Guild Wars 2

Or asking for bread like Oliver

Swimsasa Stoon.8936:

Raif.9507:

Id rather have working traits that buff the weapons we have and let go of the stupid conjures. Don’t waste more talents in our trees for these things.

Only thing I want for them is that they work like engi kits (keep a cooldown on them since you do generate one for people to use). Do that and have 1 talent that lowers the cooldown on them, buff their damage up and that’s it.

I knew someone was gonna say that but do you realize how many issues would arise with that since almost all of the conjures give extra mobility on a short CD. If they went and changed our conjures that way we’ll be headed for another RTL nerfbat.
Plus Lightning hammer can already do massive damage (FGS too, have gotten 16k dmg on one attack couple times). Having it as an engi kit would be crazy op.

I did say have a cooldown on it. And not all conjures give a massive boost in mobility, only the FGS. And personally I would LOVE to see a pic of a 16k single hit with FGS. If you hit someone with the whole #3 ability and you are a berserker build, then yea I can see that.

And Lightning hammer does massive damage when you go full berserker.

I personally don’t like the amount of focus the conjures get, not with the fixes the class needs in general. First things that should be focused should be staff and some good DPS specs and traits/weapons. Not conjures.

Id rather have working traits that buff the weapons we have and let go of the stupid conjures. Don’t waste more talents in our trees for these things.

Only thing I want for them is that they work like engi kits (keep a cooldown on them since you do generate one for people to use). Do that and have 1 talent that lowers the cooldown on them, buff their damage up and that’s it.

You can go either Dagger/Dagger or Scepter/Dagger, either way will be tough until you hit around level 60 so you can get a lot of the traits to buff your survivability. If you go Scepter Dagger I would suggest mastering the following combo to take down a group of mobs:

Ride the Lightning -> Updraft -> Dragons Tooth -> Ring of Fire (Move forward to the mobs to cast this) -> Phoenix -> Earthquake -> Churning Earth

The Churning Earth is tricky though and should depend on what you are fighting as well as how much health you have.

A dual dagger combo would be:

Ride the Lightning -> Updraft -> Burning Speed -> Ring of Fire -> Drakes Breath -> Firegrab -> Earthquake -> Churning Earth

I would use Frozen Burst and Frost Aura to kite enemies and Shocking Aura to stun melee enemies. Learn to use Updraft as a knockdown AND an evade. Use Lightning Flash and Arcane Shield to kite or tank damage to kill stuff. Also, I would recommend while kiting to use Cone of Cold to do some damage and heal yourself a little. Also , Vapor Blade is your longest rage attack on Dual Daggers, but your best auto attack would be Lightning Whip. Also, Ring of Earth and Impale can be used to hit enemies behind walls and obstacles where they can’t hit you.

The biggest thing is to learn to use the combo fields that the elementalist has. The combos above if you can aim things well inside the Ring of Fire you will stack might. I would HIGHLY suggest to spec into Arcana first, at least the 10 points to get the Arcane Elemental Attunement trait and 10 in the Water line to get either Cleansing Wave or Soothing Disruption if you use cantrips. This will help give you good sources of regeneration and vigor to help you dodge more and heal yourself a bit more. As far as a heal I would recommend Glyph of Elemental Healing in Water to get the regeneration and heal your self a lot. With the vigor and the Lightning Flash you can hop around and dodge a lot.

Hope this helps.

NeXeD.3042:

You want me to blow my best utility for an attempt to land an attack that takes so long its damage should be triple what it is. No thx.

If you are running solo? No. I wouldn’t. However if you are running in a group and can channel it outside of the fight and hit a good number of people? Then definitely yes. When I use Lightning Flash and Churning Earth together and can hit people with it, 8k damage plus 8 stacks of bleeding is nothing to sneeze at. It’s great for making people panic. I would only use it though if you dont have anyone focused on you or if you can pop Shocking Aura and/or Armor of Earth as there is nothing quite as frustrating as getting killed or knocked down while channeling Churning Earth. That combo is great in small man group fights when your group has the attention.

However, if you are running solo, I would also suggest learning how to use Lightning Flash and Burning Speed together to land the explosion on a fleeing enemy. Using a utility skill is a case by case usage. I do like saving it for escapes, but you can also use it offensively. It has the shortest cooldown for the popular cantrips and you shouldn’t be afraid to use it offensively whenever you feel safe enough to use it. Using it in conjunction with Burning Speed to hit someone who is running and is at low health who thinks he can get away is just fun and a good use for it too. Brings that attacks range up a whole lot.

