Guild Wars 2

GuzziHero.2467:

And as we all know, PUG’ing dungeons almost always leads to pain.

I am of the opposite experience, all my PUGs have been nice. Granted I don’t do them too often, and have yet to try fractals and a few other dungeons, but other than that I usually meet chill folk.

Zyphent.2967:

Mastruq.2463:

Collective, dont get me wrong I like this living story (with some exceptions) but you must realize that the team could as well be a second dungeon or world zone team for more permanent content, right? So yea them making this means less manpower on other things.

This is not the same argument as the web team making gimmicks, the guys that made this and SAB could as well have made more lasting content.

Theres valid critisizm in what you’re saying, but keep in mind they also don’t want this to turn into your average MMO, one of the ways they’re separating it from the herd is with frequent timed content, where if you miss it, you miss it. Its a very interesting concept, one that fits the game’s business model really well too, a lot of people own the game, and they feel its better to keep them coming back regularly, rather than to artificially keep them in game with progression treadmills.

Now that said, I think they’re still shifting teams around in game, I too hope we see more permanent endgame PVE stuff in the near future, but I think Living Story is a cool hook that makes for a lot of “You had to be there” moments, and when you look back even on MMOs with a lot of permanent stuff in the endgame, people reflect on events that happened one time only, quite often.

They just need to find a better balance, but that doesn’t mean divert all resources to one area. I’m really happy with Living Story.

I kinda like it, the world feels more alive this way rather than just another grind fest at the end for the best loot. Like the Karka event, although very short, was fun. I think the whole map was killed by invisible rolling champions, and we had a grand fight. Good times, and very fun to remember. Makes it kind of unique. Same with the living story, with a more reasonable time frame, a thing is happening, the world changes, and you can chose to take part in it, or not. If you do, you get some fun stories and maybe a cool momento to keep with you. And you get a feeling of “you were there”, for a lack of better words, down the road.

Of course, end game content is always nice (more so when it is not a huge grind fest), but the game is still very young, I am sure ArenaNet has big plans in the future, but we cannot expect them to deliver everything over night.

Ele is still as fun as ever imo. that extra 5 second on RTL is not all that annoying. It only really reduced my speed running around, and being a little bit more careful with it in WvW. But I got non ending swiftness with staff anyways so meh.

tanshiniza.8629:

Spiderwick.1879:

So, basically, everyone goes by playing with a Gsword as it offers the most of our weapons?

If it comes down to what offers the most then I’d have to say Hammer because if you know what you’re doing it’s too awesome for words

Indeed. I play with the hammer, and it rocks. I got a GS as secondary, sometimes, or a staff.

Only time I use GS more than hammer is in lazy open world events where I can use the spin to win ability for easy tagging of mobs.

I love playing an Ele, the mobility, the versatility and the control. All good stuff. Might not be the biggest damage dealer, but the rest makes up for it imo.

That said, builds outside D/D is lacking a bit.

I know exactly how you feel OP, I run an Asura engie as well.

Infernia.9847:

I remember that fight 3hrs on our server. Invisible karka killing people. My lvl80 Ranger didn’t get a single kill credit the entire time. Lagging so bad you’re dead when it stops but when it started there was nothing around. Praying that final chest opening didn’t crash because the screen was black for the longest time.

Good times… good times :P

Indeed! At least the event was memorable. Not sure how many times the “I see dead people” joke was made…

Articluna.4509:

Actually, far from useless. In case you haven’t noticed, they’re account bound – not soulbound on use.

Any of your (fresh) 80ies can use them. Awesomeness +1

In theory yes, but Celestial stats does not work on all characters all that well, and usually I use a masterwork placeholder with the correct stats until get what I really want.

Yeah, would have been nice. Might be they add it later.

Araito.5869:

daphoenix.4283:

:D

I use the same build still, post nerf

+1 drew :P

How hard do you think the D/D ele got hit on a scale of 1-10….

I’m at 72 now (and I have all my PVT gear, ive been doing nothing but AC since 35 haha)

But with the PVT gear from AC, is there still some way to output moderate damage with accessories? Do you think I should wear all stat gear?

