Guild Wars 2

SlimGenre.6417:

Asmodal.6489:

water
you can put 25 stacks of vurnability on your target in like 2 seconds while chilling them for 10+. if the target is low on health you get a 40% damage boost on arcane wave, blast and 5 base attacks.

How do you get the 25 stacks? Shards of ice gives 3 stacks on the build you’re using for both Arcane Blast and Arcane Wave, so that makes 6… and then 1 stack for your first 4 attacks after using Arcane Power… that adds up to 10 stacks, not 25… what am I missing?

I was wondering that, too. My guess is Vapor Blade with Arcane Power activated and hitting a target with both the outgoing and returning attack of Vapor Blade.

I’d say the backbone of our defense would be cantrip utility skills followed by defensive/cc/mobility weapon skills. Save cantrips for hairy moments when you need to make your escape. Use Magnetic Aura (Earth 3), which is an instant-cast skill and can be used while channeling, to reflect ranged attacks. Magnetic Aura doesn’t last long, so you’ll need to kill or break line of site to ranged enemies. Burning Retreat (Fire 4) is also good for evading attacks and gaining distance from melee enemies. It even works while you’re immobilized – though you don’t move, you do evade attacks.

If you actually want to survive hits – use a combination of weakness (Stoning – Earth 1) on your enemies and protection (various methods) on yourself. Depending on what you’re fighting, you can even tank attacks by standing in your own Geyser (Water 3) and using combo finishers to enhance the healing (eg, Eruption > Geyser > Arcane Wave for 2 blast combos and lots of healing).

Both in PvE and (situationally) in PvP you can toss out time delayed skills before you’re noticed by your enemy so you’ve dealt a good chunk of their HP before they even know it. For example, Eruption > Ice Spike > Lightning Surge will all hit at about the same time if you’re quick at changing attunements and using skills. The enemy will be blinded, but you can also follow up the attack with CC – like Gust and Static Field to prevent the enemy from reaching you. If the target is ranged, drop a lava font under it and hit it with a flame blast while you wait for Earth attunement to return so that you can use Magnetic Aura and reflect their attacks.

Do you have more specific questions or scenarios you’d like to cover? Did you reach 80 using a different set of weapons? How did you survive with those weapons?

First of all, as “SpreadCheeks” says, get into a group, preferably a 5 person group. Why? Because that 5-15% required to qualify for loot is determined by the total damage done by your party. Note that you must also do damage/participate in the fight to qualify for loot.

Fortunately, most of our support skills also do damage. They were designed this way for a reason. Those few fields we have that deal no damage are also made more effective when you use a combo finisher with it (which practically all do their own damage).

It’s been a great matchup! You certainly weren’t kidding that JQ brings the fight during the weekdays! JQ’s defense of our SoR Garrison was fantastic, last night. One thing’s for sure, we certainly need to do a better job of camping that waypoint and strangling your supply lines. We kept trashing all your siege and you kept porting in with supply, pushing us out, fixing your doors and building your siege right back up! Great fights to all who participated!

Here’s to another week of Tier 1 madness on this blood thirsty Thursday! Maybe next week’s thread will have fewer passive aggressive jabs talking about PvDoor, weekends vs. weekdays, coverage, etc (hah!). We all have queues, we all have lives, we’re all here to have a good time, and at this point, we’ve probably all slaughtered and been slaughtered on the battle fields many times!

Dhraiden.9215:

I respectfully submit in contradiction that secrets do not hurt a game or its fan-base. I am playing The Secret World currently, taking a break from GW2, and even though the “lore” there is often not spelled out in black-and-white 100%, it in no way detracts from my enjoyment of it.

I’m sure numerous folks searching for Final Rest would agree… though after much searching (and a healthy distaste for low RNG based drops) I wouldn’t turn down additional hints.

Morrigan.2809:

Jelle.4623:

I’m thinking of these kind of events:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Force_the_ancient_creature_back_into_its_prison

There are more of these events and they are rare.

I was just thinking of that event last night.

