Guild Wars 2

Not really. A mesmer is nothing without its clones. It’s integral to the mesmer’s gameplay and if you were able to rally by finishing off the piddly hp of a clone it would not be a viable class at all. A conjured elemental, however, is just a utility skill that you can choose or not choose to utilize.

That would make sense for the clones because they’re illusions and not an actual summoned creature.

@Banzai – Why do you need space? I find that using RTL or Fire 3 (whatever it’s called) can have its advantages when targeted at a wall as far as damage is concerned. I find that being in close quarters can be something of an advantage when it comes to your non-directional AoE attacks. But, again, it all depends on the situation. If it’s an enemy with a strong AoE of its own or just one you shouldn’t be close to in general you should always have a backup staff and switch before the fight to bombard from afar and/or provide support. Know your enemy!

It’s a lot to sift through but it’s golden and what I’ve used to level my elementalist so far (I’m still only 50). I don’t know how PvE-oriented D/D is but it’s sure fun!

That’s why in PvP use Tornado!!!

Oh great, thanks!

Offer them tribute in hopes they spare your life.

Simple as that. WoW has/had a system where you could pay a nominal fee and change your character’s name. How about it here? Makes sense with the game’s current business model.

Troponin.4081:

Trust me when i say this, you don’t want to pick an element and stick to it. It will turn completely monotonous like most other classes. Save for the mes, in PvE, all other classes are two button playstyles. Be thankful you get more than two for a 10 mins boss fight. Zzzzzz

This. This so much.

The president has been kidnapped by ninjas!!! Are you a tough enough dude to save the president?

Creature.4038:

Try d/d elementalist, crazy mobility + survivanility, good damage. Warriors are just so simple and boring

That was my experience. I leveled a GS/Rifle warrior to 80 and thought I had it made with how I steamrolled through exploration and content but it got boring and repetitive. Then one day in WvW a group of 4-5 of us got roflstomped by a D/D elementalist solo roamer and I had to see what it was like. Never looked back. Every other class is just too boring now!

I never really even use MG except to give myself fire aura (though in fire ring I’m mostly using earth 4 and 5 for might stacking).

From what I’ve read having two sigils that proc on weapon (attunement in our case) swap isn’t efficient. They share a cooldown so only one will proc every 10 seconds.

Leuca.5732:

Thunderbrew.7034:

Upcoming nerf? No proof of that yet, but I would imagine the people
complaining about a d/d bunker build want one.

Even after the EA fix I have people raging at me all the time when I run a Condi staff with Shaman Amulet, since it’s very similar in build to the traditional bunker but actually kills people.

Care to share?

I think glyph of elementals is more for the leveling process. Tornado is what he uses in WvW and underwater. Other than that it’s up to your personal preference.

Male or female?

Narhim.7345:

lol, ele definitely is alright. I just did not know about the plan to implement trait and build and weapon swaps with a button like it was in GW1 (thanks god for that), good to hear that ANet did their homework.

Is this true? A dual-spec button? That would be epic!

I hope everyone realizes that this whole “woe is me our class is so broken and they’re never fixing it ever because they love <insert class here> more” mentality exists on every single class forum.

If you use daphoenix’s Dagger/Dagger guide it’s just as viable in PvE as it is in PvP! Plus it’s a lot of fun to play! Otherwise a staff support build is always welcome in a party for its healing and ranged dps capabilities. FotM in particular seems to favor ranged mages.

Haha I have the same “problem”! And EA already got nerfed thinning out the herd a little.

I haven’t done any sort of PvP with my ele yet (waiting till 80) but I don’t recall ever missing much with Fire Grab. Maybe because people assume it auto-targets your enemy when in reality it’s a directional burst much like the fire breath.

I’ll keep that in mind, thanks! Still, if the group is doing alright I’d much rather prefer to stay with D/D if for no other reason that it’s the most fun.

Yes I do and I love it. I understand your meaning when you are upset that you can’t spec however you want to and be the most effective, but every build can’t be the MOST effective. I’m sure most any build can be serviceable if played well (in any class) but there’s a reason certain builds work better and Elementalist is no exception.

I’m only 15 into Arcane (going to 30) right now and I don’t have any problems with attunement swapping. I usually go Air → Fire → Earth with Water whenever I need to not die and never have any problems, but I guess that’s because I swap often and use up my cooldowns then move on.

