Guild Wars 2

It’s best to think of GS for Necro like a hammer for other classes. It’s a Heavy hitting weapon with skills that emphasize control and debuting alongside damage, but it isn’t speedy.

I love GS on Necro and use it as my go-to PvE weapon. In PvP, though, I tend to use a scepter or a dagger because they’re easier to land hits with.

So for maximizing DPS, something like this would be better? http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vREQNAR4dnM0Atbit0A20As3glcBLuK2FHjUlh1wzCKA0AWBA-TxhAABVr+jO7PctyPJVCCwTAYgLCQ06GCAcAM8wJchDGf8xHf8xb4hHe4hHuUAQssC-e

Swapped gear to full sinister with Flame Legion (similar to Baelfire but better for dhuumfire trait) kept all spec trees, but went for dhuumfire and vuln spreading, along with getting crit bonus for the amount of vuln on enemies in order to potentially reach 100% crit against enemies with 25 vuln stacks.

Dhuumfire turns the Shroud into a heavier hitter, and most of the damage the old build had with Gravedigger was preserved, making it a viable chain-slam when enemies are below 50% health if Shroud isn’t up, especially with Closer to death. YAAW as a stun break and then wells for added damage and life drain combos. Blood fiend for healing and a little added DPS.

In a pinch, Spite can be swapped for Blood Magid to give added life drain and either boosted Wells from Vampiric Rituals or added healing in Shroud from Transfusion.

Anything else I’ll need to work on in Factals other than a build?

Gravedigger spam is nice, especially with Quickness. I typically run Death Spiral and other vuln skills on cooldown once an enemy hits below 50%, and then chain Gravedigger. Closer to Death also helps.

Today I’m off of work and thinking about trying out Fractals with my Necro, or at least preparing to try them out.

I’m a longtime casual player, and frankly I have no clue what I’m getting into other than knowing that Fractals are, in terms of difficulty, around a shade or two below raiding and a shade or two above dungeons.

My build is basically this right now, though I’ve invested in a couple of ascended trinkets as time has gone by whose stats I can’t find in the build maker: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vREQJARWnc0AlbitbCu2A0biFcBLuK2FDjQXtAQLgqL0GeWA-TBCBABVcJAMS5ng7Pog5PJUCij6PA8EASRXApAiYMA-e

So how would you change this build for Fractals? What should I expect to be my biggest challenges? Are there any good resources or guides on this sort of thing? I’m doing research now and having a bit of trouble. My googlekittenhas failed me.

I’m honestly kind of having a blast on my Reaper, still. I’ve also mostly been running in open world PvE, where I run full zerk with the GS and Staff in a self-sustaining shroud build. It’s fun, and yes, after a few days I’ve learned how to get over the worst of the new challenges. I’m planning soon to begin dipping my toe into Fractals.

In PvP and WvW, during my occasional visits there, I’ve needed to adjust my build towards Dhuumfire and condition gear with a scepter or dagger, and change utilities to focus more on single threats versus big piles of computer-controlled mobs. It admittedly doesn’t feel as strong, but I’d say still definitely viable enough for the defining win to come down to player skill in most encounters. As I try to improve in the game, I’m pretty okay with that.

echoeagle.5439:

I love them, I got all the minions with death and blood magic and enemies never even touch me. Maybe in pvp they suck cuz players are smart enough to ignore the minions but I think its really awesome playing with them

In PvP the usual tactic is actually to nuke down a minion Necro’s pets first thing so they lose their best toys, as a quick FYI.

In truth, Nexromancers are a pretty darn strong class with a lot going for them. People in the top-end “meta” community tend not to like them, however, because the meta community has a strong focus on group tactics and Nexromancers don’t have a great deal of focus on powerful group support.

Unlike a number of other builds, Necros can really shine and do a lot on their own. Most other classes CAN run independently, but many of them have a more difficult time of it than the beefy, solid Necro. This is an often-overlooked strength of the class, though it could be argued well that strong group tactics could easily make solo tactics irrelevant.

My current Reaper build has done a good number of guild hall raids, and I normally end up playing the role of the roaming hunter/killer who rushes to spots where teams are having trouble. As solid as team tactics can be, when things turned nasty they were pretty happy to see me land and start throwing out chill, vuln, and blindness before shifting into Reaper and slicing up the most dangerous and annoying enemy mobs.