Another event that comes to mind is the one at the little house in the swamp in Queensdale with the book and the necro- I don’t know how many 80’s actually do that at all and the creature is a sort of flying demon thingy
doesn’t spawn a chest though as far as I remember.

Another event that I thought of is this one:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Font_of_Rhand

I did this many many moons ago and have never tried it with an 80 at all

There are also the events spawned by the Dwarven Key in Dredgehaunt Cliffs:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dwarven_Key

I’d be a little surprised if all of the 3 maps for the Ruins of Orr didn’t include any spawned events like these. I don’t recall coming across any, though.

0/10/0/30/30 is just a build with many trait options that synergize well regardless of weapon choice. It also provides a much needed boost to our low base hitpoints. It’s an obvious choice, which when discussed in multiple guides, makes it a safe option for anyone new to the class.

Hopefully the upcoming class and AoE adjustments improves the synergy of other builds so we can branch out a little more. I think we had a lot more options before all our damage nerfs, but now we tend to rely on boons in order to do anything useful.

Indeed. I like to stack the auras from D/D, */F and staff before a fight, then stay in staff to shell out auras (well, fury and swiftness) from Frozen Ground (though admittedly, if I were faster at swapping traits, I’d drop powerful auras after switching back to staff).

That said, lightning aura is phenomenal at protecting allies.

I’ve been wondering if there’s a valid condition build for Elementalist, too. Last night I tried increasing my condition duration to 97% – it’s kinda neat, especially for things like Frozen Ground, but I believe the scepter is better at stacking damaging conditions than the staff.

I’m also not sure that all 97% of the condition duration bonuses stacked correctly. Requires more testing.

You may be right (I wasn’t in the first BWE), but I’m going to have to disagree with you there. I think that’s just the enemy AI and pathing. The enemies didn’t need to get any closer because they were already in range and when the player dodged, they followed. Plus, you do see the targeted wolf cross the AoE indicator line at the edge (not that that really means anything, since we know those graphics are just guidelines and effects may actually be wider or smaller – see healing rain, some nasty boss AoEs, etc.).

I notice the same thing happen with Burning Retreat when I use it close to an enemy. They SHOULD walk along the line, but their AI decides to reposition and walk beside or zig-zag over it instead.

See http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Powerful_Aura for more details on the Trait. As Sabull mentioned, it doesn’t work for combos. It also doesn’t work with the Arcane Resurrection trait. It does, however, work with Fire’s Embrace trait when using a Signet skill.

Dang, but thanks for the update, Goloith.

I played Elementalist in Beta, and as you can see in the video it hasn’t changed. It’s definitely not great and I wish it were a circular AoE instead of a line, but it has its uses. In PvE, it’s pretty easy to get the AI to walk all over/along the line. In WvW it’s good for choke points, especially those you can view perpendicularly (example, ramp to 3rd floor of Garrison inner). It works much better if you can immobilize (or stun) your target on top of the effect since the condition stacks in duration.

The absolute best use of Unsteady Ground that I’ve found is using Elemental Surge + Arcane Power for an AoE immobilize that re-applies/stacks every second.

Yeah, I wouldn’t be too surprised if the reworked matchup system isn’t ready to roll out by next week if they decide to go with an adjusted system. I’m confident we’ll fight eachother again, though it may take a couple weeks and some potentially lopsided battles. On the plus side, should that happen, we’ll have the opportunity to complete our Monthlies >.>

Paid transfers needed to happen and with it, the reset. Hopefully this time there will be fewer mass transfers and server tier yo-yo’ing, but we’re going to need to patient while the system balances out

Remember though, that Windborne Speed also cures Chill, Cripple, and Immobilize. When running from enemies, save this until they try to CC you. But do use Static Field + Blast Finisher to keep your swiftness up.

On the topic of fleeing (or chasing) your enemies – Frozen Ground does no damage and, therefore, does not make you enter combat or reset your timer for leaving combat.

As for dealing with large forces and lots of overlapping combo fields, there’s one handy mechanic to remember – Finishers combo with the first field they encounter, or when there are multiple overlapping fields, the first field placed.

