Guild Wars 2

Caffynated.5713:

11k damage isn’t much for a combo that uses all 3 utilities. I’ve been hit for that much by a single heart seeker.

lol 3 utilities, it’s only one… plus from 12-15k of dmg (depending on enemy armor) comes from this small burst rotation and there’s still 3 other burst rotations on our disposal that deal even more dmg each.

Thrashbarg.9820:

OP’s signature suggests he isn’t running a toughness/vitality build……

Glass cannon elementalists hit hard. There aren’t many out there, because they tend to blow away in a strong breeze, but when you meet one with all his cooldowns up and you don’t dodge his burst, you’ll know it.

Like any instagib build, it’s gimicky and easily countered by most balanced builds. It can be fun to surprise a thief with it though. BLAM! Lightning! Hey look, I can burst too!

Wrong, like I said you don’t have to be glass cannon or have might stacking to do great burst damage with the ele. My build and gear/stats are not of a glass cannon and of course even on zerg I survive a lot, possibly more than those bunker/healer eles that think they are unbeatable and jump in to the middle of a zerg and stay a bit too long. full glass cannon and bunker builds are weak against a burst build ele. Only other builds that have both high dmg and high armor can compete.

if you are in sor or jq server, then it was probably my asura ele from bg hitting you that hard with scepter #2 skill, then again my “air attunement + air #2 + air sigil + arcane blast” combo hits bunker/healer eles over 13k. Plus you don’t have to be glass cannon or have might stacking to do that burst.

zaMut.1654:

Cant do anything in pvp. I always get killed in 1-2 seconds. Cant deal any damage, hardly can take down half of hp with every skills i have. Currently playing dagger dagger ele. Tried many different builds and such, and still the same. I just dont get it. Can anyone explain to me please? What am i doing wrong, what should i do? I want to be better, and im ready to learn hard. Any help appreciated.

Sorry for my english.

As a beginner, I recommend you to try the popular build 0/10/0/30/30. It’s easy to master and you won’t die in 1-2 seconds anymore. https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Guide-Mastering-the-D-D-ele-5-12-12/first If you can post a video with you pvping then we can tell what area you need improvement and thus help you further.

The best tip I can give you to beat any type of thief easily is: go with a burst build that is not glass cannon.

Zariuss.2357:

Ok thanks for the responces, and im running primarely DD but I also got all the other weapons.

That’s a good pve ele (having all the weapon sets). Also notice how in different aspects specially within fotm, one weapon set is more useful than the others. So distinguish which one at where and switch when you are at that setting.

fotm lvl 30-40 full glass cannon is more than enough defense unless you are running d/d instead of s/d, s/f, or staff

Mek.2947:

Just to add to my QQ train about this topic. Last night I was trying to do map discovery in WvW. Naturally I come across a ranger who would NOT leave me alone. I’m semi bunkerish build. I follow dark phoenix guide using 0/15/0/25/30 with a mix of zerker and toughness gear.

Anyway, we were underwater fighting. I killed the ranger FOUR TIMES. In underwater combat you can’t stomp the person so you have to DPS them down to kill them in downed state. All four times I could not kill him in time before his pet could do lick wounds and resurrect. This fight went on for like 15 min. Finally about 5 people showed up and finished me off…so yey for him..he got a loot bag and I didn’t get kitten for killing him 4 kittening times.

I guess I could have killed the pet? Problem is…then he gets free dps to do whatever he wants to me which would have ended up in my dying anyway.

hahahaha I do agree on this. The only chance you have is to keep the pet away from the ranger (through sink/float/stun) or have 3-5 members out dps the ranger while the pet is healing. Otherwise let the ranger heal and try to bring the fight on land.

