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Neko's Comp. Guide to the Dungeon Ele

in Elementalist

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

This guide will see its next major update after the December patch, and in response to constant questioning about it as well as due to my new play habits (joining a WvW Raid guild) I will also include thoughts about WvW Raid builds as well.

Getting to the heart of the problem

in Elementalist

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

Low base health.

Please don't nerf my class' damage mitigation

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

How dare you nerf my class’ means of mitigating damage! Every other class has Invulnerability/Blocks/Vigor/Protection/Mobility/Stealth/Higher Stats/Better Traits/Regeneration all at the same time, all the time! I can’t believe you’re nerfing the only thing we had to mitigate damage in the first place! Every other class has all of those things!

*Seen on basically every Profession forum out there, no joke.

With that said, I feel like there’s some truth to these statements. I feel like the classes in GW2 are a bit brittle by default, and it forces people to spec fully into Bunker or spec fully into Burst. I think these really universal complaints speak to a larger problem in GW2 – that it’s very hard to make balanced builds, and when people DO happen upon balanced builds, they are immediately seized upon, become flavor of the month, and then are nerfed.

It’s a very unhealthy cycle that has burned everyone. Can’t we work to make interesting all-around survivable and damaging builds for ALL classes, all at the same time?

(edited by Neko.9021)

December 10th Elementalist changes

in Elementalist

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

stuff

OH MY GOD, after months of feeling neglected, the lead game designer finally comes to talk. <3

Let me say this. I think the core of these changes is very good, but I think that moving the “powerful adept traits” – Cleansing Wave, Elemental Attunement, and Renewing Stamina – is pretty bad for a number of reasons.

Cleansing Wave is very powerful. However, outside of it, Elementalists actually don’t have amazing access to Condition Removal unless they take Ether Renewal (which can easily be interrupted). Cleansing Wave allows people to build a number of Ele builds while still retaining a good amount of Condi Removal that the Ele is so good for. Also, this is by far one of the best Support abilities the Ele has in the game, and moving it up means more Eles are going to start going 20 Water as opposed to just 10 Water with the changes made.

On the topic of the dynamic duo – Elemental Attunement and Renewing Stamina – let me be the first to say that these traits are obviously overpowered.

Vigor on Crit should probably be a Major Master Trait for ALL classes that have it (including Guardian and Mesmer), BUT consider that the Elementalist has very few in built defenses outside of Cantrips. Renewing Stamina is so vital to the survival of a lot of glassy Dungeon Elementalist builds, as well as to a lot of bursty roaming and sPvP Ele builds (especially ones that try to take Dagger as opposed to Scepter, since I know the Scepter ability is getting moved down to Adept, which is good). If this change goes through, it’s actually going to be even harder for glassy Eles to exist than it was before, which I think is really bad, considering glass Elementalist is one of the specs that needs the most love in this game.

And finally, Elemental Attunement. I’m actually fine with this getting moved to Master Tier, but NOT if Renewing Stamina gets moved up with it. If Eles cannot take Elemental Attunement/Renewing Stamina/Evasive Arcana all together, you will have actually entirely destroyed a number of builds Eles like to use. While I agree in the goal to create more build diversity, COMPLETELY DESTROYING a spec that Eles have enjoyed and that is frankly underpowered in this current meta, yet players still very much enjoy playing, is really an unnecessary change. I think making the changes you’ve made so far to entice players to try something different by making it equally enjoyable, rather than destroying basically all of the old specs, would be a far better gesture.

Either way though, since you guys are finally reducing the base CDR of Attunement Swapping to 13 seconds (which is wonderful), have you considered making other large changes to the Ele like that? Specifically, Elemental Attunement does indeed feel a bit overpowered, but it’s also something I’ve seen so many Eles splash 10 in Arcana for just to get. I feel like Elemental Attunement is so linked to Attunement Swapping in the way the Ele plays. Maybe consider our dream of just making Elemental Attunement something inherent in the Elementalist so that, on top of the 13-second base cooldown, Eles finally feel like a complete class to most players, even with 0 in Arcana?

P.S. These are some of the most thoughtful comments I’ve seen from a dev on the Elementalist in a while (and some of the most realistic). Please do come talk to us more, we really love it when you do. ^^

(edited by Neko.9021)

Make Vigor on Crit an Air Trait

in Elementalist

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

Put it ANYWHERE in the Air Tree short of being a Major Grandmaster Trait. But locking it so deep into the Arcane tree makes it very difficult for glass Ele builds to gain access to it.

Dec. 10th Balance Preview - Updated Nov 6th.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

Please change Vigor on Crit for the Elementalist to an Air trait. You could literally put it anywhere short of being a Major Grandmaster Trait and it’d be fine.

Tried Some Dungeons

in Elementalist

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

I have a guide to the Ele for dungeons: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Neko-s-Comp-Guide-to-the-Dungeon-Ele/

The Ele really does suffer without full traits. This is, sadly, by design. The Elementalist has low base stats and low base damage, but some of the strongest traits in the game (able to achieve some of the highest damage if it traits for it, or able to achieve substantially higher survivability if it traits for it). This is unlike the Warrior which has high inherent base defensive stats or the Guardian whose core class design seems to be well put together and strong weapon skills.