Hey now, I spend most of my time in WvW and since the change I actually complete the dailies! Before the patch, it was rare that I’d actually get to complete them unless the week was dull or queues long and I spent some time in PvE.

What a great matchup! The queues certainly seemed a bit wonky this weekend, but hopefully ArenaNet is collecting some accurate data to diagnose the issue (if there indeed is one). Still, it’s forcing us to work with our new Rallians, which will only benefit us in the long run.

SoS and JQ sure don’t take supply lightly. Enemy waypoints were up in SoR’s BL within what seemed like a few short hours of reset. And SoS sure sprang to action whenever swords popped on their supply, appearing within seconds of our capture to thwart us on their home borderlands.

I have no idea what next week’s matchup is going to look like, perhaps we’ll have an opportunity to complete our Monthly achievements, or perhaps we’ll be fortunate enough to meet eachother on the battlefield again!

Interesting, Kylia. That might explain some inconsistencies I’ve experienced, but I typically just chalked it up to a bug/mistaken perception. I’ll try paying more attention to the timer and our guild’s activity.

Would that mean that a personal guild with just yourself representing could be the first to claim?

WvW Guild buffs apply to all allies (not just guild mates). For example, if you activate the supply buff and claim a supply camp, anyone who picks up supply from that camp will get 15 supply instead of just 10 (if they have >= 10 supply, they’ll need to drop some in order to get 15). I find the supply buff on supply camps to be invaluable. Being able to spend 50% more supply with your group increases your siege options.

Note that all Art of War guild buffs only last for 12 hours. If you ever claim SM and activate all of your buffs, just make sure you claim something else before your buffs wear out / before you all go to bed for the night. In that way, another guild can claim and activate their buffs instead of being blocked by your claim.

As far as I know, a guild can only have one objective claimed in a map. You can also only claim once the Righteous Indignation buff is gone/nearly gone (ie, 4+ minutes after your team has claimed an objective).

Asura is pretty nice for elementalist – not only do you get access to the poison field, but the elite golem also uses a light field.

I went human for kittens and giggles. The racials aren’t anything spectacular. The elite skill, Avatar of Melandru, has a decent AoE root and 10 second water field, but there’s no jumping and the skills have a pretty big cast time. The hounds of Balthazar use leap finishers which are nice to combo with Lightning Fields for the daze.

There seems to be demand for another WvW map that doesn’t include the types of point objectives found in the Borderlands and the Eternal Battlegrounds. A place where smaller group / solo battles might take place. The EB jumping puzzle is a good example, except that it occupies a player slot in EB.

3 people? 3 people does not a zerg make. Overkill? I suppose that depends on how you’re specced and your level of skill vs. theirs. Even if you couldn’t kill all 3, you could delay them from getting another kill, or delay them long enough that your allies show up. For them, it’s far more efficient to quickly finish you off than to wait for one of their members to try.

There are wolves in WvW. They run in packs and they certainly do bite. They all want a piece of you and they will overwhelm you if you let them. Either be quick on your feet and keep looking over your shoulder or bring a friend or four to fend them off.

So for science… what were the levels of the items you used? All 80s? Three seventy-somethings and 1 80? No 80s? Random?

Gallrvaghn.4921:

Lure mobs to seafloor (or wall or any obstacle).

Use water4.

Then water5 towards the floor (or wall or any obstacle) .

Profit.

Incoming Water5 nerf!! You heard it here first.

This is probably the best damage we (or any class really) can do underwater. Also works with Earth 4 if Water 4 is on cooldown. The trick is aiming your Tidal Wave (Water 5) perpendicular to a surface so you don’t move out of range of the enemy you’re drilling.

A note about Earth 5 – projectiles flying through it will miss and mobs inside it will have blind reapplied to them. It’s very good to use.

Fire 5 will give you vigor and, if used close to an enemy, causes a good deal of burning.

