Guild Wars 2

Hi guys,

So I recently decided to switch back to Staff for general (non-Fractal/non-dungeon) PvE since I enjoy its play style the most. I wanted to do something different from the usual 30 Arcana/20+ Water build because I’m bored to death of it. So just for fun (I know this is not the best build in terms of efficiency) I decided to load up on all the +% damage traits from across the trait lines and it’s actually been pretty fun to play.

This is what I have so far:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEEQFAWhEmKbkx4wjEAkCoEecABFMK0hQhFQA-jQCBYLAkIApPFRjt4qIas6aYqSJV5SQ2IGzbIpA-e

The 2nd and 3rd Utility slots are flexible; I switch to cantrips/Arcane Shield as needed if I feel I need more defense. Generally though since I’m running Valkyrie armor and not zerker I think I have enough defense.

The thing is, I really miss Blasting Staff. I’d like to increase the AoE on Lava Font and Eruption but I just don’t know where to take out 20 Trait points to put into Arcana. I was thinking of taking out 10 from Air and taking Arcane Retribution to compensate for the drop in precision/crit damage, but I don’t know where to get the remaining 10 points for Blasting Staff from.

Thoughts?

Blimm.5028:

True, they needed some nerf. But what anet has done to eles is stupid. And an un-nerfed ele would soon be considered balanced with the current powercreep.
Ele was nerfed under average and ignored in the powercreep, actually ele descended further.
We don´t need old ele meta, we need the other kitten to be toned down to reason.

True. I play Ele, and I only started PvPing after all the Ele nerfs, so I never got to experience the “OP ele meta” that some people still seem so kitten over, although I don’t doubt that it was frustrating.

What I do know is that the current meta is infinitely frustrating. Condi and CC spam makes just surviving as a D/D ele a chore, let alone having to juggle through a rotation that’s not guaranteed to land and leaves me on cooldown. I know part of it is a L2P issue on my part since I’m no pro, but you can’t deny that Eles have trouble merely surviving in this meta.

And no, I’m not a fan of the Fresh Air build. It’s more unavoidable instant damage, although I think the build has enough drawbacks to not be totally cheap.

I agree with OP, emphasis on condis and passive play has ruined the meta.

Artifect.9647:

I use it. It’s funny to see people dodge and teleport out of the way because they weren’t expecting it.

Sometimes it triggers again after I do mist form. Not sure what causes that.

The trait has a 10-second internal cooldown. If you can stall for 10 seconds after being downed, you can use it again by Vapor Forming—>positioning on top of your enemy.

Not counting a copy of the game that I bought for a friend, I’ve spent about $210 on gems over the past year…which is a bit more than paying for a 1-year $15/month subscription. When I spent the money on gems, it was mostly to convert to gold to buy the last piece of armor/weapon I needed, or to buy Transmutation Crystals/Black Lion Salvage Kits. This was because I had a limited number of hours to play, didn’t want to spend it farming/grinding for gold, and because I could afford to pay $10 for gems every now and then. My rationale was I’d pay to gear up quickly so I get to enjoy new content quickly.

Except the new content doesn’t always require to be maxed out in terms of gear—something I wish I’d learned earlier.

Plus, I never ended up enjoying the new content. After Wintersday, it was (and this is only my opinion) a slow descent into boredom. Flame and Frost was too much meh for too long, SAB was fun initially but the novelty wore off, Dragon Bash, Sky Pirates, Bazaar and Politics were again meh, and Queen’s Jubilee and Clockwork Chaos turned the game into a farm-fest. Secret of Southsun was fun because of the whole “mystery on an exotic island” feel, but the ending was lackluster.

I appreciate and admire the speed at which these releases were put out, and the effort (in terms of world building) that went into them, but the storylines were never very compelling to me. Villains, including Scarlet, were one-dimensional and forgettable, the sense of connectedness between the events was minimal (I get it, Rox and Braham are everywhere, but what else is connecting the events together? Scarlet doesn’t cut it for me either) and perhaps my biggest issue was that all these side events were distractions—hello, what about the Elder Dragons?

And then I came to the belated realization that I’d been helping to fund all of these IMO mediocre LS releases by paying for gems. GW2 is an excellent game, and has an extremely strong lore base to build off—we don’t need more extraneous side plots, especially now that we’re a year in. So until they finally decide to start focus on the real big bads, I’v decided to stop buying more gems.

I realize I come across as a bit entitled and that my post turned into an anti-LS rant of sorts, but I feel I’ve spent enough money on this game (despite it not being mandatory), and I’ve got to the point where I don’t feel like I’m funding stuff I like, so I’m happy to just play the game I have right now.