A lot of it really is just knowing the encounters, having a good group, and controlling the enemies properly. An Ele is often the first to go down because of a bad group because of low defensive stats. My suggestion, for dungeons, is to look up DnT (even Strife’s old videos) and Define [HC] on youtube, and look at how they handle boss encounters. If you’ll notice, a great deal of handling dungeons in an efficient and timely and non-headache enducing manner comes not from highly defensive traits or gear, but from properly controlling and pulling enemies while using simple techniques or skills (such as Aegis or Reflects) to mitigate damage. For Ele, I definitely feel that these are a few good ways to go:
-Dagger/Focus (Fresh Air, or even one with lots of points in Arcana if you want more survivability)
-Lightning Hammer with Scepter for Might Stacking
-Lightning Hammer with Dagger/Focus for flexibility between the two (since Scepter itself actually has pretty terrible sustained damage)
-Staff sitting in Fire attunement spamming Lava Font and Flame Burst off cooldown

These are all pretty fine ways to play, and the most important thing I would point out is to put 10 points in Arcana for Vigor on Crit. This helps a ton, and despite what detractors may say, I feel it is by far the most important trait for staying alive for us mere mortals.

Don’t be discouraged you’re dying easily. It’s pretty normal. Dungeon content in GW2 is a huge step up in challenge compared to dungeon content in other games or from open world in GW2. It’s also an interesting experience, because it really reflects a lot about the kind of gamer you are, based on how you react to it. Some choose to gear up super defensively to simply endure all the crazy antics thrown at you, while others do what I feel is far better and spec very aggressively in full Berserker gear and try to beat the content faster than it can beat you.

The pulls are by far the most important thing. Learning how to ball enemies up into corners with LoS, and learning the various tells of each enemy, and knowing how to creatively use your own skills (Focus on the Ele in particular has a lot of ways to mitigate damage and is really underlooked by the community) are all parts of learning how to do dungeon content in GW2.

10/11 SoR/SBI/SoS

in Match-ups

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

Thank you to SoR for being so classy and helpful during our karma train together on SoS BL last night.

help with met shower build/stats?

in Elementalist

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

Use Meteor Shower, then right after using it, use Tornado. Tornado doubles your Power and Precision.

10/11 SoR/SBI/SoS

in Match-ups

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

No, sir.

Please understand I am referring to the 2 guilds that repeatedly ran us over for just watching. Not wanting to get an infraction I used SBI instead of those specific guild names, we’re not so petty as to hold you all responsible for the actions of those 2.

Some of your server mates were trolling(even spike building ballistas during matches) the GvG and quickly returning to the crowd. Our intention was to wipe the trolls. If you got caught in the crossfire then it was an accident. Sorry.

We were the ones that spike built the ballista after you wiped us 3 times for no reason. Only HIRE had interfered with your spectators (not the match) prior to that point and they did for so the same reason we did, you wiped them for no reason as well.

There were no trolls from SoR there, you guys were the ones being disrespectful. I hope in the future you can take losing a little more gracefully and not point fingers at innocent players just wanting to watch what was otherwise a good GvG.

Hello there. I was on the sidelines for that fight, on SBI’s side, and saw it all in action. Let me tell it from my perspective.

We were doing our GvG, as was fine, when we noticed that someone was throwing Grenades during the fight from SoR. I invited the Engineer (who was from RISE) to my party and said “please stop throwing grenades.” He told me “what’s your problem, c**t” and proceeded to throw more grenades at the playing field. I asked for SBI to kill him, which they did.

Say what you will about us perhaps “overreacting”, but when someone is explicitly interfering with the match, and curses at you when you try to ask them to stop, well…

I don’t know. This seems surreal. The fact that you will now even go out of your way to flash build a Ballista to ruin the GvG (which, by the way, not only ruins the GvG for SBI, but also ruins it for the other guild on SoR, who was there to have a fun fight)… is very disheartening. I went over to try and remove the ballista you guys built, and when I was moa-morphed, well, that kind of killed the spirit of sportsmanship we had, and that’s when I asked all of us to start killing people who had the same guild tag as the Engineer who was grenading us (who, by the way, had returned, and was throwing grenades at the playing field once more).

That is my perspective of the story. Maybe I got it wrong, but from my perspective, we were the victims of severe trolling from some rogue SoR spectators (not to implicate all of SoR, because I know that the guild we were fighting was pretty upset about the whole situation as well, as well as a few other spectators who legitimately came just to watch). Perhaps I was mistaken.

If you could let us know the name of the person, it would be great – Just find it hard to believe because we don’t run with any engis.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the name of the Engi. I did report them for the language at me, but I don’t have the logs or anything on me, no. I should have screenshotted it though.

Regardless, if what you said is true, then the Engi in question was probably a troll tag, or simply another guild with the tag RISE.

Perhaps you misremember the tag as another post (as well as several others) in this thread specifies a different tag. See quote below.

Someone from HIRE were throwing nades on us midfight… /snip/

Ah yes, that’s it. It was a HIRE tag, not RISE.