Tl;dr People hate Necros because they like more supporty team mates than a Necro can be. There is still plenty it can do.

I can confirm a Rise MM Reaper seems to work very well in Open World PvE. I was running a straight Blighter’s Boon/Chilling Victory/Spite Reaper near one, and she never, ever dropped due to a combination of durability, blood magic, and clever use of her minion skills. She gave the Flesh Golem a workout with all that charging.

Mostly I hung around her and carved enemies up while getting the benefits of her group support for her minions. It worked well.

I love it. It’s like watching a pop star get into a scandal. I’m just. Getting a bag of popcorn and watching you all run ragged and scream unimaginative math and cursing at one another.

Killyox.3950:

1) Game just came out, new class is still fresh and they already nerf it before gathering more data

2) we aren’t against nerfs per se but against nerfs that hit class design. Giving more and more CDs on a class that was designed and intended to be without CDs and managed by energy is in stark contrast to what Rev was supposed to be. I am slowly feeling cheated more and more because the class is becoming less and less what it was marketted as. You don’t see ANet removing 1 of your attunements. You don’t see Thieves getting Cooldowns on their weapon skills (because they got INI and ini is like nergy).

1) they just gathered data. It’s called the first few days post-launch.

2) Crai crai. They’re trying to balance the game. It’s one skill. The game isn’t about your gratification and nobody cares if you feel cheated. The class is still plenty of fun. Get over yourself.

Dristig.9678:

Xecil.2798:

Am I the only one here that is so shallow that I hate using it just because it’s so kitten ugly?

That’s the best part if you just keep it out while running around it gets eaten alive by pocket raptors as a punishment for its ugliness. Also it is sort of slow so you don’t have to look at it. :P

I just privately named my golem Hotdogs and presume that his sheer ugliness is part of his charm. He woks three times as hard for you because he knows he’s ugly, but he’s got a heart of gold in there. Or at least someone’s heart of gold. Maybe more. Depends on construction, I guess.

And yes, it’s a darn useful elite in HoT. Hotdogs really pulled through for me in many a tight situation.

If you go with Chilling Victory and the Spite line for Reaper’s Might, you’re going to have a very solid sustain build with the use of Blighter’s Boon. It WAS recently nerfed a little, which has made the forums here erupt into a frothing, teary, monkey-screeching rage. In truth, it’s still viable. Team with people who can grant Quickness like Mesmers and Guardians for best effect.

If you use Dhuumfire, you’ll definitely have impressive DPS with Reaper’s Onslaught. It will have less sustain than the Blighter’s Boom build, but all that burn is pretty nice.

Personally, I ran most of the new HoT content solo anyway. I’d built for rapid life energy gain when out of shroud with YAAW, BB, Spectral Grasp, Chilling Victory, and GS/Staff for multiple ranges and chill for proccing off Chilling Victory. It all worked pretty well. I ran it all with my old zerk gear and had few troubles.

PvP would be a different ballgame. I’d go with the Dhuumfire/Onslaught combo there.

Welcome back to the game!

Firstly, I kind of think you’ll establish your own sort of build given time, but I’d be happy to give a couple of broad suggestions.

First, I would invest in blood magic traits. The blood magic spec focuses on healing, support, vampiric life draining, and can enhance your Well utility skills. It’s a great start, and the second Adept trait will greatly improve your movement when you use a dagger.

Second, I’d work on Spite, which helps enhance your damage output significantly.

Third, if you like minions then I suggest working on Death Magic, which gives traits to improve your survivability as well as the strength, utility, and power of your minions. The defensive traits are especially good at lower levels.

If you’re into conditions, equip a scepter and dagger and trait up curses. Get the Epidemic skill first thing.

When leveling my most recent Necro, I went for blood magic and spite with Well utilities for a power build with loads of life drain. By lv 70 I added curses and crit gear for added bleeding and enemies just dissolved. Great for dagger and focus or warhorn.

Going Blood Magic and Death makes a minion master with vampiric pets who give both you and themselves life on hit. They also cleanse your conditions by taking them and transferring them to enemies. By 70, I’d probably add in Spite for swifter murder. This is a good build for dagger/warhorn and staff. Dagger/horn for damage and staff for providing your minions with support via AoE conditions to debilitate groups of enemies.

