Guild Wars 2

Axelifus,3269,
“Avoid” is right.

The first question about this contest is whether it would be alright to use a different weapon. That says a lot. I am willing to allow conjured weapon, for now. If someone thinks that conjured weapons are too strong to make this a real competition, then state that. No one wants boring video or an event that will not help the Elementalist get the changes in the long run.

I would like to see the mobs defeated with mainhand dagger equipped. If that is only possible by avoiding actually using the mainhand dagger, then d/d and d/f are in an aweful state. Remember, Ele only has five weapons for killing these mobs. Someone will probably point out that each weapon is like two weapons because of the attunements. To that I will make the point that, if two sets of the five are broken, then that equates to four broken sets (four out of ten – 40%).

Wraislin.6072,
I do appreciate your contribution to this thread, and look forward to your d/d video.

Melody Cross.8465 and to All,
I have been mulling over an idea you might like. We have a few videos showing how well the burst works to dps enough for Svanir. The scepter is not really the issue I am raising. You are correct about that. Scepter videos give more perspective. Alright, so, I have been wanting to put up a reward for a challenge. Maybe 50 gold or 100 gold, and an assortment of crafting and mystic forge items. I would like to get 20 challengers. The reward will be split into two pots, and all successful challengers split the pots. The challenge is simple: beat Svanir and the Chieftain in under 2 minutes, in that order. 80% of the reward will go to that pot. A consolation pot of 20% of the reward will pay those who only kill Svanir in under 1 minute. Here is the catch: only d/d or d/f builds are allowed, and no racial skills or pet summoning skills. The reason for the “no pets” rule is because of the AI problem. So that is it. I want to get people’s ideas on how to hold such a challenge. It would take an hour. Can people guest into one server’s PvP practice area? The challenge will only work if both mobs are side by side, like in the practice area. Also, how can others spectate without tampering with the results?

Does it really matter which hits harder? I was happy enough to be alive to cast one spell. lightning hammer has a storm cast too. Maybe you should go with lh, so another player can use it too, like fb and fgs. You can still choose GoS, but you probably will not need it before a weapon is off cd.

I heard all the good Eles moved to low pop PvE-centric servers where only uplevels roam WvW. Then they make videos about how OP they are because of their skeelz.

To be straight about this, GW2 was balanced around sPvP. When did a hard-core team ever say, “If only one of you could bring another Ele we could win this tough fight. If only all five of us played Eles.” If teams had to be made with only three classes, then which class(es) would never be seen?

Thief bursting – more fair perspective

omg vids ! Thank you Melody Cross.8465 and KazNaka.4718.

All,
My hope with this thread was to get retooling to mainhand dagger and focus skills, some improvement to offhand dagger, and a ‘complete picture’ review ele builds. I see the “help ele” spirit spreading thanks to the attention and videos people are giving. The above video was posted in the sPvP forum. I reposted here because it lends to the “proper perspective” that I have tried to foster in this thread. The maker of this video was rebuffing someone who said the ele was the burst champion. Please keep this in mind before conceding more to the ele-hate system.

Not a joke. There are some executive jobs that must be left as wage only. For instance, the lead designer must retain a fully objective seat, so that the game vision will stay intact. You see, a game could devolve into a minimum set of dominant options. If absolutely every employee had half their pay equate to sPvP results, then the dominant class concept might turn all other classes into the same thing. Maybe the warrior concept is dominant in GW2. Finding a democratic solution to problems would likely result in warrior-esque suggestions only. Certain executive positions must be neutral, so that important things, like class uniqueness, are secure.

One other thing that should be done is that all employees should take a 5% pay cut. That 5% would be put into a graduating reward delivered with bonuses each week (1%-9%). Underperformers would essentially lose 4% pay that week. Exceptional performers would earn 4% more. This is necessary because the system will eventually balance the classes optimally. This secondary reward system will insure a lasting rewards system for maintaining good balance, and encouraging feelings of personal investment in the product. Seriously, how valuable is a game dev that refuses to be knowledgable and skillful in the game the company produces; disabilities excepted.

This idea draws from a long proven business method for improving quality and output.

& .. Alter dev pay, so that it is half wage and half bonus.
& .. Bonuses are an allotment by management per week.
& .. Devs are given a random class mix and face-off in a best 2 of 3 match (the best QC is real-time testing)
& .. Bonuses are based upon individual and team results

Problems solved !