Boil (Fire2) + Ice Wall/Detonate (Water 3 x2) is nice for might, but after using your wall, know that you have to get close enough before Detonating to get the Might boon. I have Zephyr’s Boon, though, so I typically use Boil + Tidal Wave for the Fire Aura+Fury/Swiftness. Boil has a quick cooldown, so you can alternate the two combos.

Sell the materials you gather in WvW to supplement your own crafting or buy equipment from the Trade Broker. You also rack up a good deal of Karma in WvW, so as other suggest, check out the exotic gear offered by Karma Vendors. Depending on who you’re facing, a well placed Arrow Cart or Ballista can provide you enough loot to make up for the cost (especially if you’re also defending a location and getting credit for the dynamic event).

YES.

I mean, we know the level cap will be raised eventually. While I hope we get at least another 6-12 months of our current level cap at least, I could do a lot of fun things with another 5 or 10 trait points. Plus, leveling is incredibly easy.

Situationally.

Fiery Greatsword has excelent mobility and some good attacks.
Earth Shield’s pull can bring enemies down from walls or pull enemies together for allies to AoE.
Lightning Hammer provides a second Static Field use, and a leap finisher (mm, dazes). It provides better mobility than just sticking with staff and if you have high crit damage it can put up some decent numbers, too. Not to mention, knocking people off cliffs is hilarious.
Ice Bow’s stun is nasty and the blizzard is pretty damaging. If you’re a condition freak, you get +20% condition duration (useful if used with another utility skill that provides conditions).
Fire Axe also has a leap finisher and some fire fields, but I’ve honestly never used it.

Sure is. It’s also both a projectile finisher AND a leap finisher. /drool

Has anyone tested how long can you go between tossing the snare and leaping?

Glass cannon staff elementalist is a lot fun – punching a zerg (eruption > ice spike > lightning surge > lava font > Flame Burst > meteor shower … with some CC thrown in to make most targets stay put) is incredibly effective even as a solo elementalist … assuming you don’t get targeted.

For myself, whenever I run a glass cannon build, I typically have 2 cantrips slotted to GTFO when I’m getting focused. Protection and magnetic aura are very useful, as is Burning Retreat. I also seemed to live a lot longer and escape from hairy situations with a Superior Sigil of Energy in my staff (also useful if you’ve traited into Evasive Arcana).

That said, I’ve found a little vitality (eg, valkyrie gear) and toughness help give me a little more time to use my cantrips and escape. Depending on your setup and how damaging your enemy is, you can also tank your enemies in short bursts. I typically do this by swapping to Earth (for Protection with Elemental Attunement trait), drop Eruption at my feet, swap to Water, drop Geyser and Healing Rain, followed by Ice Spike, Lava Font and Meteor Shower, to start putting the pressure back on my enemy. If they hit a little too hard, I can use burning retreat, swap to Air, Gust and Static Field them to get distance (or cover). Frozen Ground is nice if you think they’re going to use a healing move (because it increases recast time).

Lots of good advice in here – the biggest being know your map! Know what terrain you can run up, jump up, or must go around. Know where there are obstacles that will block LOS. Know what falls you can survive and what cliffs you can Gust people off for insta-kills.

I wouldn’t recommend starting off as a Glass Cannon elementalist unless you’re up for the challenge and don’t mind a lot of repair bills in the beginning.

Baladir.2736:

You know, like what is an elementalist supposed to do in WvW lol. Like that.

Any hints that you’d like to share? Honestly, I’ve found the class to be so versatile, it’s kinda ADD. Staff for range, support, fields, fighting at gates/walls, and fighting large forces. Daggers for mobility, open field fights, fights against few to moderate size forces, and harassment. Focus for major defensive skills (incl. siege defense). Scepter for medium range, condition spam, tracking thieves/mesmers, and hitting targets without LOS (hopefully the devs will fix this).

Or was the training aimed at teaching what fields to use and when? If so, that sounds incredibly useful and something I know a lot of classes would benefit from.

So any opinions on whether the patch improved the culling / model loading delay in WvW?

