Guild Wars 2

Thanks! I had made a mistake in the math – forgot the Wine is 25S and had set it at 15S. Doh!

have 180 skillpoints and am at around half a million karma, so should have enough I think. I guess Cores it is then.

Thanks, that’s very helpful. I have one other question as I start to go after the lodestones. This is a significant gold sink and I’m wondering what is the best way to go about it. Refine shards to cores to lodestones?

I appreciate the advice.

Hi,

I have a quick question – think I know the answer but want to confirm.

I’m making a Legendary (shield) and know I need Tailoring and Weaponsmithing at 400 for the weapon-specific Gifts. Do I need to have those crafting disciplines on the same character that will be using the shield? I suspect I can I have them leveled on another character, then use that second character to make the Gifts. Is that correct?

If I can put the crafting disciplines on another character, the XP gained from the process will let me finish leveling up an alt.

Thanks!

I’m working on Flameseeker Prophecies as well, have the precursor and am at 80% map completion, and have half a million karma and some of the other requirements (Ascalonian Tears etc).

I don’t think it has footsteps at the moment and I’d be stoked if they added it. For all that work, it would be nice.

Halanna.3927:

I don’t know, I mean if you find the dailies a grind don’t ever play any other MMO because you will be shocked to kitten at what grinding actually means.

Honestly, this is true. GW2 is very reasonable when it comes to investment versus reward – much more so than most other MMOs. I remember playing FFXI and it took me 3 years to get a character to the max level on two separate jobs plus all subjobs, and then another 2 years to complete a really good endgame set of gear for both jobs. And then they raised the level cap – so I quit, LOL.

For Dodging, I just find a mob with a ranged attack (eg tar elemental) and stand back. Dodge when it shows you the windup move, and then again the next time. Done in 3 minutes.

For Events, either the zone I’m in for World Completion or Orr. Should take maybe 15-20 minutes. Can complete Healer there as well.

Gatherer is easy – gets done as I run around. Same with Kill Variety. For Aquan kills, I jump in the nearest lake.

Crafting is the easiest of all – just go to your crafting station and knock out a few ingots or similar. Less than 60 seconds.

I do think the Daily now takes a little longer than before, but 45 minutes for 7000+ karma (assuming you save the jugs and pop them when you have a karma buff, food and guild banner) plus a laurel is not bad at all. And parts of it also help with the monthly reward – being efficient is good.

I think the requirements look OK and expect to finish them this month. I tend to play for an hour or so a night and that will be enough, easily.

I don’t think it’ll be changed at this point – would lead to a lot of complaints from people who prefer the old system and people currently working on a Legendary.

Diviner.7405:

I have done Fractals at least 60+ times (mostly with pickups) and roughly 90% of the time everything goes pretty good.

That 10% of the time usually occurs from people with inflated egos think they know everything about FotM and take it upon themselves to be the undeclared group leader. Generally, those people turn out to be utter garbage and usually the group ends up disbanding cause that person proceeds to blame the other members and pisses people off. People naturally cannot stand the putrid stench of trash (I know I can’t) so they leave ( I don’t blame them).

^ This has also been my experience. 90% of PUGs are fine, but 10% of the time you end up with an idiot. Usually the first clue is that they make sure everyone knows how awesome they were in WoW. Then they make the run miserable for everyone else.

These days if a group is forming and the WoW red flag goes up, I make an excuse and leave (‘sorry guys, my guild needs me’).

Vol.5241:

If you can’t even come up to kill 50 players (which shouldn’t take more than 2 hours if you’re bad) then there is something wrong.

You have an entire month to do this

How do you get 25 in an hour? I’ve done a little bit of WvWvW (not much, just a couple of times up there), and in an hour I usually die like 7 times and barely manage 5 kills. And that’s on an 80 Guardian with full Exotics and some Ascended gear.

It just seems to be Run with Zerg > Crowd of Enemies > Kill/Die > Rinse Repeat. Would like to get the monthly but it would take me frickin forever.