I have been pushing for a reconsideration of mainhand dagger skills. I also question all channeling skills on daggers. I’m sure you are already familiar with my posts. I wanted to support your post by continuing with specific recommendations for change.

~. Doesn’t it seem like breath weapons would fit better as focus 4 skills? I imagine the Ele lifting the focus to the mouth and blowing the essence off it. There is an animation already like that in-game.
~. I concur with the OP. Why is dagger (that uses melee range or 2x melee range) using projectiles? Mainhand dagger skills need to be fast melee cone like other melee types. The difference is that it should scale direct damage at half the rate of normal melee, but conditions should always apply with either 50% greater scaling or an additional crowd control condition with normal scaling.
~. Any channel that takes longer than the invincibility on focus earth 5 is too long. Currently, invincibility is 3s, so channeling should not be greater that 2.5s for anything, which still allows for up to 10 rapid hits (2 per 0.5s) or one big bang. I realize that dagger earth 5 will lose damage from this change, but does everyone remember the damage nerf to it done a long while back? All they had to do was reduce the time, so they could actually give the better damage back.
~. Condition Damage bonus should be under fire, just like Crit Damage bonus is under Precision. I know people will hate this idea because con. dmg under earth gives some dps to a survival line, but resisting this change only perpetuates the broken state of the class.

You can look at this two ways.

1) You could realize that some fights will make you wish for more survivability. You could assume that you will be punished to your last hit point repeatedly, but you are confident that your skills will pull you through if you just added 8% more survivability.
2) You could realize some fights will make you wish you had the damage to finish them off earlier. You could assume that quicker wins will come with more damage (any damage that bolsters your build).

Do you play for come-backs, or do you play for risk&reward?

tswm (too short write more, a.k.a ey (explain yourself)) –
Think about a hard time in WvW. You are outmanned or outplayed in multiplayer combat. Each time you faceplant you get two casts. You wonder while eating dirt whether it would have been better to trade that 1k extra health for 100 more ae damage. I will say it straight, and you either understand it or you don’t. There is a range of optimum survival. On one side of that optimum range you get a tad more dps. On the other side of that optimum range you get a tad more up time. Adding more survivability will result negligible win, so it is wasted stat. Trading more survivability for dps will result in exponential increase in loss rate. That range covers roughly the same number of wins. One gives slightly faster wins, while the other is slightly more reliable. The problem is finding that range. The current state of the Ele makes puts that range in a dangerous zone regardless. With that in mind you need to either fight the risk by rebelliously going survival, or embrace the risk with a berserker frenzy.

but .. but .. I want to tell you reroll so bad. I’m shaking man. It’s hard to hold it back.

There is a massive thread that tells you all you wanna know. A quick sum-up for the gear and traits is here

Carlos.4371,
Your Elementalist looks like what would be a promotional character for a new video game, 10/10! You look like a legend.

I am deciding between the following three outfits. Each one has something I want. None of the things I like about each one looks good together. I will let the next rater choose which looks best. That will be my new permanent outfit.

Sometimes people get so focused on where they are going that they forget where they started. Other times focusing on small things hides the whole picture. I think its time to look at the whole picture’s pieces.

New Vid! – using s/d. Not happy about it. Giving thoughts about d/d role in game now. Really, mainhand dagger’s role.

Sorry about the last bad link. It won’t let me edit it or delete it. The video was there, but I removed it. Its message was not what I wanted.

More vids please! I have met some terrific eles on the battlefield that use one or two daggers. Make a short video showing your excellence, and help out the community. Also, have courage to reveal everything you see. You are awesome players. We know this. ANet knows this. Show us your awesomeness, mostly, but show us what you’d like to change, too.

Thakis.6931,
If you are just doing PvE with your group of friends, then any stats works fine for d/d. If you want to do damage and support your group, which d/d is goof for, then get gear with Power and Healing Power. Trait Water line 15+, and your choice of anything else that looks good. A more survivable way to go would be Shaman and Dire gear, Earth line 30, and Water line 15+. That will do decent condition damage. If you want to WvW, then you will need Arcana line 30 to get the Arcane Evasion trait.

Listen to silvermember.8941. Rune of Torment and Rune of Perplexity were put into the game to allow warriors to get out-of-class conditions. I had an up-leveled (lvl 45 in WvW) guardian get one shot by a warrior rifle – 14.5k damage. GW2 is turning into the type of game where warriors solo roam, or form power groups (in PvE too), meaning that anything other than a warrior is beginning to be excluded. If you want in on the party, then you better be a warrior player soon.