My mistake when creating my first elementalist was treating him as a “Fire Mage” ala WoW. I thought, like previous MMO mage archtypes, you would be specializing in one “tree” of magic and that you wouldn’t use the other attunements much at all. That worked ok until I hit around level 30 and things got a lot harder and I had a hard time figuring out why because I was still enslaved to the classic notion of the WoW Mage.

Most Eles I see out in the world (I am leveling through map exploration atm) are either D/D or Staff but now that you mention it I have seen a general decrease in eles altogether. That’s a good thing if you ask me!

Why would you use staff as the only Ele? Sorry if it’s a dumb question but I’m not nearly familiar with the staff and am new to dungeoning in general.

Elementalists have a very low skill floor and a high skill cap. To use them effectively you have to know the mechanics of the game rather well and having four attunements with 5 skills each was, for me at least, a bit overwhelming when I first created an ele alt before reading daphoenix’s guide. It’s a high learning curve but once mastered is EXTREMELY deadly. The skill requirement (and reward) alone make this by far my favorite class.

Oh I’m very aware that AC is easy. I was just saying that, having never tried any dungeon before, that D/D ele was a ton of fun!

My first character to 80 was a Warrior. I thought I had it made. I cleared through PvE no problem. Farming was stupid easy. It just felt a little… boring. Then one day in WvW my group of around 6-7 people kept getting obliterated by one pesky elementalist. I didn’t even see what weapons he used he moved around so quickly and escaped so easily. I had to know what he was doing and that’s when I found daphoenix’s D/D guide. It’s ruined all other classes for me. The sheer versatility is amazing. We are not meant for burst dps. We are not meant for tanking or healing. We are meant for all of the above.

Granted I still use my warrior for farming but that is all he’s good for anymore.

Whizzy.5723:

Can anybody tell me how viable D/D is in FOTM or in dungeons?

The OP says the build suits dungeons just fine and I believe him. I ran AC story last night (my first dungeon ever, I might add) with my level 47 d/d Ele and I had a blast! Dungeons in previous MMOs were the usual tank and spank variety where you stood largely in one place and did your dps as a mage archtype. D/D Ele couldn’t be further from that! I was zipping all over the place swapping attunements depending on the situation, making and using combo fields, throwing in support heals and boons, and dealing out solid dps all the while being super survivable (having 3 cantrips helped a ton). I had a staff just in case but never had to use it. Granted I know that’s the lowbie dungeon but I had a great experience and I’m hooked.

I made this character because after seeing a group of 6 of us or so get repeatedly owned by one elementalist in wvw (I had my warrior at the time) I had to figure out how he did it. I made this build to PvP with but I’m glad it is still viable (and FUN) to use in PvE!

citationx.2398:

Daphoenix how would you suggest going about this build for a lvl 30 ele?

He posts a guide on when to allocate your trait points when leveling that I found helpful. I will say that I was a bit discouraged in early leveling (10-25) because I still seemed so squishy. I almost gave up and toyed with a Guardian for easy mode shudder. That was until I hit the 5-point Water trait that grants regeneration when attuned. What a game-changer! I would argue that you should trait for that first before Zephyr’s Boon just for survivability early on but I guess it’s a matter of preference.

Actually I found a thread that answers my questions!

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/daphoenix

I’m confident that with practice I can combine your initiators with these combos to really shine in both PvE and WvW!

What a great guide! Made me dust off my elementalist and play him again! For whatever reason I was just sticking to the fire tree and not swapping attunements. This has opened up my eyes of how the elementalist as a whole, not just the d/d variety, can be used to its full potential!

I know you said you can’t teach us how to play and that this is just a guide, but daphoenix could you give us a few handy combos outside of just initiators? I understand that the order should be Air → Fire → Earth with Water thrown in when healing is needed but could you be more specific? It’s been a long while since I’ve played this character and I’ve gotten too used to the simplicity of my warrior.

Thanks again!

Serenity Meow – Blood Legion AH Guardian and avid Seinfeld fan. :-P

I like Ironfang as an Engineer. Even better if he actually had an iron fang. I’ll assume he does. 8/10

This is the exact kind of build I was looking for! Can’t wait to try it out!

The key for me is the “run” part. With the warhorn/sword combo I could pick the fights I want to (or don’t want to) be in. If I decide to fight it’d most likely be in a group setting. I’m looking for mobility while using a rifle to keep my distance. I’m just looking to get 100% map completion while getting a feel for WvW at the same time.

