Guild Wars 2

Phira.3970:

Welp. Seems like they plan on keeping the game how it currently fundamentally is. There will be no drastic changes such as completing turning the game inside out and coming up with some brand and innovative idea.

Even w/o spectate/rank/match making/custom, whether people are having fun and continously playing the game is a sign that the system is working which is obviously not the case. Obviously, there’s something more fundamentally wrong with sPvP to where everyone is getting bored of it within a month/week or even a day and that the current mists is becoming more and more of a ghost town each day. The idea of “small safe changes” isn’t going to cut it.

You don’t get it, just because they make some huge innovative change which completely changes the game, doesn’t mean all the problems will suddenly disappear magically. I like the cautious approach to balance, instead of having to adapt drastically to things every patch we get to tweak small things while getting used to the overall system, it allows for much more skill development.

NaturalPortman.9562:

I have never seen speed hacks or any kind of hacks in pvp yet but okay.

Going to agree here, over 400 hours in sPvP and tPvP combined and never seen a speed hacker, so it must be a rare apperance or I am just lucky to have not seen one.

kaplis.7195:

MindlessRuff.1948:

You made a mistake with my time, it is actually 6AM to 9AM daily gmt so unfortunately i will be unable to make my match as I am busy during the weekends except in the morning, so unless there is a possibility of rescheduling, or reaching an agreement with Kalpis, I will have to forfeit.

just let me know when ^_<

Does Monday during your time range work for you? I will be able to play then.

Cosmic Teapot.9162:

So I was fighting this ele in spvp and he uses arcane shield, then he uses lightning flash, then he uses a stun breaker on my updraft that cancels it faster than I’ve ever seen before. He clearly didn’t use armor of earth or mist form so I have to assume it was cleansing fire. The thing is cleansing fire has two distinct animations and a accompanying sound which I did not observe. I use cleansing fire in the video and you can see the animation and hear it. Is there some sort of trick to breaking blowouts? If there is I’d like to know because I thought you had to wait until your character stopped moving. I’m guessing he just used it really fast and it made the animation not show.

Yes I realize I popped mist form too early. Also, if only lightning flash had hit and earthquake crit it would of been an instant gib.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qV0bOqVgX6I

Ok, Im pretty sure he just evaded the updraft by rolling backwards, you can see the white text when you casted it.

nerva.7940:

MindlessRuff.1948:

nerva.7940:

MindlessRuff.1948:

Obviously you will see more thieves in hotjoin matches, they are the “assassin” class and everyone likes getting kills and racking up points, not that this shows thieves are OP, just because something is effective at killing in a cluster kitten of mostly 8v8, does not mean that it is imbalanced.

you are seeing this many thieves in spvp because it’s easy to 1-shot noobs. this alone is the biggest problem thats turning off all the newcomers. i would like to see a 30% damage reduction to BS in the dec 14 patch.

This will not solve any problems, it will only totally destroy the viability of high level thieves running Backstab builds in tPvP, which is not what Anet wants, they want to balance the game for newbies and veterans alike, which is hard when there are a VAST amount things you need to know how to counter in this game.

high level thieves dont rely on BS. directly nerfing BS damage would exactly solve most of this game’s problems, which is new player retention. no one ever had problems with thieves in tpvp.

Sure they don’t rely on it, nerf it and they will never be able to use it, effectively destroying one of their viable tPvP builds, I know people can handle thieves in tPvP, so making them weaker will give them less options which is the opposite of want is desired, a high variety of viable builds across all spectrums.

There are many counters to BS which new players can easily utilize, which also counter a wide variety of other builds, slotting at least one survival utility and taking some traits which also enhance survivability go a long way.

nerva.7940:

MindlessRuff.1948:

Obviously you will see more thieves in hotjoin matches, they are the “assassin” class and everyone likes getting kills and racking up points, not that this shows thieves are OP, just because something is effective at killing in a cluster kitten of mostly 8v8, does not mean that it is imbalanced.

you are seeing this many thieves in spvp because it’s easy to 1-shot noobs. this alone is the biggest problem thats turning off all the newcomers. i would like to see a 30% damage reduction to BS in the dec 14 patch.