Tips welcome (NOT ‘L2P lolelevenzzz’).

I’m doing Map Completion right now, currently 22/36 zones. I do most of the daily in the zone I’m completing, then if I’m still missing events I head to Penitent/Shelter/Jofast in Orr.

I can usually complete the daily in about 45 minutes while also contributing to the completion of the zone. In the past 3 weeks I’ve only missed one day.

Once the Daily is complete, I go back to the zone and keep on going, and usually additional events will pop up there to give some extra karma. If not, it’s no big deal.

I was really lucky yesterday, salvaged 2 rares with BLSK and ended up with 5 ectos (3 and 2).

I was kicking myself thinking I should have been doing this all along – am in the middle of Legendary quest and will need a ton of them. Now I’m wondering if it’s more productive to sell rares that sell for equal to or more than ecto price, and then buy ectos, or salvage the rares hoping for an average of >1 ecto net.

Gbok.1039:

Midnightjade.3520:

Gbok.1039:

If you think, as someone above posted, that you can get 500 badges without ever fighting someone in WvW you are highly mistaken.

Yeah you can. Borderlands jumping puzzle on multiple characters plus the rewards from map exploration will get it done. But WvWvW is kinda fun, no reason not to at least join the zerg for a while to get a few extra.

I’m doing world completion now and have finished one of the zones – just ran around for an hour at an off-peak time. Getting the others is doable but I’m not sure it should really be a requirement. Map completion of the PvE map plus 500 badges of honor to make sure you at least try WvWvW is probably the right balance.

I am sorry but I simply do not believe that you not once ever had to deal with someone of the opposite faction while doing the BL puzzles. It does not matter what you say..I just do not believe that.

Yes, of course I have had to deal with other factions while in WvWvW. Sometimes I actively zerg them for fun as a participant, while other times a Thief may try a gank as I run around doing map completion/JP (good luck with that against my Guardian – most of them just bounce off).

I really meant that you can get the badges while not actively contributing to your server’s WvWvW effort. Jumping puzzles and map completion will generate the badges and maybe a few deaths/kills from encountering opposition players en route but they don’t help your side capture territory or resources.

Gbok.1039:

If you think, as someone above posted, that you can get 500 badges without ever fighting someone in WvW you are highly mistaken.

Yeah you can. Borderlands jumping puzzle on multiple characters plus the rewards from map exploration will get it done. But WvWvW is kinda fun, no reason not to at least join the zerg for a while to get a few extra.

I’m doing world completion now and have finished one of the zones – just ran around for an hour at an off-peak time. Getting the others is doable but I’m not sure it should really be a requirement. Map completion of the PvE map plus 500 badges of honor to make sure you at least try WvWvW is probably the right balance.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Storm of the Ages.9076:

ColinJohanson.2394:

jwburks.9735:

Remember the Halloween jumping puzzle? I hope I don’t end up having to do it again.

You won’t lose any achievement progress and will get full credit for all that kind of thing, absolutely. The only stuff that might need to be capped are achievements that extend infinitely that a handful of people have taken to extreme levels, we’ll discuss other options as well but I think if an effort to be transparent, it’s better to get out ahead of expectations so no one is surprised.

Colin, will we still be rewarded for the things like map completetion? I am wondering if I should wait to level the last 3 of my alts and get 100% until after? Will that sort of thing be retroactive also?

You will be yes, no reason to change your play habits in any way when it comes to anything other than if you’re collecting achievements points by progressing massively down an infinitely repeatable achievement. Map complete away!

We haven’t finalized a solution for those in that specific category, I just want to get out ahead and warn this probably isn’t the best use of your time if you were considering it.

Great! I am doing map completion now and have finished 26 zones in the last couple of weeks – was a bit concerned that it would actually hurt my ability to get the new achievements when they come out.