I got a hankering for playing with a Reaper build based upon sustained use of Shroud and high (for Necro) DPS, with a couple of skills designed to draw in enemies in order to make the most use of the build’s AoEs.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vREQNBhQD7kjGoxGsdTw1GgeTs8LYxHxo4Uk6J8FCWQJtAwHA-TRSBABUcRAu4IAQz+D3qEUFdDJY+7Ilf5o+DAPAASBExYA-e

This is what I came up with. Feels a little Darth Vader with the two skills designed for hauling enemies in close all Force Pull like, and it’s got enough Chill to be kind of nice as a bonus with the Reaper line effects.

My own suggestion is to try them all out and see which one you like best. PERSONALLY I would choose Bone Minions and Flesh Golem, but I’m not you and I neither should nor want to tell you how to play your build.

Flesh Wurm definitely has stronger DPS, but I like the lower recharge time and mobility on the Bone Minions. I also think that the Bone Minions probably make better long-term use of vampiric traits, but I have absolutely nothing to back that up with other than a feeling. Finally, I also like using them as a blast finisher sometimes for the puppy of it.

The Lich is an outstanding elite which gives stability and good DPS on top of the 5 jagged horrors, but it takes a long time to recharge. That recharge time makes a Death Magic trait-buffed Flesh Golem look pretty darn attractive, especially if you’re good at making use of its knockdown.

Good luck!

striker.3704:

It’s a huge buff to the 95% of the players who don’t care about their party composition beyond things that outright don’t work in select dungeons. This will make being a minion master in crucible of eternity and fractals a LOT easier.

This won’t make a difference to speed running. speed running is as meta as it gets composition wise, and minion master will never have a place in that (not like it really matters).

I feel this is an extremely concise and correct estimate of how things will go in the long run.

Personally I love Minions and plan on running around with as many of the puppy things as I can when I’m solo. If I want to speed run with the 31337 then I’ll look up something on metabattle and turn off party chat until the dungeon is over so I can avoid the way every speed run team I’ve ever been on has talked to one another.

This potentially gives some interesting uses to unholy martyr and signet of vampirism, doesn’kitten

I know minions aren’t the strongest option, but they’re great for playing tanky and a lot of fun. I was already planning to make a minion reaper build. This just ensures it will be awesome.

Seems like this would benefit from staff a lot, what with the regen in mark of blood for keeping minions upright.

Yep. Having seen celestial shroud in action, I didn’t even feel threatened by it on a non-reaper Necro. Shroud’s secondary health gimmick is extremely strong, and the reaper skills are useful in most all types of combat. It’s a great Swiss Army knife of a class mechanic.

Ranger shroud is very powerful in its own way. It gives great support and a massive hearing burst that can save a party from sudden defeat, but you can’t “flash” it the way you can death shroud, there are fewer traits involved to customize it, it does no damage, and frankly there a ranger’s utilities are primarily supportive in nature, somtheynonly way they can deal damage with them in celestial shroud is if they run traps. A Necro with access to utilities in shroud could do some very nasty corruptions while the shroud bar takes the condition hit. That would be a bit overly,powerful.

Typically I only use it as a ranged skill when forced out of melee bye an AoE patch. In that capacity, I believe it functions just fine.

Solo I tend to use sword/pistol a lot for clearing out trash mobs. Blinding Powder and Pistol Whip give a good chunk of survivability. The off-hand varies based on the situation between dagger/dagger for ST/stealth/team situations, dual pistols when ranged, and the bow when traveling or needing to mark targets in events.

I’ll probably end up with staff as my go to weapon when HoT comes out. It seems like a very good General PvE weapon for thieves, especially paired with twin daggers.

Druids are nature people who nature at things. Naturally. Thematically, for the human side, they’re as easy to like to Melandru as a guardian is to Dwayne, a Necro is to Grenth, a Mesmer is to Lyssa, a Warrior is to Balthazar, and your lazy manager who breaks everything he touches and keeps taking credit for all your work is to Kormir.

They’re talking in this other thread about trying to make the new shortbow legendary fire bears: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Lost-Druid-potential-with-Nevermore/first#post5618590

That would make it viable as all puppy to me.

Ehecatl.9172:

Kind of want to combine this with the new ascended shoulders that make bats follow you around.

While fighting you’d have a swarm of bats and ravens around you at all times.

“What is a man? A miserable pile of secrets! Enough talk- have at you!”