1- Ability to burst down hybrid and bunker/healer build players really quick without being glass cannon
2- lightning flash utility. It my favorite of them all. It is the only utility I consider it to be a must with whatever build I try/play
3- The idea of having 4 elements with 5 skills on each at our disposal, so may offensive/defensive combos are possible
4- Being underestimated because enemies think i will be the typical d/d bunker healer ele and then they get downed so quick. Afterwards they send party invite and say “wtf! I will report you for hacking!”
5- Awesome profession for solo/small group roaming or running with the zerg

Calae.1738:

LightningBlaze.4913:

WvW stat buffed with food and missing precision sigils

You have 30 points in air and Valkyrie gear? Where do you get all that toughness?

The 30 points in air is correct. My build is with a mix of Berserker, Knight and Soldier gears no Valkyrie

WvW stat buffed with food and missing precision sigil additional bonus

void.6705:

innocent ouarior.1954:

LordByron.8369:

what do you mean?
out of cof1 conjured weapons are uberbad.

Nope.

In CoF and CoE Conjured Weapon are uber.

Elems are arguably bad in high level fractals. But farming groups REQUIERING warriors are idiots.

I dunno about bad in high level fractals needless to say im only up in the 30’s but I do fine.

lvl 30 is still a low easy lvl. When you get to 40+ then you can consider it to be high lvl and not as easy if you don’t have experienced players in your team.

If you have a burst build with s/d wep set necros are easy, shatter mesmers too if you know how to avoid their shatter burst and most importantly their leap skill. A skillful guardian with great armor and damage can give you a challenge but if you outplay him/her with avoiding getting trapped, pulled and interrupted you will win.

There’s no best build, every build from every profession has another build/s that can easily counter it. The recommendation I always give to new eles is start with the popular build d/d wep set 0/10/0/30/30 and then as you get better and better both in pve and pvp try the dps or burst builds where they aren’t as bunker but definitely succeeds in pve and wvw only if you are skillful with the profession and during combat.

Puandro.3245:

LightningBlaze.4913:

Puandro.3245:

To kill a Bunker Ranger you need HIGH Burst and HIGH Sustained. Otherwise you need Condis.

HGH Engi or Phantasm Mesmer is your only bet. If you think an Ele can kill a Bunker Ranger you have been fighting too many bad bunkers.

Let me guess.. the “good” bunker rangers are the ones you can’t kill on 1v1 with your d/d bunker/healer build?. I am completely sure I can burst down those same rangers as I do with the countless “bad” healer bunkers rangers I have encounter in wvw in 1v1.. Such is the beauty of playing a cannon that is not as glassy build ele. The downside is I get reported almost on a daily basic about supposedly me hacking because ele shouldn’t burst that much so fast. Healer/bunker build players are a challenge when you face them with a bunker/hybrid/build but they are easy when you have a burst build that is not glass cannon.

No the good bunkers are the ones who see the eles telegraphed big attacks a mile away and dodge them.

With the right build and wep set, the ele can have up to 4 different combo burst rotations where 2-3 out of the 4 are needed to take out most bunkers/healers. Now the trick is 2 out of those 4 are really fast (2-3 secs to complete each) and can only be dodged if your opponent dodges right before you start the rotation. Of course they can avoid/reduce the dmg received by using utilities if they have crazy reflexes after being hit with the first move of each rotation

haviz.1340:

skinnyb.5920:

Are you guys kidding me here? It’s a freaking ranger! No matter what gimmick bunker build they’re running, it’s still a freaking ranger and therefore a free kill.

How is bunker a free kill? In 1v1 scenario.

If you have a burst build with decent survivability, they are free kills on 1v1 scenario, otherwise, they can be a challenge and impossible to kill unless you 2v1 them. Talking about in wvw, in spvp bunker builds still rules.

Depends on the build, and overall individual player skills. You as a DD ele any decent ranged player can give you a challenge to kill. Even though DD wep set have many ways to get to melee distance, you also want to look around and use your environment toward your advantage. With my burst build ele, bunker/healer eles, ranger, or guardians can’t defeat me in wvw but then again another cannon that is not so glassy build player (whether it is from burst or condition dmg) can defeat me. Every build have other builds that can easily counter them.