I’ve been following your extremely well written guide since I started the game (because why do homework when someone else has already done it all after all)
It saved me a ton of questions, and for that you have my thanks.

If I am going to go for solaria/lunaria + ascended triforge…. I wonder how long it will take…

Not long. Get Syzygy, not triforge. Do a few fractals, get rings. Do some guild mission get new earrings.

Iehova.9518:

Why on Tyria are you using Celestial trinket to begin with is my question there.

It works quite well on my Elementalist build actually. All my other characters got more specific gear.

Mika.9815:

You’ve been given free valuable loot, and want it to be made even better?

Of course. But really, it was not “free”. I fought lots of invisible champion karakas that killed me and everyone else several times over with an uber roll, as well as doing lots of events and a big boss fight.

It is an reward, not a free trinket.

But given that it is already on the “same level” as the old triforge, I do not see why not it would be able to be upgraded. Not like its gonna ruin an economy or anything. It is just sad that it will never see use again unless it can be upgraded. After all it is a cool memento from the event.

Thus I ask if anyone know if it can, or cannot be upgraded

Not tested it much yet, but I take it Battle works the same as for Ele attunement swapping, just for the kits?

In that case they would not go well together. If you swap a lot the Battle + say a 5% crit chance or damage or whatever other works nicely.

I found my own engineer fairly easy to level, I only have a bad time soloing champions and such.

What kind of build do you use? What kind of armor and weapons?

Is it possible to make? Seeing that the triforge was able to be upgraded, I was wondering if my karka shell would have a further use. Because lets face it, with the new ascended items… it will be pretty useless if not upgraded. Anyone found anything regarding this?

It is simple, use whatever you need. Need gold and farm gold form mobs? 20% gold. Need better MF? Use the MF. Need karma? Use karmic. Need AR for high fractals? Use AR :P

The only thing, imo, is that the utility versions are the better versions of ascended amulets. The others are kind of a waste.

houndmd.4360:

Ozymandias.5704:

Don’t you need to be level 10 to transmute the lowest level headgear?

No. Just buy any helmet from market.

Cheers! I am off to make nice glowing eyes for my elementalist and/or memser. Or perhaps get a storm eye. So many nice options.

houndmd.4360:

nakoda.4213:

afaik, you need a fine xmute stone. if you’ve tried that, then it may not be possible.
for me, knowing how xmutes work, I now have a lvl 80 toymaker bag and I regret not taking the goggles at char creation.

:s

Create a new engineer character with goggles. Transmute it with any non-bound white or blue headgear using regular stone. The resulting headgear is account bound. You can put it in the bank, get with main engi and transmute with lvl 80 headgear using fine stone. Enjoy.

Don’t you need to be level 10 to transmute the lowest level headgear?

critickitten.1498:

Jeffrey Vaughn.1793:

Just a quick note—I said the odds of it dropping was closer to .005 than the 1 in a million or so that was tossed out. Those aren’t the exact odds, but if my math is correct, 10 players running the event every day might expect one staff to drop after about 7 months. (And we haven’t been out that long.)

So about 0.05%.

Er….with a drop rate that low, I think it should be an Ascended tier weapon minimum to be perfectly frank. That’s extremely rare for just an Exotic tier weapon to be.

0.5%, not 0.05%

Rookni.2469:

Wont affect me. I am DD, but I am not a forum guide PVT DD!

I roll knights D/D, pretty fun with all those crits. I got a backup PVT gear , just in case however.

Playing Ele without swapping elements is like imposing a handicap on yourself. Seriously, you lose out on 3/4 of your skills, not to mention a lot of other benefits that can come from swapping if you spec right, like boons to allies, or getting rid of conditions etc.

If you want to stick with fire, that is fine, ofc, but you loose out man

Oglaf.1074:

D/D has it all

Damage, control, tank, healing, and tons of escape/engage abilities.

And if you get downed, by some miracle, you just Vapour Form back to your own zerg or into a keep. kittenol.

It reminds me of Bright Wizards in WAR; another game where casters are (or were, I guess) totally overpowered in melee.

What? No. I am not the best ele player, but I frequently get my kitten handed to me on my fairly standard D/D Ele in WvW. Last night a thief kept stealthing and hitting me hard, and a guardian kept whooping my kitten

For PvE, my guardian can “tank” a lot better and deal the same or more damage at melee range in addidtion to spamming boons for all allies.

