Guild Wars 2

An Siorai Tharian.4516:

I second the mention of Intigo, and would like to add Serane as well, as between the two you get a really good idea of how to run a D/D or Staff build in WvW or PvP.

As for what gear to run, I was told by a friend of mine who runs Elementalist to aim for 3,000 Attack, 25 to 30% Critical Hit Chance, 1500 to 1600 Toughness, 16k to 17k Health, and around 70% Critical Damage. If you do that then your pretty well set as far as stats go on an Elementalist. But that isn’t exactly a Pure Bunker Build Elementalist. That is a build that gets you both offense, defense, and mobility.

The way I will be managing it is by having Exotic Weapons of the Berserkers Stats, Exotic Armor of the Cavalier Stats, Ascended Trinkets & Back Piece with 2 being Berserkers, the rest being Soldiers, 6 Superior Rune of the Scholar, 6 Resiliant Infusions of whatever variety you have so long as they provide +5 Toughness, Dragon’s Breath Bun, and Maintenance Oil.

I also want to go 0/10/0/30/30 and with that build I can swap between D/D and Staff quite easily. This makes my character much more useful in WvW and arguably PvE. I don’t really play this character in PvP though.

Using celestial armor instead, and cavalier trinkets will get you more stats overall. The crit damage to stats lost ratio is much better on trinkets. Also, celestial armor has equal or more critical damage to zerkers armor, as opposed to trinkets, where it has less.

Figured I’d help you before you make a bit of a silly mistake

Would you agree the way it is explained in the wiki is incorrect? Shall I change it?

“Condition duration from various sources increases (and decreases) additively as a percentage increase on the base condition duration.”

Da Sonic.6521:

The way positive or negative, is calculated is additive when calculating the totals on that particular side. That is, if you have +10% and +40% duration, your total duration will be +50%. If you have -10% and -40% duration on conditions applied to you, the total duration of those conditions will be -50%.

Most people get that, it seems you’re clear on that bit. The part that confuses people is how they interact with each other. When you have 50% duration, you add that duration to your base duration, ending up with a 150% length condition. When someone has -50% condition duration, they apply that multiplicatively to your FINAL condition length. So if someone has +50% duration, and their target has -50% duration, the final length of the conditions will be (10.5)*(0.5) = 0.75 or 75% duration.

They have stated in their explanation of changes skills like Berserker’s Stance that they are supposed to be -100% duration, so that when someone has 150% duration, it is modified to 50%. THIS IS NOT THE CASE. It just makes you fully immune.

So it’s not working as intended, and it works the way you describe it in all cases?

That’s awesome info. Thanks! This makes stacking -condition duration extremely strong

Movement speed increases do not stack :/ so as long as you have swiftness, all other boosts are wasted.

On the topic of sigil of battle, about 15 percent. Definitely more than sigil of fire BUT it takes a while before the damage increase starts to get going. Also, if you get a lot of might from others, it might be wasted since your might might (:-D)already be at 25 stacks. Fire might actually be better.

EDIT: the new build you posted is infinitely better no comments whatsoever

From http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Condition_duration:

“Condition duration from various sources increases (and decreases) additively as a percentage increase on the base condition duration.”

I would like for this to be cleared up once and for all. It is widely known that berserker’s stance makes you completely immune to conditions, while supposed to reduce condition duration by a flat amount(listed as a bug on the wiki). IIRC same goes for automated response on engineer. It’s supposed to reduce the duration of conditions applied while under 25 percent by 100 percent, thus still allowing conditions to be applied with modified durations of over 100 percent, but this is not the way it functions.

Lately i have been noticing the same goes for the combination of geomancer’s freedom on elementalist, combined with -condition duration food and runes, reducing duration of chill, cripple and immob by up to 103%, but ACTUALLY making you completely immune to them. Warriors can do the same thing.

So could someone (I can’t at the moment) test this stuff and come up with a simple answer? So we can put correct data in the wiki.

Test automated response vs an opponent with + 100 percent condition duration. Probably easiest vs necro with blood is power. Also test reduced condition duration food and possibly runes if you could.

If I’m posting this in the wrong place, if this mechanic is completely clear to you guys, or if I’m misinformed, please let me know.