Did you use the same build? He did not use high power. I know that Arcane Wave tooltip shows between 500 and 750 on my Ele depending on Power points. Did you notice what his tooltip read at his low Power? Oh, and I remember a lot of nerfs – constant nerfs. Little things were taken. Remove a condition effect. Lower a condition effect. Lower direct damage. Outright negate traits. It’s bad all over.

I want to see every nerf that wrecked a build at some point. People should post links and give times like I did.

tldr – Everyone is right about Ele getting the shaft. In the future, expect it.

I can’t be the only ele player the has watched or particapted in GvG or ZvZ. How can any Ele player seriously concede a stun breaker? Look at how useless crowd control is in the Big Game. Elementalists have been shafted in every way, including avoiding crowd control. That means that anything an Ele has is of greater value than it would be to another class. We need to learn this phrase, “An Elementalist cannot be powerful.” We need to recall that phrase when we wonder why something does not make sense. You see we are thinking wrong.

Please, people, for everyone still calling for attunement dance stuff, be advised that ANet nerfed that out of existence soon after game launch. They decided they do not want buffs lingering. We are still waiting for the replacement option, though, which was promised.

As far as comparable skill that are better on other (more survivable) classes, ANet stated that it was difficult decision. They chose not to give abilities deemed crucial in the meta-game analysis to classes that could not live long enough to use them. Funny, and true.

Yo what’s the time? It’s time to get ill? NO. It’s time to wiki bro. It’s 2013. Find words about Hellenic Elements by clicking . Repeat after me, alchemy is science. Good, again. Alchemy is science. Great! You’re learning fast.

Tesla would tell you that lightning is charged in the ‘earth’ and the ‘condensation’ in the air, called clouds. Electricity happens because of ‘magnetism,’ which is a force, not a state of matter. Plasma seen as lightning is the super-heating of air atoms due to the force of magnetism that draws the electrical current.

Knowledge skill +1

Good suggestion Adastra.9821.

New video here. Tried to get some winning footage by starting without traits. I added more where it was evident ele needed more. Still did not pull out a win, but came closer. I’m being forced into an S/D build. Already retraited it and bought the scepter. They’ve corrupted my pureness. It’s over.

Anyways, here’s the vid: click for video . Sorry it sucks. I am hoping to see other D/D eles with more success in the new bl area.

Not everyone studies the nerfs that have been happening to Ele. I take months off at a time, so I miss patch notes. There are many in these forums that do not realize how much the nerfs have really hit the class. Let us help educate them. Let us find the old videos that show some old tooltips or actual combat numbers. Let us not waste their time, so give the time in the video to skip to. I ran across this yesterday. It showed the old Arcane spells damage 150% more than it is now.

Vid 1 – S/D, nice direct damage
- time 3:10 for Water Line 25 trait, serious?
- time 5:35 for Arcane Wave, holy cow
- time 6:45 to see the rotation

Vid 2 – S/D, remember when your dps was boss
- all 11m, for your viewing pleasure

Derond.7930,
Do you mean 1.9k, 1.9k, 2.8k? If not, then please share your 10x damage hack with the rest of us. That would definitely help overcome the 60% damage nerf that has been ripping this class apart.

So fire should be plasma line. Then it could become a mixed bag of conditions. Goo for poison. Ethereal plasma for confusion. lightning for instant ranged direct damage with daze effect. Fire fields for burning and combos. What’s missing?

If you just came here to read an Elementalist player tell to avoid the class, then I am the one you were looking for. Also, delete the ele you made, and choose anything else. I recommend an Engineer if you are looking for something less popular.

bookman.9260,
I will write that down, and try to add that to my future epic moves.

Gabrielle,
Thank you for the videos.!Do not feel personally effected by critiques. Any experienced player can see the lack of damage and conditions on the first video. The thieves were obviously very up-leveled, or noob, or something.

All,
Thank you for pushing this thread along. Must see more vids.
NOTE: Vids should be new, since there are many old vids that do not reflect the accumulated nerfs and buffs to classes. Please have the courage to show the best and the worst, but mainly we want to see the best. MORE VIDS!

I went high Arcana after game release when most went zerker for the easy kills versus the many new characters. Interestingly, the vocal majority switched to Arcana after it was nerfed, while I specked into full power, partial crit. My last build was a damage alternative to the Cavalier craze going on. Staff was the reason I chose full power. Staff is utility. Lighting is not the best, but there are times to use it. Power is best for lighting. Meteor Shower is for stand-offs, like at keeps. Power is best for all fire spells. Put might on top of high power and you get massive returns, especially when a 30% crit brings the unexpected two or three crit string thanks to fury or Arcane Power. The right spec for staff is 30/x/x/x/x. Try it before you knock it.