More likely this is because most thieves overuse the constant stealth mechanic in wvw.

How can you guys like that back piece, it’s very creepy (goes well with a necro..) o well still having it in my bank as a collection.

Arheundel.6451:

We don’t need another forum hero with his guide, after that @ Daphoenix dude( who now play a mesmer lol) started posting his non sense, this profession has seen nerfs month after month due to the invasion of fotm kids and thei bunker build….now this @Zoose dude, another forum hero start with “his” guide and the QQ cycle starts again…..

As soon as a couple of scrub thief player start to get killed by another fotm ele playing s/d burst, we’ll see the “QQ Ele burst too strong nerf it” bullkitten as it was prior to BW2 ( where the ele burst got nerfed).

That’s why people stopped posting builds and guides on GW1 forum, to keep away the fotm kids from their own profession

Being playing a burst build since beta and I can assure you that even when one or more of these type of builds are given with guides to the public not many will utilize them as an ele. There are two main reasons. The first one is, many eles are so used to the bunker/healer build that it will be extremely hard for them to even consider on trying other builds that are not as bunker. To do well with these type of builds is a challenge and will take a lot of effort and frustration to master it (this is where many will quit using it even if they try it).

All you need is 10 in arcana for any of the other successful builds. Putting more than that only reduces your damage significantly and makes you more bunker. and yes there are other great builds but they are not as easy to master as the 0/10/0/30/30 is. That’s why you won’t see many running them.

There are videos that shows all professions been able to take more than a one opponent at the same time and win. Any profession can also lose on 2v1 against 2 skillful opponents. even the easy mode build bunker/healer ele pre-patch.

If you want to be a great pve ele, have all the weapon sets the ele can hold and learn to use each one at the best scenario. Depending on the dungeon or pve situation one wep set is better than the others. Master that and you will be a whole lot better than most elementalist that only stay with one weapon set in pve.

Grevender.9235:

LightningBlaze.4913:

unless he/she dodges or uses a skill that gives him/her distance.

you mean any average player? fire grab hits only mobs.

Not necessarily, you can force even above average players to run out of endurance and have their skills that give them distance on cd before hitting them with this skill. The point I was trying to make is, this skill should never miss if your opponent is only strafing like many state it always misses if your opponent moves slightly to the right/left.

I tend to only find these dueling groups after midnight eastern time. It is a whole lot of fun!

Awesome feedbacks! Definitely going to update my system to the new os today. Thanks again!

Max.5280:

I do, and must say it runs quite smooth No issues what so ever!

Ty so much!

Does anyone have this game on their windows 8 os, if so have you encounter any issue?

What about front and center? being at the back could save you. Going Bunker/healer is the easy mode even now, the other builds are more of a challenge because they require a different play style and combat skills to do well with them (for example I see a lot of eles in wvw that are so accustomed to d/d and decide to switch to s/f or s/d tend to be at melee range the whole time.)

Good job, you will get better and better! Ele is a whole lot of fun in all areas of the game!

haviz.1340:

I can’t seem to find anything above average. This ele plays bunker build and that allows him to take so much punishment it’s obviously why anet had to nerf eles. He randomly dodges, I think that during 30 minutes he dodged 1 illusionary leap. Make him scrimm with zerker or at least valk+zerker gear with 1 untraited cantrip against any decent shatter mesmer and he’s dead in 5 seconds after he burns that cantrip for 1st leap.

On the sidenote, why zvzers like to duel with tanky builds? I sometimes encounter 2 people dueling at the bottom of the map for few minutes without any noticeable winner. What’s the point of 1v1 with bunker specs? Your mistakes hardly matter.

Exactly! This is a very easy forgiving build for eles even now with mist form nerf. You can make all sort of mistakes and still be perfectly fine. Beginners become great with it but give them any other build and they get slaughter so easily. There’s no need to watch your opponent animation skills in order to know which one to dodge or observe their buffs or the conditions they put on you or using your surroundings towards your advantage, no skill at all to play this right.