I’m not saying it should be a grandmaster trait, I’m saying that’s how strong it is. And although I agree it should be moved back, it’s pretty safe to assume they won’t revert this change, as they’ve never done such a thing. So let’s work from there.

It’s a very nice build, and would work pretty great.

Here are some ideas though:
Use a sigil of battle instead of a sigil of energy. Your power is quite low, and the might this gives + might from combos will significantly boost your damage.

Use boon duration runes instead of divinities. Extra protection, regen and might uptime is much stronger than the small stat increase you get. 2 traveler, 2 monk and 2 water

Dont use arcane blast, but armor of earth or mist form instead. They just have so much more impact, especially with 75 percent boon duration. 10 seconds of stability is amazing.

But again, a very good stat-spread in my opinion. Just needs some more power.

What are you looking to do in wvw? Zerging or roaming? Please include that in the post

EDIT: celestial is not that great on trinkets either. Consider making these cav/valk/zerk. Add an extra celestial armor piece if you want.

My main advice is to not use travelers, but -condition duration or +boon duration runes, and to use a sigil of battle after you stacked your sigil of perception. I’m confident that is solid advice at least.

Another suggestion would be to take 10 points out of fire magic to get 30 in arcana for evasive arcana. A great heal + condi cleanse when dodging in water, and a blast finisher when dodging in earth (area healing when used into water field), is too good to pass up. This is more of a personal preference thing but I’m 90 percent sure it’s a better option.

What columbo said about zerker’s gear is very much true.

Learn the tricks of frost bow, fiery greatsword and lightning hammer as well. They offer either insane burst damage or dps.

Other than that, S/D can make thrash blow up, as can S/F. Stack might with S/X then mash things with a conjure.

I would strongly advise this guide:

http://intothemists.com/guides/107-staff_build_for_organized_groups.

Don’t focus too much on dps and fire attunement in zergs. Static field and healing rain is where it’s at. And not dying. Very much not dying

I’d rather have one working build, than 5 subpar ones. Giving signets, glyphs and conjures such minor buffs isn’t going to get us anywhere in PvP. Your suggestions on weapons are very vague, and your elemental attunement idea is quite unrealistic, since elemental attunement is a borderline grandmaster trait, so there is no way we’ll get it as a free passive. Giving 15 water as baseline as well will completely break the ele, as you now get massive healing for free as well.

Also, try to not completely ignore other propositions and just throw your own at us, that’s not what this post is about. Looking for some feedback

Have you ever played with 25 air in PvP? The amount of vulnerability it stacks is negligible.

I like the sound of that adept trait, although it’s definitely extremely strong for an adept minor. Just the passive effect seems like a good option.

I had the same thing in mind for arcane grandmaster.

Basically the point of my propositions would be to further define elementalist as a class with a very high skillcap. Rather than giving them a bunch of passive buffs or stat increases, give them mechanically interesting choices. That’s why I don’t like your proposition for water grandmaster minor, nor the current version of air minor grandmaster.

You’re probably getting tired of random people coming in and spewing random suggestions on the forum, but I’m pretty proud of these few. Make no mistake, these would be not unsignificant buffs to the ele, particularly in the PvP format, but that’s the positive side of being slightly underpowered, you can suggest impactful changes.

Air grandmaster minor, changed to ‘stun target foe for .25 seconds when attuning to air’.

Great synergy with both tempest defense and fresh air. Use mid channel of for example fire grab to get the bonus damage from tempest defense, or just increase the pressure of continuous air spikes. This would turn air attunement into the true 1v1 spiker it wants to be. The current grandmaster minor is a non-factor in PvP, but quite useful in dungeons. Elementalists are however top-tier in dungeons, and this reasonable nerf is probably justified. The only place where the current version really shines is when using the fiery greatsword-rush ‘glitch’, which really deserves this nerf. Not saying I think it’s an exploit, but the damage is so obscene, reducing it a little would really be a nice side-effect of changing this trait.

Water grandmaster minor, changed to auras apply regeneration.

In a trait line with powerful aura as a grandmaster, we need at least one aura-related trait. Again great synergy with both water grandmasters, while also possibly filling the lack of regeneration when not going 20 arcana. Also a more thematic choice, instead of an important damage modifier, a more survivability-oriented trait.

These two are the most important ones. I have some ideas for both arcana and earth grandmaster minors, but for now I’ll give you those. See if anyone likes them.