And there is a particular Engineer build I also see that tends to whoop D/D Eles hard and can live through most things.

D/D is all about mobility. I know that is a strange concept for some, but it is actually very good thing that the game does not revolve around standing still and whacking things. So please, do not confuse mobility with being overpowered at melee range.

LordByron.8369:

Jeliel.8372:

ETR.8152:

makku.2508:

Oglaf.1074:

D/D has it all

Damage, control, tank, healing, and tons of escape/engage abilities.

And if you get downed, by some miracle, you just Vapour Form back to your own zerg or into a keep. kittenol.

It reminds me of Bright Wizards in WAR; another game where casters are (or were, I guess) totally overpowered in melee.

You’re either ignorant or have serious l2p issues.

For some reason people in this game assume each and every D/D ele they run across uses the very same build they stigmatized as “D/D bunker”. Problem is, that’s not reality.

People run into a 0/10/0/30/30, full PVT + clerics D/D Ele. That guy can take alot of punishment (his damage output is pathetic tho), and escapes 5 people chasing him. -> “OMG D/D SO TANKY!”

Then people run into a D/D that uses 0/20/0/20/30 or w/e, lots of knights/valkyries, maybe even some zerker in there. That guy delivers quite some burst and DPS -> “OMG D/D SO MUCH DAMAGE!”.

And then they come to the following conclusion: “OMG D/D SO TANKY & D/D SO MUCH DAMAGE!”. This is nonsense tho, because basically, these have been 2 different builds.

I play a staff ele or warrior. But I have to agree here. D/D ele isnt that big of a deal. I mean an ele built to take hits can take hits? Who knew. I laugh when a d/d ele tries to “kill” my war in 1v1.

You laugh because people jumped on the bandwagon of those mythic D/D ele, which are PTV + cleric, a very strong bunker build with low damage.
That is not the only way to build and play a D/D ele.
You will find some old eles playing differently, cause you get bored after a while of just slowly consuming down enemies.

yeah i play PPT (knight) D/D sometimes with 10/10/0/30/20 cantrip build.

my damage output is quite low the same -.-
i struggle to kill any non glass cannon.

We just have few bursts that are not even comparable to any melee or mid range professions, while having lot of disadvantages.

only thing that is OP is 1500 range RTL…should be 1200.

Yeah, this. People complain that D/D ele is good and OP because it is actually a well thought out build, while they are not using a well tohught out build.

Ofc, D/D is actually good, but many other classes are equally good, but in different ways. Like my guardian, that i spent a long time perfecting and learning, great build there as well, but in different ways.

I went human with my Ele, she is also my first character and my “main” despite being only my 3. to get to 80.

Not testes hound of Balthazar… but maybe they can beat my elemental.

Whirlpool underwater is rad tough

I went for this style:

http://i.imgur.com/lun0OzB.png

Ebonhawk daggers (and staff)

Well, there are other abilities you can select. I use the elemental for PvE. Not really toyed much with the fiery greatsword. And at least us humans have some use for the avatars.

Overall though, the Ele ultimates are not “great” but they are “OK”, and not all of them need to have a good use in all cases.

wombat.6123:

daphoenix.4283:

Heres my gear set I usually use and its respective stats, since everyone always asks :P.
Also will put more analysis since everyone likes to theorycraft

http://imgur.com/yDEDhdX

I use full knights armor usually. Sometimes I’ll run PVT armor in fractals with Clerics accessories w/ 3% crit dmg jewels if I need to survive more often. I use full berserkers with rubies (2% critical damage, 14 precision, 20 power) if I know I won’t take any hits from the enemies.

Your image shows you have +70% boon duration.

Normally that requires mean water + monk runes. How are you getting such high boon duration while slotting jewels in your armor (or am I misreading your specs and the pic is for your runes set and the jewels are for alternate sets)?

Seems like he has a backup set with full berserker, and those are the ones with the jewels (not the ones in th picture).

Sil.4560:

I feel as if little of this will matter after they nerf us into the ground in the upcoming “balance” fixes.

