so if you don’t want to reroll a warrior because the thought of leveling to 80 again makes you want to take a nap, just get toknow a few and convince them to let you follow them around so you can lay down fields for them. Tell them how uber you will make them, 25 stacks of might, brah!
Fun the way the devs intended? I assume you mean roll a warrior, right?
those are the guys that get to finish my fields, right? They are kind of tiny on my screen. You see, I can’t tell anymore, standing way in the back pushing two buttons since I no longer have any reason not be at max range except to rez. I stand in the back and follow the warriors, put down fields so they can pew blast pow while I hit 3 every now and again. It’s much fun.
it is your fault for having unintended fun you should have been playing the game as intended and finding joy in all the other builds that you didn’t use in the first place because they aren’t as fun.
pushing a sequence of 20 buttons in an exacting order for 12 stacks of might when other classes can do it by spamming 1 button is pretty epic.
look at the bright side, now you can have fun the way the devs intended and go back to all the other super fun elementalist builds you weren’t using because they aren’t as much fun.
it’s your fault for having unintended fun. shame on you. you should feel bad.
they designed builds around it because they were good and they worked and they were fun. just goes to show how sad our traits are, people discovered good builds that were fun to play… come to find out they were never intended.
guardian staff 1 spam.
people were having fun in ways not intended by ANet so the devs had to intervene.
It’s got a 10 second cooldown. If they made the blast finishers on a 10 second cooldown as well, that would have been perfectly fine. Instead, they removed them completely. This trait is no longer worthy of being at grandmaster tier. It’s more like a minor trait (deal damage to target when switching to this attunement worthy)
This trait gives you an extra block, party-wide condition removal and heal, and crowd cripple in addition to the damage. It has a lot of utility, and it’s very versatile.
If only all our minor traits were this good…
you keep saying that but there is no reason to put more than 10 points in arcane, maybe 20. Will you be taking it?
i have an idea. once you hit 80, you level again, to level 100 this time, gaining MF and GF with each level.
A single trait that offers, in addition to four skills, four blast finishers, is broken in my humble opinion. Evasive Arcana got as big of a nerf as it was begging to.
I think it’s a good, balanced trait as it is now.
Spoken like a true fanboy. Are you taking a break from defending the new bait and switch gear treadmill to pick on the weakest class in the game?
some sort of mild passive would also make it not-completely-worthless underwater (where we have to use tornado which i don’t even think had an animation underwater last time I used it). Instead we get tornado, where your character disappears and stuff near where your character used to be starts taking damage. Pretty boring “elite” skill for our ONLY choice underwater.
To be honest, I really don’t get the bashing that Glyph of Elementals is getting lately. I mean, it’s basically 4 skills you can choose from instead of just one, the elementals’ dps is higher than our own auto attacks. Each elemental comes with its own AoE boon buff (might, swiftness, regeneration or protection respectively). Best of all, it can be traited to the point where it has one of lowest cooldowns of all elite skills.
What more do you want from a skill? Instant kill a target and make you coffee at the same time?
nonlinearthe only thing I would do to improve the elemental is add some kind of passive to it so that it has some use when you aren’t using it. IMO if you don’t pop your elemental every time it is off CD then it is a worthless slot.
Then don’t forget to use it. Seriously.
Tell that to all the eles I see in pugs that go entire multi-path runs without using an elite skill.
I prefer a variation of 20-10-0-0-30-10 for D/D and mostly hang out in water throwing ’rangs. Support comes from aura sharing or condition removal. With ~400 healing and heal signet they keep up me up well.
D/D is best in water tossing out waterangs. With healing signet, 20% CD decrease and a bit of +Healing gear they will heal you up pretty well without having to pop them (because you won’t be getting Written in Stone. Just no.). I have +400 healing and find the ’rangs heal me up well.