10/11 SoR/SBI/SoS

in Match-ups

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

No, sir.

Please understand I am referring to the 2 guilds that repeatedly ran us over for just watching. Not wanting to get an infraction I used SBI instead of those specific guild names, we’re not so petty as to hold you all responsible for the actions of those 2.

Some of your server mates were trolling(even spike building ballistas during matches) the GvG and quickly returning to the crowd. Our intention was to wipe the trolls. If you got caught in the crossfire then it was an accident. Sorry.

We were the ones that spike built the ballista after you wiped us 3 times for no reason. Only HIRE had interfered with your spectators (not the match) prior to that point and they did for so the same reason we did, you wiped them for no reason as well.

There were no trolls from SoR there, you guys were the ones being disrespectful. I hope in the future you can take losing a little more gracefully and not point fingers at innocent players just wanting to watch what was otherwise a good GvG.

Hello there. I was on the sidelines for that fight, on SBI’s side, and saw it all in action. Let me tell it from my perspective.

We were doing our GvG, as was fine, when we noticed that someone was throwing Grenades during the fight from SoR. I invited the Engineer (who was from RISE) to my party and said “please stop throwing grenades.” He told me “what’s your problem, c**t” and proceeded to throw more grenades at the playing field. I asked for SBI to kill him, which they did.

Say what you will about us perhaps “overreacting”, but when someone is explicitly interfering with the match, and curses at you when you try to ask them to stop, well…

I don’t know. This seems surreal. The fact that you will now even go out of your way to flash build a Ballista to ruin the GvG (which, by the way, not only ruins the GvG for SBI, but also ruins it for the other guild on SoR, who was there to have a fun fight)… is very disheartening. I went over to try and remove the ballista you guys built, and when I was moa-morphed, well, that kind of killed the spirit of sportsmanship we had, and that’s when I asked all of us to start killing people who had the same guild tag as the Engineer who was grenading us (who, by the way, had returned, and was throwing grenades at the playing field once more).

That is my perspective of the story. Maybe I got it wrong, but from my perspective, we were the victims of severe trolling from some rogue SoR spectators (not to implicate all of SoR, because I know that the guild we were fighting was pretty upset about the whole situation as well, as well as a few other spectators who legitimately came just to watch). Perhaps I was mistaken.

If you could let us know the name of the person, it would be great – Just find it hard to believe because we don’t run with any engis.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the name of the Engi. I did report them for the language at me, but I don’t have the logs or anything on me, no. I should have screenshotted it though.

Regardless, if what you said is true, then the Engi in question was probably a troll tag, or simply another guild with the tag RISE.

10/11 SoR/SBI/SoS

in Match-ups

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

No, sir.

Please understand I am referring to the 2 guilds that repeatedly ran us over for just watching. Not wanting to get an infraction I used SBI instead of those specific guild names, we’re not so petty as to hold you all responsible for the actions of those 2.

Some of your server mates were trolling(even spike building ballistas during matches) the GvG and quickly returning to the crowd. Our intention was to wipe the trolls. If you got caught in the crossfire then it was an accident. Sorry.

We were the ones that spike built the ballista after you wiped us 3 times for no reason. Only HIRE had interfered with your spectators (not the match) prior to that point and they did for so the same reason we did, you wiped them for no reason as well.

There were no trolls from SoR there, you guys were the ones being disrespectful. I hope in the future you can take losing a little more gracefully and not point fingers at innocent players just wanting to watch what was otherwise a good GvG.

Hello there. I was on the sidelines for that fight, on SBI’s side, and saw it all in action. Let me tell it from my perspective.

We were doing our GvG, as was fine, when we noticed that someone was throwing Grenades during the fight from SoR. I invited the Engineer (who was from RISE) to my party and said “please stop throwing grenades.” He told me “what’s your problem, c**t” and proceeded to throw more grenades at the playing field. I asked for SBI to kill him, which they did.

Say what you will about us perhaps “overreacting”, but when someone is explicitly interfering with the match, and curses at you when you try to ask them to stop, well…

I don’t know. This seems surreal. The fact that you will now even go out of your way to flash build a Ballista to ruin the GvG (which, by the way, not only ruins the GvG for SBI, but also ruins it for the other guild on SoR, who was there to have a fun fight)… is very disheartening. I went over to try and remove the ballista you guys built, and when I was moa-morphed, well, that kind of killed the spirit of sportsmanship we had, and that’s when I asked all of us to start killing people who had the same guild tag as the Engineer who was grenading us (who, by the way, had returned, and was throwing grenades at the playing field once more).

That is my perspective of the story. Maybe I got it wrong, but from my perspective, we were the victims of severe trolling from some rogue SoR spectators (not to implicate all of SoR, because I know that the guild we were fighting was pretty upset about the whole situation as well, as well as a few other spectators who legitimately came just to watch). Perhaps I was mistaken.

(edited by Neko.9021)

Ele Power or Condition?

in Elementalist

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

Power. Eles have poor Condition Damage. Focus on getting gear that is Power Primary for general play.

For specifically dungeon builds, you can look at the guide in my signature.

