Guild Wars 2

yeah. most definitely. I love Wizards

ranged is viable, staff is’nt, its all AoE based and noones gonna be idiot enough to stand in your lava font

I’ve been rocking Staff since release and frankly, you’d be surprised how many people willingly sit in my AoEs, even when I’m not at a cap point. People even sit in the uber long eruption. That’s just how much people disrespect Staff Eles.

I have to admit though, I feel that way sometimes too. When I see a staff ele, I charge in with glee for the staff ele. If it’s a glasscannon, I eat them for breakfast. They go down in one burst and a few extra auto-attacks. Om nom nom. Of course, you run into the bunkers occasionally and those are a pain in the kitten.

The masterair trait, aeromancer’s alacrity, that gives -20% air cd reduction doesn’t work on RTL.

Malcastus.6240:

OP, you think they will nerf staff auto attacks?

That is hilarious. The auto attacks of the staff is far worse than scepter auto attacks. It needs buffing, you mean.

I was being sarcastic.

Bsquared.3421:

And i’m not sure why all the hate for staff bunker Ele’s? They were the gold standard for Ele bunkers prior to the EA nerf, they have arguably more healing potential than D/D (especially now that Earth EA blast finishes again), and have the same amount of condition removal. The only thing a D/D bunker brings that a staff bunker does not is mobility/slipperiness, but when fighting on a node the D/D ele is only marginally more mobile. Using RTL to squirt away isn’t going to help decap or prevent a decap of a node…

Bunker, imo, is only good in tPVP, where there’s teamwork involved and people actually try to win the game.

sPVP is a whole new animal. The name of the game is glory hogging. Bunker sucks for killing. Admit it. It does. You can barely kill anyone in 1v1s. Against a good bunker vs a good player, it’s a stalemate. No one dies for agesssss. Agesss. If you want glory as a Staff Ele, you can’t bunker. DD ele is much better at killing in 1v1s (though staff does own with a good team where you can sit back and fire away). In sPVP, can’t depend on having a good team. It’s every man for himself, so DD ele imo, is superior.

DD ele has better mobility, better escapes, better dps, better boons (auras), and better survivability, especially in 1v1s. Staff Ele has (arguably) better heals and better AoE. That’s it.

Anadur.4832:

SecondtoNone.7549:

Anadur.4832:

I dont get this, I run staff in sPVP and 90-95% of the time I´m the top player in my team. I get a tons of kills around 20 a round.
And I´m a 10/30/0/10/20 build with berserkers Jewl and amulet

So do I. On a good round, I’m usually top player with 200+ glory. But you know what happens when someone realizes what’s going on? They target you. And in sPVP, you can’t rely on your team for kitten. It’s every man for himself. No one even resses in you sPVP. Most times, people just walk over my body and use it as a stepping stool. When you get targetted, it’s 1v1 time. I’ve played staff for a long time, I’m pretty decent at 1v1 but some classes are still very hard to play against and I would lose a lot to various classes, like the DD ele for example.

Now, I switched to DD and 1v1 battles are fun and challenging. Before, with staff, they were fun, challening, hard, and sometimes frustrating. I get less points, but I’m new to dd ele. And imo, most of the staff ele kills were assist kills from raining bombs from 1200 range while my team did the work.

With dd ele, I earn my kills. It feels good. With staff ele, I would stare down from a cliff and when someone died, I go “oh, looks like another one fell to my lava fonts and meteor storms.” He’s just another 25 glory. Another statistic. In a 1v1 duel, the killing is more personal and it feels more satisfying.

Thats the great thing whit sPVP noone relize =). Hell I even stand in the middle of all chaos and just pour AOE down above my point and killing of anything that aproahes me. I admit that 1 vs 1 is so hard, I win maby 1 out of 10 1vs1. But thats not the playing style for this build I run.

I guess its how you feel about the game , I like beeing on the highground just massaker evereyone belove whit my spells. So what if its an assist kill it a kill thet helped my team win + it gives me more points. Its not less you kill you just did it as teamwork and that “smart”.

Yeah. Exactly, 1v1 is hard even when you build for it. I consider myself a good staff ele but 1v1s are still quite hard, even if you’re fighting against a glasscannon—or even a noob who spams 1 skill over and over. The only easy kills I have are other staff eles (who aren’t bunker).