@disappointed viewers
The important thing is not whether I could do better, but whether it is painful enough to watch that others are motivated to show how it is done. Words are good. Videos are better.

OP took the challenge. I got the vid, and he got his win. I got the punishment. Check it out: here

It makes me happy to read that you do so well still. I salute you sir.

For proper perspective, lol – 3 other classes compared

Aww … c’mon y’all. No one, as yet, has been humored and challenged enough by this to post your awesomeness? The video above testifies that our struggles are not imaginary. Please keep this effort alive with your kick tail vids Eles. Believe that every one of us can appreciate your accomplishment by just winning, even barely. Out of three million players there has to be ten (or a hundred) that have something to show. Please do.

Alright. Give me time to make a video. Power groups do not grow on trees. I apologize to all the sylvaris.

Things to reconsider

Let me be the one to take the flack for showing what I am seeing. Now show me what you are seeing. Say it however you will. I want to learn just what you all think can be done to improve ele play. I spent only 10 points in earth to get the toughness bonus for channeling, so you can figure out where the other 60 belong.

I want your videos showing how you did it better. I want to see Svanir soloed with pro style. I want to see your points and traits and how that makes you wipe the practice NPCs in 3s. I want to see you attune your heart out while acting as a crucial member of an elite squad in PvP or WvW. Please, no lackluster videos of leeching eles that only pull off finishers on downed players for fear of actually fighting it out.

I am the one that gave a review several thought was disappointing, even trolling. It is not trolling to give an honest critique when it is asked for. Really, every ele player out there should thank those who did not like my review. Here are your responses summed: “The OP did just he should have because any ele that tries to do anything other that clean up the downed will fail and be a liability to the team.” Thank you for proving my point.

I like to play dangerous. Most PvP games I run solo for the thrill of dominating. I get burnt down a lot because I do not have the support most rpg are made for. Sure, I zerg to get the cheezy wins for lootz. I have 7 characters to feed (four 80s). The only five-mans I run are in fotm. In WvW I run up on small group fighting where allies are outnumbered. That happens often enough that I have learned what a d/d ele needs to do to bolster in a small foray.

The #1 thing to play well as an ele is to be ALWAYS contributing. That means always active. That is why confusion and torment are destroying eles right now. ANet finally attacked the core of the ele. Hate me for stating the truth. Fine. Or .. you could learn.

zencow.3651
… so you looked for a post to quote, saw that, and decided to quote in this thread because you thought it might make it look like I do not know enough. Above that you respond to my serious question with a non-answer that makes it sound like the answer is privy to only players as knowledgable as you. Did I sum your post up right? You can do that, or you could have given a real answer in the thread where that post was (for relevance) to be helpful to the community. Right now, you’re just looking like a troll.

What is the deal with “on swap” sigils in builds people have been posting? Was there a patch that made “on swap” useful for Eles in some patch when I was not playing?

zencow.3651
What game are you playing? When is the last time you logged in? This thread is about Guild Wars 2, September, 2013.

KillMEiDareU.8026. – There is no need to say it when you can show it. The reason people do not want to see threads like this is because it is practically trolling. I have FRAPS ready. You see my game name. Contact me in-game. I will be on most of tonight. Seriously, whisper me. We will find the 5+ mobs you can handle. We will record it, and post it here. Why not help others improve to your self-claimed pro level? Either you can or cannot. If you choose not to contact me in-game to make this video, then everyone knows what’s up.

All, it is not a bug. That particular skill in Arcana was my crank in the beginning. It was not working all the time correctly. Instead of fixing it, they took it away completely one patch. They said it was overpowering, and that they would replace it with something else at a later date. I was shocked because people always said how much talent it took to cycle the elements effectively. I was a cycling master, and that was the thing that made it work. That was taken, and cd times were lengthened. Even back then they were talking about revamping the Ele, but, as we all see, nothing has been replaced that was taken.

tldr – It is not a bug. It is working as nerfed.

tldr – post what awesome ele weapon idea you have here and imagine for us what role it fulfills.

Case in point:
1 .. Seriously, what is a d/d ele? It’s a great idea made real in GW2! It’s a elemental magic based rogue. Of course, now it is nerfed, so that role is unfulfilled.