Staff, healer or dps? :)

in Elementalist

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

Someone once told me that you can tell a person’s character based on what they’re doing when no one’s looking (or when they think no one’s looking).

It’s true, no one can see your personal DPS in a group in GW2. But I’ve done dungeons enough to know when we have below-average DPS, and it certainly hurts, especially when you’re playing a glassier character.

The fact that you’re conflating whether people can technically check your DPS as an individual, and whether or not you SHOULD try to do as best damage as you can in whatever way you choose to play, is just a little troubling.

Perhaps you might consider that the advice some people here are giving tries to explain to people how to DO well and become better players, rather than simply how to LOOK like you’re doing well.

Because quite frankly, yes, in any group content, anyone can be a leech, but that doesn’t make it right! ^^;

Elemetalist bad? :(

in Elementalist

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

Ele is fine.

For PvE, play a LH Ele or Max-DPS Staff Ele if you want super DPS.

If you want something more survivable or less mind-numbing, play a Fresh Air Dagger/Focus DPS build.

should we just all reroll heavy classes?

in WvW

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

A sizable portion of your group should be heavies.

But Necros, Eles, and a few Mesmers are necessary for a good WvW Raid.

Staff, healer or dps? :)

in Elementalist

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

Thank you guys for the input, i think il go full healer/utlity for both pve and wvwvw (yes i know dps is meta… but im not a speedrun guy :P i wanna save the pugs xD

Don’t even worry about it man.

You could go in and do dungeons in white gear level 80 with zero stats or even any traits spent and provided you’re skilled enough to not flop over dead you can pretty much pull anything off and no one will ever say a word.

No one is going to call you out on your DPS or how you play because the truth is no one in game has any way to prove factually that one person is doing more DPS than another. They can calculate it all theoretically about what you should be doing to theoretically get the maximum DPS but since no one can actually check if you’re doing maximum DPS or even no DPS it doesn’t matter.

Sounds like you want to do support, go that route and if any one gives you any guff (not that I’ve ever had anyone question anything I’m doing in dungeons over the course of 100’s of PUG dungeons) just tell them to mind their business.

Congratulations! You just won the 2013 award for worse advice of the year!

I agree, Zelhyn. This is perhaps one of the absolute worst ways to look at group content, and is the exact reason why PUGing often turns out so badly. “No one can see what I’m doing, so it doesn’t matter what I do as long as I can leech off the group” is what I read from this.

Twilight arbour stacking fail

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

The strangest thing about this post is that the OP felt so utterly confused and upset that they felt compelled to post the entire experience. He also gave just enough detail that anyone who knows how to use Combo Fields will understand what was probably going on, but strangely the OP does not know what was going on.

I agree that the person asking to stack might was being a bit silly. Expecting the average PUG like yourself to understand how to stack Might in a Fire Field is expecting a lot. :P

Staff, healer or dps? :)

in Elementalist

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

Staff’s major trait is that it’s awkward! >.>;

Anyway…

For PvE Staff for Dungeons: http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/85568-lh-is-the-new-bearbow-the-real-staff-dps-build-for-manly-men/

For WvW for Organized Raids: http://intothemists.com/guides/guide.php?id=107

Med kit, am i just bad or better?

in Engineer

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

This is how you use the Healing Turret:

[WvW] Healing Engineer Outnumbered Vid 6

in Engineer

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

You guys are really excellent. Gave SBI a real run for its money when trying to defend its own BL.

Elementalist WvW build

in Elementalist

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

Do you want a build for roaming, or for raiding? The two are going to be different, just like PvE and WvW would be different.

I’m not going to say Evasive Arcana is absolutely necessary, but to be quite honest, if you’re here on the forums asking for advice for such a thing, you probably want to go ahead and spec for it.

I’m also going to be quite blunt to you that, in the current PvP meta, Elementalists make terrible solo roamers. You’ll probably want to run with friends if you do that so you can support each other.

Your primary job in a raid (a large, organized WvW group) will be playing Staff and providing Water fields for others to blast finish in (assuming your guild is organized enough to pull off such a thing). For that, you’d want to have 30 in Water for Cleansing Water, Cleansing Wave, and Aquamancer’s Alicarity. Similarly, you’d want 30 in Arcana so you can get back into Water Attunement as quickly as you can. Staff Elementalists in raids are mostly utility characters, for the most part.

Basically, here’s the thing I’d ask you. Does your server/guild coordinate Water and Fire fields for heals and might stacking? If the answer is yes, then 0/0/10/30/30 with a Staff is probably your best bet. If your server has not yet developed to reach that point, then it’s going to be much harder for you to use a Staff build, since its primary selling point in a raid is using it for the Water field.

Dagger builds in raids are a bit greedier, and tend to be a bit like what you’ve posted here (though I personally go for 0/10/0/30/30 for Aurasharing, which is nice to share with your frontline). Your job is mainly to burst people who are low and finish the downed. Similar, really, to a D/D Ele in roaming with allies (you’re probably best off letting others DPS and then using AoE to help finish off enemies who are low).

Stick with gear which is Power Primary – Berserkers and Soldiers. I’d suggest full Soldier’s gear, and then sub in pieces of Berserkers until you feel comfortable.