Shadow of the Mad King, without a doubt. It had everything: a scavenger quest, fun mini-games, a dungeon, new recipes, and an extremely challenging jumping puzzle. Not to mention the starting and ending events were spectacular. The rewards were actually awesome too: The Crossing/Arachnophobia/Mad Mood/Scythe staff skin were great, and the flaming book backpiece is still my favorite back item. I guess the fact that it was the first event means some nostalgia goggles, but even without the nostalgia factor it blew every other event after it out of the water.

Wintersday came a close second.

Secret of Southsun was a lag-fest, but hey I at least got a precursor out of it. Just not fun though.

Everything after it has been boring IMO; meta-achievements seem like grindfests and ultimately mean very little because the next event is always a couple weeks away with more meta-achievements to grind out, and the reward skins have either been meh (Jade) or hideous (Aetherblade/Sclerite). The only exceptions IMO were some of the Fused and Sovereign skins.

Our class mechanic is at complete odds with many of our traits. Attunement dance and “when attuned to _ element” traits are contradictory.

Our class mechanic is overly dependent on Arcana to be even somewhat functional.

Our survivability is extremely low, with no compensation in terms of decent damage or mobility. To gain halfway decent damage we lose almost every bit of whatever little survivability we have. To gain more survivability we lose every bit of whatever little damage we have. Compared to warriors, who don’t have to worry about sacrificing damage for defense or vice versa, it’s really pathetic. This is a problem in both PvE and PvP.

Almost all of our survivability is in Water. Along with the mandatory investment in Arcana, our build options are limited. (Fresh Air is only worth taking if you’re running Scepter; otherwise, it’s pointless.)

Our skills on an individual basis (except rare gems like Phoenix) are weak and are on ridiculously long cooldowns with the rationale seemingly being “because we have access to more skills.”

Our auto-attacks (except Lightning Whip and Fireball) lack any potency.

We are stuck in one range in combat, with no ability to switch, with the exception of Conjures, which in addition to being gimmicky (which I don’t think will be fixed by the upcoming patch), lock us out of our attunements.

I really like the idea of Attunement Activation. If I could suggest an alternative name for this mechanic, it would be “Overcast”—this is something that existed in Guild Wars 1 and was unique to the elementalist, so I think it would be a nice homage

I like the idea of Overcast because it really makes the ele a jack-of-all-trades. It’s like the Mesmer’s shatters and the Guardian’s virtues rolled into one, but not quite as strong individually as those mechanics. What I’d also suggest to reduce simply spamming Overcasts is that after activating an Overcast, rather than putting all attunements on a higher cool down, to immediately put all the skills of only its corresponding attunement on a long cooldown called “Overcharge recharge” (say 30 seconds with 0 Arcana investment), forcing you to switch attunements or rely solely on your utilities. So if you spam all your Overcasts, you’ll be extremely vulnerable. This forces tactical use of Overcast, and also enables Overcast effects to be powerful:

Fire Overcast: Final Flame: strong targeted explosion, with burning applied to affected targets when traited.
Water Overcast: Torrent: Moderate targeted heal, removing 1 condition on affected allies when traited.
Air Overcast: Thunderclap: Strong ranged single-target attack, with a short stun applied when traited.
Earth Overcast: Crystal Wave: Strong targeted AoE bleeding, applying Stability to allies when traited.

OR, for a more interesting effect, Overcasts could have effects OPPOSITE to their attunements:

Fire: Rejuvenating Inferno: Moderate AoE heal around you, with 1 condition removed from surrounding allies when traited (healing is typically water-related)
Water: Frostburn: Moderate-strong burning applied to target, AoE around target when traited (burning and AoE is usually fire-related)
Air: Windblade: Strong targeted AoE bleed, adding crippled when traited (AoE DoT/cripple is usually earth-related)
Earth: Obsidian Bolt: Strong single-target damage, stunning target when traited (single-target dps/stun is usually air-related.)

Arcana’s secondary stat bonus could then govern Overcast recharge rate rather than attunement recharge rate, and non-Overcast attunement recharge rate could be set at a flat value, although I do think 5 seconds is a bit too low—maybe 10-12 seconds would be better. Arcana could also have its traits modified to affect and improve Overcharge effects. Elemental Attunement could be removed to compensate. In addition, each traitline could have a Grandmaster trait that improves that specific attunement’s attunement as describe above.

…of course, the chances of any of this happening are next to zero, but it’s still fun to theorize I like your ideas a lot.

Thank you for posting this, and for giving us the opportunity to provide our input.