Unfortunately our small group is usually another guardian, an engi, a ranger and myself on my elementalist. sometimes we have a few more, but not too many. We’re a small man (5-9) people at most, no warriors, maybe another elementalist. Thats about it.

Thanks for the feedback. My main concern was the stat allocation, I thought maybe the health or crit or power was too low or something.

The main goal of this build isn’t frontlining in zergs, it’s just that I want the option to. If all I need to do is change Absolute resolution to Indomitable courage, then thats awesome.I mostly run around with my guild running havoc and sometimes run with the zerg in frontline, so I just wanted to know if that would work.

I have a hard time not having condi removal, I’m spoiled from my elementalist, and when playing my guardian (or any class for that matter) I seem to always have a lack of condi removal, so I liked the trait. I would think it good for running small man havoc squad stuff no?

As far as runes, I thought I put them in there, but yes, it’ll be full boon duration (2 superior monk/2 superior water/2 major water) runes or 4 altruism and 2 monk/water. I haven’t decided.

I’ll also probably switch the staff out for a different staff once I get the 25 stacks for something like +5% power or something.

So. i’ve almost finished leveling my guardian and was wondering if this would work for a WvW build

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/guardian/?3.0|1.1k.h1j|6.1a.h8|1c.71g.1c.71g.1c.71h.1c.71g.1c.7h.1c.7j|1n.61.1n.61.1n.64.1n.64.1n.64.2s.0|0.0.u56b.k28.k39|3l.8|0.0.0.0.0|e

any tweaks and or help would be good. This is supposed to be for some frontlining, doing good damage, but not huge numbers but also be survivable. Any help would be awesome. I feel like I might be missing something as far as how the stats could go.

This. I would pay for that swimwear, easily. For multiple characters. That needs to be in game. Yesterday.

Mithfir.1038:

FinalPatriot.8034:

Mithfir, being as you have an 80 in just about every class, from your perspective, is the D/D Ele a solid soloist? What I mean is that I really enjoy running around WvW with just myself or perhaps 1 other person. It was fun to just annoy the hell out of groups or taking down the few folks behind a zerg that can’t keep up with the group.

Yes and no. The ele has a great set of tools to facilitate its ability to 1v1 and 1vX. How ever I found that these tools were meaningless without the right gear set up.

I originally used Soldiers and Clerics, the typical bunker. But found that people stuck to me like glue and would constantly have me under pressure and anything more than 1 person and I’d have to run away unless they were horrible.

I then swapped to Soldiers and Knights after deciding that my tankyness was a liability.

The extra crit was nice however after a while I still felt like I was too tanky and it was a liability when I was fighting 2 or more people. So I then swapped to the set I use now. On the theory that I only needed enough armor and health to eat burst if I absolutely have to. The result is that I am able to pressure opponents now even when I’m kiting. My PB so far is a 1v6 where they all jumped me at the same time.

I quite honesty never use food or bloodlust stacks to make fights interesting. The other day I was goaded into using food, stones and bloodlust stacks to prove why I don’t use them. Within the first 10 seconds of the first fight I hit a 9k blazing speed on a 80 bunker guardian.

As far as duoing goes my roaming buddy is a mesmer and we have done a 2v11 before at their supply camp, so we also had to deal with NPC’s.

Probably got a little off track but I wanted to give some detailed feedback.

9k on a bunker? id like to see that unless you are running a hell of a lot of crit damage and youre armor is around 2.2k and he had vuln (under the assumption you are running 0/20/0/20/30 or some variation)

even with the 70% crit damage i have my burning speed doesnt hit that hard on a bunker. and id have to have some 2.5k armor or lower.

ive run with HIRE quite a bit and have seen you around, so dont take this as an attack on your skill or anything, but i would love to talk shop with you in the SOR ts to see what you mean. maybe you meant firegrab? because that i can see. ive had firegrab hit for 10k on targets and can certainly see that. burning speed no. maybe a 6k on a GC.

as i said, id love to talk shop with you if you dont mind. im always up for theory crafting if youre up for it. im in the SOR ts quite a lot and will be there later tonight if you want.

I still use the 0/10/0/30/30 build and tend to mix D/D or S/D or staff depending on the encounter.

