Guild Wars 2

I hate downed state as it is in spvp. It is just FAR too much. It would be fine if it were much more simple. You should not be able to do ANY damage.. at all. you should have one interupt/CC skill on a 8 sec CD, one heal ability, and an option to respawn(when it becomes available). This gives your team a chance to revive you, or a chance to revive yourself if no one decides to finish you. Your effect on the actual fighting will be minimal once you are downed, which is how it should be, until you are back in the fight(revived)

Animosity.5231:

Swap sigils don’t work together. Only one will apply its effect.

So this is confirmed? If you have 2 swap sigils applied, will it just choose one randomly? I have been wondering about this and could never really find a definitive answer.

Anyone ever try sigil of Doom? I would like to use this against bunker builds but it doesn’t seem to work. I never see poison applied to my enemies.

I did a search and couldn’t find a thread about this. I cannot get the Sigil of superior Doom to work on my elementalist. I haven’t tested on other classes. Anyone else having this issue?

BishopX.6453:

i pretty much had to sit down for an entire day and try to play FASTER. not BETTER… not SMARTER.. just press more keys and do it faster. no laying back in my chair… no no.. sitting up in my chair clicking fast and i actually work up a sweat playing like that.
then I go back to playing my gun warrior and press 3 buttons, vulnerability, stack bleeds, use channeled, then back to stacking bleeds. and i get more kills with half the effort……..
and think about it… gun warrior isnt even called a POWERFUL or good spec. yet its STILL better for less effort than my ele.

The fast paced gameplay is what I enjoy about this class/build, though I disagree with your comment about not playing smarter, knowing when to dodge/LOS/KD/use shocking aura/cleansing fire, is critical.

I have actually learned alot more playing this build against classes than playing my previous dps D/D build. Because the fights last long enough for you to pick up on players patterns.

tarnin.1690:

That war was horrible. He never interrupted earth 5. Huge cast time with that and he just lets you get it off over and over again. Wish i played against bads like that.

It was a guardian and a thief. No they weren’t the best players, regardless it is very easy to survive 1v2’s even against GOOD players if you time your CD’s correctly. This is just one of the only clips ive taken because recording reduces my framerate so much. Ignore the video, try the build, its awesome.

Before switching to this build I did try a similar defensive build with con dmg, and to me it felt less powerful. Also it made me switch to S/D because IMO those weapons are better for con dmg, and I enjoy D/D playstyle so much more. The build just wasn’t as fun and didn’t seem to dish out as much damage as this build.

I see what you are saying.. and ya its a little discouraging.. I have faith that Anet will eventually give us some sort of competitive DPS soon. For now atleast we can be a tanky nuisance.

Jay wilson.1702:

get rid on your healing skill glyph get aura of restoration 200 life per cast your attacking so much your missing on 1000 life per 2 secounds

You know when I was coming up with this build I thought I would be using my heal everytime it came up so I didn’t consider the signet. But lately Ive noticed I usually have my heal up for a good majority of my fights. I’ll try the signet, thanks for the tip.

you have 3 cantrips to get away from a warrior 100b……

I never said this build is better than splishsplash or whatever staff builds out there… but its much more fun and fast paced.. I can guarantee that. I only tried staff support for one day because it was sooooo sooo slow.

wow TONS of ele’s running similar builds lately. This particular build got nerfed a bit due to the Runes of earth nerf, but I’m still having a blast. Glad to see so many eles out lately, people are starting to complain about us being OP.

I’m most kitten about the runes of earth nerf, because that directly nerfs my spvp build. But ya when I read the ele notes all I could do is laugh.

Yes, the majority of your spvp fights with this build will look like this.

After looking at it I think your right Nikkle. But instead of soldiers I think I’m gonna go with Valkyrie jewel, little more dmg and with fury up all the time I actually crit pretty often in this build.

Thanks for the suggestion

So someone pointed out to me that a very similar build has been around afor a while and posted before on the forums. This build accomplishes what my build does except it has better runes.. here is the link: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Tank-or-glass-still-only-1-viable-elementalist-build/first#post359909

Edit: So I still like full earth runes better, its nice having 60% buff duration but the loss of toughness is definitely noticeable, but I am enjoying sigil of battle more than hydromancy, you notice less chills on the enemies but I think the buff to dmg is worth it.

What!/ Devs mentioned nerfing eles…. I wouldn’t of posted my build if I knew that. Its pretty hard to kill these builds but whats the issue .. we cant do much dmg at all if we run these builds.. why the F would they not look at guardians first, they are still harder to kill than us IMO

Hydrospike

Best D/D Spvp Build! (well atleast most fun)

copy and paste link into new tab if it doesn’t work
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEIQJAoYhMmmbxR5gjEAEFn4yoQIiCPUeMDO2A;ToAgzCvo2xsjYH7Oudk7MEZSA

Short Vid:
http://youtu.be/PgH3vZCa5Ss

EDIT: So there has already been a very similar build posted here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Tank-or-glass-still-only-1-viable-elementalist-build/first#post359909
I did not see that before I posted, don’t want people to think I’m stealing credit, though my build is still somewhat unique to those.

