Guild Wars 2

Hero or Mistforged dagger.

Check both links if they fit what you saw:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Primordus_Rifle_

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Predator

And no, ascended weapons don’t have special skill animations.

But Zel, scepter is so OP in PvP, too. So is Zerker armor. I think I have all the turret engis in NA in my followers’ list.

P.S.: I play 56201

Edit to reply: I don’t think you will ever succeed in swaying his firm belief :p

:O

The only way to change the skill animation is using a legendary weapon. All other normal weapons don’t have any special animation.

P.S. How do you know it’s a Primordus rifle?

Celestial, if you’re into WvW.

It’s The Predator – the legendary rifle.

maha.7902:

what does pvp have anything to do with pve mesmer damage or lupicus phase 2 autoattacks

like

what

I’m a god of derailment. Fear me

I usually pick Fire elemental. It has one hell lot of pressure and if enemy has to dodge its burst attack, it means time for me to queue my burst together to oneshot him. The aoe is also good against turrets. I usually don’t use anything else as I would rather disengage or die before the ability coming through. FGS is just too good, the damage of FGS is significant when you play a bursty class such as Fresh Air.

Zelyhn Lekovitch.2867:

There is a difference between “meta” and efficient. All meta builds are efficient, but not all efficient builds are meta.

So thanks to our vast building possibilities we have a lots of efficient builds. We have three main build archetypes for PvE and each one of these have many variations. In fact advanced players do not even limit their minds to those archetypes and they constantly innovate by combining assets from each builds. It is their ability to efficiently innovate that makes them outperform the competition.

Two builds for PvE you say? And the rest is bad? When I wrote my D/F guide many people thought it was bad. Then they tried it, and they realised that despite the build being unorthodox it is efficient, good, and wonderful. So there is not “one most efficient way to play”, but there are inefficient ways to play and these will not be given any attention.

I am getting tired of repeating the same things to you on every single thread Kodiak. I understand that it must feel good to be the one standing up against the accepted way of thinking, to be the one challenging this inhuman system. But despite your will to be different you have not contributed any build that has helped the community so far.

So keep trying to be different if you will, but stop antagonizing those who want to be efficient.

+1
Well said. Zelyhn for President! Although it’s kinda sad to see there aren’t many possibilities to have fun builds in PvE.

Our 75s “stun break” actually gives us 10 stacks of stability that our enemies don’t bother to waste their CC to remove. D/D cele is still freaking strong and one of the best at disengaging from the fight. And the only thing to overcome passive healing is sigil of Doom (or Poison).

Terrorsquad.2349:

DeWolfe.2174:

jportell.2197:

I think we’re up to 5 turret complaint threads a day.

There’s only a handful of posters that are rabidly against this build.

So, if players are playing the build and having fun, then the Dev’s must have designed it pretty well. It can’t even be as “OP” as the complaints are since it’s not a Meta Build.

1. Wrong, most of the community is against this build, even top players. (they even stream to show how stupidly OP it is. One top player even used it in NA 2v2 cup, to show how broken it is. Not gonna call names )

2. Wrong, doesn’t mean its fun to play, the devs did a good job. Playing something OP is mostly fun because you get rewarded for it in this game. Rewards equals fun (Leaderboard).

3. It’s not meta in ESL because top players don’t want to be called noobs for playing something cheesy as that. (Cele meta already showing this) I think it you get 5 top players together, let them play 5 turret engi or 4 turret engi and a thief/ele/warr doesn’t matter, they can basically win any tournament. But they don’t. It’s lame.

1. HAHAHAHA … I watched that fight. Said person was farmed so hard so he switched to turret engi. Not sure if he was really salty or genuinely wanted to show how broken turret engi is.

3. Every tourneys I know ban stacking of turret engis. I agree it’s lame and exactly opposite of what GW2 is proud of: active combat.