Yes it is a viable solo’er. There is no reason it isn’t. I run around with my friend who uses a guardian or a mesmer or an engineer and we have a blast. Yes, the slightly lackluster movement currently due to the nerfs are a bit saddening and do affect chasing targets, however the class itself is very powerful with plenty of tools for soloing. I have a gear setup using the 0/10/0/30/30 that lets me have a really high amount of armor (2.8k) with 16.5k health and if I can get it to crit, my firegrab will hit for 6-7k depending on the target and how much might/bloodlust stacks I have on me. You have nothing to fear. The class is a little down in mobility at this time, but you can make do with rising to the challenge and getting better at the class.

Other classes will just be able to outrun you now, or escape from you if you aren’t on the top of your game. The only big changes are the mist form nerf/rtl nerf. Everything else was just chump change, and BOTH of those nerfs you can work with.

The RTL nerf I hope will be reversed as it wasn’t needed, but yes. You can still roam, still escape well enough to give you breathing room to heal and get away. And yes, you can still deal a good amount of damage and have good defense (all relative).

Edit – This is in no way me saying that I agree with the RTL nerf at all. I completely and utterly disagree with it, but that is a discussion for another thread.

Fiery Greatsword – Your only useful elite in WvW (though an argument can be made for the elemental)

LetoII.3782:

Raif.9507:

Kiltor.9362:

Zidane.5297:

Kryyg.8576:

Let’s be honest, here’s what happened. WM/MEOW/etc transferred to BG and started fighting NA/OC/AZ timezone and got wrecked. Jang and co seeing they couldn’t compete changed their schedules and started logging in en masse for EU TZ which was dead for the other 2 servers.

Whatever may come out of Jang’s mouth, 2 things are clear: 1. WM isn’t in it for the “challenge”. and 2. They don’t have the chops for T1 combat.

WM is nowhere near as big as Choo/TW/Hire/Fire/HzH/EMP. Their zerg consists of 15-20 WM and the rest pugs.

The goal of WvW is to put points on the board and WM does a fine job at that. Waha and co didn’t seem to mind to PvDoor when no one on BG or SoR was on, so I don’t see the problem.

You sound real salty.

here is TW in EBBL last night. have fun enjoy folks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbtU0Dxi7LQ

Kiltor! I want that warriors gear set and spec! Can I has it? That looks interesting. Might actually dust my warrior off out of the “Do not use” bin where he’s been sitting since I rolled elementalist 1600 hours of play ago.

That’s Veil Morgana
He’s on most nights. A superior buildsmith, no doubt.

I’ll have to catch him/her on the TS then. I would like to use my warrior sometime. I haven’t met him/her yet (or I might have, dunno) and this seems like a good build setup.

I think I figured it out mostly, but I want to make sure I’ve got it down, as I theory craft a lot and I love finding new builds to use. Won’t take my elementalists place, but it would certainly give me another class to play in WvW.

Kiltor.9362:

Zidane.5297:

Kryyg.8576:

Let’s be honest, here’s what happened. WM/MEOW/etc transferred to BG and started fighting NA/OC/AZ timezone and got wrecked. Jang and co seeing they couldn’t compete changed their schedules and started logging in en masse for EU TZ which was dead for the other 2 servers.

Whatever may come out of Jang’s mouth, 2 things are clear: 1. WM isn’t in it for the “challenge”. and 2. They don’t have the chops for T1 combat.

WM is nowhere near as big as Choo/TW/Hire/Fire/HzH/EMP. Their zerg consists of 15-20 WM and the rest pugs.

The goal of WvW is to put points on the board and WM does a fine job at that. Waha and co didn’t seem to mind to PvDoor when no one on BG or SoR was on, so I don’t see the problem.

You sound real salty.

here is TW in EBBL last night. have fun enjoy folks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbtU0Dxi7LQ

Kiltor! I want that warriors gear set and spec! Can I has it? That looks interesting. Might actually dust my warrior off out of the “Do not use” bin where he’s been sitting since I rolled elementalist 1600 hours of play ago.

man oh man. thief team right off the bat! everyone bunker! 0/0/10/30/30 s/f for that one! no one dies!

looking forward to this, always meant to talk to zoose and duel him to get better. this is going to be fun!

Bas.7406:

Okay so two big notes of news. We are asking people not to stream the events to help push people to the shoutcasters to give them a chance at practice. You can record it and put it up on youtube later.

Secondly we are going to be grabbing some of the top tournament guys to lend their name to the teams and coach (not play) the players, to talk strategy, specs, and general coaching.