Anadur.4832:

I dont get this, I run staff in sPVP and 90-95% of the time I´m the top player in my team. I get a tons of kills around 20 a round.
And I´m a 10/30/0/10/20 build with berserkers Jewl and amulet

So do I. On a good round, I’m usually top player with 200+ glory. But you know what happens when someone realizes what’s going on? They target you. And in sPVP, you can’t rely on your team for kitten. It’s every man for himself. No one even resses in you sPVP. Most times, people just walk over my body and use it as a stepping stool. When you get targetted, it’s 1v1 time. I’ve played staff for a long time, I’m pretty decent at 1v1 but some classes are still very hard to play against and I would lose a lot to various classes, like the DD ele for example.

Now, I switched to DD and 1v1 battles are fun and challenging. Before, with staff, they were fun, challening, hard, and sometimes frustrating. I get less points, but I’m new to dd ele. And imo, most of the staff ele kills were assist kills from raining bombs from 1200 range while my team did the work.

With dd ele, I earn my kills. It feels good. With staff ele, I would stare down from a cliff and when someone died, I go “oh, looks like another one fell to my lava fonts and meteor storms.” He’s just another 25 glory. Another statistic. In a 1v1 duel, the killing is more personal and it feels more satisfying.

Calli.6309:

Someone should make an Elementalist Video thread where all the videos of elementalists are posted!

I did! No one posted anything.

I’m 30 arcane, 30 water, 10 air. I use knight ammy + zerker jewels with monk, water, dwayna runes.

It rocks so hard compared to staff.

Turbo Whale.1738:

Expansive.3716:

Arheundel.6451:

Anet really need to understand that slow moving/delayed skills are are not suitable for this kind of game…unfortunately the ele is the only profession which is loaded with unrealistic slow activation skills, many staff skills require manual aiming+strong CC and the result is awful

This cannot be stressed enough. Good post sir

It boggles my mind how Arenanet gives the ele such a slow casting time on their skills. The prof begs for attunement switching which would promote fluidity through the skills and yet the animations to cast the skills are so slow. It hinders quick combos

There isn’t any other profession that has this kind of issue

I’m sorry but D/D is one of the most fluid, responsive, and fastest weapon sets in the game. S/D is still really fast with skills like air 2,3,4,5; fire 4; and more. Staff is meant to have high delay burst and meant to be somewhat sluggish compared to other weapon sets. Every profession has a weapon that is slow and sluggish.

I think he’s referring to Staff. Super long cast times. Super long delay. Super long animations.

That’s right, Ele gets nerfed so often I have nerfphobia. I’m scared of which aspect of Ele “OPness” Anet is gonna nerf next. What do you guys think it’ll be?

1. Ether Renewal. I just switched to it from glyph of harmony and ether renewal is the kitten. 15s CD. 5k heal + each pulse is a condi remover? kitten heal. Its weakness is that it’s a channel and people interrupt it—which sucks.
2. DD. I just switched to DD and it rocks. It feels so good compared to Staff Ele and I feel like they’re going to nerf DD mobility or damage somehow. Either nerf mobility or nerf fire attunement damage. Or both just because ele is OP and deserves it. In fact, they might nerf ele heals again too.
3. Staff. Staff sucks unless you’re a bunker and bunker is only good in tournies. sPVP is all about the kills. That’s why everyone’s a thief or some kind of glasscannon. But they’re going to nerf staff somehow. I think our auto-attacks in staff are too good. Prob that.
4. Downed state. I admit, mistform is a really awesome downed state. Insta-escape and it heals you right back up (it’s too bad people in sPVP don’t know how to res you). Imo, forreals, they’ll prob nerf the healing aspect of mistform that returns you to full downed HP (not actual full hp).
5. Boons. Boons and ele go together like thieves, hb warriors, and pvpnub rage. We rock those boons and we can share them if traited. With high arcane + boon runes, we have some pretty good boon duration and variety. I believe there already was a stealth nerf to our auras.
6. EA? lol.

Atomic Sharks.7250:

quitter. and i love it when i am not being targeted, because that means they are underestimating you, meaning easier to hit them. so win win

I’ve been trying to make staff work since release. It’s not working out, man.