I dunno, lets wait and see what they actually do before we speak all doom and gloom.

Until then, enjoy this fun build! I know I am

Arheundel.6451:

pdboddy.4162:

No thank you. My evades don’t always help the party but my heals do.

People got problems with ele heals, so yeah maybe they should be removed and replaced with soemthing else

What kind of problem do “they” have with ele heals? My ele does not heal as well as my guardian does, for instance.

Caffynated.5713:

I didn’t really take that away from the SOTG at all.

They talked about ele being a case of having a bunch of little things that add up to being OP, but that they wanted to tweak ele (specifically D/D) down a little, but without playing whack-a-mole.

They talked about wanting to let the meta develop counters to things instead of just smashing them with the nerf hammer only to have the meta change and suddenly what was OP is now useless. One of the ideas they were pushing was bringing up other builds that are weak and making them essentially counter builds to the ele.

There are likely to be some nerfs, but I didn’t get the feeling that they were about to destroy anything like they did with evasive arcana.

I liked what the devs had to say for the most part. The problem is that they’re only talking to tPvP players who see everything through their gun fight in a hallway meta. They whine about things being OP that are weak anywhere outside of a shoe box. These SOTG talks really need to include people from WvW who have a better handle on how classes interact in a more complex environment than a 12’ radius circle.

Bringing up other builds is a nice way to balance, not just nerfing.

Dandelyn.1362:

Revelstoke.8924:

@daphoenix

Thank you for making this guide, it’s helped immensely. One thing I thought is worth mentioning. Between page 1 (the original spec) and page 9, you’ve kept the build but changed your focus on gear substantially from PVT/Clerics to Knights/Berserkers. Someone viewing the guide for the first time isnt getting the full picture so my suggestion would be to update your guide to reflect the gear choices you’ve made over time. That’s valuable information there that might get overlooked. I know I did

Thanks again-

I agree. I just finished getting all the armor you described in page 1.. and now just seeing that your gear has changed, but I’m not complaining at all. I love the AC armor. The stats are really good and I’m loving the survivability.

I would get both PVT and knights, and try them out. It might seem expensive, but you mostly get the gold for it from AC, and you get the tokens as well. Then you can try both and have a spare set for situations that need more tanking

From my lv 65 up toward 80 I used knights armor with knights accessories (with Valkyrie brilliant gems) and Valkyrie weapons. That worked OK. I also had my 2x Monk and 2x Water runes + some generic 2x"10% boon duration" major runes form lv 65 onwards. I had already transmuted my “end look” gear down, so runes was easy to add early.

Once I hit 80 I had full exotic waiting for me, both a knights set, and PVT set. My trinkets are mostly generic for both my builds; “All stats” ascend as far as possible (I am not rich enough for triforge, but in 9 days I get to buy one for laurels). The rest of my trinkets are knights w/ Valkyrie gems or Sapphire, depending on build. I have my Karka shell with Valkyrie gems also.

The only thing I have not really decided upon yet, is what kind of daggers I like best. My staff is berserker since I can do with the offense at long range, but the daggers are more tricky.

Bonus question, do any of you guys have experience with 4x Runes of Altruism and 2x Water/Monk?

I think some people are over-dramatizing the “issue”. Exotics are still perfectly viable. And tbh its your skill as a player, not a minute increase in stats, that determines the effectiveness of your character and build. You can still change up your stats quite a lot with changing all your other gear. Its not like your build stands or falls on the ascend items.

Yes, some stat increases are nice, and I would get them myself, but really, I can still play however I want to effectively.

I would not mind more variety, but if you want to see an improvement, put forth a constructive criticism post, not a whine, and you might see more success. I really don’t think the tone in certain posts here is a good idea to bring this to light (talking about the more whiny, “I am a victim, woe is me” type of posts).

Interesting, thanks!

Interesting, do you go PVT weapons in fractals as well? I am not ready to push me Ele into fractals quite yet, but I want to give it a shot once I hit lv80 and get some exotics. Just wondering what to aim for, like the runes and trinkets and weapons. (Current plan is boon duration runes, at least 2 water and 2 monk, and I will see if I go 20% might or 10% generic boon on the last ones)

And like you said, Valks might be nice in my ring slots due to more crit damage and vitality and keep the sapphire earing for a bit more healing.