Am I the only one who likes the hammer hold and thinks that leaning limp-wristedly on your staff looks kind of doofy?

It depends on the kind of build you make. Condi-heal hybrids will likely run apothecary, power builds will run Cleric or Zealot, and a build for absolutely nothing but healing and support would probably do best with Magi’s for the survivability without aggro draw.

Personally, I’m of the opinion that all this talk about a “soft trinity” for raids simply means they need SOMEBODY, or multiple somebodies, to perform the function rather than basing an entire build around it. I keep hearing about hardcore DPS checks, and having zero damage to contribute to them in a game where every glass has access to solid damage someplace strikes me as probably a bad idea.

It’s situational. Based on how you play the class, you’ll prefer one over the other. Personally, I think both looks pretty great. I personally plan on running with all weapons in my inventory because situations change, but the hammer is a must for your bag, since it’s your only ranged option. Like scepter used to be for guardians.

There are honestly a whole lot of viable builds for most classes which can include supportive healing, let’s be honest about that.

I’m of the opinion that what is going to end up mattering isn’t who CAN play a supportive healer, but rather who can run it with the greatest additional amount of DPS and team support.

Guardians are very strong for supporters and have some nice skills coming out. While they probably aren’t going to have the strongest burst heal (Other than the Elite Signet when people stack), they have really nice passive sustain on top of Aegis/Retaliation/Regen/Protection application. Warriors are GREAT supporters, especially with their high number of skills for reflecting projectiles. Damage, however, isn’t always the highest on a full guardian support spec. Guardians also do not have access to water fields.

Druids in HoT have the potential to give Guardians a little bit of a run for their money with the addition of more water fields to the Ranger, an additional blast finisher, and powerful new healing and cleansing skills. Add in that Rangers can give near-permanent regeneration and fury uptime already, and it can be a very nice supporter. Pet damage can help offset SOME of the lack of damage from the support spec, but of course the raw damage on a pure support build will not be as high.

Necromancers, against large groups of mobs, can heal for very impressive numbers while also inflicting conditions which lower enemy DPS. Reaper form will magnify that further, especially with some of the new builds coming out which take advantage of necro healing things like deadly nova MM builds (for lots of minions to keep enemies occupied that will explode into poison upon death) and the new chill traits in the reaper line. A good necro traited correctly can also help massively with team rezzes by relocating downed allies and healing them in shroud. Damage and buff-wise, Necromancers won’t top the charts, but what they DO offer, no other classes can manage as well.

Mesmers have healing options which can definitely be considered, but the advent of the new Chronomancer spec means that most of them will likely have a stronger effect by focusing on support with wells, reflection, and the other things Mesmers can do so nicely.

Eles are probably the single most versatile class in the game, let’s be honest. No Ele is going to have a hard time being able to pump out solid damage while also having healing and support in their back pocket. With new content, I anticipate them to continue their roles in the game as DPS/Healing support while another team member continuously pumps out helpful buffs like aegis and protect so that Eles can survive more easily while doing their jobs.

Warriors are probably the SECOND-most versatile class in the game, and their ability to heal, cleanse, buff, and deal damage is honestly not going to see much change. Warriors are freaking powerful, and the new Berserk spec is going to only give them harder burst and the option of stronger condition builds. Not a lot of change, but honestly the only kind of broken that applies to Warriors is how strong they are.

Engies, in the new update, have been given some fantastic new toys and are apparently the new darling for ultra-high DPS. Engies also have a lot of access to water fields for burst healing and traits they can grab fairly easily which increase their healing output even further. Add to that their ability to raise allies from range in a pinch and their newfound kite tanking skills and Engies are probably going to be the healing/support standard for the first bit of HoT.

Revenants are going to be very popular ‘support’ classes which, honestly, will have to try very hard to NOT get considered supportive even in their DPS builds. Ventari offers some solid, albeit awkward-seeming healing and a 20-freaking-second reflect, and Glint is a strong buff cannon. Even the Herald’s shield skill 4 is a nice team buff. The way they are now, and with all of the support options available, I’d personally say that Ventari is a strong spec for Revs who CAN play a healer in a pinch, but often won’t need to in order to do their jobs well.