DD is so much better. Compared to staff, I feel like a God. I’m ok with fighting 2 people at once and I jump into big groups, unleash my load, and then run away in a fly. Thief bursts don’t even scare me anymore with updraft and lighting aura.

I do have trouble against good mesmers though that utilize chaos storm.

So, I’ve been trying to make staff ele work in pvp for a long time now. I’ve done bunker but that’s boring if you play spvp and only works well in tpvp. sPVP is all about the kills and you won’t get much as a bunker staff ele.

I’ve tried numerous builds, going glass, condition, boons, various mixed builds. Some worked better than others and I ended up doing pretty well. My condition and glass builds did the best. In a good game, I could rack up an easy 200+ glory. But I wasn’t satisfied and I still felt weaker than I’d like in 1v1s. I didn’t want to forever be the guy who sits back behind the front lines firing away and hoping no one would target me while I was firing my bombs into enemey crowds.

I decided to try something new. I tried so many builds but after all this time, I finally found the secret.

I gave up staff and went Dual Daggers.

You should join some 5v5’s and do some dueling. It’s really fun. Did it the other day and it was the funnest time I’ve had in PVP for a while.

Sabull.5670:

Elementalist shts out swiftness from every hole.

lol. that’s a good way to put it.

I have to agree with this. It was a very pivotal moment for me when I learned to combo as a Staff Ele. That should be sticked so all eles know how to combo.

Atomic Sharks.7250:

SecondtoNone.7549:

Dude, awesome post. That’s the perfect post on how to fight DD Eles. Nice. Thank you very much.

Using the AoE on top of yourself and making him approach sounds like a really good idea. Works better than trying to aim the AoE against the super mobile DD ele.

-facepalm- putting aoe on yourself is the best way for hitting with AoE, i thought that was common sense. since they must come to you to damage to you, so you already figured out over half of the timing portion of all AoE, knowing where he is going to be when your AoE hits, other part is knowing where you are going to be, since if you are not in it, he won’t be either

Usually I put in between me and my opponent or in the direction of where they’re running. Most classes can’t close the gap as well as DD ele anyway. Thieves and DD ele are simply great at closing the distance.

Dude, awesome post. That’s the perfect post on how to fight DD Eles. Nice. Thank you very much.

Using the AoE on top of yourself and making him approach sounds like a really good idea. Works better than trying to aim the AoE against the super mobile DD ele.

Staff eles don’t have poison and the only chill is frozen ground. That’s on a 40s CD I believe.

Didn’t like the new EA and I’m back to running my old build. 10 Fire. 30 Air. 10 Earth. 20 Arcane. Might go 20 fire or 10 water instead of 10 earth. I like this build more than a condition build because condition builds rely too much one eruption landing (this is the hardest spell to land imo for staff eles).

Plus with this build, I do soo much damage to crowds. 3k meteor storms and lava fonts are crazy good against crowds.

Yeah, I used to run condition/toughness too but relying on eruption to hit kinda sucks.

What traits do you get? Runes?

Thanks curring! Very useful to know. I’m used to eruption > healing rain > roll 3 times + arcane wave but that way sounds even better with EA nerf.

The elemental surge thing sounds useful. Might try to incorporate it into my build sometime but at the same time, is it better than glyph of storms which has an AoE blind?

What do you guys think of 20 air, 20 water, and 30 arcane? Does anyone run an offensive staff ele that can 1v1?

Also, how do you guys open? I’ve been going with Frozen Ground > Switch to Earth > Roll > Arcane Wave for 5 seconds of frost armor > Lava Font > Flame Burst. Just something I’ve been trying recently.

How do you get 15s of chill? Elemental surge only gives you 5s per arcane spell? Does Arcane Power make all your next attacks arcane?

@Curring
How is that 10k heal? Wouldn’t the Rain have run out before you finished that heal combo? You’re supposed to use eruption before healing rain. It should be Eruption + Healing Rain + Roll + Arcane Wave. That’s 5k heal + 2k over time from healing rain. That’s like using a glyph of harmony. And it took a lot of spells and time to do.

Superkav.5012:

I am not saying go full bunker but I understand your concern. I have yet myself to find a perfect staff build that compares with the offensive powers of d/d eles. Your issue is not just for staff builds. All d/d eles go heavy arcane/water. The whole trait system makes other choices non-forgiving. There aren’t really – to my knowledge – many competitive builds for eles, staff or not.