EDIT 2: Updated the link to my more updated build, heal is optional, I find both signet and glyph excel in different types of fights, choose which fits your playstyle best.

So until Anet decides to let Ele’s do competetive damage, we are all stuck with building for defense, Not too many of these defensive builds favor D/D. Well I discovered a build that gives you all the fun of D/D and great survivability AND you can actually kill people!(with tons of pitiful dmg over time).

So here is the build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEIQJAoYhMmmbxR5gjEAEFn4yoQIiCPUeMDO2A;ToAgzCvo2xsjYH7Oudk7MEZSA
copy and paste into a new tab if it doesn’t work

I named it Hydrospike because your lifeline is switching to water often for heals, and earth for protection buff. While in earth you will see spikes coming up from the ground everywhere, very often, so thats where the ‘spike’ came from.

This build will give you pretty much constant swiftness, protection, and regen. You will almost always have vigor up, and your enemies will be chilled very often. All you have to do is play like any other D/D build, except remember that switching to water is pretty much a 50% heal everytime(attunement bonus, dodge heal, regen), so keep it available for when your health starts to dip.

You will find NO burst with this build, but you will be able to 1v3 scrubs all day. The only 1v1 fights I have trouble with are very well played evis warriors, mesmers, and thieves. The only group fights I have trouble surviving are ones with ranged dps.

Because of the survivability, mobility, and healing support of this build, it is GREAT for tournies.

Here is short video I recorded just to show some of the point defense capability of this build. This is not my best fight by any means and these are not great opponents. This is just one of the only recordings I have done because recording drops my framerate so low that its almost unplayable.. so I don’t do it often.

http://youtu.be/PgH3vZCa5Ss
Best viewed at double size, not fullscreen

NOTE Take a look at how often protection, regen, and vigor are up.

EDIT: Updated the link the most current build I am using, very slight changes. I find myself using signet of restoration as my heal more often now, but glyph is still very useful when you use it in earth attunement.

My build is very similar and we play very similar playstyles. I will be posting my build soon with a short vid when i have the time.

From a d/d Spvp point of view, I love it.

No other class has such fast paced combat besides maybe thieves, but their combat is much more thoughtless.

I don’t have problems with anyone that hasn’t learned how to counter our class so far.(besides tank guardians) In fact I can usually chew them up and spit them out. The issue I am starting to see is the other players on other classes that have learned how to counter our class. I am having to break old habits of using my burst combos when I switch to fire/air, good players will know exactly whats coming. Its when you fight these players that you start seeing the shortfalls of our class.

The long CDs on our CC skills, the fact that even with soldier amulet and protection up 50% of the fight we take crazy damage, the fact that we need 15+ stacks of might to get up to the same damage output of some other tankier classes, the fact that after downing an opponent 70% of the time we have to run away and LOS instead of stomping them because they can easily down us before we can get the stomp.

I don’t mind having to press 18 more buttons than other classes to win a fight, I DO mind that other classes can do much more damage AND have better survivability.

But I will keep on trucking because no other class in any other game I have played is this fun.

Thats wierd.. I have tried stomping several times in mist form and it hasn’t let me. But I havent tried to initiate the stomp before mistform. Are you guys sure you can initiate the stomp while already in mistform?

a few small fixes to make us more inline with other classes:

- FIX RIDE THE LIGHTNING!
- Arcane wave needs to do more damage or have a smaller CD
- lightning whip needs to hit harder or faster.. and it needs to actually hit the target!
- Fire grab needs to be instant cast so that you can actually hit the target while moving
- please PLEASE give us more useful traits

If you couldn’t tell this is all from a d/d spvp standpoint

Yes Fire grab misses all the time in pvp, what gives? Also I am always RMB turning.

Juki

quite a bit of your dmg will be con dmg because fire attunement is where you will be doing the majority of your burst. I have done a con build with d/d and it was actually quite effective, but that build was too squishy.

It is supposed to burn the enemy when they hit you, it does not do PBAoE damage.

suggested changes for D/D(from a pvp standpoint):

Fire: (very happy with this attunement currently)
Fire Grab – I would like to see this instant cast or atleast reduce the cast time, it is difficult in pvp to keep my enemy in front of me while casting this, and often misses.

Water:
Frozen Burst – instead of chill make this an immobilize, or if that seems OP then make it a 1 sec immobilize and then the chill.
Frost Aura – add bonus armor or defense to this skill.
Cleansing Wave – increase radius to 600, I can rarely heal others with this skill as it is.