This will not solve any problems, it will only totally destroy the viability of high level thieves running Backstab builds in tPvP, which is not what Anet wants, they want to balance the game for newbies and veterans alike, which is hard when there are a VAST amount things you need to know how to counter in this game.

Obviously you will see more thieves in hotjoin matches, they are the “assassin” class and everyone likes getting kills and racking up points, not that this shows thieves are OP, just because something is effective at killing in a cluster kitten of mostly 8v8, does not mean that it is imbalanced.

As a PvP player, I finished the monthly in a day, you don’t really need a full team to win a round of tpvp, me and 1 other friend get the last round quite often when we queue together, and we come across way more PuG vs PuG game than full teams stomping. Sure it can seem intimidating if you know nothing about the tpvp meta, but try it a few times before writing it off.

You made a mistake with my time, it is actually 6AM to 9AM daily gmt so unfortunately i will be unable to make my match as I am busy during the weekends except in the morning, so unless there is a possibility of rescheduling, or reaching an agreement with Kalpis, I will have to forfeit.

One paid tourney up today.

Uploaded a new video today, and some ready to render and upload for tomorrow!

I love scepter, I have some videos featuring D/D and S/D and I will be uploading some more S/D videos when they finish rendering later tonight here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/tPvP-DD-SD-Elementalist-Videos-11-27-12/

Well we need the “~” button to drop conjures, I use it myself quite often.

JuniorSB.7089:

Oh, I hadn’t looked at your post lol. How effective is the frost bow when you play? Is it good for 1v1?

1v1 it is good for point control, stand in the middle of the point, you can add armour of earth for extra insurance, then call down the AOE volley and they have to blow their dodges to leave the point or take a TON of direct and condition damage, if they do dodge to escape this opens up an opportunity for a deep freeze, it is also sick if you and a team both use the volley on a point, and there are plenty of chances for big plays if you use it right.

“Most every single competitive ele build out there does not use them.”
Going to go ahead and say I do slot a conjured weapon in tPvP sometimes, check out my video thread if you want to see the Frost Bow in some tPvP matches.

Added another video and am currently uploading one from a paid tournament, it will be up soon!

Edited the content of the post and linked the uploaded videos, may or may not record some more tomorrow.

Well I DO know that if you have a sigil of Fire and a sigil of Battle, they will not proc at the same time, since they share internal cooldowns, so maybe switch to 5% damage or 5% critical chance sigil after getting 25 stacks?

3. Make spirit weaps untargettable

You totally aren’t a guardian.

Well you don’t need to open the chest to get the extra gems, today i won 100 gems when everyone on my team got 20, it just added to the screen where you get the chest when you press accept.

Streaming @ http://www.twitch.tv/ruff48 (Will stream more later tonight)

Hello all fellow Elementalists out there! I have been in love with Guild Wars 2 since the first beta weekend though I have been highly focused on the PvP aspect of the game since the game was released. I am currently rank 39 in sPvP. I play on the EU server Aurora Glade, so feel free to add me in game and ask me questions there or post here by all means.

I started recording on a whim, I thought it might be interesting to share my knowledge and experience while offering some of my insight to other interested Ele players out there looking to improve their game. Also if anyone has advice to give me, I am more than willing to read and respond to it, so feel free to post thoughts.

I will be posting more videos in the future, based on any feedback I receive here, so please feel free to offer any constructive criticism and I will do my best to reply and follow this topic for as long as people are interested in it. I will take reasonable requests, for instance if you want me to try out a build ( Not that I can guarantee 100% success rate with every build ) I will do my best to get some good game play featuring it. If anyone wants to know my build feel free to ask, I don’t really feel comfortable posting 1 link to a build since I change utilities and traits very frequently so I would probably create a video detailing what trait and utility setups I like running with.