It may be rather weak heals but if you drop some vitality for more toughness the heals will seem more effective. Also, you could get more healing power, as I said before.

Yeah. I just want to be an offensive staff Ele but it seems like it’s not really possible unless I go full glass and just hang in the sidelines. I’ve been trying to achieve an aggressive 1v1 build but I guess it’s not possible. :\

Yeah, so I don’t see how 30 water helps much anymore. An extra 2k hp isn’t gonna stop a thief from bursting me down in seconds. While.. tempest defense would! And I’d get much more damage output. The main thing I lose for not investing more into water is the condition removal from cleansing water.

But that’s why I also carry Ether Renewal and why I have at least 10 into water.

Superkav.5012:

Your build seems to suggest an offensive ranged nuker. That makes you squishy and vulnerable when alone, not only against d/d eles (I assume thiefs are a nightmare for you?) You have almost no healing power and no toughness. Most d/d eles will at least have decent healing power and possibly some toughness which will give them an advantage.

You forego a lot of defensive stats in order to hit hard, which I don’t think is worth it because your squishiness does not outweight your offensive power (in other words, you are glass without the canon). I beelive you would stand a better chance by speccing more defensively.

I suggest at least get some healing power as staff eles has decent healing skills. Also, take Healing Ripple as it provides good healing for a minor trait (most d/d eles also have this). This will enable you to heal more while you kite.

Also, I suggest getting a bit more toughness so you can withstand the initial combo from the d/d ele. It will be a difficult match if you are close to death already from his first combo.

Cleansing wave, renewing stamina and Evasive arcane are great choices. I would probably change Blasting Staff to Elemental Attunemet for boons on swap, such as protection and regen. Note that with the recent patch you get a blast finisher from evasive arcane when in earh attunement which you can combo with your water fields for more healing. Arcane wave can also be used for this purpose.

You’re basically saying that I need to go bunker and get 10 earth, 30 water, 30 arcane. I don’t want to. I’m tired of playing support/defensively. I like to think of it as a more toned down glass. Wanted to go somewhere in between. But yeah, thieves can give me trouble but with tempest defense and MF and arcane shield. It’s ok. It’s an experimental build.

And how does any staff ele live without blasting staff? You’re crazy.

And yes, I know I can combo now. Hence I have Evasive Arcana now (why else would you use it?) and arcane wave.

Also, I find staff ele’s heals too weak without the pre-nerf EA where I could basically heal to full with multiple blast finishers from dodge rolls along with arcane wave. But maybe I should give it a second try. Ionno. Convince me. Staff heals seem to weak now, especially since Water 5 has a long cast time and it makes you stand still.

I mean, if we calculate it. Even with 30 Water. I can do Healing Rain, this heals 2k health over time. So-so. With arcane wave + evasive arcana, that’s an instant 3.2k health. Not much. If you don’t spec into water, you lose some condition removals, but you only lose about .4k worth of heals. A water EA (with only 10 in water) heals about 1.4k HP.

So, if I only put 10 in water. All I lose is a bit of 1 condition removal, a .4k of heal, and 2k of health. Speccing 30 into air gets me tempest defense which helps with pesky thieves and HB warriors and ups my crit percentage and crit damage and overall damage. But I guess I could try out 30 water again and see how it goes

Thanks superkav. My main goal in the beginning is avoiding the initial burst as that fire combo hurts like hell.

I try hard to kite and use my range but the problem is the numerous options DD eles have to close the distance. While the skills Staff Eles have to close distance suck against good DD eles. Gust and Shockwave are risky and can miss easily. Burning Retreat and Unsteady Ground are decent but its mainly Static Field and Frozen Ground that really hold the DD ele in place. And those are high CD spells.

Also, Staff Eles don’t have a burst (at least, I don’t).

As for my build, well, it’s a little strange perhaps. I’m 30 Air, 10 Water, 30 Arcane. I use runes of the eagle with sigil of battle. I use knight amulet with zerker jewel. I like having tempest defense and vigor on crit. Very useful traits. The vigor on crit really helps keep me alive.