Stuff escapes me

in Guardian

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

This is the fundamental weakness of the Guardian, and honestly, it’s not that big of a deal. Be happy that you can hold down an area so well that all others must flee. The fact that you can’t catch up is a small price to pay. The inability to catch people is, as far as I can tell, an intentionally designed weakness for the Guardian, to balance out its other abilities.

Q: Why isn't there a healing class in GW2?

in Elementalist

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

Join a dedicated WvW raid guild and play a Satff Ele. The Staff Ele’s ability to lay down water fields makes it akin to a healer, and organized WvW groups heavily realy on Staff Eles to sustain and heal up their health through their Water Fields and everyone else’s blast finishesr. Basically, a Staff Ele is more or less the “Healer” for a WvW raid, and any high-tier WvW guild will be able to tell you how important Staff Eles with Water Fields are.

Any fun WvW Staff build?

in Elementalist

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

For what it’s worth, Staff Elementalists are considered absolutely vital to organized WvW groups, and will generally run 0/0/10/30/30, which I know you wanted to avoid, but is sadly the most appropriate build for the format, with an organized group. The ability of a Staff Elementalist to throw down Water Fields when the commander calls for it makes them indispensable for high level WvW play.

Zelyhn's Zalculator (Alpha)

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

Wow, how useful. Thanks.

Incinerator Bugs

in Bugs: Game, Forum, Website

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

Fix this, please. T_T

D/D or S/D with Celestial Build

in Elementalist

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

For the purposes of remotely challenging PvE content (dungeons, fractals), I would suggest full Berserker gear, and Dagger/X. Because this is an alt, don’t bother with the gimmicky Lightning Hammer build, and do something that highlights what makes the Ele fun like a Fresh Air DPS build with no hammer and Dagger/Focus (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Zelyhn-s-Advanced-PvE-Build-Direct-Damage). If you want something survivable and don’t mind low damage, the 0/10/0/30/30 build is still fine.

To be honest, in the open world when tagging stuff in world events for daily chests, I run Sentinel’s Gear with Traveler Runes because the goal there is to tag stuff and stay alive. I guess you can go full Berserker while fighting The Shatterer or The Frozen Maw but honestly does it really matter? I’d rather have more vitality so I don’t die to the crystals that fall down while you’re running to the AFK spot or the tons of adds that spawn when trying to tag those portals. >.>

Anyway, as cool as Celestial Gear sounds in theory, it honestly doesn’t do as much as you’d hope, and I really do disagree with Daphoenix’s idea of using Celestial in a WvW build. And trust me, I have a full Celestial Trinket and Armor and Weapon set (it was the best Magic Find set before they got rid of Magic Find) for my Ele. Your Power is going to be really low and your health and armor will still be relatively low, and the compensations to Precision, Healing Power, Condition Damage, and Crit Damage really don’t make up for… well, the loss in survivability and damage. If you’re going for tanky DPS sorta stuff, we already have a lot of gear sets that do exactly that (Valkyrie, Cavaliers, Knights, and Soldiers). You’re certainly free to do a Celestial build but I warn you that in the rather long time I spent with it (along with various combinations to try to make it more effective such as a Celestial/Zerker mix) it just seemed to be suboptimal for everything other than as a good Magic Find set (which no longer works thanks to the removal of MF from gear).

Anyway, I like Dagger/X the best. Dagger/Dagger and Dagger/Focus are both quite good and I suggest you give them a try. The most important video, by far, is Zoose’s Guide to the D/D Ele: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX1OjClufdk This is the best guide out there for teaching how to “get” the Elementalist in its rapid rotations, so I certainly suggest watching that and trying something like that if you’re trying to find an enjoyable build for an Ele.

My general balanced approach for a guy that doesn’t care about super dungeon speed runs and just wants an Ele that’s generally enjoyable and laid back to play while roaming the open world with friends? An Aura-Sharing Elementalist with 0/10/0/30/30 with Soldier’s Armor and Berserker Trinkets with Air I, Water V VI XII, Arcana V VI XI, and the utilities of Signet of Restoration, Arcane Wave, Lightning Flash, Mist Form, and Fiery Greatsword.

Rune of the Traveler

in Elementalist

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

I’ve been using this on basically ALL of my classes in WvW. That 25% movement bonus is so valuable. I don’t need Zephyr’s Boon anymore to maintain speed as a D/X Ele, so I can go 0/0/20/20/30 for more defense.

Neko's Comp. Guide to the Dungeon Ele

in Elementalist

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

I read that thread and had to go take some pain killers. I guess I should be happy I can nearly comprehend all of it.

STAFF GOOD!

Lol, it’s more like Staff has decent ranged DPS if you go deep into your damage trees. It’s worth mentioning and will be added. I’ll link your guide too, I think, since it’s the only 30/30/X/X/X Staff Ele guide I’ve seen around.

Neko's Comp. Guide to the Dungeon Ele

in Elementalist

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

I’am quite new to the game and I already read lots of guides. As my first target is, of course, leveling up to 80, I’am still looking for a build for normal PVE aka leveling. I want to play D/D.