First Video is a match on Forest of Nifhel, I am running Dagger / Dagger Aura sharing build.

Second Video will be linked when it is done uploading and shows a match on Legacy of Foefire with a standard D/D setup.

Third Video, featuring the Battle of Kyhlo with the same build as the previous two videos.

Next video, another Kyhlo game, but this time a S/D build.

New Video today, on Kyhlo again.

And now a Paid Tourney!

And one more video for tonight

Quick Paid Tourney video

Uh if you do the combo fast enough, the dragons tooth and phoenix cannot be dodged, the enemy HAS to use a stun break, I tested this on my friend, the damage will go off even if it seems they roll at the last minute. Try practicing executing it faster.

I never listen to the GW2 music while PvPing anymore, my own choice is much better for me.

Braxxus.2904:

MindlessRuff.1948:

You might be thinking that you can do a “sick burst damage combo” similar to thieves but he literally wastes a stun break teleport and a stunbreak which also cures 3 conditons, as well as a third damage utility, leaving you kittened whether or not you pull it off.

So it’s balanced because he wastes 3 utilities to pull it off and leaves himself pretty weak afterwards? Kind of like warriors then.

MindlessRuff.1948:

Also note that much high burst damage could be achieved instantly following the fire grab and starting with updraft would let you start off with a Dragon Tooth into Phoenix into Fire Grab into Air Burst.

Ah, so actually he just did it wrong and can pull what a thief does then by not having to waste crap to set up the sick burst. Thanks!

Yep, he can do more burst damage than a thief as an ele, 0 people do that spec though, because eles dont have stealth to escape and would die in 4 hits with that build.

No one try and follow this build, it is the complete opposite of sane, I also cannot understand why you posted this in the main forum and not the Ele forum.

You might be thinking that you can do a “sick burst damage combo” similar to thieves but he literally wastes a stun break teleport and a stunbreak which also cures 3 conditons, as well as a third damage utility, leaving you kittened whether or not you pull it off.

Also note that much high burst damage could be achieved instantly following the fire grab and starting with updraft would let you start off with a Dragon Tooth into Phoenix into Fire Grab into Air Burst.

Fortus.6175:

Wulf.5431:

I agree that D/D is by far our most popular and probably our most powerful weapon set, and that others should probably get a buff/change. But attunement swapping is awesome and fun. Ele’s have a huge amount of utility. You can’t buff each attunement to be as powerful as another classes weapon set, because then in the hands of a pro player, they would be so much better than any other class.

If you don’t like attunement swapping, ele’s gonna suck for you. That sucks if it doesn’t suit your playstyle, I’m actually sorry, hate it when that happens.

who said anything about hating attunement switching? As a matter of fact i love the class because of it, but most traits are put into “if you are in xxxxx attunement you do 10% more damage” which forces you (or makes you believe) that you have to specialize into one.

As i said, dont give me the “play another profession” bullcrap, i like elementalists and want to see them strong, I refuse to give up on the whole class just because a few elitists who like their current UP state.

Unfortunately this game isnt composed by pro players, i bet you that more than 90% are just like me, casual players so no, dont give me the pro crap. I want elementalists to be up par with others, period.

I do not consider myself a pro by any means, there are loads of people who are better than me, yet I still do not think elementalists are even close to UP. Sure there are some lackluster traits, but EVERY profession has these, you just have to learn to work around them and see which traits are good.

Ok, I play on the EU servers available every evening during the week and early mornings before I leave. 6PM GMT – 12AM GMT during the week and 6AM GMT – 9 AM GMT every day.

Brutalistik.6473:

MindlessRuff.1948:

Revelstoke.8924:

Oh and they are also 0 threat to you since they deal miniscule amounts of damage.

People always try to use this as a defense for those guard/ele bunker specs but its pure crap.