Open your Options menu. Your ping is there

It can be said both ways. If you see half of the group range while you melee, be prepared: you’re on your own! Every hit that kills you is due to your mistakes. If you argue that because someone ranges that you automatically hold aggro then haven’t you got carried this whole time in a full melee group? Experienced solo-ers melee but they kite A LOT when their defensive skills are on CD. Melee doesn’t mean stand still and ignorantly running through your favorite rotation.

It’s unrealistic to rely on pug to be as good and efficient as elite guilds. So I either improve myself, or just choose the easiest way to solve the problem. That said, I do give melee a couple of try before giving up and range.

Besides ele, engi, mesmer have good ranged dps, while ranger, guardian, warrior are also decent.

frifox.5283:

Iris Ng.9845:

Mesmer doesn’t have a good burst, but her damage isn’t that bad either. Mage Strike is iWarlock’s auto. I might or might have not Undead sigils on my weapons.

Runes/Sigils/Potions don’t apply to phantasms. If it did, you’d be seeing Warlocks wrecking havoc in pve meta

Sword Mes / 3xWarlocks at 10 condis, with full buffs, with runes/sigils/potions applying to phantasms = 17.7k dps

Yeah…

There, there Frifoxy At least mesmer is quite good with world bosses, especially the one we cannot crit like Teq and Wurm. Also do not forget that conjured weapons are aplenty to use. Those big numbers are just so satisfying

With a good engi, it’s really easy to add a 7-condi carpet for iWarlock to proc big damage. I’ve had a shatter mesmer hit my shoutbow warrior with Mage Strike for almost 5k once in sPvP. It was a nasty surprise because I always had a bad prejudice about staff mesmer damage

Zelyhn, I use D/F for both PvE and PvP now :p

Edit: +1 for your post.

Buster.6137:

Evan Lesh.3295:

The wiki shows how we calculate odds of victory:
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/PvP_Matchmaking_Algorithm#Match_Prediction

A couple of matches ago I was against a team I have to assume was premade. We lost 500 to 100~ (my memory fails me) and I lost a point. I have a really difficult time imagining how I was favored to win a match where we got absolutely killed. This happened again a few minutes ago, and I’m sure I’ll lose a point for it, too, and yet I do not believe I could be favored to win either of those matches.

Based on the wiki, you need to score at least 200 points (with 0% to 20% winning chance) or 300 points (with 20% to 40% winning chance) to achieve no ladder point loss even if you lose the match.

Also based on the wiki, your winning favor is calculated based on average rank (weighted 1), average effective rating (weighted 5) and highest roster size (weighted 2). To my knowledge, rank would mean your current leaderboard standing, rating would be your win/loss rate minus deviation and roster size is weighted to counter premade vs. pug scenario – in favor of solo Q-ers. In my opinion, the weight is too low on rank and too high on rating. It would be the cause for the (mis)matching of high MMR players with novices in a same team to balance against premades and their punishing loss in comparison to high ranking, low MMR players.

BlackBeard.2873:

S/F ele is 100% viable in all but the highest levels of play. You don’t see them in tourneys because: thief is more mobile by a LOT and a VERY WELL PLAYED thief can stomp you consistently.

Luckily, most thieves that aren’t at the top level are very bad. Thieves who are impatient are actually very easy to beat as fresh air, and if you learn the strategies to beat them you’ll think s/f actually has the advantage.

The survivability of s/f ele is actually VERY good when you rotate your cooldowns and position well. You can’t panic and hit your invuln, projectile reflects, projectile block (swirling), arcane shield, and trident heal all simultaneously. These things are meant to get you out of trouble or be applied in the right situation. You also want to stay at range (in a team fight) and keep up your air damage until you can close in for the kill. Count dodges so you won’t miss your phoenix. LOS when in a real fight, and use the ability to cast things like phoenix, shatterstone, and lightning strike/flash on enemies behind you. You can cast dragon’s tooth and comet without LOS completely.