A new post is coming soon that will state more as to why!

Oh good, cause I watched the video of the last one, and there were some very basic mistakes being made about builds/game play that I was going to bring up. Having one of the big name elementalist players (Zoose, Phantaram and so on) would definitely help. That will definitely bring the game play up a notch as well as give a bigger spotlight to the tournament.

sure ill go. both days work NA server.

Ive got a ts server we can use too if thats needed

I’d be curious to see his (the Elementalist) gear breakdown. I have 2.8k armor, 16.5k health, 58% crit damage and 30% crit chance with 270 healing power and we end up hitting for about the same. Interesting. I crit a bit more than he does, and for higher, but I’m still curious.

Yiyojin.3241:

Raif.9507:

Oddly enough I don’t get the complaints. Spectator mode has helped more than it hurts. With spectator mode I’ve helped mutiple players who don’t know about their classes traits or about ICD’s for sigils or builds that are not best for PVP to better themselves and get better gear/builds and coordinate for play.

Why in the world this bothers you I don’t get. Your build is not special. I can figure it out by watching you play. Get over it, There are only so many combo’s possible and anyone who plays their class long enough and actually understands the class they play, will be able to figure it out easily.

And I don’t sPVP so often that I can’t figure it out either.

The build doesn’t make the player. The player makes the build. So what if someone takes your build? If you are the better player, you will win. If not, then you will lose and no matter what build/class you play, you will lose to the better player.

You speak like if you forgot that gw2 is a (scissors, paper, rock) game…… anyway…
Most of the stuff you said is kinda right I guess.
But is mostly just nice talk, if you know what I mean.
And yea, I can figure out what build someone is using too, is not hard… But still most of the times you can’t know ->everything<- weapon sigils, runes…etc…
Now though, you just… click+click and you see everything in all details.

I don’t want people to copy me. And use my build.
I don’t mind give it to friends, because we are ->friends<-.
But I don’t want some stranger to copy me.
Or some guy that I killed and then he will switch to this build.
Chefs don’t give away their recipes, do they?

Why would this bother you? Why would you care of anyone copied your build?

I give out my build to anyone who wants, I could care less. As I said, your build isn’t special, not even your gear or runes or sigils. It can all be figured out just by watching.

I will state this again, your build doesn’t make you the better player. You will lose to the better player even if he copies your build. It doesn’t give you some magical edge. I’m sure Phantaram can woop my kitten using some random build on his elementalist vs mine because he is the better player. Even if he gave me his build (which I know) and faced him with it, he would still win.

Why would you care? Seriously. Give me a real legit reason why you should care if anyone uses the exact same setup as you. You feel special for making what you run? I promise you there is someone playing this game who is using the exact same build/gear and you don’t even know it. Hell, I’m betting that someone even made it before you did, and quit the game.

You will not lose because someone will copy your build. If your build becomes OP and the next FOTM, someone will figure it out anyway and everyone will use it then anyway.

Your caring about this boggles me.

Edit – And comparing your build to a chef’s recipe is laughable at best. Considering the complexity to cooking (of which dwarfs the build diversity in GW2) shows that you don’t get that there are few viable builds/trait lines and very few synergies that actually exist within classes traits. One of the main reasons that the 0/10/0/30/30 build on the elementalist was considered so OP was because that build has something few others do, real synergy between traits/utilities and gear. There are only a few builds (a handful) for all the classes that have that level of synergy. Oh and even with cooking, you can figure out the recipes. Plus, chef’s do give out their recipes, it’s called a cooking show and chef cookbooks.

Just because you have the recipe, doesn’t mean you can make it as good as that chef can. Exactly like the build. Just because I might have your build doesn’t mean I will have the same success you will have with it.

I’m in the middle of making my guardian a legendary. Doesn’t mean that it will become my main. I love the elementalist gameplay and find it engaging. I won’t be leaving the class unless they delete it.

It has nothing to do with my Incinerator on my elementalist. Well maybe a bit. I would feel it would be a bit of a waste, but it wouldn’t be my reason for staying.

I will always play my elementalist no matter what the patch notes say. Does it mean I agree with the nerfs? No. They were unnecessary in certain game modes but the elementalist is my main and will always be it.

Especially since I made it a legendary already. I hope that we get “un-nerfed” one day and have better variety and build options though.

Oddly enough I don’t get the complaints. Spectator mode has helped more than it hurts. With spectator mode I’ve helped mutiple players who don’t know about their classes traits or about ICD’s for sigils or builds that are not best for PVP to better themselves and get better gear/builds and coordinate for play.