In first case, I wanted to take “bunker build”, but I now want to have a more offensive one. Basically I want as much damage as possible but still enough endurance.

What build do you suggest for fast (!) leveling?

Try the Fresh Air build with D/D if you want something that’s damagey and still has decent survivability.

Fresh Air Change...

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Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

The Ele is honestly really close to being a danger to the meta, but there are many other things that keep it in check by being much more broken. The Ele’s ability to instantly burst something with Fresh Air has very little counterplay other than playing one of the really broken builds at the moment (perma-dodge Thieves, Spirit Rangers).

Anyway, the trait itself seems a bit too powerful (though I will point out that the 15 point traits have a 5 second ICD so you wouldn’t be able to spam it more than that). What should probably happen is for them to add traits which would allow the Ele to swap to that attunement on some special condition, and consider putting them at the Master or Adept tiers.

Need help early leveling

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Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

It’s very tough. Ele has to be the hardest character I’ve ever had to level, for sure. The truth is Eles have low base damage and low stats, which is a pretty harsh combination. They have very powerful traits, however, that allow them to achieve high damage or high survivability, but you more or less have to pick one or the other.

My advice would be to stick to daggers, put points in Arcana, and really try to learn to cycle through those attunements. It’s tough. But I’d definitely suggest making sure to learn to use your big hitters to do better damage.

How do you kill a thief?

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Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

Ele’s matchup against Thief at the moment is pretty much in the Thief’s favor, 100%. It’s one of the primary things that keeps them out of being competitive in sPvP. I honestly think it’ll take a patch for things to change around, sad as that is.

Neko's Comp. Guide to the Dungeon Ele

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Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

The total damage dealt in that particular video by hammer was 163,883 over a period of roughly 18 seconds. Now from what I can tell he was able to attack for a few seconds longer than I, but as I suspected staff is right behind hammer in the ideal situation. I’ll grant you that these numbers are highly situational, but it does give us an initial frame of reference for DPS output in similar situations.

The hammer is much more inefficient and prone to difficulties; such as people taking your second, and having to sacrifice a utility slot AND a trait simply to use it. Not to mention getting downed removes the weapon entirely which is bad news since you have to be in melee range to even use it.

This particular CoE boss is a fair target for example damage output as he really is just a punching bag, but what do you do against Lupi, or many other of the very unfriendly melee bosses in this game? Using hammer puts ele’s from being slightly better at DPSing than a versatile staff ele, to a less effective backup weapon ele with a tied up utility slot and a useless trait in effect. Upon rethinking that I realized that’s not actually true, though you are still forced to potentially have 20 in fire you may not want at the time.

Regardless of my personal feelings towards hammer, it’s obviously a viable build. All I’m really trying to point out here is that staff is no where near as ineffective as many are making it out to be.

It’s decent DPS, for sure. And worth adding in the next revision of the guide. But it still lacks much utility of any of Ele’s other sets while still doing less damage. Its main plus is that it can be done from 1200 range, which I personally don’t feel is that large of an advantage. But it’s worth noting, and so it will be added soon enough.

Zelyhn's Advanced D/F [PvE Guide]

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Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

I just finished testing your build (the first trait line, 0/30/10/20/10) in dungeons like arah and fractals, I must say, it’s been a lot of fun. I still think LH is the way to go if you have a group that is completely built around it, but I don’t run much with this type of group these days and dagger/focus is a lot more suitable to various situations and doesn’t need anyone in the group to carry it. The DPS felt surprisingly decent in a 3man run of arah (and I would never go full LH build on a 3man).

This definitively feels like the build you should run if you love the class and want to use it without being a dps autospammer carried by the rest of the group through their utilities. It has its moments but the game can get pretty stale when played that way.

At first I naturally traited myself to something close to your furyshare build but I feel it’s dramatically inferior to 0/30/10/20/10.

It’s very true. Lightning Hammer may be the best in optimal groups with a Guardian to hold your hand, but Dagger/Focus is the less gimmicky way to play, and the DPS of a Dagger Fresh Air build is HIGHLY underrated. It allows you to play an Ele and still be an Ele without doing horrible damage. I definitely planned to link to Zelhyn’s builds once I finally got around to updating my own guide. But for sure, I think the DPS of a Dagger Fresh Air Ele is high enough that it does not hinder your team, and the utility of Elemental Attunement, Condi Cleansing, and Swirling Winds is incredibly high.

Neko's Comp. Guide to the Dungeon Ele

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Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

This is an interesting screenshot I managed to take that shows the scale of Staff DPS over the course of about 10-15 seconds.

Screenie

If you assume the first 2 numbers were from round one of the boss, round 2 clearly starts near my minimum damage. It then scales with some vulnerability, some might (mostly self sustained with the grandmaster trait) and culminating in the rather large numbers when it fell below 33% HP. Unfortunately I don’t have an identical example for hammer, but I’d imagine it’d fall just short of the total damage sustained, but at much higher risk to the user. Also note that fight took place without the 200 additional power from the food I use, despite seeing the shield icon. The total damage dealt was 123,089 starting at the 4th number in 10-15 seconds on one target, and that’s with only 1 meteor shower hit.