Elementalist Focus skills (especially Fire!) need a rework; at the very least, they need CD reductions. At the moment there is very little reason to ever carry /F over /D.

Ele auto-attacks could also use some love; we seriously lack sustain, which is something we need in exchange for having such low base survivability. Auto-attacks are the bread-and-butter of other professions’ sustain, but not for Eles (with the exception of Lightning Whip.)

Conjures being buffed is good; however, I’m concerned if it’ll be enough. Conjures are awkward to use because they lock us out of our attunements (swapping bonuses notwithstanding), and combined with our low survivability it’s hard to find enough time to actually use Conjures before needing to drop them. It doesn’t help that none of the Conjures break stun, and are not instant-cast.

I think the RtL nerf needs to be revisited. I’m not advocating returning its CD to 15/20 seconds, but 40 seconds is overkill. Plus, the fact that blocking/evading RtL still makes it go on 40 sec CD kinda ruins the point of using it offensively.

Cantrips in general could use a CD reduction. Healing in Mist Form was removed, and Armor of Earth’s CD is kinda high for its effect. Cleansing Fire is no longer a stunbreaker, and I know its CD was shaved, but I still think it could use a slight reduction.

Lingering Elements—this trait needs to be fixed! It does not work with all the attunements and attunement-swap effects.

The Fire trait line needs major love.

I’m also puzzled about the range reduction to Elemental Attunement. That trait is a huge source of group support as an Elementalist—why nerf it if you want Eles to fulfill the support role better?

Overall, seems like a good start, but more could be done. Thank you again!

Not counting a copy of the game that I bought for a friend, I’ve spent about $210 on gems since launch, in small increments. That’s slightly more than paying $15/month for a subscription, and most of it was spent either on BL kits/Transmutation Crystals or converted to gold to buy stuff I needed, because sometimes I simply don’t have the time to grind out gold. None of the skins/infinite tools/associated doodads they’ve released on the Gem Store have ever interested me though, doubly so because of all the RNG.

At this point I’ve decided to stop taking the lazy way out; I’m going to buy all my in-game stuff using gold that I make only, and rely on Masters Salvage Kits for my Ectos or hope to get lucky and get a BL kit with my dailies. So no more gem purchases from me for at least a few months.

Another reason is that it’s very hard for a newbie to understand what’s going on when they first enter a PvP match. The tutorial in the Heart of the Mists is a joke and does nothing to prepare you for your first match. Skill effects are either way too flashy or completely non-existant, so it’s next to impossible sometimes to know what just caused you to take that 4k packet of damage. Hotjoin—which is supposed to be where new players learn to play before getting their feet wet in soloque/team areans—is filled with people zerging mindlessly, with high-rank people switching to the same team to rank farm newbies over and over till the newbies quit.

While you’re akitten could you also PLEASE look into the bug that causes Dragon’s Tooth to miss if the caster is CC’d after the tooth appears but before it falls? It’s really frustrating.

And also please fix Phoenix so it can return to the caster when used on a target above/below the caster.

The Elementalist and the Engineer are the two professions with the highest skill ceilings (difficult to master the profession.) The Ele in particular has to do twice the amount of work to get the same result as the other professions. However, IMO the Ele is the most fun to play. Attacks are flashy, and while we can’t do any one thing exceptionally well we can do a little bit of everything, which is useful in open world PvE and dungeon PUGs. The ele playstyle is by necessity hectic and very active, as staying in one place and in one attunement can be a death sentence. If you’re a fan of hectic playstyles you should definitely try Ele, but keep in mind that they’re not the most highly sought after profession in high level PvE, but at least they’re better off than Rangers and Thieves in this regard :p

Aveneo.2068:

Personally I would rather see ANet filling in the blanks of the map instead of all this temporary content getting shoved down our throats every two weeks. Living Story is nice and all, but it doesn’t make me feel like I’m in a living breathing world. It more feels that I have to race through everything because in two weeks it will be replaced by something else. There is no consistency and we’re just rushing from one set of achievements to the next.

What I wouldn’t give to finally go through that door in Ebonhawke and explore the Crystal Desert. Or check out that fort with extremely powerful bandits in Brisban Wildlands. Or visit the Ring of Fire, just to knock on the Door of Komalie.

There are just so many closed off sections that feel like they were meant to be visited.

I love the way you worded your post

What about the Wizard’s Castle in Garrenhoff? Now that is a ripe location for a very intriguing plotline leading up to a dungeon.

Thanks so much! That makes a lot more sense.

