Guild Wars 2

Huh? Cone of Cold only heals others.

Lingering Elements is of no use it appears. In the beta there was an attunement bonus apparently, but no more.

Lowering the casting time of the auto attack would be appropriate. Staff in SPvP for example is only useful when you are standing far in the distance and noone is around, or spots you very late. Even then, you can quickly be outdamaged by almost anyone with a ranged weapon, due to the slow casting of the class and relatively low damage. Barely any defensive spells and lack of mobility makes the slow casting and damage appear more problematic.

If Lightning Flash were to have a much lower CD if having a staff equipped, it could make things more interesting. Like a 15 seconds CD without Cantrip Mastery. That is just wishful thinking though. ^^

Since I don’t like removing my hand from the W, A, S, D keys to activate a skill, or from the mouse for that matter, mine look like this.

Elemental attunements: 1, 2, 3, 4
Weapon skills: Q, E, R, C, Mouse 4
Healing skill: Shift+D
Utility skills: Shift+E, Shift+R, Mouse 5, Mouse 3

The casting time is indeed important. Lowering the casting time of Flame Strike (and incrising the burn time a bit or the burst damage) and Stone Shards, and lowering the time for Dragon’s Tooth to hit is important in the scepter area I have noticed. The wait for it to land is rather high IMHO. And they are auto attacks (not Dragon’s Tooth obviously), which feels wrong for a scepter skill.

The skills in the staff selection doesn’t do much damage, compared to the time it takes to cast and compared to scepter. Either loweing the casting time or increasing the damage would help in that aspect. The spells are primarily burst and should have more of an effect when hitting opponents. The skill Stoning is especially slow to cast, while the projectile takes forever to hit the target, if at all. Water Blast is also lacking. While it has splash heal, the damage part is somewhat lackluster compared to dagger and scepter water skills. It heals allies very close by the enemy, but not by much. The damage is generally low compared to a scepter build, which has decent range.

While I find it fine that they want to focus on dagger mainhand, there are a few things with scepter, and quite a few things with staff that needs attendance.

Yeah, the lack of range on Lightning Flash is sort of meh. Would be neat to be able to portal onto things, indeed.

Btw, I would use 20% reduced CD on arcane skills as well, as they are very important. Runes of Divinity also is very important, as you want as much critical damage as you can get. It’s about taking down your enemy before they can take you down.

Well, the build itself isn’t news. The only problem is condition removal. You want Mist Form and the two arcane spells for the damage, so there isn’t much room for it. An alternative is Cleansing Wave in 10 water and Ether Renewal, if you want to get away. I would also invest in 20% reduced CD on air skills, rather than the 10% damage therein, as the combo that will dish out most damage is fire. Having the RTL ready to gain distance to an enemy is worth it.

Well, once we flee and they follow, they will be ready to stomp us when taking solid shape again. The Grasping Earth skill damage buff isn’t really much, as all effects end when you die in my experience. But nice changes overall. Thanks devs.

Being a kitten, I will discretely nudge you towards RTL. :P

Sometimes auto targeting can’t be turned off, which renders you unable to flee with it.

The aura stuns only, no daze there. If he had a dagger/focus spec, he would have one daze spell only. Comet.

If RTL wasn’t so horribly bugged, the glass cannon build would work much better. But yeah, 30 fire/30 air/10 something is the way to go for max dps (although I wouldn’t recommend it for SPvP). For SPvP 20 fire/30 air, or even 10 fire/30 air gives you neat spike damage. Berserkers amulet has high power anyway. Arcane Blast and Arcane Wave is a MUST, as you otherwise wouldn’t be able to put opponents under pressure as much, or even directly combo kill (downed) them within five seconds or so.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEEQJAoYhEmIblx5wjEAkCpEUQADiHW0AElCxA;ToAg0CnoqxUjoGbNuak1MKYWA

I used this for a bit, then changed it to something with a tad more survivability, although you can kick some kitten with it in SPvP if your RTL works and you get your combo running smoothly. I keep switching between glass cannon and pure condition builds. The combo that yields the most success for me, and is easy enough to handle is this.