Seeing that build, I went ahead and checked the stats on an all-celestial build.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAoIGAIKcxkhiO+o8InZsB-jUCBYjBkgAkEBIRtIaslhBp6KslXRTVjIqWlETKA9UGB-w

As expected, when trying to maximize that many stats, celestial will get you much, much further. This version does a lot more direct damage, comparable condition damage (especially with some might), and has about the same, if not better durability due to more healing power.

Actively speccing for condition damage on an ele will hardly get you any more condition damage as outright ignoring it, due to the high amount of might we get.

Many people, including me, have been down your road before, and we all ended up running very comparable celestial/cav/knights combinations ;-)

The general list is pretty clear by now, so I’ll just point out where I would differ from it.

PU mesmers and spirit rangers are generally too high up I feel. Spirit rangers got hit decently hard in the last patch, and lost a lot of 1v1 potential. I wouldn’t put them as high as most. PU mesmers really aren’t that strong in the PvP format, because they can’t hold a point due to stealth, and they don’t bring enough damage to a teamfight. Not a very impactful class.

I’d put MM necros a bit higher than most perhaps. It’s far too effective for far too little risk. Same goes for healing signet, it does far too much for far too little effort/risk.

I would also not place the elementalist THAT low. It’s becoming a very bandwagon-thing to just dump the ele for all purposes. Not to say it doesn’t need help, but you can definitely play it at any level.

Dodge their stuff. Warriors seem overwhelming when you’re unexperienced, but once you get decent you’ll giggle at how extremely straightforward they are. This is assuming we’re talking about hammer warriors, who are definitely the most dominant force when getting into pvp.

Warrior hammer has 3 CC moves. If you avoid at least two, you’re good. If you don’t, you need to pop a stun-breaker. Important to remember, is that you need to try to hang on to your stun breakers as long as possible, since they have 20 times more stuns than you have stun-breakers.

Not quite as important as dodging their stuff, but still crucial, is hitting your stuff. Might seem obvious but you really have to learn what spells do enough damage to put yourself in melee range to the hulking warrior for. Don’t underestimate the damage from burning from dagger fire 2 and 4.

Third tip is realizing that you really don’t do all that much dps, and it’s very possible that a fight with a tanky warrior would take far too long to be reasonable, or could even last forever. Blast your firefields to get more damage! But again, bunker warriors and guardians might very well be unkillable for your semi-bunker spec.

Last tip, try to outrange the warrior on your daggers. It’s not easy, but you have quite a bit more range than strictly melee. Use immob, chill and cripple and stay just out of melee range.

Very nice video! Welcome back! I have honestly never seen anything like this, the way you can just last between so many people. Is this the legendary power of the healway guardian? I prefer to roam with classes with more pressure, like engis or eles, so we down people faster and go from there, but this just looks awesome.

Looks like my ranking is completely different to everyone else’s :o

1:Engineer
2:Warrior
3:Mesmer
4:Thief
5:Ranger
6:Guardian
7:Necromancer
8:Elementalist

Note that these are favorite classes to fight, not easiest. I really dislike an ele mirror matchup. I suppose it’s because it feels very spam-heavy to me, as you’re constantly in each others face trying to outdo each other. Lacks so much depth in comparison to all other matchups. (I’m talking D/D btw)

I love engis, since they are unpredictable, and punish bad play very hard. They don’t like cc though, but if you overcommit you’re dead on the floor in no time. On the other hand if you don’t commit enough you’ll have to fight through the burning proc everytime you reengage.

Warriors are fun since they keep you on your toes, and beating them is very satisfying, since it really feels like you outwitted the straightforward hulking warrior.

I can understand why mesmers are such a hated matchup, and dont get me wrong, I hate PU condi-trolls as much as the next guy, but shatter-mesmers, hybrid mesmers and even phantasm mesmers demand a very unique playstyle. Pressure as hard as you can and burst burst burst. If you lose the pressure, you die. I find myself doing dozens of rematches against everything but PU condi tanks.

Thief is a bit like mesmer, except that you really have to rely on the thief to be either bad or glass to be able to win. Fighting a methodic D/P thief that plays conservative is straight-up obnoxious at times.