Your role is NOT to 1v1. If someone squishy shows up, you can beat them, and have an advantage against any ranger, cele engie, necro, or non-bunker guard, but will can also lose if they land a good burst. If you get caught in a 1v1 with someone tanky, just leave (unless you are stalling for a few seconds while help arrives). If you DO choose to fight someone like that, give up the point (seriously, don’t just stand there tanking) and go kite around the available structures (take a high ground so you can easily LOS, hug the little lip on waterfall, etc) so they either leave the point (and stop getting progress) or stand there and eat tons of damage while help arrives. However, in most situations, you want to be a pseudo-thief and your goal is to +1 fights. Hop into any 1v1 and you should be able to finish it very quickly while also giving a few heals/support to your team-mate who was there.

Finally, you seem to insinuate that thieves make s/f irrelevant, which is only true for the best thieves (especially s/d thieves who know how to be patient). 90% of theives I have faced have run in head-first against me with full-cd’s and gotten rekt. Here is some advice: DON’T even try to avoid the backstab with dodges or utilities. Instead, have your hand primed and ready to hit arcane shield, signet of air (if you take this as stunbreak), stone flesh, or, if you are out of other CD’s, lightning flash away. After getting them out of stealth, hit tab (it will select the theif as target) and start bursting. Don’t try and defend yourself more. Your best defense against a thief is to unload your burst onto him making him run, or usually die. One single phoenix/air-swap is usually more than enough to kill a thief. Even more most are predictable and start trying to stealth even after eating just 1 air-swap. You will learn to get a feeling for when they will so you can start casting one of your cc’s (which is 100% death if you interrupt their black-powder—hearthseeker). If that isn’t available, just start your air auto sequence so they eat a full channel while in stealth.

I hope that helps.

+1

Well said. Much appreciated.

Looking at Reddit… Shake head…

Sizer.5632:

And then a thief joins the match and shows you why fresh air builds can be lacking

Yea theyre great in a lot of situations and the best eles can probably win tourneys as one (though probably s/f not s/d), but I doubt they will be “meta” anytime soon.

Really fun to play though, so for non tournament level players thats what matters

With a venom share teammate, a fresh air S/F ele can counter thief really easily. During team fight, it’s all the matter of positioning and enemy awareness. If I know the thief will jump on me, I’ll pre-cast Dragon Tooth on top of myself and get ready to queue all the aoe burst on top of myself. Thief has stealth but they lack invuln/evade and the ability to kite of mesmer who is far more annoying to counter.

On the tourney level, it’s the matter of rotation. The job of the thief is 1. to focus on power class, 2. roam and get objectives, 3. defend your squishy (aka, counter enemy thief). IF the Fresh Air ele has a supportive team, he can put out so much pressure. It’s hard to see this scenario comes to play as good Fresh Air ele are few and far in between and they don’t have a team ever.

You should try every locked dyes from your Dyes panel to see which one appeals to you the most. I personally like every single Enameled Dyes in the game because I always find a niche use out of them. But beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.

Royal.2693:

Of all times? I’m assuming this is NA only. So where is saatarcoeny on mesmer, ishanah on guardian, jery e on necro, no trolling on ranger?

Also: noscoc, toker and backpack are super overrated and shouldn’t be on any top list.

Saatar is playing engi now (on his alt account) and he is one of the best soloQ wrecker. I’d like to mention Sassy on her ranger as well.

Look, there is no AK!!!

I agree that some of your pro players don’t even play seriously in Q. Last time I was automatically put in a team with Hiba, Tarcis, AK and someone else, against an average pug team with 1 shoutbow, two turret engis and 2 DPS. We were losing so badly with 250 points difference because Tarcis played necro, Hiba played Fresh Air ele and AK played Bieber. (Basically, they died way too fast in any uneven team fight, and also off points). Only when AK swapped to his warrior to play seriously, the team was able to pull through and won with a 14-point difference.

At the moment, this list only gives off a feeling: “Watch out for those dudes if they happen to pack in the same team” or “Play defensively if they counter-class you”. Other than that, surely all have great mechanical skills, most can read the map, some can team fight and a few not trigger-happy.