Doing a little more research this build looks like what I’m going for:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/Guide-to-Run-and-Gun-Build-for-WvW

Thoughts?

“I am in full exotic Knight’s armor with the Mystic Claymore”

I know it would be daft to run into a WvW zerg without toughness and I think Knight’s works well in all situations so that shouldn’t be an issue.

My warrior is my first character to level 80. I am in full exotic Knight’s armor with the Mystic Claymore and after exploring every PvE area to 100% I realized, to my horror, that I needed to explore the WvW areas as well. I’m a PvE player (on this character anyway) first and foremost so I have very little PvP experience. I went in there last night in spite of myself and died almost instantly to people who actually knew what the kitten they were doing. I know I’m a noob so you don’t need to remind me.

My question to you is this:

What build options do I have to survive long enough to roam/explore as well as get in on some battles? I don’t want to change my gear because it works very well in farming and dungeons but I am interested in utilizing my secondary weapon: the Rifle.

Thanks.

Although I actually don’t have a signet build. I use the vulnerability on crit chance trait. My utilities are that healing thing that gets better with higher adrenaline, FGJ, shake it off, and bull rush with SOR

Yes, please share!

Like I said, this is just for PvE. I’m gonna use my Guardian for PvP.

I’m leaning more towards the GS as of right now (invested in a Mystic Claymore – my first Exotic – yay). Knight’s gear seems to give me enough toughness in my daily grind of clearing the world to 100%. Taking on Orr will be the gut check. I’m going with Zerker weapons/trinkets and will be sure to have my OPs with me. I haven’t had time to try this in a dungeon yet since the last time I was disconnected in FotM…

What do you mean by “pseudo glass”, azmodeus?

Dead.7385:

Mahanaxar.1386:

This is a fantastic (and FREE TO PLAY) game and I’m sure they’re working very hard on this major issue. Patience is a virtue.

It isn’t free to play.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not paying a subscription fee. I’m not even buying gems.

Yeah, I just saw that…

I hear ya, Nightwatch. As disappointing as this particular bug is, however, I think everyone should realize that pouting and screaming at the developers isn’t going to get the fix here any faster. This is a fantastic (and FREE TO PLAY) game and I’m sure they’re working very hard on this major issue. Patience is a virtue.

I really liked how SW:TOR’s LFG system worked.

So I hadn’t gotten around to doing the whole fractal dungeon thing until a few weeks ago when I decided to give it a go. All was going relatively well (even the horrible horrible jungle section) until the last fractal. It was at the last boss and right before it I disconnect (Comcastic!).

No big deal, right? I’ll just rejoin them like in any other dungeon.

Not so much. I was teleported outside Lion’s Arch when I re-logged and could not rejoin my party, which naturally caused them to wipe. Waste of the precious few hours I have to play this game.

I’m sure there is probably another topic about this, I just haven’t bothered to find it yet. Has it been fixed? Is it GOING to be fixed? I don’t wanna bother with FotM until either this is resolved or Comcast stops randomly kicking me off (much less likely).

I enjoyed the Yojack build (a friend uses the axe variant) but I just felt it lacked the raw power that the GS allows. How does the Zerker combo fare in comparison? The GS “cookie cutter” build is less survivable but I feel that could possibly be countered with the Omnomberry Pie with a 66% chance to heal on crit.

Sorry I should’ve specified, I plan on using my warrior for PvE. My hesitation with the Yojack build is that I want to level a guardian for WvWvWvWvWvEverything and think those two playstyles are too similar.

I’ve tried both builds. I like both builds. I’m torn. Let’s play a game!

I am currently using the Greatsword/Rifle “glass cannon” DPS build.

Build:
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/74143-in-depth-gs-warrior-pve-dps-theorycrafting-w-build-included/

However previously I have used the “Yojack” build

Build:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/Yojack-s-Min-Max-home-of-the-Yojack-Build-2012-for-GW2

Both have very high crit which I love. GS build has more burst while Yojack has more condition damage and mobility. Yojack doesn’t have the raw dps output but is much more mobile and survivable than the “glass cannon”. Yojack has more group utility while GS is more pure dps focused. I have used full rare knights gear on both.

All things being equal gear-wise (as in optimal settings in each), which would you use and why?

Please do not post other builds, pretend these are the only two left on the planet.

Now….. GO!