Why in the world this bothers you I don’t get. Your build is not special. I can figure it out by watching you play. Get over it, There are only so many combo’s possible and anyone who plays their class long enough and actually understands the class they play, will be able to figure it out easily.

And I don’t sPVP so often that I can’t figure it out either.

The build doesn’t make the player. The player makes the build. So what if someone takes your build? If you are the better player, you will win. If not, then you will lose and no matter what build/class you play, you will lose to the better player.

Ok so I’ve tried pretty much all the servers and I can only join one if there is less than 15 people. Is that intended?

I can’t seem to join any of the matches as it lists the world as full. Any reason why? The matches aren’t actually full.

Leo G.4501:

Raif.9507:

It isn’t that it’s not being regarded more critically, it’s that almost every invulnerability state (save Endure Pain and Blurred Frenzy) are being evened out. The engineer/guardian/elementalist invulnerable states are now all evened out and you can’t use any skills or such while in them.

Endure Pain isn’t an invulnerable state and you can use heals when you use it. Same for Ranger Sig of Stone. Blurred Frenzy is a channel, you never could use anything during it otherwise you interrupt the channel. I don’t believe Distortion stops you from using skills either.

The thing is, invulnerable states (not sure about Engineer) are not all treated equally…for instance, you can (at least I hope you still can) use skills while in Obsidian Flesh which is a better invulnerable state than Mist Form ever was…

I’m having a hard time thinking of uses for this skill except using it to skip crap in dungeons or run through a zerg. That’s hardly worth keeping in a utility slot beyond that.

I’ll probably just use Arcane Shield instead which was more or less a stand-in for Mist Form when I happened to have arcane-heavy traits to take advantage of.

Yes, well I apparently meant Distortion. I don’t play a mesmer, so I’m not 100% sure on the name, but it seems Raestloz.7134 meant to correct me.

And yes, Endure pain is a form of invulnerability (save conditions) and I did say that it isn’t being treated the same as Elixir S or Mistform or Renewed Focus. I specifically stated that it isn’t along with the Mesmer invulnerability, which is Distortion and not Blurred frenzy.

The ranger/mesmer/warrior states of invulnerability (whatever they may be) are NOT being treated like Elixir S and Mistform and Renewed focus (though they all mostly do the same as these forms do save Endure Pain as you can still apply conditions).

It isn’t that it’s not being regarded more critically, it’s that almost every invulnerability state (save Endure Pain and Blurred Frenzy) are being evened out. The engineer/guardian/elementalist invulnerable states are now all evened out and you can’t use any skills or such while in them.

While this nerf will hurt us, since all classes are being treated similarly (mostly) it is a bit easier to swallow. Will this hurt? Sure. Does it suck? Sure. Is this something that can be worked around relatively easily? Yes. However it does truly hurt since in WvW with all the large zergs healing while invulnerable was clutch at many times in those big clashes.

The RTL nerf however makes all out of combat movement disappear as well as completely erase a role in WvW (roaming) leaving the only role an elementalist to fill as zerg fodder with a staff.

I don’t know if necro’s have such a state so I did not include them in my answer.

Yuki Chuki.2457:

vinceftw.5086:

Yuki Chuki.2457:

daphoenix.4283:

Signet of Restoration: Reduced effects passively
I don’t really run Signet of Restoration anymore, since I still feel ether renewal is superior in every situation

How (if) do you upkeep permaswiftness then? Last patch they reduced/fixed the amount of swiftness frostaura grants you. And not using Signet of Restoration means you miss out on another 17 seconds or so of swiftness (considering the increased boon duration through runes).

And what are your thoughts on swapping Mistform (from a WvW perspective) with Earth Armor now if one would still use Signet of Restoration? Might be the better deal now, considering how long the damage reduction lasts and it also brings stability to the build, which i often have been missing in bigger WvW fights wehere I was subject to a lot of CC.

You’re thinking about the glyph heal, not the signet.

I use ether renewal too and I can achieve permaswiftness. Auras, air swap and air 5 is enough for me.

Thanks! Of course I meant the glyph. Corrected it in my original post. Too bad they can’t nerf my personal confusion…

I imagine you really have to use the auras, air 5 etc everytime you can to keep up the permaswiftness?

Yes, you have to use the air swap on cooldown and the auras. Problem with this is getting caught without the auras quite often. Though that problem also applies to the glyph heal as well.