Single target:
**************
Ride the Lightning (4), Updraft (5), – switch to fire quickly to apply Sunspot-, Burning Speed (3), Ring of Fire (4), Arcane Blast + Arcane Wave (to gain 3x might and +6% crit damage), then finish with Fire Grab (5).

Usually that takes out a healthy chunk of your opponents HP, or kills with enough crits. Fire Grab takes a wee bit of time to cast, though.

Multiple targets hit & run fun:
*********************************
Churning Earth (5), Lightning Flash to the midst of them, Ring of Earth (2), Earthquake (4), -switch to fire applying Sunspot-, Ring of Fire (4), Arcane Wave, Burning Speed (5) to gain a bit of distance, -shift to air-, Ride the Lightning (4) to get away if you are being targeted (which you likely will be).

“Necromancers are masters of the dark arts. They summon the DEAD to fight for them, channel blood energy and rend their enemies’ souls. Necromancers draw on life force and use it to strengthen or heal themselves and others. As a scholar profession, necromancers wear light armor.”

Anet got something wrong in the process, huh?

But normally there are about three clones that you can’t tell apart, unless you know what a clone does and watch their actions. The mesmer can even switch places with clones in the heat of it. But yeah, their downed state is also insane, not to mention that their clones can linger after they die, where as your spells fade instantly.

Somehow I think that the warriors downed state is way stronger. :P

They can interrupt you, then spring back to full life with all abilities and kick your kitten plus stomping. I even saw a warrior that didn’t keel over after 15 secs and kept on going as if nothing happened.

The more often it hits the opponent, the longer the burning duration.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWhEmKbnR5wjDAhCEIeYBGSUeEzO2A;ToAg0CnoqxUjoGbNuak1M+YCC

This build actually is more fun. Allows you to create combos like swiftness, might x3, frost aura and area healing, although the healing only affects the team. More squishy, yet with better dodge heals and faster attunement swapping. The greatsword is for fast damage dealing in those tricky 1 vs. 1 fights. Fighting in water attunement will heal you up a bit when dodge rolling.

@Mogar

I played a bit with the staff build in SPvP the other day and found the build posted below rather good. Going staff, you sort of need to invest in crit damage and air, as most abilities are burst damage and you want to crit high.

1 vs. 1 it can be tricky, but it works well when traveling with others. Magnetic Aura is fun against ranged projectile opponents if you pop it at the right time.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWhImibwR5gjEAEFn4SogCiHVYhElCzA;ToAg0CnoqxUjoGbNuak1MAZCC

Happened to me as well. I thought “where am I”?

I am only level 31 in PvE, but play SPvP mainly. The class in itself is fun and I intended on playing it before I even tried the game. That is also why I am reluctant to play another caster class, like necromancer or mesmer, although they look a bit appealing.

Now I am just being stubborn and refuse to change, even though their bugs and lack of burst damage annoys me. Like other players, I try to find builds that will let me play it in SPvP with a chance of survival and the ability to kill someone before I get killed, and I refuse to play those no/low-damage bunker builds.

GW2 “Elementalists are multi-faceted spellcasters that channel elemental forces, making fire, air, earth, and water do their bidding. What they lack in physical toughness, they make up in versatility and the ability to inflict massive damage in a single attack”.

Yes, some of that text rings true, but even if you spec for the ultimate spike damage, you sadly still fall (far) behind quite a few of the other classes. The only way to do reasonable damage, is when you use offensive arcane spells in a combo. Even with that, the class fails to perform high damage, which one would think they could do when reading the class/profession description. The spells that deal reasonable burst damage take a long time to cast and is easily evaded. I do feel the need to compare their damage to what I have seen other classes do, to have a frame of reference. Their defenses are alright if you know how to use them, but considering their low HP their offensive capabilities are lacking greatly. They can’t vanish like several other classes can, and deal less damage. Yet, they are still fun to play, because it is challenging, even though you get your kitten kicked often and occasionally die in around 0.5 seconds.