D/D is the only weapon combo with two auras so it is a prime candidate for aura sharing. Again, water line, 30 points. You can also go with condition removal on regen or water attune to be a condition removal machine or for more dps take decreased CD and 20% more damage to vulnerable foes (rangs cause vulnerability). Again, water line. Water line also gives you 3k more health, 1k for every 10 points.
This is what I use outside of dungeons, and change up traits (mostly water) and skills depending on what I want to do, e.g. Mist Form for Cleansing Fire if I take soothing disruption. Aura sharing or condition removal on regen, condition removal on water attunement, etc.
Really good for roaming if you swap out aura sharing (which you won’t be sharing since you’ll be alone) for condition removal on regen.
(edited by Nonlinear.9823)
There is one gimmicky hammer build for farming plinx that I know of. Sometimes people ask me to put down Ice Bow but otherwise I never ever use them.
See post #5 in the thread below for gimmicky hammer build that is supposed to be a lot of fun.
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/57471-conjure-lightning-hammer-build-discussion-thread/
S/D is okay until you realize you have to do an exacting protracted ritual of skill order and stance dancing just to get 12 stacks of might on yourself or you realize it has terrible AOE compared to the others (i.e. bad for tagging) or both. With a 20/10/0/10/30 build you can get 15 stacks of AOE might with little effort and without having to leave fire.
IMO:
Staff arcane/fire with glyphs (20/10/0/10/30) = dungeons
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/73550-dungeon-support-staff-build-01003030/#entry2053795
D/D waterangs, aura sharing or condition removal w/ signets (20/10/0/30/10) = everything else. If you need condition removal you can either swap powerful auras for it or swap 20% CD or 20% damage on invuln to V and cure a condition for you and allies on water attunement. If you want to be a condition removal machine then swap aura sharing with condition removal on regen and 20% CD/Damage for conditional removal on water attunement and soothing disruption (your cantrips will also remove conditions, pretty much making Mist Form uber compared to Cleansing Fire/Flame since it will remove a condition, grant vigor and regen and still make you invulnerable for three seconds).
with ~400 healing and 20% CD on water spells your waterangs will do a good job keeping you healed up so you don’t have to pop your heal signet (although you can if you take the fire shield trait and need to escape with swiftness from Zephyr’s Boon or you’re totally safe and want a few seconds of fury).
D/D is more independent, few fields (fire 4), good self healing. Can support the group by removing conditions or aura sharing, which makes D/D even better because you’ll be closer the melee when sharing instead of standing at max range with a staff. D/D is also the only weapon combo with two auras, air 3 (MH) and water 4 (OH), making it ideal for aura sharing, especially lightning aura. So good.
Staff is better for support due to the large number of fields and aoe effects and imo better for condition damage but imo conditions on ele are boring and kind of fail (I’ve got a full carrion set and didn’t think it was all that fun), plus 30 earth for Written in Stone seems more like a trap for nubs with 20 points in fire than anything worth spending 30 points on.
(edited by Nonlinear.9823)
the only thing I would do to improve the elemental is add some kind of passive to it so that it isn’t TOTALLY worthless underwater and has some use when you aren’t using it (or you can’t because it gets one shot). I know that signets produce passives and not glyphs but w/e an attunement based passive on the elemental elite skill would be great for it, even it is only power in fire, prec in air, vit in water and toughness in earth. IMO if you don’t pop your elemental every time it is off CD then it is a worthless slot. I believe that about most utility skills and change up my bar as I go through a dungeon so what I want is up for the next pull.
Elite elemental or bust. Mostly fire, I use it whenever it is off CD, first pull of the dungeon, etc. If you don’t use it then it is worthless. Fire will do blast finishers on your fields for AOE effects, e.g. AOE might stacks on fire fields (lava font).
Sometimes I use water because I like that it does Frozen Ground right away and I can dodge into that for AOE frost armor. It also does a little healing.
For survival I pop earth. I never use the air elemental except on accident.
I even use lesser fire elemental for more blast finishers on lava font. you can stack massive AOE might to your allies with evasive arcana, lava font, arcane wave and two elementals.