Hi,

I’ve started playing PvP recently and I’ve been browsing the forums and reading through strategies and stuff. I don’t understand this term “cleave”, like in “the attack’s lack of cleave makes it sub-optimal.” I know cleaving is what you’d do with an axe but I suspect it means something different in this context

Another term I don’t understand is peeling. Like in “you play hotjoin to learn to team up and when to peel.” It sounds like a strategy or tactic.

Thanks in advance

I’d like to know this as well. I’m working towards crafting the Crossing for my necro, and it would suck having the materials in the recipe replaced.

…I think I’d much rather hold onto my materials and gold until we get craftable precursors and/or the scavenger hunt. I don’t care how long that takes. Every bit of content in the game right now can be accomplished with Exotic weapons and Ascended trinkets. As long as they don’t introduce content that requires having ascended weapons/armor to complete, I really don’t see the point. If that happens, though, then I’ll be…unhappy.

Okay so, as it currently stands, RtL goes on a 40 sec cooldown if it is evaded or blocked, for example by Aegis. The devs seem to want us to use this skill only as a gap-closer and not to escape. So the 40 sec cooldown on block or evade seems a bit harsh to me, because it essentially leaves you without this skill for the duration of the fight, despite you having used it as intended.

Is this a bug, or is it intended?

If it is a bug, could someone point me in the direction of a dev quote saying so?

DiogoSilva.7089:

silvermember.8941:

See that is a problem. To be average, you have to use a gimmicky build and if you are not a fan of fresh air well you are pretty much left to play with your action figures.

Welcome to every single profession in gw2. Gimmick spirit rangers, gimmick stun-lock warriors, gimmick condi-burst necros, etc.

That beind said, you don’t need fresh air at all, unless you’re using focus. You can go for a s/d build with more points in water/ arcana.

Will (non-bunker) D/D become viable again? Will staff? I’m not trying to be mean; I’m still new ish to SPvP and I’m legitimately wondering.

People are complaining that S/x Eles would be OP because our burst is instant? Are you kidding me? Do they realize how much we give up to achieve halfway decent damage? The S/D spec sacrifices almost all defense except for Lightning Flash, and even that is often used to land CE. S/F marginally improves survivability but again guts damage output. To get Fresh Air, we have to give up either Evasive Arcana or the increased vitality/Cleansing Water from 30 Water. Not to mention that we are still the most telegraphed profession, and all you have to do is wait for us to switch out of Earth or Water to land your CC and ruin our day. No other class gives up more survivability for burst than the Ele.

Going burst means high risk/high reward. S/D burst is the definition of this. Neuter it, and you neuter our one halfway viable burst build. And you screw over non-damage-related Ele specs (again!)

BlackBeard.2873:

And to people who say RtL was too OP, with the range reduction that is just false. It is no more effective that anything that a warrior,thief,or mesmer can do with their escape conditions (or ranger if you run GS). They just wanted to whack a mole rather than making people learn: immob = ele dead.

I agree. The nerf to its range IMO was more than enough. I do understand why they wanted to up its CD, but 40 seconds is overkill, especially since it triggers even if blocked/evaded…which isn’t supposed to happen. Plus, the joy of zipping around in RtL form in PvE is one big reason why I chose Ele as my main…the nerf was just mean-spirited in that regard.

From the official site:

“What they lack in physical toughness, they make up in versatility and the ability to inflict massive damage in a single attack.”

What a joke. The only high-damage spec I see that is somewhat viable (at least in SPvp) is S/D…and even that is a one-trick pony.

It’s almost like Ele was one of the first professions they created, and they didn’t bother to upgrade it when later professions were given better base stats/more options.

I mean really, no other class sacrifices so much to have the ability to deal “decent” damage. We have no compensation for our pathetic base health and armor (7k-10k backstab=60% of our health pool gone.) And don’t even get me started on our supposed versatility. Our skills on an individual basis are weaker than those of other professions (see out pathetic auto attacks) because we’re supposed to switch often and use our expanded skill pool more frequently. Oh but wait, base attunement recharge rate is 16 seconds, requiring us to spend at least 20 points into Arcane to do the dance well.

We did have decent mobility, and yes the old RtL’s ability to reset fights was overpowered…but as we currently stand, we can be caught by any profession, with the possible exception of the necromancer.

Either give us more health/armor or up our damage coefficients/skill cooldowns.

I know this is just me whining…but I think we have legitimate concerns here that need to be addressed.

Haha, love this. I’ve been running a similar build in hotjoin because trying to play Staff normally became too frustrating.

For extra lulz I sometimes bring Earth Shield for the AoE pull. If I’m fast enough I can pull a bunch of people to me, daze the most dangerous one in front of me, drop shield, switch to Air, Static Field→fire→Lava Font→Water→Frozen Ground→Ice Spike. Then I die and my Lava Tomb procs.