Thanks for the thoughts! I’ve been considering building a condition ele using Elemental Surge. I wasn’t sure what weapon combo to use, but focus definitely seems like a contender. Unfortunately, I’m interested in getting +100% condition duration, and I think that’s only accessible in PvE/WvW while eating Pizza. Even then, it seems like the best we could do is 97%, unless we’re wielding a Frost Bow (which should bump me up to +117% condition duration).

hharry.1967:

Well the tooltip is misleading then and the trait itself is pretty bad.

Fact. Lingering Elements would be rad if the traits that provided damage bonuses while attuned to certain elements were carried over. Sadly, it only works with very few traits (like Soothing Mist, I believe).

Yeah, time will tell whether the ANET crew wants to adjust our AoE attacks. Regarding the Earth auto attack in staff – it is slow and I find it misses a fair amount at long range, but it’s a projectile finisher with no cooldown that causes weakness (which halves endurance regen and some non-crit damage). I like to combo it with Ice Fields to really stack on the chill and keep enemies in my AoEs.

No problem. It’s one of those mechanics that isn’t really intuitive. I wish Powerful Auras worked with Arcane Resurrection and Fire/Ice Field + Leap finisher aura combos.

If you’re not using your Elite skill for anything else, you could use the Ice Elemental from Glyph of Elements for an additional Ice Field and more AoE Frost Auras and fury + swiftness from Zephyr’s Boon (or protection, if you have Elemental Shielding).

There seems to be some confusion about auras here.

Frozen Ground (Ice Field) + Blast Finisher = AoE Frost Aura. This means you grant Frost Aura to 5 people within range without needing Powerful Auras. If you have the trait, Zephyr’s Boon, which grants fury and swiftness with your auras, then anyone receiving Frost Auras from this combo also gets fury and swiftness.

Next, Powerful Auras only works with skills that grant Auras (ie, Focus Fire 5, Dagger Ice 4, Dagger Air 3, Staff Earth 3, and Signets with the Fire’s Embrace trait). The only thing Powerful Auras does is share the aura with party members. Powerful Auras doesn’t work with Auras from combos or Arcane Resurrection. This means Fire/Ice Field + Leap Finisher auras (which only apply to one person) are not shared.

For staff users, Powerful Auras really only works with Staff Earth 3 (Magnetic Aura). That said, Zephyr’s Boon works with ALL your auras to provide fury and swiftness. This means that those AoE Frost Auras you can grant your party also provide fury and swiftness.

For the Fire > Earth cycle, you may want to add Burning Retreat (F4) + Eruption (E2) + Evasive Arcana earth dodge = 6 stacks of might.

Air 1 is also useful if there’s a mix of hidden and visible enemies because it’ll chain hit invisible folk, too.

They’re all situational and I find myself swapping them out constantly in WvW.

Fiery Greatsword is good for mobility (yes, its mobility makes up for cast time). If you really need to make it somewhere fast, then use both Fiery Greatsword and D/D. Its damage is also decent when paired with a Mesmer’s Timewarp (plus confusion bolts with the whirl finisher are a nice bonus). I’ve also had luck using it to take out siege weapons in the open field. The whirl makes enemies regret immobilizing you and getting up in your face. The key, imo, is not to hold on to it until you’ve depleted the charges, but rather use it, hit a couple key skills, and drop it when my other skills are no longer on cooldown.

Tornado has its uses. The knockback/blowback can be very useful on bridges or near cliffs for instant kills and general crowd disruptions. The key to using Tornado is preparation. Load up defensive skills (protection, magnetic aura, vigor, etc.) and possibly throw down a field to take use of the constant whirl finisher (unfortunately, the cast time makes it difficult to do many self combos, though it’s nice when you can coordinate with someone else). Again, it’s rarely something you’d use for the full duration, but it does have its uses. Underwater, it’s nice to combo with other fields like boil or lightning cage and is good for taking out a Powernode when the quaggans are hostile.