Rest of the matchups are much more straightforward

Afraid this would polarize matchups even further. If you’re losing a matchup people would be even less encouraged to cap stuff since in the old system if you held it for the tick you would have at least done something, whereas in your system as the enemy zerg barges in and captures it right behind you, you would have effectively had 0 impact. Also capturing something that’s upgraded would be more risky since the opponent’s tick up points as time progresses in the siege, aside from the already existing risk that the third server takes all your stuff. So people stick to pingponging paper structures and bunkering in fully upgraded keeps, since that’s the most effective way of gaining points. Large clashes would become more rare which isn’t exactly a good thing imo.

I honestly cannot see how the system of points on capture would be better in any way, no offense. Coverage advantage still exists since they can upgrade everything at night. Agreed the difference in points might be smaller, but making a comeback would be harder since every point you earn basically means someone else can/ will earn one as well.

Honestly I don’t think there is any other workable solution than either dividing points gained at low coverage hours by 2-5, or just not granting any points whatsoever (except for stomps). But what about Oceanic people then? Maybe the edge of the mists is an answer for them.

Second solution (because i owe you 2 -_-) work with one massive daily tick at primetime. One tick that would be worth as much as all other ticks in the day combined, might give for some interesting strategy and intense action, and is very simple at heart. Might give some queue and skill lag problems as everyone wants a piece of the action at this one given timeframe.

Man why haven’t you been taking this approach to changes since the beginning? To think you managed to put up with the endless QQ, rage and ‘gg anet i quit’, and actually hear the sensible things that are being said. I applaud you.

I’d love to be able to take both soothing disruption and cleansing wave though. As it stands you’re kind of forced to go up the arcana line once again. Really hurts aura sharing+tempest defense build, which was looking like a ton of fun (but i suppose maybe a bit too powerful).

I’ve already said how much i love this rework in the main thread, but i’d like to share some thoughts on the ele specific here.

What about switching the element-related effect of elemental attunement with the 5 points trait in fire,air,water and earth? This would make for a less ‘boon-spamming’ mindset, and make the element you traited feel more like an element you traited (‘your home-element, if you will’). A dimension currently completely missing in the game, except for the quite bland flat dmg/cd reduction traits.

And turn elemental attunement into a bundling of all these replaced traits. That way it will synergize with lingering attunements nicely and more obviously. Also more resemblance to arcana minor adept. Also, could you give an indication of what kind of changes are easier to do?

P.S.: You could do the same to the 25-traits in the elements, replace them by the element’s counterpart of arcana 25, but boost proc chance significantly. Now THAT would add some depth. 25 arcana needed a bit of work anyway, as 90 percent of people were completely unaware of its functionality because of its insignificance. One example of what you could turn 25 arcana into is the 25 water trait bountiful power(maybe double up again, since less boons). With proper balancing this could maybe create a 10/10/10/10/30 build for the ‘well-rounded’ elementalist. Also works well with arcana giving boon duration.

What the kitten I just cant stop writing, I’m done. I’m done. Tempest defense w… NO, I’m done.

An elementalist’s point of view:

This is amazing. Moving arcana V and VI both to master tier is harsh but perhaps the only way to make elementalists consider not going 30 arcana for once. I love the idea of vigor becoming a factor as well, instead of being taken for granted. Adds even more depth to buildcraft.

Tempest defense aura sharing with or without elemental shielding is something i’ve been running with even before this patch with another ele, to great success. I fear it might become quite overpowered now the cooldown has been so drastically reduced, but then again, if that makes people appreciate options other than the One Build, i say leave it. I dont see people appreciate venom sharing yet either although with the immobilize buff its a VERY strong option for a teamfight thief.

Love assassin’s reward remake, not really fond of ‘just’ reducing effectiveness of all initiative gain traits, quite bland tbh. Overall maybe a bit harsh. Perhaps make larcenous rip one boon and remove one as a go-between.

CC warriors needed this dmg reduction, thats common sense. I’m sorry warriors but it just didn’t make any sense especially in wvw. Thx anet.

About swapping cantrips grant regen and vigor with cantrip recharge, please dont. Otherwise you cant justify not going into arcana. You need the vigor(and the regen) to kind of make up for loss of arcana V and VI, and not having cleansing wave is not an option without EA.

One more trait for auras would be nice to establish aura sharing, if you have leftover traits to rework. EDIT: like aoe vigor, to further support the elementalist frontliner.

Tried to keep it short.