I’m working on a Legendary and won’t be done for 3-4 months at the earliest. Plenty still to do, and after that I’ll see about other stuff. The game in its current form still has longevity for me, although I don’t play more than a couple of hours a day at the most.

More hardcore players ? Some friends who play LOTRO maxed their GW2 characters in 2 weeks and then went back to raiding in the other game. It’s kind of a different crowd. Might have problems keeping up with their needs, content-wise.

My giant heroic (and none too bright) Norn mows down everything that crosses his path. Dragons, trolls, risen, ogres, bandits, pirates, human separatists, law-abiding citizens, hot dog vendors, hare krishna processions, doctors, nuns, quaggans, old ladies, the Pope, ponies, leprechauns, unicorns and the Queen of England. “Ohohoho!! Extra Damage!”

Except Moas. So cute and fluffy. He has a soft spot for those, apparently.

Compared to a lot of other MMOs, GW2 is a breath of fresh air and I love it for that. I’m still enjoying the game and have a level 80 character working on a Legendary. I like the dungeons although I’m a bit bored with fractals and don’t really see why Agony was introduced.

I’m getting into WvWvW and am enjoying doing World Completion. Looking forward to future updates.

If it were me I’d do what LOTRO did and drop Agony as an unnecessary mechanic, but it’s not a big deal and the rest of the game is great.

TWMagimay.9057:

You do realise that you can get WvWvW completion on a lvl 20 naked char, right? It’s not like you have to fight or w/e, just walk into places. And, lol at needing ascended gear to do WvWvW. I’m currently watching my fiancé level his new char there. As in, he went to WvWvW as lvl 2 in the basic gear and didn’t seem particularly bothered by it…

Yep, I am doing world completion right now and was a bit nervous of getting taken down in Borderlands or EB, but I completed the first WvWvW zone yesterday in under an hour. I did have a couple of THF try to gank me but they just bounced off.

Most THF out there don’t really seem to know what they’re doing and are easily countered. And even if the opposition does succeed, you can just respawn. It’s just WvWvW, killing each other is the whole point (and kind of fun).

Also, my limited involvement in WvWvW suggests that organization >>>> gear. I do have an Ascended piece and the rest is Exotic, and I do use food, but if I don’t pay attention I can get surrounded, at which point the gear and buffs are not going to save me.

There are definitely people who would spend that kind of money on a game. Absolutely and no question. But they’ll be missing the point.

I see Legendaries as something to keep people interested in exploring the game. An excuse to keep playing and see the whole thing. One of the problems right now is that the precursors are hard to get hold of, which is preventing people from taking that journey.

I’ve done a bunch of fractals and have an Ascended backpiece, but I don’t like them enough to keep spamming them in PUGs for rings. Most PUGs are great but occasionally you’ll get one that just sucks – not worth the aggravation. Plus, the stats on backpiece are pretty great while the rings are really just a minor upgrade over Exotics, unless you specifically want them for fractals.

Instead I’m working on a Legendary (which is going well) and am doing some EM dungeons. I’ll probably come back to fractals when the changes to them come around, but for now I’m perfectly happy.

My main is a giant Norn level 80 guardian with spec for tanking and support, and some dps. Works great and is not hard to play at all, very hard to bring down and helps the group, and contributes damage. I really like it, and it works well in most situations. He ends up tanking most everything in most groups I’m in.

My alt is an Asuran Mesmer, totally different and maybe more fun. Honestly, the potential for shenanagins on that job is just off. the. chain. I get into completely ridiculous situations all the time and somehow manage to escape unscathed. But Mesmer takes a little more awareness to play – you have to be thinking about what’s going on around you in more detail.

If you had a few glasses of wine with dinner you could definitely still play Guardian and nobody would notice, but it would probably affect your ability to play Mesmer.