(edited by Nonlinear.9823)
Ephox 20/10/0/10/30 build also doesn’t require a lot of ridiculous stance dancing and an exacting skill chain to get like 12 stacks of might on yourself (i’m looking at you, S/D). You can get 15 stacks on EVERYONE NEAR YOU (including your fire elementals) with two weapon skills a utility skill and dodging, without ever having to leave fire. So much easier and so much more benefit to the party. IMO elementalist are bad at a lot of things compared to other classes (e.g. burst damage) and are the squishiest class so I prefer making up for that with AOE might and large ice/water fields, especially the epic Frozen Ground (plus Arcane Wave to buff allies with AOE frost armor).
I’ve tried different builds and weapons setups and for dungeons it’s staff + Ephox build for life (or until it gets changed/nerfed) for this Asaru!
20/10/0/10/30
The best build for dungeons that I’ve used/seen and it is staff. Credit to Ephox on Guild Wars 2 guru. Staff also provides the longest range in dungeons which can be helpful sometimes (but it’s not helpful for this build because you need to dodge into your fire fields)
10 points in fire for 10% damage, another 10 for 20% CD.
10 points in air for quick glyphs
10 in water for either 20% CD or condition removal (I prefer the latter).
30 in arcane for 33% chance for vigor on crit, bigger staff aoe for easier dodging procs and evasive arcana for dodge procs.
Skills are Elemental (elite, dps + fire blast finishers for AOE might), heal glyph and arcane wave standard. Other two slots use either lesser elemental (fire, more blast finishers for more AOE might), storms (AOE damage), elemental power (single target dps) or Mist Form if you need an oh s*** button (at least I prefer Mist Form). If I am not in danger of dying and can go all out I use both fire elementals and either elemental power (single target/max range) or storms (large hitboxes/AOE), otherwise I use either storms or elemental power and Mist Form.
Here is a pic of my stats. I also have 49% crit damage (50% with d/d) and 396 healing (goal was ~400). I use berserker gear with berserker staff and soldier crests. defender backpack with soldier crest, berserker amulet and sapphire rings (cleric) with two ruby jewels. I think my stats are right where I want them to fulfill any role (i.e. staff dungeon as this or a D/D waterang/aura sharing/signet build).
Use a fire sigil, does a nice fire AOE that scales with your attack (which should be over 1850 for fire sigil). There’s a reason they are $$ compared to the other sigils.
http://i49.tinypic.com/2462anr.jpg
With this setup you can EASILY get 15 stacks of AOE might on your party and if your elementals are using their blasts and your team is blasting too then it is pretty routine to have 25 might stacks on the entire party throughout the encounter. On top of that you also have water/ice fields for some support (e.g. water 4 + Arcane Wave or dodge for AOE frost armor) but you’ll spend most of your time in fire stacking AOE might.
Air and Earth in this build are for kiting. The build provides a lot of buffs and group support (mostly group damage increase) while still being able to DPS. Fire Staff 1 also does splash, trash goes down really fast. 1 stack of might is 35 power and 35 condition damage, so 25 stacks adds 875 power and condition damage to each member, over five party members the it adds 4,375 power and condition damage to the party.
How it works:
The key to the build is borderline abusing evasive arcana because you get the blast finisher even if the blast itself is still on CD (i.e. if you dodge into a lava font as fire you’ll do a flame blast + AOE might, dodge again and you won’t do the blast but you still get the AOE might). Auto attack in fire with staff 1. Lay down lava font. Dodge into lava font fire field then trigger Arcane Wave for six stacks of AOE might and two AOEs (arcana flame blast + arcane wave AOE). Use either staff 4 or walk backwards while flinging fireballs to proc vigor. With a modest crit rate you’ll have vigor up almost all the time and coupled with 20% faster fire CD you’ll always have enough endurance to dodge when your font is off CD.