It’s like….50-50 effective lol. But when it does work it’s hilarious. I even had a thief QQ at me: “wtf why do you do so much damage AFTER I down you?”

This might be a silly question, but I’m going to ask it anyway.

Did Anet intend for one profession to be a hard counter to another like Thief is to Ele (judging by all these responses by presumably experienced players)?

I mean, from what I’m reading here, with equal skill levels, no matter what build an Ele runs, he will always be beaten by a Thief. Is this how it’s supposed to work? Are there examples of other professions being hard-countered like this?

Hey guys

I’m looking for a medium-sized, very active, social guild on Tarnished Coast for PvE in general and FoTM and Guild Missions in particular. The ability to easily find groups doing Fractals is crucial for me. It’d be nice to have a guild where guild chat is decently active, and I’d like to get to know a core group of guildies to do PvE with. A little bit of RP would be great too, but is not required. I do occasionally enjoy WvW too, but it’s not something I primarily do.

I have to stress that I’m not looking for a gigantic guild with a member count in the 100s. I also don’t mind repping at all, but it’d be nice to be in a guild where I won’t get kicked for not logging in for a week or two (real life does take precedence for me.)

A little bit about me: I picked up the game at launch, and mainly play an Elementalist; I also have a lv 33 Necro that I’m sloooowly leveling. I absolutely love Fractals and dungeons in general, but I’ve yet to actually do a majority of the explorable dungeons, so finding a good group of relaxed, easygoing and open-minded people to do these with would be awesome. I’m 22 years old, am online fairly regularly and I think I’m pretty easy to get along with

Hit me up in-game: Glen Hakewood. Or send me a PM here!

Thank you very much!

DeathMetal.8264:

If my friend (or someone I know) gives me a gift or gifts, and not an insult gift to make fun of me, but a gift that they spend time making or buying or acquiring, I will be grateful for them. I don’t care if it’s a pad paper that I don’t ever use, a dozen colored pencil of the same color, or a set of crayon I already have or just a stone-paperweight which will actually end up cluttering my work space. The fact is, someone spend sometime to give me something.

The thought counts, the actual gift makes it better, no matter what that might be.

Yep. I have to admit I’m a bit perplexed about the hostility towards the gift. Anet was certainly under no obligation to give us anything. But we still got a decent booster. The experience scroll is useful to anyone who is leveling an alt—am I to believe that the majority of players have all 80s? I personally don’t care for Minis enough, but I still got an exotic one with no effort on my part; what’s not to like?

Like you said, it’s the thought that counts. The fact that I got something despite not paying a subscription fee is good enough.

I love that they decided not to incorporate RNG into birthday minis. That and the fact that they were trade-able in GW1 cheapened the whole idea of a birthday present IMO. It became more about getting rich than about appreciating the character’s birthday. We already have a bunch of items that were limited-edition and are trade-able (Fused Weapon skins for example.) We don’t need to add birthday present Minis to the list.

Eles are viable in PvE; but then again, what isn’t? If you’re looking for ultimate efficiency Warrior/Mesmer/Guardian is what you want. Lightning Hammer builds can achieve some of the highest damage in the game but sacrifice almost everything else.

In PvP, the Ele is currently shafted due to a meta that heavily favors condition spam. This is a very different situation from a few months ago when bunker Ele was king; however, Anet nerfed bunker ele to the underworld (and in the process screwed over non-bunkers.) Other classes then received substantial buffs (Necro and Warrior) that have made them IMO difficult even for pre-nerf bunker Eles to deal with. The recent QoL improvements to staff and buffs to skills like Arcane Shield are good starts though, but they were also accompanied by more nerfs to Lightning Flash and Cleansing Fire.

Ultimately though, I still consider Ele extremely fun to play, but it’s definitely not the most efficient class, FAAAR from it.

-Instant cast times for all conjures
-Stun break on cast for Earth Shield

Well, that’s disappointing. I do appreciate all your points and advice though. Thank you all.

Hello everyone

I’m still a relative newbie to PvP in general (only just reached rank 13). I play only hotjoin SPvP, and so far the only class I’ve tried is Ele. I don’t want to play Staff because I don’t think I’m skilled enough to avoid getting slaughtered with it, and I don’t play S/x or x/F because I just don’t like the “feel” of those weapons. So D/D is my set of choice.