I got up to 4 mins of the video until I got bored. At that point it takes anyone to see how the mesmer completely out play that d/d ele. Due to the various and constant heals this build has to get out of any possible tight 1v1 situation the ele can encounter, the mesmer can’t emphasize on bringing him down. Don’t be surprise when the heals from this build get nerf because I am certain, it will happen.

cero.1209:

Who else is still having a blast playing their elementalists? I for one seem to be enjoying it much more than before.

I’m having a blast specially on dealing with bunker/healer eles. I can easily interrupt their main heal now due to mist form nerf.

Escthiil.3210:

I’m not Anet, but here’s an objective analysis on Mist Form, with a comparison made to Endure Pain since you mentioned it.

Firstly, Endure Pain is a 90s CD stun breaker that lasts 4 seconds allows you to take no damage but conditions can still be applied to you throughout it’s effective duration. On the other hand, Mist Form is a 75s CD stun breaker that lasts 3 seconds that makes you invulnerable. Meaning other than not taking damage, new conditions cannot be applied to you nor do CC have any effect on you.

Granted, you can’t use skills in Mist form as opposed to Endure Pain, but you can still do element switching which I figured is a relatively good deal.

Plus you can still stomp with Mist Form and no one has any chance of stopping you. Unlike with Endure Pain, because it grants no stability, you are not excused from CC.

So all in all, with only a one second effect duration difference but a much lower default cool down while benefitting largely from being invulnerable, I don’t think other skills “seem to be much better than mist form” at all.

Very nice explanation

The bunker/healer build is a great starter build for pvp. For pve you can go with any build even glass cannon and perform perfectly fine if you know the mechanic of whatever you are doing/facing.

1- Nerf the constant and various heals bunker eles have on their disposal
2- See more variety of players executing other builds than 0/10/0/30/03 or something similar in spvp, pve and wvw.
3- Stop seeing eles complaining about the nerf on the forums because It’s nothing major.

I rarely used mist form to heal myself (even as a non-bunker build) in the first place, There are so many other uses for mist form still.

I’m still solo roaming perfectly fine with my ele, FGS and pots of poison helps a tons, try it.

rolos.7491:

daphoenix.4283:

Mpiftekis.1529/Yuki Chuki.2457

I still run 0/0/20/20/30, so there’s an auto proc’d armor of earth built in already. I maintained perma swiftness using items, i.e. pot of hylek poison. Its’ first ability offers 15 seconds of swiftness, so its fairly easy to maintain perma swiftness in combination to swapping to air. I never think of updraft as a means of obtaining swiftness, since its CC is way more important.

I also weapon swap before every battle starts. I proc 1 minute+swiftness + 300 armor before every battle I jump in. This is done using staff’s air 4 abilility, combined with staffs air 5 + scepters Fire 3 + scepter/focus’s earth 2 + earth 4. The best part about this combo is that if executed correctly, you can do this while constantly moving without ever having the need to stand still and cast (This is when your not in combat). I maintain swiftness in combat thereafter using pots as mentioned previously, in combination with poison jukes + LoS. It takes some practice though since you have to memorize how long 15 seconds (CD of the pot’s first skill) is approximately while in combat.

I haven’t tested anything yet though after the update.

I thought consumables were removed from WvW. Tried to use the pots myself and they aren’t working. Or am I missing something?

There are about 2-3 different locations where you can get the pots. The one you buy from Timberland Fall works in wvw, the others don’t.

knight.8926:

Can anyone tell me the build in this video pls?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBJ3lUCB5I0

I saw this on a link from the ele forums and wow I was amazed of how much punishment it can take. Way bunker than bunker ele/guadian themselves.

Zogyark.4597:

If you play an Elementalist because of a specific build/skills then you never loved the class in the first place. I read the changes and find nothing that will break the class.