Here’s a link: http://www.gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQFAWhEmkbnxygjDAkCmIeYRDSUekzO2A;TkAA2CnowxgjAHLOOck4MEB
or this link: http://gw2.luna-atra.fr/skills_tool/?lang=en&code=321020232bgklglm000u0au0i0m1d1gecenf1

I hit fairly hard and have pretty decent survivability. I crit about 1.5k-2k at 57% crit rate with 20k HP. I like Arcane Shield for oh kitten moments (also good against thiefbursts).

Bah, I hate being the support class. I don’t play Staff Ele like that and I enjoy my 1v1’s with other classes. I don’t want and I don’ think that Staff Ele should only work if it sits back 1200 range away raining meteor storm and lava fonts on crowds.

The only (well, maybe not only but primary) problem is DD Ele. They close the distance too well and constantly. Burning Speed. RTL. Magnetic Grasp. Lightning Flash (usually used with churning earth).So many ways to close distance.

I mean, It’d be ok if Staff was purely for support if we had weapon swap, but we can’t. It’s not cool in PVP that Staff is only capable of one role. It shouldn’t be that way. I’ve fared well in 1v1’s until DD Eles got popular and they wreck easily. I can’t control distance with DD Eles.

There has to be some way to deal with DD eles. I can’t be the only decent Staff Ele on the forums. Sure feels like it since EA nerf though…

No one? I really need help with this guys. DD Ele is my worst enemy in PVP. I need to create distance as a Staff Ele but DD Ele is so mobile and shuts me down so easily. They cross the gap easily with magnetic grasp or RTL or just thru pure speed and dodges. It’s so hard to fight them. Especially since their DPS and heals are better. And DD Eles have better buffs. Their escapes are better.

kitten, it feels like all staff eles have is AOE damage that’s limited to 5 kittening people. Sigh. I should just do what all eles are doing and go DD… Even though I’ve been Staff since forever.

I don’t understand why all the staff projectiles are so slow. They miss way too often imo. Really easy to dodge. Spells like Air 3, Earth 5, and all the auto-attacks.

It would make Staff just a bit better if all the projectiles were sped up a bit. As of right now, if an opponent is strafing and avoiding AoE, Air 3 and Earth 5 will not hit. That means the only depend-able CC to lock someone down so Ele Staff AoE will hit is with Water 4 Air 5 (and Earth 4 but it’s rather so-so). Both spells have 40+ second CDs. What do we do with the rest of the time?

We wildly use Lava Font and Eruption and hope the enemy is silly enough to stand in our AoE. Which they will do if it’s a cap point sometimes but not at all if we’re fighting outside a cap point. Meanwhile, we shoot out our weak Auto-attacks and cross our fingers hoping those hit too.

Faster projectiles won’t make Staff Eles OP, it’ll just make them more viable in 1v1 situations. I don’t want to depend on getting the chance to sit back and spam meteor shower to actually get kills and once again, cross my fingers, and hope no one singles me out as a menace.

Thanks for the reply, Evan. As an avid PVPer, that will help tremendously.

MindlessRuff.1948:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Flame_Burst

Fire Roll does apply burning for 5 seconds.

Ah, hadn’t noticed it because everything I switch to Fire Attunement, I always use Fire 3 immediately. Thanks for the info!

Fire EA doesn’t apply burns though?

First things first, I’m glad EA blast on Earth is back. It’s nice having one extra blast finisher. Now, this perhaps just a preference, but it would be nice if the animations were improved for EA.

Fire EA is OK, looks like any other fire blast
Water EA is bad, I don’t even see any effects for it
Air EA is decent but barely even noticeable in battle
Earth EA is good and I like it the best. It stands out.

Also, I do wish Fire EA did more damage. I normallly hit for 1.5k-2k crits but Fire EA only does like 50 damage. What’s the point of it?

And this is just wishful thinking, but I kind of wish I knew the CD for EA. Some kind of animation that let me know EA was off CD would be nice… yeah. Like I said, just wishful thinking. Prob won’t be implemented.

EDIT
I was wrong about Fire EA, it applies burns. Thanks MindlessRuff. About 1.6k worth of burns. Not bad.

I’ve been having a lot more trouble against DD eles since EA nerf (I wonder how I’ll do now with EA kind of back). DD Ele is infinitely more mobile (and has higher burst damage) than Staff Ele and I find them hard to kill because it’s hard to hit them with AoE (Frost Armor helped with this with pre-nerf EA).