I have my precursor and am working on a Legendary right now – actually enjoying it a lot, but I do agree with some of these points. The requirement for world completion and dungeon tokens, and even WvWvW badges is kind of cool since it represents a requirement to explore the entirety of the game. Karma requirement also makes sense in some ways – become familiar with all the events in the game. Lucky clovers seems kind of dumb and a challenge of patience, but I guess it adds a wild card and forces you to become familiar with the MF (as if we weren’t already, lol).

The again, requirement for crafting mats, ectos and especially lodestones just looks like filler that boils down to money. I can almost hear a senior developer asking his staff aournd the conference table – ‘This is still too easy – what can we add to the list that will make it harder?’ Extraneous and not really necessary.

Nayaru.4716:

We could do with some ways to.. not necessarily control aggro like taunting but instead inconsistently be able to change it. Like if Dazes/interrupts/knockdowns/etc had a chance to make the target choose a new target. Maybe it does already? hmm, something to watch for.

I think this is kind of a cool idea although difficult to balance. Eles would benefit but Mesmers would be untouchable (even more than they are already).

Do not want. These things have turned every other MMO out there into a spreadsheet and are widely abused. Honestly, in GW2 you only have to look at a player to see if they’re very badly geared, and you only have to watch them for a minute or so to see if they know what they’re doing. Party chat is also a dead giveaway.

Keep the system as it is. If you’re catching too much aggro, back off and let others take the heat off you for a little while before jumping back in.

Chickenshoes.6250:

I’ll check the guides to find out where to get supply and where to take it – tbh most of them are incredibly basic. For instance, how do I know where supply is low?

Usually you just take supply from the closest camp.

Go to the area to check how much supply is in it. It will appear on the screen somewhere, I think the corner with the events. The map doesn’t tell you. You can always ask if someplace needs supply, someone who’s there could tell you.

Also if someone ever mentions that siege needs to be built, that means supply is needed to put it up. This could be in a base or out in the world, usually things needed to break enemy doors/walls. Usually you don’t need to run supply for individual pieces of siege equipment. Enough random people using their 10 personal supply just for such occasions will erect them, as should you.

Great, thanks. I actually have some blueprints from when I was last in WvWvW. I’ll learn how to supply stuff, then try building something when I get the hang of it.

Much appreciated. ^^

Chickenshoes.6250:

Midnightjade.3520:

Ansultares.1567:

Midnightjade.3520:

And then the WvWvW regulars complain about lack of participation. LOL. What goes around comes around.

If you participated, you’d develop your own methods.

Anyway, dealing with the zerg basically comes down to avoiding the zerg. There’s not much room for tactics when you can’t even see most of the enemy forces until you’re in the midst of them.

I’m not sure what kind of information you’re after beyond that. You could try being more specific in your questions.

OK, what’s a good activity for a player new to WvWvW that avoids the zerg and is unlikely to get them killed?

Thanks!

Run supply, and objective defense (maybe not camps if facing a zerg)

Running supply means taking supply manually from a camp or overly-supplied structure and taking it where it’s needed for immediate use.

I may seem like you aren’t being useful, but in most situations, having someone build/maintain seige and repair stuff while being there to call out incoming and defend is useful. You might not get huge steady loot like someone in the zerg all day, but successfully defending against attackers will get you decent rewards and loot. If you build and man seige that otherwise wouldn’t have been there, you’ve created an opportunity that you would have probably missed if you hadn’t chose to defend.

Remember, you defending is always better than not being there and leaving your realm short 1 guy.

If you do this, you’ll get a good feel for WvW and may decide to follow a commander in being offensive.

Awesome, thanks! I need to do the maps anyhow for map completion so can kill two birds with one stone. Get completion, and learn as well. ^^

I’ll check the guides to find out where to get supply and where to take it – tbh most of them are incredibly basic. For instance, how do I know where supply is low?

Ansultares.1567:

Midnightjade.3520:

And then the WvWvW regulars complain about lack of participation. LOL. What goes around comes around.

If you participated, you’d develop your own methods.

Anyway, dealing with the zerg basically comes down to avoiding the zerg. There’s not much room for tactics when you can’t even see most of the enemy forces until you’re in the midst of them.