I’d also like to link this screenie to show just how high those numbers can be in some situations, and to remind everyone this is done at 1200 range meaning very little interruption.

Theoretically the hammer may dish out slightly more DPS in ideal situations, but I deal in practicality. I too would like to see this figured out using accurate math though.

The thing is Fireball has a 1 second cast time whereas Dagger and Hammer have half second cast times. This doesn’t include the casting delays inherent in Staff attacks. Those numbers on a screenshot honestly don’t mean as much to me. In this case, I’m looking for someone to plug in the skill coefficients and damage and come out with something. I’m sure you can add all of the damage done and do it manually, as you are trying to do, but it seems pretty imprecise. And honestly, Hammer seemed to do far more damage just from seeing this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUe8xg2yPXI&t=4m53s

Though I will say this. For sure, Meteor Shower does insane damage against really large targets. It’s quite well possible that Staff is the optimal choice against the Destroyer boss as an opening in CoE, go figure.

(edited by Neko.9021)

Neko's Comp. Guide to the Dungeon Ele

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Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

I have no clue what happened for why Scepter suddenly became so popular in PvE. While it has the best might stacking in the game, and while Scepter’s burst damage is very good (making it an excellent pair with Lightning Hammer), on its own, it’s very subpar in terms of damage.

Staff has always been a favorite of Elementalists, mainly for flavor reasons. I can understand its popularity. It’s unfortunate that ANet made it primarily a Utility weapon instead of a Blasting one. I truly think that was a mistake on their part. I hope in upcoming patches when Eles get more weapons that they get a weapon set with DPS similar to that of Grenades for Engineers – high damage from far away.

Anyway, I do not see Staff becoming the new meta for Dungeon Eles. It just doesn’t do as much as other weapon choices. Given that, if you go truly deep into your damage trees, I do find you can put out pretty decent damage. But only decent. And it comes at the cost of any real utility to your team since you spend most of your time in Fire attunement and don’t even Might Stack like a Scepter Ele does.

And indeed, Dagger/Focus is the best non-conjure choice for Eles. I believe I said so in my guide. It’s what I use when PUGing difficult content. While it is true that Focus is a little bit awkward at times, it’s actually a very high utility option that compliments Dagger Ele fairly nicely in PvE.

I will update this guide soon enough. I’ve just been busy with school work. A few things have changed here and there and I’d like to add them all to my guide.

The change in traits is what spurred the use of Scepter recently, I believe.

I don’t know how many times I have to repeat myself to get the point across.

STAFF IS THE HIGHEST DPS WEAPON ELE’S HAVE.

I understand the skepticism, but I know the numbers I get. Between Lava Font and Fireball always hitting, all the time for 5-7k EACH every second, this means you’re doing FAR more consistent damage than anything else, even hammer. This is before even taking Meteor Shower into account. When MS and Lava Font are up, and auto attacking, you can be hitting a single or group of mobs for over 25k repeatedly, up to 3 or 4 times if you get lucky with MS, all within Lava Font’s duration(4 seconds). I doubt even the entire burst from S/D can match the total damage dealt in the same amount of time.

I’d actually like to see the math behind this now. I’m quite aware of the DPS of Staff. I’ve used it before. However, I sincerely doubt it reaches the DPS of Lightning Hammer. If someone could post some math behind it, that’d be nice (and not a silly Risen Giant DPS test because I’m quite aware of how unreliable those are).

Not every mob is meant to be fought

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

Someone brought this up to me from another thread:

http://tinyurl.com/mob-skip

Bam. Not every mob is meant to be fought. From the mouth of a content designer himself.

Neko's Comp. Guide to the Dungeon Ele

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Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

I have no clue what happened for why Scepter suddenly became so popular in PvE. While it has the best might stacking in the game, and while Scepter’s burst damage is very good (making it an excellent pair with Lightning Hammer), on its own, it’s very subpar in terms of damage.

Staff has always been a favorite of Elementalists, mainly for flavor reasons. I can understand its popularity. It’s unfortunate that ANet made it primarily a Utility weapon instead of a Blasting one. I truly think that was a mistake on their part. I hope in upcoming patches when Eles get more weapons that they get a weapon set with DPS similar to that of Grenades for Engineers – high damage from far away.

Anyway, I do not see Staff becoming the new meta for Dungeon Eles. It just doesn’t do as much as other weapon choices. Given that, if you go truly deep into your damage trees, I do find you can put out pretty decent damage. But only decent. And it comes at the cost of any real utility to your team since you spend most of your time in Fire attunement and don’t even Might Stack like a Scepter Ele does.

And indeed, Dagger/Focus is the best non-conjure choice for Eles. I believe I said so in my guide. It’s what I use when PUGing difficult content. While it is true that Focus is a little bit awkward at times, it’s actually a very high utility option that compliments Dagger Ele fairly nicely in PvE.

I will update this guide soon enough. I’ve just been busy with school work. A few things have changed here and there and I’d like to add them all to my guide.