If you’re too slow you might have a second or so without swiftness, but it’s do-able. Just got to keep track.

The days of the roaming D/D elementalist are over. It wasn’t as if a roaming spec warrior or ranger or theif couldn’t already catch us….

Also, thanks for making D/D even less useful in PVE and in WvW (where it was completely useless save for roaming)

Not all of us care about sPVP. Keep the nerfs seperate. The RTL nerf was completely unnecessary for PVE and WvW.

Guardian sword #3 can also block treb shots and cata shots it they’re well timed.

Nice catch! Yea I was over-exxagerating on the numbers, I tend to do that sometimes!

Oh yea it was certainly fun and I was in NO way complaining about the numbers! It’s WvW. Sometimes it’s fair, sometimes its lopsided and it flows very quickly from one to the other!

I had a blast fighting you guys and it was certainly refreshing fighting something OTHER than a D/D elementalist. It’s why I was focusing you, cause it was fun fighting you!

I certainly hope to run into you guys again, you were working as a group pretty well, I had a hard time by myself (I wasn’t coordinating with the others) props to you all. I even learned something from watching the video on your end about my own gameplay as I tended to miss the updraft on you at least once in that video. And I learned that nice trick you used there to Lightning Flash and updraft your target. Always good to learn stuff.

I’m always up for a challenge and certainly not afraid to admit that I’m decent/good at the elementalist (I like to think I’m good at it, but I know there are others who are WAY better) and learn new stuff. I’m in no delusion that I’m the best at PVP. I certainly have a long ways to go and a lot to learn.

So your that annoying S/D elementalist I was facing last night at SOR’s spawn in JQ BL. I’m the D/D elementalist with Incinerator you and your group were chasing around with your fireworks and then killing me.

Good build, very nice gameplay. I was trying to bait you so I could fight you by myself, and not with the 10 others you had with you. Still managed to live for a little while wit all you focusing on me, but I wanted to fight you my yourself!

3AM and still in queue….. Let me in!

So is Patrick Captain Culling who is on SoR? Cause that dev has an awesome in game name.

Good job BG in taking that garrisson. Seriously. That was a lot of very epic fighting, gettin hammered by JQ from the north west and you guys from WG. Having 2 walls down and WG and no supply to be seen was awesome!

Very opportunistic of you all, and I’m glad you guys got it over JQ =) There was just way too many JQ was HUGE. Would have preferred to keep it of course, but hey, what can ya do.

Great fights all around though!

chaos.5471:

Just wondering how you are getting 9 stacks of might? I’m running the last spec listed and I am not getting near that many. It would be nice to have the stacks like that and would improve my dps output.

Is that because of condition duration on the gear?

Its the combination of the Superior Sigil of Battle and Boon Duration runes and the boon duration you get from the Arcana tree.

That combination when you swap attunements in combat gets you the stacks of might.

Leo G.4501:

Swimsasa Stoon.8936:

just get a tad bit of vitality enough to boost your hp by 1-2k that way you’ll have a little extra time to cast vital cantrips or RTL the hell away.
Lots of bosses do 12kish dmg so if you don’t put just that little bit of extra vitality in you’ll find yourself in a tight spot.

I at least try to shoot for 16k HP on my elementalist.

As for armor? I’ve never tried slotting it. At some points though, I had over 18k HP. Really just required learning to not get hit.

Are we talking PVE or WvW? Because in WvW, if you didnt have some toughness in the frontlines, you would be obliterated in some tiers of play due to the zergball effect.

PVE, you can get away with it, but why bother, toughness serves better than vitality in PVE due to the lack of condition damage bosses do. Most bosses do mainly direct form of damage so you could mitigate that with toughness instead of a healthpool. A healthy blend of both is what is best IMO until you learn to master your class and find a balance you are comfortable with, however no toughness on a D/D ele (and I mean none) is just asking for it. Unless you want to go full berserkers and are a perfect dodger, then I would advise against it. Staff is something else, but D/D needs a bit of toughness/vit to make sure you dont eat dirt. Remember you are the class with the lowest armor/health in the game and are going melee where things are a lot more unforgiving.

Shinji.2063:

Lillian Wandom Hale.7102:

For You : Toughness
When you’re DD, Vitality wont prove needed. You already have many Condition Removals. Vitality is not needed and to you it’s USELESS !!!