If the bunker can consistently out-heal the DPS, ANY (and I do mean any…even 1HP) will EVENTUALLY win because the DPS is unable to get ahead of the healing. Plain and simple.

Hooray! I hit for 900, you hit for 50. Too bad you heal for 1000 and I have one 30 sec CD…but don’t worry, ‘youre not a threat’.

The numbers are obviously fabricated but given we’ve all seen then take on 2-3 opps at a time, I dont think its unreasonable to think they can very easily out-heal a single DPS…

…unless of course it’s a thief.

If you can’t outheal the dps of a bunker, you probably have a full damage build with kittenurvival capabilities, so yes if they manage to mitigate your burst damage and outlast you , yes they can kill you eventually. Why not take a page out of thier book, you do NOT have to go full tank, but take some defensive traits or utilities so you last longer and don’t have to rely on one burst or bust.

and still end up dead. If anything you’re saying is become a playful cushion pinata for them to beat up on.

You forgot the part where they literally cannot kill you unless they are either: much more skilled, outplaying you, or your build is not good and you are making too many mistakes to win.

ComeAndSee.1356:

Rekuja.6318:

If you’re losing to Warriors because of hundred blades, you must be really bad at PvP.

An ability that requires build up and CC is not an over powered ability…

move away, save your dodge for it… get some stun breakers..

stop being a noob… it’s the easiest skill in the game to avoid.

That’s the annoying part about people trying to justify this kind of stuff. They’re assume it’s a clean 1v1, but in reality somebody can sneak up behind you or you’re being cc spammed.

This isn’t a paper game where everything matches perfectly.

Warriors right now hit too hard. I’ve been crit for 9.4k dmg by a Warrior using Kill Shot with 3100 armor and that would be much higher on somebody with 2k armor. Hundred Blade frenzies are around every corner.

It’s not a problem with HB, but with haste in PvP at the moment. You should see what hasted Elementalist AOE’s can do.

Ele can only get haste by a 10% chance on crit every 45 seconds for 3 seconds if they have the sigil of rage and a good crit chance to make it even proc, a mesmer time warp elite, or guardian offensive book (seen a guardian use this in a game maybe twice). It is an extremely situational case.

Revelstoke.8924:

Oh and they are also 0 threat to you since they deal miniscule amounts of damage.

People always try to use this as a defense for those guard/ele bunker specs but its pure crap.

If the bunker can consistently out-heal the DPS, ANY (and I do mean any…even 1HP) will EVENTUALLY win because the DPS is unable to get ahead of the healing. Plain and simple.

Hooray! I hit for 900, you hit for 50. Too bad you heal for 1000 and I have one 30 sec CD…but don’t worry, ‘youre not a threat’.

The numbers are obviously fabricated but given we’ve all seen then take on 2-3 opps at a time, I dont think its unreasonable to think they can very easily out-heal a single DPS…

…unless of course it’s a thief.

If you can’t outheal the dps of a bunker, you probably have a full damage build with kitten survival capabilities, so yes if they manage to mitigate your burst damage and outlast you , yes they can kill you eventually. Why not take a page out of thier book, you do NOT have to go full tank, but take some defensive traits or utilities so you last longer and don’t have to rely on one burst or bust.

Cosmic Teapot.9162:

I’ve played elementalist exclusively from rank 17 to rank 37 with over 1400 matches. Until the recent patch I’ve used evasive arcana builds exclusively. I am a casual player and only want what’s best for overall balance (I am not an elitist[nor do I have any reason to be] I value everyone’s opinion). I appreciate your response and I will do my best to respond even in my currently inebriated state.

I have dropped evasive arcana since the latest patch. I do agree that attunement swapping is entirely mandatory to be an effective elementalist. By reducing the base attunement swapping to 12 seconds and halving the recharge rate, the new swapping cooldowns would be 12,11,10, and 9 depending on arcana investment. This was greatly reduce ele’s dependance on arcana. The reduction on the protection duration is to reflect the fact that even those with little arcana investment would have greater access to this buff and it would possibly be overpowered to not reduce its duration. The nerfs I propose aren’t really nerfs, but a way to balance out the buffs. The buffs I propose are to increase the viability of all ele builds, and the nerfs are to insure that specific builds don’t benefit disproportionately.