Last but not least, I’m disappointed to see Zoe L get removed. She’s my personal favorite among all these esportz names, with remarkable performance in recent tourneys.

PvP track also gives you tokens. A lot of tokens.

Mesmer doesn’t have a good burst, but her damage isn’t that bad either. Mage Strike is iWarlock’s auto. I might or might have not Undead sigils on my weapons.

There are times when I see one or two turret engis on the enemy’s roster, I quietly stow my shout bow and D/D ele away and use my Fresh Air ele instead. Of all the classes that my Fresh Air ele can handle 1v1, zerker hammer/gsword war, sw/torch mesmer and condi ranger are the worst counter. Power ranger, thief and power necro are a joke. Unless your team use voice com, it’s better to go offensive against the rise of turret zombies in solo Q.

Mila appears twice mwahahaha…

Incinerator is fairly neutral in color so it looks good with most (if not any) color combination. I personally would stick with neutral dark or neutral bright. Color themes used are, in clockwise, black-orange, dark purple-green-red, white-gold, white-pastel.

Steel Courage.1250:

Iris Ng.9845:

I used Enameled Emblazed for accent in both my thief and my warrior. Shadow Abyss is great to subdue unwanted details and uneven texture.

Would flame do as well?

I like the Enameled Dyes for high contrast and details. Flame dye isn’t so hot on my characters.

I realized I use the Shoulder scarf on all my asura characters. It looks cute on them. Meanwhile, my main ele went a bit out of her comfort zone for a summer ready look.

I used Enameled Emblazed for accent in both my thief and my warrior. Shadow Abyss is great to subdue unwanted details and uneven texture.

Ah kitten , no more raffles, no more Twitch giveaways, no more precursor giveaways. This makes me sad

I wonder which class the OP is playing. This whole thread could be (very likely) a l2p issue.

Supreme.3164:

Iris Ng.9845:

Immobilization is strong when it is stacked multiple time against one target. In this case, D/D cele has far more than enough sustain to escape the burst coming after and S/F fresh air has enough range to stay away from the fray. Both builds also invest some points in either Arcana or Water to improve their condi cleanse potential. Meanwhile, D/F signet hybrid, especially the 62600, is very susceptible to immobilization and burst during team fight.

Both of the cons I have mentioned are expert at catching-up, pin-down and burst type of classes. They have strong condi cleanse and/or good sustain in general. Their CC is very spammable, they have frequent blocks, their burst crit and we don’t have regen to counter their passive burning/condi ticks.

In all fairness, I have no troubles counter condi ranger, condi engi and to some extend condi necro in 1v1. I simply just kill them before condi becomes an issue. However, condi stacking in team fight is far too great for the cleansing capacity of this build and team fight is where this build contributes the least.

Crowd control, in the other hand, is the biggest counter in 1v1 and 1v2.

This build is not meant to be a point holder like d/d, this is a “burst” build similar to the med guardian but ele style , you need to get in and get out, the dmg is there and so it’s the sustain.

I believe that’s what the creator really think

In what way did I say that I used this build for point holder? .__."

[rT] is a cult that worships the Dark Lord. [SC] wins because Jerem is my favorite parent.

@Sandy: new solo video as compensation to your fan? Hum?

Immobilization is strong when it is stacked multiple time against one target. In this case, D/D cele has far more than enough sustain to escape the burst coming after and S/F fresh air has enough range to stay away from the fray. Both builds also invest some points in either Arcana or Water to improve their condi cleanse potential. Meanwhile, D/F signet hybrid, especially the 62600, is very susceptible to immobilization and burst during team fight.

Both of the cons I have mentioned are expert at catching-up, pin-down and burst type of classes. They have strong condi cleanse and/or good sustain in general. Their CC is very spammable, they have frequent blocks, their burst crit and we don’t have regen to counter their passive burning/condi ticks.