We should all be able to see, by the post after post of “Hey let’s change this lame horse,” that change will come. This thread is to consolidate one very important issue that was ignored from the beginning – weapon selection. The first and only reason given about why the Ele is limited in weapons was because of the additional options via attunements. We all know this, and we know that answer was not the best business answer that could be given. We still want customer satisfaction.
_
I would very much like the Ele to have the option to be a magical archer. There should be two weapon slots, like normal; one for a normal weapon that does mundane damage, one for a conjured replica that adds attunement effects. Yay “on swap” sigils!! The mundane weapon slot uses standard arrows with no-frills abilities, such as:
1. short range shot, high damage
2. medium range shot, medium damage
3. long range shot, low damage
4. Precise shot, increased crit chance, medium range
5. Steady shot, increase damage, long range
Attunements would allow for traiting these skills and add:
Fire = burning/vulnerability
Air = distance/stun
Water = chill/weakness
Earth = bleeding/cripple
Example traits in water would be:
.. ranged skills heal target area on hit, radius 180
.. proc healing effect radius is larger
.. steady shot ignores condition effects for the concentration duration
.. regen while attuned to water
.. become a healing conduit, nearby allies gain regen when you do
.. all arrow shots take one second longer and do 30% more damage

Erebus.7568 and BlackBeard.2873 speak truth. I stand in honor of you two. All take notice! These are truth speakers, revere them.

zencow.3651
I agreed with you halfway in another thread. You lost my support here. The elementalists’ conditions would not last full duration, and the elementalists would die before seeing the conditions complete even if the warriors did not cleanse. All melee is short-range ae. Two highly skilled warriors could take out all five eles.

You asked for a critique.

I have seen videos like yours before by players in other games. I remember one where this caster took up to ten seconds to select a target while the rest of the team busily did the mass of the work. You show how vulnerable the d/d ele is by the way you repeatedly run in and out of combat. Your dps barely helps the team. Your play is sub-par. You should use ae cd skills to give lasting help to your team’s dps, but you went high power to get better heals. You consistently show the role the d/d ele is being forced into – the finisher. You spend time cleaning up the downs, which puts you too far away from your team to provide support. Your solo time cleaning up also weakens your team, since they cannot protect you, nor can you damage the immediate threat, nor are you visually aware. I can commend you on your build. Your play style should follow the same focus on self-sacrifice for team strength.

Laken.4056,
Time is something you cannot afford in a fight as a d/d ele. Anything you use that takes time had better pay-off. If you want to do the d/d ele thing, then you need to understand opportunity cost. What do you give up for what you get? The arcana line is a time sink. Think through a fight. Are those 30 traits points all working for you? Read the wiki about Arcane Power. Try to get 100% effective traits. You need extremely high power to pull-off d/d if you have no condition damage. My d/d ele used to get between 1.5-2k lightning whip on a crit with only 30% crit damage. Not anymore. All damage (direct, condition, crit) has been dropped A LOT for d/d ele. Listen to zencow.3651, maximize stats and make sure your build options work together.

Basically, a d/d ele (the most vulnerable in game) can’t move, can’t heal, can’t cleanse, can’t out-dps (on single target), relies on ridiculously long concentration skills in melee range, and is still being looked at for future nerfs. Of course, it takes better skilled players to play a d/d ele competitively (now more than ever), but we will be alone with that thought. What results in-game would not prove that belief.

d/d earth #5 was the problem. Players of other classes went out of their mind when hit by a sudden attack. Did they trade direct damage for condition damage. I remember hitting for more immediate damage and much less condition damage, even though my ele had bad power back then.

d/d is my preferred weapon set, but you do need to learn other weapons. I switch between d/d and staff in fotm. I even have 2 sets of daggers – a p/t/v set for mostly healing, and a cd/p/v set for melee dmg assist (fun). Staff you will always need available, and there is no reason to use anything other than zerk stats on staff.

It is nice to think about ways to improve the ele, but remember that the ele was much more powerful in the beginning. The changes have been (like every other rpgmmo) to weaken the ele, so that players of historic op classes will feel the op. Either warriors or guardians will eventually be unkillable 1v1 by any other class. Thieves will be untouchable, either by 1 shotting or by constantly applied stealth. Eles will be relegated to zerg support. We are lucky that we are still allowed to remain on rampart to ae from. Don’t delete your old videos. They were the good old days.

Thank goodness it was nerfed. Too bad invisibility is not as limited as it originally was held to. Oh well. Why play a stealth class that isn’t easy?