I love burst builds where I can rush in, offload a lot of damage at once, and rush out to heal. The high risk/high reward style is appealing to me, and it forces me to learn to pick my fights and watch for stuff that’ll screw up my burst. So far I’ve been winning more than I’ve been losing; this could be pure luck of course but I’d like to think I’m getting better

But one matchup I canNOT seem to ever prevail against is vs Spirit rangers. Rangers in general give me a hard time, especially if they catch me with my gap closers on CD. But I just cannot seem to be able to kill spirit rangers. I don’t mean to QQ about them; I want to learn what I can change with regard to my build/skills to help even the odds a bit.

Here’s the build I currently use. It’s something I came up with myself, so it’s not amazing, but I like it:

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=Vl33;0J0BJ-U0v4gN-Z0;9;5T99J;10565;04;005-Io0;0o0-JF04JF045kA

Thanks in advance guys

Edit: Arcane Shield is a stun breaker. For some reason that website doesn’t list this :p

Ryld.1340:

This is really cool, but I would it find it funny for this to happen:

2-3 Staff Ele with Powerful Aura and Auras grant Fury
Magnetic Aura -> Eruption -> Frozen Ground -> Glyph -> Repeat

Hahaha, oh maaaan, that’s definitely another problem that would make internal cooldowns for Auras necessary.

On the other hand, this would make Staff Eles extremely sought after in SPvP, hahaha.

So as I see it, there is absolutely no reason to EVER waste a Utility slot on Glyph of Renewal. Its current effect may seem good for dungeon runs or WvW engagements (especially the Earth Attunement resurrection effect), but the way I see it, the skill is still too clumsy and gimmicky to use, and you’re much better off using that Utility slot for another skill, offensive or defensive, that’ll prevent your ally from being downed in the first place.

Secondly, the “recent” update to Glyph of Elemental Power (namely, making it a stun breaker) was kind of counterintuitive. GoEP is a skill that you’d want to use off cooldown, while a stun breaker is something you’d save for when you actually need it.

Lastly, despite Auras being a “secondary mechanic” somewhat unique to our profession (the Engineer gets Fire Shield and Magnetic Aura with the Kit Refinement Trait, but only Eles get access to all Auras), non-D/D builds have very few ways to access them.

Runes notwithstanding, and assuming that no one equips the Arcane Resurrection Trait (and seriously, with the other great Trait options in Arcana, why would you pick it?) the accessibility of Auras is as follows:

*Fire Shield: Non-Focus Eles and Eles that don’t have Signets and the Fire’s Embrace Trait equipped will require a Leap Finisher (only available to Lava Axe 5, which as a Conjure sees limited use, and Dagger Earth 3, which is very situational as it requires you to hit an enemy first.) Fire Fields are not really a problem for any Ele weapon set to create.
*Frost Aura: Inaccessible to Eles running S/x or x/F
*Shocking Aura: Only accessible via Dagger Air 3
*Magnetic Aura: Only accessible via Staff Earth 3

My proposed change is:

Glyph of Renewal: Break out of stun, and gain an aura based on your current attunement.

Fire Attunement: Fire Shield
Water Attument: Frost Aura
Air Attunement: Shocking Aura
Earth Attunement: Magnetic Aura

Glyph of Elemental Power: This skill is no longer breaks stun.

The durations for the Auras granted, and the cooldown of the skill itself (along with any internal cooldowns) should be carefully balanced, especially for Shocking Aura and Magnetic Aura.

This change would 1) make Glyph of Renewal a viable option; 2) give us a Glyph stun breaker that isn’t counterintuitive to use; 3) Give Eles more options to proc Auras and therefore use Traits that focus on Auras, and 4) Fit with the “Renewal” theme with the stun break.

The biggest problem I see is chain-spamming Shocking and Magnetic Aura (GoR+Dagger Air 3 or Staff Earth 3) to keep attackers disabled for an extended period of time; however, seeing as how Aura skills tend to have long cooldowns, I don’t think this will be a problem that won’t be fixed with just number tweaks.

So guys, thoughts? Do any of you actually prefer to use GoR in its current state?

roamzero.9486:

How about finally fixing Lingering Element to work on more things than Soothing Mist and Flame Barrier.

Seriously! And not just the adept minor traits! Lingering Elements should work with all the “while attuned to X element” Traits, if the tooltip is to be believed.

The pipe organ in Ebonhawke is only interactable sometimes.

When it IS interactable, the notes get “stuck.” What that means is when you press the number keys or click on the note skills, the note won’t stop playing even if you release the button. This makes it impossible to play any tune on the organ.

I’m playing on Tarnished Coast.

Don’t get me wrong, I would LOVE to see a GW2 version of the Dervish (and, to a certain extent, the Ritualist), but I have a hard time seeing what combat role these classes would excel at that the classes we already have can’t.

