probably shared by most players, is to introduce at least 1 additional two-handed weapon for our profession. A greatsword would seem ideal in this case as it places the elementalist on a par with another light armor wearing class: mesmers. Other possibilities might include short/long bow, rifle, two-handed scroll, or focus-type weapon. This would be my preference as it gives us a new set of skills and build options to play with, but also a permanent (unconjured) weapon to sport on our characters.

The second suggestion is simply to make conjured weapons permanent. That is, it could be made into a stable weapon slot utility skill similar to the engineer’s flamethrower or grenade kit. This would be the easiest to implement. I’d personally accept that as a reasonably good compromise to balance things out (as much as I’d prefer a completely new weapon). If that means nerfing lightning hammer or fiery great sword, I say go ahead. It’s still better than what we have right now.

I’d be interested to know what everyone else thinks. Am I right to think the elementalist was given short-shrift in the weapons department? If not, why not? And if so, what kind of improvements would you like to see introduced?