And in a month I guess I can start thinking about an Ascend amulet :P

Sorry if I keep nagging you, but still trying to figure out how much in each stat is useful in each situation. And since I am not quite level 80 yet due to work taking a lot of time, I have not been able to test it all myself yet

But, I am having a blast in WvW despite being a bit undergeared and leveled!

I’d say try out the different weapons a bit and decide yourself! I played with staff for a long time before actually testing D/D, and I regretted it since I found D/D so much fun.

The real point is to try a few things and learn what works, and why it works. Then you can figure out what you really want to do and make something that fits your playstyle.

George Steel.1804:

fps issues, blue-screen, file archive issues

Update our drivers and check you PC. I have non of those problems on my 2 year old laptop. Don’t ascribe your own hardware problems to the devs.

Yes, fixed! My flame eye is showing again

Zadoris.7015:

I personally am tired of people turning me down, or kicking me from a dungeon ONLY because I’m an Elementalist. It is incredibly frustrating.

pretty much everyone pictures the “perfect group” as pure warriors/guardians. because they hit hard, and are hard to kill.

so what do YOU think? do you think that Elementalists are simply underpowered, useless, or both? Or do you think warriors / heavy armor wearing professions are too overpowered and dominate every other profession in PvE.
Or do you not see an issue?

I don’t want to see people posting “oh you get kicked or not invited cause you suck” cause that’s not it, as they don’t even give a chance, simply see that I’m an elementalist and decide they don’t want me.
Nor do I want to see anyone comparing to PvP, this is STRICTLY about PvE.

I find myself enjoying having an Ele with me in dungeons! The synergies with my Guardian is very nice indeed. CC, Fields, boons and conditions help with my own might stacking, boons and my own close range fighting. D/D or Staff, both work swell.

In fact, I am skilling my Ele just to be able to do dungeons and fractals better than my guardian.

And tbh, quite a few warriors and guardians I meet in dungeons play pretty poorly. They seem to have no concept of boons or class speccing other than “I am healer” or “I am dps”. They use poor gear, and do not really have any good place in a team. “Only 80” dungeons runs are a bit better, most people there seem to have a better understanding of their class. This also goes for El as wells, they need to understand their class and actually need to fit some tank unless you are a dodge master and know the dungeons like their own pocket.

And lets not forget the ice bow in AC

At least now my starting gear at least shows on my character. That little hovering flaming thing.

I use both!

With some minor tweaks to my traits on-the-fly I can be good with D/D or Staff. Staff is more a support weapon, but does well in groups and where range is needed.

Gallrvaghn.4921:

Die to 100b Warriors.

They hate eles bunker spec and survivability. Eles are NOT allowed to survive!

I don’t get why some people have this attitude. The reason I love tanky builds is that they make fights a whole lot more fun than just spamming one ability and it will kill you or miss. All berserker gear is kind of too glass for my tastes. Knights of PVT is a lot more fun as you actually need to fight to do anything + the other berserkers die to you easily

And tbh, people that complain about other classes should try and understand their own a bit more as well. I play Mesmer, Guardian, Ele and Engineer. All have their own unique way of doing things, and all are pretty solid and fun.

Instead of nerfing here and there, they should promote a boost here and there on classes that need it.

My current elementalist:

http://i.imgur.com/lun0OzB.png

Wreckdum.8367:

Many of the points in this thread are why ele’s need a nerf. Mainly “You don’t ever have to aim or target anyone and can run around rolling your face on the keyboard.”

I hate people saying that because an ele has 4 elemental aspects they require more brain capacity to play. That might be true if they were squishy and you were in any danger of taking damage or having to aim at people. >.>

I strongly disagree. While this build is very nice, it is not the only class to have a very solid build. I have played my Memser and Guardian a lot, adn they too have very strong builds. I suspect more classes have very good builds also.

Very interesting guide indeed. Gave me enough motivation to pick up my Elementalist again! And so far I am loving the D/D play after previously only really testing the staff.

In fact, this is the second guide to motivate me to really trying out a class in a whole different way, the other being brutality’s crit hammer guide for the guardian.