Air: (not enough damage currently)
Lightning Whip – either increase damage or increase attack rate, this skill also seems to miss alot even when your opponent is right in front of you.
Lightning Touch – Either make instant cast or increase damage
Ride the Lightning – Please fix this skill!!
Updraft – reduce CD slightly, reduce blowout, increase radius slightly, add some damage, take swiftness away in exchange

Earth: (I only use this attunement for the protection buff and KD currently)
Magnetic Grasp – very buggy currently, instead of pulling you to target, you should pull target to you, and keep the 2 sec immobilize.
Earthquake – reduce the CD
Churning Earth – significantly reduce cast time, or significantly increase damage, its just not worth the cast time currently in pvp.

I have other ideas for earth but don’t have the time right now

To the Elementalists defending our downed state abilities… You OBVIOUSLY have not done any spvp. I cannot tell you how many fights I have had where I downed my opponent only to be downed while trying to finish them, then they kill me before I can kill them, even though I downed them first. It is so frustrating to win a fight but still die because they can take you down before you finish them. WHY is our #1 skill SO FREAKING WEAK!???

MajorMelchett.6042:

Updated to show that our underwater skill should now be fixed.
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I am surprised that certain other skills (like Glyph of Fires range and the critical hit amount of Arcane power) haven’t been fixed in this patch, i really can’t see how they can be hard to change considering what’s actully wrong with some of them.

It is pleasing (in a way) that Anet are willing to completly change traits and add new ones (guardians got a new 1 today), hopefully this will bode well for Elementals at some point. as this is a place we need some help.

Where do you go to see the changes in builds?

I think that if they increased d/d air dmg, and adjusted some of the CDs on dagger offhand skills, and fixed all the bugs, then we would be a bit more inline, but as of right now I feel I have to work much harder to keep up with the other classes than they do.

D/D because its the funnest.. but possibly the most difficult, and most fast paced playstyle

PLEASE for the love of god just take it away from spvp! It’s truly the ONLY thing I dislike about this game so far. There is no way you can say each classes downed state is balanced.

6.2 k on a theif in spvp with fire grab, how many might stacks did you have to pull off 8.9?

Lets assume that all of our skills actually worked as intended, Do you feel we are balanced?

My opinion from a d/d stand point: I think that we could use a boost to dmg. I see other classes that do burst dmg builds dish out FAR more dmg than we do. Our survivability even as support build is pretty lacking too. But I can get away from any fight extremely easily, which doesn’t do much for me unless there is an unoccupied node to take.

What do you all think?

Toxification.8421:

Dagger/Dagger
Earth
Churning Earth- I don’t even know what to say,
1) Cut the cast time down by a whole second
2) The ability should apply weakness to targets in the AoE, not cripple and have a weak magnetic affect
3) Give stability to the elementalist for the duration of the cast, due to how incredibly squishy you are and that you cannot dodge.

That might actually make the skill decent.

Took the words right out of my mouth.. its VERY obvious to me that no devs tested this skill in pvp before finalizing it. Any skill that makes you stand next to your opponent for that long with out getting interrupted or flat out killed by dmg should be an insta kill. I NEVER use this skill in pvp because it is a deathwish, either make it worth the cast time or COMPLETELY redo this skill.

There have been times in spvp where I was naive and thought “no ones focused on me right now maybe I can pull it off” and I had to mist form right before I finished the cast with 10% health and I started the cast at 100%. This is with the soldier amulet BTW.

MajorMelchett.6042:

Conjured weapon improvements.

Give the elemental an out of combat weapon swap, make it just like the other classes sweapon swap (same button on taskbar, same extra slots in hero menu), but just make it greyed/faded out when we are in combat.

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Yes! This is also a great idea, would be soooo useful for WvW, it kind of goes against my elemental weapon idea though >_<

Elemental weapons

A great idea but currently they are not very useful, I have tried them all and the only one I found myself using was lightning hammer, and that was for the significant aoe dmg. Other utility skills just seem like a much smarter choice. Several improvements could be made, but when pondering about these I came up with a great idea.
Since we are elementalists instead of weapon swapping we get 4 attunements that take place of our F-key abilities. But what do we get for replacement of our F-key skills? Nothing.
I suggest that in place of the weapon swap button/icon, we get a summon elemental weapon button/icon. give it a 1 min CD, and you will summon the elemental weapon type of which ever attunement you are in when you cast it. There, now we have an actual weapon swap, and we can replace the elemental weapon utilities with actual useful utilities!
I think you would still need to make a few changes to the elemental weapon skills, make them a little more appealing, you can keep the charges on them and just make it summon a weapon in your hand and one at your feet for other members to pick up.
Basically add functionality to the class with out making it over powered.

I have several other suggestions but I have stuff to do so they will have to wait for future posts.

Our downed state is absolutely worthless.. is that a bug?