For Me : Staff Tank Vitality is a MUST
If it ain’t 22k HP on me it ain’t tanking
;)

PS : If you didn’t know

Toughness : ANTI Direct Damage (Warriors, Thiefs, Mesmers, Elles, Guardians etc….)
Vitality : ANTI Condition ( Necros and few Rangers )

You must of not heard of burst. When a GC thief ista gibs you for 16 to 19k on your 14K health pool Vitality is far from useless.

Hence a healthy balance of both toughness/vitality is necessary for a D/D elementalist playing roamer/frontline. You need both. High vitality, but no toughness you can still get hit for ridiculous amounts. High toughness, but no health, means you can reduce the damage, but don’t have enough of a healthpool to survive even the reduced damage.

I aim for 16K health anad around 2.6k armor. That saves me from being instagibed by any theif by having a good amount of damage reduction and a good health pool for conditions/being hit with big moves.

The spec is also important to factor into this. I use the 0/10/0/30/30 build and run with 3 cantrips and ether renewal in WvW so I can have a lot of healing and condition removal, but I run a mix of PVT/Berserkers/Cavalier stats so I’m not a bunker in so far as stats, as I go for high crit/crit damage and high power but still aim for 16k health and 2.5-2.6k armor to survive the frontlines in T1 WvW.

im aware its the meta thank you. however you still cannot choose when to pop that armor of earth. it isnt something you depend on its an oh kitten i have nothing left trait.

Phaeton.9582:

Raif.9507:

Umm you keep saying quad cantrips, but you can only have 3, unless you magically made your elite slot another cantrip and if you did, please share I could use a 4th cantrip I can use on demand.

If your talking about the 10 earth bunker build for the extra Armor of Earth, well then he will have next to no crit, or zephyrs boon to get fury, and will hit like hes hitting you with a piece of paper.

You can get fury from atunement swapping mid cast, but yeah most eles would run at least 10 in air anyway.

Which gives you a 2 second window to land an ability and has a 20% chance to crit. Not big odds if your going for damage, which is the point if he is bunkering.

Umm you keep saying quad cantrips, but you can only have 3, unless you magically made your elite slot another cantrip and if you did, please share I could use a 4th cantrip I can use on demand.

If your talking about the 10 earth bunker build for the extra Armor of Earth, well then he will have next to no crit, or zephyrs boon to get fury, and will hit like hes hitting you with a piece of paper. Or he/she will lose something else, in Arcana perhaps or in Water.

You have 3, count them, 3 slottable stunbreaks. That is all. You need to spec for the Armor of Earth at 50%, and you don’t “choose” when to use it.

And yes, it seems that elementalists wont be touched too much as the major weakness for the class (chill/immobilize) is known to the devs, but other classes will be made to counter them, which is in my opinion a better idea. It leads to more build diversity and greater viability (of course that needs to be introduced,as it hasn’t just yet).

I’ve always felt that Necromancer/Engineer/Condition Theif should be the natural counter to the bunker Elementalist (due to condition damage).

@ Swarly – Yea this build is perfectly viable in PVE. The wonder of the build is that it makes you very survivable and deal good damage (depending on the boons youve got). It leaves you to decide on the gear you want. You can go all knights gear with Valkyrie accessories so you can have some health. I use a mix of PVT and berserkers and cavalier gear to make it very damage oriented (74% crit damage, 2.9k attack, 2.6k armor, 30% crit). It lets you have a variety of gear to suit your tastes.

Incinerator needs an aura. The little flame thing on the arm isn’t enough IMHO.

No armor damage when you have the outmanned buff!

To the SF guardian with the pink hair who was guarding the south supply camp in SoR BL – Come out to play next time! I can’t 1v2 you and the mesmer AND the camp with the NPC’s…. I’m not that good at this game! I can barely handle mesmers!

And sorry for RTL’ing at you when you were trying to res, I wanted to let you up so we can have a real fight, without NPC’s or a third BG wheel. Though to whomever that guardian was good fights with you too.

Oh I get the reasoning why you want more power, we do after all run the same spec (more or less). I guess it’s just preference to have a bit more power, or slightly higher crit chance.

I know, I love T2 as well with TC, but I’m stuck here in T1 and I want to fight you! I have a hard time finding fights like the ones you post here, because everyone is running here with 10+ people. And if i do find some stragglers or small groups they’re all thieves. I’ve literally run into a group of 4-6 thieves. I occasionally run onto some other classes, but it quickly escalates into a 1v20 (or the other way around and my fellow servermates show up) with more people popping up out of nowhere, and I either run or just die.