I’m not sure what kind of information you’re after beyond that. You could try being more specific in your questions.

OK, what’s a good activity for a player new to WvWvW that avoids the zerg and is unlikely to get them killed?

Thanks!

Kakeru.2873:

Grunties.6841:

Zerg v Zerg not my cup of tea
No incentive

They should rename it . Zerg V Zerg V Zerg. Because that’s what it actually is.

Thing is, it could be so much more than that. But the only way to learn is to do it – guides are not much help. And the folks that play WvWvW regularly and post on the WvWvW forum just aren’t very friendly to players asking for advice.

For example, I started a thread on the WvWvW forum recently, asking for some tips for tactics beyond basic zerg, and some map orientation, and the best way to farm up badges. It received only one reply, which consisted of a link to a list of basic guides which I had already read, and a request I not post any further.

And then the WvWvW regulars complain about lack of participation. LOL. What goes around comes around.

I kind of like WvWvW and wish I was better at it. I’ve read a few guides and log in now and then. It’s fun in a disorganized way as a newbie in the zerg.

However, every time I ask for tips to get better on the WvWvW board I get told to stfu and rtfm. People on that board seem to be 13 years old with no other testosterone outlet, so I don’t bother reading it anymore.

If WvWvW folks want other players to do more WvWvW, they need to help those players learn. Simple really.

I am working on a Legendary and am really enjoying it – much more than I thought I would. That may change as I get into the WvWvW part of it but I needed an excuse to get into that side of the game anyway.

I don’t play that much – just a couple of hundred hours so far and so finishing this is going to take me a while. But there’s really no rush and I can see myself enjoying doing this for the next several months.

I played FFXI for many years (8) and never managed a Relic/Legendary in that game, which relies much more on scheduled events involving many players. GW2 is much more forgiving for someone like me with a job, wife and kids, and it’s nice to be able to work on something like this on my own schedule.

I’d buy an expansion for sure. Right now I’m doing World Completion and have found several places that are set up as possible entrypoints into new areas. The City Gate in Ebonhawke that leads to Crystal Desert, and the unfinished Asura Gates in LA are just two examples.

I think you can tell a really deep game when you keep finding new content just running around the world. GW2 has that in buckets and I’ll happily keep supporting it when an expansion comes around.

Aoshi.4785:

Make sure to do your dailies, save your liquid karma jugs for one big push, then burn a karma booster and put up karma banners from your guild (if you have them) to increase the karma you get from each jug. Cheers.

This is good advice, agreed. I started a Legendary recently and so far it’s kind of fun – lots of running around. I’m not too keen on WvWvW – its not bad but you have to pick it up yourself since asking for advice just gets responses of ‘l2p noob lulz’ from 13 year olds. Also, some of the jumping puzzles are a pain since my char is maximum size Norn and they do NOT jump well. The rest is fine.

Other games have much more challenging routes to Legendary/Relic weapons (eg FFXI, WoW) and in those games I always felt I missed something by not getting one. By comparison, GW2 is pretty forgiving. Nice to finally have the chance to obtain one.

DungeonDaughter.7391:

There is a similarity and a difference.

The similarity is that both people are looking for other people to play with.
The difference is that people who type LFG are lazy and want everything done for them, and people who type LFM are the ones who are actually proactive and don’t let 5 people sit around typing LFG at the same time for half an hour.

Not always. If I’m LFG, it’s because I don’t know the dungeon path in question and want to join a group with a leader that has more experience with it than I do. That’s how people learn.

Try being a bit nicer when posting? That one was pretty nasty and thoughtless. No offense.

Honestly, I really don’t think skipping a bunch of trash mobs and even the occasional miniboss is such a bad thing. If it makes the dungeon more fun and is not an exploit, then where’s the harm?

If you want to do all the mobs on a path, just make a group of your own and do it that way. Let other people play the game the way they enjoy it.