I am only 42 and still planning my end gear, considering the P/T/V from AC as my armor. But I am wondering, do those stats mix well with say knights daggers, and Sapphire earrings and amulet? I got one Ancient Karka shell I might use as well, but what orb to place in it? For rings… I think I will need to get some Fractals going and get some Ascend items there, would the “all stats” ones be advised?

I got the golem, figuring it was more interesting

Indeed. I just now completed my first storyline, and got more or less all exotic gear on one of my characters, thanks to the rewards given for map completion in the biggest zones, and a few items from the karka event that I sold.. And I have been playing since launch! Not constantly mind you, but now and then

Kingfisher.7213:

As Fransson mentioned, you need to go to Fort Trinity for the final piece of the story.

However, all your rewards were given in the Arah Dungeon.

You should recheck your inventory, as in addition to the gear you mentioned, there should also have been a “Pact Victory Token”.

That token lets you redeem it with Quartermaster Hargrove in Fort Trinity, in exchange for 1 yellow level 80 weapon (Rare).

I see, thanks! Still, I did go to fort trinity for the last storyline after Arah.

I will see what rare weapon they got for me, if that is the only reason I got the token I might as well get a rare secondary weapon as I cannot justify getting an expensive exotic one yet.

Yeah, I did, that is when I got my last 3 loot bags with those items

Was a nice celebration though, with fireworks and all

I just finished the story arc, and really I liked Arah, although the last Zaitan fight was way too easy compared to the other bosses in the dungeon. Overall, I liked it though.

But after the celebration I got my final reward. And it was… underwhelming. A lot of my rewards leading up to this last mission was a lot better. Not to speak about map completion rewards that I did along the way to Orr.

Spoiler-ish: I got 3 loot bags, and they gave me 1 green lv 80, 1 green lv 78 and 1 blue lv 80 armor piece. That’s it.

Did I have extremely bad luck? Or is the rewards supposed to be low?

I see, thanks for the info!

Hi!

I did claw of Jormag earlier today, and I got an OK rare sword. Maybe like 30 silver worth. I then went on to Fireheart Rise, not having visited that region on this char before. I then got a “lost connection to log-server” as I went into the portal.

The next five or so minutes I was not able to log on at all, so I went and did something else for a few hours. I logged back in now, and I did not longer have my rewards, and I started where I was right before I did the final phase of Jormag.

Now, a 30s sword is not all that, but for me it is kind of important since I don’t get too many hours in game and am relatively poor. And I could have lost even more if I had been lucky. I guess about 10 minutes of game-play gone.

Now, can this be prevented? Is it server side, or client side? Any similar experiences?

Clearly, I want to avoid this in the future as well. I only once previously notices this bug right after launch, so i guess it is not too common?

Hope anyone got any insights.

Sentinel VX.1392:

Ursan.7846:

Sentinel VX.1392:

Lexy.3912:

Sentinel VX.1392:

… I always want at least a unique skin as a “souvenir” that I can earn with or without spending real money(gems in this case). This skin should not be hard to get but at least require a descent amount of effort during the event unlike getting a legendary or something like that.

And with 3 Acts worth of unknown content still to come, how can you possibly know that you won’t get this?

I can’t tell but so far I only got a lame book that has a low stats.

Lets just see how it goes. If they really give use skins or whatever it is, then it should at least fix the issue.

…To quote the original reddit thread.

“they want some dinky plastic Halloween spider ring they can pull out in a few months when they’re bored in a dungeon that says “I was there.”"

I think the book and the devil’s horns fit that description pretty well.

Will you use the book for your level 80 character? I don’t because it has lame stats. The devil horn is a town clothe so you can’t wear it during combat.

Look at those skins from the chest, they can be transmute WITHOUT the use of TS. They should at least give us skins instead of giving out something that we can barely use during playing the game.

Transmute it with stones then. Not like that is so hard or expensive… and if you really got an issue with it, add a proper constructive criticism post to the suggestion board or something.

It is a Halloween event, and as far as I can understand about Halloween (living here in EU) its is all about tacky plastic “horror” stuff anyways (edit: also candy). Just roll with it and enjoy it while it lasts.

Besides, who knows what the other acts may give us?