I do have to disagree that bunker builds didn’t require evasive arcana. Perhaps a third party could chime in on this?

I am perhaps slightly biased, for in the spvp forum people often refer to elementalists synonymously as bunker elementalist. For those of us using berserker amulets and having zero room for error in order to perform properly, it is slightly insulting to be compared to the low risk cleric’s amulet using bunker elementalist who can tank 2 people almost indefinitely.

I don’t want to force people into dps specs. I am just tired of people parroting the notion that our traitlines are broken unless you spec into water/arcana. I’ve used water/arcana builds and fire/air builds and find both to be equally suitable. I can’t speak for conditions builds although the general opinion seems to be that they are ineffective and I agree in theory.

Most poeple agree that the current meta of unkillable bunker builds is ruining the game. Guardians are still the main culprit here but I don’t think that should give elementalist a free pass.

I use Beserkers Amulet with clerics jewel and still use Evasive Arcana with D/D and S/D. No I do not like running bunker builds, I like having respectable Damage and Survival capabilities. I used to run Valkaries and put some points into fire and air with less focus in Water and Arcane, but I feel that running high survival traits with damage stats is just too effective with my playstyle. ( I also have played ele to quite a high rank, level 39 atm).

Revelstoke.8924:

So if the guardian is the best tank.
And the thief is the best pure melee burst.

What’s a warrior for?

I’ll just stand here next to my banners knowing im the only class in the game that can give you a paltry 70 condition damage in a small AOE circle.

Yippee.

And whoever thinks that cloth wearers need protection should probably actually play PVP first. I don’t even bother trying to take down elementalists anymore. I’ve seen them take on 5+ attackers at a time and walk away scratch-free.

Lol, going to call bullkitten on that last claim, unless the 5 people attacking the elementalist were new to sPvP which make it believable, but since bunker eles had their healing potential reduced in the last patch, it is quite difficult to hold out against 3 or even 2 good players. Oh and they are also 0 threat to you since they deal miniscule amounts of damage.

Brutalistik.6473:

MindlessRuff.1948:

Are you actually telling me that guardians are weak in PvP Brutalisk? Do not forget they also have access to protection, the heaviest armour set, retaliation, as well as countless other defensive skills. A guardian symbol and shouts build with GS and Mace/Shield, is literally the ONLY build I cannot beat 1v1 ( ends up being an endless stalemate ).

I didn’t think a one man army was considered weak. If anyone wants to play a warrior in pvp then it should be a guardian. No lie..

Well in your other post you compared cloth wearers, calling them one man armies ( I assume you mean bunker eles ), to guardians which are just and strong at bunkering. I would agree that no one would take a warrior bunker over a guardian or ele bunker.

Are you actually telling me that guardians are weak in PvP Brutalisk? Do not forget they also have access to protection, the heaviest armour set, retaliation, as well as countless other defensive skills. A guardian symbol and shouts build with GS and Mace/Shield, is literally the ONLY build I cannot beat 1v1 ( ends up being an endless stalemate ).

barti.7685:

MindlessRuff.1948:

barti.7685:

yea bunkers and burst. i experienced the same thing you experienced as an even more tanky fighter.. toughness does lill for true burst like that notice that his lightning strike hit also in between. problem is toughness scales poor in comparision to power.. so power always wins.. theres tons of scources for might and hardly any for toughness buffs..

I know there is protection, and every profession can take runes which will give you a chance on hit to gain it, in addition to professions which can utilize it themselves.

warriors to my knowledge dont have protection, only true bunker classes have protection. so we first need to roll a 20 sided dice to get a chance to get 5 sec protection on a 30 sec cooldown.

i ll roll with those runes and next time i get ambushed by a thief i will ask him nicely to please wait with his burst untill i hit him enough times for my protection to go off.

i’m sure he will oblige.