Thieves have always had some nice buff potential, and they can be traited easily to be great for reviving fallen friends in nasty situations, but frankly I don’t know how one would build a support thief. They’re great runners with respectable DPS that, in HoT, have gotten sustainability and even MORE mobility with their added dodging, blocking, and the lovely Staff 5 skill.

Anyway that’s just me thinking on the thing.

Purecura.1795:

Mercurias.1826:

I’m actually a roleplayer (go ahead, your mockery only nourishes my black heart), and the Druid spec is something that works so perfectly with my ranger character that I’m a little curious if the devs have been watching me RP.

Gameplay-wise, I always was a little surprised how much simplicity there is to Ranger. It’s a very easy class to pick up and learn, and much of the tricky stuff you can do later revolves around controlling the pet (e.g. making your bear kite enemies while you nuke them with longbow). Adding healing and a little control to the mix is a great way to make Ranger stand out.

I’m especially looking forward to the staff. You actually hold the thing like you hit someone with it rather than simply leaning on the thing while waving your hand, and the abilities look useful and flavorful. Glyphs don’t necessarily impress me as a full-bar proposition, but that’s all fine given that most of them have short recharge and have some interesting synergies. I cant wait to use glyph of tides with traps and combo fields.

Omg! Im a Roleplayer as well! I actually cannot wait to RP as a Druid. Im going to write out my bio for my main asap! We should RP sometime!

Ima send you a pm. We can make this happen.

Combat-wise, I still don’t actually see Druid healing as a required option in terms of pure super ultra meta speed run zerker charging. Super elite players can easily get by most of the time on dodging, water field burst, and a flood of a team buffs from whatever metabattle is going to crank out for raids.

That doesn’t make Druid a bad or useless class, however, and I’m holding out for new gameplay types that will slap around the zerker/sinister meta. Not necessarily heal checks, but enemies who can party wipe if no one has any solid protection or something that can party wipe if people push boss phases super fast. That sort of thing.

I have no problem with the meta other than that players will achieve it and then begin to whine about being bored. You’d think they would be the ones happiest about a change rather than trying to see how they can zerk everything new.

Kal Spiro.9745:

TheLastNobody.8319:

Muchacho.2390:

TheLastNobody.8319:

Muchacho.2390:

Gliding has a big problem… and that is that you only will be able to glide in the HoT maps…

I hope that sums up well what i think about gliding…

….you hate it and think it should be removed?

That or you think it’s a tuna.

No i am sad that we will only be able to glide in the Hot maps (i want to glide everywhere). I really liked it.

And by the way is “it is a tuna” some kind of phase? (To clearify i am not a native english speaker)

Ah no, it’s just something random I throw out to prevent any potential heated arguement a from coming up. Can never tell on the Internet. I call it defusal humor!

Defusmor

Elric Of Melnibone.4781:

Once you get used to being able to glide it will be sorely missed on all the other maps. How many cliffs will you jump off, hit space, and fall to your death?

So many!

I assumed all along that gliding wouldn’t be in every map, just like every other game which added gliding or flight in an expansion. It’s a completely new rule to the game, so of course it could break the original maps which weren’t designed for it. The original maps might not even be designed with enough height to make it work.

It isn’t that the developers hate you for having your delicious tuna and thus bar you from gliding fun. It’s just that they would have to redesign the original maps, and that sort of undertaking right after making an expansion and having to rebalance almost everything already implemented is the sort of thing that would put devs in the hospital.

That being said, -I- am jealous of your tuna and will fight you for it outside the thread after school.

Many, many thanks to Donari in particular for going above and beyond with the descriptive and helpful post!

Dang. I thought this was a thread for requesting decorations.

I was gonna ask for a popcorn machine and stackable barrels/kegs.

The anger in this thread is real.

Can’t blame it, though. The first two posts were so condescending that I’m stunned I didn’t pick up my computer screen and give it a swirly in the hopes that the OP would feel it.

For those of us who don’t have a big pile of tomes, running the Halloween event for fun, loot, and experience on newly minted Revenants is a pretty sweet deal. I’ll probably alternate being in there running around and praying for a scythe skin that I’ll foolishly use for myself rather than sell right up until the end. Scythe skin is a horribly impractical weapon from any real viewpoint, but I think it would look pretty cool on the Daredevil, >_>

I haven’t yet bought the HoT expac due to financial reasons (it’s going to be my treat to myself for finally getting my first paycheck after a frustrating unemployment spell, which will be probably on the day of launch), but one of the things I’ve been looking forward to in time of gameplay is gliding. I’ve always loved flight and gliding in games, and I’m eage to see how it will work in Guild Wars for exploration and potentially combat.