That being said, I do like the idea above of bonus tokens for clearing each mob group. Gives an incentive to do a full clear the old-fashioned way – sounds kind of fun.

Hi All,

I have been running a few Exp dungeons since hitting 80, mainly AC, CoF and FotM and have enjoyed them a lot even in PUGs. I’d also like to finish up Story mode on all dungeons and have done AC, CM and CoF. They don’t seem to take too long and getting a group with gw2lfg has been ok.

Can anyone tell me how long the remaining Story mode dungeons take with a reasonable PUG (decent players, no idiots)? These are TA, SE, HotW, CoE and Arah.

Thanks!

I also consider this a showstopper and have stopped running fractals until the fix comes next month.

I have instead started running the regular dungeons and am having a lot of fun with them, so it’s no hardship.

Good guide, thanks! I am getting into dungeons atm – done a bit of AC, CM and CoF and a few levels of fractals. The most important things seem to be to come well-geared for survivability, flexibility and group support, listen to the leader, and be open if you are new to the dungeon. Those basics are serving me pretty well and I’m having a lot of fun.

One other thing is how to tell if you get into a bad PUG before things hit the fan. Multiple undergeared uncommunicative members, rude leaders, and leaders that boast about how much they know and/or how great they were in WoW all seem to be red flags. In fact, if I see them now I just make a polite excuse and leave before we even start.

Honestly, I think the issue of bad PUGs exists at every level and is probably more severe at low FotM levels. I’m currently level 5 and on the way I’ve had two bad PUGs with multiple undergeared members that in addition were also set up as glass cannons. They died literally all. the. time. Not sure if they also had MF gear but that was not the main problem. On some fractals this doesn’t cause an issue but when you hit the Dredge level, it becomes all too obvious. And somehow these players never think a wipe is their fault.

Point is, there are always going to be some bad players. I think you can probably pick them from sight and attitude alone. If someone is on FotM 3 and wants to join a group at 7, and they’re decently geared and responsible, I think that’s fine. However, if that same situation involves a player with visibly bad gear, and (more important) lousy immature attitude, kick them. It doesn’t usually need a gear check.

pnice.5067:

Lots of good feedback here, thanks.

Oglaf.1074:

Your problem is being a Thief; Thieves get insta-gibbed in most dungeons of they attempt to melee, sad to say.

Its funny, shortly after I read this, someone in my guild chat was throwing a fit about thieves, claiming that every dungeon run with a thief turned into a huge headache, that with 1 thief it felt like they were 4-manning, and with 2 thieves it was near impossible. I don’t consider random anecdotes as evidence, but there seems to be a trend going on with this issue (I’ve read this kind of stuff over and over on the thief board as well)

I did FotM with a good thief the other day, she still died more than anyone else but her contribution in terms of damage and conditions was really impressive. It was totally worth it – she sped up the run a lot even though we had to scrape her off the floor a bunch of times.

I think this would help. I’m not having too much difficulty finding low level groups but I play at peak times and use the gw2lfg site. Other folks who play at different hours and don’t use the site could easily have problems.

I did AC at 32-ish and was lucky enough to have a good group – some experienced players helped us through it and we had all read the guide. It was challenging but really fun.

I then laid off dungeons until yesterday, at which point I’m a level 80 guardian with full exotics, built and traited for tanking and support. I did CM story with a level 40-45 PUG group and was expecting the experience to be similar to my run in AC. But to be honest, my guard facerolled the dungeon due to the upleveled gear and traits – nothing to do with skill at all.

I kind of wish I’d done the story modes as I leveled – yesterday was much less of a challenge and definitely less fun.

I have run 20 fractals and have been disconnected twice. Have also had two bad PUGs with undergeared glass-cannon-traited members who died all the time and whined a lot about how awful everyone else was.

Other than those isolated times, it’s been really fun. I ran a set yesterday and had a great time. I think the main things remaining are to fix the disconnect bug (urgent!) and change the randomness of droprates.