Why should the most tanky class in the kitten game get an additional 33% reduction in damage on demand? Oh wait warriors already have multiple abilities which give 100% damage reduction, (endure pain utility, endure pain trait, and shield block weapon skill). Cloth wearing classes NEED protection because they have the least armour and health in the game and this boon gives them the boost they need to survive.

A well played shatter mesmer might be able to take an ele off guard, though if you come against him in 1v1, and he avoids your first burst, you probably will not win the long fight since he can easily kill your illusions with AOE ( not instantly though ).

barti.7685:

yea bunkers and burst. i experienced the same thing you experienced as an even more tanky fighter.. toughness does lill for true burst like that notice that his lightning strike hit also in between. problem is toughness scales poor in comparision to power.. so power always wins.. theres tons of scources for might and hardly any for toughness buffs..

I know there is protection, and every profession can take runes which will give you a chance on hit to gain it, in addition to professions which can utilize it themselves.

I hate how people think you have Pay to pvp. Just because it is called Paid tournament doesn’t mean you have to drop real money in addition to what you paid for the game to buy tickets. You get a free ticket every day from the daily achievement and 10 more for the monthly. You can also get tickets from chests, free tournaments, and if you don’t win a paid, you can get compensation tickets if you pass the first map at least. I have never paid for a ticket myself.

If they implement a deserter debuff, what the hell am I going to do while waiting for tPvP queues? Not like I can duel people in the mists.

I usually only do that when testing a new build and it fails so horribly that I need to go back to the mists to change it. Haven’t really done it for this month though.

If someone leaves the game when the game is 80% over, then it will not autobalance. You shouldn’t worry about hotjoin wins though, they really do not mean anything.

If you actually care about trying to win, try the free tournaments, hotjoins are a zergy mess for farming glory and don’t really offer proper competition.

Geewoody.2017:

Or you could just type henge, keep, or mine followed by help or fine. Just sayin’.

Agreed, it is much simpler to take an extra half second to type “henge” or even “mid”. A complex mess of code would just make things harder on new players and is unnecessary.

So you want to add a built in map hack that tells you where all enemy players are too? But being serious who would ever want to be a coach? Kitten that I would much rather be playing.

Dodge like a pro but make sure to leave yourself with options, like instead of burning endurance to create distance, save it to dodge CCs or high damage attacks, and instead use terrain to LOS and split the enemies. In regards to endurance, make sure you take traits that give vigor and take utilities with stun breaks and survival utility. If you DO have vigor, do not have a full bar of endurance ever, since those are free dodges you are wasting. Having a moderate amount of toughness and healing power will allow you to survive much longer. Getting your heal off is crucial, do not let it get interrupted no matter what.

Well those are some ramblings off the top of my head, hope someone finds something useful.

Absolutely not, there are many ways to get the tickets to play tournaments without paying a cent after buying the game.

I don’t know about you, but I play on the EU servers and still get queue pops when it is quite early in the morning for the majority of players. I tend to jump in a hotjoin when queued for extra glory. I think only paid tourneys suffer from long queues when not in primetime now days.

note: I usually have to wait 30 mins max for a free tourney.

None of the ele speed traits stack, and none of them are even worth taking since you could have perma swiftness (which is max speed) with the glyph heal and Windborne speed.

Ele teleport can do anything a thief can, you just need to practice it a few times and watch where other people stand when they do it.

You dont seem to understand. This game does not need more CC, if you eat a 2 second stun, and fail to break out of it, you will get crushed by a good player. If you are standing still in this game, you are free lunch. Every class already has CC, if they added more guardians would be the most OP class in the game since they can make all of their allies immune to CC, free to rampant on the enemies. Not to mention the fact that CC can be chained on one target to bring them down very quickly.