FlamingFoxx.1305:

AngryCat.4825:

LumAnth.5124:

Pre Searing Ascalon is probably the most beautiful thing my eyes have ever seen.

It was a perfect color blend of blue, yellow, orange and green (with the occasional marble color for buildings)

Not only was it that bright and shiny scene, but it had it’s smudges. The Catacombs is a big example. Another is the Wizard’s Folly mountain, with the mysterious tower. And it’s those smudges that made Pre Searing Ascalon perfect

I have never, ever seen such a place (in a game) in my life as beautiful as that.

Sadly, they tried to recreate the same setting in the Charr Homelands in EoTN, but it wasn’t as good (I thought it was a pretty bad extension, actually)

Came here to post pretty much this, exactly.

While I believe the Charr homelands weren’t without charm, they simply can’t compare. Still, I find it enchanting that if you tilt your head correctly, and let your eyes space out for a bit, certain parts of GW2’s Ascalonian lands rekindle the magic that was GW1.

….Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go log into GW1 and die horribly because I’m going to be mashing a non-existent dodge key. ;_;

I did this yesterday! I logged into GW1 and just went through tons of different locations for the nostalgia. I kept trying to move during fighting, which as a ritualist was about the most ridiculous thing ever -_-. /jump!

Oh man, the other day I logged into my PvP-only Ele for some good old RA action, after not having logged onto GW1 for months. I figured muscle memory would return. The match started and I saw a warrior charging at me…double-tapped my D key to dodge backwards but didn’t move haha. Warrior meanwhile Bull’s Charged me. I press F2 to go into Water Attunement, end up switching weapon sets.

Needless to say, I didn’t last very long that game haha.

Good times

stpetemermaid.5947:

I can’t find anything to replace the stun breaker on Cleansing Fire. I play PvE with my staff ele, and run her with my husband’s necro. They make a pretty good pair; not our best, but she is half-way decent.

But Cleansing Fire is key to her build. With the Cantrip trait, it gives her 3 stacks of Might. It does decent AoE buring. It removes 3 conditions. And it broke Stun. This was her only stun removal.

To keep the 3 stacks of Might, I would have to use a different Cantrip, but I don’t see any as good as Cleansing Fire, with or without Break Stun. And if I change to a Glyph, I don’t get the Might from Cantrips.

As some have said in this thread, I guess I’ll run without a stun breaker. Pretty sure that ’s not gonna be pretty.

I could live with reducing the number of conditions it removes easier than taking away the Break Stun.

Try Arcane Shield (now a stun breaker) + Ether Renewal? Gets you the same effect as the old Cleansing Fire along with brief invulnerability, though without the AoE burn.

ATC Alpha.4098:

My opinion on this patch and suggestions (hope a-net is reading this):

As a PvE staff ele(main) and mesmer (my only 2 chars), I like this patch so far.
Fire traits could still use some improvement to match the benefits the others give.

Stun breaker on Glyph of Elemental Power? asdfglolwat

Haven’t looked at my mesmer yet but I like the summons buff.

All pets should get HP buffed in PvE like the mesmer’s summons did. Turrets, ranger pets, elementals, minions etc. Just in PvE though, perhaps not wvw.

I think more buffs should be given in PvE!

I feel sad for SB rangers even though I have no interest in the class. At least their auto attack should have 1.2k range or something.

Can anyone give feedback on the mistfire wolves?

That’s all for now.

If you don’t like GoEP as a stun-breaker (I’m not in love with it myself) check out Arcane Shield, which this patch made a stun breaker, without actually mentioning it in the notes.

(Another stealth buff: Healing Rain is now cast-able on the move! Woo!)

Please please please let these not be unintended. I’m not totally sold on GoEP as a new stunbreaker, but I like the idea of Arcane Shield becoming one.

…how do you kill them alone?!

I’m leveling a new Necromancer. I’m level 32 and just started doing Gendarran Fields. There’s an escort event near the swamp where you have to help a guy (Duncan the Durable?) and his dolyak to the bridge. There’s a part where you’re swamped by hordes of Risen near an Arrow Cart, and then a Veteran Risen Abomination spawns. I can handle the Risen mobs solo pretty well, and I use the Arrow Cart to soften them up from a distance, but when that Abomination spawns it gets to 25 stacks of Frenzy in like half a minute, and it keeps one-shotting me when that happens.

I’m using Axe/Focus and Staff, with Spectral Armor, Signet of the Locust and Well of Suffering as my Utilities.

Help me kill these dang things.