In all fairness, I have no troubles counter condi ranger, condi engi and to some extend condi necro in 1v1. I simply just kill them before condi becomes an issue. However, condi stacking in team fight is far too great for the cleansing capacity of this build and team fight is where this build contributes the least.

Crowd control, in the other hand, is the biggest counter in 1v1 and 1v2.

Some little changes can be made (not all at once):

- Use a Dagger/Focus build
- Use an Energy sigil
- Switch to 66002 for more Vigor on Crit
- Add more block and/or stun break: Arcane Shield or Signet of Air for roaming
- Always stay at max melee range (300)
- So you can observe the enemy’s tell and dodge. Usually try to dodge the ones that have long winded animation
- Use Lightning Hammer or Sandstorm against a group of mob
- Use Glyph of Elemental in Earth as a temporarily tank
- Use a bigger heal skill. Either Glyph for extra boon or Ether Renewal for condi cleanse
- Use staff if you want to keep an extra distance from a group of mobs (and it gives an extra dodge too).
- Use steal-health food buff.

Adding my CONs:

- Not good against hammer dps guardian or any good engi like FiveGauge. Basically, any classes strong at immobilization and lock-down.

- Not good when getting focused.

Hasn’t this build been circulated around here and Reddit sometimes ago? The original version is still the strongest in offense. I have also seen a scepter/focus version with similar setup and 40640 traits. My friend said it’s good but I personally don’t like it.

Only PvP people exploit AI and farm ranks with turrets (`.`)9

It asks for the hated builds, not the hated bads in your life.

I think DnT did the record of this fractal boss. As far as I remember, they skipped the second and third bubble phases by chilling the boss and burnt through his 75% to 0% HP. I have not saved the link but I think Nike or someone else may have it.

Sometimes
They
Put
That
Light field
To
Cleanse your conditions.
Appreciate it!

But if you mistime your utilities you will be two shot by the cultists’ burst. Let’s not bring skills on the table and focus the fact that warrior is the best to take the hammer without the need of defensive utilities at all. If they go down they can always use vengeance to get back to the stack. So convenient!

You are lucky. If that ranger camps greatsword at Lupi, you will die.

Hahaha hahaha…

No. Icebear is sacred.

There is no fix. You may want to use the JP to continue.

Transmutation charge is one of the most worthy rewards you can earn from a PvP reward track. With so much demand for image optimization, I can easily see it as a carrot to attract people to a deserted game mode, or as a gold sink or a cash magnet. How often do you buy an outfit? Once in a while, right? But I have constantly gifted those transmutation charge because people love it and cannot live without it.

At sub level 80 dungeons, I would gladly replace the warrior with a ranger, considering this factor:

- Fight is too short and skip is too fast. The banners, the sole reason to bring the warrior (aside from the kittenty Empowered Allies build), are simply not off cool down for half of the fight. Meanwhile Frost Spirit has shorter cool down so the damage buff is quite persistent.

- With the way adrenaline currently working, warrior’s burst is a joke. Nowadays, I use Healing Surge to ensure that my 100b actually deals some damage in team fight. On that regard, ranger opening burst is simply much better and they can even start it before engaging the enemy (aka. precasting Long bow 5-2 → Signet-QZ → Path of Scars → finally auto attack). So much damage, so many vuln in a very short ramp up.

- With its decent amount of damage modifier, I would gladly to let the ranger pick up the ice bow. If it was the warrior or the guard, sorry take this slap in the wrist and a second slap in the face if they talk back.

- Unless you go for the EU meta (PS warrior and two staff ele), then well, excuse me, no comments.

Alright, now let’s talk about the points that I have made NoTrigger (our famed DnT resident guard, former rT -eh- player) sneer at me. No doubts he’s a very good guardian, but he just doesn’t play a ranger as well as Swiftpaw, both of whom will be the examples of my comparison.