How do fellow Staff Eles go about killing DD eles? They’re faster, stronger, and their heals are better (especially since I don’t go 30 water, 30 arcane anymore).

MistyMountains.3751:

Honestly im finding less and less issue with thief burst…, the only issue i ever have with a thief is HS spam…mainly for the fact it negates all CC u can throw to escape, while any other class would be countered by said CC… I dont believe 1 class should have a perma closer, and should have a 3 sec CD added to it per use…but this is just my opinion

Yeah, I know what you mean. Sometimes, it can be quite hard to escape a HS spam thief, especially when your HP is really low.

Yeah. Ele is so fun. Just wish it wasn’t so squishy (I hate crazy burst damage from other classes) sometimes, but so fun.

I’ve been primarily a staff build since the beginning and I run a glasscannon-ish build.

10 in Fire for 10% boost in fire attunement
30 in Air for crit + crit damage and I trait into Quick Glyphs, Inscription, and Lightning Aura proc when hit by a stun
10 in Water for condition removal
20 in Arcane for Vigor on Crit (rolling and dodging a lot adds a lot to survivability) and Blasting Staff

I pvp and I run Superior Runes of Eagle and with Knight Ammy + Zerker Jewel. I have like 20k HP and crit about 1.5k-2k.

For utility, I have Mist Form, Armor of Earth, and Arcane Shield for maximum defense. I hit like a truck from 1200 range and I do well in 1v1 (most of the time). If people let me stand back and rain hell, I kill a lot of people and usually end up getting 200-300 glory in pvp.

Jewel.1457:

candlecan.9827:

Other things to notice:
be careful about trying to burst a necro while in their death shroud. They could be specced into retaliation and you could kill yourself if not carefull.

necros alien doo doo looking summon is squishy and should be killed early if given the chance. (same could be said about ranger pets)

Shhhhhh. please go back to your previous progrm, Necros are so totally underpowered it’s those HS, HB thta are OP… << >>

All that I can really add is if a Necro is particularly focussing just you and your getting a few conditions then stay away from your team mates, Epidemic Incoming

Oh andd if you see that shodow Refuge pop up then aoe the hell out of it as they usually stay inside for a few seconds

Huh, looked up what epidemic is. Why don’t necros use that skill that spams like 10 conditions on someone, followed by epidemic? Seems pretty amazing if people just burned through their condition removal.

Yeah. Sounds good. And sometimes, it takes a long time to get into out of combat mode. Quite annoying.

We could always include a kicking option (with a majority vote)? I’ve seen it implemented and it works well—some times. They are abusive moments though..

Syeria.4812:

A further clarification on the “hitting thief in stealth” point:

With the exception of a traited out Steal (which shadowsteps to a foe and probably is on cool down if you’re mid-combat with a thief), stealth skills don’t move the thief. While many will change the direction they’re headed right after going into stealth, they don’t move from the spot they entered stealth except by running. So when you start dropping AoEs because a thief stealthed, you should start in and around the spot where they went invisible.

I’m fairly certain this is true for all stealth skills (except for the mentioned traited steal) and not just thief.

I believe Engis and Rangers both have at trait that causes stealth when they are stunned but I also believe they stand in place.

Eles have a trait that turns on shocking aura when they get stunned.

Caffynated.5713:

I really wanted a cross between the Pyro, Storm Caller and Elementalist from Rift, using different elements to intensify the effects of the others. Like getting a target wet and then electrocuting them for big damage. Using cold to freeze targets and earth projectiles to shatter them.

It’s the type of thing I envisioned when they talked about combos, but the actual combos are a bit of a let down. It’s not that they lack effectiveness, it’s just the lack of direct correlation between the elements and the effects produced.

I did get the concert pianist requirement from Storm Caller though, so that’s something.

*the preceding is not a complaint about the elementalist class as is, only disappointment in what more could have been.

I really do think this idea sounds awesome. The synergy between the elements sounds very fun and challenging to play. I do like the idea of the elementalist Anet put into play but I really do believe they could have done so much more with it.