CuRtoKy.8576:

-snip-

Wow, thank you so much. Excellent post. You’ve pretty much addressed all the questions I had, and then some. I’m going to be using this post as the baseline for my future Staff builds.

For your “baseline” stats (15k hp/2.6 armor or 16-17k hp/2.4 armor with 20-25% crit chance and 50% crit damage): are these stats possible to acquire using only Exotic armor and trinkets? I was trying various combinations of Knights/PVT/Valkyrie armor and Knights/Valkyrie/Berserker trinkets but couldn’t get those values. (The only Ascended piece of gear I have is my Berserker Circle of Logic amulet, and I’m working towards the rings and accessories.)

No one?
/15char

Hi guys,

I’ve been playing on and off since launch, and I’m a fairly casual PvE player. I’ve recently really started getting into WvW after exploring for map completion and getting hooked onto the mechanics. I’d like some help putting together an effective Staff build for running with the zerg and occasionally with smaller groups to take camps and control points.

This is what I have so far:

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=Vl;4R0-U0z47N-Z0;9;49;0TT3;624847A;6Tu8rRztbo-k51;5V0-50A1F2KZQ4-aV8F0J;0cVX8aA

At a glance, it’s a 10/0/0/30/30 Staff build with Arcane Wave, Cleansing Fire and Mist Form as utilities. Traits include Elemental Attunement, Blasting Staff, Evasive Arcana, Cleansing Wave, Soothing Disruption, Cantrip Mastery, and Spell Slinger. Equipment is PVT armor, Boon Duration runes (2x Monk, 2x Major Water, 2x Superior Water), Cleric’s Earrings, Cleric’s Rings but with Exquisite Ruby Jewels instead of Sapphire, and a somewhat random Berserker Ascended Amulet with no infusion. I haven’t yet added a Sigil to my Staff, and I don’t typically use any Food or other nutrition buff.

I basically run this same build in PvE and in dungeons, and it has served me well. What I’m worried about is that I don’t feel like I’m doing much damage. I’m trying to switch out Sapphire Jewels from my Cleric’s trinkets with Ruby Jewels to find a good balance between damage and healing, but I don’t know if I’m just gimping myself by doing this. I’m also wondering if I shouldn’t just switch to a 30 Fire and/or 30 Air build for pure damage and rely on the zerg to protect me.

I’m slowly working towards Ascended equipment and I’d like advice on what amulet/rings/accessories I should be aiming for. Also, I’d appreciate any advice about the Sigil and any food I should use.

Thanks a lot!

I wonder if Glyph of Renewal—which no one to my knowledge uses—will be reworked and receive stun breaker status.

Can’t they do a PvE/WvW split? The un-nerfed RtL was in no way game breaking in PvE to my knowledge.

I really would kill for the ability to save skill, trait and equipment templates and to be able to switch between them on the fly, even if switching would cost a fee. Having to drop what you’re doing to travel to a trainer is just overly clunky. I understand that they want our trait choices to have some permanence but switching roles in a game that does away with dedicated roles requires the ability to switch easily between templates.

Ascended gear in my view was a compromise, introduced solely to appease the vocal minority who become burned out on the game quickly and then complain about the lack of incentive to keep playing. A core tenet of both GW1 and GW2 was that only your skill set you apart from other players, not the amount of time you could devote to grinding on a gear treadmill. Thankfully, at least in the majority of non-FoTM PvE, this is still the case because Exotic gear is more than enough to do content; so, if Anet introduces more ascended equipment without making future content require ascended equipment I’d be okay with it. It would still in my mind be a major reversal of their beliefs but I do support the game and want to see it retain players, and if additional (but ultimately negligible) ascended equipment is what’s needed then so be it.

That said, if future content is gated in favor of those who grind for ascended equipment, I’ll be disappointed.

For WvW, I believe ascended equipment was a bad move because it makes it harder for more casual WvWers to remain competitive stat-wise. But I don’t know enough about WvW to comment on if the advantages offered by ascended equipment can’t be overcome by skillful play, so I won’t comment on it further.

Just did this on my level 28 Necro (down-leveled to 24.) My gear is maxed out for my level, with trinkets, and I’m using Spectral Armor as a stun break. I’ve trained into soul reaping for my panic button death shroud. I was fine until the Abominations showed up; then, it took me four defeats to kill them. Firstly, the Lionguard are useless, they die to the trash mobs almost instantly. Secondly, Ihan does not move from the entrance at all, and will not participate unless you draw aggro to him. Don’t know if this is intentional. Maybe if the Abominations’ Frenzy buildup rate was slowed down a bit so that they’re not at 25 stacks and one-shorting you within a minute, they might be easier to deal with.