I said:

it requires more situation awareness, better reflection damage, better CC overall

• CC: the only CC worth used against the boss at the current game build is Deep Freeze (elementalist’s ice bow #5) and all the other CC serve as peeling Defiant stack. Thief is unarguably the best for this job with Headshot is the easiest spammable CC in the game. However, there are two problems. First, the thief with max DPS build can only remove 4 stacks of defiance at one time. Second, there is a bug that every thieves are aware of: Headshot would sometimes stop remove the Defiant stack even if the shot connects and initiative spent. It would be up to your teammate to remove the defiance. Warrior’s mace 5 is okay, not a loss in DPS but it affects your rotation. However, both guard and ele’s CC will result in their loss of DPS. Ranger’s Path of Scar has short CD and is also a part of their DPS. If the fight is long (for example, the Icebrood boss or Andal in HotW p2) then even long bow’s push back come in handy to remove defiance.

• Better reflection damage: if both guardian and ranger was to stand in front of the Legendary Jotun to reflect its damage then ranger would win hands down. Even back when Marolna’s poison spit is reflectable, the ranger was one of those who can kill her the fastest and guardian couldn’t even compete. If we talk about who can provide more reflect between the two classes, guardian surely wins, only because the fight lasts long enough to require a second reflect. Then it is meant for protection, not damage.

• Situation Awareness: It is rather challenging to play a ranger. You provide buff like a warrior, so you need to pick up your spirit and know where to place it. You can provide reflect like a mesmer or guard but it’s not your primary job so you put it in queue. You have to micromanage your pet. You can provide a heal burst and condi cleanse but have to make sure not to interfere with the ele’s fire field. Most of the time, you try to max out your damage but not put others into the harm way (like, not using greatsword for Lupi melee). When your teammate fails to pull, you can fill in the job too.

Last but not least, here is a great display of the ranger’s mobility: https://youtu.be/g8J2RkYUSAE

Why bother questioning other people’s fun? To me, skipping is fun. It’s like how to disengaging in pvp while being chased by 3 or 4 enemies at once. The thrill is incomparable.

Kodiak.3281:

@Ark: You literally gave the OP exactly what the OP said they weren’t looking for. I mean section by section, every build the exact opposite what they said they were looking for.

I don’t know how to make that anymore clear than that. If you’re incapable of understanding that or just being willfully ignorant of it either way it’s kinda like…why bother?

@Iris Ng: Do you really need more cleave than the DT -> Ring -> Phoenix -> Blast -> Arcane Brill combo when doing solo? I mean that alone will down most Veterans I’ve fought let alone if you take it a step further and EQ -> Churn -> Air (while Churn) -> Light + Flash. Honestly most multi-wave scenarios I tend to split the Fire -> Air combo and Fire -> Earth -> Air combo and that’s sufficient for cool downs and keeping the might stacks at 25. Honestly if you need more cleave than that you likely aren’t doing solo content anymore. Only time I’ve found stacking defense is obsolete is when 1) You know the encounter well enough you can handle avoiding all the damage or 2) you’re going to get one shot regardless of what you put on. Again, I’ve always found the high burst of Scepter and the sustain of 00044 to be a great combo.

Maybe it’s just me who lacks aptitude but I would love to see a footage of how you tackle, perhaps, 3-4 copper and/or silver mobs with your usual scepter/dagger combos. May I suggest solo an occupied objective in Silverwaste. I find it pretty “challenging” for new elementalists.

Awaiting for your recorded footage,
Sincerely,

P.S. The cleave is really not as strong as mobs can just walk away, or CC you, or simply charge to you and deal a considerable damage that forces you to cancel your channeling. Oh and I forget, how would you deal with multiple silver and gold as one? Like Elite Risen or Elite Mordrem?

Ah, scepter doesn’t have any cleave. OP shouldn’t play scepter exclusively in PvE without any conjured weapons. Also, ele dps is all about stacking damage modifiers. And do not forget that veteran and above has twice to more times HP as players so there is a point which stacking defense becomes obsolete. If you solo several mobs at once and their attack pattern is hard to predict, it’s better to deal big damage and try to rally from the fallen enemies than survive and dragging the fight.