TLDR Version:
33% change to proc vigor on crit coupled with Evasive Arcana and 20% CD on fire spells and arcane wave will allow you to dodge into lava font fire fields for three stacks of might plus three more from arcane wave as soon as the lava font CD is up leads to group stacking might to the ceiling and easy winning. You can get 15 stacks of persistent AOE might on the group with little effort and should routinely have 25 stacks on the whole party for trash melting fun times.
can you still cheese the spawns by having one person stay back with a grenadier?
If you want World of Warcraft style trinity raiding then go play Mists. Or… I guess Anet could get to work and spend hundreds of man hours completely revamping the mechanics of the game from the ground up to resemble World of Warcraft just enough to meet your expectation of what fun is, whoever you are. Sounds like a realistic request.
Slow runs with scrubs = fun.
Efficient runs with seasoned players = elitist.
Got it. Thanks for clarifying. I was confused. Now I’m not.
I’d like to see a cross server LFG tool so you can join a group on another server that has it open. More of a band aid but it came in handy this week when LA was flooded with MK spam and I found a couple of groups in overflow on a dungeon that was locked on my server.
I actually prefer lower lvls and people who haven’t done runs before, since they seem to cooperate a bit more and don’t try to “speedrun” everything. And it’s a good practice for lower lvls to learn the game and mechanics in a safe environment.
It’s true. Ignorant scrubs don’t mind graveyard zerging and don’t rage quit a dungeon after 40 minutes because they don’t know any better. They think it’s fun just because it’s new. They don’t yet know that it should have been completed in 20 minutes and that almost everything in a GW2 dungeon is either A) an alt+tab pushover or B) exploitable mechanics cheese.
Well, seeing as how there is nothing in this game that is worth being elitist over except maybe a legendary, I’m going to go ahead and assume that the OP is just a combination of selfish and lazy. I’ve seen it a million times in other MMOs, OP is whining because everyone in Guild Wars 2 is there to serve the OP and carry the OP through content. Dungeons are not about the party and what’s best for the party and getting through the dungeon efficiently, no no no. Dungeons are about carrying the OPs ill-equipped characters with half baked specs to badge glory.
I waited until 80 before doing my first story mode (although story mode is a different… story) because I wanted to be able to have access to all my traits and obtain a crafted exotic set first, which can be done in less than a week at level 80. I made sure I got all the WPs first, and didn’t burden my group with having to run across the world to get there.
Otherwise I would feel like a burden on the party because I’m not being the best I can be. It’s no different than the selfish clods who run in full MF gear, handicap the entire group for their benefit. A group of 80s has to work harder and longer carrying a level 30 and loses 50 points worth of important traits and synergies while the level 30 gains ez mode and 60 badges.
Stop being selfish and lazy, get from 30 to 80 and get an exotic crafted set. Takes like two weeks of event grinding. Problem solved.
Looking for a static group of peeps to farm Sorrow’s Embrace and Arah. I also do CoF but finding a pug for Path 1-2 is easy although if you want to do all three paths of CoF I’d be down for that too.
I have two RL friends who run dungeons with me but their schedules are pretty bad for the next few weeks and we prefer statics over pugs so I’m looking to expand the friend list. The three of us have a lot of PvE experience in other MMOs and we’re not flaky. I’d like to hammer out a schedule once we get rolling.
I have a small vent server available for voice com. I am typically logged on from from 8:00pm CST to about 12:00am CST during the week and whenever I feel like on weekends. Please add me if you’re down.
Most groups I’m in have two people put out fires and escort and everyone else WP back. I’ve never had it bug out on me and no group I’m in has ever engaged any mobs. If you find yourself in combat at the end just die and WP back.
I don’t like it for the same reason I don’t like 3d space sims, it is difficult to gauge size/scale because it doesn’t sit on the ground so you can’t judge how far away it really is. Depth perception. It’s like looking at self-similar fractals, is this thing a pebble or a planet? How big is it? beats me, just move towards it until you run into it.