Do any of you have fun, amusing, or interesting stories about the glider mechanic? Did anything stand out for you? How are the controls?

I know you might now hav meant to, but you just pulled the pin on a grenade.

StickerHappy.8052:

Guys (all of the poster)

I am wondering Do you guys have any ideas to make shortbow make really well with pets? As of now there is only 1 skill that interacts with the pet. It would really interesting to have a weapon with a lot of synergy with the pet.

The shortbow works very well with pets that deal condition damage, like the lashtail devoured and the bristleback. It’s also a very nimble weapon that benefits greatly from quickness, high precision builds, and traits which act on crit like Companion’s Might and sharpened edges, which holds further synergy with pets. Shortbow is actually very good about that kind of thing.

redcomyn.4651:

Mercurias.1826:

I’m actually a roleplayer (go ahead, your mockery only nourishes my black heart), and the Druid spec is something that works so perfectly with my ranger character that I’m a little curious if the devs have been watching me RP.

Gameplay-wise, I always was a little surprised how much simplicity there is to Ranger. It’s a very easy class to pick up and learn, and much of the tricky stuff you can do later revolves around controlling the pet (e.g. making your bear kite enemies while you nuke them with longbow). Adding healing and a little control to the mix is a great way to make Ranger stand out.

I’m especially looking forward to the staff. You actually hold the thing like you hit someone with it rather than simply leaning on the thing while waving your hand, and the abilities look useful and flavorful. Glyphs don’t necessarily impress me as a full-bar proposition, but that’s all fine given that most of them have short recharge and have some interesting synergies. I cant wait to use glyph of tides with traps and combo fields.

There is nothing wrong with being a roleplayer. If you like roleplaying a healer, great. You will like playing a druid. But I suspect that after playing it awhile, and you find out just how badly you are rewarded for it and how little XP you receive for it (unless Anet changes it), I think you will start to get frustrated.

Perhaps Anet is holding back a reward and XP change as a surprise for us since they haven’t said anything about it, yet. I’m not holding my breath, though.

This is still GW2, redcomyn, and I still ascribe to the philosophy the game was based original on, which was to eliminate the hard and fast trinity, so while I do plan on healing and support in my builds, I don’t see them being pure heal.

I’ve got an apothecary shortbow trapper build for WvW roaming which incorporates stealth from trapper runes and situational use of glyph of tides for moving enemies into trap fields while making judicious use of staff and Celestial form for team support. It won’t win raw dps awards, but it’ll be tricky and tough to kill while its bleeds and burns tick away.

I’m also toying with a build that abuses the Ranger’s ability to generate fury and Remorseless in order to have a cleric-geared GS Druid dealing decent-ish DPS solo. Still very much in the works: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNEQJAWRnUqA9Ci1CC+rActgl/ADetGXrrLvuFQA4JN8DOancn01A-TBSBABOqE8iDBQYK/EUXwzPAAi2f4T1fA4KAEA4A493z3fDc+5nf+5n3xHf8xHfcpA8bZE-e

I’m actually a roleplayer (go ahead, your mockery only nourishes my black heart), and the Druid spec is something that works so perfectly with my ranger character that I’m a little curious if the devs have been watching me RP.

Gameplay-wise, I always was a little surprised how much simplicity there is to Ranger. It’s a very easy class to pick up and learn, and much of the tricky stuff you can do later revolves around controlling the pet (e.g. making your bear kite enemies while you nuke them with longbow). Adding healing and a little control to the mix is a great way to make Ranger stand out.

I’m especially looking forward to the staff. You actually hold the thing like you hit someone with it rather than simply leaning on the thing while waving your hand, and the abilities look useful and flavorful. Glyphs don’t necessarily impress me as a full-bar proposition, but that’s all fine given that most of them have short recharge and have some interesting synergies. I cant wait to use glyph of tides with traps and combo fields.

I love it.

Ranger gets Druid and everyone in its forum wants to whine about it because their damage still isn’t top tier or something.

Eles gets Tempest and everyone in its forum whines nonstop that Druid is going to take away all of their team viability and make them unwanted.

And everyone begins to throw around math while screaming.