The elemental is nice for the reasons listed here, like taking pressure off your character when fighting NPCs. If you’re using it to fight siege, just remember to keep the siege targeted. The extra frozen ground from the ice elemental is also nice if you have traits that provide buffs with auras.

I agree that none of them are “Fantastic, I’m going to use this elite all the time.” For better or worse, this opens up the slot to racial elites. I’m human and occasionally use Avatar of Melandru for the 10 second water field and 20 second binding roots. The hounds of Balthazar also have leap finishers which you can combo with static field for dazes. The Reaper of Grenth is nice with d/d or fighting melee and even better with Piercing Shards.

So, as with every other elementalist skill, they’re useful in the right situations, but depending on how you play, these situations may not come up very often.

Regarding recruitment – I’d say what we’re doing is as bad or worse than when the leader of RUIN server transferred to the opposing teams’ server to recruit for his guild. Why worse? Because we’re actually getting decent sized, WvW oriented guilds transferring en masse to our server. I take heart knowing (well, hoping) we’re not spamming their team chat, at least.

Server transfers (especially en mass transfers of guilds) cause disruptions to the tiered matchup system and was the whole reason we’ve been begging ANET to make them require payment. Of course, I fully expected major shakeups to all tiers the moment they announced paid transfers, but SoR’s recruitment efforts definitely aren’t helping.

Now while I may not think the cost of longer queue times (not just during Oceanic prime time, mind you) and imbalanced matchups in other tiers is worth all this recruitment, I do appreciate the efforts and initiative our commanders have shown to improve SoR’s coverage, to keep ours a welcoming community, and to bring more Aussie and Kiwi accents into our TeamSpeak (teehee).

That said, Welcome, new Rallians! We fight come hell or high water and I hope you’ll show the same enthusiasm! Please be patient, we field a lot of smaller guilds and it takes time for us to know new commanders and their play styles. May you find the Sanctum of Rall a warm and welcoming community.

I agree that the staff could use some tweaks to make it more competitive. Additional damage and slightly faster projectiles/attacks would be nice, but I’m not sure they’re necessary. The staff is definitely more oriented for group play, so running around solo in s/tPvP isn’t exactly optimal. I say this because staff provides a lot of fields which other classes simply can’t access. In order to get the most of our fields, it helps to run around with someone who can execute a lot of finishers (thieves, warriors, etc.).

I’m not sure I’d want Unsteady Ground replaced. It’s a very good skill to combine with Arcane Power and the trait Elemental Surge for (base) 5 seconds of immobilize and after, 5 seconds of cripple. The only thing I’d wish is that instead of a line AoE it was a circular AoE.

Burning Retreat is another good defensive skill, imo. I find it invaluable in the field and wouldn’t want it removed. After all, it’s a free dodge that can be used to put distance between you and your target and can even be used while immobilized to avoid major damage.

Staff has a fair amount of CC for keeping enemies in our fields (even without Elemental Surge), though I have the worst time trying to land Gust. I can only get it to land on enemies that are still, moving directly towards or away from me, or are in point blank range.

Because it was brought up, I just wanted to remind everyone that Staff Elementalists do have access to leap finishers through the use of Utility Skills (Conjure Lightning Hammer 2[6s] and Conjure Flame Axe 5 [20s]). If you really need those dazes, you can get 2 in 6 seconds using both the Staff Static Field and the Lightning Hammer’s Static Field.

I haven’t tried any high level Fractals, though, so I can’t comment on the OP’s issue. I’ve never seen such shouts while idle in LA, either.

Shear Force.9154:

The way I see legendary weapons is that, yes perhaps they are optional but you can’t deny that most people do want them, and they are the most end game PvE content, there’s nothing you can’t achieve without it but the road of getting it is horrible to say the least.

Why not make an adventure out of it, that’s what I don’t get, like a treasure hunt of some sort, kinda like the one for Mad Kings event, run across the whole map, explore look for it, get hint’s of some sort from mobs you kill, involve dungeons into it, fractals, jumping puzzles, open world bosses, whatever you want, but a massive grind? I’m sorry but there is nothing legendary about a massive grind for the end PvE content. Sure a lot more people would have a legendary if it was that way, and so what? Isn’t the whole point of the game to have fun? I don’t have to pay 50 euros to go to work.