Yes, the bugs are annoying and surely frustrates a lot of people, and the downed state is horrendous. Reducing the wait/CD on Vapor Form to 3 seconds wouldn’t hurt.

The builds I had most success with are 10/30/0/20/10 D/F glyph/arcane, 20/30/0/10/10 glyph/arcane D/D (almost pure offensive) and 20/10/30/0/10 signet D/D alround damage focus. Tried a staff build as well, which is neat if you know how to avoid too much contact and can aid your team on capture points with heavy artillery, CC and healing. Quite fun.

Basically I love the class despite the lack of damage and/or survival utilities a squishy class needs. The bugs needs to be fixed before any balancing occurs. Despite that I believe they still need a significant damage boost to be more compatible. That or improvement in the defense department.

Nerfing it that much was a bit over the top, considering you can easily dodge it. When fighting another elementalist, I got sucked into it and suffered a bit of damage, like two ticks? Then I could dodge away and attack it from a distance, since it moves slowly (or appears to be?). I recally only getting 3k AoE hits only when spec’ing for semi-high crits.

@Battery

Actually other classes have more than 10 skills. The warrior has 12. 10 standard skills and a bonus one for each weapon set. The necromancer has 14 if you don’t count the transformation bit itself, the guardian has 13 and so on with the other classes.

Besides, elementalists may have 20 skills but we have very few weapons. That limits the number of different skills we can use. A warrior has a bazillion weapons to choose from and achieves a lot of freedom as well, although it is limited to two weapon sets.

When you go Mist Form and activate it meanwhile, it will only last for a second. Noticed this on several occasions. Not sure if it otherwise can be interrupted, but it appeared to me that it could on a few occasions that left me wondering.

You can move slightly faster with Whirlpool and Tornado by dodging forward. Works best with Tornado however, and lets you avoid attacks. I have been stunned in Tornado before, even though it says that it can’t be done.

Whirlpool has a bug also. If you go into Mist Form and activate the skill, it will last for about two seconds.

They are working on it. First they need to be informed there is a bug, then try to figure out how it arose and what needs to be done to fix it. Doesn’t happen overnight. No need to add unpleasant remarks.

Cryomancer (SPvP – D/F damage/control/glyph/arcane)
*************************************************************

So, basically I started to fiddle with a build that specialized in water spells, as I was fascinated by the daggers offensive potential with a focus (I wanted to rid myself of the frustration that is RTL, as it fails 7/10 times at least). The damage that CoC has is neat (not to mention healing your team mates), plus you are healing 88 HP per second in water, while having lot of control.

First I wanted to go with one arcane spell and Conjure Frost Bow, to give the build another damage source, since it has enough defensive skills and is slightly lacking in variety with the offensive ones.
I later changed it to the two offensive arcane spells, as it is vital to killing off your opponents and the cooldown is good. Since you have a high crit rate (72% with fury) you will stack vulnerability quickly, ensuring +20% damage while attuned to water, giving your arcane spells that extra boost.

After playing it for two days, I can say I have never enjoyed anything as much as this. Suddenly thieves are much less of a threat (as I have won a majority of 1vs1’s so far, opposed to losing almost every time) and other classes appear much more managable, although bringing down those uber tanks takes forever, if at all possible before someone comes and stabs you in the neck while you are busy.

The trick you might already know, is to control them. Obsidian Flesh is amazing at letting them pounce on you, while you can apply a few dot spells calmly, then shift to water if they vanish again, giving you two chill spells and one daze. If they get to you, use Mist Form and heal, granting you regeneration for a short while. Immediately use one of the chill skills and see if you can damage the thief some more. Fire off both arcane skills before switching to air and using Gale to knock them down for two seconds, applying Lightning Touch (for the much needed weakness condition), Shocking Aura (for your Zephyr’s boost and defense) and hopefully dishing out more damage. From there, you should go with whatever fits the scenario to finish off the thief. Fire usually is a fine choice, as you can apply dots and use Fire Shield to trigger Zephyr’s again.