I think I’m watching an Internet preschool.

Linnael.1069:

Given that whatever devs worked on the ele patch obviously have 0 experience trying to play any ele build besides cele at a competitive level, how about we give them some suggestions that would make a glass burst setup more playable?

Current problems with glass ele include:

Worst mitigation and the lowest hp and armor in the game. You’re looking at 50% vigor uptime maximum and a single blind every 8 seconds, only while you are hitting targets. That just doesn’t cut it when mesmers and thieves are throwing aegis/stealth/blind out of every orifice, with better base stats to boot.

So what should we do to solve these issues?

I’ll start off with a few (ok alot of) ideas I’ve had floating around. Obviously you wouldn’t want to implement all of them at the same time, so consider each one on its own.

Suggestions!

hide spoiler

-Buff Arcane skills. They’re supposed to be the support for instant damage burst builds, but they just don’t do enough. Arcane mastery should go to 300 ferocity and it should stack with multiple arcane skills.

-Cantrip might given back, on the arcane skills. Each arcane skill granting 5 might for 10 seconds could actually give ele nukes enough punch to justify the risks.

-Arcane shield becoming spammable. 20s cd, lasts only 2 seconds and blocks 2 attacks, does half the damage it currently does. Spammable access to stunbreakers would be a unique way to mitigate how squishy zerk ele can be.

-A trait that grants a unique effect that says “enemies cannot become immune to your damage” when you hit a target under 50% HP. The biggest barrier to nukes is the prevalence of “become immune at 25% hp” traits, and this counter would even allow zerk eles to maybe fill a niche role in pvp teams by nuking through people trying to bunker with endure pain/signet of stone. Still probably not worth bring over anotehr thief but owell.

So what are some suggestions that you guys have? I hope we can get some good ideas going and get some dev attention on non-cele builds.

So you look at a class you can’t play well at the level you want to be and, instead of moving on or practicing, complain it wasn’t built right?

Kay then. This is obviously what is wrong here. The class.

Yep. You can easily use staff solo and do a lot of content. Your armor class and health are glassy, but your skills give you more ways to survive than, frankly, a lot of the other professions. You just need to quit camping in only water and fire and things will get easier.

If you like the damage of staff and disliked melee range then you may get some use out of Scepter/Dagger. The only melee skills it has are fairly bursty, and it’s got a good chunk of survivability and nimbleness also.

As was also mentioned, Mist Form is a great survival skill that most Eles I know tend to keep on their bars. It has a long recharge, but it’s very helpful.

You also might want to run with glyphs solo. Glyphs of storms, lesser elementals, and greater elementals give you a lot of options in combat, but the most common is is to use glyph of storms in air attunement for high DPS and greater elementals in earth attunement for a personal pocket tank. I personally like calling up both elementals in water attunement, where they both will heal and deal damage.

Cat Has Ducks.1982:

But we are in a good spot remember

Guardians ARE in a good spot. Whiners.

I…Actually Mjolinir would be awesome.

I actually really like Spirit Weapons when solo or in a non-meta team. The damage is actuall fairly solid when traited, though not game breaking, and when you run both the sword and the hammer it’s easy to alternate between them and then spawn both of them when you want to pile on the pressure, especially if you have Feel My Wrath to use.

The bow and shield are both also useful at points, though recent changes to the game that have given literally everyone projectile blocking or reflection skills means the shield isn’t as super helpful as it used to be.

This build has served me well: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vVAQRArf8dl0AhqgYRQwOIQQEHxDVNA2yBwuBvwjmTxWcGB-TRiAABXr8D6TAQX7HAwTAIa9DCcQAqW9nlWQgNlgBAOA2tu1tvBjP+4jP+4t7u7u7u7WKAIWWB-e

Guardians are already a strong, survivable, and supporty class with a lot of gameplay options. It never bothered me that the utilities often have long recharge times. I don’t really think spirit weapons need to be perma.

…What is this I don’t even

Look, if Thief isn’t the top of the pile right now, that’s because it spent the majority of the game there and is still a viable setup in a lot of situations. It’s biggest problem before was that, agility aside, it was total glass. The devs gave it a lot of additional sustain plus skills for interrupting and finishing enemies off.

Could thief use a power bump? Yeah I could see it. The game meta is pretty constantly evolving, however, in order to try and prevent things from becoming stale. It isn’t some kind of…Whatever your post was about. It’s changing things up.