Exactly, It is nothing major. The only time when bunker/healer eles will be hit hard is when their constant and various heals get nerf. I do see this type of nerf coming on future patches.

Rayti.6531:

LightningBlaze.4913:

I was not referring to you.

And I didn’t want to answer in an agressive way or anything similar to it (if it came out that way, sorry for that). I just wanted to point out, that not all of us are QQing and rage quitting because of a single nerf, but rather trying to deal with it, find work arounds, etc.

LightningBlaze.4913:

I never been laughed at for using this along with other successful eles builds. Quite the opposite, I gotten admired for not using the popular bunker build or the weapon type and even been taken as a challenge from various opponents in duels across servers in wvw.

I share your experience when it comes to actively using the build and others seing it being viable (both in PvE and WvW). I never had people actiually running with me in a group telling me my build was not viable, more the contrary.

Those laughing at my build were mostly narrow minded bunker users not even trying other builds. It was mainly the initial reaction to me saying “I use a condition dmg build” – “Whaaaaat? Lol, D/D bunker is the only way to go. You have no idea, n00b, etc.”

I guess that mainly happens if you meet the wrong people (trolls jumping to the most “viable” builds out there until they get nerfed and hop to the next). There are some of those on German servers.

LightningBlaze.4913:

I don’t know what you refer to as “viable” but I do really well with this build in pve/spvp and specially in wvw.

That’s why I wrote viable in quotes – citing the trolls. I personally think that most builds can be viable, when used for the right role and knowing what role you want to play in group play.

I didn’t take it as an aggressive way and didn’t mean to reply in that matter either. Sorry If It came out that way too, a lot of times written words can be taken on a different tone that it was intended. I just consider the 0/10/0/30/30 or 0/0/10/30/30 to be extremely boring and very forgiving. You can make all sort of mistakes and misuse of the ele skills and still be perfectly fine primarily because of the various and constant heals, condition removal at your disposal. Even the person that made this build popular makes all sort of mistakes at times (I do consider him a skillful player by the way because he does use various concepts and tactics towards his advantage unlike many others that simply button mash on this build or just use one or two strategies/pattern). Compared to other builds or other professions where the same type of mistakes can cost you at least a large chunk of unrecoverable health that can you put you on a very tight spot.

P.S: Originally, I was replying to the op topic sentence “ele is dead”

Nahan.5043:

Finallyyyy.. Eles getting nerfed so hard xD
This pleases me.

It’s nothing major. Don’t be surprised when you still see bunker eles dominating other professions primarily because of their constant heals.

Even as an ele I don’t feel sorry towards this new nerf. It only brings something more to think about how to use your skill wisely and develop new ideas. Of course it affects non bunker/healer/low damager dealers eles more than those popular, predictable built eles

To be fair there’s no other profession that can have too forgiving builds like this. I’m glad it is getting nerf and should get even more nerf with the heals.

Or read this http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1d67nf/gw2guru_sotg/

Insanity.5174:

where did you read all this details about ele’s nerf?

Watch this
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/news/1059-tpvp-state-of-the-game-featuring-grouch-symbolic-phantaram-caed-and-devs-jonathan-sharp-karl-mclain/

Fishbait.6723:

Old clip, probably a glimpse of the future too

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GiQbzspvQM

That was hilarious. Is this still possible to execute? I wanna test it out tomorrow when I log haha

vinceftw.5086:

Hehe cool gameplay It doesn’t cheer me up though, seeing as you RTL so often

I do admit based on what was said, it is a downside about rtl (always been/is and hopefully will always be my favorite skill) but hey we still don’t know all of the details yet. Once the patch rolls out and we get to read all the nerfs/buffs/adjustments towards our profession we can then come out with counter measures.

Juba.8406:

naphack.9346:

Do crits against naked uplevels count?

well of course it does xD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5fBhYvBjX4

LOL that was hilarious