Let's Skip Skipping

in Fractals, Dungeons & Raids

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

Just start a group that says you aren’t skipping. It’s really as simple as that. Or state your preferences at the start of a dungeon. I’ve joined PUGs where someone says that we’re not skipping (rather amusingly, these groups often skip a good deal but don’t realize it, such as an AC group fighting the group of gravelings after Spider Queen but sneaking around Kholer), and if that’s what they say at the start, I have no problem with it.

A few things though.

ARAH is a terrible pain to fight every single thing you come across. I wouldn’t even be able to imagine it if I hadn’t seen it done before. And except for the weeks after FOTM came out, I never see people fight the Sons of Svanir between the Ice Elemental and the Legendary Shaman in the Snowblind Fractal. Before the patch that made fighting Champions worth our time, I saw even diehard no-skippers pull the boss in SE1 away from her Champion Thief companion. Skipping is a part of the GW2 Dungeon meta and culture at the moment and I don’t see it changing much any time soon.

I will point out, however, that with the current designs of new dungeons now, such as the Molten Facility and the Aetherblade Retreat, it does seem to be that ANet is moving toward the philosophy of no skipping. So fear not. I’m sure in due time ANet will make all the mobs in ARAH unskippable and you will finally get your wish!

S/d pve/dungeons/fractals

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Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

It’s certainly “viable”, but a Clerics Shout Warrior is also “viable” in dungeons, but it’s not very good. I assume you’re asking if S/D is good in dungeons and fractals.

My personal opinion is that it’s best used as a Might stacking set, and then using Conjure Lightning Hammer to do DPS. Scepter actually has very good burst DPS, but the sad truth is thakittens sustained DPS is on the low side. This is due to its nature – its high burst makes it theoretically potent in PvP formats, so the autoattacks had to be nerfed to oblivion.

You can certainly attempt to run S/D in full Berserker gear with a good DPS setup that has 30 in Fire for the Fury stacking, and I’m sure it’ll be fine. But if you want something that’s really good, you should add Lightning Hammer to it. Scepter on its own just doesn’t have very good sustained damage at all, which is highly important in most dungeon content.

Ascended weapons vs Lightning Hammer

in Elementalist

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

Uhhh…

ANet changed the way kits work a long time ago. When you wield Lightning Hammer (or any bundle, such as Grenade Kit), you gain all of the stats and sigils of the weapon set you have equipped.

Sentinel's and Magic Find Gear

in Crafting

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

Please ANet, tell us ^^

Sentinel's and Magic Find Gear

in Crafting

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

Is Sentinel’s going to be an available stat choice to convert to once Magic Find Armor and Weapons become a blank slate that lets you convert it into any “craftable” set?

Neko's Comp. Guide to the Dungeon Ele

in Elementalist

Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

This is true, but the low damage of Staff leads me to tell people to stay away from it in most dungeon instances. The support of staff is decently interesting, but it does so at the cost of any good damage. People are certainly free to choose to run Staff, but I can’t in good conscience let them do so without stating the simple fact that Staff for Elementalist has very subpar damage.

What about Meteor Shower? Especially if you followup with an Ice Spike (for vulnerability and fury from attunement swap), it can make quick work of enemies. If anything, staff Fire’s damage is on par with that of Scepter.

Staff actually has better sustained damage than Scepter, though I often choose Scepter because it lets me use Focus and because Scepter has better Might stacking.

I’m going to update my guide to include a reference to the glassy staff Ele here – https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/elementalist/Neko-s-Guide-to-the-Glassy-Staff-Ele. That should help people that have been wanting to play a DPS Staff Ele in dungeons.

Neko's Guide to the Glassy Staff Ele

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Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

Hello there. People have been asking me for some time if there’s a good Staff Ele build out there for dungeons.

To be quite honest, I don’t think there is. I don’t think this build is good, and I believe that there are many other better builds out there, both for the Ele and for other classes. However, I believe that this is the best Staff Elementalist build for dungeons, if you are so inclined to use Staff in dungeons.

Here is the build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWhImKbnRywjEAkCoEeQADJMK0hQhFQA-jgxAYrgQRCSyrIasF3ioxqrxUuER1CBMaBA-e

The general idea is this. Spam Fire. Seriously. 1-2-3 and 5 if it’s against a big target. Use Arcane Skills for burst, and use Shield to protect yourself.

Here is a DPS test:

http://youtu.be/FGALdnDgUE0

Attacks start at 0:8 and end at 0:20. For the test, I took Persisting Flames instead of Pyromancer’s Puissance for Fury, and also took Sigil of Undead Slaying and Potion of Undead Slaying for extra DPS.

You can swap to Water to help put a Chill Field, and remember that Ice Spike does good damage as well. Earth Attunement is good for Eruption as a Blast Finisher. If Fire is on cooldown, swap to Air, as its Autoattack is your second best source of damage until Fire comes back up.

(edited by Neko.9021)

Elementalist is the weakest class.

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Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

I love the D/D Bunker spec, but it is indeed a low damage spec. You should try Fresh Air DPS or Lightning Hammer if you want a high damaging Ele.

When does the ele get good?

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Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

60, when you can get Grandmaster Traits.

Might stacking with D/D

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Posted by: Neko.9021

Neko.9021

Read my guide, and it has a whole section dedicated to explaining how to Might Stack.