Woaden.9425:

Hi Coolster, I love theory crafting. You are looking at things from a fresh angle (sentinel stats) so that’s cool!

You say you want to make this build for all game modes, DPS-y with some survivability.

Only thing I’d tell you is, stealth is not essential for survivability. But I do think you need stealth, or speed, or blind, or weakness. Or all of them! The key is to find synergy. (for instance, in the below build your Withdraw and Roll for Initiative are both tricks and evades, so taking Trickster and Escapists Absolution together you potentially clear 2 condis per cast, and also lower the cooldowns!

How about something like this?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vZEQNAoaWn0MB9OhVPBGmCkmiFYCzLMEHaDzfwSYLULBEAyAA-TxBBABBt/AAPBgLV/JLlf5pPgRlgBcKACAgAcz2sNvZgVuyVuyVuyu5Rv5Rv5RLFggCtA-e

Power: 2627
Crit: 45% (65% on your ferocity)
Crit Damage: 214%
HP: 17k

If you want some toughness you can slot it in to your Head, Chest, and Legs. That’s the best place to get the most stat increase ‘per slot’.

With this same build, replace D/P with Shortbow and you also bring some nice area stealth with Smokescreen+Shortbow Blast. Parties will love you!

That…Actually looks really fun.,I almost wanna throw Scorpion Wire in there instead of Smokescreen as a “sometimes” skill. All of that agility and shadowstepping would make that pretty entertaining. Magnet from Tool kit is one of my favorite skills. Also. It’s a lot of fun to drag an enemy to you, stun them, and then blast them off of a cliff.

The new weapons are pretty darn gorgeous.

On a slight aside, I always love how excited the developers get when they unveil new stuff like this. Dev enthusiasm helps me justify occasionally spending real money on gems.

Almost none. That’s often a tactic when someone wants to try and deny someone else a finisher, so most players learn to just let a jumper go.

spirits have their place, and they give interesting effect, but my problem right now with them is that you can’t manually place them in order to ensure they live.

XDeathShadowX.2619:

This is kind of what I was thinking when I’d considered going condition damage. Celestial shadow gives the same effect as trappers runes for leaving celestial form. The traps would help you with survival from stealth and help your party with a bit of extra degen. I’d still go with moment of clarity for double daze duration though especially if I was taking trait to daze when switching to staff. At the very least healing spring would give you another water field, AoE heal and condition removal.

Clarion isn’t a bad idea, actually. I was thinking of steady focus initially because I was going to rely on stealth and the speed in the build to avoid some dodging and figured that the steady 10% would do more over time than the attack of opportunity.

I also considered going in as a skirmishing cleric healer with staff and sword/horn for off-damage, more blast, permanent fury, and a lot of stun breaks: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNBmYD7kRFokFsfFwWQgrFs8HYwr14ad1p397ObLvuMQA4kpFmFA-TBCBABPqEs8DCgW7PImyvB1NAwTAAU1fC4CAEA4A43fz3+Gc8xHf8xH3v/+7v/+bpA8bZE-e

I was looking at a sneaky, supporty apothecary trapper Druid with short bow for WvW. Trapper runes for little stealth jaunts when you lay traps down to help survival everywhere you are, plus a lot of annoyances that would keep people locked down for concentrated fire from friends. Healing for friends and bleeds for enemies. Probably not ideal damage, but fun as heck for roaming and helping your side out.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJAWVjMqQ7KWuCerAVLW2DM45ae9vuc7CAjOmTQub3dy0ywC-TRSAABCcBAWf/BpPCAOqEERdBAcIAMT5Xpq/0xDAIAACwulZ6WmBOuxNuxNuxZ36W36W36mUAQssC-e

I always loved the spiteful talisman trait as well as the focus. Shivers is a powerful skill, and considering how reaper’s touch will interact with Decimate Defenses from the reaper line, in a 1v1 situation I personally see dagger/focus being a choice weapon set alongside the Greatsword.

Quick and dirty build where this sort of thing would be shown as an example: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNAodRjM0QTNWdDm3A7NWyFs4qYX8LCFAaArgoMw9qeB-TBCBAB7pPwiTAQlq/cmSQsU+BwTAoo9HC4QAEA4A43+23hD88zP/8zP3v/+7v/+bpAiYMA-e