It also works well against mesmers to my surprise, although I ain’t skilled enough to take down the better ones yet.

I can safely say that the focus really helps a LOT in SPvP. While you may not have that many offensive skills to launch in your opponents faces, the high spike/crit damage and crit percentage, along with two instant arcane spells is enough. Water oddly has the most offensive spells with that build, and as I said before, gaining 88 health per second while occasionally gaining 453 HP (approximately) from one of the sigils now and then (your auto attacks will crit often), makes it easier to stay afloat, as you do not have cleansing wave handy. For the conditions on you, use Magnetic Wave, which has a 25 second CD only. Hope you will enjoy it as much as I do. For once I can say that I survived two maps in a row without dying.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAodhImIblR5gjEAkCpEKEg4xDV0QRRMzA;ToAg0CnoqxUjoGbNuak1MwYWC
(If it says “bad link”, copy n’ paste it in the browser)

The damage of that build is unfortunately very low. Too much work for almost no pay off imho. You are just delaying the inevitable in the end if you can’t dish out enough damage. Why not focus on high condition damage with a solid defense instead?

D/D 20 fire/30 earth/20 water with focus on condition damage is flexible, has a very decent defense, can avoid snares and be deadly. Conditions are not affected by an opponents toughness, so a mere signet of fire and churning earth alone has the potential to kill someone if not treated. Using “Burning Fire” allows the signet of fire and cleansing flame to tick for another three seconds, which is around 2085 extra damage. It is easy to re-apply the conditions if they are removed. Works very well.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAoYhEmYbxx5gjDAEFn4SQhBMMeEiHaA;ToAgyCuo0yolQLrWOtkaNCYKA

Give it a try.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJArYhMmYbwx5gjDAEFn4SQhCMMeAiHkA;ToAgyCuo0yolQLrWOtkaNCYKA
(this is the signet heal alternative)

Newb question. What does D/D mean? And S/D for that matter?

The elite greatsword is pretty kitten good damagewise. I can only speak as one who uses it with a glass cannon build in SPvP. The damage and mobility it gives you is pretty grand. Suffice to say that you want to use it with many skill points in air, as it one burning skill only, and you will likely not use it nearly as much as the other skills. The other weapons are too lackluster imho. I find it useful only with a high spike damage build.

Yeah, the CD on it is too much. And compared to thieves and mesmers, it is meager, since you are visible and travel slowly.

Yeah, same here. Have to restart the game.

Glass Cannon Extravaganca

Offensively it is built to take down an opponent with a combo and remain basically untouched, if RTL doesn’t bug.

There are two main ways to get a good start.

1st combo: Churning Earth (delivered with Lightning Flash), Earthquake, (switch to air+electric discharge), Ride The Lightning, Updraft, (switch to fire), Burning Speed, Arcane Wave + Arcane Blast and finally Fire Grab. That should make your opponent want to focus on fleeing or playing defensively, if not being dead already. Can be a bit tricky to pull off.

2nd combo: As above, but without the earth approach in the beginning basically. Still does much damage, and can be easier to manage if attunements are on a CD or you are being targetted.

The defensive part of this build leaves much to be desired, but there are ways you can tweak it slightly.

As it is, you can use dagger/dagger or scepter/dagger and get high spike damage and gain high damage from all attunements. You need a slightly different combo approach with scepter, but you can easily dish out high damage with it as well. The dagger dagger version is slightly more tricky to play, as you need to get up close and personal, but nice and challenging. The build is for high damage in all attunements. Use runes of the scholar and berserker amulet and jewel.

Have you tried the Lightning Flash cantrip? Requires good reflexes though.