Yes, the developers really need to fix this. I have been DC’d twice in the last 4 fractal runs I’ve done. Last night it was the entire group, on the third map of the daily. It was a good group and we were having no problems at all, then suddenly all of us were kicked out.

It’s already hard enough to catch up on FotM with the fragmented nature of the userbase, let alone adding random disconnects. If a player DC’s, they need to be allowed to re-enter the map.

Ender.3508:

Nah, dont take away our only staff blast finisher. The delay allows you to lay down E2 swap to fire/water/etc, lay down your field and use arcane wave to get a double blast finisher allowing for instant group 6 stacks of might.

I’m going to try this tonight – thanks everyone for the great advice!

I think the reason they don’t have it is because of the chances of exploitation by blots. I played Final Fantasy XI for years and Fishing was the #1 way that bots exploited the game. They sat AFK in out-of-the-way places and just spammed away until their inventory was full, then sent the catch to a goldfarmer for sale on the TP to cooks. When it’s 1 bot, it’s not a problem, but at the time it was hundreds, many of which were stolen accounts.

I’d like to see Fishing too but it is more complicated for the economy than you might think.

I think it would help. At the very least it would introduce players new to the class to the idea of self-Combo. As they get better, they can then learn to cross-attunement Combo, adding depth to their play. Right now many seem to miss the potential flexibility of the class.

Yes, one of the things I think is good about this tweak is that it would introduce new players to the idea of Elementalist self-Combo. As they get better, they can then start cross-attunement self-Combo, giving more depth to their play.

I’ve been playing several classes at low levels to better understand game mechanics before choosing a main character. I like Ele but it seems a bit clunky and underpowered.

I have a suggestion to improve Elementalist by respecifying which Staff skills are Combo Fields and which are Combo Finishers. Staff is a widely used weapon by the class, and successful changes here could also prompt changes to other weapons.

When using Staff, currently Water seems to have 3 Combo Fields and no Finishers, while Earth has no Fields but 3 Finishers. Switching attunements just to access a Finisher can take longer than the duration of the Combo Field, leading to over-reliance on skills #7-9 (eg Aura Blast). At least at low levels, which is when people form their first impressions of the class.

A simple way to change this would be to add Projectile Finisher attribute to #1 skills in Fire, Water and Lightning (Fireball, Water Blast, Chain Lightning). In Earth attunement, skill #2 (Eruption) could also be switched from Combo Finisher: Blast to Combo Field: Earth.

This would allow Elementalists to more easily self-combo, increasing their flexibility when soloing and allowing them to better help the group when in Dungeons.

I’ve only been playing Ele a short while and its potential for flexibility seems very fun, but right now it’s not living up to its potential.

I’ve been playing several classes at low levels to better understand game mechanics before choosing a main character. I like Ele but it seems a bit clunky and underpowered.

I have a suggestion to improve Elementalist by respecifying which Staff skills are Combo Fields and which are Combo Finishers. Staff is a widely used weapon by the class, and successful changes here could also prompt changes to other weapons.

When using Staff, currently Water seems to have 3 Combo Fields and no Finishers, while Earth has no Fields but 3 Finishers. Switching attunements just to access a Finisher can take longer than the duration of the Combo Field, leading to over-reliance on skills #7-9 (eg Aura Blast). At least at low levels, which is when people form their first impressions of the class.

A simple way to change this would be to add Projectile Finisher attribute to #1 skills in Fire, Water and Lightning (Fireball, Water Blast, Chain Lightning). In Earth attunement, skill #2 (Eruption) could also be switched from Combo Finisher: Blast to Combo Field: Earth.

This would allow Elementalists to more easily self-combo, increasing their flexibility when soloing and allowing them to better help the group when in Dungeons.

Feedback welcome – I’ve only been playing Ele a short while and its potential for flexibility seems very fun, but right now it’s not living up to its potential.

Thanks!