I am jelly.

eldain stenlund.4306:

Xunleashed.5271:

Hi guys, maybe u already know how good ele is 1v1, that’s why I bring you some 1v2,1v3,1v4 fights. Take a look and feel free to ask whatever u want!

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

those must be some real bad players.. if you can take them 1vs4.

its realy not that hard to kill an elemental.
make warrior, equip with rifle + gs or axe/axe.

start with hitting snare + armor reducer and then the volley. and you have around
7 – 10k dmg. at 1200 range. that should take the elemental to half hp.. and he isnt even close yet… and my rifle autos do 1500+ crits. and normal 1 k hits. boom boom.
i get 1-3 more hits, before your on me maybe. so: 8 – 13k+ dmg.. now your close..
throw bola, to root.. and use axe ulti F1 skill.. poff.. dead elemental. it does around 7 – 9k + the other 8 -13 k = 17 – 22 k dmg. in short time.. and catches you on 1200 range.

if you run.. i just shoot you in the back…
i dont have a honor code to not shoot ppl in the back, aslong as you die, iam happy.

And you fight multiple opponents…

Sure, you have more skills than i have on my elemental..
(i hate mine since it have so many useless skills and does kitten dmg).

end line: Bad opponents.

And thats all assuming you land it all, without the elementalist using any number of gap closers, escape mechanisms, heals, knockdowns, blowouts or immobilizes on you. Or even just moved about a bit.

yes the opponents in those videos, some of them are not that great. it still is the mark of a good player that he can 1v4, regardless of the class.

Considering that most people find warriors to be the easy class to kill in WvW, I do find that post humorous. While you have a point, if the elementalist let you get all that off, he deserves to die. But any good elementalist, wont let you. You mention such high numbers, but that means you are most likely berserker. You might get your volley off at 1200 range, but there are multiple ways for that elementalist to close that gap, and then you are pretty much in trouble if hes any decent type of player since he will chan stun you and hit you with Burning Speed/Fire Grab and hit you hard. Berserker warriors are a 8k firegrab, 5k burning speed and a CE can potentially hit you for 10k for someone specced like him. Its all a matter of skill, and who would be the better player, him or you.

And you apparently arent watching the video or something, they are shooting him in the back. They just cant kill him. He uses his dodges well, times his heal so that he wont get interrupted, uses RTL defensively to get out of bad situations and heal up, then re-engages. Your warrior can do as much damage as you want it to, but the elementalist will heal it right back up if hes smart or if hes really good, just avoid the damage and knock you around silly.

I’ve got over 1600 hours logged on my 3 characters, 1k of them being on my elementalist, my other 2 being thief and warrior, I’m quite aware that this character isn’t my damage character. This is going to be WvW centered and needs to survive. I only want it to do decent damage, hence this post.

As far as the healing scale, yea I also know about that. Reason I take cooldown on shouts is because I use them. Retreat/stand your ground are on my bar for WvW for group stability. I theory craft with my resident guardian all the time, this was only another avenue for some info on what is being run ATM by other players. This is one of the build we had discussed, just wanted some other info.

Cavalier gear is power/toughness/crit damage.

Get to T1 already! I’ve been dying to find you and fight you since reading your thread and watching your videos!

Still interesting to see the differences in our gear sets though… You’ve got like 200~ more armor than me, but I have the higher damage output to offset it (9% more crit damage and higher power). Would be a lot of fun to fight you I think, we have a pretty similar playstyle.

Why do you prefer the sharpening stones over the maintenance oils though? I have both and switch between em, but I find that the precision is great due to the somewhat downtime in fury with the recent changes. I do time my bursts (Firegrab/CE) with attunement swaps though, so I could do without it, but it certainly is nice to have that cushion especially with Burning Speed.

I tend to use the maintenance oils and truffle ravioli (100 toughness/70 precision) so I can hit the 30% crit chance.

Oh and I hear you made an Ele only guild? Throw an invite if you did :p I’d love to run something with someone of your skill level!

/clap.

You and I run the same stat set, only difference is I have 7% more crit damage and 180 more power, you have 90 more armor and 320 more healing power. I applaud your great game play. I wish I had the same type of available 1v4. It always turns into me running into a huge zergs. Though a lot of those players were pretty bad. Didn’t interrupt your casts of Ether Renewal almost at all (when you were vulnerable that is)