Made a SPvP dodge/condition/cantrip build that relies on fire and earth attunements for damage. Equip all runes of the adventure and carrion amulet. With the rune set, you will gain full endurance each time you use a heal skill, which is every 19 secs, plus you gain vigor and regen when casting cantrips. 19k+ health and really good condition damage which can be removed, but won’t be affected by opponents toughness. Use Lightning Flash to get your Churning Earth off safely. I have on several occasions been able to down opponents that wasn’t quick enough to remove the conditions, or that was being CC’ed with that spell alone. The damage lies around 15k when it gets to tick off.

http://gw2.luna-atra.fr/skills_tool/?lang=en&code=3232i023gllkgm2kitten0uk00g0g0v0v1414e7e7eieieqeqljlj

Try reading this. https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/news/Balancing-Guild-Wars-2/first#post92064

Appears they will give it a wee bit of time and see if things fall into place before considering changes.

Hey GW team.

First of all, I have noticed a bug that occurs from time to time. When targeting someone and using the Lightning Strike spell, it can be impossible to remove said target from focus with the ESC button. The spell continues in its animation which might be the problem.

Ride the Lightning does frequently stop in its tracks after a few feet, even though a target is selected. No boundaries is between the caster and the target.

Ahhh, when not being able to do single burst damage (ranged) nearly as well as a warrior. You know something is wrong, haha.

gw2skills.net is down btw. Haven’t seen any other site that includes runes etc.

Yeah, to each their own. I love that there is a ton of possibilities. The feat I just mentioned just stuck out to me as having little use in general. Glad that it doesn’t cost anything each time you change your build. Imagine the cost…

The OPs build seems to be lacking a bit here and there. The 20% stun/knocked down bonus damage only grants you a bonus for like a few seconds very rarely. Not a good feat tbh.

Since I tried this build for a few hours, I noticed a good boost in damage that normally is lacking. Grab three of each power+20% might durability, power again and you will do fine damage. The build has worked better for me than any other so far, and I’ve tried a lot.

http://gw2.luna-atra.fr/skills_tool/?lang=en&code=3222i06v2clk2bgo00uka0a0g0h0m0n0te6f1

Vayra.3290:

We are perfectly viable for most things, but other classes can do it just as well if not better with a lot less effort.

Exactly.

As Pawstruck said. Well-designed but poorly balanced. In PvE I find that the class can contribute with some interesting buffs, healing and combos. Damage-wise they are alright when dealing with large packs in a tight spot, although mobs can be hard to control at times. Otherwise it is a really fun and hard to master class, as it has at least twice the amount of skills than other classes do. PvP it does not do very well either, except the occasional party buff and AoE heals. But despite the severe lack in damage, it is a fun and very challenging class to play, which it great. Perhaps people from the team will look at the class again in a while. Hope so.

Increasing the damage will do. Simple as that. The options there are to slow, immobilize etc. is there, if you combine it well. No need to add extra skills in that direction, as it doesn’t really improve the class. Apparently they nerfed the damage in the late betas, but way too much it seems. Now they are little more than a support class wearing cloth.

A mere damage boost is in place. They just need to make it balanced in comparison to the class and other classes.

Yeah, sad they don’t have any interrupts.

Evasive Arcana, when using the Churning Earth effect, you don’t get any of the burst damage AT ALL. There is only the bleed condition that is applied.

… and by the way, I see very few elementalists around in game, sadly. But the reason should be quite clear.

The elementalist is certainly not a glass cannon indeed. It is glass, and has no cannon. Sure it does AoE damage alright, but the damage is low, way too low to counter the squishiness. If I am lucky and get a 6k crit with Churning Earth, specced for “glass cannon” I am very lucky. Happened once only. The cast time is ridiculous anyway. One on one it is very hard to kill people, since the damage output is very low compared to other classes. I tried speccing for defense and 20k hp, and was several times killed within 1 – 1½ second by a rogue for example. Other classes have invisibility AND great burst damage.

Kiting is even horribly hard, even if you utilize most of your slow etc. effects. When a warrior and guardian can outdamage you at range, it can be very disheartening. I keep trying to find a better build, but no matter what I have to run in one on one fights.

If the damage is boosted to fit the squishiness of the class it would help a lot and bring it up to par with other classes. Otherwise I don’t see it being much good except a healing and minor damage AoE class, which is sad. There should be options to make it a glass cannon (I’ve tried, but damage is way too low). Hopefully they get a good damage boost.