Ooh, that’d be fun. Exploring the world, maybe collecting certain items from champions to use in the craft. Obviously, these things are required to some extent since you need the gift of exploration, but it could be a lot more interesting and fun using your methods. If that’s too “easy” then why not add timers to certain mobs – make them only spawn in the rain at night once every 22 hours or 6 days, or what-have-you, to extend the process?

Using a tedious grind as a barrier to acquiring the legendary just doesn’t interest me. That said, after just playing the game for a number of months, I could probably purge my Karma on this character, drop some gold, and finish world competition and get it.

Yeah, I would definitely like it if legendaries were more interesting to acquire… but [warning, reference to another MMO incoming] acquiring legendaries is NOTHING compared to the process it took to get and upgrade Relic weapons in FFXI. You need tons of money, tons of friends, luck with your Dynamis runs (it was easy to wipe back in the day) and the currency drops. It took years for some to acquire and most did not.

Legendaries, on the other hand, basically just require time and money. No need for 20-40 man raids dropping loads of kinah once a week once a week to spawn an instance with a chance at getting the drops you need. Hopefully the process for legendaries will become more interesting in the future, but there are other sparkly weapons that are a lot more fun to get (like the ones requires drops from dragons).

Zonzai.2341:

Kaleden, your first mistake is …

Teehee. It’s true, but I there are a few people who read and watch what the developers have to say instead of getting swept up in the tidal waves of tears (which I may soon shed myself, but I’ll wait until the fixes actually come to weep for my current build).

You can only kill glass cannon elementalists if you can hit them. With vigor, endurance regen food, and all their CC, a smart staff elementalist can be very difficult to catch, even without cantrips. Of course, once you do, it’s lights out.

I’m just hoping we didn’t pull in a lot of NA primetime guilds. I would prefer my queues stay under double digits.

This is definitely a strong combination for all the reasons listed here. I’ve run around in said groups and it’s great. One thing not mentioned yet is that this crew has a great capability at dealing with enemy buffs and the conditions. They can also make use of every single combo field and finisher in the game, which imo, is how these groups can really shine.

Their stealth and portal capabilities make it nice for fleeing zergs, too.

For those who haven’t seen it, please view Jonathan Sharp’s latest response regarding AoE changes: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Is-AoE-actually-a-problem-Discussion-Thread/page/4#post1237623

No prob. Some classes have a ton of AOE, while others don’t have as much. So we’re not just going to do a blanket nerf to all AOE – that’s not fair to all classes. We’ll go on a class by class, weapon by weapon basis.

And as I’ve said, we may need to tone something down in one area of the game, but it may be totally fine in another area.

For some weapon sets, the AOE options may be too strong compared to the single target options, which is what we aim to address.

What really concerns me is that they are surprised/may not like that we AoE downed players to also get the people rezzing them. Is AoE’ing the downed an unintended counter? I thought it was a legit strategy and one of the few that effective counters combat rezzing. If they make AoE’ing downed players to get combat rezzers less effective, I imagine there’d be even less incentive to use skills that rally allies (as if the tremendous cooldown, cast time, and buggy nature isn’t enough).

I’m definitely curious about how these changes are going to affect play and what changes they’re actually going to make. It should be an interesting few months, to say the least.

Agreed. Many professions have gap closers and this was the perfect opportunity to do use them regardless of command status. Though, I have watched a few commanders push through chokepoints to attack siege (or whatever is laying waste to their members) and the zerg stays behind because they’re getting AoE’d … it gives me a good chuckle and a tear at the same time. Poor commander.

Perhaps; but if you read some of Jonathan’s most recent replies in these forums, he says they’re going to examine AoE on a weapon by weapon basis. They have no intention of making certain weapon combos worthless, rather, they want to create more incentive to use other weapons (for Elementalist, I imagine that means a buff to scepter).