As for the avatar: the last airbender idea, wouldn’t it be great if Air 4 for dd or staff was replaced with an air scooter that aang rides around in? I’d have so much fun riding that around and while chucking fireballs.

Your fps is skips sometimes in one of the vids I watched.

I’m glad you use ingame sound/bgm though. I hate it when everything gets replaced with some horrrible audio.

Nice skills though.

Ele suffers from lack of defense in general. It doesn’t matter what weapon you use. Our lack of hp and defense often requires us to spec into builds that give us more hp and defense (aside from good old glasscannon). Just because SD and Staff is long ranged doesnt mean you dont fight in melee range A LOT.

Plus, DD is the best weapon set right now imo. Best survavibility besides bunker specs.

candlecan.9827:

Shatter mesmers can also kill bunkers if they time out their shatters correctly (there is a trait talent that removes enemy boons on shatter).

Other things to notice:
be careful about trying to burst a necro while in their death shroud. They could be specced into retaliation and you could kill yourself if not carefull.

necros alien doo doo looking summon is squishy and should be killed early if given the chance. (same could be said about ranger pets)

if it is a shatter mesmer, beware of the clones. if they randomly start trucking it at you, evade, you are about to get shattered. stay close to mesmers with greatswords and kill every clone and phantasm as soon as it comes out. if the mesmer does an animation of lifting their sword to the sky they are either healing or summoning the blade spinning phantasm.

never get stuck, stunned or sit still against a warrior. Quickness + hundred blades… nuff said

if a thief goes invisible, dont just stand there doing nothing. put an aoe on around yourself, auto attack the air, do whatever your class lets you. cant tell you how many i have downed this way

sorry if all those were elementary but its late and my brain hurts. good luck out there and keep playing. PvP is down right now, but it isn’t out

Nah, this is really useful. Necros can spec into retaliation and they have crazy hp + death shroud? What? And people aren’t playing necros? How do you counter their death shroud? They have that nice drain ability that does like 3-4k too in shroud.

And I agree about the thief stealth thing. If you see it stealth, drop an AoE around where they the thief just used stealth and an AoE around you. I will commonly drop a thief if timed right.

One of the recent challenges I’ve had to face lately are necros. They seem to be on the rise lately and they’re presenting a challenge. I’ve been beaten by both, condition and minion mancers. Mainly probably because of Death Shroud and their super high HP for a caster. So hard to kill.

Ooh, I didn’t know about that Mesmer Illusions movement thing. That’s pretty useful. Thanks, Caino.

Learning how to fight certain classes takes a while to learn and I’ve been PVPing for a while but I’m still finding out new things about certain classes and how to deal with them (I just found out rangers can stealth sometimes too the other day when I hit him with a stun). So, I thought it’d be nice if we all combined our knowledge on how to deal with certain classes.

I’m going to start with my own class, the Staff Ele, since I know the most about it.

How to deal with Staff Eles:
-Don’t stand in the AoE (so many people willingly sit in my AoE, especially eruption which takes a long time to finally erupt and when it does, it stacks a lot of bleed and usually doing a decent amount of damage too).
-Strafe around and move a lot. It makes it reallly hard to land AoE (I always lose to very mobile players)
-Attack with conditions after the ele moves out of water attunement so the ele has a harder time removing them as water attunement is where eles get all their healing/condition removal done.
-When a staff Ele is downed, don’t try to melee. Go for the stomp and force the mist form to escape and then stomp again. The 2nd stomp will always land as mist form is on a 20s CD.
-A lot of people don’t seem to realize this, but Static Field (that ring of eletricity that forms) only stuns you if you run through it. If you stay in the middle, you won’t get stunned

I second this notion. I’ve been lvl 72 for ages now because I find PVE boring and all I’ve been doing is PVP. It’d be nice if PVP didn’t feel like a “waste of time.” I also see this attracting more players as my girlfriend was going to PVP with me but when I told her it doesn’t give any rewards, she stuck to WvWvW.

Anyone got any? Mainly looking for staff but any other weapon combo is cool too.

I like moochmadness as I use a similar build as his, focusing on dps:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TviKKaz7cjY&feature=plcp

And ToPVP who taught me how to combo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TdKHPNM2NE

JetstormTV is awesome too but he’s D/D and does WvWvW:
http://www.youtube.com/user/JetstormTV?feature=results_main